With killing intent blazing in his eyes and raw power surging through his veins, John stomped the ground, launching himself forward like a coiled spring with unstoppable force.
He cleaved through the Gigantic-Rats, skillfully avoiding the Oversized ones and cutting down the rest. From John's perspective, none of these creatures posed a threat to him in his current state.
With his attributes pushed to their limits, cutting through these beasts was as easy as slicing vegetables. Maxwell crushed a monster's skull with a single punch before looking toward John in worry —what he saw next made his eyes widen in shock. A trail of blood followed John's every step.
The monster numbers dwindled at a frightening rate as John's muscles moved with absolute force and precision. Despite his formidable strength, the sheer volume of enemies made each victory feel temporary, as new monsters took the fallen place.
Weaving through the horde, he cut them down, driven by a bloodlust fiercer than he had ever known. If his parents could see him now, they wouldn't recognize their gentle, easygoing son.
Maxwell, distracted by John's ruthless display, failed to notice a monster sinking its teeth into his calf, and two others lunged at Toby. Blood splattered as Toby's back was slashed, and he shouted angrily, "What the heck are you doing?! You're supposed to protect me!"
The cry snapped Maxwell back to reality. He resumed smashing the monsters, pushing others aside with an irritated frown as he shielded Toby. The relentless assault left Maxwell struggling to maintain his footing, his kicks and blows growing increasingly desperate.
John's attacks seemed to intensify as if he had heard Toby's voice. His killing intent spiked, and the battlefield became a bloodbath. The battle's intensity seemed to amplify with each passing second, as if the dungeon itself was fighting back.
When Toby and Maxwell finally finished their foes, Toby turned to the other side of the battlefield and nearly had a heart attack. Blood and body parts painted the ground a gruesome picture of a massacre. John stood in the middle, drenched in blood, surrounded by more than twice the number of enemies they had faced. He looked like a demon incarnate, dismembering the last of the beasts.
The Oversized Gigantic-Rats, with their sheer muscle mass, explosive power, and high vitality, would take John longer to handle. After taking out the rest of the Gigantic-Rats to ensure no interruptions, John shifted his focus to the two remaining Oversized beasts. Maxwell, spotting an opening, charged and rammed into one, throwing it off balance.
"HAAAH!" John seized the moment, delivering a powerful upward slash that severed the beast's head. Without pausing, he spun, thrusting his blade into the neck of the last remaining rat. With a final twist, he decapitated it.
The sight of the final rat's head rolling across the battlefield seemed to momentarily freeze time, as if even the dungeon itself was pausing to catch its breath. The battlefield was now a hellscape of destruction, with the air thick with the stench of death and the ground slick with blood.
Toby stood frozen, stunned by the ferocity of John's actions. As John exhaled sharply and ran toward him, panic flooded Toby's face. "W-What are you doing?!" he yelled, igniting his hands, desperately throwing fireballs at John.
It was futile. John dodged the flames with ease and, with a swift spin, landed a powerful kick to Toby's head, sending him flying. Toby's vision blurred as he fell, his body aching and disoriented. As consciousness slipped from him, he heard John's enraged roar.
"If you weren't going to follow the plan, you shouldn't have accepted it! All I wanted was for you to distract the monsters! You agreed! But you took your sweet time killing them while I was getting attacked from all sides. You almost got me killed, you idiot!"
As Toby's eyes went dark, John slumped to the ground, gasping for breath as the side effects kicked in. (STR: 17 --> 9, AGL: 15 --> 7, FLX: 14.5 --> 6.5, VIT: 17 --> 9, INT: 16 --> 8).
Maxwell, dazed by the chaos, stumbled as he rushed over to Toby, fearing John's blow might have been fatal. He sighed in relief when he found Toby still breathing.
Taking a closer look at Toby's injuries, Maxwell reluctantly opened Toby's bag, disinfecting his wounds, applying bandages, and forcing some healing pills down his throat to speed up recovery.
Hearing John's labored breathing, Maxwell asked, "Are you alright?"
