My General Awareness pinged: Adult Boapede: about 3x bigger than the juvenile you encountered.
The Boapede was, how can I say this, utterly terrifying! It had broad patches of missing scales where a tapestry of raw scars marred its body, and its long hair, sparse and clumpy, resembled the scattered tufts on a dog suffering from scabbies. Its pincers, jutting immensely from its mouth, seemed impossibly longer than anything I'd seen before, and all eight of its eyes glimmered with a cold, black intensity.
The golem roared a frustrated, mechanical growl at the Boapede, sounding for all the world like a grown man having a tantrum, bellowing "that's my toy!" It stomped its feet, one after the other, causing the ground to tremor with each heavy impact. The Boapede merely hissed back at its direction, as if the golem were nothing but a bothersome fly, and slithered directly towards me.
Heightened Awareness: Adult Boapede: Distance: 20 meters Speed: around 40 kph, 1-2 seconds before it reaches you.
I dropped back to a desperate kneel, propping myself with the help of my trusty sword-knife. My insides still churned with the dull, aching throb from the explosion. I saw my left leg, already stained with blood, watching the dark patch slowly bloom wider. I looked back up at the Boapede, now slithering menacingly closer, and I raised my sword, my hand trembling noticeably. "Come and get it!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, my panic momentarily shoved aside by a defiant surge of adrenaline.
The Boapede's mouth/pincers snapped open wide, and it lunged at me with startling speed. But before it could reach me, it suddenly slammed to a halt, its million hand-like feet skidding wildly on the polished floor. It still tried to clip me, its colossal head whipping in a powerful arc. Though still unable to move from my kneeling state, I instinctively defended myself with my sword. I managed to parry its right pincer with a jarring impact, and the force sent me flying, slamming hard into the wall near the ruined staircase with a sickening thud. I crumpled to the ground. "Oof," I gasped, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the marble.
The golem, with a Herculean effort, pulled the Boapede back by its tail. The creature protested vehemently, flailing its massive body in mid-air as it was dragged away. The golem was incredibly strong, yanking that huge slug-like monster as if it were just another Tuesday. I still couldn't believe I'd somehow blocked its attack during my cutscene state. "Move, dude!" my brain urgently nudged my senses. I looked around, dazed, and saw that I'd fallen onto a scattered pile of ancient bones and rusted armor. "Oh sorry, bro," I whispered, imagining its spirit trying to strangle me for desecrating its remains. Just then, glinting among the debris, I saw something.
General Awareness: Health Potion: Description: Red liquid inside a flask, and heals hp, what else? How much hp, not known.
I could hear the two colossal Kiko-killers still locked in chaotic combat, fighting over the right to do me first – rocks splintering, high-pitched hisses, guttural growls, and all that glorious din. And here I was, flat on my back, wondering if this potion was way past its expiration date, actually bothering to check if it even had one. "What if it's not a health potion?" I scolded myself. "Seriously, Kiko, if it's poison, then you're going to die anyways 'coz you are in no condition to escape." I bit the cork out of the flask, spat the bitter wood aside, and chugged the liquid. Oddly, it tasted like liquified tofu "taho" without the sweetener nor the sago. Then, I felt it – a surge, like I'd popped two mefenamic acids, but with an immediate, profound pain-relieving effect. At the same time, a warm, fuzzy sensation spread through my limbs. The agonizing pain slowly faded, and the bleeding on my left leg stopped blooming. I pulled up my pants and watched in amazement as the wound slowly closed. "Amazing," I said, a genuine gasp of wonder escaping me. It was like watching Wolverine healing his wounds right in front of my eyes. "Damn, this world is so cool if it hadn't been killing me from the get-go."
I heard a sudden, loud crash. My eyes snapped back to the overgrown monstrosities. I saw the golem was now lying flat on its back, struggling, holding off the adult Boapede with its single right hand while its enemy tried desperately to clip the golem's head. I thought the golem would be the obvious winner with its strength, but having only one arm clearly placed it at a severe disadvantage. The Boapede's muscular body coiled and twisted in mid-air, leveraging its enormous weight to push itself onto the golem, aiming for the finishing blow.
"Chance," I muttered, my mind rapidly calculating. "I can't outrun these two, but I can surely put their blind hatred towards me to my advantage."
I looked around. I saw a few scattered gold coins and more bones. Anything here that I could use? My gaze snagged on a leather strap in the distance. "And are those kunai?"
General Awareness: Weapon: Kunai Description: throwing ninja blades yo'!
"Anything that will make me win, I'll take it," I muttered under my breath, my resolve hardening. I pushed myself up and sprinted towards the kunai near the rubble of the staircase. The kunai strap was grimly strapped on a skeleton that had been crushed by the fallen debris of the staircase. "Ouch, that's a painful way to die," I muttered. I quickly unstrapped the leather strap, which held four kunai holstered neatly, missing one blade. "Sorry, bro, I don't think you need this anymore," I said, addressing the skeletal remains. Then, I strapped it on my thigh, and voila, I looked closer to a real adventurer now with this Kunai strapped on my right thigh.
I looked back at the monsters fighting. The golem was still on the ground, but now it was fighting back by throwing heavy punches and wide swats that were easily dodged by the agile Boapede. At the same time, the Boapede continued to lay its enormous body onto the golem, trying to pin it.
I looked around some more, and just a little to the left of the skeleton was a scroll.
General Awareness: fireball scroll: casts 1 fireball. How to use: pull the pin, throw and take cover, kidding-thats a grenade, do you know anything about this world? Pull the lock that contains the spell, then grab the spell before it dissipates, and release it to the desired direction.
"I'll take this too, if you don't mind," I said, talking to the crushed skeleton and placing the scroll in my hoodie pocket inside my linen shirt. "And no, I don't know anything about this world, you don't need to be sarcastic about it," I muttered, talking back to the awareness prompt. "Although," I added, a faint grin touching my lips despite the chaos, "I'm glad that some basic tutorial was incorporated into the general awareness even if it's sarcastic. Glitch or not."
Looking at my new arsenal, I weighed my options, thought of strategies, I breathed in, and then, with renewed purpose, began sprinting towards the two.