"One thousand three hundred nine..."
I muttered as I stood up as quickly as I can. Then, I lowered my stance as I waited for the worms to appear.
After they finished materializing, they immediately lunged toward my position. Seeing the nearest one, I quickly jumped up and stepped on top of its head. Then, after looking around, found a gap between them just enough to pass through.
I used the worm's head as a springboard and shot straight through the gap. As soon as my feet landed, I checked the surrounding worms through my peripheral vision. They would take half a second more before they could react.
Using that time, I quickly jumped toward another worm's back and run up. Just as I was halfway up, another one attacked me from behind. I quickly stopped running, making the worm miss its target. The worm that got smacked was severely injured, the hard skin peeling off from its back.
I quickly punched the soft body of the worm hidden under the tough skin while applying the skill [Tackle] to my fist. The fist landed and blasted the internal organs below the area that got attacked, which by design, was its heart.
The first worm fell casualty from the combination of friendly fire and a last-hit soft-first technique. The chaining of the skill was slowly becoming more fluent after more practice. The technique was something I devised after my 566th death. Since then, I was trying to improve its penetration power.
"Just a little more..."
However, after landing the fist, I was caught in the air by one of the worms and was crushed between its jaws.
"One thousand three hundred ten..."
I immediately appended the count after reviving. At first, I was only counting my deaths with no deeper meaning. However, now, it's the only thing that keeps my sanity intact. Although I became numb to pain, the fear of death isn't something that can go away easily. Even after dying literally thousands of times in different ways, and knowing that I would revive in the end, I still fear death itself.
I tried many ways to leave this mysterious space, but whatever I did, it doesn't end. It's like I am stuck in between an endlessly looping dream, never waking up.
The only way that I guess would lead me out is if I wipe out all of these demon ground worms. However, with my sub-3rd-level power and their 5th-level power, it's almost despairing to even try.
Despite all that, with only leaving this place as my goal, I continued to try all the cards I could play. I even used some knowledge I knew from reading novels and manga. The "soft-fist" technique that I used was one of them. If I remember correctly, the original skill starts with "Eight Trigrams" or something.
Anyways, I continued dying to the worms. Even if I wanted to rest, they wouldn't let me. When I died for the 10,000th time, I commemorated it by diving through a worm's mouth and killing it from the inside.
After the 44,000th death, I was finally able to use the full scope of my skeletal system and dodge even seemingly undodgeable attacks. However, it seems that no matter how flexible I got, or how I skillfully redirect the forces of their attacks, I will still end up injured one way or another.
With the 245,000th death, I finally managed to kill 10 worms in one session. It was a masterful achievement even if I say so myself. Although the whole feat took me 20 hours to complete, it was still a great boost to my hope of leaving this cursed place.
With each succeeding death after that, I slowly increased the number of worms that I kill. After another 100,000 deaths, I finally killed a hundred of them in one go. Rather than killing them, it was much harder to prevent being attacked by others from the back. How I wish I had eyes behind my head too. So after that, I prioritized improving my survival skills.
500,000 deaths later, I was able to finally clear out half of the worms before falling. The reason wasn't due to negligence, but rather the lack of energy. I didn't have enough energy to completely kill off all of them. The next aim is to increase my efficiency.
Then, at last, after the 1,066,792nd death I...
---
I opened my eyes.
Ember and Fang's faces were looming over me. Tears well up the corner of their eyes.
'How many years had it been...' I thought as I felt nostalgic just seeing the two's faces.
I slowly sat up and stared at the two, kneeling by my sides. Infinite emotions welled up from the depths of my soul.
I gently tucked the two of them into my embrace, feeling their nostalgic warmth. The two were surprised by my sudden action. No, they seemed surprised with how they weren't able to see my movements.
Their bodies slowly transitioned from stiffness to returning my hug. We lasted like that, both of them snuggling with me, for quite a while. But then, I suddenly felt pain run through my head.
"Ugh...! It seems like I need to end this quickly..."
I let go of the two and slowly stood up. All around us, the worms were swarming. They keep on incessantly battering the barricades. Although Ember's clones were still holding on, they seem like they would give out soon due to the weight of the worms instead.
"Ember open one side."
I quickly commanded as I finished scanning all the worms using my "eyes." Ember, who heard it quickly shouted in worry.
"No, master! You just got healed by the halo, you don't have any heals left!"
Hearing that, I realized that no time passed in the real world as I spend hundreds of years of equivalent time inside the dark space. I smiled at her and petted her head gently.
"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to me."
I said.
"Leader... Are you...?"
Fang, as if she noticed something, was looking at me with a quizzical gaze. However, whatever it was she realized, I gently shook my head to stop her from speaking further.
When I let go of Ember's head, I turned to one side of the barricade. I cracked my fist and stretched my legs. The bones in my body snapped and creaked as I started warming up. After that, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, calming my mind, and trying to ignore the stinging pain in my head.
I opened my eyes as golden sparks flew.
"Okay... Now!"
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