Archie’s vision flickered before everything on the left side of his vision turned dark, and his arms lost their grip on his monstrous attacker’s neck. As his grip on his attacker’s neck was lost, so were the Rot Spreading Spheres he’d tightly clutched in his right hand as they rolled off the large, thrashing body of his attacker and onto the sand beside them before they were crushed by his attacker, ruining his plan to shove them down her throat and have her suffocate to death.

  His attacker had managed to slam a backward headbutt into the left side of his temple, striking the weakest point of his eye socket. The impact sent spiderweb-like fractures through the bone, splintering it into jagged pieces of shrapnel that tore into his left eye and lodged into the side of his nose.

  Archie felt his vines loosen their grip on his attacker’s body for less than a second before tightening once more, just in time as she was about to turn to her side to stand up. As she rose from the ground, she once more attempted to try and reach for the overgrown spider monkey on her back.

  After several more failed attempts to reach Archie with her overly muscular body and normally sized cybernetic arm, she slammed herself back onto the ground, roaring in pain. The vines wrapped around her body continued to shred through her toughened flesh, sealing the wounds shut with the flames that wreathed the thorns.

  Archie released a grunt as the air in his lungs was forced out as his head bashed against the cold and wet sand filled with both his attacker’s and his own blood, creating a wet squelch. The pressure against both sides of his body sent ripples through him, further quickening the flow of blood that leaked from his blood-tinged skin and increasing the strain on his already overworked muscles.

  Adrenaline Rush

  But that wasn’t all Adrenaline Rush

  Archie’s insides were turning to mush, blood vessels were bursting and being repaired every few seconds, and the blood that escaped their vessels started to boil from the heat and started to turn his skin a murky red tone.

  Archie’s body was breaking down, and unless he deactivated Adrenaline RushAdrenaline Rush,

  , Archie grunted as his fists smashed into the sides of the ballooned head of his attacker absorbing as much health as Leeching Strikes of Fury

  , Archie thought as he checked his reserves; health stood around 30%, mana around 12% and stamina around 19%.

  A sickening sawing squelch was heard over the roaring screams of his attacker before their screams went silent and stumbled for a moment before collapsing onto the sand once more, but unlike normal, she didn’t immediately start to get up.

  Both of her shins were sawed off and seared on both ends, preventing her from regenerating them back.

  Archie wasn’t sure if he’d suddenly become deaf or if his eardrums burst, but he didn’t have the luxury of caring, as his body was already on the verge of shutting down.

  Archie’s left hand dug under the sand below her arched head, less than an inch beside his own, and drove his index and middle fingers into her left eye and crushed it before reaching into the eye socket and pulling it backward and away from his face. This created an opening for his other arm to grab around her neck, entwining it with thorn-wreathed vines. With a surge of effort, he made the vines vibrate back and forth against her throat that was the size of his own thigh.

  The flames from the Emberlash Eudromaeosaur Beastcore he used in his Spirit BondDid something happen with Aoife? He’d last seen her skewer one of their attackers with her Deepiron lance less than a minute ago.

  Archie’s heart quickened in anticipation as his attacker’s screams came back in full; the adrenaline underneath his skin practically sang in response to his attacker’s screams.

  They were both close to dying; he could feel it.

  Archie saw her massive arms claw at her throat in an attempt to stop his vines from sawing off her neck, but her hands kept shredding themselves as she tried to rip them apart.

  Archie’s vines reached a quarter through her neck when an emptiness filled his gut, moments before he coughed up blood. The bloodstained steam that radiated off his body died out along with the hundreds of vines that had held and shredded his attacker’s massive frame.

  Adrenaline RushThornscourge Expansion

  Mana: 28/4797

  He’d run out of enough mana to keep the two skills active.

  ! Archie shouted internally as his attacker’s remaining eye snapped to his own with a knowing grin alongside it.

  Archie’s limbs felt like lead as they futilely struggled to maintain their grip on her head, which twisted to face his own.

  Archie felt and smelled her hot and rancid breath on his skin moments before she lunged toward his head and snapped her jaws shut around and slowly pulled back, taking with her a chunk of his Headdress of the Savage Ursine along with his left ear and the flesh that surrounded it.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  As she’d chewed on his ear and the tufts of fur from his headdress, she dug her back into the sand, pushing Archie deeper in the sand, who was already half-way sunken by her last slam. She then proceeded to drag even more sand over him until only his outstretched arms and legs remained visible.

  Archie gritted his teeth, but still smiled, forming a sand-filled, toothy grin as his right hand inched from her neck to her chin while his left was still gripping onto her left eye socket.

  Even with his body almost completely engulfed by the sand and being squashed by his monstrous attacker, his eyes remained wide open, unwavering and...Excited.

