Free A New World (Gamer, Book 1) by Kenneth Guthrie Page A

crushing him to death.
    Tentacles whack out at the outside of the
blobs, trying to get at him, and slimes slip in underneath to stick
like concrete to his body. He is in a chamber of certain death made
up of gooey reddish blob flesh. Harry can already feel the loss of
gold coming on with the accompanying electrical shock that hails
death in this world.
    He moves his hands about in the blobs and
starts tearing at their insides. His Pig Sticker lies beside him,
but it's too heavy to lift within the soft resistance of these
creatures. He punches and tears inside the goo over top of him and
the beasts explode as they die. His last strike is one that smashes
a blob above him to pieces, burning several others in the process.
There is a great squirt of acid and then he dies. It’s incredibly
painful and electricity burns through his body so harshly that he
feels like his mind will succumb to a real death, instead of a fake
one because of it.
    He appears just down the road next to a small
building that is vacant. He gets to his feet without a word and
stumbles towards where Axel is still lying defenseless. He makes it
to the field to find her sitting up against a tree staring at the
scene that is erupting in front of her.
    "You just killed fifteen blobs, twelve slimes
and three tentacles in one go," she says in shock.
    He looks to the mess of creatures lying dead
on the ground and a new expression comes over his face. They share
a look of hope, the first hope they have felt since they realized
the difficulty of the quest.
    "It is your turn," he says to her. "I'm
running low on gold and I don't like dying."
    She shrugs as if to say 'fair enough' and he
helps her to her feet. He holds her up for long enough for her to
get close to the slimes and then retreats.
    The creatures immediately race over to her and
grab hold of her body. She allows them to drag her to the dirt and
immediately other slimes race in her directions, perhaps sensing an
easy kill.
    Harry watches as blobs and tentacles jump on
top of her. The limbed creatures don't fit well and slip off to the
side, leaving only the blobs.
    Soon her health is nearing zero as the acid
does its work; However, she is punching out with everything she has
and Harry can see a chain reaction starting to happen. She hasn't
quite got enough strength to defeat enough of them to cause a
massive explosion, but there's enough acid being thrown around to
really do some damage.
    Harry recognizes what must be done as Axel
dies and surges forward. He races inside the blobby mess and kicks
and punches in every direction. The added force of him barging in
and attacking damages even more blobs and knocks his health down to
near zero in moments. He sustains his assault for as long as he
can, but he doesn't last long.
    With a smile, he throws one last punch and
then disappears. The damage has already been done. They are nearly
there.
    They both appear down the road and lie on the
ground breathing hard for a moment. It is hard to get up, but they
still manage it.
    "How many?" A severely burnt Harry
asks.
    "Five more," Axel replies.
    They rushed back to the field with only four
minutes left on the clock and kill anything they can.
    With one minute left, they manage to kill
their very last mob. It's been a feat of incredible endurance, yet
they have made it.
    They stumble back to the woods and lean up
against two of the trees. They draw out some food and ravenously
consume it as the opportunity to stop and rest is
provided.
    "Shouldn't we be getting a completed screen?"
Harry asks after a few minutes.
    They both open their quest books and Harry
goes so far as to try and tear his quest book in half.
    They both stumbled to their feet and rush
through the woods. It's an exhausting movement and they barely make
it to the small path that leads towards the area were they have
been respawning.
    When they get to the small hut a translucent
woman is waiting for them.
    "Where do we have to go?" Harry