John gave a strained smile. "Y-Yeah… just give me… a minute."
Once John assured him he'd be fine, Maxwell's curiosity got the better of him. "Earlier … what was that? You suddenly had all that strength. I've never seen you use anything like that in training."
John, still catching his breath, responded with a weary grin. "My talent… has two effects. You already know the first one. The second… is like a last resort, a trump card. It's a do-or-die kind of thing. It boosts my power temporarily, but if I don't finish the fight before the time's up, I become much weaker for a while. It's still based on my regular stats."
"Huh, that's pretty unique," Maxwell muttered. "But it's not as broken as I thought. I imagined your talent was like elemental control."
Satisfied, Maxwell let the matter drop. After such a brutal battle, they both needed some rest.
Elemental control talents were different. Those with the ability to manipulate elements like fire or water were considered similar to mages. With enough understanding and practice, they could wield their element for an endless variety of uses. A water controller, for example, could shape water into a blade, use it for drinking, cleaning wounds, or even irrigating farmland by summoning rain at will.
...…
After taking a short break, John bandaged his wounds and stood up. "Let's find another place to rest," he said.
Maxwell nodded and, carrying Toby on his shoulder, they moved out of the gory battlefield. John found a murky water pond. He took a water purifier from his pack, filled his bottle, washed his bloody clothes, and changed into a clean set.
Maxwell followed suit. They then made their way back to the rock formation where they had previously stayed, set up their camping equipment, and prepared to rest after the exhausting day.
Maxwell placed Toby's camping gear and made him comfortable. As they drank water and ate their energy bars, Maxwell asked John, "What's the plan now?"
"What do you mean?" John replied.
"I mean between you and Toby. I know what he did was unacceptable, but we got through it. That kick was too brutal. How are we going to finish this dungeon if he's still out?" Maxwell's concern was evident.
John met his gaze firmly. "No, that kick was the least he deserved. I clearly asked for your opinion before we did anything and we made a plan. You know me, I don't like taking risks but from the start of the dungeon until now, I've taken every possible risk to finish quickly and lighten your burden. From a team perspective, we could do better this way.
I could, and you know it, play it safe, but that would only make us take too long to finish the dungeon. We'd always be in danger and moving constantly. There are too many disadvantages to dragging it out. I'm not even sure if the dungeon will spawn more monsters after a while. So, I took calculated risks on the promise that you'd have my back as I have yours. And what did Toby do? In the first real dangerous fight, he did as he pleased and discarded the plan. Do you still think he doesn't deserve that kick?"
After a moment, Maxwell nodded reluctantly. "Well, you're right. He does deserve it. But what if he takes too long to wake up? How are we supposed to finish the dungeon?"
John shrugged. "Look, we're in the lowest dungeon possible. It's not that vast. We've pretty much cleared every beast here. Only that gate remains. We can clear it, and I can use my skill one more time. After we clear the dungeon, we'll still have time to get him and leave. Yes, the last gate probably has a boss or something, but it won't be overwhelming."
Maxwell looked worried. "But we almost died twice since we arrived here."
"Yes, I know. I'm not taking my life lightly. The first time was due to poison. We were too confident after our training and the first batch of monsters we killed boosted our ego. We took things too lightly.
The second time was for two reasons: We were outnumbered and made an easy mistake by not scouting the enemy, and Toby disregarded the plan. If he hadn't, we would have killed all the monsters before that wave even came. They were only normal Gigantic-Rats. As long as we were cautious, we could have handled them much easier without injuries.
So, if there are too many monsters, I won't charge in like before. I'll pick them off one by one. If it's a boss, I'll use my talent to defeat it. If it's a boss and rats, I'll pick off the rats as long as I can and then use my talent to finish the boss."
Maxwell looked relieved after John explained his strategy. Soon after, he went to sleep. John's talent's side effects had worn off, so he switched to Intelligence before he slept to stay alert for any movement while he was asleep. (INT 11 --> 16)