Dead Gardens - Chapter 9

“Wait for him to attack,” Dominion whispered in my ear as we both pointed our gazes to the now huffing and definitely dying kapre. “With Vitality that low, it’s bound for him to make reckless mistakes soon. We’d best punish he goes full stupid mode.”

Sure enough, Dominion’s advice proved to be true. The kapre suddenly ran towards us in full speed, fiery eyes accentuating the anger in his grungy war cry. I didn’t know how, but he seemed much faster than ever. Maybe it’s because of his adrenaline spiking up after almost dying, or perhaps I’m just seeing things after receiving such a devastating blow.

The kapre immediately raised its feet when he reached my side, readying himself to stomp my already weak and small body. To be honest, I didn’t know why he didn’t do this from the very beginning; it seems quite counterproductive that he really had to punch something much smaller than him. Oh well. He had a hundred VIT and no INT for a reason. I don’t know where that 17 WIS stat went, though, because he most definitely has 0 common sense.

The only problem I have now is that…

I cannot move my body.

What’s happening to me? It feels like I’m stuck on the ground, paralyzed to the root with useless feet unable to move! It seems like Dominion’s logic works on my case as well; people with VIT stats as low as mine will start going full stupid mode.

“I got you!” Dominion’s rang in my head as I felt his grip tightening on my shoulders, sending my dreaming mind back to reality.

When the kapre’s foot was about to squash me, my body suddenly moved on its own.

“How are you…”

“NO QUESTIONS!” Dominion screamed with gritted teeth. “Just focus on attacking the damn thing!”

As my body moved away from the kapre’s strike zone without my consent, rumblings brought forth tremors all around that caused a few cracks to open up beneath the kapre. The kapre’s line of sight followed my body as it ran around him on its own.

“Tell if you find an opportunity to strike!” Dominion whispered in my ear again as I looked eye-to-eye with the kapre, readying to strike again.

Suddenly, my curiosity gave me a eureka moment. “Hey, Dominion, can’t we just use the HARVEST command against this guy?”

“It doesn’t work on entities.”

“Right.” I clicked my tongue. I’m faster than this guy, but I’m wary that he might be able to slap me again if I just tell Dominion to rush me in carelessly. Since most of the System’s commands are useless in battle, I really need to land this finishing blow soon.

I then noticed that the kapre had gripped the trunk of the tree where I had just landed earlier. It seems like he intends to use it as a weapon against me. The kapre then posed as if he wanted to toss the tree like a spear in my direction. He bent his left hand forward, using it as an aiming tool while his right hand gripped the buloke, ready for his grand toss.

An idea suddenly popped into my head. “Dominion, move me closer to him once he tossed the tree at me.”

“ARE YOU CRAZY!?” Dominion screamed with an electrified expression.

“Yes! So just do it, or else I’ll ask more questions!”

“Fine! But you better have a plan!”

“Nah. I’ll just be copying your plan earlier.” I then huffed a breath and raised my sword, pointing at the kapre, readying myself to strike. “But I won’t punch him to death. I’ll stab him till his VIT stats show negatives.”

“…You’ve gone insane.”

Surely enough, after a few moments of stillness, the kapre finally hurled the tree at me.

“NOW, DOMINION!”

Dominion bit his lower lip and didn’t comply.

“DO IT, DOMINION!”

Then, he let out a ghastly scream as my body dashed into the kapre. “I DON’T CARE ANYMORE! IF I DIE, I DIIIIIE!” He then closed his eyes and hid behind me.

“Yes! Good job, Dominion!” I then raised my hand and pointed my palm at the tree moving towards me before screaming, “HARVEST!”

And as I expected, before the tree could hit my face, it started to dissolve into mana and disappear before my very eyes. Surely enough, the now all too familiar texts appeared at the lower-left corner of my vision, saying, “+10 logs” and “+3 mana.”

When the tree finally disappeared, I could finally see the kapre looking at me with jaws dropped, eyes popped, and body still positioned as if he had just thrown the tree. On the other hand, Dominion suddenly popped his head away from my shoulders and gasped as he realized what I had done. I mean, this is his System; I don’t know why he didn’t see that coming.

“FUCK YEAH! THAT’S AMAZING!” Dominion cheered and laughed out loud as his grip on my shoulders began to tighten once more.

To honor the kapre’s futile attempt of ending my life, I copied his posture earlier with my feet still sprinting towards him. I extended my left arm forward, aiming at his still flabbergasted expression, and raised my other arm, intending to toss my wooden sword at him.

And as I drew closer to him, I began to start the countdown of his life. “Three… Two…”

“NOW!” Dominion ordered as he pointed his middle finger at the kapre.

And I threw my wooden sword at him. The kapre quickly tried to move away from it, but it’s too late for him. I threw the wooden sword too close to him. One way or another, the projectile will hit him.

“DIIIIIE!” Dominion sneered as he wrapped his arms around my neck.

My body then stopped as I smiled, waiting for the kapre to finally meet his end with my eyes clear and sharp.

But it didn’t go as well as I expected. Dominion must have also anticipated this, for he responded to the sudden development immediately by pulling my body away from the kapre and dashing away.

A pentagon-shaped fire barrier appeared around the kapre’s body, and when the wooden sword touched it, my poor old weapon immediately turned to ash. The burning piece of paper around the kapre’s head then burned even brighter than before as the magic Barrier shone around him.

“Shit…” I clicked my tongue as I scowled at the now smug grin on the kapre’s wrinkled face. “CREATE! Wooden Spear, Wooden Shield!”

“-10 logs”

“-2 mana”

“What’s the plan now, Aleph?” Dominion whispered in my ear with a now worried expression.

“Run!” I yelled in return as I hid half of my face underneath the circular-shaped small wooden sword the System had crafted easily for me.

“You can’t outrun a giant, Aleph! Do you have a spell that can counter that Barrier?”

“Yes, but…” I placed the wooden spear above my shield. “Dominion, can you show how much mana this body has below my heath bar?”

Dominion nodded thrice; then, his eyes lit up for two seconds, and he responded, “Done!”

True to his word, Dominion accepted my request and placed my mana bar below my health bar.

“How many mana bars does Gres’ body have?”

“Bars?” I laughed before swallowing my saliva, feeling it tripped down my throat the same way my cold sweat gushed on my back. “We only got a bar!”

“…Shit.”

I didn’t lie. Below my green health bar is just a single blue bar, waiting to be wasted in futility.