Tatehan held it firmly in his hands, an insane rush of adrenaline blinding his vision—partially though, as he could see but could hardly think.
The sword was heavy, but at that point, it seemed like he had gained extra strength.
He felt like a lunatic because this was a very big risk he was taking. If he missed, he was done.
The place was windless, and so there was nothing dramatic to sway his hair backwards or make him look cool. This was just a madman doing something insane.
The knight bruteneck that had been trying to breathe and recover from the critical condition it was in was suddenly alarmed by Tatehan's footsteps.
It tried to move, but Tatehan had already reached it…
By the arm!
"Shit!"
That wasn't his plan. Before running, his aim had been to target the back of the monster's neck before it turned. And now that he had missed? He was seriously alarmed.
The creature sidestepped, ducked, and immediately faced forward, delivering a kick to Tatehan's midsection. Tatehan let out a loud groan as it connected.
The knight bruteneck, almost dead, was still standing, its eyes seething with rage.
Tatehan wasn't in good condition before making the run, and so as he lay there, trying to breathe, the knight bruteneck rushed towards him at full speed.
What was the creature doing? It wasn't going to use a sword?
Tatehan looked at the way it clenched and unclenched its fists as it ran.
He quickly realized.
The goddamn monster was going to choke him to death.
Damn!
And he had thought that the knight brutenecks were going to kill him in a more grand manner. This one was about to kill him in one of the most brutal ways known to mankind.
Tatehan quickly rolled to the left as the monster lunged to choke him. The monster, furious that it missed, stomped hard on the spot Tatehan had rolled from, weird-colored saliva dripping from its mouth.
Tatehan could almost cry at this point. His life hung in the balance. One wrong move and he would be grabbed and choked to death.
The monster continued in its relentless assault, trying to kill Tatehan, who dodged like a madman, finally finding a way to roll up to his feet.
For something as beaten down as the monster was, it was still faster. If only Tatehan could be faster.
The monster came at him now, throwing wild punches which Tatehan dodged. He was no longer holding a sword or he would have killed the monster already.
But he kept dodging. He had a reason for doing this, for putting his life on the line, and he needed to be alive to find out.
The knight bruteneck, frustrated that Tatehan was too quick and had basically dodged all its attacks, howled and bent to pick up a sword from one of its fallen comrades.
Tatehan's heart basically leapt.
This was it, the moment that would determine if he would live or die. This was the moment that would determine how much he could push his speed in a perilous time.
The world slowed around him at this point.
A sword was behind him. Rushing to it would mean getting his head cut off because the knight bruteneck's sword was much nearer to it than his own was to him.
Tatehan went for it nevertheless. He picked it up, but the knight bruteneck had already grabbed its weapon a second before him and was moving fast, already aiming the blade towards his head.
Tatehan didn't look back. He threw his head to the right, dodging the sword by mere inches and sending the sword in his hands toward the exposed region of the plating that covered the knight bruteneck's neck.
It stuck…
And…
Struck the head clean off, the body falling with a jerking motion.
Tatehan watched the creature fall to the ground with a grin.
Finally, he killed the nearly-dead bruteneck.
'Nearly-dead' was even an overestimation because the creature had fought with so much agility it looked like a normal human fighting at full strength.
Tatehan looked around the area. The dead bodies made him a bit nauseous.
Technically, he was the winner, even though he didn't expect to win. His initial aim had been to hide, sneak, and then run.
The reason he ended up as the supposed victor was because of his insane resilience and the big risk he just took. The partial regeneration ability also helped him enormously. He was sure without it, he wouldn't have been whole enough to make the run he took to defeat the knight bruteneck.
But then, he had a main reason for taking this risk, and he hoped it was worth it.
When he defeated the lunatic carapace bruteneck back in the first zone of the bruteneck area, he had found a rock in its body. An upgrade glowing rock, one that enabled him to upgrade just one of his abilities.
He chose partial regeneration, and it was upgraded from 0.5 to 1.5.
Now, lying dead in front of him were lunatic carapace brutenecks. Creatures as dead as they had been alive. Creatures that he was certain possessed upgrade glowing rocks. Tatehan was smirking widely already. He felt like the villain here.
When he first encountered the brutenecks, he thought there were just two species: the normal brutenecks and the carapace brutenecks. But seeing that there were two more species—they could be even more—the lunatic carapace brutenecks and knight brutenecks, Tatehan was opened to a whole new possibility.
The monsters, apart from the normal brutenecks, ought to possess cores. Cores that restored or upgraded something.
The rocks from the carapace brutenecks restored certain modes in the spaceship. The cores from the lunatic carapace brutenecks upgraded his abilities…but…! What could cores from the knight brutenecks do?
Creatures so majestic and graceful in a grotesque way. Creatures that basically fought like humans. What cores would they be possessing?
There were many dead lunatic carapace brutenecks too. How far would he be upgrading his abilities?
Level five, seven, eight, nine, or ten?
There was only one way to find out.