Situation

The imp flew straight at him; its claws glowed as they were filled with heat. As it took a swipe at John’s neck, he barely managed to react, causing its hook-like claws to tear through his left shoulder instead. John screamed from the immense pain of his flesh being ripped apart and the wounds being cauterized at the same time.

-10 HP
28/45 HP

“Fuuuuuuuck!” he screamed out as the shock caused him to stumble and fall to the ground. He looked up and expected to see the imp come to finish him off. Instead, he watched as it licked its lips and cackled.

“Sick fuck, it’s actually enjoying this!” he yelled as Gamer’s Body cleared the pain from his mind and the burns from his body. His mind now able to think straight again, all of John’s brain cells worked at full speed to attempt to form a **** plan for survival. His heart and lung felt like they would explode as they kicked themselves into overdrive.

New status effect acquired:
Hysterical Strength:
Adrenaline pumps through the Gamer’s body, pushing his body into its maximum physical potential.’
Strength and Agility have been increased by 50%.
30 seconds until the effect wears off.

John desperately stumbled back up, a basic plan now formed in his mind.

The bus, there’s a fire axe in the glass case at the back. I just need to get to the fire axe.

The bus was about 10 meters from his current position. With his now increased speed, he sprinted towards it and reached the bus in about 2 seconds. The imp slowly followed behind him, as it saw John as nothing more then easy prey for it to enjoy playing with and slowly kill.

John reached the back of the bus; he saw the emergency glass case that he had seen over the dozens of times he had sat in the back. Since he didn’t know how to safely break it, he ground his teeth in preparation, pulled back his fist, and swung as hard as he could against the glass.

-2 HP

John grimaced from the pain, dozens of glass shards now sticking out of his hand, wrist, and lower forearm. He grabbed the fire axe within the case and pulled it out.

Fire Axe auto equipped

15 seconds remaining until the status effect ends.

The imp had just entered through the front of the bus; the first thing it saw was the metal axe as it swung towards its body.

Critical hit! Vital organ pierced!
18 dmg

The imp recoiled from the blow, as its boiling blood sprayed from its chest and directly onto John’s arm.

-7 HP
Warning! You have fallen below 50% total HP.

The unexpected pain caused John to lose his grip on the axe and let it fall to the floor.

9 seconds remaining until the status effect ends.

Fuck it! John mentally screamed as he swung his shard covered fist directly into the wound he had just created.

Critical hit! Vital area pierced!
Critical hit! Vital area pierced!
11 dmg
9 dmg

-5 HP
14/45 HP

They both began to fall back from the pain. John landed almost directly on top of the imp.

7 seconds remaining until the status effect ends.

John was now ****, weaponless, and nearly out of time. With no other options, he started to pummel the imp with his bare hands, his full body weight behind every wild slam of his fists as they smashed into the imp’s face.

4 dmg
4 dmg
7 dmg

As he pummeled into the imp, it began a **** **** of its own. It bit and clawed at John; each of its own strikes were shallow as John had the reach advantage. Both of them were now trying to kill the other as fast as physically possible.

4 dmg
-2 HP
7 dmg
-4 HP
5 dmg
-6 HP

The status effect has now ended. Stats have returned to their previous values.
2/45 HP

John finally stopped swinging; he could feel the extra energy disappear from his body. He looked down; the imp itself was no longer moving, instead it laid on the floor bloodied and barely at the edge of life.

Suddenly, the imp began to speak. However, it spoke not in English, but in some unknown gibberish instead.

“N'bb ill oep nj rlbb, bnhhbl rpamj!” said the demon. However, to John this threat was nothing more then gibberish.

Then, the imp’s body began to glow, the sweat and blood on John’s skin instantly started to vaporize. With a weak grin, the imp’s body expanded. Its abdomen swelled and cracked open, rays of light shot out from the cracks.

At the very last second, John realized what was about to happen.

“Fu-”

Kaboom!

+30 xp

John opened his eyes and slowly got up. He immediately realised that he was somehow still alive and not killed by the explosion. Instead, the explosion had thrown him out of the bus and straight into the dirt.

“How did I live through that explosion?” he asked aloud to no one in particular.

“What the?” John mumbled aloud, as he opened up his character sheet to see the new changes.

"Well then, this is just… demonic looking. Kinda cool actually, if I do say so myself," he mumbled as he looked at the new feature that caught his eye.

“Demonic Points, huh? Let's see what you're all about,” he said as he was about to press on the small question mark next to it. However, before he did, the charred corpse of the imp that had attacked him caught his eye.

Flashbacks of his entire encounter with the imp raced through his mind all at once. The full realization of how close he had gotten to **** hit him like a truck. The gashes into his shoulder, the burns on his body, the shards of glass in his arm, and the explosion at the end. All of these memories tore through his mind like a chainsaw going through butter; they made his insides feel like sludge and the world seemed to spin around him.

He clutched his stomach, collapsed onto his knees, and threw up all of last night’s dinner. He did so for several minutes, a new batch of vomit coming up as soon as the last one finished. After he finally ran out of things to vomit up, he curled up in a ball and felt like he couldn’t breathe as he took long, ragged gasps of air.

He spent the next half hour like that, barely able to breathe as his mind desperately tried to repress the trauma it had gone through. Finally, John seemed to calm down enough to move a little. He slowly got up as he convinced himself to calm down.

You’re not dead, you’re not dead, you’re not dead, he repeated to himself internally, a mantra that he used to take back control over his mental state.

He wiped the tears from his eyes, and looked back at the character sheet that had waited for him this entire time. John pressed on the question mark to see more information on Demonic Points.

Demonic Points:
A figure to show how much demonic energy the Gamer has absorbed into his body. Also shows how many points he has spent, how many he has available, and how far along the progression to the next point is.

After he closed the information box, another notification popped up in front of him

Would like to spend your demonic point(s)?
1 available
Yes/No

John immediately hit yes, ready to accept any way for him to become stronger. John could see an entire skill tree pop in front of him; however, only the first option was available and the rest above it was blurred out.

"Ah, I think I get it. The more I unlock, the more I’ll be able to see. At least, I think that’s how this’ll work anyway."

He pressed on the only choice that was currently available to him.

New skill acquired!
Soul Weapon:
A weapon formed out of mana, a manifestation of the caster’s soul. The type of weapon is dependent on the state of the caster’s soul when the spell is first cast. The weapon’s size, length, attributes, and other features may be changed at higher levels.
Conjuring cost = 20MP
Upkeep cost = 0.5 MP per second
Damage = 5 + (Int x 0.30) + (Str x 0.70)
John looked at his current mana; right now he was completely full at 60/60 MP.

"Its shape is based on the current state of my soul, huh? I feel mostly calmed down now, so it should be fine. Now then, let’s see if I know how to even cast the thing," he said.

Previously when John had casted Observe, he had done it through his willpower. So he stretched out his hand and imagined a weapon appearing within his grip as he also called out the skill inside his mind.

Eyes closed, John felt a sudden weight appear in his hand’s grip. He opened his eyes and saw that he held a red, slightly translucent double sided scythe. The twin metal blades were back to back of one another, and had a slight downward curve to them, not as **** as some fantasy scythes, but definitely noticeable.

The blades seemed to almost twinkle from the reflection of sunlight, made from some other worldly material that seemed like metal but at the same time almost looked fluid. He twirled the scythe around himself, surprised by how it felt like it both had mass and seemed weightless at the same time.

As he let the scythe disappear in order to conserve as much mana as possible, a sudden realization hit John.

Wait, the system said I got pulled into a trap barrier. So, how do I escape? he thought as a new source of panic flooded his mind.