Grunting and grumbling, the nearest ogre strolled to the child. Its eyes moved to each limb of the intruder as it wondered which would taste better. In its right hand, it held a metal bat bigger than the child. And it swung it paying no effort.

“What?!” Himo shivered at that sight. Like a towering mountain, the bat approached from the side. This strength… With a stacked [Hopper_x2], he avoided the attack by jumping backward. His back touched the wall. The shockwave from the bat traveled to him and shook his clothes. …Is each of them as strong as my father?

Before he could counterattack, an ogre from the side leaped and swung its bat from above. Himo dodged to the side. And he saw a flying bat darting to his way. Despite its weight, the metal bat rivaled the speed of a pistol’s bullet. Too fast to avoid. Himo drew out the violin and used it as a shield.

A thunderous thud exploded from the collision, and Himo was sent against a wall several meters away. “Urgh!” Blood spilled from his lips. His back was in pain. But he recomposed quickly—the adrenaline had kicked in. He stood up and three invisible platforms coalesced under his feet. In a moment, he reached the other side of the room and plunged on the wall. He grabbed violin and bow, then started playing. Before they could get him.

Following his chaotic, quivering melody, a land of green covered the room. Bushes, trees, and rocks hid the gray and the child.

The ogres didn’t treat the illusion as abnormal. With their dismissing demeanor, they strolled around the room. They looked inside the bushes, they overthrew the rocks, and they crushed the trees in an attempt to find the child.

Hidden behind a few bushes, Himo sighed in relief. Now, how should I ambush them? While he thought on a plan, he kept playing the violin, moving the bushes, rocks, and trees in ways that would lead the monsters away from him. He inspected the monsters for a while, then nodded. Let’s try this…

The speed of his play erupted as the ogres found themselves surrounded by fire. Bushes burst ablaze, trees burned down, and rocks blasted from the heat. But the monsters did not care. They kept searching, searching, and searching as if the heat didn’t exist.

Himo frowned and slowed his play. Dark spheres appeared at the side of the ogres—black holes. The fire surged in their direction as the burning trees and rocks followed after it. The ogres gazed at the black holes. They scratched their heads. And resumed their search yet again.

Are they immune to illusions? No… it’s more that… their belief of being invincible overrules any attack against them. Himo tightened his grasp of the violin. I’ll have to kill them one by one. He exhaled a heavy breath and morphed the landscape. The fire quietened and bushes grew once anew. The surroundings of four ogres were filled, but a lone ogre found itself with no places to search. Before it could go to the four others, a path of bushes and rocks emerged beside it. And it followed that path.

Perfect! Himo grinned. He placed the violin to the side and took out the scythe. The area surrounding him had vast vegetation, so he had not to worry about a place to hide—he stood behind a boulder, surrounded then by bushes. His eyes rested in a hole through the boulder and stared at the ogre as it neared his trap.

Ten… nine… eight… He counted the spots the ogre had to check before falling in his trap. Three… two… one…

When the ogre crouched to check a bush, Himo darted to its back. Scythe in hand, he swung the weapon to the neck of his prey. But his grin froze.

“Good smell!” The ogre snapped back and grabbed the handle of the scythe with a hand. It then grabbed the torso of the child with the other hand.

“Eh? How?” Himo widened his eyes. The scythe was taken. The violin was far. And he was trapped. A cold feeling expanded from his heart and overtook his whole body. The pungent breath of the ogre invaded his nostrils. Its drool slid down from its mouth. Getting paler and paler, Himo kicked and punched and kicked and punched, but the ogre didn’t budge. It laughed, instead.

“Lively. Plus tasty.” It eyed Himo. And pulled him closer to its mouth.

A sword lounged to its neck. Himo’s eyes filled with killing intent as he pushed the weapon against the throat of the monster. But to no avail. The sword failed to pierce that green skin, and the ogre shoved it off.

Is this the end? Those words drew his mind back to when he was still on Earth, and a mocking smile grew on his lips. One aimed at himself. How pathetic. Despite wishing death for so long... I am now afraid of it? He shut his eyes, lost in thought as the ogre pulled him closer, but his hands acted by themselves, thrusting their palms to the shoulders of the monster.

The strained muscles of his arms sent a flash to his brain that woke him up. His eyes snapped open as a hint of resolution escaped from his retinas. No! The past is not important—it died the day I met the system. And now it’s not the end! He grit his teeth and pushed the monster in a last-ditch effort. His strength was far from enough, but he didn't stop. He pushed, pushed, and pushed. "Go! Away!"

Two invisible platforms appeared in front of his hands. One for each hand. They were alike the [Hopper] he always used, alike for all but one thing. They were reversed.

A loud thud sounded from their push, and the monster groaned, forced to take a step back. It let go of Himo. The child jumped away to grab his violin. With it in his hands, he vanished amidst the bushes as his trembling hands calmed.

A metal bat appeared at his side—“Shi—!”—and it crashed on his face. His head got crushed, and his body fell limp on the ground that slowly turned gray once again.

The ogre that threw the bat walked closer to him, but it stopped and stared from the side.

A second ogre walked to that one and slapped its nape. “Stupid.”

A third one did the same. “Waste.”

And the fourth one soon followed. “Ruined food. You no eat.”

As the monsters neared the corpse, everything dissolved into black. The monsters, the room, and the tower were no more. Only one thing was present: a comment from the system.

[Interesting. A first-time performance slightly above average.]