8 Mental Attack! (1/2)

My breathing was coming in a slight gasp as I look at the fallen clown in front of me. Unlike the other monster, its body didn't disappear when it was dead. The giant lump of flesh was right in front of me.

Royal nudged the dead body with his head, seeming to make sure that it was dead.

A dull ache spread through my body, I felt like a truck had run over me. The way my body aches, I shift slightly and find that no bones are broken, but it hurt like they'd been broken.

A slight ding went off.

「-278 HP」

「Player is also experience bleeding effect, please cleanse the negative effect」

I cringe when I see that number. That had shaved off a good chunk of my health, these monsters weren't a joke, they're strength was insane. Now I've got a negative effect, I had no idea how it wanted me to heal that effect.

Royal with a toss of his head throws the clown corpse to the side and moves closer to me. Opening his slightly blood maws, his tongue flicks out and licks my body, coating mine in a layer of saliva.

I shudder at the sudden warmth of his tongue, but another ding goes off.

「Negative effects have been countered with the saliva of the Serpent of Night! 」

Looking up at Royal a smug expression rest on his snake face. I raise an eyebrow but pat his head anyway. It really did appear that he was more than just your average snake, or should I say average familiar.

「Player didn't acquire the soul of the Clown Jack」

I frown, but I quickly get over it. Even though it would have been nice to obtain a strong monster like this, it wasn't a sure thing that I would obtain every monster I defeated. I'm sure the stronger the monster the more difficult it would to be to obtain their soul.

Rubbing a hand over my face, I wipe the saliva and blood from my face. It was an understatement to say that I felt disgusted at the moment.

Glancing over at the corpse of the monster, I look at the gaping hole that had been blown into the side of its face. The force of that arrow had to be unbelievable to have done that much damage.

”Hey! Are you alright?” Matthew voice sounds, I turn my head slightly to find him running towards me. A bow was in his hand and sweat drips profusely down his brow.

He pauses in front of me and looks at me, before turning to look at the corpse of the clown. A relieved look surfaces on his face, once he sees that the clown is for sure dead.

”You're still able to move right?” He asks me as he kneels down by my side. Royal gives a slight hiss in his direction.

”Yeah, I'm still able to move,” I grunt pushing my body up. I force my legs to move and I manage to get to a standing position. The pain was starting to subside, and I was able to drag a deep breath into my lungs.

Standing up, I notice that the forest that we were in was dead quiet. It was like all the life in the forest had vanished and we're the only living souls within it.

It would appear that we aren't in the clear just yet.

Matthew seems to have sensed the change in the forest as well because his whole body tensed up like a spring. Yet, before he could even open his mouth to speak an object appears practically out of thin air and rams into his chest.

The force of the blow throwing him back like he weighed nothing. An indescribable chill crawl's down my back. I felt a tidal wave of fear just wash over my body. It was hard to breathe.

It felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of my body. Like I'd entered into a land devoid of life. I couldn't move my body; it was like an indescribable force was compressing my body. My mind felt like it was going blank, this fear was something that had no reason for it.

Royal's hulking body wraps itself around me, supporting me from falling and at the same time dulling the palpable feeling of fear. Leaning on his body, I draw in air into my starving lungs.

What in the world was happening?!

Peaking over the top of Royal's body, I can make out the figure of something. It was walking slowly through the trees like it didn't have a care in the world. My stomach was churching in fear as it approaches, an aura of dreed seems to surround the monster that was approaching us.

My body was telling me that I needed to flee, that I had no chance of winning against this monster that was approaching. While my brain was trying it's best to sort through the information of the situation.

I didn't even have the frame of mind to worry about what happened to Matthew. If he was alive, I hope that he would be able to help me out. If he wasn't alive, that meant that I would have to clear the rest of this myself.

The closer and closer the monster came, the stronger the fear was it felt like a mad man had a knife to my throat. This was irrational, even when my life was in actual danger, I hadn't felt this level of fear.

Something was wrong!

As if something fell into place a bomb seems to go off in my head, and the fear that I felt subsided.

「Resistance to Fear Activated! 」

「Player's mental state under attack! 」

That was right! I almost forgot that I had a passive that protected against fear attacks. This was a mental attack, that meant that this monster was probably strong in attacking one's mind, that meant that it was probably weak to physical confrontation.

Having the fear lifted slightly, I felt like I could breathe again. This damn monster!

Gritting my teeth, I'd cut down this coward of a monster.

At this point, I could see the culprit that was attacking my mind. It was a sickly-looking clown, that was moving quite slowly towards my position. Both of them are completely black and don't have any eyeballs.

It was dressed in a vibrant golden outfit, with a black J carved into the golden ensemble. Other than that, it was also sporting grey skin like the first clown, it also had ugly golden hair pouring down from its head.

What an ugly creature!

Sucking in a deep breath, I wait for it to get closer and closer. I had no idea, if I was right that'd it'd be physically weak, but I knew that I wouldn't be as lucky as with the first clown. I had Matthew's help and I wasn't wounded; I knew that I'd taken quite the beating. My Hp was defiantly suffering.

I'd lost over half of my Hp in the battle with the first clown. It was safe to say that I wouldn't be able to take another beating like that until I regained my HP.

What a mess this was turning out to be!