It still tried to crawl away, but I dragged it back and stomped its skull until bone and brain collapsed into a wet paste.
Huff. Huff.
I looked up at the bruised sky, hands resting on my sides as I drew a slow breath.
'The excitement… is gone… It's feeling stale… again.'
Exhale.
[ All stat points from your level-up have been allocated. ]
'Where's the next one?' I thought, the flash of adrenaline cooling into a flat, steady calm.
A weary sensation crawled through me. I glanced to my right and felt something wrong along my side—sharp, insistent. Before I could react, a violent force struck and slammed me through a line of earthen walls. I skidded across packed mud and glassed bone and crashed to the ground far from where I'd stood.
I rolled onto my stomach, pushed up with my right hand and stood. My jacket was still tied across my back; my black T-shirt was rumpled but intact. When I put my palm to my stomach, a sour heat answered.
'I—It hurts…?' I thought, eyes wide as my right hand trembled.
I raised my head slowly. Far off, where I had been standing on the back of a corpse commander, something moved—an unfamiliar creature. It moved its head around, like a beast curious about a new scent.
I looked down at my hand again, confusion curdling into alarm. 'H-how was it able to touch me? Was that magic? It didn't feel like magic—I couldn't even cast in time to dodge—Is it faster than me? Maybe I was caught off guard.' The thoughts tumbled through my head.
My heart hammered. Breathing hitched. A swarm of emotions pressed against my ribs and the world compressed—edges blurring, time stretching into slow, thick moments. Something old and raw uncoiled inside me, a memory I didn't want.
'I am scared…' I admitted to myself, fingers finding my chest.
I forced deep, measured breaths and tried to sort the afterimages. 'This isn't fear… I know… I know what real fear is. I saw it once...... Back in my hometown, the sky filled with clouds making everything black as a void under it as it came toward us—devouring rivers, mountains, everything. My heart raced then not the way it is now. I thought i would be eaten by nothingness. This isn't the same feeling..'
'Who… is it? Status.' I called.
[ Hollowed Maw ]
[ One-of-a-kind Fusion Evolution ]
[ A high-rank undead. After enduring, surviving, and consuming countless beings within the undead swarm, its entire body is now covered with concentrated undead energy. ]
A gust of wind hissed across the maze just then, and a shockwave of pressure rolled through the air.
The creature had been too far before for me to see clearly, but now, standing right in front of me, its form was impossible to ignore. The monster loomed nearly eight feet tall—its entire body looked as if someone had torn the skin from a human and left only the raw, exposed flesh beneath. Its arms were long and powerful, with thick bones jutting out from the elbows—flat and blunt at the ends, as though sliced clean rather than sharpened. Its build was lean yet muscular, the kind that spoke of unnatural strength rather than bulk. It wore nothing to cover its grotesque form.
Its face was the strangest part. The mouth was visible, stretched into something that might have once resembled human lips, but the rest of its head was wrapped—no, engulfed—by massive hands, or perhaps fingers, that grew from the back of its skull and reached forward to cover everything down to the bridge of its nose, like a grotesque helmet of flesh. At the center of where those hands met, a narrow slit pulsed faintly with light—and within that gap floated a single, glowing red orb, like an eye staring out from a void. There were four hands in total, all fused grotesquely into its head, twitching faintly as if alive.
It turned, scanning. Its attention dropped to the churned mud beneath it's feet.
I shoved my weight forward. Wind tightened around my palm as I gripped my right fist.
Without thinking, I launched myself at it.
The Hollowed Maw met me, raising both massive arms to block. My punch slammed into that living armor; skin and tendon folded under the force, and I felt my knuckles push inward as if into deep, wet leather. Impact shoved the thing backward—its bulk tore through my contrived walls, sending chunks of earth and glassed bone flying. The undead behind it went with the surge, crushed and shredded as the creature punched through until its momentum slammed it into the corpse commander's body and it buried itself halfway into that ruined torso. Blood and pale marrow sprayed the air in a wet arc.
