The cage shrunken, leaving no space left in it.
Ash stood outside it, sweating profusely, and his legs were shaking a lot. He was leaning on the skeleton sword, and his left shoulder hung at a weird angle.
'I didn't think it would work... but it did.'
.....
Ash was stuck in the cage, and his blows were still hitting the same iron bar. His mind grew weak, and he wanted to give up, making each strike slower than the previous. His face lost all hope, and no thoughts came into his mind; he just became an empty husk.
'I lost.' He laughed lightly, like a maniac, 'What was the point of my trying, all that work of running and dodging and fighting for nothing?' He gripped the sword harder. 'So that I could die again like my past life.'
That's when he saw it—a minuscule change in the bar. His eyes widened, a sense of joy came to him, and he became hopeful again.
"There it is... Progress!!"
Ash wasn't just hitting the same bar, but he was hitting the same point, making the bar weaker in that one area, and finally, he saw progress; the bar bent a bit, making the gap between the bars increase.
Seeing that small opening, Ash kept striking the bar faster and faster with all his force, increasing the bend little by little. Once the change began, it continued to grow.
He smiled as the bar bent wider, just big enough for his face to fit through.
'Just a bit more.'
He then raised his hand again for another strike, and then he felt the cold iron run through his skin.
His elbow hit the cage wall. His back scraped the metal. He shrieked a bit as his body temperature went down. He instantly turned his head back. There was barely an inch of space behind him.
The bars had closed in tighter, and as he wanted to strike, he realized. And the joy on his face slowly faded.
'No…'
He adjusted his grip, twisted his wrist, closed his shoulder together, and tried again.
Nothing. There was no more room to swing.
The blade trembled in his hands.
"Don't Do tHiS to mE nOw." His voice was shaky and low.
He gazed over to the Licht and saw it turn its back on him. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hand.
"No! I won't let him kill me, not without a fight."
Ash's eyes glowed, and he found a way to escape. He didn't know if it would work, but at this point, it didn't matter; he had to try.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before
pushing his head through the bent bar. He grabbed his left shoulder.
Crack,
and dislocated it. He turned slightly, pushing his upper body out.
His breath grew heavy, and his left shoulder was in excruciating pain when it scraped through the bar as it was pushed out. Now, only his lower body was left. He grabbed two iron bars and pushed them as hard as he could, pushing his legs through the bars, and eventually got one out, and the other came out with ease.
He did it. He escaped the shrinking cage with a dislocated hand and a new sword. He lightly placed his palm on his face.
"I did it, I escaped that fucking cage."
He instantly opened the system.
Time remaining – 45 seconds
'Just a few more seconds.'
rattle-rattle
Already knowing what made that sound, with a terrifying smile, he looked up at the black-clothed skeleton.
"I didn't die yet... FUCKER!"
The Licht chuckled and then brought the wand up, ready to kill the human.
Swish
A sword flew to it, hitting its wand and tilting it. At that moment, a large beam shot out from the wand, destroying the beautiful monument on the side, breaking the marble pillars of the ceiling.
A ray of sunlight entered the monument and reflected through the marble shards on the ground, then to more pillars, and eventually the whole monument had rays of light covering it.
Ash's eyes widened; he threw the sword out instinctively, not because he wanted to. Thinking he had lost his sword, he ran away.
'Shit, I have to survive thirty seconds without a weapon.'
He turned back, then stopped in his tracks. The Licht was not following him; it stood behind a ray of light and was looking around it. Eventually, spotting a path, it went around the ray and started chasing him again.
Ash smiled, realizing that he had found the weakness of the scary beast.
He knew he had no hope of fighting the beast one-on-one, but if he could reflect the light to the beast, it might stop and leave him alone. He just had to survive for another thirty seconds.
The only problem was that he had no weapon, no stamina, and one of his hands was not even in the right place.
The Licht shot out another spell towards Ash, this time not missing and aimed directly at him.
The spell was fast. He had no time to react, and the next thing he knew, he felt an excruciating pain in his stomach. He slowly tilted his head to see the beam pierce through a part of his stomach.
He coughed up some blood, and his eyes grew weary and weak, making his vision blurry.
'System, skeleton sword recall.' Ash tried his luck trying to get his weapon, and luckily for him, his hand glowed, and then he felt the hilt of the sleek sword form in his hand.
Grabbing his sword, he brought it up to his face and took a defensive stance.
It was lucky that he couldn't see the Licht, as it had a deep smile and was planning its next move to torture him.
It then shot out another spell, blasting Ash's whole right ear off and part of his head.
He couldn't deflect or block it. His body grew weaker, and his injuries worsened, leaving his whole body stained in crimson. But unbeknownst to all, his mind stood strong. Even though he knew its weakness, he couldn't use it to his advantage, but something else he could use was the Licht's personality.
Ash smiled on the inside, 'Keep torturing me, shitty predator.'