The Flames Burn Bright (4): Sinners

[LET IT BEGIN]

The Ghouls charged at him and he just sat there trembling in fear.

He realized that he was too relaxed and he was taking it too lightly.

"I could actually die here!!" He said as the Ogre charged at him and grabbed onto the Longsword and pulled Adam towards itself.

He instinctively swung his blade at it and it took effect. It cut into its dried and already ripped skin but the Ogre felt no pain and it immediately swung the side of its Axe at Adams face.

It slammed him straight into the ground without mercy and crushed his cheek bone, ripped the side of his face open and almost immobilized him.

Adam could feel the adrenaline flooding into his blood stream and the pain seemed to slowly be offset.

『Mediocrity of a sinner I: 60% of pain from Fatal hits will be offset.』

The status window popped out in front of him as he struggled to stand up, as he tried to read what it said the Ogre swung the side of the Axe once again directly unto Adam's back, forcing him back to the ground.

Adam contorted and writhed in pain as the System window popped up again.

『60% of pain from Fatal Hits will be offset.』

"This is really like the game. I can feel all of the mind-breaking pain. This is amazing!" Adam screamed as he used the Longsword as support to get to his feet.

He tried swinging at the System to get it out of his line of sight but before he could the Ogre swung the side of his axe like a bat and slammed Adam so far back that it was almost as though he was flying.

The Ogre growled as Adam made contact with the floor once again and started to jog towards him, rather slowly.

"This is a joke!! Is this really a weak one!!" Adam screamed as he struggled intensely to get to his feet.

『You are just mediocre.』

The system answered, but Adam couldn't focus on it, he looked right through it and saw the shilloutte of the Ogre charging at him, he rose to his feet and used the Longsword as support to limp away to the rocks and trees near the large battlefield.

He hid behind a tree and shivered intensely as he heard the steps of the Ogre getting louder and louder and he braced for an attack…

But none came.

He squeezed his eyes tightly with the blade in hand, tensing all of his muscles and even holding his breath. He could distinctively feel the oafishly hot breaths of the demon Ogre behind him but there was no attack.

『Tutorial Achievement Unlocked: Coward! – Running, ducking and hiding behind the trees! The Ogre can't see you! You Mediocre Coward!』

The system popped out in front of him and this time it blared out a warbly female voice, Koshinuke turned to see the Ogre behind the tree and he saw that it had noticed him because of the Systems obnoxious wail.

Adam instinctively leapt out of the way as the Ogre swung the serrated part of his blade down at the tree without a moment of hesitation and almost cut down the tree. Although the axe got stuck and the Ogre struggled to pull it out, nevertheless if Adam had been there, he'd surely be dead.

[A/N: The System really hating hard.]

Adam started panting as he crawled behind another tree.

'Coward!?' He thought to himself- being cautious with his voice knowing that the Ogre could hear him and find him again.

He looked to the side a bit and saw the Ogre pull out its axe and start turning around in confusion, searching for him.

'I guess by weakness it meant intelligence and overall senses. But its hearing is particularly good. Its just like the tutorial walkthrough video I saw on Youtube…' Adam thought to himself.

There was finally a glimmer of hope in this hell.

He could barely remember what the gamer did in the Walkthrough but he at least could remember major things.

He struggled to look for a small enough stone and he tossed it into the trees to create a rustling sound…

And the Ogre responded by dashing towards the source of the sound and swinging his axe at it, this time he cleanly cut straight through the tree.

"Oh shi-!" Adam exclaimed as he saw the Ogre slice a bit too close.

Adam immediately knew that he messed up and tried to clench his mouth shut but the Ogre had already noticed him. It forced itself through the trees and swung maniacally at Adam.

Adam ducked and ran out of the cover of the trees with the quickest speed his injured and weak legs could muster, he was slightly faster than the big Ogre but he knew it would catch up eventually.

Adam thought up a strategy in his head, he ducked straight into the covers of another bunch of trees and rocks and picked a pebble up and tossed it into the trees he had just left, it luckily made another rustle and the dumb ogre took the bait.

'Ogres have a weak point- their skin is dead and they don't feel pain so I can never immobilize it unless I can cut off its legs or at least sever its tendons. I never played this game, I cant do the former or the latter. Might as well try to find the weak point.' Adam fell deep in thought. You would've thought that an idiot that chose a Sword in this situation wouldn't be smart.

He picked up his sword and limped out of the covers of the trees silently and stared at the back of the ogre.

It was butt naked and this irritated Adam to an extent. He remembered its weak point being something funny. Something the gamer made a joke about in the Walkthrough.

'A funny weak point could only be its Ass.' Adam thought and crouched down onto the floor and crawled towards the confused Ogre.

[A/N: Aye, it could've been its schlong bro, who knows?]

Adam was light so his movements didn't make a loud enough sound to attract the Ogre's attention and it was rather dumb so it stayed looking in the exact same area.

