7 Damsel In Distress

"Hahaha! You're so small!" The voice continued to rumble.

Alex just stood ready to attack at any moment, but by now, a few minutes had passed and the man was doing nothing.

"Are you just going to wait for me to die from boredom? I guess you're just all talk." He said in a confident and condescending voice. From the looks of things, it seemed like the man also wasn't fully sure of his powers and was currently trying to intimidate him. But Alex followed on to what he was trying to cause that's what Alex himself was doing.

"HAHAHA! Don't make me laugh, you're just too weak, I don't know if I should crush you with my hands or my feet that's all." The voice replied. This time it felt like the source was closing in.

A few seconds later, Alex could hear the sounds of footsteps. 'Heavy…' Alex said to himself as he heard the footsteps. He was now sure that the person behind the voice would be enormous, just by the sounds of his footsteps.

Slowly, the footsteps got louder and louder until Alex could see a huge figure. The man was at least 7 feet tall, had big bulking muscles. His entire form was intimidating. Alex looked at the top of the man's form. A prompt appeared in front of Alex.

[Human - mind controlled]

[Level - 7]

'Mind Controlled? What? I don't understand. What does mind-controlled mean?' Alex said, slightly confused by the text.

[Mind controlled - Subverting through psychological tactics an individual's control of his or her mind (thinking, behavior, emotions, or decisions)]

'I know that much but I mean by who? What's happening?' Alex felt like choking the system when it explained the meaning of Mind Controlled. But he let his anger fade away. He had bigger problems plus, it was slightly his mistake asking that way.

[Source of Mind Controller is unknown. But mind-controlling abilities are found in two known creatures, Reaper Controller and Magus.]

'Magus? Ah, whatever, I need to first deal with it. From the looks of it, I might need to subdue him…' Alex said to himself as his grip on the dagger tightened. He was ready for a battle.

'He might be 2 levels higher than me but I assume he shouldn't be able to think that much-being mind-controlled so I can probably take advantage of that.' Alex said as he slowly walked towards the figure. He needed to distance the man and the girl behind himself. She was still alive and could be saved after he subdued the man.

'I think I get what's happening here. From Hana's words, it seemed like they brought me here to test me to check if I have a good or bad morality but there must also be one of those beings lurking here who might have come and controlled this man… From the looks of it, they might have planned to test my combat abilities by making me battle him but it seems like the test has turned into the real thing.' Alex processed what was happening as he readied himself in battle,

He knew that there must be people observing him as this was most likely a test but they didn't know what Alex knew, This man was being controlled.

"I guess the only thing that I can do is subdue you!" Alex needed to make the first move.

He rushed towards the man's front, but just before he could attack; the man attacked first.

Alex jumped to the side and went for the man's back. He needed to injure the man to the point of making him immovable. That was his only hope.

However, the reality was different; the man was very quick for his body type.

"Haha! You're too weak! You're too slow! Foolish human!" The man roared as he ran after Alex, punching time and again.

Alex had no choice but to keep running while dodging the man's attacks.

As they played cat and mouse, the man stopped chasing after Alex.

Alex turned to see that the man was eying the girl. As the two were both in the dark, Alex couldn't see the man's face properly but he could see that the man facing towards the light, more specifically, the girl under the light.

"Kekekeke!" The man's voice slowly turned more and more sinister. His previous laughs seemed to be human, but it slowly started to sound like a creature's laugh.

'The control seems to be increasing. The man still seemed to sound somewhat human, but now, its voice sounds like a reaper's voice… Very similar to the ones that I had to come across in the gate. But it seems to have changed its motive and probably just wants to get blood on its hand. This being the easy option.' Alex said as he ran towards the man.

He slightly regretted not continuing to stand in front of the girl to protect her, but it was too late for regrets.

The man had already reached the girl and was just about to attack.

Alex, watching the man's hands flicker in the air, ready to destroy the girl's body, realized that she had to avoid the inevitable to save the girl. 'What if I…' An idea came into Alex's mind, He grabbed the tip of the blade of the dagger and threw it towards the man with all his might? 'I just hope that this works, if not… The girl will die and it will all be my fault.'

It felt like time slowed down, Alex watched as his dagger rotated in midair as the man tried to smash the girl's body with his hands.

*BANG!*

Alex closed his eyes when he heard the sounds of the floor being struck. 'Was… Was I too late?' Alex said as he looked towards the man.

"ARH!" The dagger struck the man. He had struck towards the girl but missed as the knife struck him. The man did attack, but his strike missed the girl by a hair.

[Critical Damage]

Alex looked satisfied by himself when he saw the prompt. He didn't know where he was aiming, but by the looks of the prompt, it must have hit a nerve or something similar to cause critical damage as well as make him miss his attack. At least the girl looks safe. But the battle isn't over yet. I have prevented him from killing her.'

Alex's face lightened up when he saw that the man didn't go after the girl anymore, instead the man turned and looked straight towards Alex.

He couldn't see the man's face, but he knew that the man was enraged. Alex's face darkened when realized what was about to happen. "You come to ruin my plans! I will kill you human, I will kill everyone here after killing you! We will take over!" The man blurted as he ran towards Alex in full might.

His voice as deep as ever, but the way that he spoke seemed to be different from how he spoke before, further proving that the reaper had been growing its control over the man as time continued. At first, it seemed like the man still had some thought left in his mind, but now, it looked like the man became a complete puppet of the reaper.

'Preventing him from killing the girl was a good idea, he won't go for her but looking at his figure from here, I can already understand that he is mad, very mad at me. This… This might have been a mistake from me. I NEED TO RUN!' Alex said as he looked towards the big hunk of a man who had already started to charge after him in full force! His speed was even faster than before.

Alex, now terrified by the man running towards him, ran away from the man as fast as his feet could take him. As he ran, a familiar voice entered his mind.

[Achievement earned Damsel in distress]

'What?! Not now! I need to get away from this man. He will kill me if I get distracted from a damn achievement for doing a task that I don't even know!' Alex was annoyed by the systems' timing. It seemed like the system's notifications were timed just so it could annoy him.

But a sudden thought came into his head, 'What's my reward?!' Alex said to himself.

[Reward: Might. Increased strength and Speed for an amount of time. Uses: infinite. Cool-down: None. Mana usage: 20]

Alex felt delighted when he read the reward. His previous annoyance on the system dissipated instantly.

Alex quickly tapped on the user icon under the Might Ability.

As soon as he did so, Alex felt a surge of strength in his body, similar to when he leveled up. He also realized that his speed was slightly quicker than that of the man. 'I MIGHT HAVE A CHANCE NOW!' Alex said as he turned towards the man who was chasing him, a smile on his face.