Run

As Damien bolted, heart pounding, the skeleton behind him began to shift but as it stood up it shattered but it didn't take even a second for it to reform.

Damien frowned as he spared a glance over his shoulder, as he felt the intensity at which his instinct was ringing reduce ever so slightly. 

Damien took short glances behind with stopping to confirm his feeling. He saw the skeleton lurch forward, but the movement was jerky, disjointed—its body falling apart as it moved. Its arms dropped, fingers crumbling to dust, only for the bones to snap back into place with a sickening click.

Each step it took sent more bones tumbling, but just as quickly, they reassembled, a cycle of falling and rebuilding which helped Damien confirm that the strength of the bone was reducing every time it shattered and reformed. 

"Just keep falling apart," Damien muttered to himself, his pulse racing. But the creature wasn't giving up, and despite its fragile state, it was gaining on him.

He couldn't tell what was wrong but he felt like something was trying to take the power of the skeleton and was slowly succeeding but he knew it won't win any time soon so he put all of his focus into running.

He burst through the narrow corridor leading out of the chamber, the skeleton's relentless clattering close behind.

Damien's mana was reducing very fast, but he pushed himself harder, focusing on his breathing as he vaulted over debris and slid under a collapsing archway.

The creature followed, its bony hand reaching out just as the doorway crumbled behind Damien, sealing the exit.

The loud crash echoed through the tunnels, but Damien kept running, not daring to slow down or look back.

His chest heaved, sweat dripping down his face, and his legs screamed in protest, and as he thought to stop and take a rest he had a loud bang behind him.

Damien took a glance at his mana and stamina.

_______

[Stamina: 365/500] 

[Mana: 678/1000]

_______

Seeing the result he sighed as he thought, 'I haven't even been running for up to ten minutes'

He Immediately pumped more mana into his body augmentation but the next notification that popped up shocked him.

[Ding: Your body is suffering strain from excess mana, you will lose health depending on the quantity of excessive mana forced thorough the mana veins]

[Ding: CAUTION prolong use of this state would cause irreversible damage to mana vein and even mana core] 

[Ding: you have lost 10 HP] 

Damien sighed, he was happy that the time he spent in the vault caused his mana, stamina and health to recover.

*CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK*

The skeleton was definitely getting closer. Damien frowned as he thought, 'I am still to far from the outer part of the city... wait how do I even know where I am going.'

Honestly since the time he started running he had been purely following his instinct and he felt a little too sure about where he was going.

'Oh yes the space affinity I can feel where I was teleported from but still it a little to far... hmmm space should i try leading it to one of the space cracks... no no that too dangerous I can barely feel them as it is no trying to play with one is nothing but death wish.'

Damien frowned as he was running out off options, 'Should I try to fight it.' He thought as he took a glance back at the skeleton, the skeleton was close enough for him to use Appraisal on it but the result changed Damien's mind.

[???]

'Shit I am not fighting that, what do I eve...' Damien instinct screamed and he didn't even waste a second jumping out of the way of the backhand slap of the Skeleton.

Even then Damien was thrown far ahead and an alarming notification popped up.

[Ding: You have lost 100 HP]

Damien's eyes widen in shock as he saw the damage he took, 'I swear it didn't even touch me, that was just the force generated by it hand.' Damien immediately jumped to his feet and what he saw made him realise how bad his situation was.

The skeleton was almost completely crumbled with only the hand left which had several cracks on it and it soon crumbled before it body began to reform again.

Damien immediately turn and continued running ignoring the pain he was feeling as well as the occasional loss of health.

'The is no way I would win against that thing if it attacks touches me once, it was already crumbling and didn't use mana yet the force generated from the skeleton took one fifth of his health points.' 

*CLACK CLACK CLACK CLACK*

Damien heart squeezed as he heard the skeleton getting closer and closer to him.

That backhand had sent him closer to his goal and now is was just a couple hundred metre from the outer part of the city.

He suicidal thought suddenly came to Damien's mind and he began to look around a he soon found what he was looking for and immediately moved towards it. 'I have to time it correctly hopefully it works.' Damien thought as he put the plan into action.

'Put 50 points into health and mana'

_______

[Health: 785/1000]

[Stamina: 165/500] 

[Mana: 645/1500]

_______

Seeing the stat increase Damien reduce his speed but made sure he would reach his destination before the reaches him, once the gap was closed and the skeleton tried to hit him, he immediately jumped behind the wall and summoned one of the rank 3 shield from his storage and he pumped all his mana into his two active skills, body augmentation and enhance weapon. 

[Ding: Your body is suffering strain from use of excess mana]

[Ding: you will loss 10 HP/SEC you stay in this state and irreversible damage will be done to you mana veins in 10secs]

Damien smiled, 'I wouldn't need that long if this goes as planed.' The was a reason he chose this shield out of all that was with him.

******* 

[Name: Iron Ward] 

[Item Type: Shield] 

[Grade: Epic] 

[Rank: 3]

[Effects]

- Increase defence by 35%

- 25% chance to reflect 20% of damage taken back to the attacker

- 15% chance to block incoming magic attacks

- Absorbs 10% of all physical damage and converts it into mana (Mana Regen: 5 per second for 10 seconds)

[Active Skills]

- [Aegis Barrier]: Summon an impenetrable barrier for 5 seconds that absorbs 100% of all damage (Cooldown: 10 minutes, Mana Cost: 200)

- [Force Rebound]: Releases stored energy to deal 200% of the absorbed damage to all everything in the direction it is pointed (Cooldown: 7 minutes, Mana Cost: 150)

*******

The skeleton hand broke through the wall and smashed against the shield as Damien activated the shield's first skill.

But even with the force reduced by the wall and shield Damien still took a massive damage.

[Ding: You have lost 500 HP]

Even with that Damien didn't hesitate to activate the shield's second skill.

*BOOOOOOOM* 

The skill 'Force rebound' activated and immediately it did, Damien released the shield as it exploded blasting Damien out of the inner zone to safety.

As Damien smashed on the ground the received another notification.

[Ding: You have lost 100 HP]

Damien groaned, 'Thankfully the shield protected it user from the energy it released unless I would be dead.' he thought as he immediately stopped using his Body augmentation and checked his stat.

_______

[Name: Damien Morningstar]

[Race: Human]

[State: Awakened]

[Rank: 0]

[Level: 51 (400/5100)]

[Title: N/A]

[Free Attribute Point: 0] 

[Health: 170/1000] 

[Stamina: 94/500]

[Mana: 56/1500]

[Strength: 47]

[Agility: 70]

[Vitality: 100]

[Intelligence: 150]

[Innate Soul Ability: Adapt]

[Passive Skills]

[Active Skills]

_______

'I didn't receive any notification or exp meaning that thing is still alive.'