Elliot Kim slept. The alarm beside him disliked this. As the clock struck seven, it sprung to life, creating an irritating beeping noise that caused him to subconsciously slap the alarm, his fingers groping around clumsily for the button. His finger slipped over it, and he stopped the noise quickly before rising groggily from bed.
The bedroom, like the rest of the apartment, was small, with only a bed, dresser, nightstand, and two doors leading to the bathroom and kitchen respectively. He opened the door to the former and stepped inside for some relief and a shower.
The apartment consisted of three rooms-a bedroom, a shower, and a kitchen that also functioned as a common area, and hosted the only window in the whole apartment, which was currently covered by heavy drapes. The three spaces were built plainly, and the whole place had a distinct lack of personality to it. The only real personal touch was a framed photograph on the nightstand.
However, Elliot didn't mind, too much at least. Two slices of toast and instant coffee would suffice for breakfast this morning, and he ate in relative silence, drinking the coffee quickly afterwards. He then threw open the curtains, revealing a city already bustling with people, even at such an ungodly hour. A little voice in the back of his head responded to this thought. Well, you wouldn't think it was such an ungodly hour if you got more than four hours of sleep. He told the little voice to shut up.
The streets outside were already filled with cars and trucks, and crowds of pedestrians could be found at crosswalks, waiting for the light to change so they could get going again. Elliot found himself in one of these, wearing a white collared shirt, and reasonably awake. He pulled out his phone to check the time. Seven fifteen in the morning, on the dot. He tucked his phone back into his pocket. and looked around, bored. All of the sudden, a deafening roar shook the intersection, followed by a strong gust of wind that threatened to knock the waiting pedestrians off their feet. Elliot instinctively sheltered himself, but the moment passed and the intersection became oddly quiet. The silence was broken again as the distinctive sound of shouting and screaming filled the air, coming from past the intersection. Panicked pedestrians flooded out from the source of the screaming, clumsily pushing through the crowd at the intersection, most of whom began running as well. Elliot was pushed to the side, then pushed down and stomped on before he managed to crawl to the side and look back. A massive, pale hand was gripping the side of the building, and the rest of the creature turned the corner. It was a giant, a pale-skinned monstrosity with pale skin and large tusks, wearing only a ragged loincloth and holding a massive tree trunk as a makeshift club. A few stragglers were caught under this club as the creature slammed it into the fleeing crowd, sending a spray of blood into the air. Elliot turned, and ran.
Stolen novel; please report.
The only word that could've described it is stampede; Anyone who fell behind for even a second was trampled before being trampled underneath the giant's feet. Elliot stumbled, and then it was all over. People rushed over him, trampling him into the ground. Body bruised and sore, he scrambled away from the giant's foot as it came crashing down. However, he couldn't hope to avoid the swinging club, which sent him flying into a building. The pain shot through him as he heard an audible snap, and blood ran down the back of his neck. A blue screen appeared before his eyes.
-Congratulations! You have awakened.-
-You have gained the skill; Spear mastery (E)-
He closed his eyes and opened them again. Oddly enough, it was still there. This is insanity. That thing looks like an ogre, or giant, and the thing in front of me looks like some sort of game message. What has my life become? The ogre bellowed, and Elliot put one foot beneath him. Get up. Get up now. If death is all but guaranteed, what's the point of not trying? His hand reached out for anything, and found a length of metal, smeared with blood and pointed on one end, most likely a broken rod or pipe. His eyes unconsciously went to the grisly scene next to him-a woman had been killed brutally, half her side caved in and a sharp, broken length of metal protruding from her neck. Elliot felt sick.
He held the rod up and pointed it at the ogre as he shakily stood. It seemed so laughably small compared to the lumbering giant, but a sudden burst of strength and instinct came to him. He slid one hand up the rod, holding the makeshift weapon like a spear. He glanced off to the side, where the rest of the crowd was getting farther away. The ogre reached down and he stabbed into the hand. The wounds cut deep, but compared to the size of the ogre, they might as well have been paper cuts. Clumsy fingers grasped his body, and he stabbed downwards into the wrist as the thing lifted him up above their head and opened their jaw. His mind raced, and his vision focused on the ogre's eye. The ogre dropped him, and half his body slid into the jaw as the other half pulled himself up and stabbed into the eye, using the embedded rod as an anchor to pull himself up. Elliot clambered up and drove the rod into the ogre's eye, which was noticeably softer, but far more bloody. Gouts of blood rushed out, coating his arms and making it hard to see and the rod broke into softer tissue. The ogre bellowed, this time in pain, and stumbled backwards, falling against the building, the massive hands weakly trying to brush him off as the rod sunk deeper in, less than a foot's length left sticking out. The ogre's corpse collapsed and slid down the building.
Elliot stumbled backward, falling onto his back. His torso was in agony, his legs numb, and his vision swam. It felt like heated barbed wire being dragged across his skin, raking in and pulling flesh off. He fell to his knees, fading quickly, and his vision went dark.
