Chapter 15 Battle Against A Level 3 Stone Ogre! [1]

• ***
• {CRITICAL HIT!}
• {Your enemy used a skill on you: Might Punch!]
• {You have received +2.2 damage!}
• {HP: 0.3/3}
• ***
• Clinton was rattled to the very depths of his being.
• ‘0.3 HP remaining?!!!’
• ‘What the f*ck!’
• Clinton abandoned his weapons, running for his life without shame but even this was not enough as his enemy went in pursuit.
• The Stone Ogre was adamant in taking his life.
• “F*cking Christ!” Clinton cursed.
• “I swear I’m going to kill you!”
• Despite his words of bravado at this moment though, Clinton felt like his heart was right in his throat if he had one, beating rapidly in crazy rhythms.
• At this moment, Clinton felt the threat of death again vividly just like he felt during his first encounter after reincarnating into this world against the Holy Knights. He felt like a pig on the slaughterhouse before the Butcher.
• And at this moment, the Stone Ogre was the Butcher.
• Thud! Thud! Thud!
• The Stone Ogre pursued relentlessly.
• And for a moment, Clinton finally started regretting past decisions that he took while assigning his free attribute points.
• Perhaps, if he assigned some to his speed attribute, he would not be so helpless at this moment because despite the fact that he was on a race against a Stone Ogre almost twice as tall as he was, he was still flipping losing ground!
• “What in the flippin hell!” Clinton felt like he was going crazy.
• “When did the King of the court become so slow?!”
• At this moment, he wanted nothing more than some quiet despite the pursuit so that he won’t attract the attention of more monsters in this decaying forest but he was not mentally stable enough to stay silent.
• Clinton was on the verge of panic already but luckily for him, he had just the passive skill to combat heightened emotions.
• Once his passive skill, Calma set in, Clinton finally calmed down.
• And with calm, his brain or whatever substituted for it in his skeleton body finally started working on overdrive to arrive at a plan to save his life.
• Of course, the first thing that Clinton thought of was his HP regeneration.
• But once he thought of it and remembered, he grimaced.
• His skeleton body’s natural HP regeneration was limited to regenerating +0.1 HP every 15 minutes, every 15 flippin minutes!
• How on earth was that useful in his situation?!
• Clinton managed to still stay calm.
• Trying to outrun the Stone Ogre was out of the question, it was faster than him, and this also ruled out trying to evade and lose it.
• He could only lose the Stone Ogre if his speed was higher even if it was by a tiny margin but unfortunately, it was the opposite.
• Trying to use the fire strategy that he used on Undead Trees would also not work on this monster. Who knew if the fire would simply quench after coming into contact with its thick flesh since it had no foundation to kindle its flames?
• Clinton thought of so many scenarios at this moment but none of them was viable and in the end, he had to come back to the one idea that he dreaded of thinking about since.
• ‘I have to fight’. He thought; Clinton felt like he was just subjected to the death sentence by a judge.
• With 0.3 HP remaining of his original 3 HP, to survive, Clinton just discovered that he had no choice but to fight against this Stone Ogre.
• Clinton didn’t think about it much though despite his feeling of indignance. This was because he knew that every other idea guaranteed death, fighting was the only idea where even if it was an illusion, his life was back in his hands.
• At least by fighting, he was taking hold of his life as the captain.
• It was the only idea that gave him a chance of surviving and was why at this moment, he grasped at it tightly.
• Of course, the idea of running into another Ogre or a pack of Green Goblins crossed his head but having noticed a pattern of this decaying forest already, Clinton had no doubts that with a foreigner like him here, they would attack him and kill him first before settling their feud.
• This was why left with no choice, he had to settle for fighting the Stone Ogre.
• He had only two thoughts about this idea though. ‘Why is my life so miserable?’
• ‘Is this karma for living such a fortunate and profligate past life?’
• Clinton sighed but without wasting a moment further, the skeleton took a sharp turn after running past another decaying tree the next moment as he started charging in the direction of his hideout.
• The Stone Ogre who remained snarling angrily followed its prey, its thick legs eating yards of space with no remorse.
• A minute of this race later, Clinton finally saw his hideout.
• Right ahead of the decaying tree whose roots he made his hideout, there was a slight mound of sand. Under this mound of sand was where his weapons were hidden.
• By now, the distance between him and the Stone Ogre was closer than ever before as the monster abused its superior speed.
• Whoosh!
• At some point, it finally swung one of its giant blue arms to attack but reacting fast enough, Clinton ducked to dodge the deadly attack that would have definitely taken his life.
• At this point, he no longer had any margin for error.
• Any casual attack from the Stone Ogre was capable of wiping off his remaining 0.3 health points.
• To survive today, Clinton needed to be perfect in the resulting battle.
• He needed to kill the Stone Ogre without letting it touch him once.
• This was Clinton’s hardest task in both of his lives by far.
• Not even when he represented Landmark Academy in the nationals in his previous life, going toe to toe against professional track racers did he feel like he had such a hard task like a literal mountain to climb.
• At this moment, to Clinton, it was do or die and nothing else.
• Clinton didn’t just duck though, he ducked and used the opportunity to slide forward, pushing his right skeleton hand into the sand mound in the process.
• Clinton felt a wooden touch the next moment, and then he pulled.
• Without turning round with his skeleton back still facing the ground, as soon as he pulled the Wooden Spear, Clinton stabbed backward with it.
• This time, the Wooden Spear struck the Ogre’s blue bloated belly.
• CREAK!
• And instead of the loud collision like that of clashing metals that resounded when he attacked the Ogre’s chest previously, this time, amid the grating sounds was the sound of something sharp stabbing into flesh.
• This was not necessarily because the Stone Ogre’s belly was less thick than its chest, rather it was because of something else.
• …sharpness!
• Clinton finally felt the effectiveness of the imbued skills of his crafted weapons for the first time.
• The Wooden Spear that he picked was one of those imbued with the sharpness passive skill and at this moment, its tip stabbed with incredible sharpness, drawing dark blue blood from the Stone Ogre finally.
• The Stone Ogre snarled in pain even as a notification lit up before Clinton.
• ***
• {You have dealt +0.6 damage to your enemy!}
• {HP: 7.4/8.1}
• ***
• Compared to the +0.1 damage that he dealt the first time, Clinton was able to deal 6 times more damage this time in a single attack all because of the imbued passive skill of this weapon, sharpness.
• This was ridiculous improvement that left Clinton giddy in joy but his ecstasy did not last for long though.
• Even as the Stone Ogre snarled angrily in pain, it suddenly raised both of its arms, clasped them together to form a fist before bringing them down with incredible force.
• Clinton read the danger, retreating on time but as he pulled on the wooden spear, it refused to budge.
• “…!” Clinton was shocked.
• The Wooden Spear was stuck on the Stone Ogre’s thick belly muscles!
• Clinton had less than a second to make the decision but he was able to make the right one, prioritizing his life over his crafted weapon as he let go of the Wooden Spear, diving back at the last moment.
• That quick decision making saved his life, but what of the Wooden Spear?
• Crack!
• The Wooden Spear was smashed to pieces by the tyrannical smack of the Stone Ogre’s powerful blue arms.
• And then, Clinton received a new notification.
• ***
• {Your crafted weapon, Wooden Spear has been destroyed!}
• ***
• Clinton felt a sharp pang of pain in his chest. ‘F*ck!’