LIGHTNOVELONLINE V2.06 The Bav'varst
The pain in my face, chest, and legs had subsided, and I could see the torn flesh mending before my eyes. My toughness stat is finally showing some usefulness. I marveled at how shallow my wounds really were.
The scratching sounds continued to echo from the hole, and I knew there was no time to waste. With a quick check of my gun and a glance at my mana bar, I realized that I still had plenty of energy left. But only three shots left, and I’ll need to recover my mana.
With a deep breath, I turned my attention back to the hole. The scratching had grown more frenzied and louder. I tightened my grip on my gun and stepped closer to the source of the commotion. Maybe if I use the hole as a means of limiting how many can reach me at once, I can use my arm blade more. It’ll save me some mana.
As I approached the hole cautiously, I could see movement within. The creatures looked like they were climbing up. Without any hesitation, I fired my first shot into the one that showed its head first. Its brains exploded, and it fell down. A quick display of stats and shards I gained appeared in the corner of my vision.
Another one burst forth from behind it, snarling and hissing. There were more of them behind it. A small horde of bav’varst were clawing at each other to reach me.
I raised my gun and fired, puncturing the closest one with a well-aimed shot. Its body burst apart in a spray of gore, and I ignored the notification informing me of the shards and stat points I had gained. But the others were undeterred. Their eyes locked onto me, hunger in their gaze.
One shot left.
They lunged, their claws and teeth aimed at me. I reached my hand in front of me and caught the closest one. It bit down on my hand, its teeth failing to damage my metal skin. A second bav’varst squeezed past the first one, only to be met with my arm blade through its face. The blade slid in easily.
The creature chomping on my hand was still not damaging me, but it was proceeding to swallow my hand. Inch by inch, more of my arm slid down its throat. For the first time, I was glad I couldn’t feel through the metal well. Because I really didn’t want to feel the inside of its esophagus.
With the dead creature pinned next to the one still swallowing my hand, I pocketed my gun.
Killa would’ve told me to take advantage of this situation and get as many kills as I could. Before I could kill the one swallowing my hand with my arm blade, the bav’varst behind the dead one started eating it. They’re cannibals?
The efficiency with which they tore through the corpse told me they had far lower defensive stats than me. And as soon as enough room was made, one of the bav’varst charged past, aiming for me. I stabbed it just like the last one that tried it.
Then I could feel the one on my left arm had swallowed up to my mid-bicep. It was still chomping down, but its teeth had shattered, and the bleeding gums weren’t a worry. My hand felt like it was in a pocket, while there was still a slight pressure on the rest of my arm. Is my hand in its stomach? Do they not have a gag reflex? Somehow, the creature was still breathing through its nose, but it couldn’t push my arm further down.
The creatures in the back started getting impatient, because I noticed they all started tearing each other apart in the back. Alive or dead, it didn’t matter. They massacred each other. That’s my cue to leave.
I drove my arm blade into the creature’s eye and pulled my arm out. The bav’varst were too busy ripping each other apart to notice I had left. When I reached the stone doors, I quickly pulled them closed.
With a heavy sigh, I sat down on the wall next to it and looked at my arm. It was drenched in saliva and a clear liquid. What would’ve happened if my arm wasn’t covered in this metal plating? I shuddered.
Gross. So gross. I couldn’t help but grimace as I flicked off as much of the unpleasant fluids as possible. But it looks like I couldn’t take advantage of that as much as I would’ve liked. They started tearing into each other, desperate to get to me. That’s a whole new level of rabid.
After a little rest and putting all my points in quickness, the clawing started on the door. It looks like they haven’t given up yet. But those doors will hold. If they hadn’t burrowed through them before, they won’t do so now.
But then I heard more snarling coming from the other wooden door, where I saw the glass plants and the stairwell.
The door heaved as something slammed into it, followed by the sounds of more clawing and snarling. It seemed more of them had been alerted to my presence. How many of these things are there? Isn’t this supposed to be the safest dungeon? I’d hate to see the most dangerous dungeon.
My mana recovered enough to give me two shots before I ran out of mana. A third would go beyond what I had and cause me to pass out.
Time to go.
As I made it just past the altar, the wooden door finally splintered apart, and four bav’varst pushed through the opening, snarling and fighting each other as much as they were headed my way.
As the four bav’varst burst through the splintered door, their snarling intensified, echoing through the chamber. They stopped fighting each other and loped towards me. They were bigger than the others I had been killing, about three feet tall as they ran on their four legs.
There’s no door to hide behind now. Besides, it’s just four of them.
I fired one of my two rounds. I could feel the momentary fatigue as my mana was drawn from me. The nearest bav’varst’s face exploded in a shower of bone and gore. It crumpled to the ground, its lifeless body falling with a thud. I received another five stats and four hundred and seventy-five shards.
