When the fall came, Axel couldn't have expected it any sooner.
WHOOSH!
And…
BOOM!
The monster was on him.
"ARGGH!" Axel exclaimed.
He seriously tried not to puke, but it was hard because it seemed like the knot tying his food system together was going to explode and let out the pizza and soda he had taken for breakfast before his father ran out on their failed quest.
The monster bounced off his body and landed on the ground, and Axel, feeling like he would die now, dramatically slumped on the ground, clutching his stomach tightly.
The reason he wasn't puking after that hit from the monster was just bravery. If not, he would have been spilling some contents of his breakfast now.
He was seeing phosphenes. It seemed usual, at least he was expecting it, coming from the severe hit that had struck him. But the phosphenes—an enormous hand—were diving and scattering now, coming at his face.
"Shit!" Axel muttered.
It was the fist of the monster, bulky and huge, landing under his chin heavily.
He swam into the air with that and spat out blood. He panicked that he was doing so, actually. Wasn't he supposed to be immortal or strong?
Caught in midair now, the monster plunged upwards and sent a kick into Axel's stomach.
"Argh!" Axel muttered, falling down. "I'm doomed."
He wasn't indestructible. He was feeling every amount of pain that the monster had been sending him, and if he fell again, he was sure he would die now.
Axel had to stop himself from falling!
He jerked his hands backward, and in doing so, a gust of fire came out of his hands and reeled him upwards. Struggling in the air, he somehow managed to land on his feet.
He soon fell, though, and upon landing, he hit the ground hard. It did him nothing, though, because the fall wasn't from such a high distance.
And so he felt pain, but not that much.
The monster was bent like a bull now, drawing every morsel of wind into its nostrils and releasing it out.
Looking at the monster—a glance, actually—Axel saw that it was ready to go through him, and if it did, he was sure it was going to be fierce and with all of its strength.
Axel gave up. He couldn't be a hero. It was too hard. In movies he watched and comics he read, it seemed easy—just defeat a bad guy. But his was on another level. His was hard, very stressful, and taking a lot of emotion. He couldn't do it.
He had lost his father, a few minutes ago his uncle, and now he was sure he was going to lose his own life. As it seemed, that was, apparently, by the way.
He breathed in and out, inhaling and exhaling, the act alone becoming hard and very difficult.
Axel was about to cough when he heard a sneeze and looked at the monster, who was all pumped up now to smash him. The monster had sneezed!
And by sneezing, it had precipitated itself forward—not blindly at all, but instead targeting its target, who was Axel.
Axel sat up now and watched the monster, not missing its every move. He was ready to embrace death now.
But then, with just four steps forward, Axel noticed that everything became slow. So slow that the monster was now moving at the speed of a snail.
Axel was stunned. He wasn't scanning for any inventory stuff or powers, so why was everything slow? Nothing was in sight again, so he couldn't say for sure what was slow. Perhaps it was only the monster?
A housefly was crawling in flight past his nose. Axel saw it, and he was momentarily stunned. So it wasn't only the monster that was slow—everything was slow.
He smiled and was surprisingly elated. Perhaps he could make a run for it. He could run out of here now and not have to die?
That sounded like a splendid idea!
But as he tried to stand up, he couldn't do so at his normal speed. He was doing so very sluggishly. He sat back down and realized that he too was slow, but unlike the monster, who was now also slow in mind, he was fast in mind. At least he could think fast, but could he speak fast?
He tried to speak.
The words came out slowly:
"W.... h...…. a ...… t....., I...….. s...."
He didn't speak again. That was too slow. It would be ages before a word came out. And so he resigned to speaking in his mind.
'What is the cause of this?' he asked himself.
[DING]
A small screen was in front of him. It was the usual screen that appeared when his stats wanted to show.
[YOU HAVE AWAKENED A SKILL]
'Death?' he thought.
[YOU HAVE AWAKENED THE PINCH SWOOP LOOP]
Axel's face was a grimace.
'The Pinch Swoop Loop?'
Was that actually a thing?
The voice was angelic and female-like. But still, it sounded electro-sonic.
[POSSESSING INITIATING]
Axel's head throbbed immediately, and for just a split second, and then—
[POSSESSING COMPLETE]
He heard the hum of an electro-sonic trumpet.
[YOU HAVE NOW POSSESSED THE PINCH SWOOP LOOP SKILL]
[DING]
[YOU MAY NOW USE]
Axel's throat burned now. It only did for a second before it stopped, and then the screen vanished.
A gust of wind tore into the place now and…
WHOOSH!
The housefly now zoomed past Axel's nose. He could also hear the footfalls of the monster now, loud and hitting the ground hard.
Axel was just a chill guy now. He felt unnerved by the run, and for the safety of his damn life, he wanted to know why.
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
And…
WHOOSH!
The monster was ready to make himself a spear and go into Axel.
Axel, inhaling now, somersaulted, the monster diving at the place he had somersaulted off. Axel, totally unperturbed now, with a swift motion that came with the similitude of a bolt of lightning, pinched the monster by the tip of its finger.
The monster was about to pause and stare at him, but Axel simply didn't have time for all the drama, so he simply let go of the pinch and…
WHOOM!
The monster was in the sky, in a swoop loop.