Bloodbath

Alex charged the horde of goblins, now enhanced temporarily by the ability Suffer Agony. He decided to maximize his advantage with it. Alex began swinging his two blunt instruments into the heads of those in front of him. Looking at his health bar, he noticed his HP was currently boosted to 200. It did not take long for the goblins to surround him.

While crushing the skulls of the nearest two goblins, he felt a sharp pain in his right calf. One of the goblins had pierced his skin with a stone knife. He groaned in annoyance before kicking the perpetrator in the head, dropping it to the floor, where he followed up with a vicious strike with the stone hammer, instantly slaying the vile creature.

Next, he swung his ax down on the skull of a goblin who was preparing to attack his femoral artery. The skull shattered into species, but Alex paid no attention. Instead, he had already moved onto the next Goblin.

[Your skill in Dual Wielding has increased to 1]

a message appeared in his vision and was quickly dismissed.

The goblins fortified their ranks while a single goblin with a stone spear thrust into Alex's abdomen. Cutting through his thin t-shirt like butter and piercing his side. Alex reeled in pain as he dropped the stone hammer in his right hand, now covered in blood, and grabbed onto the spear's shaft. By teep kicking the Goblin in the belly, he had managed to disarm it.

Following this action, he ripped the spear out from his abdomen and thrust it through the heart of the Goblin who had pierced him. Alex was lucky that it was a shallow wound. Due to his high constitution and the Goblin's low strength, the attack had failed to cause severe damage to Alex's flesh.

When carried by a human, the spear's length was relatively short, making it an excellent close-quarters weapon. Ripping the spear from the Goblin's heart, he thrust it into another Goblins chest. While six remained, two goblins immediately slashed at his legs, trying to injure Alex. Followed up by two more strikes from the rear.

Cuts were starting to cover the legs of Alex's lower body as he struggled to slay the remaining goblins. Nonetheless, he attacked without concern to his own well-being, smashing goblins skulls with his left and thrusting through their hearts with his right.

By the time the last Goblin fell, Alex was in a sorry state; he collapsed to his knees using the spear to hold himself upright. His pants and shirt were shredded by various cuts; what little remained was soaked in goblin blood and his own alike. Then a message popped up

[Suffer Agony has expired]

most of his wounds instantly healed themselves; shocked by this outcome, he looked at his health bar; it read 125/150 instead of the 125/200 it was just moments ago. Though he received 75 damage from the goblins, most of the long-term effects, such as wounds, were mitigated due to the majority of the damage being absorbed by the ability. All that remained of his once shredded body were now a few shallow cuts.

'So this is suffer agony? Impressive…' He thought to himself as most of the pain evaporated from his body.

Emily gazed in awe at the carnage before her. Moments ago, a horde of goblins had attacked Alex. Within a short period, he managed to kill them all while suffering minor wounds. She couldn't help but admire the strength he showed in the brief skirmish.

Alex noticed her gaze and grinned.

"Impressed by my strength, eh?"

Emily blushed and looked away from him, accidentally gazing upon the dead body of the young girl Alex had just killed moments prior. Her expression became grim.

"What do we do with her?"

Alex scratched his head as he thought about it.

"We have no choice but to leave her. We don't know how many of those things are out there..."

Emily nodded and said a short prayer to herself while Alex began to take point. He approached the hallway and peaked outside.

"It's clear; we can make our way to the entrance now."

Emily grabbed onto his sleeve and followed as the two made their way to the entrance of the dorms. The sun had already begun to rise, and the interior of the ground floor was well illuminated. One could see the carnage left over from the Goblins rampage.

Mutilated corpses lie in every corner; there was nothing more than giant piles of meat from numerous human bodies gathered together in some instances. The stench of death pervaded every corner of the building, but there was no Goblins insight.

Alex covered his nose with his t-shirt; though it was stained in blood, it still smelled better than the scent in the air. He tried his best not to vomit as he carefully made his way to the doorway.

"We have no idea what's out there; it's best to be prepared for the worst,"

Alex stated grimly as he opened the door and walked outwards.

Emily nodded as she followed behind.

"I know, but we can't stay here."

The two stood in silence as they gazed upon a city ablaze. It seemed the entire city was under siege from these monsters. They could hear the sounds of explosions and screams for miles. It only just dawned on Alex that he was looking at the end of the world.

Emily pointed to the sky and shouted, "Look! What's wrong with the sky?"

Alex gazed up at the sky and noticed a large fracture in space that seemed to take up its entirety as if the sky itself had been torn apart. The sky itself was no longer its usual azure color but had shifted to that of amethyst instead, with the giant hole looking almost as if it were electric. The light of the sun had turned to an ominous silver rather than the warm gold to which he was accustomed to.

'What the hell was going on?'

There was no point worrying about it now. The duo had more pressing concerns; Alex stared at Emily in the eyes and grabbed ahold of her shoulders to snap her out of her daze.

"We have to go; we can't stay here!".

As if awakening from a trance, Emily recovered from her shock and nodded in agreement. She didn't know what she would do if it weren't for the man in front of her. With that, the two carefully made their way down the street, looking for a place to take refuge.