Free Web NovelMatt was running.
Not elegantly.
Not heroically.
He was running like someone who had just understood, far too late, that his life depended on his legs keeping moving even though the rest of his body wanted to give up.
BOOM!
An enormous rock crashed into the ground behind Matt. The impact sent stone fragments and red dust flying in all directions.
Matt barely turned his head — a nearly four-meter golem was advancing from the back of the hall, dragging a stone arm as big as a tree trunk.
Matt gritted his teeth.
SSSSHHHH!
The sound came from his side.
Matt threw himself to one side.
A massive serpent shot past the exact spot where he'd been a second before. Its body was thick, dark, and covered in scales as hard as old metal. Its eyes glowed with a sickly yellow light, and its open mouth showed curved fangs the size of daggers.
Matt rolled across the floor, half got up, and kept running.
He couldn't stop.
He couldn't aim.
He couldn't breathe properly.
The damned serpent was too close.
Every time he tried to draw the bow, the beast lunged at him with a speed that was absurd for something that size.
And of course, that also meant he couldn't shoot the flying demons.
KIIIK!
Three black creatures descended from above, beating thin, misshapen wings.
Matt raised the bow on instinct.
A shadow moved to his right.
"Damn it!"
The serpent attacked again, but Matt ducked just in time. The fangs passed over his head so close he felt the cold draft of the bite.
The flying demon that had been about to attack him was caught by the serpent mid-air.
CRUNCH!
The beast split it in two without even noticing.
Matt's eyes went wide.
"Thanks, I guess."
But he had no time to appreciate it.
BOOM!
The floor shook and another golem appeared in front of Matt.
Matt felt his blood run cold.
The first one was coming from behind.
The second was in front.
The serpent to one side.
The demons above.
For a moment, his mind went completely blank.
Then the golem raised its arm.
"Ah."
The blow came down.
BOOOOOOM!
Matt threw himself to the left on pure reflex.
The stone grazed his shoulder and destroyed the floor where he'd been standing.
The impact raised a cloud of dust. fгeewebnovёl.com
And that gap was enough.
The serpent came from the side and Matt barely had time to see it.
—!
The fangs sank into Matt's abdomen.
CRACK!
Pain exploded through his body. Matt opened his mouth but no scream came out. The serpent lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing.
His vision flooded with black for an instant.
Matt felt something break.
A rib.
Maybe two.
His body acted before his head could.
Matt swung his free arm toward the serpent.
He wanted to cut.
He wanted to drive something in.
He wanted to respond like he still had a sword in his hand.
But he didn't have a sword.
He had a bow.
The end of the bow struck the serpent's scales with a flat sound.
TAC!
It did nothing.
Matt looked at the bow.
Then at the serpent.
"…Right."
The serpent closed its jaw tighter.
CRACK!
This time he did scream.
"AAAAGH!"
The serpent flung him against the ground.
Matt bounced once, rolled through broken rocks, and slammed into a fallen column.
The air left his lungs.
His bow fell nearby.
Part of the wood had splintered.
Matt tried to move.
His body didn't respond well.
Blood ran down his side, hot, thick, too much of it.
Too much even for him.
His hands were shaking.
His vision was blurred.
The flying demons circled above him, waiting for an opening.
The golems advanced slowly.
The serpent slithered toward him with its mouth open.
Matt swallowed.
He couldn't believe it.
He couldn't believe he was like this.
It was only the eighth room.
He hadn't even reached a decent part of this damned cave and he was already flat on the floor, bleeding, with a half-broken bow and a giant serpent about to finish the job.
A dry laugh escaped his throat.
"Pathetic…"
The serpent closed in.
Matt pressed his fingers against the floor.
His nails scraped stone.
His breathing grew heavy.
Something inside him began to burn.
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Not courage.
Not hope.
Rage.
Pure rage.
Rage at the cave.
At Iris.
At the queen.
At his own body.
At that damned serpent.
