Just as she picked up the dropped Short Spear, Mia heard the sound of footsteps stepping through stagnant water behind her.
“Hmm?” Turning her head, she saw other Hollows from the connected caves, attracted by her earlier scream, swaying as they walked toward her.
There were three newcomers.
“Ignite!” The moment she reacted, Mia cast the spell at the nearest Roaming Noble.
However, the tongue of flame vanished before it could even lick the noble’s body.
The range was insufficient!
Realizing this immediately, Mia quickly raised her hand again: “Fireball!” It was pretty much the Fireball spell that would definitely appear in a conventional fantasy novel.
Fireball could throw a ball of fire that moved in a parabolic arc.
The effective range was much further than Ignite, but accordingly, it had a casting animation.
While Mia was winding up, the Roaming Noble rushed toward her with a sword in hand, swaggering with an arrogant gait.
Frightened, she quickly dropped the idea of casting and jumped backward.
The physical fitness of this body was much better than her pre-reincarnation self; though petite, it contained considerable power.
Dodging the Roaming Noble’s charging slash, she immediately thrust the Short Spear forward.
Now, even as a noob who only knew how to use basic attacks, she could say to the walking corpse in front of her: Too slow, too slow!
The Short Spear pierced into the Roaming Noble’s jaw from below.
Feeling a slight resistance, the girl pushed the spear forward again with force.
The Short Spear went further, directly entering the Roaming Noble’s brain.
Mia turned the spear shaft, twisted it, and pulled the Short Spear out.
Enemy defeated!
No matter how much of a ‘Warriors’ game it felt like in the game, it wasn’t as satisfying as killing one personally.
Then, the two other Hollows walking out from behind the fallen Living Corpse Noble pulled Mia back to reality.
Feeling very capable, Mia couldn’t wait to pull off a combo.
She reached out toward another Hollow in front of her without hesitation: “Ignite!” This time, there was no awkward situation of insufficient range.
The tongue of flame pounced directly on the Hollow, knocking it back.
The third Hollow raised its right arm with its sword, about to slash, but its companion, who had taken an Ignite, was already burning fiercely, rolling all over the ground and letting out a chilling screech that didn’t sound human at all.
Mia held the spear high with both hands, trying to block the slash.
It’s just a Hollow, watch me do it like in the game— Crack— The noble’s longsword slashed directly onto the center of the Short Spear’s wooden shaft.
The wooden shaft was snapped directly by the golden longsword.
The massive force directly threw her off balance.
She staggered back a step, and the tip of the sword passed perilously close to Mia’s upturned nose.
“Huh???
What?!” Not expecting her weapon to break, the girl’s face turned pale with fright.
Seeing the Roaming Noble, whose downward slash had missed, preparing to follow up with an upward swing, a panicked Mia went through a momentary brainstorm.
She made a foolish decision.
Roll to dodge the attack!
Thinking she was very agile, she lunged to the side and curled her body.
The spinning field of vision made it so she couldn’t see anything clearly.
She hadn’t even finished a single rotation.
Puchi— The longsword pierced into the girl’s body.
“Gah—” Mia tumbled to the ground, and a deep red instantly soaked the clothes around her waist.
Her muscles constantly twitched and convulsed.
Mia curled her body, but the enemy did not let her go because of it.
The Roaming Noble stepped forward, and the sharp sword tip stabbed down ruthlessly once again.
Puchi— “Ah-ugh—” This one penetrated her abdomen.
The girl was like a swan with its neck held tight, almost unable to make a sound in her agony.
The Roaming Noble pulled out the sword, and Mia’s whole body convulsed from the action.
Then, he continued to raise his hand—Puchi.
Stab, hack, slash.
One by one, the weapon fell upon the petite body beneath his feet, accompanied by screams.
All the strength in her body flowed out of the wounds along with the blood.
She was no longer a soldier now, but just a piece of meat, a rack of ribs.
At some point, she had lost her voice.
Each time the sword fell on her body, there was only a single tremor.
Mia stared blankly at the stone ceiling.
For some reason, her consciousness was exceptionally clear right now, and the pain in every spot was deeply etched into her mind.
Puchi, puchi.
The thing before the Living Corpse Noble could no longer be called a soldier; it had almost become a bloody mess.
Only now did the Hollow seem to have finished its revenge.
It cast aside the blood-stained longsword, knelt on the ground, and began to feast on the mangled meat before it.
It had long since lost its human intelligence; all it followed were its body’s primal instincts.
Even then, Mia could still see, could still feel, the Roaming Noble tearing at the shattered flesh on her body, chewing…
Her vision plunged into darkness, and in front of that Living Corpse Noble, Mia’s body, along with all the blood, turned into flying ash.
She opened her eyes.
Mia saw that lovely cluster of light before her.
Only then did she realize she had officially died once.
The tragic state of her death was still vivid in her mind.
Mia shuddered for some reason.
This shudder didn’t seem to be from fear…
but rather from excitement.
Everyone has some dark secrets in their heart, more or less.
Perhaps it’s a violent streak, perhaps malicious feelings, or perhaps some kind of ‘extreme hobby’.
But almost no one shows the dark side of their heart or puts it into action.
Almost everyone can distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Mia’s past self was such a soldier; like the masses, the dark fantasies in her heart did not erase her kindness and sincerity toward others in real life.
For example, someone might openly be a 2D lolicon or a total creep, but behind the scenes, they are a super righteous supporter of child protection laws in reality.
These don’t conflict at all; most people know that the virtual and reality are completely unrelated.
Only those with broken souls will be swallowed by the darkness within.
So, what was Mia’s never-realized dark fantasy?
…Well…
If she said it out loud, some purple-clad weirdo would probably come knocking immediately.
The reason it was an unrealized fantasy was that Mia’s past self only had one life; if tortured to the limit, she would die, and that was it.
In short, Mia was not afraid because of the way she died.
On the contrary, she felt a bit…
unsatisfied?
Even being hacked into mincemeat, being eaten alive…
But she still felt: it wasn’t unacceptable.
*Cough cough*, hobbies are hobbies.
Mia could distinguish between fiction and reality.
A game can only be called a game when played with the right people in the right place with the right equipment.
Not like this, getting killed by a weak living corpse.
Such a dark hobby only gave Mia a sense of ‘fortitude’ in battle, preventing her from losing her will and fighting spirit due to injuries or the number of deaths.
After pulling herself together, Mia set out once more, gripping her short spear.