“Stick to the plan, Björn; keep those walls high; they will need to reach the ceiling; just take a look at those glorious calves, thighs, and those front claws; it’s just like the Velociraptor, man I wish I could study them. They look like snakey dinosaurs; how majestic.” Cynrik said with sparkling eyes.
“IVAR! KNOCK OFF THE PALEONTOLOGIST BULLSHIT AND GET YOUR HEAD IN THE FIGHT!” Brance roared as he began channeling Terra and Light Mana into his palms.
“Tsk, I know, bah, such a killjoy. Alright, Gabby, time to move! HOBEY HO, LET’S GO!” Kicking off the ground, Cynrik darted to the left, with Gabby hot on his tail.
The instant Cynrik and Gabby darted off, all three heads of the RaptorBasilisk’s snapped towards the two moving targets as they adjusted their course and made haste in running them down.
Smirking as the dumb lizards were following the plan perfectly, Cynrik jumped into the air, bounced off a pillar, flew over the nearest, and fired off a small ball of fire, smacking it right in the nose and triggering his HUD to update with its Resource Stats.
“Boop.” Cynrik taunted as he flipped, hit the ground, rolled, and bounced back to his feet to continue his run.
‘Tobs, give me the damage numbers as notifications each time I hit them until I say otherwise.’
-You have dealt 100 damage to your opponent.-
[Was the boop necessary, Cyn?] Brance asked as he rolled his eyes and took off in the opposite direction of the room to begin laying his traps.
[One hundred percent. Did you not see how I bopped his nose with fire? That was clearly a BOOP moment.] Glancing over his shoulder and spotting Gabby running not far to his left, Cynrik cut a sharp angle, whizzing past some pillars and locked onto the other two RaptorBasilisks. Extending his right arm, Cynrik channeled two compressed [Fireballs], splitting them between his middle and index fingers, and shot them into the faces of the other two creatures.
-You have dealt 500 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 500 damage to your opponent.-
“And double boop, TRIPLE BOOP SUCCESS! HAHA!”
“Twhalllalal!”
“Raunkk raunkk!”
Shaking their heads angrily, the two other RaptorBasilisks yelled angrily and lowered their bodies before picking up speed and gaining ground on Cynrik.
“Don’t forget we are still in the middle of a trial. Dropping your guard even a second after the creatures begin spawning could spell out danger.” He says, and then turns around only to FUCKING PLAY AROUND!” Brance grumbled under his breath before reprimanding his brother.
[CYNRIK, HEAD IN THE GAME!]
[It is, tsk, I am perfectly composed and focused. You should pay more attention to how you plan to lay those walls instead of my antics. I’m the one who has to deal with these fast chicken fucks.] Shaking his head due to his brother’s lack of humor, Cynrik made a series of hand signs at Gabby, informing her of the damage the two creatures had sustained and tossed another glance over his shoulder to see what their HUD bars looked like.
Thankfully, because he was the same Tier as them, he could see they each had 22,000 hp to start with, which meant all three were exact copies of each other, physically at least. The fact that one clearly took charge of the group from the start meant they either had different stats overall but shared the same VIT or had separate AI software.
Either one was fine in Cynrik’s book, but at the end of the day, he preferred that his opponents had similar mental capacities.
[Brancie, they are rocking 22k HP, the first attack was just a standard weak [Fireball], which hit it for 100 damage, while I used a low-powered compressed one for the other two for 500 damage each.] Cynrik quickly informed his brother, who looked over for half a second in their direction.
[Gabby’s crossbow damage output depends on the Bolt, the Crossbow, and her DEX. If she shoots now, the aggro will be drawn to her since she can’t make her attacks weaker, only stronger by applying Mana.] Brance stated while watching his girlfriend weave between the pillars.
[Right and Wrong, she can technically slow down her shots with Mana, making them more ineffective and throwing off their balance and accuracy. But in the end, you are pretty much right. I estimate that her bolt value is somewhere between 1k and 2k due to the creature’s thick, scaly hide.] Cynrik said as he motioned for Gabby to take her shots while preparing to pull the aggro away.
Charging a black fireball into his left palm, Cynrik managed how much Mana he put into it, formed a baseball-sized spherical flame, and waited.
Meanwhile, Gabby, who had already readied her crossbow, extended her right arm and aimed at the lead dino. Lightly pressing the trigger, the mechanism holding the string released and slammed into the butt of the bolt. Then with a soft Fwoosh, the bolt left the crossbow and whistled quietly until it slammed into the side of the lead creature with enough impact to force it off course, making it slam headfirst into a pillar with a loud BOOM!