At the fact that, after everything he'd been through, he was about to die like an idiot in the eighth room.
Matt raised his gaze.
His red eyes blazed.
"No."
The serpent lunged.
Matt raised his wounded arm.
The blood inside his body boiled and burst.
SPLASH!
Part of his forearm tore open from within.
Thousands of red droplets shot into the air like a cloud of liquid needles.
The pain was so brutal that Matt nearly lost consciousness on the spot.
But he didn't.
He couldn't.
Not yet.
"Die."
The droplets compressed. Then they fired.
FWOOSH!
The blood shot through the serpent's open mouth.
CHAK!
CHAK!
CHAK!
The red needles pierced tongue, gums, throat, and eyes.
The serpent convulsed with a horrible shriek.
SSSSSSHHHHH!
Matt clenched his teeth until he felt they might crack.
It wasn't enough.
It wasn't going to be enough.
The serpent was still moving.
Still coming toward him.
"Of course."
A weak laugh escaped him.
"Of course that wasn't enough."
He used part of the floating blood to push himself to one side.
A flying demon dropped from above.
Matt flicked his wrist.
Three droplets punched through the creature's skull.
PCHAK!
The body fell beside him.
Another demon dove down.
Matt dodged by centimeters, letting the claws tear across his shoulder.
He didn't care.
Everything already hurt.
When everything hurts, new wounds stop meaning much.
Matt extended the remaining blood toward the bow. Red threads wrapped around the splintered section.
Then pulled.
The bow shot up from the floor into his hand. Matt grabbed it.
The serpent opened its mouth again and Matt ran toward it.
Or rather, he stumbled toward it with enough rage that it looked like a charge.
The bow coated itself in hardened blood.
It wasn't a sword.
It wasn't designed to pierce anything.
But Matt was already too furious to respect the original function of objects.
"Come on, damn it!"
Matt leaped and the serpent struck. His body twisted in the air and he drove the reinforced bow directly into the wound he'd already opened inside its mouth.
CRAAAAACK!
The wood groaned.
The hardened blood shattered.
The bow tore through flesh, inner scales, and something deeper.
The serpent convulsed, but Matt fell along with it.
BOOM!
The massive body hit the floor.
Matt rolled away, leaving a red trail behind him.
The bow was damaged.
One of its lateral sections had snapped. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
But the serpent stopped moving.
Matt breathed with difficulty.
"…Good."
A flying demon descended toward him.
Matt didn't even look.
A single blood droplet went through its eye.
PCHAK!
The body dropped.
Then another.
And another.
Matt used the remaining blood as needles, whips, and small projectiles.
He didn't waste movements.
He couldn't.
Every droplet floating in front of him was a part of his body that was no longer where it was supposed to be.
And yet he had to keep using it.
The flying demons shrieked from above.
Matt brought them down one by one.
CHAK!
CHAK!
CHAK!
His movements grew slower with each one.
His breathing, more ragged.
His destroyed arm barely hung from his shoulder.
The wounds in his abdomen were trying to close, but his regeneration was slow.
Too slow.
And then the floor shook.
Matt opened his eyes.
The first golem was right in front of him. He had been so focused on not wasting blood that he hadn't noticed it approaching.
The stone arm came down.
"Ah, damn."
Matt released part of the floating blood.
Let it fall.
He couldn't hold it.
He used every last bit of strength he had to throw himself backward.
BOOOOOOM!
The blow destroyed the floor. A sharp stone sliced into his leg.
Matt fell on his back.
The blood he'd released spread across the floor, useless.
Matt stared at it with fury.
"That was mine…"
Matt tried to get up, but his legs were shaking too badly.
The second golem closed in from the other side.
Slow.
Heavy.
Inevitable.
Matt breathed once.
Then again.
The world tilted.
For a moment, he felt himself slipping. His mind sinking toward somewhere dark and quiet.
A place with no pain.
No serpents.
