-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Elder Reptilian Kobold-
Cynrik moved like a phantom throughout the Village’s residential area; each time he slashed his Kodachi, a head fell before the creature’s body was incinerated by his [BlackFire].
-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
Like an emotionless killing machine that was incapable of discerning between young and old, Cynrik mercilessly hacked and slashed his way from group to group of kneeling Kobolds. Age, size, gender, none of it mattered to him. At some point, he had even unconsciously begun swinging his Kodachis in time with the music playing in his head.
Time had no meaning at the moment to Cynrik, and alongside the dark music was the accompaniment of Tobs, informing him of each life he reaped.
-Quest Updated-
-Subjugate Kobold Villagers: 31/68- (incomplete)
-You have killed a Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Elder Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Elder Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
Gulping back the sour taste in his mouth, Cynrik didn’t stop for a second. ‘I swear on everything I am if I ever find that bitch Wadjet, evisceration will only be the beginning. I will shread her body piece by fucking piece before force-feeding her flesh down her fucking gullet.’ Fighting back the intense emotional response threatening to overwhelm his psyche, Cynrik grit his teeth as hard as he could.
-Quest Updated-
-Quest Updated-
-Quest Updated-
-Quest Updated-
-Quest Updated-
His eyes flicked to the HUD floating in the corner of his vision as he checked his MP. So far, he had drained about half of it, but he didn’t care. Deep down, Cynrik wanted to give some solace to these lost souls. His way of showing this was that their corpses wouldn’t be used for anything nefarious or eaten by scavengers. So, this was his version of burial for them in some twisted way.
Spitting a mouth full of blood that had accumulated from his gums due to how hard he was gritting his teeth, Cynrik kicked off the ground and headed towards another group of Kobolds. Unfortunately, several had already spotted his actions and screamed in fear while fleeing towards the training grounds.
Without expending much effort, Cynrik quickly caught up to a group of running Kobolds. With his feet leaving the ground and his body rotating in the air, Cynrik lopped off the heads of two before landing on the ground with his knees. Then, shifting his body weight slightly, he twisted and kicked out the legs of an elderly Kobold, dropping the creature onto its back, and planted his flaming Kodachi into its chest.
-You have killed a Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Elder Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold-
‘I hate this…why…why did this have to happen.’
Pulling his blade from the creature’s chest, Cynrik jumped up and chased down all of the Kobolds he came across before bisecting them and setting their corpses ablaze. Unfortunately, as he went about this, he started losing track of the numbers of corpses burning, and if it weren’t for the constant DING sound in his head from Tobs, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up this meaningless slaughter. Each DING represented one less life he had to take.
Cynrik’s eyes rapidly bounced around their sockets with [Mana Sight] active, locating his final target, a group of two hatchlings holding hands and crying as they ran with their little legs.
Fighting back a mouth full of bile, Cynrik flicked both his wrists while making a whipping motion and fired off both his hidden blades into the heads of the two hatchlings, instantly taking their lives as painlessly as possible.
-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
-You have killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
With a wave of his hands, the two hidden blades flew back and reinserted themselves into their housings within Cynrik’s assassin’s tools. As Cynrik stood up, he felt something wet on his cheek, assuming it was blood; he swiped it away with the backside of his hand and examined it only to realize instead of the dark red blood he’d been expecting, it was clear fluid.
-You have completed a task.-
-Subjugate Kobold Villagers: 68/68- (complete)
Standing in place, looking at the clear fluid on the backside of his shaking hand, Cynrik listened to Tobs’ monotone voice informing him that his job was complete. He had no idea how long it had been since he started, and by looking at the minor scratches and chips on his blades, Cynrik knew he would have to live with the symbolic blood that now stained his hands. In both of his lives, he had killed, but never indiscriminately and never without the other party wanting to take his life.
‘Tears?’
It was unknown how long it had been happening, but with his attention drawn to the tears coating the back of his hand, Cynrik realized he had been crying for some time now. Not sobbing but emotionlessly crying.
[CYNRIK, GABBY, AND BENNY ARE CAPPED, WE NEED YOU OVER HERE!]
Being pulled out of his stupor by Brance, Cynrik cast a final glance back at the mostly quiet residential area behind him. The only noise currently were the sounds of the annoying SIMP lizard, who was utterly oblivious to what had just occurred and was still rolling around begging his Deity for assistance.
