Chapter 38: Chapter 38 – Shedu
The Shedu tried to bite down on Matthew, but he managed to dodge it and plant his machete on its neck. However, Matthew was not strong enough to pierce the monster’s Vital Shield.
Vanessa tried shooting the Shedu to get its attention, but the bullets just bounced off of it harmlessly.
"Matthew, run!" She screamed. "We’re not strong enough to face it!"
Matthew dodged again when the Shedu tried to stomp his leg, but in the same movement he was hit by a flap of its wing and sent flying away. Matthew landed on his feet, the blow wasn’t that hard, but now he was even further inside the dungeon.
He saw a smirk on the Shedu’s face. That creature was intelligent. He tried shooting it, but even his bullets enhanced by Boost Gunpowder weren’t enough to damage the beast.
The Shedu charged him again. Matthew tightened his grip on his machete and shot its eyes trying to blind the creature. But Matthew’s aim wasn’t the best to hit such a small target on a moving object.
It was too late now. When Matthew tried to dodge the charge, he couldn’t. He wasn’t fast enough. He was hit with the full force and weight of the Shedu directly on the chest which sent him flying further inside the Labyrinth.
Vanessa, then, charged in. She knew her attacks were useless against that creature, so she decided to help Matthew escape.
When the Shedu noticed her approaching, it tried to kick her with its hind legs, but Vanessa had 33 points in Agility. It was enough to rival the monster’s own stat, despite how much more powerful it was on the others. She dodged the kick and slid under the creature avoiding its wings.
The Shedu tried to stomp her down, but she was too quick. She already standing up in front of it before it could hit the ground with its hoof.
Vanessa grabbed Matthew’s wrist and pulled him further inside:
"What the fuck you are doing, kid!" She screamed at him. "Run you idiot!"
It was only by feeling Vanessa’s warm hand squeezed his wrist that Matthew understood that it was the demonic mana driving him to fight that thing.
Vanessa found it odd that Matthew suddenly used the Purification skill on himself, but she didn’t have time to question him. The Shedu was close behind. Matthew couldn’t outrun it and he was slowing her down.
They were in trouble. She never expected to find such a strong foe so close to the entrance. Usually the Labyrinth had a steady progression in strength of the creatures inside of it. The weaker ones stayed closer to the entrance and stronger ones would appear the further in you got.
Her mind was now focused on what to do. How could they run from the Shedu? How could they hide?
When she was lost on those thoughts, Matthew pulled her to himself hugging her and falling to the ground. Before she could say anything a burst of wind passed through them leaving cut marks on the stone floor.
Vanessa looked back and saw a faint light of mana disappearing from its wings. The Shedu could also cast spells. This reduced even more their options.
Vanessa started to shake.
"Sorry kid." She said with a resigned smile on her face. "I don’t think we’ll get out of this one."
Matthew also understood that. He got up on his feet and saw the Shedu with a wicked grin on its face. It was playing with both of them now. It knew it was much stronger than both.
Matthew took off his eye patch. If he could not run, he would fight. If demonic mana doubled his stats, he would be akin to an adventurer of level 16 with it. He just needed to let the mana take over him. It was not enough to fight a level 20 monster, but it at least gave him a chance to survive.
"Vanessa. I’m sorry for hiding this from you." He said opening his left eye. It was shining bright red. He could see from it again, although with a red hue over everything.
"Didn’t you get rid of it?" Vanessa said also getting up.
"I’ll explain later. But now I’ll need your help." He said imbuing his machete with the red mana. "Perhaps together we can beat it. But I can’t do it alone."
"I’ll trust you." She said taking her throwing knifes and imbuing them with mana as well.
Matthew shot at the creature who was surprised that his bullets were now able to cause it pain, although it wasn’t strong enough to even break skin. More like soft punches on its fur.
The Shedu charged Matthew with a guttural scream and tried to bite him, but missed. Matthew’s machete landed on its front leg drawing just a bit of blood thinner than a paper cut. But it still stung.
Filled with anger, he Shedu headbutted Matthew on the chest driving him a few steps back and lift its front legs hitting one of the hooves on his chin.
But Matthew took it applying Anesthesia on himself and quickly recomposed himself landing another machete blow on the Shedu’s shoulder doing minimal damage.
As soon as Matthew pulled his hand back, the monster bit his left arm, the one he held the machete with, but was not able to do much damage. When the teeth sunk into his skin, Matthew shot his gun at point blank at the Shedu’s head three times. The blows on the head causing enough pain for it to let go of Matthew’s arm before taking a serious piece of flesh.
The Shedu shook its head trying to get rid of the ringing the shots brought to its ear. Matthew took the opportunity and hacked at the monster’s neck hitting it straight on the side. But it too lacked strength to take more than a slit of blood.
Just a fraction of a second later, the Shedu opened its mouth to bite Matthew again, but this time he only met steel with its teeth. Vanessa threw a knife with surgical precision in its mouth causing the first serious damage on the creature. The knife pierced its cheek from the inside the mouth and now half of the blade was hanging outside.
Matthew’s strikes, although causing very little damage to the Shedu, were doing enough damage to weaken its Vital Shield. Enough for Vanessa to be able to pierce it in a vulnerable spot.
Now its mouth was covered in blood that dripped down its beard and onto the floor.
The Shedu screamed in anger and flapped its wings violently. It shifted its attention to Vanessa, who it now perceived as a threat. Its wings glowed with the blue hue of mana and a wide flap sent two blades made of air in high speed against her.
Vanessa dodged by rolling to the side, but the Shedu closed the distance in a wide jump trying to land with its hooves on top of her.
It almost succeeded. Matthew, however, managed to hold onto its tail and pull with enough strength to make it miss its target by millimeters.
Matthew was met with a kick on the face by the Shedu’s hind leg as it growled angry against Matthew’s interference.
As it was distracted looking back at Matthew, Vanessa hit its throat with a knife in an uppercut as she was getting up on her feet. It was not enough to deal damage, but it was able to make it gag a little. Enough to give her time to step back from it.
Matthew’s face was now covered on his own blood that fell down his nose like a waterfall. If it wasn’t for the Anesthesia skill, he would be in so much pain from the earlier strikes, that he’d probably be out of combat.
Even with his judgment clouded by the demonic mana’s interference, he soon realized that that was not a winnable fight. If they had better equipment, they could win, but with their regular weapons, only depending on their skills was not enough.
And then it hit him. He still had 2 unspent skills.
For the Summoner class, Resist Uglify and Summon Pact were useless for him right now. Perhaps Summon Spirit could be of use. However he had no idea how the skill worked or even if the spirit he would summon was going to be of any help, specially since his Charisma was back at 8 points.
Then he had the Necromancer class he just got some days ago. He could not use Create Undead there, there were no corpses around. But Unholy Mana was a good option. If demonic mana doubled his stats, unholy mana could increase them even more. However, using unholy mana there could not only harm him, but also harm Vanessa.
He had no choice though. They would die otherwise.
"Vanessa!" He screamed. "Run away!"
"I will not leave you here!" She screamed back.
Then Vanessa’s blood got cold when she saw the blackness of unholy mana surrounding Matthew.
"You’re going to kill yourself!" She screamed even louder.
Not even the Shedu ignored the threat of that mana circulating Matthew. It turned its back to Vanessa and faced Matthew preparing for a hard battle.
Matthew still had the red glow of demonic mana on his eye and on his machete. But now he was also surrounded by a black mist of unholiness.
"Vanessa. Run away!" He screamed one last time.