[Don’t go past level 18, Brance. We don’t know how nasty the fight will be with Montu; it’s better to keep two full restores in our back pocket.] Jumping off the boulder he was standing on to get a view of the whole battlefield, Cynrik informed his brother.
[That was the plan anyway; also, you gunna just sit up there and leech XP, or will his majesty grace this lowly peasant with your glorious assistance?] Brance responded while bashing in the head of a Kobold, malforming its skull and causing brain matter and blood to leak out its ears.
[Jeeze, cut me some slack; I just took out the commanders.] Cynrik rolled his head round in a circle as he spoke in a pouting tone.
[I am heading over now, gosh, nag nag nag, you’re worse than Cinyah.]
[Shut up and get over here!] The entire time he was bantering with Cynrik, Brance never stopped moving. Even though he was surrounded on all sides and forced to dodge incoming spears and sword slashes, Brance was able to stay active in combat and yell at his brother at the same time.
Cynrik chuckled and watched Brance struggle a little bit longer before tapping the toe of his right boot on the ground twice and kicking off, sprinting towards his brother’s location. Although, in an attempt to reserve some Mana, he didn’t bother activating his [Cloak of Shadows]; instead, Cynrik chose to draw both Kodachi while running in plain sight.
With his goal of eliminating the beings organizing the battle for the Kobolds side complete, Cynrik scanned the battlefield once more to keep tabs on the enemy’s movement. As he expected, the Kobold Soldiers formations quickly fell to pieces without anyone issuing orders, allowing the party to work their way through the bodies simply. Every member of MyrkLys saw this change occur and started fighting harder. Gabby shone the brightest during this time.
After obtaining several new Class Skills, such as [Triple Shot], [Trick Shot], and [Mana Arrow], she was killing Kobolds at a much faster pace than even Brance could. Partner her new skills with Benny, who was picking up the slack anytime she failed to kill her target; the two of them cleansed the first group and started moving towards Brance.
The Sanfords picked up speed as they witnessed Brance surrounded almost 15 creatures. The area close by was filled with scattered lobbed-off body parts, tails, arms, etc., leaving mutilated corpses everywhere. However, right before they could arrive and provide assistance, Cynrik came flying into the crowd, with both Kodachis clad in BlackFire and proceeded to hack his way towards Brance, causing the Sanford Siblings to halt their steps and watch in awe.
They hadn’t really seen Cynrik and Brance work together until now. Their only experience was previous training sessions, where Cynrik taught them how to effectively sync up their movements so they wouldn’t accidentally injure each other with friendly fire.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtTucking themselves in between two large boulders, Gabby and Benny watched on with wide eyes as Cynrik slipped and dodged every incoming attack before lashing out with his own.
Meanwhile, Brance wasn’t idle either, his eyes constantly flicked around, from one Kobold to the next, and he moved fluidly, either hacking at an enemy with his shield or launching them into the air, feeding them to his meatgrinder of an older brother.
Finally, after nearly 20 minutes, the last being was felled, leaving both Cynrik and Brance panting heavily and drenched in a mixture of gore and sweat.
“Whew, that was fucking Something, man. It’s been a while since we could let loose like that, right Brancie?” Cynrik didn’t bother to try wiping away the blood and sweat covering his body and instead bathed himself in flames to burn it all off, then he turned and did the same for his brother.
“Agreed, it almost felt like old times; we haven’t had a true dog fight in a while.” Brance laughed and allowed Cynrik to burn off all the gore coating his body.
“Oi, you two can come out now.” Cynrik had long spotted the Sanford siblings, and since they weren’t needed for the battle, and Cynrik was truly having too much fun slaying Kobolds, he didn’t feel it was necessary to drag them into action.
Gabby and Benny poked their heads out from behind the boulders, both wearing an embarrassed expression.
“I wonder when we will be able to do that, Benny.” Gabby made eye contact with her older brother and chirped, still in awe at how seamless each Jetlensr brother’s movements were. Neither showed any flaws in their attacks or their avoidance of incoming danger. However, the level of coordination between Cynrik and Brance made her realize just how lacking she and Benny were compared to them, causing her to clench her fists while making a silent vow to become as strong as them in the future.
Brance spotted the little girl’s show of resolve and smiled brightly.
