Arriving at the door, Brance watched as his brother nimbly and barely dodged each of Burts’s attacks. He couldn’t help but find it ridiculous as he watched the grown man who stood well over six feet tall swing wildly at a child who barely stood at three and a half feet tall, jump and roll around the room just out of reach.
To add to the insanity, as he moved around the room, Cynrik was accurately narrating the whole fight.
[Overhand swing with left arm, forward dash, left front kick, followed by rapid jab strike with the left, JUMP, annnnd backflip…] Cynrik ended the chain of action with a well-timed backflip that put him just out of danger from an incoming dagger strike.
Cynrik’s eyes darted away from the behemoth attacking him towards the door, where he saw his brother standing frozen in place, watching the fight occur. [OI, TOSS ME A GLOWLY BUFF OR SOMETHIN, I’M DYIN HERE!]
Seeing the momentary pause in combat, Brance snapped out of his daze and cast a Light Affinity skill called Minor Heal on Cynrik.
– Tier 0 Light Affinity Skill –
– Minor Heal – Creates a small orb of Light Mana that heals the target’s HP; the amount of HP recovered uses the following formula, Users INT X MIND / User Level-
-Cost 30 MP
– Cooldown = 1 minute 30 seconds
A baseball-sized white glowing orb blinked into existence, shot from Brance’s outstretched hand, and collided with Cynriks left arm.
– You have been healed for 96 HP-
– Current HP 211/460 –
When the small orb burst on his arm, Cynrik felt a stinging sensation spread through his body as it started to heal the damage he had sustained quickly. Brance had used this skill on him several times during their training in the HBTC, and while it could replenish health points and even instantly heal minor injuries, it would do nothing for broken bones or, in this case, the cracked ribs that were forcing him to take short sharp breaths.
[This room’s too small, and we cant fight together against this oaf.] Taking a step back, Cynrik glanced around the room, trying to develop an idea to handle Burt, but was coming up short.
” YOU BRAT, WHERE ARE MY KIDS!” After only a few seconds, Burt began his assault again and was back to chasing Cynrik around the room, giving Cynrik no time to focus on formulating any viable options.
While Cynrik was back to jumping and dodging, Brance was waiting for the cooldown for his Minor Heal. Although he could rush in and try blocking some of the attacks, he was fully aware of the strength Burt held. His shield was nearly bent in half after only a single strike earlier, and while he may be able to take a couple more attacks head-on, he had a feeling he’d only end up in the way. Unfortunately, Brance wasn’t as quick or agile as Cynrik, so all he could do was toss heals like a cleric until his brother came up with some sort of idea.
‘Fuck, ok, Brance is stuck over there for now. Since this room is barely big enough for me to move around thanks to my size, if he jumped in, I’d have to reduce my movement radius by more than half. The only good thing is that he could act as a meatshield temporarily, giving me a chance to start stacking up damage.’
Cynrik’s brain was in overdrive as he frantically lept forward, narrowly avoiding Burt’s dagger yet again, and rolled under his legs before popping back to his feet behind Burt. Using his SunFlare, Cynrik hacked at the tree trunk-sized leg directly in front of him; then, he would swap back and forth with his ISS attacking the same point with fluid motions.
‘Shit, each one of my attacks is only leaving white scratches on him; at best, I’m making a single point of damage per hit; the hell is this freak made of iron? Tobs, can you use my memories to generate some kind of HP/MP bar I can see while in combat?’
– Generating a heads up display that only the Host can view will cost 30 SP per Host-
[Brance, don’t freak out. I’m givin us a HUD.] Cynrik jumped up and used Burt as a springboard flinging himself several feet away and landing just in front of Brance. [Tobs, do it for both of us.]
– Deducting 60 of 80 available skill points. –
– Generating Host’s Heads Up Display (HUD). –
– Synchronizing HUD with Host’s Inspect Skill.-
– The Host has designated three stats to be shown.-
– Showing Target’s Level to the left of the HUD.-
– Showing Target’s Health Points (HP) in red.-
– Showing Target’s Mana Points (MP) in blue.-
Just like in video games, two thin bars in each of the designated colors materialized and hovered directly above Burt’s head.
– HUD has been generated; the HUD will appear over the target when the Host uses Inspect. –
Seeing the floating red and blue status bars on the HUD made Cynrik feel despair for the first time during the fight. Currently, only a sliver had been chipped away from Burts HP, signifying that Cynrik had only done around 20 points of damage to him.
