Snorting in contempt at his brother’s blatant provocation, Cynrik drew his dagger and spun it around his wrist twice before running off to the front of the trap.
With less than 18 minutes remaining in the challenge and 48 creatures spawning, the pace had to be sped up.
‘Brance has 11 kills, Gabby has 12, and I have 15. After this wave, I will have completed my 30 kills, but the others will still need a couple more, so we will have to spawn the next wave, bringing 96 RaptorBasilisks.’ Clicking his tongue and contemplating their situation, Cynrik watched the creatures form from the particle cloud and let out a soft whistle as the entire center of the room filled up with bodies instantly.
[Brance, listen up, even when we kill this group, we will still have to deal with the next one since you and Gabby will still be short of our goal.] Turning his eyes upward, away from the creatures, Cynrik watched the timer ticking down.
-Current Time Remaining In the Challenge (17:39).-
[We can’t spend more than 10-15 minutes killing these 48; that’s roughly three kills a minute. But that is if we burn up all the time on them. With the 1 minute respawn timer in effect, we will have a never-ending cycle of dinos to replace everything we kill.] Taking a fighting stance and canceling [Charge], Cynrik explained while glancing at his 128 [Charge] counter.
[Yeah, I know. Balls to the wall it is. Pull your batch and withdraw behind the walls; I can’t rule out using [White Dwarf] to thin the herd, and I don’t want to see you getting injured by friendly fire.] Gripping his katana and firmly grasping the sheath with his left hand, Brance channeled Wind, and Light Mana into the blade, to increase its speed and potency.
[What about Gabby? She will struggle the hardest.] Brance asked while activating [Mana Sight] and making eye contact with his brother through the trap walls.
[She will be fine. The dumb rabbit isn’t so dumb as to ignore the urgency we show by slaughtering the dinos with haste.] Cynrik replied with an eye roll.
Forming a gun with his right hand, Cynrik collected Fire Mana into his index finger and Lightning Mana into his middle finger before taking another peek at the clock.
[We move at precisely 17 minutes. Get your attacks ready; chip damage is the idea, so don’t drop any with the first flurry of attacks. Hold off for a bit; although time is short, we need to manipulate the clock.]
[Got it; I’m pulling my 16 from the middle, you take the right flank, and we will leave the left flank to Gabby.] Brance said while activating [Vanish] and walking forward.
[Copy, commence attack in 20.] Slowing his breathing and manifesting 16 blue golfball-sized [Fireballs] before allowing them to orbit around his extended right arm, Cynrik started counting down as he locked onto the 16 growling dinos.
[15.]
[10.]
Brance had already covered the distance from the wall to the dinos and looked over at Gabby, caught sight of her making a bunch of [Psychic Disks] and loading her crossbow, and smiled.
‘Stay strong, Gabby; this is only the start of the chaos.’ Brance thought as he turned his attention back to the pack of RaptorBasilisks anxiously pawing at the ground and trying to spot their next meal.
[Attack!] Cynrik commanded while releasing all sixteen of his fireballs one after another with a soft woosh.
The streaks of blue fire traveled silently for a second, yet when they made contact with their targets in succession, the result was anything but quiet.
BOOM, BOOM BOOM BOOM
Small yet loud explosions shook the room as the attacks exploded on impact, coating the enemies’ heads in flames. But Cynrik wasn’t done yet.
-You have dealt 4000 damage to 14 of your opponents.-
-You have dealt a critical blow to two of your opponents, for 6500 damage each.-
Ignoring the notifications while making a gesture akin to reloading a gun with his middle finger, he burned three [Charge] counters and activated one of his Lightning Affinity Skills, [Shock].
-Tier-0 Lightning Affinity Skill [Shock]-
-Category: Active Single Target Attack.-
-By harnessing the power of your Lightning Affinity, you can discharge Lightning arcs through your palm or fingers.-
-Fires up to 3 chainable arcs or bolts of Lightning at a single target. If a Chain is triggered, it will link up with multiple affected targets and deal additional damage.-
-This Attack passes through most physical defenses except for Terra Mana constructs.-
-Each arc has a 15% chance of inflicting the Status effect (Paralyze) on the targeted creature upon contact.-
-Damage Calc: 150 points of Static Damage.-
-Damage is increased by 50% if the target is wearing or using any electrically conductive material or Mana.
-Requirement: Must have a [Charge] counter of at least 10.-
-Cost: 50 MP and 1 [Charge] per Arc of Lightning. By adding more Mana and Charges, you can release stronger arcs of Lightning, increasing their damage by 100 points of Static Damage per additional [Charge]-
-Cooldown: 5 seconds.-
“Bang,” Cynrik said emotionlessly as he fired off three arcs of thin purple Lightning from his finger sequentially, each carrying the power of 150 MP and 3 [Charge] counters.