“SSREEEEEAH!” It cried in pain as it crashed through the soft stone pillar and into the ground. Noticing their downed companion, the other two creatures only snorted and picked up their pace after Cynrik, leaving the injured creature to get up and shake off the pain before shooting a bloodshot glare at Gabby.
However, just as it got back to its feet and was prepping to chase after Gabby, a small black orb slammed into its open mouth just when it was about to let out another roar. Blood, smoke, and thin black flames spewing from its mouth, the wounded creature clawed at its face, attempting to douse the black flames from spreading from its jaws down its neck and to its feathers.
-You have dealt 3500 damage to your opponent.-
Clutching his hand and cutting off the flow of Mana to the flames, so they didn’t spread and cause unnecessary damage to the creature, Cynrik smirked and took note of how Gabby’s bolt had dealt 1472 points of damage.
[My compressed [BlackFire] ball dished out 3500 points at only 15% power, while Gabby’s bolt did 1472 damage. Dino-A is at 16,928 HP currently.] Whipping around and tossing two more compressed [BlackFire] balls and assaulting the other two dinos, Cynrik updated Brance on the current damage ratios.
-You have dealt 3500 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 3500 damage to your opponent.-
[Three for three, I’ve confirmed that all three creatures have the exact same VIT stat, my blasts did static damage to them, and I hit them all in the face.] Cynrik said as he extinguished the flames and continued running toward the far wall.
[Copy, I just finished laying the initial setup for enough walls to connect five pillars.] Brance didn’t stay idle as Cynrik and Gabby kept on the move. Moving from one pillar to the next, he traced the path between several of them, linking a single thread of Mana on the ground, allowing him to summon forth a wall of pure stone connecting the pillars at his leisure.
After deciding that his corner would be the trapping one, Brance had set to work laying the formation of a solid cage that could restrain the three creatures long enough to run down the clock.
[Copy, moving on to the strength tests.] Cynrik said as he reached the far wall and sharply turned, putting it on his left side. Looking ahead, he noticed that Gabby had adjusted to his course and was now in front of him by over a dozen meters since she had reached the wall first.
“Raunkk raunkk, raunkk!” The dino in charge grumbled as it watched its prey cut off instead of running into the wall. Its shouts were enough to alert the other two about the change in direction early enough that they didn’t blindly slam into the wall like idiots, especially the most injured one who was one step away from blind rage after getting its ass kicked.
Moving gracefully, all three RaptorBasilisks made the turn, following after Cynrik while he motioned for Gabby to begin the strength test.
Nodding in understanding, the girl holstered her crossbow, clapped her hands together, and erected a [Psychic Disk] directly in front of the foremost dino startling it into attacking by headbutting, shattering the construct instantly.
Seeing how easily it shattered the construct, Cynrik’s eyes narrowed as he ran the calculations in his head.
[Ok, so we may have a slight problem. The strength test is complete, and the results aren’t in our favor.] Cynrik glanced over at Brance, who stopped doing what he was doing to look up at Cynrik.
[I signed for Gabby to make a disk with the exact same consistency as the pillars, and that thing just lowered its head like a battering ram and broke through it with ease. Once they reach full speed, which took them approximately eight to ten meters, their power is sufficient to shatter non-reinforced stone, potentially even steel.]
Clicking his tongue in response, Brance gazed at the stone pillars thoughtfully for a moment before placing his palm on the nearest one and closing his eyes. Using his connection to his Terra Affinity, Brance quickly noticed how loosely packed the particles were, giving the stone its soft consistency.
[Yeah, figures, we just thought these pillars were hard stone, so we factored them into our plan, but I can tell you now, even a light punch from Gabby, who has the weakest STR stat in the party, could probably shatter them.] Brance said a moment after opening his eyes.
[Seems about right, I knew they were weak, but I figured we could still use them. How much Mana will you have to burn to reinforce enough for the enclosure? SHIT!] Just as Cynrik asked the question, his [Danger Sense] triggered, and he lept to the side right as a compressed blast of air flew by, obliterating a handful of pillars in the process.
Unsheathing his dagger from his back, Cynrik stabbed it into one of the pillars and used it to swing around in an arc and distribute his momentum so that he could continue running unhindered.
[Welp, at least one has a Wind Affinity, nasty little buggers.] Smirking as he regained his lead on the creatures, Cynrik continued where he left off.
[I need you to figure out how much Mana you will burn, if it’s too much, make the box smaller. We have only wasted three minutes, and there are still 27 left until we can start killing. Regardless we need to get that box finished and strong enough to contain them, or else we will have to deal with the rampage that comes after trapping a wild beast.]
[I’m on it; give me thirty seconds.] Brance responded as he closed his eyes and focused on the pillar his hand was resting on.
-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-