“He, he he heheh HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!” Seeing just how much his attacks were dealing, Cynrik finally snapped and burst out in a creepy laugh, causing the rampaging Burt to stop in his tracks and stare at the child.
“ARE YOU LAUGHING AT BURT? HOW DARE YOU!”
” No, no, in fact, I’m not laughing at you at all. Instead, what I’m laughing at is my idiocy. You see, not long ago, I gave quite a thrilling lesson to my class,” as Cynrik spoke, Cynrik took a single step forward while gripping both his blades tightly.
“In this lesson, I explicitly explained the importance of Mana reinforcement on equipment, yet here I am being a complete fool and not doing it myself. AH… one of these days ill keep up with my own brain.”
“Wh…WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? THOSE BIG WORDS CONFUSE ME,” Burt was utterly lost as Cynrik slowly started prowling forward while giving off a menacing vibe.
“You know Burt…where I come from when someone small fights someone large, we have a saying,” Fire Mana began surging into Cynriks SunFlare, while in his opposite hand, he started channeling Wind Mana into his ISS.
Raising both blades and making an X in front of his chest, they began to glow due to the Mana funneling directly into them. SunFlare emitted a deep orange and red glow, while ISS was basked in a green hue, similar to the earlier hidden blade.
“Phrase?” Burt stepped back two steps in fear, like a wolf would when seeing fire.
[TOBS QUEUE MAH BACKGROUND MUSIC!]
– … –
[TOBS ISNT SPOTY CYNRIK, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU…] Brance, hearing what his brother was trying to order Tobs to do, tried to defend the system but was cut off by Tobs itself.
-Now playing “Guren No Yumiya”-
[Oh, son of a bitch!] Brance facepalmed and brought up his shield to hide his embarrassment; deep in his heart, he was cursing his idiot brother, who seemed to think they were in an anime.
A chorus of people singing OH in a melodic pattern began echoing in both of their minds, followed by a heartbeat pounding behind the choir before the music picked up.
Hearing the familiar anime opening playing in his head caused Cynriks excitement to build along with the song; he stood in place, grinning ear to ear while finishing his Mana coating on both blades and activating Haste.
“Seid ihr das Essen? Nein wir sind die JAGER!”
The moment the song’s lyrics kicked in, Cynrik shouted them out loud before kicking off the ground and moving forward at his fastest speed, his sudden movement kicking up a trail of dust.
Instantly, he appeared in front of Burt, who was stunned at the boy’s sudden appearance directly in his face. His shock turned to rage, and he immediately swung his head forward in an attempt to headbutt the child, but to his surprise, his head didn’t make contact with anything.
Due to the 15 point increase in his AGI from Haste, and his natural 64 AGI, Cynrik moved so fast that he had left an afterimage in Burt’s face. However, by the time he reacted, Cynrik had already jumped up and stepped off the man’s shoulder before spinning in mid-air like a top and slashing out at the back of Burt’s neck with both swords.
Unlike before, where his attacks only left white marks, his swords dug into the man’s flesh cause significant cuts to appear where he connected.
“RAHHH,” Brance, having already figured out what was happening, ran forward with his shield up and bashed it directly into Burt’s shins.
CRACK
Like his brother, he had coated the shield in Mana, which increased the amount of damage dealt the higher leveled opponent, and as a result, he splinted both of the man’s shins with his sudden attack.
Howling in pain, Burt collapsed to his knees while flailing around wildly. To the front, Brance was hacking away at his chest with his sword, and to the back, Cynrik was jumping left and right, avoiding Burt’s arms while slashing away at any slab of meat he saw.
Both boys watched as the red bar signifying their enemy’s health quickly emptied, and with the music reaching its climax, they both jumped back and readied their final attacks.
“BASTARD CHILDREN HOW DAR….” But before Burt could finish his statement, he watched with confused eyes as his body seemed to get further and further away.
Cynrik and Brance had timed their attacks to connect in unison, and using all their might decapitated their enemy, causing a fountain of blood to spray to the ceiling of the room, painting it in a shade of red.
The room fell silent. The only sound that could be heard was the panting of the brothers, who had nearly bottomed out their stamina in their barrage of attacks.
“Hah…hah, see Brance, everything’s better with background music,” Cynrik struggled to stand due to his exhaustion but still was able to make one of his smart-ass comments.