No golems.
No miserable caves.
His eyelids drooped.
Then Matt thought of his mother.
He remembered her voice.
He remembered his sister.
He remembered he hadn't even been able to say a proper goodbye.
He hadn't even been able to tell them the truth.
He hadn't even been able to explain why he disappeared the first time.
Matt opened his eyes.
"No."
The golem raised its arm.
Matt drove his fingers into the ground.
"I am not dying here."
His blood responded. The little he could still control dragged itself from the floor toward the broken bow.
Red threads wrapped around the splintered sections.
Tightened.
Reinforced.
Didn't repair it.
Just forced it to keep functioning.
Matt got up with difficulty.
But the golem attacked.
Matt dodged to one side.
The movement was clumsy. Barely enough. The blow passed close. Matt drew the string. The string vibrated and a blood arrow formed between his fingers.
It wasn't large.
But it was compressed with every last drop he had.
Matt aimed at the golem's center.
Fired.
FWOOSH!
The arrow punched through the stone with a flat sound.
CRACK!
The golem stopped.
The runes on its chest flickered.
Matt drew again.
His vision darkened at the edges.
"One more."
He fired.
BOOM!
The golem's core exploded.
The stone creature fell forward.
Matt threw himself to one side and avoided being crushed by very little.
The floor shook beneath him.
One left.
The last golem kept advancing.
Matt breathed through his teeth.
His good arm was shaking and the other was worse.
"Come on then."
The golem raised both arms.
Matt had no strength left to run.
So he waited.
Waited until the last second.
When the arms came down, he moved to the side.
The blow missed.
Matt aimed at the stone neck, where several runes glowed faintly.
He fired a blood arrow.
CRACK!
The golem tilted.
Matt fired another.
CRACK!
The stone head cracked apart. But the body didn't fall right away.
It took one last step.
Matt's eyes went wide.
"No, no, no—"
The golem collapsed on top of him.
Matt tried to move, but his body wouldn't obey. Several chunks of stone fell around him.
One struck his leg.
Another his side.
One more landed on his back and pinned him to the floor.
BOOM!
Matt let out a choked cry.
Then everything went still.
Silence.
…
For several seconds, only his broken breathing could be heard.
Matt lay face down, half-buried under stone fragments.
He couldn't move well.
He didn't know how many bones were broken.
He didn't want to count them either.
Counting broken bones sounded like an activity for people with free time.
He didn't have free time.
He had pain.
A lot of pain.
Then Matt heard something. A distant sound. The door at the far end of the hall was beginning to open.
GRRRRRR!
Matt barely lifted his head. The red light from the next room appeared through the shadows.
For a moment he didn't understand.
Then he laughed.
Weakly.
Hoarsely.
Almost pathetically.
"I made it…"
The laugh hurt.
So he laughed a little more.
"Screw you, cave."
Matt tried to get up, but he couldn't. His legs had nothing left. His body simply refused.
Matt gritted his teeth.
"Come on…"
Nothing.
"Come on…"
Nothing.
His regeneration was still working, but it was slow.
He needed blood.
He needed food.
He needed anything.
Matt turned his head toward the serpent's body.
His expression became miserable.
"No."
His stomach growled. Matt closed his eyes.
"…Yes."
He dragged himself. Centimeter by centimeter. Every movement made something inside him scream.
But he kept going.
Matt reached the massive serpent's body and pressed a trembling hand against its scales. Up close, the skin was even worse.
Hard.
Cold.
Thick.
Matt opened his mouth and sank his fangs in.
TAC!
They didn't go in.
Matt went still. Then pulled his head back slightly.
He looked at the serpent.
"Seriously?"
He tried again.
This time with more force.
His fangs scraped against the scale.
A sharp pain shot up through his jaw.
For a moment it felt like his teeth were going to shatter.
"Ah… perfect."
He pressed harder.
The scale gave just slightly. Then the skin beneath it.
His fangs broke through.
