The Anger Within

John knew that the boss had the advantage when it came to distance. With the energy attack it could send, he knew that just one hit from that would end him. With that in mind, that meant there was only one line of action he could take.

He shrugged off the pain in his abdomen and sprinted towards the shogun. As he did, the boss monster kept its katana ready, and held its stance. The Gamer rapidly closed the distance between them. But right before he entered its range, he lunged into a slide over the dirt. He slashed the side of the boss’s leg as he slid past it.

21 dmg

Before he came to a full stop, John pivoted and immediately went back in for a follow-up attack. As the Gamer went on the offensive again, the Shogun’s blade met his strike. Its katana and his scythe pushed against each other. But as he struggled against the boss’s strength, he watched as its weapon began to glow with blue light. John’s eyes widened as he barely reacted in time and let go of his weapon. As he ducked out of the way, a slash of the blue energy flew past where his neck had just been.

His scythe, however, was not so lucky. Cut clean into two, it disintegrated before the pieces could touch the ground. But he had no time to ponder that or how close he had come to ****. John swiftly recast Soul Weapon and swung at the side of the Shogun’s torso. The boss once again met his blade with its own, but this time, could not fully stop his strike.

The samurai’s katana hit his scythe’s handle. However, with the leftover momentum of his swing, John twisted his weapon so the edge of its curved blade stabbed into the boss’s back. With a roar, the Shogun grabbed his shoulder and tossed him to the side. He let out a grunt of pain as he hit the ground.

22 dmg
-9 HP

As he stood back up, he looked to see the Shogun’s blade glow with blue power once more. But this time, crackles of blue energy surrounded the katana. His senses screamed at him to get away, that what was to come would make the previous slash look like nothing. He could hear his pulse in his ears as every survival instinct of his kicked in. To run, to flee, to do anything to avoid this definitely fatal attack. For him, time seemed to slow down to a crawl.

John gritted his teeth and tightened his grip around his weapon. The quick, fearful beats of his heart seemed too loud for him to even be able to think. Every inch of skin across his body itched as Gamer’s Body steadily healed his wounds. But the blood loss had already taken its toll as everything within his sight was blurry and became doubled. However, under the surface feelings of fear and uncertainty, a different emotion boiled up.

As he clenched his teeth even harder, the Gamer felt a tooth crack. But at this point, he didn’t care. His chest burned as though a fire had been lit inside it. The demonic taint within his soul, trapped under John’s flesh, pulsed throughout his body. His frantic heartbeat became a different rhythm, one so loud that even the Shogun could hear it. The furious beats were akin to the drums of war.

John let out an inhuman roar and charged at his enemy with reckless abandon. He swung his weapon at the target of his fury. And even with the bright blue katana in front of him, his vision began to fill with red…

Some time later

The Gamer found himself face down against the dirt. Every muscle in his body hurt from soreness. He tried to remember what had happened, but couldn’t piece together anything concrete past that moment of rage. Just blurs of his fight against the Shogun. He tried to push himself to stand, but struggled to even sit up.

As he tried to get his head straight, he looked down. His clothing was completely torn and ruined. Most of what was left was covered in a mixture of grass, mud, and blood. He quickly opened his character sheet and was alarmed by what he saw. His mana was basically drained, but more importantly, his health was dangerously low. It was at a mere twelve, so any decent hit would have been enough to kill him. As he looked at his sheet some more, though, he saw a new ability in his Passives.

“What the fuck happened?” he couldn’t help but ask himself. He dismissed his sheet and looked at the column of notifications that waited to the side. Chances were, he would find his answer there. He focused on them and began to look.

Hysterical Strength has been replaced with Demonic Rage:
Both adrenaline and fury pump through the Gamer, pushing his body into and beyond its maximum physical potential.
Strength and Agility have been increased by 75%. Also, while in this state, the Gamer ignores 10% of all physical damage.
This ability has been added to the Gamer’s Passives, as a togglable effect. However, it will also automatically activate if the Gamer’s HP drops below 40%.

After John read that, he scrolled through the numerous notifications of damage he took from and dealt to the boss. Past those, he got to what he really wanted: the rewards for the boss fight.

+150 exp
+$1000
New common item acquired:
Grass Pods
Loot has been automatically transferred to your inventory.

He would look at the new item’s description in just a moment. Because there was just one last notification to go.

Duplicate item drop has been added to your inventory.

With that, John dismissed every pop-up and looked at the Grass Pods.

Grass Pods (8)
Rarity: Common
Creator: Gaia
These pods are infused with magic and are highly adaptive. They will develop into reflections of whatever kind of environment they are grown in.

There was only one instance of the item in his inventory, which meant that they had already combined with the duplicate. However, as he opened his character screen to return them, he noticed something was off. His current experience wasn’t the amount it was supposed to be. He redid the math in his head just to be sure.

’Gaia, what the Hell? I know that’s not what it’s supposed to be. With the boss and achievement just now, it’s supposed to be at 1155, not 1305. But it’s off by 150 experience, so what happened? I don’t want to complain about free experience, but where did it even come from?’ John asked. A few seconds of nothing passed by.

Uhhhh, hold on, just- just give me a second.
…
…
Alright, listen. I got a lot of stuff going on up here, running all of creation and all. So it was probably one of my assistants or unpaid interns that screwed up, or something. Sooooo, yeah, that’s that. You know what, here, just to compensate you for the confusion because I’m such a nice goddess and all.

+75 exp

’Okay?’ John massaged his temples. He unequipped his destroyed clothing and equipped a fresh set from his inventory. His hair and visible skin probably still looked dirty and awful, but at least it wouldn’t immediately draw a neighbor's concern. He exited the Barrier, and took out his phone as he walked to his home.

Same as the last time he checked, there was still nothing from Blair. It had almost been an hour since he initiated the samurai’s Barrier. So at this point, if she didn’t respond, he might not hear from her at all until tomorrow morning.

He stopped at the front door of his house. As for his mom, however, she was more than likely home by now. The only reason she wouldn’t be was if work had greatly delayed her. Just in case, John sent her a text that said he would soon be home, and asked if she was there already.

’I don’t want her to see me like this,’ he thought to himself. If she was already there, he would have to either figure out a way to get himself cleaned up or think of a plausible excuse for why he looked like such a mess. But as he sat by the door and waited, a familiar voice suddenly rang out inside his mind.

“Mr. Newman, there is an important matter you are needed for. As of this moment, what are you doing?” the voice of his teacher, Victoria Wentworth, asked.

’I’m just waiting in front of my house, Miss Wentworth. What do you need me for?’

“It will be simpler to explain once you arrive. As what you are doing is not urgent, I will bring you here immediately.”

As she completed that statement, John became sick to his stomach and was hit with a wave of vertigo. His vision blurred and he felt like he was about to vomit at any second. But luckily, he was able to keep it in, for just moments later, he was in the private office of his impatient teacher.