Second Saga

‘Alright, let’s do this!’

As Hydra nodded with Irina, their plans was set. He wouldn’t have to worry about Irina getting into trouble now that they were no longer in a party. A dozen monsters would be difficult but if Hydra utilized all he knew with hit and run tactics he would just barely be able to manage. That is of course a.s.suming their level wasn’t incredibly much higher than him. But Hydra didn’t believe that the group of monsters could be higher than a single [Crugling]. The reason? Because the game would be broken and his misfortune would be at an all time high. Thus he refused to believe it cause even he couldn’t be that unlucky!

Hydra, for the first time activated a skill. As the blue flames were too concentrated on absorbing the [Shadow Rain] he was able to use his skills. Thus as he willed, a rune flew in front of him in a mysterious manner, no matter how many times Hydra saw magic in this world, it was simply amazing. The glyph hovered beckoning his finger, that had now lit up and warm, and Hydra answered by carefully filling in the rune perfectly. As he did a window popped up.

As the window appeared the rune was already sinking into his sword. The [Shadow Stealer] hummed in satisfaction and as the rune melded into the sword, the shadow spread out like the darkness of a setting sun.

As Hydra had made his preparations, there was only one thing left to do. To stand up and willingly become a sacrifice or become a hero and destroy the evil in front of him. Naturally that was how Irina viewed it, while Hydra could only think of loot and experience. At this point he was still a bit afraid. He had never fought so many targets at a single time and this would be the biggest challenge he faced yet. It was definitely the starting point in real fighting for him in the game.

As he walked out from the cover of the stalagmite, the monsters noticed him. However the large monster didn’t turn around and instead grunted. As the low grunt left the smaller monsters shaking in fear they all turned their bodies and focused on Hydra.

‘It seems that large monster is unable to stop focusing that core. Well that’s partially good news. If only they looked down on me and didn’t send the entire dozen small monsters.’

As Hydra was complaining it was easy to see that all the small monsters were walking on their hind legs. It was hind legs, because Hydra was finally able to tell what kind of creature it was. It was essentially a bipedal hyena monster. Hydra didn’t know the name of such a monster but he was now close enough to the monsters to identify them so he did.

In this case the gnolls attacked the wrong force and instead of being victorious they had their bodies possessed by the darkness. The shadow veins have been deeply rooted for far too long and thus saving them is impossible, not that anyone would save them anyways.

‘d.a.m.n! Their level is slightly higher than I hoped. But because I have [Shadow Stealer] this shouldn’t be impossible, just have to be careful.’

As Hydra made his decision, he rushed towards the group of [Gnolls]. It was no time to hesitate as it would only lead him to death. Taking the first strike could possibly give him the upper hand and because it was a dozen [Gnolls] shadow possessed or not he could only try and kill them one by one as fast as possible.

When the [Shadow Possessed Gnolls] saw Hydra charging without remorse, they didn’t even bat an eye. Their lives were no longer their own and the only thing that lived inside of them was the darkness. Naturally darkness would only be afraid of light or a higher being of darkness. Little did they know that was exactly what Hydra was.

The first [Gnoll] charged at Hydra, half of the [Gnolls] were armed with dagger like cleavers while the rest were armed with worn down spears snapping at any moment of pressure. The [Gnoll] that charged at Hydra was equipped with the dagger like cleaver and charged to stab towards him.

Irina was watching this site and couldn’t help but clench her hands. She strongly believed him Hydra, but that didn’t stop fear creeping into her mind with the worst possible results. Thus, no matter how much danger she would be in, she couldn’t allow him to fight on his own. She stood up and positioned herself behind the stalagmite, while she wouldn’t listen to some things Hydra said, she would without a doubt listen to the most important parts, to her at least.

Hydra saw the cleaver coming towards him and smirked.

“You’re going to have to do better than this! After all this time I get to test my limits! Don’t disappoint me now!”

As Hydra dodge the incoming cleaver with minimum movement he stabbed [Shadow Stealer] deep into the [Gnolls] throat. As he did a window popped up.

‘Hmm this might be easier than I thought!’

As he was starting to get arrogant, he noticed a slight problem. The [Gnoll] who charged at him was only bait. As he was now surrounded by the entire group each pair was made up of the cleaver [Gnoll] and spear [Gnoll].

‘Well. They aren’t stupid at least.’

Hydra was only slightly worried, actually he was definitely worried but he wouldn’t show it on his face. Nor would he let this situation allow him to deter him from overcoming being surrounded. As he was surrounded it also meant that the only [Gnoll] within a few feet was the one he stabbed. Thus to him it was a perfect chance to finish him off.

As the [Gnoll] who was stabbed tried to recover, he was met with an unfortunate attack. The [Gnoll] was unable to recover from being stabbed immediately and without warning another slash came towards its throat.

Slash!

