Katsumi reflexively dodged, grabbing Mari with a tentacle.
He took a quick glance at the tree that was sliced in half before turning back to the guard captain. The tree had been sliced cleanly in half: the cut had been so clean that the upper half simply came sliding off.
Katsumi shivered. The only reason Katsumi was still alive was because that attack, whatever it was, wasn't aimed at him.
"You shocked, kid? This is the power of Lithallin's Guard Force! I'm known as Rand of the Slicing Current! You picked the wrong fight!"
Katsumi silently motioned for Mari to get on his back. She obliged after a moment's notice. He then fastened her in place with some slime. With how things were going, they wouldn't have the time to do this later.
"Puzzled? I'll tell ya the secret, then. [Water Jet], compressed to the maximum!"
---
The Encyclopedia of the Classes, Vol. 1
[Water Jet]
A possible skill of the "Mage" class, [Water Jet] allows the user to shoot a concentrated stream of water out of their palms, capable of boring holes into surfaces. Skilled users are even able to use it as a cutting blade, though this requires extreme amounts of training and concentration in order to achieve the speed required.
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Katsumi could feel a bead of cold sweat flowing down his left cheek. The [Water Jet] had the power to cut through several dozen centimeters of wood. There was no telling how it would fare against Purple's hardening. In addition, the sheer speed of [Water Jet] made it nigh impossible for Katsumi to be able to defend in time. He silently cursed himself for not investing enough in improving the speed stats of his monsters. However, doing it now was out of the question since he needed every bit of stamina he had to win this fight.
That left him with just one option. A massive swirl of black mist spiralled around Katsumi and formed a cloud. It was the same move he had used on the Shock Hog: the enemy's vision was obstructed, but Katsumi could see perfectly well where his opponent was with Purple's heat vision.
As expected, a horizontal slash of water instantly shot through the mist. However, it failed to hit anything; Katsumi had already jumped and suspended himself slightly off the ground with his tentacles.
However, he didn't come out unscathed by that attack in a sense. Wraiths were susceptible to magic attacks. Thankfully, the [Water Jet] was thin, so it only destroyed a small bit of mist. However, in a battle of attrition, Katsumi would still lose. He had to attack.
As expected, humans are in a different class from even the strongest of monsters, huh?
The guard captain had already completely surpassed the Shock Hog in destructive power. He was the strongest opponent Katsumi had faced yet. To win, Katsumi had to attack fast.
However, the guards had the power of teamwork on their side. They all activated their abilities in sync. One deployed a navy blue, rectangular barrier, another started emanating yellow light, and the remaining two drew a sword and a bow respectively, each weapon glowing with red and orange light respectively.
Then, on cue, they all attacked. The bow user fired off a barrage of glowing orange arrows, which whizzed through the barrier. The barrier was probably one-way.
Katsumi dodged, and the arrows went wide, barely touching the edge of his mist cloud. The [Water Jet] failed to hit Katsumi as well. Meanwhile, the sword user ran forward, and slashed his sword at the cloud, dissipating the mist slightly.
Katsumi smiled. The sword user had walked right into range. Black mist billowed forth. The sword user tried to block with his sword, but the mist just slipped around his sword and entered his armor through a chink in the chest area. A painful scream echoed through the night.
Katsumi dodged again to avoid the other attacks, and watched with a smile as the sword user collapsed to his knees, the magic on his sword slowly dissipating. That was only to be expected: after all, Pocket had just eroded a massive hole in his chest.
Then, Katsumi felt something enter his mist from behind.
Katsumi twisted to dodge, but even so he was only still able to avoid a vital blow.
It was the orange arrows the bow user had fired earlier.
I see. [Redirection Arrows], huh? Lets the user change the direction of the arrows fired once in air.
Katsumi gritted his teeth as the pain hit him. He had been struck thrice. Once in the right thigh, once in the right elbow and one had glanced off his ribcage, leaving a bloody streak.
This wasn't good. A dangerous amount of blood was pouring out. Katsumi had Purple instantly remove the arrows and staunch the bleeding, but he could see Purple's goo slowly becoming crimson.
Katsumi pulled himself behind the trunk of a large tree with his tentacles. He wasn't in good shape, and his control over the mist was starting to flicker. On his back, he could hear Mari yelling something in distress, but he was in no state of mind to process what she was saying.
The guards weren't immediately pursuing. Katsumi supposed they were wary because of what had happened to their companion. He stuck out a tentacle from behind the tree to gather intel on their actions using Purple's heat vision.
And froze in shock.
The sword user was slowly getting up from his knees. The reason? The guard that was releasing a yellow light.
Katsumi cursed under his breath. He should have gone for the healer first. Of course they had a healer. Now they had seen one of his strongest attacks.
Katsumi braced himself and powered through the pain of his wounds, pulled himself into the tree canopy with a tentacle.
They didn't know Katsumi could climb trees. They thought he was just behind the tree trunk. That gave him the advantage. He waited for several moments as the guard squad approached the tree he was on in formation, with the barrier between themselves and the tree
Then, when they were right under him, he dropped from above.