10. Can You Kill A Living Thing?

10. Can You Kill A Living Thing?

"Shit!" Matteo said under gritted teeth as the wild boar now face him, it struck one of its hind legs on the ground and bucked it's head as a warning.

Matteo could tell it was charging up for a devastating attack, the wild boar might have been an herbivore but it was also a formidable foe to the current him.

With a loud squeak it charged forward at its overwhelmed opponent. Matteo looked at its huge white tusks sticking out of the sides of its nose and his eyes widened, tears broke free from his eyes as he bit his lower lip even harder. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth and the pain triggered an instinct in him.

He buckled and rolled out of the way of the charging beast, his delayed reaction did not leave him unarmed. The tusk of the wide boar cut through his arm, grazing him. The pain from when he stubbed his toe could not compare to it. He cried out as he fell into the tall grass and clutched to his hand.

The pain woke him up to his new reality and also...

[Health -1]

[Health 9/10]

"What's wrong with you Teo, it's a damn game. And you are the Noble fucking Zero." He hissed as he rolled over barely avoiding the next charge of the beast.

He searched through the grass for his sword, he could not believe he had made such a foolish decision because he was overwhelmed.

Before he could find it the wild boar finally managed to land a hit, it's tusk impacted him in his back causing him to cry out in pain before falling on his face.

[Health -3]

[Health 6/10]

The beast started to butt it's head preparing for the next attack, a still dazed Matteo lay on the floor reeling from the pain of the previous two attacks. By the time he recollected his thoughts the beast was on him again and there was nothing he could do.

His eyes widened but the beast missed him by a large margin, something amhad struck it in the neck. It staggered away from him before giving a pained squeak. Red blood leaked from the wound on its next, it was an arrow, the archer stood a few feet away from them.

Matteo recognised it to be the girl with the white mask, he could not tell if she was helping him or trying to take his kill. But then again how could it call it his kill when it had almost killed him.

"What are you doing? Can you kill a living thing? If you can't then why did you come here again?" He voice sounded cold but she did pass on a message to Matteo who was now putting as much distance as he could from the beast by crawling away.

Matteo gritted his teeth. "What do you care, I have no choice but to kill it if I want to overcome this..." His body started to tremble again.

The girl with the white mask had been watching the whole thing play out from start, she had no reason to care who he was or what he did but he caught her attention by her practiced movements and tactics, sure the moves were actually more sloppy and ineffective but his tactics and timing were that of a veteran gamer.

"Get out of your head and clear the defect?" She said.

Matteo paused as he was halfway to her, his sights on the wild boar as it started to stomp it's head in a warning but his mind was on her words. "Defect?"

She continued. "I can tell you're good but physically not so much, the problem here still remains if you can't kill a living thing you can't progress and you will die!"

Matteo seemed to envy the way she could use the word living thing so lightly, accepting their cruel reality and living in that acceptance were two very different prospects.

"You're a gamer, fine a way around it. It's just a damn game!" She said back to him.

Matteo paused for a bit and pondered on her word, she was right. This was a game, "I'm sorry, that was foolish of me earlier." Matteo said in a serious voice as he rose to his feet, he still had a hard time thinking with the pain throbbing throbbing his body but the pain he believed was the only thing keeping him from thinking. He needed action now more than ever.

To act as fast as he thought.

The girl in the mask could sense that his aura shifted because his body stopped shaking and he was now facing the beast.

"Can you do it? Can you kill a living thing?" She asked.

Matteo started to advance towards the beast, he replied to her question in a very empty voice, the fire in his eyes which he always had when gaming reignited.

"What living thing? All I see is a hostile NPC." With that he charged forward, the beast bellowed as it came for him.