But it didn’t stop there the [Gnolls] only prepared to surround him and it weren’t able to react immediately to attack him. Thus as he slashed back and forth the health went down at a shocking rate and was soon depleted. The [Gnoll] was only left with a single chance to attack and now was already dead. Hydra was thrilled as he looked towards the shadow encased sword.

‘This [Shadow Blade] is definitely increasing my damage output by a lot.’

As the smile on Hydra’s face deepened he could only face the remaining 11 [Gnolls]. As if he didn’t care about his own safety he dove towards a random [Gnoll]. It didn’t matter to Hydra which he attacked the result was the same, his or their deaths.

As Hydra rushed towards the [Gnolls] without a care for his life he slashed towards the unprepared [Gnoll]. This [Gnoll] was a spear wielder and as it wasn’t able to react in time a full slash a.s.saulted its body.

Hydra ignored the window that popped up. As if the [Gnolls] finally could react, the one beside the a.s.saulted [Gnoll] rushed to stab at Hydra with its dagger. As the incoming dagger looked dangerous Hydra was not prepared to take a hit so early in the fight. Especially when he still had an advantage when their encirclement hadn’t tightened at all.

With a simple step back Hydra easily avoided the stab after that, Hydra stepped towards the incoming [Gnoll] and stabbed towards its throat.

Stab!

As Hydra stepped in towards the [Gnoll] he grabbed its arm as he removed the stab and threw the [Gnoll] towards the edge of the encirclement. But it was not that everything started to get difficult for Hydra. As the [Gnolls] had crept closer they were all within range to attack at any moment. Sweat dripped down his face, as he felt the overbearing pressure hit him all at once.

“Here we go.”

The 5 [Gnolls] who had spears all stabbed towards Hydra’ body, as the last one was still recovering the knockback it received when attacked, the spear tips covered in rust bombarded Hydra from all directions. As amazing at martial arts as he was, he simply was unable to dodge everything, but he was able to dodge all but one.

‘I can’t take those hits often. It would only take 10 or so more hits until I’m finished.’

Hydra who might not have looked like it still cared about living, he wanted to overcome a situation exactly like this. So even though he was just attacked and hurt, it was unable to stop his rampage. He went beserk and rushed towards the one who managed to hit him. As, normally the one to actually hit him was the best fighter amongst them right? At least this was Hydra’s train of thought at the moment.

Slashing towards the [Gnoll] like unconstrained beast, it didn’t just stop at one. Hydra ferociously attacked the [Gnoll] slash after stab the numbers easily piled up and before the group of cleavers were able to react to defend the [Gnoll] its health had already reached half.

As incoming dagger’s required the [Gnolls] to get closer Hydra jumped backwards. It was simple to say, however the reflex needed to react in time to dodge the 5 daggers was not easy as the big bodies was closing off any gap possible of escape. Hydra was only able to successfully back away after putting all his strength into his legs. He pushed past their bodies and threw himself to the ground before rolling into a kneeling stance.

Because the 5 [Gnolls] had charged at him it was not enough to encircle him any longer. As he was no longer pressured by being surrounded he rushed towards another spear wielding [Gnoll]. The strength behind each thrust and slash contained every bit of Hydra’s strength that he could muster. He did not look down on his opponents they were in fact strong. That required him to use his utmost ability to live through this adversity.

Irina who watched Hydra fight was secretly amazed. She knew he was strong, that was without a doubt after killing a Legendary Monster however the means in which Hydra killed it was lackl.u.s.ter and didn’t actually require any fighting ability behind it. After all [Mercury] was killed by the luck of bread. Who could say that was a strong method of defeating a legendary existence? In fact she was slightly disappointed when she finally realized and calmed down to think about the means and result.

However that was completely swept away after watching Hydra fight. He had only been struck once but every time she would slightly gasp and cover her eyes, only to notice he was fine and successfully dodge each time.

Naturally, Pan beside her had the same reactions. Full of trust of his master however every time Pan watched moment before he was about to be attacked Pan would raise his paws and cover his eyes unable to see the result of the reactions. However Pan was unable to recover as fast as Irina and when he finally removed his paws he would see Hydra nearly being stabbed again thus leading to a loop of Pan covering his face with his paws without even watching the fight at all. Poor Pan was too scared for his master.

Irina had planned after each time she saw Hydra attacked to step in, but she was unable to. She knew just by watching him that he was enjoying this fight at every moment. Every time he was in danger his smile would only grow. Every time he escaped danger and retaliated he would turn serious and attack with his entirety. It was a fight that contained no beauty but she was unable to look away. She, who could only stare at her savior, her hero in awe.

As Hydra had now finished attacking the spear [Gnoll] it has also lost half its health. But that didn’t mean the situation was any better for him. For the entire group he could have been said to knock less than a tenth of their health. But he had already lost a tenth, thus in the overall situation the [Gnolls] were currently winning the engagement. Hydra, only slowly walked forward to prepare for another a.s.sault as he did, a few words leaked from his mouth.

“Let’s start round 2, shall we?”