I Possessed The Worst Character In The Hellish Game Chapter 39

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[ … words ]

“Huu….”

Elara released a breath as it misted white in the cold night air.

She didn’t want to admit it aloud, but the continuous spellcasting in a row had started to take a toll on her essence core…..

She was likely down more than a quarter of her total essence.

Each wall she had cast had been reinforced with far more essence than necessary, adding a few extra layers of frost to buy Alice a few more seconds to escape.

And yet–

*CRAAACK!*

The latest wall came apart just as fast as the others.

Ice shards exploded outwards as a cluster of tentacles punched straight through the frozen surface in a single lash, shattering it completely.

The appendages kept coming as they whipped toward her through the collapsing mist.

Elara threw herself sideways, gravel skidding beneath her feet as she barely twisted out of range.

One of the tentacles whipped past her collarbone as it sliced through her light blue hair, opening a shallow gash that welled with blood.

Pain flared in her shoulder as she sucked in sharp breath.

’Damn it.’

She leaped backward, putting distance between herself and the creature, and stole a glance over her shoulder.

The garden path behind her was empty now.

At least her sister was safe.

If only she had her rapier with her now.

Her true strength…. her Talent had always been with the blade and close combat.

Magic had never been more than a secondary tool, something she dabbled in but never truly mastered.

She was a swordswoman first, a mage only by necessity.

But right now… she had never regretted her lack of spellwork more.

Though.

In truth, she doubted it would have made much difference…. against the thing in front of them.

Her gaze flicked toward Mikael, who was still running and dodging between the thrashing tentacles, but exhaustion had started to show in his movements.

His dodges were a fraction of a second slower than they’d been at the start, and his breathing was labored.

The shoulder of his formal coat had turned dark with blood where the tentacle had caught him while he was shielding Alice, and a fresh wound on his thigh was seeping red through the torn fabric of his trousers.

Yet his face hadn’t changed…

There was not even a flicker of panic and fear behind his ghostly grey eyes.

’How is he so calm even in this situation?’

He had changed.

No…. that wasn’t quite right.

The change had not appeared just now.

He had changed years ago, after Adeline Morwell– his mother’s death…. after his awakening.

After that…. everything was different.

He was different.

It was almost as if…. someone else had taken his place since then.

****

’Fuck this. Fuck this shit. Fuck–’

Mikael ducked low as one of the tentacles whistled past his head, and he felt the wind of the passage ruffle his hair.

He didn’t even have time to straighten up before another one came slicing in from the side as he threw himself into the roll without thinking, his muscle memory taking over where conscious thought.

The gravel bit into his shoulder and hip, sharp little stones digging through the fabric of his coat.

He came up on one knee with his index finger extended, the magic circle he was preparing finally finished, and clicked into the place as its runes began rotating in slow motion.

He aimed his hand forward directly at the aberration’s eye and released the essence bullet.

It streaked past the clearing in a thin beam of pale grey energy… as it struck the aberrant directly in the middle of its head, rather than its eye.

The essence bullet scattered in a spark of essence without leaving so much as a scratch on its greyish mottled flesh.

’Fuck this shit.’

He moved again, pushing off the ground and twisting away as another tentacle slammed into the spot where he’d been kneeling.

The impact cracked the stone beneath it, sending chips of gravel spraying across his back.

Did he make a mistake staying here?

The thought clawed at the back of his mind as he backflipped out of the way of another strike.

His lungs were burning with exhaustion, making it harder for him to think.

The aberration wasn’t just staying still anymore….

It was charging toward them now, its disgusting elongated body propelling itself forward in bursts of unnatural speed.

The tentacles lashed out faster and faster, and with each passing moment, the rhythm of the fight was shifting further out of their favor.

“SKREEEEEEEEEEEE—!”

It let out another one of its distorted, painful, piercing shrieks that tore through the garden as Mikael felt a warm wetness of blood trickling from his ears.

’….Just shut your damn mouth for the fuck’s sake.’

Mikael’s gaze darted toward Elara.

She was dodging better than he was, her footwork more precise than his–the result of years of close-combat training that he simply didn’t have.

But she had also accumulated her own share of injuries as much as he had–Cuts along her arms, shoulder, her collarbone.

The elegant arrangement of her hair had come half-undone, and her gown was torn and streaked with dirt and crimson.

She looked about as terrible as he felt.

’Should I just ditch her?’

The thought surfaced before he could stop it.

But…. he shoved it down.

That wasn’t an option….. leaving her to die here would only trigger one of the bad endings of Eclipsed Realm.

And who knows what would happen if he finished the game with a bad ending? He might as well lose his chance to go back home forever.

No, he couldn’t afford to leave her.

{Mikael}

He heard Liren’s voice directly inside his head.

{You need to stay calm…. You’re panicking.}

He blinked.

She was right.

His breathing had become erratic, his heart was hammering against his ribs as his thoughts kept skittering off in directions he didn’t want them to go.

“Yeah.” He exhaled, forcing his shoulders to relax. “Sorry.”

{I think that thing is using some kind of passive ability. Something that’s clouding your judgment. It’s not just fatigue or fear….. I can sense it. A subtle influence…. like pressure on the mind.}

Passive ability?

That… actually made sense.

Some of the bosses in Eclipsed Realms had passive auras…. effects that radiated from them constantly without needing to be activated.

Fear auras that made your characters hesitate, confusion effects scrambled your game controls, and rage fields that made your party members attack each other.

Was this thing emitting something similar? Something that disrupted rational thought?

It would explain why his mind felt like it.

And Elara, who was usually so composed, kept making small mistakes…. overextending on her dodges, hesitating half a second too long before casting a spell.

He took a deep breath as he tried to push his panic down.

The fog didn’t lift entirely, but acknowledging it helped… knowing that the fear wasn’t entirely his own made it easier to set the panic aside.

{From your left.}

Liren’s warning came just in time, the way she’d been doing this from the start….

Watching for his blind spots, tracking the tentacles he couldn’t see, her perception sharper than his own exhausted senses.

A tentacle lashed at him from his left blind spot, slicing through the air.

Mikael twisted, trying to throw himself clear, but his body and reaction time were too slow as the edge of the tentacle grazed his thigh, ripping through the fabric of his trousers and the skin beneath.

Pain flared as he felt the blood trickle down his leg.

He stumbled but stayed upright.

It hadn’t even been two full minutes since the fight started… and the injuries were starting to pile up on their bodies.

Their endurance stats were too low to fight this thing…. and a single solid hit from any of those tentacles would be game over for them.

This wouldn’t do– dodging and retreating.

They needed a different approach.

****