Chapter 31 - Count's Quest (3)

A Thief threw a bunch of ninja stars from the rear.

Thanks to Hyun's «One Second Absorption», all of the attacks bounced away from Ain's body.

Thanks to Hyun watching over her, Ain could focus on the one-on-one combat.

Whish- Ain hit Pias with a punch that resembled a boxer's jab.

"Ugh…"

Pias moaned in pain.

He bent his waist and avoided being hit, but cold sweat dripped from his neck.

The opponent's speed was on a whole other level compared to the enemies he had fought against up until then!

He was also fast, but she was faster.

He couldn't believe he was slower than the enemy even though he had received all kinds of buffs.

'Just how much agility does she have…?!'

He was lucky that he had been able to instinctively avoid being hit.

Also, he didn't understand why, but the opponent's attack was abnormally high.

'Wait, why are my defensive stats at zero…?'

Pias, who was panicking, looked at Ain's feet.

There was an aura that emitted an ominous light.

The moment his body touched it, he could feel his body being on edge.

'If I make a mistake, I'm done…'

Pias looked at the opponent's hands.

It would be too late for him if he couldn't react to her movements.

But before he could get a hold of his breath…

«Vision Sword»!'

A shining blade made of light emerged.

Hyun used the absorbed damage to hit Pias on the waist with the «Vision Sword».

[You've dealt 230 damage!]

"Huh…?"

Ain seemed confused after reading the notification.

「Why is that thief so weak? Even though I absorbed all his attacks, it didn't add up to much.」Hyun complained.

The «Vision Sword»'s attack varied depending on the opponent's damage absorbed.

He had received all the ninja stars on purpose with the goal of increasing «Vision Sword»'s damage, but the result was worse than he had thought.

He was starting to miss Ain's punches.

「Hyun, don't waste my mana.」

「Sorry…」

The «Vision Sword» used 50 mana, which was a considerable amount.

If the damage output was low, there was no point in using it.

'Should I avoid attacking at all…?'

When he thought about it, maybe that would be better.

Instead of attacking, perhaps it would be better if he was in charge of defense. After all, it would be hard for her to dodge all the opponent's attacks.

「It would be better if we divided the roles.」

「How?」

「I'll take care of the long-range attacks. You just focus on the close-range combat.」

Ain tilted her head at Hyun's explanation.

Would they be able to divide the roles while controlling the same body?

Hyun cleared her doubts.

「Give me the control priority.」

If they gave two opposing orders simultaneously, whose command would the body listen to?

The thing he needed at that moment was control priority.

「Priority?」

「Yes. You just have to fight as you usually do. I'll take control if something dangerous flies towards you.」

Hyun was better than her in terms of skill usage, knowledge about the different types of skills, and overall gaming skills.

But there was something she was better at than Hyun: PvP.

Hyun was planning to take advantage of both of their strong points.

「Is something like that possible…?」

「Probably…」

「Hmm… I'm not sure, but let’s do as you say.」

Although she was not sure, she decided to trust Hyun.

She made that decision because she knew that Hyun's greatest strength was his ability to see the opponent's weakness and improvise solutions.

The battle started to heat up.

Ain's flames and Pias’s lance clashed.

Their exchange of blows resembled something from an action movie.

Even though their speed was similar, it was clear that Pias was at a disadvantage as time went on.

"Tsk…"

Suddenly, flames covered Pias's eyes.

Ain had swung her arms and blocked his field of view.

When you did not know where the attack would come from, the safest option was to back off.

Pias tried to leap backward, but Ain had already seen through him.

Ain blocked his view with one hand and used the other one to hit him.

When Pias stepped on the floor, Ain's hands were already at his chin.

"Damn…!"

[You have received 1584 damage!]

"No!"

Swoop-!

As Pias came under danger, other Darkness members began casting magic.

Fireballs, spears made of ice, daggers, and ninja stars flew in their direction simultaneously.

But Hyun was already prepared for long-range attacks.

As he used «One Second Absorption» and leaped backward, Ain's action of trying to forcibly land hits on the enemy was canceled.

—It was because Hyun had control priority.

As soon as Ain moved backward, the enemies’ attacks poured down.

「It's possible, see?」Hyun said while laughing.

By using «One Second Absorption» correctly, they could safely exchange the control in any situation.

That was the strategy Hyun had thought of to safely exchange the character's control.

「To be honest, I think we were lucky…」

「Then let's try again until you're sick of it.」

Nod.

Ain leaped forward again.

Fwoosh- Fwoosh- Fwoosh-!

Flames struck Pias's spear.

It was a series of attacks that had offbeat movements and feints mixed together!

Pias, who was trying his best to face the constant influx of fire attacks, was about to lose his mind.

He tried to protect himself by backing off… But it was hard.

Pias was in danger.

At that moment…

Flash-! A magic circle was drawn under Ain's feet.

«Metal Edge».

The sharp metal pillar that rose from the ground was an attack from members of Darkness that were trying to support Pias.

If you were fighting, it would have probably been hard to react against a sudden magical attack that came out of nowhere… But if you were just looking out for potential dangers, you could respond easily.

“«One Second Absorption», «Shield»!"

For a few seconds, all enemy attacks stopped.