Soon enough, Adam was faced with the biggest, hairiest and most ugly ass he had ever seen and he felt nauseous when he smelt the outrageous stench of it. He remembered the Gamer talking about the smell as well.

"Shove it up that bitches Ass and you should be good!!" He remembered the Gamer saying. And he did just that.

Adam stood up and made sure to lower his back, depress his knees and angle his ankle in a way that he was still at a low enough position to butt-fuck the Ogre with is blade.

Adam thrust his blade up at the butt of the Ogre with all of his strength and this caused the Ogre to fall over almost immediately.

Adam struggled to pull out his blade as he expected a Status board to pop out. But it didn't and the Ogre slowly stood back up, picked out the already dulling blade tossed it away and smashed Adam away with a large fist.

Adam got thrown in the direction of his blade and he felt his consciousness fading as he saw the Ogre approaching him. He wanted to keep his head down and die but a distinct memory played in his mind.

--

"D-Don't Toucch me!!" a younger Adam screamed out.

"Just keep your head down, no one is here to save you." An old man said as he pulled off the clothes of a young Adam and touched him weirdly to Adams discomfort.

"Your parents left me with nothing but a cocksleeve." The old man said as he took off his clothes as well.

Adam looked to his right and saw an old mop stick right next to him, he was about to accept getting this done to him once again, but he grabbed onto the stick and swung it right onto the old mans head. He got to his feet and kept swinging it down at the old mans head until it was nothing but a bloody mess of bones and flesh.

"Die! Die! Di-"

--

"Thinking about that here. What a funny part of my life to see flash before my eyes."

『LEVELING scheme activated.』

『Sinner; Adam Level Up. 0-->1』

It turned out that Players could even level while in the games tutorial, this must have been a well exploited means of survival in the early stages of the game.

Players could keep grinding in the Tutorial until they get to a desired high level, but that wouldn't be aiding the original game creators will to make the game infinitely difficult.

So, the tutorial always ended after a period of time, whether you are dead or not, whether you won or not.

[Six Stat points have been granted.]

The green system blinked the message out in front of him, he may have thought himself to be smart but he knew that to designate those points he had to be stationary and, in this situation, he could not do anything other than fight for his life.

He got up as he felt the pain and drowsiness vanish since he levelled up. He felt amazing!

[A/N: You know how levelling up mid fight just takes your HP back up to full and... Yeah you know what I mean. Carry on!!]

"I feel… I feel Alive!" Adam screamed as he grabbed his blade and charged straight for the Ogre, leaping and swinging the blade down at the Ogres head just like he did with the old man.

Adam knew that if the Ogre didn't die from the weak point he remembered then it would surely not die from this, but this time he was ready to do something worthwhile.

'Hit its head, run into the trees, grab a bunch of rocks and toss it in random places. Run out as its distracted, attack it on its head. Rinse and repeat.' He thought to himself…

But before he could hit the Ogre-

『Ogre Subjugation Tutorial COMPLETE』

The system appeared before him with such a message and the Ogre stopped dead in its tracks and he just fell unto the Ogre without hurting it.

Its eyeholes and lips still moved about but it was halted, Adam was looking around and found that a rather terrifying looking demon was crawling out of the trees he was just about to retreat into, but it was also halted.

It looked like a bloody mush of bones and flesh, with badly placed eyes. It made Adam almost piss himself.

He rather quickly returned back to the floor, receding in fear and the System opened up before him.

It was a long message of over two hundred pages on the System, all of it was the original games Terms and Conditions.

All of them being pages upon pages of the game creator pleading that any mental damages or death caused by the game are solely the fault of the game user and that they will not be held responsible.

It was rather funny that it would just come now. Someone weak of heart who may have stumbled upon this atrocity would have already been scarred for life before the warning.

It was quite the arduous task for Adam to finish reading through it, but he succeeded and he hastily selected accept.

Even though there were thoughts and doubts running through his mind, from the few events from when he was returning home to this, he could tell that this was no mere illusion or dream.

"There was probably an update. Maybe we don't need an OVR Immersion Point to get in anymore. That's so cool." Adam tried to delude himself, knowing full-well that was not possible yet.

The Ogre and the other demon began to dissipate into green pixels and a rectangular opening appeared before the protagonist.

He took to his feet and the Basic blade in his palm vanished as well, as he strengthened his mind and he stepped through the gate, readying himself for whatever sight may be before him.

"The end is here before you." A voice silently whispered.

This was the 'Tune' that was played each time someone finished the Tutorial.

It was maddening, it kept on repeating the same phrase over and over again in an eerie way until Adam finally met up with other Players.

"Another Living survivor" A random Player screamed out.

"Didn't it just say that the General Tutorial had come to an end?" Another player said, he was one of the very few Players to not be in a state of panic and was rather calm.

"Well, we better hope it didn't."