Arin struggled to draw in a breath, the air tasting sharp and metallic as the beast loomed closer, its jaws gaping to snatch the tender spot between his neck and left shoulder.
The immense weight of the creature pressed down on his chest, crushing it and making it even more difficult for Arin, already gasping, to breathe.
His throat tightened, trapping his screams inside. The world around him felt unbearably heavy, ablaze with pain, and suffocating.
"So, is this how it ends?" Arin muttered, his mind drifting on the edge of consciousness.
Then, through the haze of torment, Arin felt the cool, solid presence of the knife still clutched in his right hand. The mad idea, nearly lost amidst the overwhelming pain, flickered back into his mind.
No. No. I still have chance; Arin screamed in his head as he thrust the knife.
The knife hit the scale but couldn't penetrate it. Arin could feel from the strike that his knife was stronger and had ability to pierce it. But due to the beast pinning him down it was hard for him to put more force into his strike.
Arin and beast were now in deadlock. The beast couldn't move towards Arin to bite due knife poking his neck and it couldn't move back because if it shifted its weight back then Arin would unpin himself and thrust the knife in its neck with full force.
I guess this is what happens when you are too distracted while fighting, Arin thought as he felt the desperation settle in.
But suddenly Arin started to feel something familiar…fear. But it was not his feeling. Then he heard a familiar sound of someone running.
I hope they are humans and choose to help me. As Arin's hope was rekindled something happened.
*THUD*
Something or someone collided with the beast and forced it toward the knife then…
*SQUELCH*
The knife broke through the scale of the beast and it lodged in the neck. For couple of seconds nothing happened then he felt the body of beast going limp.
"Who is there?" Arin tried to shout but his voice barely raised from a whisper and no one answered.
Arin pushed the beast to side and noticed the familiar figure of his pet rat. He then proceeded to pull the claw out of his body with a painful groan when he heard a familiar chime.
[Glimveil Hound: Unranked Creature Slain]
[Exp +50]
Reading the notification gave Arin some sense of safety. He looked at now dead beast in disdain.
Arin tried to find his unknown helper but he could not move. So, he just lifted his head to look around and found no-one.
That's weird, Arin thought but then his attention shifted to the beast that almost killed him and felt the anger rise up.
"You know what? I lied; I don't even like dogs." Arin said as he kicked the beast while still lying in the little pool of his blood.
Arin felt the relief in his mind, now that he avoided the immediate danger but he was not feeling well physically. He was bleeding severely from his new injuries plus old wound also seem to opened up.
Everything was clear but next moment blurry. Arin was getting tired and sleepy, making it hard to think straight and it was becoming harder with every second passed. So, he quickly pulled out T.G. and asked if he had anything that could be used to help his situation.
[Yes. You can use one charge of vital surge]
Receiving the answer Arin remembered it was the reward he received from the level ups. So, he willed it to use without any delay or hesitation.
Arin felt the world dimming for the half a heartbeat and his body submerging in a cold liquid. Then the warmth surged in. It wasn't like a fire but more like a soup after hours in rain.
The feeling was like food to a starving person. The water to thirsty one or an undisturbed sleep to tired person.
A slow flood of pressure and heat pulsed through his whole body. As this flood passed through his wounds, he felt the that area of his body twitched and tightened then slowly relaxed.
Although he was getting healed the bad thing about this treatment was the pain. He could feel everything as his body healed. It was like experiencing depth of each wound's pain, compressed into a few seconds.
Arin exhaled through gritted teeth with eyes fluttering trying not to scream, from the euphoria of getting healed and pain. The last thing he wanted right now is another monster attacking.
After around a minute, the process of healing finally completed. Leaving Arin in the clothes soaked in his own blood and full of holes but fully healed.
As Arin felt all the pain stopped, he heard familiar chimes and opened his eyes to check.
[Vital Surge Used]
[All Vital Signs Healed and Stabilized]
Arin just glanced at the notifications then stood up to inspect his body. His inner t-shirt was soaked in blood and had holes but his jacket did not have too much blood on it.
After a few seconds of thinking he decided just wear the jacket after some cleaning and remove the t-shirt. As t-shirt had too much blood which might attract other dangerous beasts.
Just as he was about to strip naked, Arin was seized by a familiar fear that gnawed at him. He turned his head towards the source of this unsettling sensation, struggling to understand whether it was real or merely his imagination playing tricks on him.
Not long after Arin saw a familiar figure appear in the ash-fog. As it got near and near Arin recognized his mysterious helper and what that feeling of fear was coming from.
It was his rat and the feeling he was getting was from his pet rat. As the rat got nearer Arin spread his hand and said smilingly.
"The chosen one has returned."
The rat of course didn't answer. But just as the rat got closer to Arin. Arin's expression changed and he kicked it to the side.
"Where were you the whole fight?" Arin asked seriously and just like previously it didn't answer.
Just as Arin got close to the rat, it started to squeak and make a lot of different noises which Arin didn't understand one bit. But he could still feel some feeling from the tether between them.
"What? Scared, running, fog, and rammed?" Arin deciphered few clues from the rat's squeaks.
Arin thought for a while and said, "So, you ran around in the ash-fog randomly ramming into things."
The rat didn't confirm or deny his words as it was just an unranked beast. Human speech was too complex for it.
But Arin could picture his rat running without noticing him stopped and when it finally noticed he was missing, it panicked and kept running smashing things then changing direction until it came back.
"So, the help was unintentional." Arin exhaled. He said nothing more as the rat was not at fault, every living being wants to kept living.
Noticing that the rat was still scared he tried to pacify it.
"Don't worry, it's dead", Arin said while gesturing at the dead beast. But the rat was still scared, he could tell due to tether between them.
Arin went to the beast and kicked it, "See?".
As Arin turned after kicking the beast, he realized the rat wasn't focused on him or the fallen beast. Instead, it gazed slightly to the right of where he stood.
It took a moment for Arin to realize. The rat wasn't afraid of the fallen beast but something else.
Arin ran to the rat and lift it to his eye level and asked.
"How many things and creature did you ram into before coming back?" Arin asked but again how could it answer it.
Arin released the rat and aimed his slingshot in the direction the rat was facing.
Arin held the slingshot steady as he observed a humanoid figure emerging from the ash-filled fog, approaching at a steady pace but with an unnatural gait.