SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 57: The Fight with the Shaman

Hiroshi moved first.

He pushed off the floor and rushed forward. The chains around his wrists swung with the motion, metal links clinking softly. He didn’t slow down. The distance between him and the Shaman closed quickly.

The Shaman didn’t panic.

It stepped back once and lifted its staff. Its mouth moved as it spoke a short phrase under its breath. Two shapes peeled away from the wall like shadows being pulled loose. They rushed in from both sides and hit Hiroshi before he could reach the table.

The cold struck him instantly.

It wasn’t pain at first. It was worse than pain. His body simply stopped responding for a moment. His muscles locked and his joints felt heavy.

For half a second he couldn’t move.

Then his body forced itself forward again.

He pushed through the cold and took another step, then another. But that brief pause had already given the Shaman the space it needed.

By the time Hiroshi reached the broken table, the Shaman was already on the other side.

A wide crack split the stone table through the middle. Pieces of stone and scattered debris covered the floor around it. The Shaman moved around the right side of the table while Hiroshi circled left. Neither of them rushed. The table stayed between them.

The Shaman kept watching him.

Its yellow eye never left Hiroshi. Its mouth kept moving as it whispered something over and over again in a low voice.

More shapes appeared. Three of them dropped from above.

Hiroshi noticed them before they landed. His instincts reacted faster. He stepped to the left and the first shape passed right by him.

The second one hit his shoulder.

Cold flooded down his arm immediately. His left arm locked from the elbow down. His fingers refused to move.

The third shape came straight at his chest.

Hiroshi didn’t dodge that one. He drove straight through it instead. The cold stabbed through his body as he pushed past it. When he came out the other side, he was two steps closer to the Shaman.

The Shaman moved back again.

It moved slowly and carefully, as if it had done this many times before.

Hiroshi stopped moving.

For a moment he simply stood there and looked around the room.

Shapes drifted everywhere. Some clung to the walls. Others floated near the ceiling. The markings carved into the stone glowed bright now, filling the room with a pale light.

Behind him, the door shook.

Elias was still there. Still holding the door shut while something on the other side kept trying to break through.

Hiroshi turned his attention back to the Shaman.

Charging straight forward wasn’t working.

So he changed direction.

He suddenly ran left.

Not toward the Shaman. Toward the wall.

The Shaman noticed immediately. Its head turned slightly as it followed his movement. Its staff lifted again.

Four shapes broke away from the ceiling and rushed toward Hiroshi to intercept him.

He didn’t stop.

The first one slammed into his right arm. Cold spread across his shoulder.

The second one struck his side. The third brushed his back as he pushed past it.

By the time the fourth one hit him, the cold had already started stacking in his body. His shoulder felt heavy. The numbness was spreading slowly toward his neck.

Pain suppression kicked in.

The worst of the pain faded away, leaving only pressure and stiffness behind. It wasn’t comfortable, but it kept him moving.

He reached the wall.

The stone surface was cold against his shoulder as he planted his foot and turned sharply.

Now he was coming at the Shaman from the side.

The broken table was no longer between them.

The Shaman reacted instantly.

It stepped backward and spoke again. Six shapes dropped from the ceiling in a straight line, forming a barrier directly in Hiroshi’s path.

Hiroshi kept running. He activated the strength multiplier. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

His body surged forward.

He hit the first shape at full speed and burst through it. Cold slammed into him again, but he didn’t slow down.

Second shape.

Third.

Each one hit him like a wave of freezing water pouring into his muscles. His left arm was completely locked now. It hung useless at his side.

His right knee began to stiffen.

The multiplier pushed against the cold, forcing his muscles to keep moving. But the effort was starting to show. His breathing grew

heavier with every step.

Fourth shape.

Fifth.

Sixth.

He broke through the last one and staggered forward.

The Shaman was only three meters away now.

It stood still and watched him approach.

Then it raised its staff high above its head.

For a brief moment, the room went quiet.

Then the staff came down.

The impact echoed through the chamber as the staff struck the stone floor. A crack spread outward from the point of impact like a spiderweb across the ground.

The crack reached the glowing markings on the walls.

They flared bright white.

Every shape in the room reacted instantly.

They all turned toward Hiroshi.

All of them.

The small goblin shapes crawling along the floor. The taller human shapes drifting near the ceiling. Every single one began moving toward him at the same time.

Hiroshi saw it happening.

His instincts tried to find a path through them. His mind searched for an opening, a gap he could slip through.

There wasn’t one.

There were too many. They came from every direction.

He kept moving anyway.

The first few shapes struck him immediately. Cold poured into his body again and again as more of them collided with him. His legs slowed, but he forced them forward.

Another hit. Then another.

The cold inside him kept building. Pain suppression pushed back against it, but the strain was obvious now.

His body felt heavier with every step.

Still, he kept going.

The Shaman was close.

Two meters.

A shape slammed into his back. His right knee nearly buckled.

One meter.

Another shape struck his chest. His breath left him in a rough gasp.

He reached out with his right hand.

The chain wrapped around his fist as he extended his arm.

The Shaman spoke a single word.

At that exact moment, everything hit him.

All the remaining shapes crashed into him at once.

The cold flooded through his entire body. His legs locked. His chest tightened. Even breathing became difficult.

For two seconds he stayed on his feet through nothing but stubborn effort.

His arm was still stretched forward. His hand almost reached the Shaman.

From this close, he could finally see the yellow eye clearly.

It stared back at him calmly.

There was no fear in it. Not even a little.

The Shaman had never been afraid during this fight. Not when Hiroshi rushed it. Not when he broke through the first line of shapes. Not even now when he stood right in front of it.

It had been calm the entire time.

Like this outcome had always been certain.

Hiroshi’s legs finally gave out. He dropped slowly.

First his knees hit the stone floor. Then his hands.

The chains around his wrists clattered against the ground.

The cold filled his entire body now. Pain suppression had nothing left to work with. Every injury from the night returned all at once.

The tunnel fights. The earlier battles.

Every strike he had taken since entering this place.

His vision began to narrow.

The edges of the room faded into darkness.

The Shaman stood above him.

The yellow eye watched him quietly as he knelt on the floor, barely able to move.

After a few seconds, the Shaman turned away.

It walked back toward the broken table.

The staff lifted again. Its voice started whispering once more.

The ritual began again as if nothing had interrupted it.

As if Hiroshi had already lost.