-You have dealt 350 damage to three of your opponents.-
-You have inflicted (Paralyze) on one of your opponents.-
Clicking his tongue and watching the creature inflicted with (Paralyze) twitch and collapse, Cynrik waited five seconds as 15 RaptorBasilisks furiously charged his direction.
Once they were within three meters, he kicked off the ground, jumped backward, spun in the air, and ran into the confines of the trap.
Meanwhile, Brance had already arrived at the remainder of the group just as Gabby’s disks crashed into her chosen opponents and took off in her direction, leaving only his 16 opponents behind.
Getting into position, Brance dropped into the opening stance for his attack before speaking.
“Jetlen Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū, Akeru Kuzu Ryu Sen” Initiating his sword draw, time slowed to a snail’s pace as Brance’s eyes flicked from one RaptorBasilisk to another eight. Exhaling in time with his steps, Brance executed a high downward slash while angling his body and vertically slashing back up.
-You have dealt 2891 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 3926 damage to your opponent.-
The attack left a nasty gash on the neck of his first target, and a large wound opened up on the second before he sidestepped and went after a third creature with the third strike.
-You have dealt 2108 damage to your opponent.-
The high downward cross diagonal slash went through the arm and leg of the third creature with ease. Watching the dino’s limbs falling in slow motion, Brance flawlessly moved on to the fourth creature.
-You have dealt 3374 damage to your opponent.-
Swiftly slashing with the same attack as his previous, only from the opposite shoulder, Brance turned the fourth creature into a mirror image of the third and sidestepped while executing the fifth through ninth strikes in his technique, each one causing some form of injuries to the subsequent enemies.
-You have dealt 2577 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 3302 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 2913 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt 2609 damage to your opponent.-
-You have dealt a critical blow to your opponent for 5866 damage.-
With the Akeru Kuzu Ryu Sen complete, Brance resheathed his katana, and time sped back up in his eyes; as if on cue, all nine RaptorBasilisks collapsed on the ground while screaming in pain and bleeding profusely, especially the two who had lost limbs. But the final creature had been dealt the most damage since the last strike; a forward thrusting stab had penetrated its lung and several vital organs.
So instead of cries of agony, all it could muster were gurgling gasps for air.
With nine creatures immobilized, Brance dashed forward a single step and jumped into the air, high above the tenth target setting the foundation for his next attack.
“Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū, Ryūtsuisen!” Drawing his katana and reaching the peak of his vertical climb, Brance raised the sword over his head, gripped it with both hands, and used the momentum of his fall to strengthen the vertical strike down on his opponent’s shoulder.
-You have dealt a critical blow to your opponent for 5208 damage.-
The attack sliced cleanly through the creature’s chest and inflicted a devastating wound on the RaptorBasilisk, pinning it to the ground as the full weight of Brance’s body slammed it onto its belly.
‘Ten down, six to go,’ Brance thought as he landed back on the ground before rushing forward while swiping his katana downward swiftly, clearing the slick blood and gore off the blade.
“Ryūsōsen,” Brance uttered as he sped forward and unleased a massive flurry of strikes, each one connecting with one of the six remaining uninjured creatures dealing varying amounts of damage along the way.
Breaking away from the pack of wounded dinos, Brance planted his left hand on the ground, using it to balance himself as he made a sharp turn and went back through the pack while executing several more replicated sword attacks.
While Brance was flourishing his swordsmanship, Gabby struggled to avoid the onslaught of tail, claw, and Affinity attacks by constantly staying on the move.
Cycling through a combination of crossbow bolts and disks, she worked in replicas as a distractionary tactic to buy herself some time to charge up more attacks.
Eventually, the rapid influx of attacks from her enemies forced Gabby to retreat into the air, using the pillars as stepping stones.
Resorting to the previous tactic of dealing frequent but minimal damage to each of her opponents, unlike Brance, who was smashing through his batch of RaptorBasilisks, Gabby was quickly eroding her targets HP with each strike by evenly distributing her attacks.
|Your Teammate has successfully Killed a Level 10, Early Tier-2 Virtual RaptorBasilisk.|
By the time the first creature fell seven minutes into the battle, one of Cynrik’s, Gabby, had already robbed all of her opponents of nearly 75% of their health points. In using this method, she had set up for a final sweep that would allow her to clear all sixteen rapidly, one after another.
Gabby and Brance made their final push using the first death as a signal.
Bouncing through the air, Gabby threw out dozens of seeds, which grew into thick tangles of thorny vines after taking root. Within seconds, the sharp green vines began wreaking havoc among the ranks of her sixteen dinos until her first death notification came through.
For the next thirty seconds, everyone’s eyesight was bombarded by wave after wave of notifications until one that had nothing to do with a kill or reward popped up.
|Your Teammate Cynrik Jetlensr has Successfully completed the challenge by eliminating 30 Virtual Creatures.|
|Since there are still 9 minutes and 58 seconds remaining in the challenge, he will be allowed to continue fighting alongside you and earning more rewards.|
-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-
