Free Hell's Glitch (LitRPG): Into a Dark Adventure by Belart Wright Page A

way I’ll be able to fight a boss like this.  I
need a better weapon.”
    He closed his menu and noticed the shredded remains of
Hardass were in three separate piles.  They hadn’t fallen like that, so Sam
wondered what the heck was going on.
    Is it still alive ?
    He wasn’t too concerned if it was.  Now he knew which of its
attacks to avoid and he knew how to get in close to defeat it.  He would avoid
another fight so soon if he could though, so he opted to walk in the opposite
direction.  That was a mistake.
    “What the—”
    The three piles sprouted up from the ground with three new
enemies.  Sam couldn’t believe his eyes.  All three creatures looked just like
the Hardass he’d just barely managed to kill.
    “No!  No!  And hell no!”
    Sam was terrified but he kept moving.  He kept his wits
about him as he considered his options.  He knew that running, in a game like
this, could be more harmful than good.  He might easily pull another group of
enemies into the fray and that would be disastrous.  The enemies watched him
and slowly closed in and he circled around them.  Besides the fear of pulling
more enemies, Sam also felt like he had a chance to win this fight.  When he
stripped away all the bullshit from his previous encounter, it was clear that
it had taken two blows to actually kill the original Hardass.  The two critical
blows weren’t easy to get, but they were very powerful, doing at least ten
times the damage of his most damaging normal attacks. All he needed was to get
in close and find his opening.
    Two of the Hardass clones started to attack.  One wound up
for the piercing attack, which Sam knew would poison him and the other went for
the whipping attack.  Sam concentrated on the one with the piercing attack and
made sure to circle around it.  The one with the whip attack was feinting again,
so Sam had enough time to get in close and backstab the other one since it was
already in range.  The third one, which he had named Murderass—after Hardass
Number Two and Hardass Number Three—was only now starting to attack.  It went
for a whipping strike as Sam’s blade claimed over half of the other creature’s
HP.  Sam was just wresting his blade from the creature when Murderass and
Hardass Number Three’s attacks passed right through him.  He smiled at his turn
of luck.
    “Wait your turn, Murderass and Hardass Number Three.”
    Backstabs and hopefully other special attacks had some
invincible frames to them, meaning he was safe as long as the attack was being
performed.  This fact and his speed were about the only advantages he had in
this fight and he made sure to use every advantage he had.
    The very end of the animation, right after he kicked the
enemy from his blade, was not invincible.  Hardass Number Two’s whipping strike
showed him his vulnerability.  The quick strike lashed at his leather clad body
and reduced his health by a fifth, while Murderass landed a successive blow
reducing him by another fifth.  That quick, he had lost over a third of his
health.
    “Damn, you guys are hardcore.”
    He wanted to take advantage while the other Hardass was
still on the ground recovering, but together left no openings.  When he saw the
third creature getting to its feet, he tried to quickly create an opening with
one of the other two.  He tried to parry one of the whipping strikes, but only
managed to partially reduce the damage and still took full damage from the
other Hardass’ follow up strike.  All in all, he now had less than a third of
his health, so he retreated behind a tree and drank from his Soul Fire.  He
heard the blows from the creatures raining down on the thick trunk behind him. 
It gave him a wonderful idea.
    He ran to the next tree, narrowly avoiding two piercing
attacks.  He did this around them, watching them, timing their blows as they
struck tree after tree.  Finally, he saw his next opening.  As two of them
launched the long range piercing attacks,