Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Hollow Rage.
Step! Step! Step!
As a dark disfigured humanoid being traversed the halls, ragged footsteps resounded across the hospital floor.
It had round white eyes that viewed into the distance, and its dark face wore a blank expression. Those who were exposed to it could not resist the bloodlust it exuded.
The monster was referred to as a Grim. It was a monster that thrived in the darkness.
Its shadow dragged along a series of unconscious patients. Lucia Barrel, the one Rex was looking for, was among them.
Paralytic poison from the grim had been injected into them, keeping them unconscious.
Their patient gowns were coated with blood, but it wasn't theirs. The blood belonged to the corpses of the weaker monsters that had also entered through the portal. To prevent its prey from being stolen, the Grim had killed them all.
It walked the path littered with mutilated corpses left behind from the battle.
The monster didn't seem to be fazed by the violent tremors, shuddering of the building, or the debris collapsing around it as it descended down the stairs, the heads of the patients collided against the staircase with every step.
After reaching the floor beneath, it glanced down the hall. There was a blue circular portal surrounded by even more mutilated corpses.
There was no comparison between the hospital and the environment and land seen through the portal. The portal showed some sort of Dark Swamp.
Slowly, it moved towards the portal. For now, it intended to consume the patients that it had captured but it planned to return right after to hunt down the remaining surviving patients in the building.
In its approach to the portal, it suddenly noticed a highlighted thread emerge beside it.
Slash!
Shadows extended from the wall beside it, slashing at the thread and causing it to fade.
Once it had turned to find out where the thread had come from, it tilted its head at the side in confusion as it realized the thread had come from the stairway it had just descended.
Step! Step!
As a figure descended down the stairs, footsteps reverberated.
A spine-chilling grin was formed by the cracks on its face as the figure revealed itself to be a dark curly haired young man clutching a red pen.
There was a dim orb of light beside him, just bright enough to illuminate the area around him. The light, however, was unable to cover most of the darkness in the halls.
Even so, the young man seemed unconcerned. He had a dark expression, as if a dark shadow was looming over him.
Three highlighted words slowly faded across his body. Each one served a specific purpose and was attached to a different part of the body.
[Energy: 30/100%]
In the instant the two made eye contact, the monster struck.
FWOOOM!
Rex's eyes widened as a long, sharp pointy shadowy spike suddenly extended towards him from the darkness of the wall in front of him.
In spite of its sudden motion, what surprised him more was how he could actually keep up with it.
The was the affect of the first word which rested on his forehead, [Sight. ]. The effect greatly enhanced his vision, enabling him to react more quickly as well as allowing him to see in the dark.
The spike brushed past Rex, skimming his cheek as he swerved to the left.
Following that, he kicked off the staircase and watched as countless spikes extended from the spike he'd avoided.
Slash!
Once again, his skin was barely skimmed as he managed to escape it's range before dashing in the direction of the grim.
Fwoosh!
This sort of movement or speed would not have been possible if not for the affect of the second word. [Quicken.]
[New Quest has been added.]
[Quest: Survivor.]
[You are confronting a Grim.]
[Survive the encounter.]
[Encounter's survived: 0/1]
[Rewards:]
[100 XP]
[2 SP]
Within a blink of an eye, Rex was about to be struck by two shadow slashes, leaving him no time to check the notification.
Sploosh!
In one swift motion, he slipped from under the first slash and watched as hair was ripped away before kicking off the ground and jumping over the second slash. In spite of his weak frame, he was able to perform such a movement thanks to the third word. [Light.]
But even with all of this, it wasn't enough, as the moment he was airborne- The Grin on the Grim's face widened.
"!"
From all around him, dark spears erupted from the shadows where the light couldn't penetrate. He couldn't dodge such an attack, no matter how nimble he was, not while in the air.
It was checkmate.
'For you.' He pulled out the middle finger from behind his back and grinned.
Above the middle finger stood a single word. Since before the battle began, Rex kept this word hidden behind his back as a trump card.
[Swap.]
[Energy: 30 -> 15/100%]
A Grim's round white eyes widened in confusion when it noticed its location had changed suddenly. Rex was now on the ground, standing where it had been and it was now in the air, where Rex had been.
Before it even had a chance to process-
Pierce! Pierce! Pierce!
The spears used against Rex ended up piercing it, impaling it, and trapping it in the air.
In that moment, Rex wrote down a new word without wasting a second.
[Fireball.]
[Energy: 15 -> 10/100%]
A ball of flame the size of two footballs erupted from the highlighted word and was shot at the Grim at high speed.
BOOM!
The creature's body easily burst into flames when struck, and its mouth creaked open in pain.
Flames were the grim's weakness, just like light. How did Rex know this? It was simple. It was he who had penned it in.
Rex knew all there was to know about all the monsters introduced in the first volume.
Which was how he also knew that something as weak as this wouldn't be able to kill it. It struggled in rage and fury as its form grew more and more deformed. The spears pinning it down began to crack.
'That'll only be able to buy me a little while...' As he rushed over to Lucia and picked her up, putting her on his back, he thought to himself, 'I've only got ten percent energy left and as much as I'd like to finish it off. I don't have any more weapons.'
Feeling Lucia's heartbeat on his back, her steady breathing and the warmth of her body showed that she was still alive. The thought alone put him at ease.
'I'd rather use the remaining energy to help us escape out of here.' There was no telling when another monster would come out of the of the portal which led to a dark swamp, behind him.
Rex glanced sideways at the other hostages who had been left lying unconscious on the floor before running off with Lucia on his back.
'There's nothing I can do for them... Even with this ability... I have doubts that i'll be able to take care of myself and Lucia, much less others.'
Keeping his distance from the portal, he entered the nearest room.
The entire building was collapsing. The window was the fastest way out since the staircase was a no-go.
Rex cancelled out his light and with the use if his night-vision, he easily maneuvered around the chunk of debris before leaping straight at the window with Lucia on his back.
Shatter!
With the shattering of the glass, they were out.
While holding onto Lucia, he realized he'd forgotten one tiny detail, and the expression on his face changed from relief to one of nervousness.
'Fuck! I forgot to think of a word!' He cursed as he plunged towards the ground.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone