Struggling for his life

Esdras's thoughts raced, he rolled out of the way of the spear and while still on the ground he kicked it in the knee.

While it lost balance kicked the second knee and climbed over it. He was about to stab it to death when he realized that he lost his sword when he rolled out of the way.

The Troglodyte started struggling and attempted to throw him off, in response he punched it in that reptilian face.

Once, twice, thrice, and then a whole barrage of punches, blood splattered on him and his own hands hurt.

"Ugh!"

Esdras felt two clawed hands dig into his back, he had not felt such pain before but he was overflowing with adrenaline. In anger, he got off of the Troglodyte.

The Troglodyte attempted to regain footing but it was surprised when a boot descended on its head, it flopped back down and another stomp resulted in an egg-cracking-like noise.

[+ 16 EXP]

One more to go. Esdras cut it open with his sword and found a low-health potion, it was a nice catch, and he looked at it in delight.

Abruptly, he felt a chill up his spine.

Esdras moved instinctively, perhaps it was more appropriate to say that his own body moved on its own when a heavy strike landed on his back. It was so brutal he heard his bones breaking.

A Troglodyte had sneaked up on him.

Esdras didn't have the time to comprehend the pain, he rolled out of the way of the second attack.

It was a Troglodyte who had a huge bone club, since he dodged the second attack it landed on the corpse of the Troglodyte he just killed.

Esdras used the time to open the cork of the health potion that was still in his hand and chugged it all in one go.

There was no taste to speak of, it was like drinking water. He could feel his bones realigning and healing at a ridiculous speed.

But that was not his focus, he looked at the three Troglodytes and cursed himself for his carelessness.

While he was celebrating his triumph he let his guard down and was surrounded before he knew it. The three of them closed the three escape routes, the two hallways, and the staircase.

He had to fight.

He calmed himself down and stared down the Troglodytes, then he rushed at the club wielder and slashed, but it was blocked by the huge club.

Esdras jumped in the air dodging the tail swipe, he had already seen this move before.

The Troglodyte was taken back as it moved its legs backward having expected to trip Esdras down. Esdras was aware of the two Troglodytes closing in on him.

He had to get rid of this one or get ganged up on by all three of them. In mid-air, he reached out with his sword around the club since the monster lost balance and stabbed it in the eye.

"Shreeek!"

Esdras landed and with a single motion he cut off the hand holding the club, once again he evaded the tail, by going to the opposite side.

At the same time, this allowed him to dodge the incoming machete. The two Troglodytes joined in the fight finally.

But Esdras didn't respond to any of their attacks he just focused on the almost-dead Troglodyte.

Esdras stabbed it from the side and ducked down, the slash from behind, aimed at him, had struck the Troglodyte instead.

Taking this chance he sidestepped once again and beheaded it at last.

[+16 EXP]

The two Troglodytes were not happy with him, to say the least, they charged at him from both sides forming a pincer attack. Esdras threw dirt in the eyes of the machete wielder and dodged.

It started crying and wildly swinging the machete around, the sword wielder stopped his attack at the last minute before killing his friend, but it was not the same for the other one.

In pain and confusion, it struck its own kind again and Esdras stabbed it from behind, killing it in one blow.

He couldn't help but thank this particular Troglodyte in his heart, it helped him twice.

[+16 EXP]

However, behind the dead Troglodyte, the last one standing released a brown shining light in its claws.

'Shit, it's the skill [Beastial Claw] I have to—'

Unexpectedly the sword stabbed the dead Troglodyte got stuck in a bad time and Esdras couldn't move in time so he was stuck by the claw in the chest.

Esdras crashed into the wall and fell back, dead. Seeing this the Troglodyte started snickering and roaring, it was extremely confident in this attack.

No human can survive it. The only drawback was that it took a little bit of time to use. Now that it was victorious it walked closer to the human corpse.

The human head will serve as a suitable trophy for it. And the flesh, salivating…

However when it was about to cut the head off, something strange happened, it felt a hand grabbing its legs. And with a yank, it slammed into the ground, headfirst.

Esdras choked it from behind and twisted.

[+16 EXP]

Esdras didn't think about anything right now, he was bleeding from a hole in his chest, he opened the last heath potion and chugged it.

Then while his wounds were still healing he grabbed his sword and started looting the dead Troglodytes, he found two more health potions.

Esdras climbed the staircase up and got back in that cell, he used the iron bar to lock it once again and slumped down in exhaustion.

He did more than enough and got his hands on the EXP he needed to advance, he was beaten pretty badly in the last fight but he did well enough since he was still alive.

EXP: 102

He focused his mind on the Unleashed strength level and consumed 60 EXP in one shot. His body started burning and he heard his bones cracking, his muscles contracted and vibrated.

In the end, he could feel his heart beating and a massive change went through him.