A sudden jerk saved Ethan as the Grey Prima fired more acid. That slimy trail whipped close - so near he felt the heat - and then struck earth just behind. Ground met goop with a sharp sizzle, chewing through soil and leaf matter alike. Wisps of pale vapour rose where the mess landed, curling like startled breath.
Ethan didn't wait.
Barely able to move, he pushed back on shaky paws, putting space between him and the Grey Prima. The effort twisted his frame into odd angles, each shift a struggle. Pain shot through him with every tiny crawl backward. Each breath hit like a gasp, lungs working harder than they should, rising fast, falling faster.
Only then did he pause, eyes dropping to the furry limbs where feet should be.
A sour knot formed deep in his gut.
Flesh showed where the acid ate through, taking patches of white fur with it. Deep burns marked his body, stinging with every heartbeat. Pain flashed behind his eyes, clouding what he saw. His limbs shook under him, slow to answer. Movement came awkwardly now. Not smooth. Not right. Balance slipped like sand through fingers.
It hurt badly.
Breathing through tight teeth, Ethan held back another shout. Before, agony had taken full control. It left him gasping, jerking wildly, yelling into the dark. Yet as the sharp edge dulled, thoughts began to return.
Barely.
Footsteps faded as he turned, eyes meeting the Grey Prima's gaze once more.
It moved toward Ethan, slow and thick. A wet trail followed behind it.
It crept without rush, gliding low through leaves like it had nowhere to be. A soft grey shape swayed as it went, jelly-like, while a smooth blue sphere hung still within.
No hurry showed in how it traveled, nor any pause. For the Prima, none of this needed explaining. Wounded. Ethan lay still. Closing in came the hunter.
Frozen in place, Ethan studied every move it made.
Honestly, he realized, he had overreacted.
The sting cut deep, but he had reacted like someone experiencing real pain for the first time in their life. Like a child who had never been burned before. He had screamed as if he were dying, as if his life was already over.
But he wasn't dead.
Not yet.
Breath by breath, Ethan worked to steady himself. One sharp inhale. Then a long trembling exhale followed. Thoughts came sharper now, cutting through ache and panic alike. The moment ahead claimed his attention fully - his body's scream fading into the background.
A shape in gray kept moving closer. It did not stop.
Fleeing again was an option for Ethan. Though his legs dragged with pain, vanishing into the trees remained an option. Space stretched between trunks, paths unwinding where speed might win. Distance could be created. Survival could be prioritized.
Yet he stayed still.
It wasn't because his legs hurt too much to hop.
No.
There stood the Prima, real and unmistakable.
Ethan couldn't stand it.
It struck him how impossible it felt - that something so small, someone he'd always ignored, could strike first. Cause pain. Force him back against the wall.
Even if he was a rabbit now.
Once upon a time, Ethan topped every leaderboard in Blizzard Online.
World Rank #1.
Once he'd faced things that erased whole groups in seconds. Veterans paused before stepping near those foes. A Prima? Never happened. Not one named Prima. None of their kind either.
And now this thing had initiated a fight with him.
A fire lit up deep in his ribs, fiercer than the burn eating through his flesh.
No.
He couldn't walk away from this.
Not now.
Pride stood in his way.
Though his strength faded. Though size meant little. Though pain followed each step.
He wasn't running.
When the Grey Prima drew near, Ethan's eyes narrowed. The fear slipped away - concentration took its place instead. Into that old rhythm his thoughts fell, the kind built from too many hard fights inside the game.
Alright, he thought. How do I kill this piece of trash?
He began sorting through what he knew.
Fingers moving slow, he started pulling pieces from memory.
In Blizzard, Primas and most other creatures could be killed by destroying their core. Excluding people, every other creature carried a core within. Sometimes just a single core. Other times, several scattered through the form. Primas fell like the rest when that inner center broke apart. Smash the core, and the breath left the body. Life ended there.
Simple.
What made it tough changed with each creature.
Breakable ones cracked under little pressure. Others stayed safe behind thick shields. A few needed extreme force - or special skills - to finish off.
Primas were weak.
Soft and see-through, their forms gave little resistance. A regular blade slipped through without effort. Simple flames were enough to set them alight. Proper impact from something heavy did the job too.
Normally.
Ethan glanced around.
Without a blade, he stood empty-handed.
No weapon.
No sharp object.
Fear held him back at first. Maybe this form couldn't channel spells at all. Reaching for strength now might work, but hitting the Prima head-on had risks. One wrong move and his arm would burn in that sour goop.
That would hurt.
A lot.
This time, it wasn't like any regular Prima.
And this wasn't a normal Prima.
It was a Grey Prima.
Stronger acid. Higher danger.
Ethan's thoughts raced as the slime closed the distance.
Options were very limited.
"Wait -"
A shape stirred in his mind, yet the sound escaping his lips amounted to little more than a faint squeak.
It dawned on him.
Something caught Ethan's rabbit by surprise. His eyes grew large.
He remembered something.
Something important.
It came back to him - something he'd seen before, during the Grey Prima's initial strike. Pain had clouded everything then, sharp and blinding. Now, calm returned, and with it, that moment stepped forward, uninvited yet clear.
The creature oozed closer, yet Ethan didn't blink. His mind locked onto its slow creep.
If what he remembered was right…
And if luck was on his side, it could help him kill the piece of trash.
--------------------
Knowledge determines how far you can go. Luck decides where you stop. A genius without luck becomes a tragedy. A fool with luck becomes a legend. And when luck and knowledge meet at the same moment?
That is called a turning point. Ethan had the knowledge. He had the experience. What he lacked… was timing. And timing, fortunately, had just arrived.