Matt drank. A thick, dark liquid entered his mouth.
His body reacted immediately.
Badly.
Very badly.
Matt pulled away coughing.
"Ugh!"
He felt nauseous. His tongue went numb.
Then his left hand started losing feeling.
Matt looked at his fingers.
They were trembling strangely.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
The serpent's blood was nearly useless. It was too dense and bitter.
And on top of that, it was making him feel worse.
Matt spat on the floor.
Then bit again. Drank a little more.
Almost nothing.
The serpent was mostly muscle, scales, and venom.
There wasn't enough usable blood in it.
Matt pulled away with ragged breathing.
His mouth tasted like rotten metal and wet dirt.
"Even dead, you're a pain."
The serpent didn't respond because it was dead, but that didn't make Matt hate it any less.
Matt turned his head toward the shredded flying demons.
They were small.
Black.
Soft.
Bodies torn apart and wings broken.
Matt felt a part of his soul try to leave his body just to avoid participating in what came next.
"No."
His stomach growled. Matt squeezed his eyes shut.
"…Quiet."
He dragged himself toward the nearest body.
The smell was horrible.
Not like rotting meat.
Worse.
Like someone had mixed burnt blood, crushed insects, and a sewer.
Matt sank his fangs into the soft neck of the demon. The skin gave immediately.
Too easily.
The blood entered his mouth.
Matt went very still.
His face lost all expression.
Then he spat.
"UGH!"
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"What the hell do you things eat?!"
The taste was revolting.
Bitter.
Greasy.
Hot in all the wrong ways.
For a moment, Matt seriously considered slamming his own jaw into the floor just to stop feeling it.
But there was no venom.
No paralysis.
No internal burning.
Just a flavor so disgusting it seemed designed by someone with a personal vendetta against tongues.
Matt looked at the body.
Then at the open door.
Then back at the body.
"…I'm not going to die over having standards."
He drank again.
This time he didn't spit.
Not at first.
Then he did.
A little.
But he kept going.
He drank from one body.
Then another.
And another.
Each time he swallowed, his body recovered a little more.
The wounds in his abdomen began to close.
The destroyed arm stopped bleeding so heavily.
His legs regained some feeling.
It wasn't enough to feel good.
But it was enough to feel alive.
That was plenty.
After a while, Matt stood up with difficulty, swaying, and nearly fell, so he put a hand against the wall.
"I'm…"
He breathed.
"…perfectly fine."
He spat again.
"Perfectly awful."
Matt walked to his bow and picked it up from the floor. The wood was cracked in several places, but the string was still intact, somehow.
Matt looked at it with exhaustion.
"You and me both…"
He moved toward the open door.
He had no intention of going straight in.
Not a chance.
He was going to look.
Just look.
If it was another room full of monsters, he was going to sit down in the doorway and cry.
Matt reached the threshold and looked inside, and what he saw… froze him in place.
The next room was different.
Much smaller.
The walls weren't covered in battle marks or jagged cracks.
There was polished red stone all around, with simple but elegant decorations.
On one side stood several forges.
Tools.
Repair tables.
Weapon racks.
There were even materials arranged neatly on shelves.
On the other side there was a bed.
An actual bed.
Not a flat stone.
A bed.
And in the center of the room there was a fountain.
The water shimmered with a reddish golden light.
The steam rising from it carried a warm smell.
Matt looked at it. Then looked at the flying demon bodies behind him. Then looked at the fountain again.
His face started to crack.
First it was a smile.
Then a laugh.
Then a broken, desperate cackle.
"Ha…"
Matt leaned against the doorway.
"Hahaha…"
The laughter grew louder.
More desperate.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
He'd made it.
The rest room.
The damned rest room.
The fountain could heal wounds.
The fountain could restore his body.
The fountain could have saved him from drinking blood out of a venomous serpent and several demonic bats that tasted like garbage.
This place was complete and utter garbage.
