The underground tunnel, Goblin village.
Under the dim light of the flickering fire of the torches, golds and valuable gems reflecting bright light rays lay scattered across the floor. A few goblins with their pale green skin, gooey ugly faces, and yellowish sharpened fangs with and leaking drool acted as this goblin dungeon's treasure-keeper.
Four archers were hung naked on a damp wall where the light was the dimmest. The intermittent muffled sobbing, the ugly scars on their body and the vacant looks on their eyes were all pointing toward the unimaginable suffering of these archers; probably rape, violence, and humiliation- something the proud archers would absolutely detest from the bottom of their heart, they would prefer death over it.
A room full of treasures and a damsel in distress; It was the classic scenario where the hero, the proud wandering traveler would be blessed with fortune and admiration of the beauty for saving them from evil and ending their suffering. A tale told numerous times by the storyteller and sung by the bards.
However, Bjorn only felts his blood boil in anger. Hatred stemmed, rising to his head making him partially lose his rationality.
The ground above his head and beneath his feet started shaking, tumbling down rocks and dirt into the open passage. Bjorn pushed with his feet propelling him forward, his broadsword in his grasp.
As he channeled his energy inside his body towards his broadsword and hand, red infernal energy started to gush out of him like a fountain. A part of the energy congregated into his sword giving it a red hue at its edges and forming sharp spikes at the flat surface of the sword turning it into something like a mace- A swordmace. The bigger part of the energy flowed towards his left hand which started to morph into a demonic arm with scales and claws.
The infernal claws!
A martial skill practiced by all barbarians, a skill which enhanced strength, defense, and increased the body's lethality to its extreme granting them immense power.
As for the swordmace, that was something Bjorn created because he wanted to bash these vile creatures into meat paste, letting them experience a gruesome death. He wanted to vent his anger!
Despite his huge body and the weight of the armor, Bjorn arrived in front of the goblins with a speed that was uncapturable by normal human eyes.
"Take this, You greeny slimy Mongrels!" Shouting loudly, he lifted his sword in the air and slammed it into the head of a goblin.
SPLAT!
The head of the goblin burst like a watermelon spraying the brain matters and green blood everywhere. But Bjorn did not stop, he struck again, causing the headless body of the goblin to explode.
Covered in the Gore and blood, he smiled grimly at the other goblins, "Now, it's your turn. Today, I will dust all the evil out of you!"
"AraARARa!'
"AwhAwhaswh!"
The cries of agony and despair of the goblin echoed out through the underground tunnel. A slaughter-fest took place under the illumination of the torches. Goblin blood painted the floor green and gory substance splattered on the walls painting the scene of the murder. Amidst the howls of agony, a single barbarian danced the 'dance of death'.
....
It is said that in the darkness, ghosts terrorize the land and predators come out to hunt. The thing happening in the forest was a live demonstration of it.
Only the archers were playing the role of the fabled ghosts and fear-evoking predators of the legends.
The archers with their short pink hair, green dress, and a hood covering their heads were jumping from one tree to another, their movements as traceless as the ghosts. In their hand was a bow, a bow which was as plain as it could get. But in the hand of the archers, it could create wonders which were difficult to imagine.
The Korkottas were running like the wind amidst the shadows, hiding their figures behind the trunks or in the thriving bushes of the forest. The crown of the trees enveloped the vastness of the sky, preventing the light to illuminate the darkness of the forests. In the plack black environment, the Korkottas were like a fish in the river. After living in a dark environment, the hearing and eyesight of these creatures had adapted to increase their survivability. Thus, they could hear even the minute sound and clear clearly in the dark.
This increased the difficulty of killing the Korkottas.
At this moment, the eyes of the archers shone with mysterious blue colors, causing the vision of the archers to increase by a few levels. Despite the darkness, they could see things albeit not clearly but it was enough for them to spot their target and aim.
The oculus art!
The unique eye skill of the archers and the reason behind their unrivaled archery.
Standing on the branch of the tree, Aria looked around after activating the oculus art. Her vision changed as it expanded, and became something like that of a camera. Aria could see everything clearly up to far, and if she focused even the smallest things would appear bigger. Although darkness slightly obstructed her vision and made it appear slightly blurry, it was not enough to decrease the precision of Aria's accuracy and skills level.
Noticing a Korkotta, Aria drew her arrow and released it. The arrow moved in a straight path and hit its target. A slight groan escaped from the Korkottas but the arrow only left a shallow graze on the skin of the beast.
"It is not enough to injure or kill it huh? I expected as much". Aria murmured as she drew another arrow and knocked on her bow. Aria channeled the energy in her body to her shoulder and arm, increasing the strength of her pull, and released another arrow. This arrow was faster than before as it struck the Korkottas in its front limb creating a ghastly wound.