[On my way.] Wiping the trails of moisture from his cheeks once again, Cynrik dashed off towards his party. While he ran, he pulled up his stats and saw the 893,500 XP from his massacre; however, instead of being overjoyed by this achievement, Cynrik was left hollow inside and only felt disgusted by what he had done.
Shaking his head to clear the dark thoughts that were taking root, Cynrik looked at the small stopwatch window he had opened before beginning his assault. Seven minutes. It only took Cynrik seven minutes to wipe all 68 Kobolds off the face of the planet. Those seven minutes would haunt him for years to come, but he couldn’t think about it for now. It was time to go save his brother and friends.
Seven Minutes earlier
“Up you guys go, remember, aim true, fight hard, trust in your teammates, but most importantly, KICK SOME ASS!” Brance nearly scoffed at his older brother’s poor attempt at a pep talk but decided to let Cynrik have his moment.
Benny, Gabby, and Brance felt weightless momentarily before experiencing the strange feeling of breaking out of the Shadow Realm and into Reality. All three of them covered their mouths with their palms in fear of retching thanks to the gut-churning experience. Still, they were able to overcome it and land on the ground in a crouching position, with the steam cloud instantly covering them and hiding their bodies from plain sight.
Brance was the first to get his bearings and activated [Mana Sight]. About 80 meters away from their position was the first group of Kobold Soldiers. Grabbing Benny and Gabby by the shoulder, Brance quickly cast [Vanish], bending the light around their bodies and making them physically invisible to any outside eyes.
With a quick pump of his hands, the three took off in the direction of the first of three platoons of Kobold Soldiers when the first notifications from Cynrik came through.
-Your party member Cynrik Jetlensr has killed a Tier-1 Hatchling Reptilian Kobold-
The notification caused both the Sanford siblings to trip over their own feet, and if it weren’t for Brance’s firm grip on them, they would have both faceplanted. Not wanting them to lose focus, Brance quickly tossed Benny over his shoulder and Gabby under his armpit and took off sprinting full speed.
‘Cyn…hang in there.’ Like what Cynrik had assumed, Brance wasn’t out of the loop. He had interrogated Tobs multiple times about their quest over the last few minutes. By this point, he knew something was up. Although he was still unsure about the precise details, Brance found that each of these Kobolds was forcefully torn away from where they lived and thrown into this Egress Instance.
Brance had caught Cynrik doing his typical habit of masking his pain and thoughts with crude jokes or memes and realized just how deep shit they had found themselves in. The simple fact that his older brother refused to say anything out loud or even in the mind link was proof enough that someone or something was listening in on their conversations, and unless Cynrik had a way to block out prying eyes, he wasn’t able to say anything yet.
This was the main reason Brance hadn’t pushed for answers and allowed his older brother to go off and handle the villagers alone. While Cynrik thought he was an expert when it came to hiding his thoughts, one person had perfected the art of reading him, and that was Brance.
Brance knew that under the jokes and music from a galaxy far, far away was someone who had resigned himself to doing what needed to be done, no matter how immoral or daunting the task was.
Arriving only a few meters from the group of kowtowing Kobolds decked out in armor and with their weapons on the ground in front of their heads, Brance gently placed his two friends down and drew both his shields. His eyes scanned the surrounding terrain, and he picked a location to begin his attack, a cluster of eight Kobolds in cloth robes.
These eight were Support Class beings, aka the “backline” by his calculations. The robes and staff were a telltale sign of what Class they had. From his experience, the best tactic for group battles like this was to take out the backline support, such as healers or mages. Unfortunately, based just on physical appearance, Brance couldn’t determine if the Kobolds in his sight were offensive support or passive support, so he lumped them all together and began his assault.
Moving silently and swiftly, Brance came up alongside the group of kneeling creatures and jumped into the air, bringing both shields down on the necks of the two nearest Kobolds.
SHULK, SHULK
With the combination of the sharp edge of Brance’s shields, the force of his strength, and his body weight, he was quickly able to behead these two beings.
-Quest Updated-
-Subjugate Kobold Soldiers: 4/84- (incomplete)
-You have killed a Level 21 Tier-2 Reptilian Kobold Cleric –
-You have killed a Level 18 Tier-1 Reptilian Kobold Cleric-
With [Vanish] broken, Brance moved into action before the other Kobolds were alerted to his presence, but just as he was about to strike the third of the eight back liners, an arrow whizzed past his head and entered into his target’s left eye, popping its head like a watermelon and covering Brance in blood and brain matter.
Gabby had jumped into the battle and made her first assist.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong Fam. PS Check out the Discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg