Ch. 19: This is gonna be troublesome pt. 1

The voice of the speaker had died down just after he announced the game to begin and the timer too had started running. Chlevern knew he had to complete the game before the time limit exceeded so he can rescue Cressida and proceed to the next Level.

| 2:59:45 DuQuints Left |, said the timer above him.

Suddenly Chlevern saw that there was a ball almost about the size of a tennis ball, kept in the middle of the ground. It was a ball made up of darkness and it consumed every little bit of light surrounding the ball around its surface. Chlevern also saw that there were shadowy figures emerging from the ground and they tried reaching the ball to consume it for themselves. Suddenly, Chlevern realised that he did not have to let the shadows grab the ball and he quickly ran towards the ball, in the middle of the ground. 

Seeing he was not fast enough, he quickly said to himself, 

"System, activate skill: Speed."

As soon as he said this, the system screen popped up in front of him.

[ Skill: Speed Lvl. 10 has been activated

Your speed has increased by +30]

SWOOSH~~~~~~~~

Seeing this, Chlevern felt the strength in his legs build up and with a quick leap, he dashed towards the ball with a speed unimaginable to human eyes. Chlevern saw that one of the shadows almost had its hands on the ball. But just before its hand could reach the ball, which was centimeters away from its reach, Chlevern used the momentum he generated with his speed to kick the shadow as far as possible. The shadow flew far away until it crashed the invisible wall and disappeared.

"Phew, that was a close one.", Chlevern said grabbing the ball.

But he had no time to rest as the rest of the shadows were now after Chlevern as he was holding the ball in his hands.

'Well....., this is gonna be troublesome.', thought Chlevern, glancing at all the shadows approaching him.

All of a sudden, a group of four shadows jumped at Chlevern with an intent of attacking him, but suddenly Chlevern vanished from where he stood and knocked the four shadows off with a series of punches and kicks. Not to mention, the skill: Speed was active this whole time which helped him defeat those shadows as quick as possible.

'Well, that was easy. These shadows don't seem that strong. If this continues, I can easily defend the ball and reach the other end.', thought Chlevern.

Amidst the shadows, Chlevern saw the end point he had to reach in order to win the game. It was quite far but not impossible to reach. The ground was much bigger than Chlevern thought it would be, it was almost like a distance of 10x10 km end-to-end with Chlevern standing in between which made it half. Plus, Chlevern had to run straight so it was just a distance of 5 km, which was still quite a distance but with Chlevern's current physical abilities and the skill: Speed, not to mention the shadows not being that strong according to Chlevern, he was now sure that he could win the game and clear the Level rescuing Cressida.

'Damn, the distance I have to travel in order to reach the end is almost 5 km from what I can guess and the shadows too, don't seem that strong. This way I can clear the Level without even using any skills or abilities, except for speed which will only help me reach the end faster.", thought Chlevern.

Chlevern was ready to run towards the other end and soon he dashed. A couple of shadows tried to block him, only to be punched and get destroyed by him. The shadows disappeared, but more and more shadows were summoning and they dashed towards Chlevern. He defeated many of the shadows but then he felt that the ball kept in his pocket had gotten heavier. Chlevern felt the heaviness of the ball and though using the skill; Speed, he could feel that he was getting a little slow.

"Shit, I forgot that the ball gets heavier as time passes. It feels like I am carrying a weight of 1 kg in my pocket.", Chlevern whispered to himself.

'Doesn't matter, this much weight is nothing, I should keep going.'

Chlevern was running when he sensed something coming from his right side and that instant the system popped up.

[WARNING!

There's an incoming attack from your right.

Dodge it.]

SWOOSH~~~~~~

The screen went off.

Chlevern braked himself rapidly and bent backwards to dodge the attack. It was a shockwave of darkness and as soon as Chlevern dodged it, the shockwave collided with the ground leaving a big cut on it as if someone had stabbed it. Chlevern stopped and looked towards his right. There were some shadows which appeared like mages and casted a spell, shockwave of darkness.

"Tsk... How bothersome.", Chlevern clicked.

Suddenly two shadows pounced on him from his left and the screen popped up.

[WARNING!

You are being attacked from your left]

and the screen went off.

Chlevern quickly glanced and jumped from his spot dodging the shadows. The shadows had put an impact on the ground, cracking it slightly.

'Are they getting stronger every second, sorry Quint.?", Chlevern wondered. 

But then suddenly he felt his pocket getting heavier as the ball gained weight and he looked at the timer above him.

| 1:55:04 DuQuints Left | said the timer.

"Shit I don't have time. I have to reach the end fast.", Chlevern said to himself.

The ball now weighed 4 kg.

'What the hell?! the ball almost gained four times more weight? It is even difficult to run now.', thought Chlevern. 

*Meanwhile outside the ground*

Cressida was watching Chlevern in the ground playing the game, from inside the barrier. She could see that Chlevern was struggling a little against the shadows. She was helpless, as she was stuck inside the barrier, thanks to the person behind the voice who restricted her from entering the game. She was worried for him. The first time in her life she had worried for anyone, let alone a boy.