'Ah… intrusive thoughts… Well, I know I can punch it back too.' I thought, the dull ache in my chest curdling into a grin of feral enjoyment.
"Don't come here." I murmured
"I can feel something dangerous from that side." Evangeline's voice carried across the field, soft and taut on the wind.
"I can handle it." I replied, and felt her settle back beside Liora.
From the hole in the corpse commander's body, an arm clawed out, gripping the edge of the open entrance as the rest of its massive form followed. The Hollowed Maw emerged, slick with blood, its eyes locking onto me with a cold, predatory stare.
The creature's gaze slid over the churned ground and then fixed on me.
'Before it was like I was bullying kids,' I thought, and my chest fizzed with something like guilt that quickly curdled into a predator's focus.
Then, faster than thought, it was on me. Its motion blurred—an obscene, rippling speed that made the air sing. A pillar of earth exploded up beneath it, trying to pin the thing, but it blocked the trap with both arms and used the recoil to spring skyward.
"If I set traps early, I can counter its speed." I muttered, watching the creature arc through the air.
A smile tugged at my mouth.
I planted my feet and leapt, feeling the thrill of a fight that finally matched my size. I aimed a punch at its head.
It slipped the blow, hips twisting with the easy grace of a hunter. Its right fist crushed into my gut with brutal precision. Pain detonated behind my ribs; the world inverted and I flew, into the mud and iron as I slammed into the maze and sent spray of slick earth into the air.
The creature followed its downward blow with another punch toward the ground. I blasted wind from my right hand, the force yanking my body away to the opposite side. The creature slammed into the mud with a thunderous boom; geysers of clay and fetid water spat up as I flipped, planted my feet and hands, and slid to regain balance and distance.
'He keeps reminding me of the moment that one bitch punched me in school' I thought, an ugly memory spiking my annoyance.
It didn't wait. The Hollowed Maw launched itself at me, a blur of muscle and wet sinew. Mid-flight it threw its arms up to crush; because it leapt higher than forward, it was fractionally slower. That fraction was all I needed. I dodged backward, watching it stomp and send a towering spray of mud into the sky.
My foot hit the ground and, without warning, the creature was suddenly upon me.
'THIS BIT-'
—and its fist detonated into my gut. Pain detonated like a struck bell and I flew back into the maze.
It followed without mercy. As my body skidded over packed glassed bone, the creature closed and clamped my head in its left hand. Before I could think, it began to drag me through the maze walls, tearing wall apart as it spun me like a rag. With a brutal twist it vaulted high, rotating in a nauseating 360 and hurled me into the corpse commander's ruined carcass I had thrown earlier.
Lying amid cold, sticky innards, I could only think, 'This.motherf**er. He's doing combos on me.'
Slowly I pushed up. The creature stood a short way off, patient, waiting. For the first time it moved its mouth. A grotesque curl—an acknowledgement. Mockery.
I clenched my teeth. The muscles in my jaw bunched. I smiled through the grit, flexed the wind-claws back into place and sprinted.
It ran to meet me. We closed, and both of us raised our right arms for the same opening. It struck first.
'It's too fast. My body can't react that quickly,' I thought as the punch cut the air—'But I can see the trajectory.' I drove pressure into my right foot and a blast shoved my midsection, pivoting me out of the attack. The creature's arm sailed past, momentum carrying it forward; it could not pull the strike back in time.
I drove my right claw into its flank. Flesh split. The sound was wet and blunt; warm blood painted my gauntlet as the wound opened into a running red seam.
We circled. The creature leaned forward. I braced my arms together and felt the world shudder—then, in an instant, my position flipped and the creature stood where I had been. It followed with a flurry of punches. My wind gauntlet softened most of the force; the hits still jarred my ribs and sent hot flashes through my arms.
I opened both arms and expelled a radial wind blast. The gust tore outward, hurling the Hollowed Maw backward. I launched after it, aiming for its head—only to find it already dropping to a knee, then twisting free so my blow carried me past.
