Slash! Slash! "Fucking hell!" Ethan spat in anger as he cut through a bunch of leaves with his dagger. This was the fourth time he'd walked into bush, receiving a faceful of green leaves. "Where are we even going?" Ethan extricated himself from the tangle of branches as he asked Noah exasperatedly.
Noah was tough to talk to. He simply trudged forwards as he ignored whatever Ethan said. Ethan's attempts to talk to him always ended in failure, sometimes resulting in a silent glare that unnerved him. Well, he should have expected this. He knew what kind of a person Noah was.
Boom! Noah jumped upwards, landing on a thick branch perfectly as his two feet balanced his body. Creak...creak! He moved along the branch, climbing higher and higher. "Shit!" Ethan swore in anger as he stared behind Noah.
Noah couldn't be bothered to check whether Ethan was keeping up with him. He leaped off the branch, disappearing off into the mist, not even looking behind. Thump! Whoosh! Ethan leaped into the air, following behind him as he tried to keep up.
Crack! Suddenly, the sound of a branch breaking echoed throughout the forest. Creak! Ethan jumped to another tree as he looked down, searching for the disturbance. He could see the vague figure of Noah standing in a clearing with a broken branch beside him. His sword was drawn as he stood motionlessly, as if he was looking for something.
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[Mana Sense (G)]
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Ethan searched through the surroundings, trying to find the presence of any monsters. Bzzzt! Bzzzt! "Fuck! The fog's blocking my skill." The heavy fog surrounding them was something unnatural- something he had never heard about. Whatever it was, it definitely didn't appear in any gates.
Bzzzt! He tried to avoid the fog searching in the empty areas. "Hiss!" Suddenly, something appeared right next to Ethan. Whoosh! A large, grey coloured snake shot out through the fog, narrowly missing him as he dodged at the last moment. "Aaah!" Ethan lost his balance as he fell down from the branch, falling towards the ground.
"Hiss!" The snake shot downwards, heading towards Ethan. "Goddamn snakes!" Shing! Clat! Ethan drew his kusarigama instantly. THUMP! His feet fell on the floor of the dark forest. "Hiss!" The snake darted downwards, moth wide-open to reveal a toothless maw. Clank...clank! Slice! Ethan's kusarigama shot upwards, slicing perpendicular to the snake's jaw. Splat! The blade emerged between its eyes, embedding itself in its body as the kusarigama swung downwards.
"Woah!" Ethan grasped the chain tightly, trying not to lose his balance as the weight of the monster tried to make him fall. Thud! The snake fell to the floor. Clat! The weapon shrank in size, extricating itself from the snake's body as it morphed into a dagger in his palm.
Swipe! Ethan wiped the blue blood off the dagger as he looked at the corpse of the monster in disgust. He really needed to learn how to pierce his targets properly. Getting his kusarigama stuck in an enemy in the middle of a battle would be tough to deal with.
Clang! Clang! Sounds of a battle rang out as Noah fought against a group of snakes. Ethan glanced at the battle happening right next to him. 'Fought' was not the right word for what was going on. Right now, Noah was single-handedly slaughtering all the snakes as he cut them down methodically, one after another.
"Hiss!" A ring of hisses ran through the trees as a bunch of snakes gathered around Ethan. The monsters weren't ignoring him. "Two....five...ten. Fifteen monsters!" The monsters were targeting him, the weaker of the pair. They wee definitely being commanded by something. Reptilian type monsters wouldn't work together otherwise.
Clat! His dagger expanded, forming a kusarigama as he grasped the chain in both of his hands. There were grey scales with white rings lining the snakes body. Ethan knew which species of monsters these were. Toothless Kraits. Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh! The toothless kraits had sacrificed a few of their number, trying to keep Noah busy as they surrounded him. "Hiss!" They hissed in anger, purple eyes gleaming at their target.
Whoosh....whoosh....whoosh. It was a good plan. Eliminating the infiltrators one by one would have been effective. "Hiss!" Unfortunately for them, they had brought too little snakes. Hiss! Clank! The snakes jumped at Ethan as he tightened his grip on the chain.
Hiss! Slice! The kusarigama shot in an arc, cleaving through the closest snake instantly as it passed unhindered. Clank! Ethan changed the direction of his weapon, swinging the blade vertically upwards. He loosened his grip on the chain, allowing the scythe blade to move farther from him as it raced towards the monster.
