Second World Novel

“What do you mean?” Grace asked while she ran down to the ground floor with Spring Crown and Jack.

“I can’t see clearly because it is nighttime, but those things have six legs and they move by crawling,” Spring Crown answered.

“How can this be? Isn’t this game supposed to be a battle royale between four teams?”

Both Spring Crown and Jack had no answer to Grace’s question.

When they arrived at the ground floor, they saw Stefan, Naomi, Evan, one elven girl, and one elven man holding the barricades they had placed in advance. Jack figured the elven man was Tom.

The barricades were shaking, like someone kept on bumping their bodies from the outside. There were also scratching sounds like a crowd moving out there.

“That sounds like a lot,” Jack said.

“I didn’t get a clear look. But yes, there seemed to be a lot of those creatures out there,” Spring Crown said.

“Tom, what happened?” Grace asked the elven man. “Where do these creatures come from?”

“I don’t know,” Tom said. “I was on my way back when the sky turned dark. Then I hear crawling sounds behind me. I thought at first it was those people who ambushed us earlier, but then the sounds were getting more and more. I decided to just run back here.”

“Way to go bringing these things here,” Stefan said.

“Where do you propose I go?” Tom returned, then added, “And who the hell are you?!”

“Sstt…! Listen! Listen!” Spring Crown exclaimed.

“Listen to what?” Naomi asked. She was holding a thick wooden table top that was propped against a hole in the wall.

“They can climb…,” Jack said after he paid attention to the sound from the outside. The crawling and scratching sound from the outside had moved up to the floor above them.

“Are the windows upstairs barricaded?” Jack asked.

“They are,” Grace answered. “But this house has an open roof…”

They then heard screams from above. Three other lookouts were up there keeping watch on the surroundings with Spring Crown. Those three were still up there when Spring Crown came down to warn Jack and Grace.

“Help…! Help…!!” Those people pleaded.

Jack and Grace ran up. Spring Crown and Evan followed behind.

“Be careful, my dear! Let me protect you,” Evan shouted.

“Dude, you truly don’t know when to stop!” Jack had the urge to stop and gave the man a back kick.

When they reached the second floor, they saw something fall from the stairs to the third floor. It was one of the three lookouts from above, an elven girl. All her shields were gone already. She lay motionless on the floor.

They saw it then, one of the creatures. It was as Spring Crown said, the creature had six limbs, except they were not legs. They were hands. The creature was crawling down the stairs on six hands. It had dark hairless skin. its head, however, was covered with long hairs. They could only slightly see the face behind those hairs. The face was dark and its mouth formed a spooky grin filled with unusually white teeth.

But the most unsettling thing was its eyes. They were human’s eyes but they were bulging and gave disquieting stares.

“Angels in heaven! What in God’s name is that thing?” Evan asked in horror.

Jack also asked the same question to Peniel inside his mind. Peniel didn’t know what this thing was. She said it was probably a new monster conjured from the imagination of the proprietor of this dimension.

Remembering Euphosine, Jack thought it wasn’t weird for such a twisted creature to be born out of her demented mind.

They then saw a second similar creature peeked upside-down from the opening to the third floor. Then a third one crawled down the stairs. There was no sign of the two other lookouts. The screams had stopped. They didn’t make it. 

The first creature jumped at them. Jack rushed forward and was the first to engage the creature. His wrench slashed with deadly accuracy, striking the creature right in the head. It slammed into the floor. An HP bar appeared above it. It had lost around 20% of its HP.𝒏𝒪𝑣𝗲𝒍𝗇𝔢xt.𝓬𝑂𝓂

“It is not too durable!” Jack exclaimed. If he could use mana manipulation, the creature would have been near death already.

“There are a lot of them, though.” Spring Crown said. He had moved back and shot using his slingshot as more and more of the creatures came down from the third floor.

Grace used a spear. She stabbed those creatures and kept them at bay while Evan stayed close to her in an attempt to protect her, but it was her spear that saved him most of the time.

Jack meanwhile swung his wrench around while using eight diagram illusory steps to maneuver around such a limited space. His formless flowing sword style was not too effective when performed using one hand, so he kept his attack to a regular swing and stab. Even so, each swing and stab was lethal. Guided by his sword’s heart, each attack struck his marks accurately.

With them working together, they managed to kill some in a short time, but the swarm seemed to be endless. More and more came down the stairs. The rate by which they killed the creatures couldn’t match the speed of new ones showing up. If this continued, they won’t be able to move because of how cramped the place was. If that happened, they were doomed.

“We can’t fight here! We are not killing them fast enough!” Jack exclaimed.

This place didn’t provide an effective chokepoint. The dark creatures could also crawl on the ceiling. Luckily, they only needed one shot to be brought down to the ground. Spring Crown was in charge of shooting those on the ceiling.

“Look out!” Evan shouted

  One of the creatures lunged from Grace’s blind spot. She had mana sense but her hands were full dealing with the creatures from her front. She couldn’t do anything as this one came from behind.

Evan jumped forward and put himself in between Grace and the creature. He stabbed the creature at its neck but the creature’s two forearms also smashed into his head. He only had one shield left. That last shield was broken.

Grace looked at Evan who lay lifeless beside her. This guy was nauseating, but his selfless act just now earned him her respect.

She and Jack had also lost a shield in the ensuing battle, they both had only one shield left. Only Spring Crown who fought from range still had two shields.

More of the dark creatures continued entering the room from the opening above.