Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

I_K 1.13 Darkness Within

Chapter 13

Darkness Within

As I dashed at the Cutthroat, his green eyes went wide. He leapt forward and stabbed at me with the arrow in his right hand. I stood dead center of his body and avoided the arrowhead by pivoting my body to the left. His momentum carried him forward into my dagger blow. I jabbed deep down into his chest and performed the weapon drop glitch to leap around to his back. I stabbed him in the back and did the drop glitch again so I wouldn't have to watch the entire backstab animation. His HP drained to nothing as he fell and so, with my alchemy book now in hand, I snagged the warrior by the leg with Living Vine and ran straight towards the scholar.

"What are you—"

I smashed the scholar in the face with my fist which was surprisingly the first time I'd even thought to even do that. The attack counted as a critical, but didn't do much in the way of damage. I kept attacking the mage like this and hilariously, there appeared to be nothing he could do about it. I'd locked him a stun state with every blow that connected with his face. He whined as I pressed my attack, then a hit him on the bridge of his nose and sent him flying with critical gut punch. The combo took his HP down to the three-fourths mark. I heard his buddy's sword cut through the vine so I spun around and cast it again.

"Ah ah!" the swordsman said as he cut away the rising tendril. "That won't work on me twice."

"That's fine," I said, my thumb still on the glyph. "I'll just use it on him."

The vine burst out of the ground behind me and lashed the wand right out of the scholar's hand as it continued upwards and slashed him in the face, spraying his blood skywards.

I rolled past the warrior as he came at me with a side slash, enjoying the brief invincibility the evasive maneuver brought me. Once on my feet, I spun around and backed away from the warrior's second slash. He pressed forward with another, not noticing the glyph resting under his feet. I activated it on the start of his swing and watched as he was engulfed in burning light. I didn't let his screams distract me as I searched for my other little friend.

The scholar was on his knees crawling towards his staff. With one hand covering his bloody face, he reached out with the other, the tips of his fingers nearly touching the wood. I pegged his outstretched hand with a throwing knife and impaled the mage with a final Living Vine through the chest.

The warrior came out of the pillar looking like a demon and was just as deadly. As I dodged his attacks, I felt the renewed power of each of his slashes. My speed was frustrating him and I knew if he caught me, that he'd end it in one blow.

I held my last throwing knife in my hand now. The disposable projectile was my only weapon at the moment and I'd hoped that the game would allow me some flexibility with it. It appeared so, as the weapon was now technically equipped. He went for a thrust, but I easily countered it and used his momentum to push him off balance. As he stumbled forward, I fished for a good spot to plant my blade and dug it right into his kidney. Satisfied, I used the drop glitch and leapt back around to the front with alchemy book in hand, only the warrior wasn't stunned like he'd normally be and instead of falling down, he bashed me in the face with his sword's pommel. I recoiled harshly with stars in my eyes, knowing it was over. I felt myself take two steps back involuntarily and as soon as I could move on my own, I took another small step.

His blade swept at me from my left. Already knowing it was his favored side to attack from, I'd sent some SP underground in that direction. The thick vine shot straight up next to me. The warrior's blade got stuck inside of it as it reached near the edge. I decked him in the face as he struggled to cut through the rest of it, overwhelming him with the speed of my punches, stunning him with every blow, but doing virtually no damage at all. Unlike the scholar, this warrior had adequate defense. I spammed attacks until managing to push him into a wall. Somehow that reset his stun and he was able to attack me back. He threw a wild haymaker that that landed right on the side of my face. The blow took me by surprise and did a nice amount of damage. His followup also landed, but he wasn't fast enough to stun me so I starting stun spamming him with punches instead, ending the combo with a critical gut punch once we neared another wall.