  With the final vestiges of strength that remained within him, a deep growl rumbled from his throat, audible from underneath the sand. Mana surged through his hands as he pushed them in opposite directions, one going right while the other left, pouring every ounce of strength that remained within his body into this attack.

  Retaliation.

  Runic Amplification, .

  Impact Dynamo.

  Crack!

  A resounding ding echoed within Archie’s mind as his arms fell atop the sand that covered the rest of his body, completely drained. His stamina teetered just above a hundred points.

  , Archie thought in between pauses, before a dark seal around his eyes and head flared, sending a spike of pain through his skull.

  , Archie twitched, now wide awake as he felt the dark seal slowly start to fade into the depths of his brain

  Was that the Hollowed Sleep curse? Archie wondered.

  Archie’s arms moved sluggishly, his muscles protesting with every motion as he reached for the packed sand above his face. Slowly, he began to scrape away at it, each movement more exhausting than the last.

  With his current Vitality and Stamina, along with being an E-Grade, he could normally hold his breath for an hour before suffocating. But in his current state, he was about 40% to 60% sure that he was sure that he could hold it for fifteen minutes with the amount of air still left within in lungs, and considering that he'd been smushed a minute ago, he now had fourteen minutes left.

  Keeping that in mind, he continued clawing away at the sand atop his face, inch by inch, ignoring the stinging of the sand in his eyes and the fact that most of his fingers were barely attached by threads to his palms.

  As Archie continued to dig the sand away from his face, he felt thumping vibrations from the sand around him, stopping just inches away from his buried torso before an even louder thump accompanied it.

  Archie wondered as he felt five finger-like… fingers gently brush against his barely hanging on arm that continued to dig the sand away from his face.

  A moment later, Archie felt the sand above him shift before something metallic brushed upon his face, and not a moment later, he was greeted by Aoife’s face and the twin suns rising on the horizon.

  Archie blinked for a few moments before attempting to sign with his hands, but quickly found out that he shouldn’t have done that as his middle finger on his left hand fell atop his sand-covered chest. So, he did the next best thing: he gave her a toothy smile, packed with sand.

  Aoife greeted in return with a relieved smile and took out a Health Vial from her Bag of Holding and uncorked it before shoving its contents down his throat.

  “Are you fully healed?” Aoife inquired, her eyes filled with concern and guilt. Refusing to let him out of her sight after she’d dragged him out from underneath his monstrous-looking attacker.

  ‘Somewhat,’ Archie smiled back at Aoife, before his face scrunched up with disgust, making him turn to his side and spit out a sandy spit wad.

  ‘I’ve mostly regenerated everything, just waiting on my liver and a couple more pounds of muscle,’ Archie signed. After being found and forced to drink a Health Vial, Archie activated Nature’s Meditation

  ‘Probably going to need a couple more minutes, but if it's fine with you, I’d like to meditate for a bit to at least get my mana and stamina reserve to at least halfway,’ Archie signed, who received an “of course” from Aoife.

  After he’d devoured half a crate worth of sandwiches, only then did he let Vital MetabolismVital Metabolism

  By the thirtieth or so slam, he’d run out of fat he’d stored, so Archie had no choice but to let Vital Metabolism

  The only downside was that after Vital Metabolism

  Looking back at Aoife, Archie noticed her looking slightly unfocused, and her eyes drifted back and forth as though she were reading. Must be reading through her notifications and looking at her Status Page, Archie mused before looking through his own notifications and Status Page.

  *[Human Lv 104// Cybermarkswoman Lv 109 // Sandblazer Courier Lv 101] has been slain – XP has been given.*

  *[Human Lv 106// Cyberstalker Lv 105 // Desert Scavenger Lv 104] has been slain – XP has been given.*

  *Your Class has reached Lv 87 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

  ***

  *Your Class has reached Lv 90 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

  *Your Race has reached Lv 84 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*

  *Your Race has reached Lv 85 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*

  *Nature-Attuned Pugilist class skills available. Choose one of the options*

  Archie Gracefield

  Race: Human E-Grade Lv 85

  Class: Nature-Attuned Pugilist Lv 90

  Profession: Novice Forgesmith Lv 82

  Health: 9753/11880

  Mana: 1054/4849

  Stamina: 3245/10682

  Stats:Vitality: 880 (1188)

  Strength: 1103 (1654)

  Endurance: 763 (1068)

  Agility: 455 (591)

  Intelligence: 434 (564)

  Wisdom: 373 (484)

  Willpower: 200 (280)

  Perception: 471 (612)

  Free Points: 60

  General Skills:

  Class Skills: Profession Skills:

  Bloodline:

  Affinity:

  Blessing:

  Titles Collected:

  Thanks for Reading!

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