The Over-Break System

“Did you just call me a Donkey?” Tilting his head to the side, Brance couldn’t help but question his older brother’s choice of words.

“What of it, you idiot sandwich?” Crossing his arms and snorting, Cynrik said the first retort he could come up with.

“AH, so you’re just gunna use Ramsey quotes on me, got it.”

“Shut up, stay on topic.” Fighting the urge to smack Brance, Cynrik tried pulling the conversation back onto the plan.

“Che, you started it.”

“ANYWAY! 46 Lizzys, and only four of us. Hit and run tactics are back in effect; the only difference is we won’t be moving together anymore; everyone is on their own this time. We all got a pretty big boost to our Stats, so it shouldn’t be TOO bad dealing with this group. Luckily the Boss seems to be…er…mentally challenged, and it doesn’t look like he will be interfering with us.”

Cynrik peeked up at the sky again before continuing.

“I’ll be dropping you off in different positions, forming a large triangle with each of you being corners, surrounding the Lizzys. Gabby, I want you sniping from afar, don’t let any of them get close. The job of an Archer is to be a backline support fighter, and that’s what I want you doing. Benny and Brance, you two need to rush in and draw their fire as soon as possible. Keep on the move, and don’t let them trap you.”

All three of them nodded in understanding, but Gabby and Benny couldn’t hide their nervous expressions. This was their first time going into battle without backup readily available.

“I’ll constantly be on the move under my [Cloak of Shadows], so don’t freak out if something dies next to you. As a Thief, my skills weigh heavily on stealthy attacks, and although I mitigate this by having beefy stats, at the end of the day, I’m still a hit and run DPS.” Cynrik smiled and unsheathed both his Kodachi.

“One last thing, show no mercy, it’s them or us, they won’t hesitate to kill you, so don’t falter in killing them. Once the last soldier falls, we will regroup outside the residential area; if everyone understands, draw your weapon, and I’ll take you up individually.”

For a second, the sound of weapons being drawn rang out in the Shadow Realm, and the sound of rapidly beating hearts could faintly be heard.

“Brance, you’re up first.” Cynrik caught Brance by the forearm and jumped towards the barrier between realms.

[Keep an eye on Benny; I’ll watch over Gabby.] Right before Cynrik tossed Brance into the real world; he left a few parting words with him, who just nodded as a reply before breaking through, landing 40 meters from a group of Kobolds.

It only took Cynrik a few seconds to retrieve the Sanfords and strategically drop them at their target locations, leaving him alone in the Shadow Realm. Landing on a shadow pillar, Cynrik closed his eyes and tried calming his breathing as he needed a moment to collect his thoughts before jumping into battle again. While he appeared totally fine on the outside, his mind was in a terrible state.

Over the last 12 hours, one must remember that Cynrik had basically been to hell and back. First, he had jumped from a life or death battle to an absolutely unnecessary, in his opinion, mindless slaughter of innocents. Then without giving himself a second to breathe, he had to power level himself, check the kids’ stats, and then there was the conversation with Brance.

‘Fuck, this is rough.’ Chuckling at his own misfortune, Cynrik tried his best to slow his heart rate and clear his mind.

’47 more kills, and we can get the fuck out of this hell hole.’ Breathing in through his nose and exhaling shakily through his mouth a couple of times, Cynrik opened his eyes and looked up at the sky, where he saw his party moving into position and stalking their prey, his eyes eventually landing on Brance.

‘Tobs, how’s he doing?’

-Host Brance is coping better than you had initially forecast. He went through a short period of internal struggle but was subsequently pulled out of it by our little ploy. As predicted, your concerns weren’t unwarranted. By informing him of the LS, he was thrown into a nearly bottomless well of self-doubt, so much so that he was in danger of allowing his Bloodline to begin its corruption.-

-However, you were able to quickly recognize the signs of an internal change occurring and took appropriate actions, halting any damage from occurring. Good job, Host Cynrik, would you like head pats?-

‘Even if I say yes, I’d have to go into my SOC to receive them, so I’ll pass.’ Tobs’ mentioning head pats made Cynrik smile and shake his head in defeat. He was aware of how his actions were slowly corrupting his System AI.

