*Thwish*
*Thunk!*
-15 HP
"Eie!" Elijah cried in pain.
He had sensed an arrow from behind, but again it was moving too fast for him to react. The arrow lodged into his left back thigh.
Elijah turned around and slashed at a goblin who jumped at him to take advantage of his momentary weakness. If his sense stat and pain reduction were lower than now, he wouldn't have reacted in time.
The attacker was almost cut in half vertically, but his knife wasn't long enough.
Unlike the last time, he didn't see the archer in the crowd.
He aimed his palm at a spot in the crowd where it was traced back to from the arrow's trajectory which he had sensed.
"Fire bolt!"
A small fireball formed on his palm in a fraction of a second and shot out at a speed of 15 m/s. A regular fire bolt without fire affinity would have a speed of 10m/s.
The goblin had no chance of reacting. The fire bolt pierced into its chest and made a hole in it. The skin around the chest wound was scorched black, and the blood was burned away.
[You have killed a goblin!]
Elijah found a goblin who hid behind the dead goblin earlier, and it was stunned by what it saw. It had a short bow in its hand.
"Fire bolt!"
The archer reacted fast enough to put its arms in front of it, but the same fate entailed when the fire broke through its arms and pierced its chest.
[You have killed a goblin!]
Even if Elijah didn't get the extra 50% fire damage from his fire affinity perk, goblins have too little health compared to a human guardsman. Most goblins didn't wear armor.
Although some of these goblins were wearing leather armor and/or actual knives they've taken from spoils of the dead. So they were well-equipped compared to other goblin tribes.
He sensed a couple of goblins that rushed him from behind.
[You have killed a goblin!]
[You have killed a goblin!]
[You have killed a goblin!]
Seeing the three goblins who died because of their judgment, most goblins were hesitant to jump in.
The goblins all had different opinions. Some thought he was running on fumes and that after the next injury he would be disabled. They all had different bets on when the next opportunity would come for them to launch a finishing blow.
Elijah opened his status screen to allocate his points.
A goblin charged at him.
*Slice!*
[You have killed a goblin!]
The status screen was transparent, so he could see through it.
He placed 5 points into his sense.
His sense stat was working, it just wasn't strong enough. If he increases it, he might react sooner to those arrows.
Elijah learned he didn't need to look at the status screen. It only needed to be opened to receive the thoughts of the Player.
He confirmed the point allocation and felt a change.
The radius of his sense field encompassed all the goblins.
He could now feel their presence with his body and visualize their positions in his mind.
He could even feel their emotions and intentions.
*Slash, slash*
He cut down two goblins who attempted to strike from his blind spot.
[You have killed a goblin!]
[You have killed a goblin!]
He had felt their bloodlust build until they reached the peak of their patience and acted on their impulses.
He could feel all of their bloodlust and their fear. There was a delicate balance of both emotions in them.
Some had more fear in the others and so were more cowardly but because of that, they didn't die like those who had less fear. There were also other emotions like pride, greed, lust, and maliciousness.
He could hear a stampede of footsteps nearby.
Goblins flooded the cave as reinforcements arrived from the passages. It was as if the more he killed, the more goblins would show up like how the heads of a hydra would regrow.
There were about 60 in total that has entered the cave since the battle began.
A sea of green chess pieces filled with intent surrounded him. Elijah vaguely sensed a goblin that was hiding behind the crowd. It was snaking around the ring, waiting to strike at an opportune moment.
[You have killed a goblin!]
[You have killed a goblin!]
*Thwish*
*Thunk*
An arrow coated with a black viscous liquid pierced into a dead goblin.
Elijah had used one goblin he had just killed as a meat shield since he knew the hidden archer would strike from behind him. He just had to wait for the archer to take the opportunity and that was when he was killing goblins.
He angrily threw his meat shield from where the arrow came from.
[Fist of Fury activated!]
His anger dropped the moment his skill activated. It was like the System had sucked the emotion out of him.
The meat shield smashed into a group of goblins, but just missed the archer who was still running around the ring.
[You have killed a goblin!]
[You have killed a goblin!]
[You have leveled up!]
Elijah followed the goblin with his palm.
Just like with the status screen, Elijah cast [Fire bolt] without chanting.
[You have killed a goblin!]
When a goblin dropped dead, he saw an unobstructed view of the archer running past but then disappeared behind the ring.
He fired another [Fire bolt].
[You have killed a goblin!]
"Tsk." Elijah clicked his tongue.
He rammed into the crowd where he sensed the archer was heading to and activated [Fist of Fury].
He punched away a group of goblins and created a gap in the formation from which he exited.
[You have killed a goblin!]
Only the first goblin was killed as it cushioned the blow for those behind it.
The archer had loaded its last arrow that was dipped in the poison and pointed his crossbow at Elijah, but it was too late. Elijah had his palm up and shot out a [Fire bolt].
Since the goblin was only 5 meters away from Elijah, the 15 m/s fast fire bolt punched a hole in its chest in only one-third of a second.
It died almost instantly.
[You have killed a goblin!]
The battle was much easier now that he had killed all the archers. He only had to focus on the incoming melee goblins.
He opened the status menu and added 4 points to agility and +1 to sense. The surrounding goblins were moving slower in his perception.
His current strength was enough to one-shot a goblin with his knife, so he wasn't worried about his attack damage. His body needed to move fast enough to keep up with his perception.
He understood now that a balance of the other attributes was important because they all worked together to promote efficiency.
Author's Announcement: Hey guys, so they've created a new novel for me (same story of volume 2) that is paywalled and contracted. Anyone that has made it this far and like the story- please move over to OP Parazyte. Chapters 71 and above is paywalled.
All new chapters will be released on OP Parazyte. Its a bit annoying for us but there's nothing they can do about it.
Thank you so much for your support!
[Status]
LV. 10
Name: Elijah Whitlock
Karma
-500 Dark [______________|I______________] Light +500 (19)
Class: None
Title: None
__________________
HP: 280/450
MP: 53.5/100
Fatigue: 65
__________________
Strength: 18
Agility: 11
Sense: 10
Vitality: 7
Intelligence: 4
Charisma: 5
AP: 0
__________________
[Skills]
-Passive Skills-
Goddess of Fortune's blessing (luck boost)
Pain Reduction: 65%
Brawler Toughness: 20% damage reduction to unarmed attacks and 5% damage reduction to blunt attacks.
Arbitrary threat level detector lvl. 2 (maxed)
Bite resistance: 50% damage reduction to bite attacks
-Immunity-
Troll King's clotting factor: Immune to natural bleeding. Does not work against magical effects.
-Affinity-
Fire
-Active Skills-
Fist of Fury: Damages target with 125% of caster's strength in a single punch. Cooldown is ignored when the user is furious. Emotional energy is consumed.
Cooldown: 6 minutes
[Spells]
-Summoning Magic-
Light spirit: MP cost: 10 (uncontracted)
-Arcane Magic-
Fire Bolt: MP cost: 15 (7.5)