It was midnight when Val arrived at Shadowfall City.
To force the Eldritch of this area out of its hiding spot, he needed to make a ruckus.
He made deliberate noise to attract hordes of zombies towards him, their decaying forms stepped out of the alleys and old depilated buildings and converged upon his location.
Looking at the approaching zombies, Val’s lips curled up, and he raised his hands. Then, as if summoned by some unholy sorcery, waves of blood erupted from Val’s very core. The scarlet tides that rose from his body coalesced into monstrous, crimson fists, which were brimming with a ferocity that would shatter bone and pulverize flesh.
He brought his hands down, and these colossal appendages descended upon the hapless zombies who were either too slow or too mindless to evade it.
Bam!
The impact was catastrophic. Crushed by the fists, the rotten bodies of the zombies were turned into meat pies and their heads burst like overripe fruits, showering the surroundings with a spray of putrid gore.
The stench of decay mingled with the metallic tang of blood, a vile cocktail that permeated the night air.
With each crushing blow that killed dozens of zombies, Val reveled in the feedback from his system. Notifications materialized before his eyes, providing an account of his gruesome accomplishments and the rewards reaped from the carnage.
[You have slain 20 level 1 zombies. Experience gained: 10 points.]
[You have slain 40 level 0 zombies. Experience gained: 10 points.]
[You have slain 70 level 0 zombies. Experience gained: 18 points.]
While he was slaughtering zombies, Val’s attention was abruptly diverted as he sensed danger.
The Ravenger has arrived!
A flying broomstick shot toward Val from his blind spot, but an ominous throb on the back of his head warned him of this insidious attack in time.
Reacting swiftly, he leaped aside, narrowly avoiding the broomstick’s deadly path.
“You dodged that?” The voice of Ravengar rang out from behind. Its shock swiftly melted into amusement, “It doesn’t matter. You won’t be able to dodge what I have in store for you. The last time you ran away but this time I won’t let you.”
Val turned to face him, his eyes gleaming with newfound determination. “Last time, I didn’t have the means to deal with you. But this time, I do. So why would I run away?”
“You’re bluffing,” Ravengar snorted.
“Am I? Do you dare find out?” Val challenged. 𝞸𝔳𝓛xt.𝑪𝗈𝐌
“Why wouldn’t I dare?” Ravengar charged, shovel swinging.
Val activated his Blood Rush skill, his agility doubling. With his agility boosted to 50 points, he evaded Ravengar’s shovel attack with seamless fluidity, his body becoming a blur as he slipped through the air like a fish in water. The shovel swung by the Ravengar whistled past him, missing its mark by a hair’s breadth.
This is the chance he has been waiting for. There was no way in hell that he was going to let it slip by his finger!
Seizing the opportune moment, Val capitalized on his enhanced agility and countered with a devastating strike.
Whoosh!
His fist, enveloped in a ghastly grey flame, hurtled through the air and surged forward towards the Ravengar like a specter of doom.
Bam!
The impact was catastrophic as the fist collided with Ravengar’s face, the force behind the blow sending shockwaves rippling through the air. The intensity of the collision lifted the Ravengar off its feet and propelled it backward, its body hurtling through the night like a discarded ragdoll.
Thud!
Its flight came to an end as it flew across the street and crashed mercilessly onto the ground, limbs sprawled in disarray.
Val’s eyes flicked to his fist, which remained ablaze, but no fire had caught onto Ravengar. ‘Interesting, it seems a Ravengar can not be ignited by the Hellish Fist, but it can indeed be damaged by a fist covered in it. Well then, time to introduce it to an old-fashioned beating. I will pummel it to death.’ Val thought, cracking his knuckles menacingly.
Ravengar’s eyes widened in disbelief as It stared at Val. “How… How did you manage to strike me? A mere mortal should not possess the power to touch me!”
“Oh, foolish creature,” Val scoffed, his eyes gleaming dangerously. “You are severely mistaken to label me as a mere mortal. Not only do I have the power to harm you, but I also possess the power to end your existence.”
‘I’m afraid!’
Fear, an emotion alien to the Eldritch like Ravengar, who had always been the harbingers of terror, surged through its being. The sight of Val, his fists aglow with a fierce and unrelenting fire, sent a primal chill down its spine.
‘I need to escape. I will die if I stick around!’
Escape was the only thought that echoed through its mind, like a death knell.
It began to form a doorway to another dimension. The very fabric of reality rippled and distorted around it, cracks appearing out of thin air, growing wider and deeper. It was the gateway to its salvation, its means to escape the imminent doom.
But Val was having not of it. In a heartbeat, he closed the gap, appearing by Ravengar’s side like a phantom, his fist cloaked in grey flame.
“Don’t even think about escaping,” he said in a low and thick voice as his eyes carrying not a hint of emotion met the wide protruding eyes of the Ravengar.
Without giving Ravengar a moment to respond, Val struck its face with a fist, shrouded in the eerie gray flames of Hellish Fist.
It was a punch imbued with an inhuman strength, an irresistible force that collided with the face of the Eldritch entity like a bullet train at full speed, causing the Ravengar to crash onto the ground with overwhelming force. The impact was so potent that it shattered the ground beneath the Ravengar and disoriented it.
As Ravengar lay there, dazed, Val seized the moment. He launched himself onto the stunned creature, fists cloaked in the eerie grey glow of his power. His fists morphed into a blur as they began raining down upon the stunned Ravengar with relentless fury. Each punch was a cataclysm of raw power, intense enough to send shockwaves through the air. The force of each impact only served to widen the cracks in the ground beneath Ravengar, pushing it deeper into the fractured earth.
On the tenth punch, Val’s fist collided with Ravengar’s head with an apocalyptic force. The impact was devastating and overwhelming, causing Ravengar’s head to explode like an overripe fruit!
[Ding! Congratulations! You have killed a 10-year-old Ravengar. You gained 300 EXP!
[As this is your first time killing an Eldritch, you will gain a bonus reward. You’ve obtained an additional 50 EXP!]
This was all the EXP he needed to level up!
‘Killing an Eldritch is really beneficial,’ Val discovered.