Chapter 21: King.

After eating our fill, we set out once more into the grind.

The first enemy we face is a pack of Hellhounds, twenty of them, to be exact.

And then...

“Shoot the three to your left!” (Rize)

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

With the first two immersed in the explosion, the last one nears me.

“Shield!” (Doraig)

“Gotchu” (Kelsi)

Kelsi casts her barrier made of slime, green in color and seemingly springy to the touch, and so the Hellhound promptly collides with it, bouncing back and landing in a place 10 meters away from us.

It stares and growls at us.

“Sorry, the day you grow an intellect is the day you stop being cattle. Until then, please resist as hard as you can” (Doraig)

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

Experience points received

How are those two doing?

Rize is dancing between two of them with ease while looking at Robin.

Robin is…

He’s engaging against 5 of them at the same time with more nearing him, not good!

“Move closer to me Rob!” (Doraig)

“Coming!” (Rob)

Robin turns tail and moves past the hellhound in between both of us, then runs my way.

With the barrier still in place, Kelsi forms a small opening through which Robin goes in, separating himself from the fight.

One of the Hellhound tries to ram himself against the barrier, but instead of destroying it, he bounces back and lands with his butt scraping against the ground.

Two more try their luck to no effect, landing next to the fallen one.

“I’ll heal you”

This barrier that Kelsi cast is extremely overpowered. It let’s attacks out by the will of its caster, reflecting whatever is thrown at it, including enemies.

Its only disadvantage? once it’s put down in a certain place with a certain size, it cannot be moved unless it is removed, after which a small cooldown will occur. it also has a limit of damage it can take, after which point it will disappear, or ‘pop’, in this case. Thankfully, if it is destroyed by hitting the limit amount of damage, the cooldown doesn’t activate, requiring only the amount of mana necessary to be spent.

The Hellhounds are not very smart outside of their comfort zone, that is, fighting against enemies common in this area. It probably has to do with the fact that not many adventurers set foot in this zone, granting the Hellhounds unable to have proper training against a wider variety of skills.

Thus, after their attack not having any ‘obvious’ effect, they’ve now stopped ramming themselves against the barrier and are instead staring angrily at us while growling, they seem to be calling us chickens, in whatever language they speak, going by their tone.

More and more Hellhounds gather around us, apparently ignoring the small skirmish Rize is part of.

“Hmmm, I’ll begin attacking, then” (Doraig)

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

Being so tightly packed together not all of them manage to evade the attacks, but still, this isn’t very effective…

“Robin, how are your wounds doing?” (Doraig)

“They’re fine, what do you need?” (Robin)

“Do me a favor…” (Doraig)

I quickly explain my plan to Robin and then we put it in effect.

Let’s start, operation ‘Herding’.

Robin prepares himself and then walks to the border of the barrier. He stops for a second so all the Hellhounds stare at him, wondering what he’s going to do, and then, Robin walks outside.

All the hellhounds become stunned at this seemingly idiotic action, but then rejoice in their fortune of the human suddenly turning stupid. They begin running all towards Robin, closing in on him and baring their fangs, ready to split him into a thousand pieces as soon as they reach him.

And then, Robin jumps as we planned.

Robin Jumps, and all the hellhounds, seemingly having expected this action from the human follow suit. now in course for collision, they open their mouths ready to devour Robin, but right before being able to do so, Robin uses his signature skill ‘Double jump’, to kick above, returning to the ground in an instant. All of the hellhounds that have now missed him go above his body, and then—

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

Being so packed together, the massive explosion that is provoked by the usage of the skill, around 10 of them become engulfed in a black hole of destruction and fire, perishing almost instantly and without being able to so much as utter a last growl.

Minor Destruction Breath Has Achieved Max level, Evolving. Minor Destruction Breath -> Intermediate Destruction Breath

The Hellhounds on this side now taken care of, I look towards Rize, just in time to watch him finish off the last one of them.

In this manner, we continue to have small skirmishes against groups of enemies, slowly honing our teamwork and combinations.

10 enemies, 20 enemies, 30 enemies, we take each and every group we find without a care in the world. Robin’s gear allows him to take on multiple foes alone, while my overpowered combination with Kelsi and her barrier allows me to decimate whatever enemy is Clueless or looking somewhere else. Rize, of course, needs no explanation, as this guy is so nimble I’d bet a meal he can take on a whole 30-strong group on his own, even if it’d take a very long time to finish.

Going back to the resting area, eating, chatting, watching the spars between Robin and Rize, then back to the lava zone. Time moves forward, and our levels rise.

Level up: 24 -> 25

“Good work, everyone. now let’s move further In and—” (Rize)

“Wo HOOOOO” (Robin)

We all look at Robin who is now jumping up and down with a stupid grin on his face while giggling like he just heard the funniest joke in this world from his crush or something.

“Dude, what’s wrong? are you being attacked with a mental condition?” (Doraig)

“Oh, sorry, sorry… But, I just hit level 25!” (Robin)

“Uh… and what’s with that?” (Doraig)

“Here, Just watch” (Robin)

He begins to fiddle around, before taking out a beautiful looking armor and sword.

the sword’s blade is gray in color, while the guard is a pair of white wings.