CLAP
“Get over here, you two; we need to go through the spoils. I want everyone to fan out and start collecting resources; remember to grab as many scales as you can so we can use them in the future. Ignore any Tier-2 bodies, Since I got double rewards, I’ll extract the Codexes, but I want you all to harvest anything we can sell. Don’t forget about the corpses from your previous battle as well. I saw them earlier, not far away, so get to it.” Cynrik issued his command to the Sanfords; since they had decided to only watch, they were on extraction duty, freeing up him and Brance so they could assign Stats and XP.
Gabby pouted for a second, she wanted to talk about the battle, not go cut up lizards, but her pouts fell on deaf ears as Brance and Cynrik ignored her, leaving the little girl to mope in silence as she scurried around from body to body.
Cynrik stretched out his lower back before scrolling through all the notifications received during combat.
[Tobs, consolidate the notifications for me and simplify them starting from when we first jumped back into battle; I don’t want to see the infinite lines of text. Exclude, Class and that stupid restriction line.]
-Confirmed, consolidating all battle notifications.-
-Quest Updated-
-Subjugate Kobold Soldiers: 84/84- (Complete)
-Your party has collectively killed 46 Kobolds, of which 12 were at Tier-1, and the remaining 34 were all at Tier-2.-
-Due to the level difference between Host Cynrik Jetlensr and the rest of the party, the reward distribution has been separated into two batches. This is because the majority of the Tier-2 kills gave double rewards due to them all being twice Host Cynrik Jetlensr’s level.-
-Host Cynrik Jetlensr has received 3,584,000 XP and the following Stat points, 32 STR, 16 DEX, 20 AGI, 2 INT, 18 VIT, 2 MIND, 80 KIN.-
-The remaining members of MyrkLys have received 2,030,000 XP and the following Stat points, 18 STR, 8 DEX, 11 AGI, 1 INT, 11 VIT, 1 MIND, 46 KIN.-
“AH FUCK, BRACE YOURSELVES GUYS, GRAHH!” Barely having enough time to shout, Cynrik screamed at Gabby, Benny, and Brance as the wave of pain from the sudden gain of stats hit them like a truck.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmGabby was mid-step when she stumbled and dropped to her knees. Not far away, Benny was grunting and gripping his head while trying not to fall over. Cynrik and Brance were slightly better off than the other two, as Brance sat down with his eyes closed and tried to tune out the pain, leaving just Cynrik, who was relatively unaffected by the fluctuating pain and simply massaged his temples with his left eye closed.
It only took a few seconds for the sudden onset of nausea and pain to subside; when it did, Cynrik could feel the angry glares coming from his party. Especially Gabby, who had fallen face-first into a corpse when she collapsed and now had gory particulates in her hair.
Seeing the little girl’s condition and how fuming mad she was, Cynrik burst out laughing before tossing over a ball of BlackFire to clean her up. After which, she snorted in discontent and set about collecting resources.
Cynrik shook his head with a smirk on his lips, then looked at Brance.
[Go ahead and burn all your stat points, I need to power level and do the same.] He paused and looked to his right with [Mana Sight] active and clicked his tongue.
[Something is up with that guy. I’ve been keeping an eye on him this whole time, and he hasn’t moved from where we left him. That’s not all, though; I can’t help but feel on edge; it’s like he’s exerting some kind of weird pressure on the entire residential area.]
Having learned from his past experience with Myer, who attacked while Cynrik was working on his Stats, ever since the battle began, he had kept one eye open so that they wouldn’t be caught off guard by the boss suddenly deciding to interrupt their fight.
[Yeah, I noticed it too. Any theories?] Like his brother, Brance was cautious when it came to Montu.
[Only one, his Deity finally gave in to his whining and gave him Something, maybe a bloodline. I want to go check it out, but im concerned that once I get close, he will spot me, even under the cover of my [Cloak of Shadows].] Cynrik’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. He didn’t say out loud how he was getting a similar feeling from Montu, one akin to when he met Ragnar.
It wasn’t as overbearing and powerful, but it definitely wasn’t the same pressure he felt earlier during their minor scuffle with the boss.
[Keep on your toes; I need to power level up to 18. Worst case scenario, we blaze through to the cap and burn the rest of our XP into Prestige Levels; I get a feeling we will end up needing the added power.]
Tossing one last look at where Montu was, Cynrik flicked his wrist and brought up his Status panel. It was time to catch up with the others.
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