I recommend listening to this while reading this chapter and the next one too. https://youtu.be/Y41Qlu6W0Oo
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That's right Aldrich fought and lost in the second floor's hallway quite a few times, he also killed a few husks up there. The hallway should be stuffed with corpses right now.
Yet when he returned to challenge the armored husk yesterday the hallway was clear, not a single body to be found, even today, he should find at least three of his bodies there.
But there was only the equipment that he wore on him those times. But no bodies. That didn't make any sense.
Maybe the armored husk ate them, thats right husks do hunger for flesh, but could it have eaten that much in that short amount of time? Perhaps, after all it was monster what couldn't it do?
And yet…
And yet, why were his equipment left there in the exact same spot where he had died? What about the blood?
Some dried blood should have remained on the husk's armor right? Forget about that, there should be a significant amount of blood in that hallway, it couldn't have dried that fast.
But the second floor looked clean with not a smudge to be seen.
Huh, that was creepy, not just the normal amount of creepy that was already expected of the nightmare realm, but even more so, if that was even possible.
Aldrich was surprised but not spooked, he had encountered his fair share of creepy things so he just took it in stride.
Of course he still needed to know exactly what was happening and if it was happening in the base alone or it was happening in the entire nightmare town. This distinction was extremely important.
The days passed by and Aldrich continued to challenge the armored husk twice a day. On the fifth day of what would be his ninth challenge, he knew he was going to win today.
Aldrich looked at the completely decimated second floor and smiled warily, when he and the armored husk clashed several times here, the walls and furniture became an absolute mess of unrecognizable sheets, cotton and rubble.
He could no longer use the walls to his advantage but he no longer needed to. When the armored husk used his diagonal slash he used Grass Cutter Stance meant to attack from beneath, targeting an opponent's legs.
It was not the most effective strategy when fighting against the Turtle guard stance but when used at the right opening it was extremely effective.
With well practiced moves he evaded the husk's retaliatory attacks, when you knew your opponents moves and patterns like you knew your own name, the other factors no longer mattered.
Indeed he managed to break the husk's kneecap with a mighty strike and the husk fell kneeling. At the moment that Aldrich was going to finish it off its eyes glowed red for a moment.
Aldrich immediately stopped mid-action and backed away, he was sweating bullets. If he fell to the stamina drain skill then this attempt would be over.
But after he made the two meter distance between him and his fallen foe he grinned.
The stamina drain skill was overpowered, it was not an exaggeration to say that it wasn't fair to the point of making an undying man like Aldrich feel desperate. But it was not absolute.
After experiencing this skill more than ten times he had figured it out, first the obvious sign of the activation of the skill, the glowing eyes. Second that the skill had an effective radius of two meters around the the armored husk.
Third the armored husk couldn't just spam it endlessly, it definitely consumed some sort of energy and the limit of the armored husk was three times a day.
In attempt number eight Aldrich almost successfully killed the husk after it exhausted its energy in the previous attempt.
Finally in order to curb its high speed movement skill he had destroyed the plate armor slowly and now he managed to cripple it once and for all.
With limited movement and weakened defenses the husk was a lamb to the slaughter. Still the armored husk was an extremely skilled swordsman and it managed to cleverly dodge and block any fatal injuries for a while.
Finally Aldrich got it to use its last skill for the day as he watched the husk's eyes glow red for the last time Aldrich kept his cool, backed away and waited for it to end so that he could decapitate it once and for all.
However, life was an experience of one unexpected turn after another.
The husk's eyes continued to glow and the armored husk that was silent until now suddenly roared and green blood splattered over the floor.
It had used its sword to sever its own leg from above it's broken kneecap. There was no hesitation, no second thoughts only unwavering blood-thirst and brutality.
It's black charred skin that all husks possessed started glow red and an unpleasant heat wafted in the area. Aldrich wanted to rush in and stop whatever was happening now.
But he could still feel the stamina drain skill being active if he rushed in to the area of effect it would be over. But he couldn't just sit and wait it out either.
Think. Think.
His mind quickly spun and he jumped to the side and grabbed some of the swords that were left behind in his previous attempts. He then launched them one by one at the husk.
But the husk wasn't helpless it used its own sword to deflect away the oncoming swords, only two of the swords he threw managed to hurt the husk and that was only barely.
It seems like it was surrounded by a repulsive air at the moment that protected its body, that air suddenly exploded outward.
Aldrich felt the husk's momentum soar despite losing a leg, despite being on the verge of death. He had to crawl away from the air blast and he breathed in the dust and dirt that covered the now silent battleground.
Cough! Cough!
He had no idea what was happening anymore, one moment he was about to win and the next he was crawling on the ground. Aldrich looked at the source of the air blast and gritted his teeth.
He was still alive, no matter what he sure as hell wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Before the dust could settle the armored husk emerged and lunged at him with unparalleled ferocity and power. It rested its weight on it's remaining knee and the stump of it's remaining leg. It didn't seem to care about the pain in the least.
Worse still. He took a good look at it, it had grown larger as a whole now it looked lager than two meters, its now red skin had somehow fused with its plate armor into a sickening amalgamation of the two.
Aldrich didn't have time to dodge, he had to take the hit. The Turtle Guard Stance was meant to be the foil to every other stance, save for the Guard Breaker.
It was meant to be unshakable, unassailable—at the cost, of course, of mobility and offensive capacity. But then what was the point of attacking if your enemy was running straight into your blade?
He remembered how Gazeff did it, he was like a mountain. Aldrich hoped to do the same at this very moment.
*CRASH*
The two swords met and the resulting impact created a an air wave that made all the dust in the air surround the two in the middle for a single moment. As if time came to a stand still.
In the next moment everything moved again as if the spell broke and the armored husk bypassed Aldrich and slammed into the wall at the end of the hallway.
If the rooms hadn't been broken down, this would be the room that imprisoned the husk in the past. Before Aldrich came by and freed it.
Aldrich wasn't much better off as he coughed blood into the ground and held his chest in a grimace.
Naturally after looking at the new size of the husk Aldrich wasn't sure that he could win in a contest of pure strength so he made a little adjustment in the end.
He employed the Force Redirection properties of the hand to hand combat that Gazeff taught him, the Bone Crushing Art.
In combination with the Turtle Guard stance and at the moment when the impact was at its strongest he was able to use the husk's own power against it.
He had never done that before, mixing hand to hand and sword stances. He didn't even realize what he was doing at the moment he just did what seemed right.
Gazeff didn't teach him that nor did he see Gazeff do anything similar.
*Roar!*
Aldrich didn't have the time to pat himself on the back the fight wasn't over yet. He remembered what just happened and looked at his left hand it was shaking while holding the sword.
The monster was now twice as fast, it wasn't as fast as when it used the high speed movement skill but now it wasn't just fast in short bursts but it could maintain a great speed for a longer period of time.
He could not afford to be passive anymore, if he allowed the husk to attack and be on the offensive then he would surely lose. That was unacceptable.
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