A punch thudded into my gut and I sailed back into the maze. I planted a hand to stop the skid, pushing off to right myself. The creature lunged; I blew a chunk of air to my left and slid right, evading the attack. Fist coiled, I readied another strike.
This time when it leapt, I timed a wind burst at my ribs dodging and struck its body midair. The force hurled it against a maze wall.
'It can only jump forward because of the mud,' I thought, tracking it's movements.
We traded blows in that maddening, tight rhythm—dodge, strike, be slammed, rise, strike back. At one point it vaulted and ricocheted off a wall with full force toward me; I wasn't ready. Instinct fired: a sideways burst of wind shoved me off-balance and I tumbled through slick muck. I sprang up. Before I could fully brace, a fist smashed my stomach and sent me flying again.
A savage laugh built in my throat. "Stop. Punching. MY. GUT." I spat and met its next charge with a brutal punch that smashed its face downward. Our bodies collided and I skidded a short distance away as it sprawled.
I stood frozen, eyes locked on the creature as it stared back, a slow, confused tilt to its head. It shook itself, as if to shrug off the impact—wet sounds of tearing sinew and a soft, sticky slosh echoing in the chamber.
Then I launched myself forward. As it closed its arms to shield its torso, I slammed a gust of wind from behind my elbow, forcing my punch to gain brutal, unnatural speed. The blow sank into its gut; the creature doubled over, hands clawing at its stomach as it dropped to one knee.
I followed through without hesitation—another rapid punch snapped up into its chin and sent it skidding through the air. I didn't let it settle. As its limp body tumbled, I poured everything into a staccato barrage of fists against its skull, each impact reverberating with a dull, wet thud that spattered the stone with dark, congealed blood.
Bringing both hands together, I formed a massive, driven strike and drove it toward the floor. Its body smashed down and bounced, the sound like a sack of rotten meat hitting rock. I finished the sequence with a hard kick that launched it again, cartwheeling across the maze like a ragged puppet.
For a moment the creature lay still in the labyrinth's centre, ribs rising and falling raggedly through shredded flesh. After a few long beats, it forced itself up, slow and deliberate, blood dripping from split lips and torn uniform—coming back, worse for wear but breathing.
Its jaw was shattered, and its gut still oozed blood, yet the creature moved with unnerving calm. Its hands spread open like grotesque flowers, each petal lined with jagged teeth, and a black portal bloomed along its side. Without hesitation, it plunged a hand into the portal.
Suddenly, dark rifts tore open across the maze floor, each spawning massive, clawed limbs resembling its own hand. They snatched up the scattered undead, dragging them screaming into the void.
One by one, the massive appendages retreated into the black portals. I turned back to the creature just as it withdrew its hand from the portal, reverting to its normal form. But something was wrong—its jaw had mended, the gash in its gut completely healed, and an eerie, unnatural vitality radiated from it.
My heart dropped into my boots. I checked the system prompt as if it could explain the impossible.
[ Hunger beyond flesh ]
[ Attained high regeneration by consuming multiple zombies and ghouls ]
Before I could plan properly, the creature screamed. A cacophony answered—screams erupting from every corner of the maze.
'What was that?' I thought, scrambling to pull up its status again.
[ Devourer's Will ]
[ Send nearby undead into berserker state. Grants the following buffs:
• Enhanced speed
• Increased reflexes
• Greater strength
• Improved agility
• Endless stamina
• Accelerated healing
• Enhanced balance
• Heightened senses ]
My skin went cold. The walls of the maze roiled. From their perches atop the earthen ribs, the zombies hurled themselves down, eyes white with hunger.
'I thought they were isekai zombies—how did they turn into horror game zombies?' I thought, trying for a crooked smile that tasted wrong on my tongue.
A high, cold voice cut across the field. "I told you to let me help." It belonged to a woman somewhere behind me.
to be continued…