The Gamer's POV-Chapter 209: A Chance To Survive

On the summit of the hill, surrounded by darkness and soot, Cedric fought tooth and nail for his life.

The battlefield suddenly became a blur of black and steel as he weaved in between the attacks of the creatures while struggling to deliver strikes of his own.

Maybe it was his desire to survive, or maybe it was because of his stubbornness to die, but Cedric fought in a savage manner, surprising both the hollow ones, and himself.

He wasn’t sure he would win, but what he was definitely sure of was that he wouldn’t make it easy for them.

And so, he fought like a monster on that hill.

The blades of the hollow ones clashed with his katana over and over again. After a dozen clashes, Cedric gritted his teeth and concluded:

’There’s no way in hell l’m dying tonight!’

Without pause, he drew his wakizashi, deciding to fight with two blades at once for the first time. The moment he did, he saw the combat tutorials in his vision shift and change.

[Activating Combat Style: Two Heavens as One.]

As the first hollow one lunged with a spear, the tutorial prompted a [Dual-Parry].

Cedric didn’t just block, but rather, he caught the spear’s shaft with the cross of both blades, pinned it to the ground, and stepped inside the creature’s reach.

With a sharp, fluid motion, he drove the wakizashi into the creature’s chest while his katana swept outward in a broad arc to block the longsword of another that had struck down from his right.

The moment his blade collided with the longsword, a polearm thrust toward his ribs from the shadow of the circle.

Without looking, Cedric activated his exclusive skill and vanished just before the polearm pierced his side.

Then he reappeared in the air, hovering vertically above a different hollow one with an axe some meters away. Spinning like a top to build momentum, he thrust his wakizashi into the chest of the creature.

But the moment he landed after killing the creature, a chain wrapped tightly around his neck. Then, he was jerked backwards with a violent snap, pulled by a bulky hollow one that stood nearly a head taller than the rest.

Cedric dropped his katana as he tried to pry the links from his throat, while now almost near the creature dragging him. His vision blurred from the lack of air, but he could see the massive, soot-covered silhouette of the bulky hollow one looming just a feet away.

Even worse, during the brief time he used one with the ravens before, and the time it took to be caught in this chain, his three ravens were killed.

When he finally got to the feet of the hollow one, it brought down its arm, which was encased in a heavy, spiked iron gauntlet, to crush his skull.

Cedric couldn’t react as he was paralyzed by the lack of air and the weight of the heavy chain. Fortunately for him, he had a few feathers scattered on the ground, and so, Aika quickly shifted one of them into a raven, then activated the ability.

By the time the hand came down, Cedric was gone.

He reappeared several meters to the left of the creature and clutched his neck, coughing as he dragged air back into his lungs.

’Thank you, Aika.’~ he mumbled as the hollow ones turned and began adjusting their stance to pursue him once more.

Quickly composing himself, Cedric’s eyes darted to a screen that displayed how long was left before he could use one with the ravens again.

[03:58]

’Tsk. Come on, hurry,’ he hissed under his breath.

Looking away from the screen, he quickly lunged at a hollow one that had been coming and had almost already reached him with its mace raised high.

But when he got to the creature, he didn’t clash with it. Instead, he slid low across the soot, passing the creature entirely. His goal was his katana on the ground, which he picked up with a fluid, desperate grab.

Feeling the steel back in his right hand, the Two Heavens as One style screen flared back to life in his vision and he immediately spun to stop the polearm that was already whistling toward his back.

The long blade of his katana met the metal shaft of the polearm with a sharp clang, redirecting the force of the blow into the dirt.

Cedric then tried to follow up with a thrust of his katana into its heart, but the creature was faster and by now, seemed to have adapted to his fighting style.

It let go of its spear while simultaneously pivoting its torso. Cedric’s blade passed through empty air, and in that brief moment of overextension, it delivered a powerful punch into Cedric’s face with its free hand.

Cedric’s head snapped back, and the world tilted. He felt the copper taste of blood fill his mouth as he stumbled, and his ears rang from the sheer force of the blow.

The other hollow ones weren’t standing still, of course, and by now they had reached him.

Cedric desperately tried to regain his footing and bring his blades into a defensive guard, but he knew that that brief opening was enough to cost him this fight.

He managed to quickly parry the blow of one creature, only for the mace of another to slam into his side.

The impact was sickening and Cedric felt his ribs groan under the pressure as the air was forced out of his lungs a second time.

He was sent sprawling into the soot and as his vision swam with dark spots, he could feel the shadows of the remaining eight loom over him. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

’Ah. Just two,’ he thought bitterly as he laid on the floor, still as if he had died. ’That’s... disappointing.’

When the eight hollow ones fully circled him, one of them tilted its head and spoke in a hollow voice. "Is he dead?"

Another nudged his body with its leg, the heavy metal of its greave clinking against his armor as it tested for a reaction.

However, in the next second, Cedric’s eyes snapped open and he quickly, desperately expelled all the mana in his mana core.

’I need to take more with me. Two is disappointing!’

Suddenly, both Cedric and the eight hollow creatures were instantly engulfed in a black storm of feathers.

Stunned and momentarily unable to see due to the violent, swirling vortex of feathers, the hollow ones began taking steps back.

In that brief moment, Cedric, who had been lying on the floor, ignored the hellish pain in his shattered ribs and the dizziness that threatened to pull him back into unconsciousness. He pushed himself up and extended both weapons into the chests of two hollow ones.

Blood poured out his mouth and his legs shook violently. Still, he forced himself forward and struck another in the chest.

Unfortunately, the hollow ones quickly regained their bearings, and so, before Cedric could strike a third, a hand hit the side of his head and his world finally went black.