However, the remaining three bav’varst were undeterred. Before they closed in, I shot at a second one, using up my shots. Better to use them before they reach me. I missed the head, and a large chunk opened up in its back and exited through its hind leg. The creature fell to the ground as its entire left side went limp.
Blood poured from the wounds, but it wasn’t dead yet. The other two bav’varst didn’t slow down as they ran over the heavily wounded creature. They leaped in unison, aiming at my torso. With a sidestep, I dodged their biting maws.
I struck out, driving my arm blade through the chest of one of the bav’varst. Its body recoiled from the wound, but it didn’t die. The remaining creatures continued their relentless assault. It would have bitten down on my face if I hadn’t raised my arm up to intercept.
It bit down, unable to break through my skin. It also raised its claws to cling to my arm. The weight of the creature instantly pulled me down. Unbalanced, the creature pulled at my arm, and I couldn’t resist it. It was far stronger than the smaller versions, which were stronger than me already.
I tried to stab at it with my arm blade, but it jerked its head and yanked me around. My attack missed horribly. The creature whipped its head back the other way, and I finally understood how a dog’s chew toy felt. Everything was a blur as the creature savagely kept pulling and thrashing around. My arm popped, and I knew without a doubt that my arm was dislocated. I tumbled around, my arm twisting and tearing muscles in my shoulder as I failed to stop it.
Almost every attempt to attack it with my arm's blade failed. I managed to slice its eye once, but that only sent it into a more erratic frenzy. The second bav’varst that I had wounded earlier but not killed with my arm blade recovered enough to bite down on my leg. Its teeth dug into my flesh, and I could feel the bones cracking from the pressure.
With one creature pulling my arm and the other pulling my leg, I could feel my body stretching. I let out a scream as the creature’s teeth shredded my leg as it slowly started slipping through the teeth. But it was the first moment I wasn’t being thrown around, so I took the chance to sweep my arm blade at the one chewing on my arm.
The blade swiped its face, severing its top jaw through the bone. The bottom jaw then slipped off, and I then started getting pulled by the one biting my leg. I curled up and swung my arm blade at the creature’s face. My blade cut into the creature’s skull, but it got stuck halfway through. Thankfully, it went limp. Unfortunately, my leg throbbed from the vicious gouges exposing the bone, and I was starting to get a little dizzy as I saw what I could only guess was my blood flooding from my leg.
I tried to pull my arm blade out of the bav’varst’s skull, but I couldn’t, not while my other arm couldn’t move. After my second tug, I felt two sets of claws dig into my collarbone, and something pulled me back to the ground. My head bounced off the stone floor as I saw the bav’varst with only half a face.
Despite not having a top jaw, it still tried to eat my head. Blood and saliva mixed and blinded me as it then tried forcing me down its throat. I started thrashing as I quickly started drowning in its blood. I don’t know how, but my arm with the blade eventually came free, and I frantically swung it at the thing suffocating me as it tried to swallow me whole. Thankfully, my shoulders made that impossible, and not having a top row of teeth meant it wasn’t chewing me. Its bottom jaw was only managing minor cuts.
After what seemed like forever, the feeling of something trying to pull my head further down stopped. I pushed with my usable arm and slid out of its mouth, its teeth cutting my back a little.
Immediately, I rolled over and started coughing out blood. Afterwards, I commenced the wrenching because it wasn’t my blood in my lungs. My leg was buzzing as the nanites went to work. The same was true for my dislocated arm. Then, without a warning, my left arm twisted, and a loud wet pop sounded. The nanites pushed my arm back into place. It wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would’ve been, but it did sound unnerving.
After I finished expelling the bav’varst’s blood from my lungs, I cleaned its blood from my eyes. Again, I was thankful that I couldn’t feel them, because that probably would’ve stung. There were still small blotches of the blood on my eyes, blocking my vision, but I could see enough to pick up my gun and crawl out of the dungeon.
I don’t care. Nope. Nuh uh. I’m done. Igzad was right. This is hell. If that is considered safe, I don’t want to see it as dangerous.
I used up the one bar to heal my wounds, leaving me with four more. But I had no mana, and the saliva on my face needed to be washed away. I’ve never felt so disgusting, even compared to the time I had to go three weeks without a bath or shower.
My leg finished healing, and I left the area, desperately demanding that the Nexus return me to the town. And the fact that I had twenty points to distribute and that I was now level eighteen was so far gone from my mind. The familiar sight of the tower-like city calmed me down a bit.
As I walked to the city, I heard shouting behind me. I turned and saw a trio of individuals running my way. Behind them was a tidal wave of bav’varsts. My heart sank, and I sprinted to the town.
Why do these things always happen to me?