Rexus ~ Chapter 16!

“This is where the trail went dark. I don't know what is going through her mind, but Jess is going to pay for trying to run off on us.” The leather-clad Rogue stood back up, reaching his full height at just over six feet tall. His mouth was tightened with displeasure, and his narrow eyes revealed the depths of his anger. "Bring me the animal.”

A female Wolfman covered in blood and wounds was dragged to the front of the group. The Rogue looked at her with a sneer, then reached forward and forced her to look into his eyes. "What are we getting into? What is this place, where would they go from here? Jess is a gold digger, there has to be something in this area she would want."

The proud Wolfman had been reduced to a mere traveling guide after being captured away from her war party. Her sorry state had been accrued over several days of meetings and lights torture. Something though... something was different today. There was a defiance in her eyes that had not been there in previous days. The party leader did not appreciate the shift. "Filthy human, the only thing waiting for you in the testing zones is death. I only hope my clan is the one to find you after your inevitable respawn."

After speaking these words, she released a hideous snarl and lunged for the human’s throat. Unfortunately for her, as soon as she began moving toward the Rogue, his dagger pierced her heart three times. If her expression weren't so gleeful, the man was sure he would have been fine with witnessing her death. He spit on the furry corpse, giving it a kick for good measure. "What a waste. Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we are going to find our little runaway the old-fashioned way. Be ready for anything."

~ Jaxon ~

The third open room was similar to the first two, the only real difference being the type and number of enemies available. Twenty-five duck sized horses shrieked a high-pitched whinny and stampeded toward him. Jaxon had a minor ethical dilemma, did he feel terrible about punching tiny ponies? When the first of them slammed into his knee and kicked with a sharp metal hoof, he realized that he had very few qualms about attacking such adorable foes. He was worried that later in the Temple there would be a horse-sized duck, but that was an issue for a later time.

Realistically, they were not an overly difficult enemy to defeat for someone with his levels of strength and dexterity. More than anything, he wanted to hitch them all to a cart and have the cutest mode of transportation in the game. Unfortunately, that option was not available to him. Instead, he reached down and did his very best to snap their necks as quickly and painlessly as possible. A few of them he stomped on, being mindful that the durability of his boots was getting extremely low. He was able to use the extendable needle of his glove on a few of them to great effect, the length of the needle being longer than the distance from the surface of their skin to the brain.

Besides the initial attack on his body, he had not taken any wounds from these creatures by the time they were all defeated. They simply did not have the natural weapons, size, speed, or strength to even land a blow. Jaxon was fairly certain that this was supposed to be more of a blow to the morale of the Challenger then an actual challenge. He left the room without expecting to gain a record, but also hoping he wasn’t the slowest to have gone through here.

Exp: 100 (4 * Tiny Horse x25).

Congratulations Challenger! You have set the record for most brutal massacre in the third solo survival room. Others have done it faster, but not many people use a tiny horse to beat another dead horse. Rarity of final reward increased by 5% for completing the room with a record.

Jaxon thought that he was beginning to see a pattern for the amount of enemies and experience he would gain. He went to move on, and collapsed to the floor. "What the... oh... hunger and thirst debuff at maximum..."

He gulped, really feeling the dry throat, and looked at the bodies of the tiny horses next to him. Jaxon tried not to think about it, but his stamina was no longer regenerating... he pulled one of the horses closer and used his needle to open a small hole. He bit down and chewed, trying to talk himself through the process. "It's sushi, just really moist sushi. That helps with the… with the thirst too…"

He ate a good portion of two of the small beasts before his stamina was returning normally. Jaxon would normally worry about getting sick later, but he doubted he would survive long enough to get into gastrointestinal distress. Moving into the next room, the fourth room, showed that from here things would not be so simple. There were ten people in this room besides Jaxon, and it was obvious that these were non-player characters. If anything, these were peasants, militia at best. When Jaxon walked into the room covered in blood, gore, looking and possibly smelling like death incarnate... the people in the room became terrified.

"P-please, sir! Please don't hurt us!" The first person to speak just had to say words that's would make Jaxon hesitate. Unfortunately for the terrified serf, this was a trial and Jaxon had no intention of failing to progress. The Monk ran at the nearest human, fist cocked back and prepared to swing. His blow came down hard, and at the last second Jaxon barely stopped himself from following through. He looked down, noticing a wet stain spreading across the man's pant leg. Jaxon took a calming breath and walked across the room through the small crowd of people, who in turn shied away as he came near them.

He laid his hand on the door leading to the next room, hoping that he had gauged this test correctly. Jaxon pushed, and the door leading to the next room opened. He released a sigh of relief before turning back to the others with a wide smile, "Thank goodness. I am very pleased that I did not need to murder you all in cold blood. That would have certainly reduced my enjoyment of this process."

Stepping into the fifth room, he was spared the sight of matching stains traveling down the pants of every other person in the room.

Congratulations Challenger! You have set a ‘Pacifist’ record by passing through the fourth solo survival room without giving or taking a single blow. Rarity of final reward increased by 5% for completing the room with a record. Rarity has reached a minimum of ‘Rare’.

Skill increase: Intimidation (Journeyman IV).

"What a silly skill!" Jaxon shook his head with a chuckle, sobering quickly as he saw what awaited him in this room. Primates, monkeys similar to the version surrounding the Temple, came charging at him as soon as they noticed his intrusion. There would be no peaceful resolution this time, but Jaxon was almost thankful for the opportunity to fight an enemy he understood.