Suddenly she saw that Chlevern was attacked by a shadow and he, unable to dodge it was knocked down.

"OH MY DEMON! CHLEVERN, ARE YOU OKAY?!", she said almost colliding with the barrier.

She leaned on the barrier with her hands pushing the barrier. But then she instantly withdrew. 

'Wait, why am I so worried about a boy whom I met just yesterday?', she thought, blushing on her reaction. She then looked at the ground where Chlevern was and thought,

'Why do you make me feel like this. Are you really different from others?'

*Back to the Playing Ground*

Chlevern was on the floor after he failed to dodge the attack by the shadow. The shadow caught him off-guard when he was busy fending off the shockwaves of darkness sent towards him by the Shadow mages. Even the system had warned him of any unexpected incoming attacks, but everything happened in a blink of the moment.

Suddenly he heard Cressida's voice from outside the ground, 'Oh my demon, Chlevern are you okay?!', said the voice which belonged to Cressida. He saw Cressida far away outside the ground and as soon as he heard this, he stopped and the aura around him changed a bit. He looked up with a tired expression and thought,

'Damn it. If I don't win now I will not be able to protect Cressida and who knows what might happen to her after that.'

"Oh my, what a scene to behold. The beauty worrying for the impatient young man, what a lovely sight. I wonder what the beauty would do for me if I were to be in that young man's place, I am jealous. But you know what? I will go ahead and claim the beauty for myself if the young man dies here. Hahahaha.", the voice said out of nowhere in a provoking manner.

But little did he know that his provocation would snap Chlevern out of his senses.

'What did he say?! claim her, as his? if I don't get up now and die here, who knows what he might do to Cressida? No, no.... NOO!!!!'

'I WILL NOT LET THAT HAPPEN! I WILL NOT LET HIM DO ANYTHING TO CRESSIDA! I WILL NOT DIE HERE! I WILL WIN.', Chlevern thought while slowly standing up. He was dead serious, his face was darker and his aura changed and suddenly he said in a low voice,

"Enough of this! System, Activate Skill: Bloodbath!"

The system popped in front of him,

[Skill: Bloodbath Lvl. 10 has been activated

Your attack and defense stats will now increase by +20

NOTICE: Using this skill for some time will level it up by 5.]

Suddenly Chlevern felt the power surge throughout his body and his aura was denser. His face darkened and his eyes glowed a shade of red. He then looked around and seeing that he was surrounded, he lunged towards the shadow which knocked him off to the ground. 

His fist clenched and he punched the shadow a little too hard causing the shadow he punched, along with a couple of shadows behind it to disappear due to the amount of force released from his punch. The path now being cleared, Chlevern was able to see the end point. But this was not the end as more shadows started appearing and these were stronger than the previously summoned shadows. The shadows, one-by-one started attacking Chlevern and seeing this, Chlevern said,

"Time to show off some fighting skills."

He cracked his neck sideways and popped his knuckles, ready to fight.

The Duel started. 

The first shadow tried punching Chlevern but he dodged it and punched it vertically like Mike Tyson finishing it off. The second shadow came forward and performed a roundhouse kick with an intent of blowing, Chlevern's head off but he caught its leg mid air and swooped down its other leg with a sweep kick, which broke the shadow's balance off and just as the shadow fell, he kicked the shadow's face with his knee, which led to the shadow's head being blown off instead.

He kept fighting the shadows unaware that he had wasted much more time. Chlevern looked up to the timer after kicking the shadow and the timer showed,

| 1:00:16 DuQuints Left |

'Tsk.. I wasted too much time on these shadows, I have to be quick.', thought Chlevern.

But then, suddenly he felt another spell of darkness approaching him and at a faster pace than the one before. Yet, Chlevern dodged the spell easily as he had skill, Bloodbath active along with his skill, Speed.

'Shit, I forgot that there are these annoying mages between the shadows.', thought Chlevern annoyed by the bother these mages caused.

Chlevern then thought of a plan to eliminate the mages and that moment an idea struck his mind. He started running towards the end point as there were many shadows in that path and he had a brilliant idea in his mind. The shadows started approaching Chlevern in order to claim the ball of darkness for themselves and Chlevern needed just that to execute his plan. As one of the shadows tried grabbing the ball from Chlevern's pocket (Don't get it in the wrong way), Chlevern caught its hand and swung the shadow like a whip, hitting all the other shadows with it, finishing them and then he threw the shadow in the direction of the shadow mages. Once the shadow collided with the mages, all the mages including the shadow were eliminated.

'It worked.', thought Chlevern, a little happy. But his happiness didn't last long as he realised he had no time to spare.

Realising that time was slipping out of his hands, he dashed towards the end point. Now that the path was clear of shadows, he dashed with an unimaginable pace. Suddenly he felt something in his pocket.

'Fuck! the ball got heavier.', thought Chlevern. This made it more difficult to run for Chlevern, but his speed was still too fast.

The ball weighed 10kg now and the shadows started reappearing, approaching him.

"I need to make it quick!", said Chlevern, now carrying a weight of 10kg in his pockets.

The End