Thanks to «Shield», everyone that had attacked Ain had been stunned.

「Ain, now!」

「I know…!」

Ain's eyes began shining just like those of a wolf looking at prey.

A wild beast never misses an opportunity.

Because everyone was stunned, that opportunity had come.

The flame flared and struck Pias five times.

The 9th person in the world rankings became light and scattered away in a split second.

"Ah…!"

Mayday, the 2nd in the rankings, groaned.

Mayday's role was to support Pias whenever he was in danger.

But what had happened?

He wasn't hit with an attack that caused abnormal status, yet for three seconds, his mind had become blank.

He had just sat still while watching Pias be beaten up.

Because he was distracted, Pias had become ashes.

The reason Mayday's mind was absent for a few seconds was because of Hyun's «Shield» skill, but he thought it was because he was distracted.

"Mayday, did you just make a mistake?!" Reina shouted in disbelief.

It was the first time they had seen Mayday make a mistake. After all, she was a perfectionist.

"I couldn't move for a moment…"

Mayday looked stunned.

But soon, she shook her head.

"No, I won't make any more mistakes like that…!" Mayday said while biting her lips.

Causing an inconvenience for her entire guild because of a mistake she made once was enough.

She couldn't do anything about what had happened, but at least she wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Clap Clap- The head of the guild, XL, clapped and tried to lighten the mood.

"Let's keep doing our best until the end. We, Darkness, still have a chance."

Pias had died, but there were other users that could take his position.

The battle wasn't over yet.

* * *

'It's easier than I thought.'

Hyun seemed relaxed.

Was it because they were still at the early stages of the game? Even though the opponents were rankers, he and Ain weren’t having a hard time.

The reason was quite simple.

—In the early stages of the game, there wasn't a job that could resist the ridiculously high attack of the Close Range Magician.

On top of that, there was his Support class.

Not only that but there was also his «Assimilation» skill that increased stats and the «Powerless Wave» skill.

The +1 skill level increase of «Assimilation» also couldn't be ignored.

At that point in the game, they were practically invincible.

"I don't have any mana left."

「It's okay.」

They also had a way to solve the Close Range Magician's high mana consumption issue.

The moment Ain drank the 'Weak Heaven's Elixir' they had gotten from the old man, that weakness disappeared.

[Your HP has temporarily been increased by +20,000!]

[Your mana recovery rate has increased 10 times over!]

Ain was as strong as a boss monster that had overwhelming attacking power.

A boss monster controlled by both Hyun and Ain.

'Too bad we had to use the elixir, but since there's this many people, there's nothing we can do about it.'

A new user walked out from the Darkness Guild’s side.

A warrior that was 7th in the rankings, Bear Shield.

It seemed like they had decided to use him, one of the best tankers in the world, as the vanguard.

「I see, so they're planning to keep fighting using this same strategy.」

The new guy also received a lot of buffs, just like the previous one.

Even though he had become stronger, he still wasn't a menace to Hyun and Ain.

It was obvious that Bear Shield was a tanker.

—It was common knowledge in PvP that slow users weren't dangerous.

'It looks like it's going to be easier than before.'

They didn't even need to change the strategy.

If they fought the same way, time would flow, and the quest's end would get closer.

"I want to use my ultimate attack."

「What?」

What was she talking about?

It seemed like Ain had just said another nonsensical thing.

They didn't even need to use her ultimate attack, so why would she waste it there?

Ain's ultimate attack was strong, but since it had a 12-hour cooldown, she had to think very carefully before using it.

Hyun tried to convince her.

「Hey… I told you before. After clearing the quest, we should go hunt a named boss monster.」

"Did you say that…?"

「Yes, I did! If you use ultimate attack now, you won't be able to use it for hunting the named boss.」

"But this seems more entertaining than that."

Ain was determined to use her ultimate attack.

Hyun's voice became more urgent.

「Wait! Wait a little bit. You enjoy PvP, right? Wouldn't it be boring if the opponent was too weak?! Not using the ultimate attack will probably make things more fun…」

Fwoosh-

Hyun was still speaking when intense red energy started to come out from Ain's body.

Ain couldn't resist it and ended up using her awakening skill, «Prepared for Extinction».

「Damn…!」

Hyun couldn't stop Ain from covering her body with fire.

Ears made of fire rose from her head, and at her back, you could see a red tail surging.

It was the fire wolf figure she had been longing for.

"Hehehe…"

Laughter leaked out from Ain's lips.

She felt satisfied, except that there wasn't a mirror so that she could look at herself.

After activating the ultimate attack, the level of «Flame Claws» went up to Lv. 7 and evolved.

Ain's ultimate attack also increased the level of fire-type skills by one.

[«Efret's Claw» Lv.5(+2)]

After she activated the skill, Crack-, the claws of a beast appeared from Ain's small hands.

For some people, the sight of a claw with a length of one meter might have looked grotesque, but Ain even liked that.

[HP: 22570/23120]

The ultimate attack, «Prepared for Extinction», just as the name indicated, consumed 10 HP per second.

That meant that she could die by just standing still… But because they had increased her HP thanks to the elixir, it probably didn't matter.

Flap-!

Ain began to move.

From the perspective of others, it looked as if a giant ball of fire was moving.

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