Things Aren't As Easy As They Seem

Azrael continued watching them as they mutilated Ella's corpse and noticed three things. One, the odd-looking creatures were called grendwalfs according to the name tag that floated on top of their heads. Two, these grendwalfs were level 5 creatures, 4 levels above Azrael with who knows how many more stats and devil-forbid abilities. And finally, three, they didn't seem to be ripping Ella's corpse apart as a means of nutrition. No, in fact, they didn't seem to have 𝘢𝘯𝘺 reason in particular. They spat out the chunks of flesh that they bit off, and only ripped out organs to toss them away.

[And if they're strong enough to rip off whole limbs-] thought Azrael as a Grendwalf ripped off Ella's arm [-then I don't like my odds of killing all of them at once.]

Realizing that it was unlikely he could kill them unless he fought them one on one, he decided to inspect his player stats and abilities.

[Player Stats]

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─────⋅☾ Player Details ☽⋅─────•

[Azrael Hathborn]

[Level 2: 0/100]

[Arcane meter: 105/105]

[Human]

[No debuffs or buffs active]

─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•

[3 Unused points]

[Agility: 5]

[Strength: 5]

[Stamina: 5]

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[Hmm, how do I allocate points?] he wondered, before willing 1 point into each stat. [Guess it works like everything else, just think about it.]

[Ability stats]

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─────⋅☾ Abilities ☽⋅─────

[0 Unused points]

[Sadist's Curse lvl.1]

[Star Gazer lvl.1]

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[Star gazer]

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─────⋅☾ Star Gazer lvl.1 ☽⋅─────

Description: Allows the user to give up their normal vision for star vision. Star vision gives an aerial view of the user's surroundings and allows the user to zoom in and out of target areas. Star vision's radius and zooming magnification depends on [Star Gazer]'s level. Star vision does not work in areas obstructed from the sky, and its radius is reduced during the day.

Cooldown: 0

Arcane cost: 25

Radius of Vision: 5km

Zoom magnification: X1.5

Rarity: Uncommon

Ability Rank: C

Overall Ability Rating: B

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[Interesting, though I think that means I probably can't use it in here, can I?] After activating Star vision and being met with only darkness, he confirmed that his hypothesis was true.

{Hath Argha}

[What's going on?]

The low sound came from the darker edges of the cave where the grendwalfs had emerged from. The grendwalfs stopped what they were doing and stumbled towards the voice, leaving Ella's corpse a pile of uneven mince.

{Argath}

The voice rang out again, this time a single grendwalf wearing a black tattered robe approached the pile of corpses.

{Gath Agum Argahahth} it chanted, its eyes glowing green with power.

[Well, I wanted a one-on-one, now's my chance.] Azrael jumped out, thrusting the glass spear towards the grendwalf's heart... or where he thought its heart might be. For a moment the chanting stopped, before two glowing green eyes peered at Azrael, his spear's tip just barely piercing the grendwalf's robe.

"Noted, normal weapons cannot pierce through grendwalf skin," whispered Azrael, before hastily running towards the back of the human pile.

{Arghaha!} shouted the grendwalf, and from the dark edges of the cave, the grendwalf's came charging towards Azrael.

[I should've known, I should've known. What, did I think that everyone else that died in this cave was an idiot?] thought Azrael.

The grendwalfs came en-masse, several of them bumping into each other in an uncoordinated fashion as charged.

[Hmm, there's still hope.] Azrael noticed that one of the grendwalf's had a huge scar on its left foot, however, there wasn't enough time to think it over as the first grendwalf was already upon him.

*Slice*

The grendwalf swung its arm at Azrael, just barely slicing the skin of his arm. If not for the fact that he jumped out of the way, he probably would've been on the floor, ready to be some grendwalf's chewing toy.

"Back of-" before he could even pick himself off the ground, the next grendwalf came, grabbing him by the leg and flinging him across the room. Azrael's head hit the cave walls, and blood slowly trickled down his face, effectively blinding one of his eyes.

"This is c-" his words ended in a coughing fit, it felt as if he had cracked a rib or two, and when he tried using his arm as a prop to stand, it sent out jolts of blinding pain.

"I don't- *cough*- think I like this kinda pain," Azrael whispered as he used the spear to stand up. The grendwalf had thrown him close to the dark edges of the cave, if anything, these things were more powerful than a bodybuilder on steroids.

The uncoordinated mass seemed confused for a moment before the robed grendwalf shouted something in their jarring language.

{Argha!} it shouted, pointing towards Azrael.

[Okay, so grendwalfs are either blind, stupid, or both. It seems the big guy is the only one I have to worry about, but that doesn't much change my circumstances,] Azrael noted as he watched the horde run towards him.

He tried running, but the moment he moved his leg to escape, he found that his ankles were in too much pain to hold any weight and fell to his knees.

"For fucks sake, everything hurts," he whispered in pain. His options were limited, in fact, at this point they were non-existent. He was going to die, and if these were the type of enemies that the new world had to face, then so would everyone else.

"Stupid glass spear, what I need now is a gun, not some old fashione-" as he was about to angrily toss the spear at the oncoming horde, it began glowing.

[Shining Light activated]

[2 Arcane points are being drained per second] notified the system.

The grendwalf's stopped in their tracks, stumbling over each other in an attempt to get as far away from the light as they could. The robed grendwalf seeing this, began chanting in his language, this time quicker than before.

{Argha, artosh, hathdarum}

Azrael didn't quite like the sound of that, but if it would give him a moment, to catch his breath, then he welcomed it with open arms.

"You guys don't like this, huh. So grendwalfs are blind, stupid, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 afraid of the light. Okay, I'll write that down somewhere," said Azrael, his breathing labored as he approached the horde.

{Argah, arghath} shouted the robed grendwalf, pointing its long boney finger at Azrael in anger. However, whatever it said went unheard, as its subordinates were too scared to even approach him.

"Hey there big guy, what are you up to? Casting a little spell?" asked Azrael, coughing out blood as he said this.

{Argum} snorted the robed grendwalf, putting a stop to its chants before approaching Azrael.

"And you 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 afraid of the light?" asked Azrael, hoping that the answer his would be no.

{Astum!} with that single chant, a bolt of black energy zipped from the robed grendwalf's hands, towards Azrael. Azrael wasn't in any condition to be dodging attacks, much less ones that moved at such speeds. The bolt smashed into his chest, forcing all the wind out of his lungs and sending him flying towards the far end of the room.

[Necrophite debuff applied.]

[Taking damage from all sources of light.]

[-2 stat points from all attributes.]

"You have to be kidding -*cough*- me."