Hiss! Clang! The kusarigama crashed into the toothless krait's snout, bouncing off harmlessly. Clank! Ethan yanked the chain towards him as he ducked, rolling away from a monster's attack. The decrease in the kusarigama's speed meant that the scythe blade wasn't powerful enough to pierce the scales.
Thud! Ethan jumped to his feet as the toothless kraits surrounded him once more. One down. Fourteen more to go. There were too many monsters. Whoosh....whoosh...whoosh. He started swinging his kusarigama once again, preparing himself. Hiss! The monster's purple eyes gleamed as the eyed him hungrily. They were certain of their victory.
Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh. Ethan had similarly been surrounded by hundreds of rock golems once. And he had a perfect counter to attacks from behind. He'd used mirror blade and decimated the monsters surrounding him, protecting all sides simultaneously. But he couldn't use that now. Snakes were much more agile than rock golems. And plus, the dagger wasn't his main weapon any more.
Hiss! The toothless kraits poised themselves, preparing to strike. This was the biggest disadvantage of using a kusarigama. Reaching out with the weapon meant that he was left vulnerable at close range. But the greatest weakness of a kusarigama was also its greatest strength- its versatility. Ethan could use the kusarigama in whatever way he wanted, covering its weaknesses by substituting them with other weaknesses. His weapon was versatile, allowing him to use it or whatever purpose he wanted. And right now, he needed his weapon for crowd control.
Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh! He swung his weapon faster and faster, cleaving through the air as he stared back at the monsters. Ethan wasn't cornered. He wasn't in danger. There was no way he could lose to monsters a complete stage below his. Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh. Hiss!
Whoever sent these weaklings had sorely underestimated him. They had completely misjudged his power. Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh. Because right now, Ethan's eyes were glowing blue. "HISSSS!" A bunch of wild hisses rang out as the monsters rushed towards him. Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh.
"Firestorm"
Clank! Clank! Clank! The chain burst out in a series of clanks as Ethan's arms moved faster than the snakes could see. "Hiss!" Three kraits pounced at him, mouth wide open as they tried to swallow him. "Too less!" Clang! Clang! Clang! The scythe blade shot out, slicing through the monster's faces almost at once as three heads fell to the ground.
Firestorm- The defence art that Ethan had developed over the past week. He pumped mana into his arms and his weapon as he swung his weapon at a high speed, turning it into a whip of destruction. The kusarigama never went farther than two meters from his body, turning any monster in that radius into skewers, killing them instantly.
Ethan had named it firestorm because of two properties- The kusarigama resembled fire, obliterating anything that came close to it. And his arms moved extremely fast, just like a storm. Clang! Clang! Clang! Ethan parried the blows of the kraits completely decimating them as he swung his arms in a blur. His movements weren't random. He paired the movements of his body with his Mana Sense, twisting his kusarigama towards any monster that he detected instantly.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Whoosh! "Hiss!" Two snakes hissed in fear, trying to back away as their desire to live surpassed the orders they had been given. They retreated slightly, still hesitant of whether they were allowed to escape. Slice! Clang! Clang! Hiss! Ethan swung his weapon in a flurry, cutting through the monsters as he slowly moved forward.
Thud! Thud! Thud! His every step radiated fear as he stepped over a corpse, heading towards the last two snakes. "Hiss!" Their fear gave out as they turned away, trying to run. "Oh no you don't!" Ethan pulled the mana back from his weapon as he deactivated Firestorm.
Thud! Whoosh! He pounced into the air, jumping after the monsters. Hiss! They screamed in fear, trying desperately to survive. Clank! Slice! Slice! Two heads fell to the ground as the toothless kraits stopped moving. Thud! Ethan landed on the floor, breathing heavily. Using firestorm had been incredibly taxing. "Huff...huff...huff!" He breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath.
BOOM! Suddenly, he felt a terrifying presence in the air. It reminded him of the lesser python- not as royal, but dangerous nonetheless. He snapped his neck, looking at Noah. He could sense the monster behind him. Whoosh! A huge snake appeared behind Noah, looking down at him with a pair of purple eyes. It was an F-4 rank monster, just like the lesser python.
"Watch out!" Ethan called out. Noah stared back, looking at him with a pair of dark empty eyes. "Get out of there, you idiot!" He stood still, not moving an inch as if he had accepted his fate. "Noah!" Suddenly, he smiled. Whoosh! Ice cold wind rushed past Ethan's feet as it rushed towards Noah. His eyes grew deeper and deeper, the death within them becoming more and more evident as he stood still.
He smiled slightly, opening his lips as if it were his final time speaking. [Innate Ability- Partial Ghostification]