“YOSH! Let’s go; no point in sitting around; the others are about to begin their initial contact with the enemy.” Smacking his cheeks to hype himself up and kicking off the ground, Cynrik activated [Cloak of Shadows] and dove through the barrier between realms.

Unlike where he had dropped off the others, Cynrik decided to charge straight into the center of the ever-shrinking triangle, mere feet away from the Kobold Leader.

Silently, Cynrik infiltrated the huddled-up group of four Kobolds, who at this time were deep in conversation with their leader. Still, Cynrik could care less about what they were actually saying and stealthily snuck upon them. Smirking to himself, Cynrik couldn’t help but remember the struggles created by his [Shadow Veil]. If he had tried this before, there was no way he could get this close to his opponent; however, even after Evolving into [Cloak of Shadows], he was really pushing his luck.

The skills description was oddly vague about how much stronger a being would have to be before they could effectively see through his stealth skill, but at the end of the day, this was a test for Cynrik. Even if shit hit the fan, he was confident enough to be at least able to scurry away, let alone fight off any attacks. Yet here he was, standing not even three meters from the unsuspecting Kobold Leader, and the creature hadn’t even caught a whiff of his scent.

Cynrik struggled not to burst out laughing as he finally felt like a real Fantasy Assassin for the first time since he arrived on Vinestra. Then, quickly activating [Mana Sight], Cynrik proceeded to double-check that the rest of his party was in position and ready to attack before giving the go-ahead to Brance. But at the end of the day, Cynrik wouldn’t be Cynrik if he didn’t have some stupid reference to make during a profound moment.

[Times up, let’s do this.] Dropping into his combat stance with the flat side of his Kodachis resting on the back of his forearms, Cynrik stomped the ground lightly, charged forward, and chanted loudly into the mind link.

[Oh, for fuck sake. Seriously, this is what you fucking chose as the signal to begin the operation.] Brance shook his head as he knew EXACTLY what was about to come out of his brother’s mouth.

[LEEEEROOOOYYYYYY JENNNNKINNNNNS!!!]

BOOOM BOOOM BOOOMMM

On queue with Cynrik’s idiotic quote, Brance stomped the ground as hard as possible, creating an intricate web of cracks spanning several meters around his body, and dashed forward at breakneck speeds. That wasn’t all, though, with his shield still resting on his back, Brance raised both hands and fired off a volley of [Air Missles] with his left hand and a volley of [Earth Spike] with his right.

Brance wasn’t aiming for anything in particular and was only using these attacks to cause a ruckus; its second function was to alert Gabby and Benny that it was time to start the fight. Each spike or missle that collided with the ground caused a subsequent loud booming explosion, scaring the ever-living shit out of every Kobold in the vicinity.

[HAHAHAHA! WHAT EVEN!]Not bothering to fight the intense wave of laughter rising in his stomach, Cynrik howled in the mind link. The whole point of the Leroy Jenkins chant is for him to rush forward and attack, yet here was Brance, causing a bunch of explosions and running along like a Saiyan firing off energy blasts at a villain.

[Do your job Cyn!] Brance chided his idiotic brother, who he could see was currently doubled over and trying not to laugh out loud, yet failing miserably when it came to the mind link.

[Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.] Cynrik stuck out his tongue at Brance before turning and grinning evilly at hand full of Kobolds standing not far away. By this point, their attention had locked completely onto Brance, leaving them even more open for sneak attacks.

Not wanting to waste any more time than necessary, Cynrik rushed forward like a ghost while bringing up both his Kodachis and jumping into the air. Then with a twist of his body and a flick of both wrists, he quickly decapitated two Kobold Soldiers with one swing; before they could even speak out a warning or cry in pain, the two bodies fell forward.

Seeing this, Cynrik flourished both his Kodachi while sheathing them and reached out to both corpses with a slight gust of Wind Mana, dragging them over so he could silently store them in his inventory. This was the plan Cynrik had come up with on the fly. The critical factor allowing it to go off without a hitch was that the whole Kobold group, leader included, were facing away from where Cynrik started his attack. Since he was under cover of his stealth skill, Cynrik figured he would give an actual assassination a try.

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