The monkeys were thankfully unable to use their stealth capabilities, and in a straight-up fight Jaxon could overpower one of them easily; the problem was that there were a round dozen moving toward him at the same time. Jaxon settled down, centering himself and joyfully joining combat. Monkeys, especially of this size, are typically much stronger and more agile than a human. However, thanks to his incredible stat increases, Jaxon was able to fend off the first few blows put his back to a wall.

Now that he did not need to worry about one direction, he was able to fully focus in front of himself and dedicate himself to battle. He ducked, and four claws tossed out sparks as they made parallel grooves in the wall. As the arm passed over his head, Jaxon drove stiffened fingers into the animal’s armpit. The limb was rendered useless, and simply dangled at the monkeys side. Jaxon grab the uncontrolled arm and swung the Beast into another that was jumping at him. They both landed in a jumble, and Jaxon use the opportunity to drive his hands deeply into the neck muscle of another who stumbled over them. With a nerve pinched, that creature fell to the floor in agony.

"Three down momentarily, how to capitalize on this?" Jaxon muttered to himself as howling balls of rage closed in. Seeing no other option, he drove into the scrum and began dealing as much focused damage as possible. Surrounded on all sides, it actually became harder for the monkeys to attack using their typical wild blows. When they tried, they damage their own comrades at least as often as the human. Thanks to his quick thinking, Jaxon was swiftly able to whittle down their numbers.

When there were four remaining, Jaxon was able to practice his adjustments and acupressure to great effect. He twisted bones, misaligned vertebrae, poked holes in tendons and muscles, and essentially had fun with the process. As the last primates fell, Jaxon found that he was down to a quarter health. He grabbed one of the fallen and used it's fur as a mop, possibly as a squeegee, to clear the floor of any liquid that he may accidentally sit in. Then he settled in the area, and, after weighing the cost and benefits, decided against using one of the warmer bodies as a pillow. He had not encountered lice or fleas in the game, but that did not mean they didn't exist.

Congratulations Challenger! You have passed through the fifth solo survival room. Rarity of final reward increased by 1% for completing the room without a record.

Jaxon's vision returned quickly as he woke up, and the first thing he saw was it burning eyeball floating in the air above him. As soon as it realized that it had been noticed, it vanished with a slight *pop*. The Monk stood and stretched, ruminating over the fact that he had once again slept on a hard stone floor. This was not the best way to maintain health, but realistically he had no choice. As prepared as he could be, Jaxon opened the door to the sixth room and stepped in.

There were only ten enemies here, but watching them was a confusing sight. This was some form of connected group, with each of the creatures wearing a manacle on one ankle that was connected by a chain to each of the others. They were some form of demi-human, specifically a humanoid cat. With Wolfmen being the main opponent for Humanity, other types of demi-human we're fairly distrusted, and rarely seen. Retractable claws popped out of their paws and they moved together as a unit to charge at him.

No matter how well-trained or coordinated they were, they got in each other's way. They had also spread out so that Jaxon was not able to leave them alone and go toward the exit door. Obviously, this was a group of enemies that wanted to fight. Jaxon used a few precious moments to study their physical structure, confirming that they had similar enough anatomy for his skills to be useful against them. Just before he began his assault, one of them spoke to him.

"Our freedom is at hand!" The Cat Man hissed triumphantly. "The life of a single human in return? Not even a question!"

Jaxon immediately realized that some of the creatures in this place were not here willingly, they were not a test of morality, nor were they created by the temple as some form of mindless construct. At the same time, he was unwilling to simply allow them to slay him. Jaxon sidestepped out of range just before an attack that would have flayed him missed by less than an inch. Initially, he kept his hands up to defend himself, but as a set of claws tore into the door and wall behind him, he realized the only way to defend was to dodge. Taking an attack from one of them would be incredibly dangerous, and so he resolved not to be hit. Jaxon’s next movement forced him to slam his back into the wall, but he moved forward immediately and drove his fist into the Cat Man's gut.

"I'm going to enjoy slashing you to ribbons," the Cat Man wheezed as he sucked air.

Jaxon had felt the movement of his opponents ribs as he landed that single blow, and realized that their bones must be extremely fragile but were most likely very flexible as well. He cut forward and to the side shifting his arm out of the way as the other cats attempted to release a flurry of slashing attacks on him. To test his theory, Jaxon put all of his strength behind a single backhand with his gauntlet clad fist and crush the skull of the chatty Cat Man.

He was not expecting the air to shudder, nor the body to vanish instantaneously. Jaxon nearly lost his balance thanks to his surprise, but turned the movement into a forward roll. This allowed him to dodge the dagger-like claws that had attempted to tear his face off, but as he came to his feet he was forced to dodge again and again. One of their members disappearing had some effect on the others. Whether it was a magical buff that gave them higher speed and dexterity, or if it were the simple fact that there was one less person to get in their way; their accuracy, speed, and ability to dodge had increased by a significant margin.

He landed another full-powered strike, and another fell. The third time that Jaxon attempted to do this, the attack was easily dodged. Uh-oh. The creature countered in the opening presented by stepping forward with his hand and tearing a bloody handhold into Jaxon's arm. With his arm being gripped, Jaxon's ability to dodge or roll away was severely impacted. Luckily for him, the Cat Man holding him was also going to have a hard time getting away from Jaxon. Using his left hand was not ideal; but after three attacks into his opponent's neck a thin needle punctured it's aorta, and it began taking severe damage over time.

When that one vanished with the customary *pop*, and the others once again moved faster, Jaxon knew that he might be in trouble.