The Armor is made of white scales and looks completely spotless.

Ah, Right. this guy won the damn lottery some weeks ago.

“Fuck, you are so damn lucky” (Doraig)

“I know, right? Woohoo!” (Rob)

Back when we all hit level 20 he made this same stupid dance. Back then, he unlocked a kite shield silver in color with a cross in the middle.

Ugh, I’m happy he will finally stop pulling random shit out of his hat because if you remember correctly I’m basically wearing nothing but basic scrap outside of my robe.

“So what did those things do, again?” (Doraig)

“Come, Let me show you its features!” (Robin)

“...” (Doraig, Rize & Kelsi)

We walk towards the nearest pack of enemies, and soon enough we find ourselves a pack of ten Hellhounds lazing around.

“Fly with the other two, I’ll test my new gear out” (Robin)

We all sigh at the same time before Rize gets on my back and I fly up with the other two, as Kelsi is already sitting on my head, just the same as always.

From our point of view, Robin walks nonchalantly towards the group of enemies, and when he is 10 meters away from them, he stops.

“COME YOU BASTARDS!” (Robin)

…

What the fuck is he doing?

Robin begins to taunt the Hellhounds, which seems to have a proper effect, as they all quickly stand up and look angrily at the person who bothered their sleep. then, as if someone blew a whistle for them to be so coordinated, they all run at Robin.

Robin smiles before making a pose as if ready to cleave, and does so when the enemies are still 5 meters away from him.

When the Blade reaches out, a blade of light comes out of the sword, which flies out and strikes the first hellhound, stopping is charge in an instant. the blade of light then.. bounces? Tink Tink Tink Tink, the blade bounces time and time again and hits in total seven different targets, before disappearing in a haze of light.

the seven of them stop in place, seemingly stunned by the impact of this blade, while the last three enemies continue their charge against Robin.

“Barrier of light” (Robin)

A ball of light expands outwards, its nucleus being the armor, and then it stops after having reached a radius of 2 and a half meters. the first Hellhound collides and falls down, white smoke coming out of the places that were in contact with the barrier.

Robin grins at his new items before quickly swinging his sword two times in quick succession, which releases two new blades of light that hit the three hellhounds before continuing to ricochet to 4 more enemies each. three of them have by now received three attacks each and stop moving altogether, they’re now dead.

Two swings more, and all the enemies are done for.

We all fly down and have to bear Robin’s grin, but Kelsi speaks first to ‘break the ice’.

“Wooow, those items are so cool!” (Kelsi)

“I know, right? now I can take on many more on my own, compared to before!” (Robin)

“Very nice, indeed. Just don’t let it get to your head, that’s a quick way to die, you know?” (Rize)

“Don’t worry, I know” (Robin)

“Good, you’ve become a lot stronger just in time, as tomorrow will be the day you-know-who will show up” (Rize)

“Tomorrow already? Damn, time flies” (Doraig)

“It will be fine, don’t worry” (Kelsi)

“Yup, don’t worry, I will carry us all, Ha Ha Ha!” (Rob)

...Will it really be fine?

I just hope the correct one shows up.

Going back to the camp, eating a hearty meal, fishing for a bit, then chatting, before falling asleep next to the fire.

The following day, we wake up earlier than ever to begin our preparations. the sun is still nowhere to be seen but it will soon make its appearance.

Rize polishes his weapon, takes out his quiver of arrows and a bottle containing some unknown black liquid, and then, takes out all of the arrows from the quiver. He grabs them one by one and puts the pointy end of it into the bottle, then back into the quiver. he does this to every single one of them, and when it is all done, he puts the quiver back into his inventory.

I and Kelsi don’t have much preparation to do, so we just laze around near the fire, waiting for the sunrise.

Soon after, the sky begins to light up, and the Sun comes up from the east.

It’s time to head out.

We fly and enter the fighting area, and quickly, an hour and then two go by.

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

‘Minor Destruction Breath’

The 12th Hellhound from this 20 pack dies, and then—

GRUMBLE!

The earth quakes and the Hellhounds left alive Howl to the sky.

The quake continues, and two minutes later, it stops.

The hounds stop howling, look at each other, and then run together away, leaving us behind.

“It’s here, huh” (Rize)

Boom!

at a distance away, an explosion occurs in the ground making it split up and throw debris and molten lava everywhere. The temperature instantly goes down by a notch, and the sky darkens.

From the place where the ground has opened up, one after the other beings made of mist pop out, flying everywhere at random.

“Let’s go up and then close in” (Rize)

“Got you” (Doraig)

Flying up, Robin next to us, we near the origin of the mist beings.

In the center of it all, a being stands tall.

with a mask that has fangs protruding upwards, big eyes which are black as the interior of a cave, Hair that is long enough to hit the ground and covers the body from view, leaving only the feet showing.

“So I’m lucky enough to see you again, Rangda” (Rize)

Rize calls her, and the being looks up. its hair moves about a bit more erratically, before calming down. then it speaks.

“Rize, huh? You’ve grown, kid. Are you ready to give me your soul?”