Releasing a whimpering sound, the injured Korkotta ran faster using the trees as cover. It was trying to escape!
Hot on its tail, Aria withdrew another arrow. This time, the energy inside her body gushed out a waterfall as it flowed towards the bow through her arms. The energy flowed through the plain bow and converged towards the small red gem at the handle of the bow. The small gem sucked in all the energy like a black hole but purer energy was released from it. The released energy nourished the bow increasing its resilience and it flowed and combined with the bowstring. After being baptized by the energy from the red gem, the bow despite looking plain as before had an extraordinary feel to it.
Strengthening weapon with energy!
This was the ability of those at tier-2 strength. At tier-2 strength, one could control the energies in the surroundings as long as they come in contact with it. Thus, over the years, practitioners invented several useful ways to use this ability. One of the ways was to nourish their weapon with their energy to make them stronger. Practioner with unique attributed energy could give handy stats to their weapons using this ability.
Aria knocked the arrow to the bowstring. As she stretched the bow to its fullest, she channeled her energy into the arrowhead of the arrow making it sharper. With her eyes locked onto her target, she said in a low voice. "This should do it!" Then, she released the arrow and moved in search of her next target.
She had the confidence that this arrow should end the life of the beast. A howl of despair resounded in the direction the arrow was fired signaling the death of the Korkotta. Aria smiled slightly. Withdrawing another arrow from the quilt, she started the hunt.
Similar scenarios were playing out in other areas. The archers were like silent hunters and reapers of life. each of the arrows took the life of the Korkottas. Their normal arrows could only injure the beasts but after they used their ability to nourish and strengthen their bows and arrows, the power of the arrows was increased to the next level. The painful howl of the Korkottas broke the silence of the forest.
....
In another area of the forest, Oliver and the barbarians were battling against the Yali. No, they thought they were battling but in fact, they were not. The attacks of the Olivier and barbarian did not even make the slightest dent in the thick inky armor of the Yali.
Thus, Oliver came up with a plan to target the back of the yali after analyzing the possible weakness of this elephant-like a colossus.
The barbarians were slightly suspicious after hearing Olivier's suggestion but they were also out of ideas. Their attacks were only scratching the itch of the beasts. They were also sure that their young chief would not play pranks on them in this precarious situation. He will not... He will not, right? Ok! They were not sure about that but they decided to trust him this time.
Targeting and possibly penetrating the asshole of a tier-5 beast wasn't something to be embarrassed about. Even more so, if they accomplished such a near-impossible task when they were only at the tier-2 warrior level. Some would even be proud of it and brag to their friends saying 'I dug a hole into the back of tier-5 beasts'. Although, that sounded strangely prevented but it was not something that some perverts could ever hope to achieve in their lifetime
Miguel looked at the rear of the Yali and gulped nervously. As he imagined the scenarios of the fellow barbarian laughing at him for the thing he was about to commit, he felt nervous, more than facing the beast called the Yali. Its consequences were more severe which could haunt him for the rest of his life.
Gripping his broadsword tightly, he howled at the other barbarians. "The thing that we are about to do, it must remain a secret; a secret that we must take to our grave. Understood?"
The other barbarians imagined a similar scenario as Miguel in their mind as they all nodded nervously in affirmation.
"Understood!"
"Then let's breach that asshole. Attack!" Miguel shouted loudly as he released red infernal energy from his body covering his left arm with red scales and claws like that of a demon. A thin layer of infernal energy permeated over the armor surrounding his body causing several strange patterns to surface over it but those patterns looked incomplete. Like something important was missing from it.
The infernal claws!
The infernal armor!
Another core skill of the barbarian race. Using this skill, they could use the infernal energy to tap into the full power of their armor but only those at tier-3 could utilize this skill to its full potential. Even though the full power of the 'infernal armor' skill could not be realized, the defensive prowess of the incomplete skill was still shocking!
"That sounded very twisted but hey, let's crash that ass".
"Let's do it!"
The other barbarians also shouted loudly as red patterns appeared over their bodies making them look like that a demon from hell. They released the energy inside their body widely and rushed forward to attack the rear of the Yali.
The yali was moving in a muddleheaded state. Even in that state of mind, it suddenly felt an ominous feeling causing its ass to clench involuntarily!
At the forefront of the battle, Olivier was silently closing in towards the neck of the yali. Olivier was acutely aware that the thing he was about to do was very dangerous but he had to. Otherwise, they would never produce any result. The yali's defense was far greater than they could have imagined.