Ayaan locked the door. It was rusty and pretty banged up. But still, it held itself in the spot.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
The serpent at the lead started banging the door with its head. The already dented door got more and more banged up.
*CRASH*
Soon, it fell off and the serpent charged forward.
*SLASH*
Ayaan who was standing to the side of the entrance brought the sword down. With a clean slash, it went through the neck and severed the head of the snake.
[Exp +10]
[MP +1]
[Obtained Water Serpent Leather*1]
[Obtained Water Serpent Pearl*1]
The first enemy died and the second followed after that.
*SLASH*
This serpent reacted faster, maybe because he lost the element of surprise. However, his sword still slashed it on the side.
It turned around and tried to bite him while the third serpent came out of the door. He stomped on the second serpent while he blocked the incoming serpent with his sword throwing it to the side. In process, he nicked its jaw and cut off one of its fangs.
*SLASH*
He cut the neck of the second snake while keeping its mouth shut with his foot.
He dodged the attack from the third snake and slashed it on the side, tearing it up along the body. Its black skin was cut open smoothly spilling its guts.
[Exp+10]
[MP +1]
[Exp+10]
[MP +1]
[Obtained Water Serpent Leather*2]
[Obtained Water Serpent Pearl*1]
There are no more serpents coming. He took out the two pearls he obtained and started weighing the situation.
He sat down, calming his mind while rearranging all the known information.
'Aqua respite is a quest recommended skill.'
'Needed for the quest'
'Pearl collection, a primary quest requirement. Yet, it is a consumable'
'Adds benefits to the quest-given skill. But hinders quest progress upon consumption.'
'Why?'
'Temptation? To tempt me to consume it?'
'Conflict? To confuse me with the conflict? To keep me in the exact situation I am in?'
'Think'
'Think'
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't find a reason in that thought process. After a few minutes, he erased all those thoughts and started anew. Instead of thinking from the perspective of the Quest, he started thinking from his perspective.
'What do I need?'
'Kill the King, Collect the Pearls'
'How do I collect the pearls?'
'Kill the serpents?'
'How to kill?'
'Two ways. Go after them. Attract them.'
'Go after them, risks of fatigue and exhaustion. Their territory. Their rules.'
'Attraction. My territory, my rules. But high pearl consumption. Longer quest progress.'
'Long quest progress implies more kills.'
'More kills, more Exp. Higher chance of Level up.'
Thinking up to this, he made a decision. He removed the pearls from the Inventory and placed them on the floor. At that moment, the quest progress is showing Zero.
Which means, they need to be in the inventory to be considered as collected.
He put one in the inventory and then held one in his hand. He stood at the edge noticing that more water serpents were coming up. He consumed the pearl.
He felt that feeling again. The Aqua respite got updated. Now he can stay underwater for 8 minutes upon using the skill.
The attraction increased and the serpents that came out to the surface increased. He can see more of them approaching.
*BAM* *BAM* *BAM*
Just like the first one, they are acting mindless. They are crashing against the concrete tower without thinking. They are full of anger. Only when Ayaan moves did they move along and find the hole.
He even took this to his advantage.
He let them bang against the concrete wall and only moved when one of the serpents actually entered the hole on its own accord.
He stood at the entrance once again, trying to ambush it. However, this time, four snakes entered at the same time. His sword caught one, but the other three spread out immediately as soon as they entered.
And thus a long gritty battle began.
Ayaan got a hang of dealing with these creatures. His level 2 strength held a clear advantage. The mutant soldier sword is great at cutting up their scales and flesh. He slowly went into his zone.
'Observe'
'Lure'
'Time it'
'Slash'
He used the space on the top of the tower to his advantage and spread out the snakes as they came out of the entrance. The notifications of Exp and MP along with the obtained serpent leather and the serpent pearls are ringing in his eyes.
For every two pearls he captured he consumed one of them.
With every pearl he consumed, more and more snakes appeared. By the time he consumed the sixth pearl…
*RUMBLE*
The tower underneath his feel started trembling a bit. He frowned at the sudden change, but before he could make sense of it…
*CRUMBLE*
The concrete tower leaned to one side. The water serpents are rushing there on the side. Dozens of them and it seemed like they destroyed a load bearing column. The already ruined tower leaned more.
In this lax moment, one of the water serpents that was on the floor charged at him. While defending it, he fell off.
The cold water assaulted his senses and the sudden fall left him unprepared.
'Aqua Respite- Activate'
The skill activated. He got his breath back and calmed his nerves and he saw what happened. In his zone he didn't realize just how many serpents he has lured over.
Dozens of serpents rushed at him. Ayaan put the sword away and started swimming with all his strength. The Aqua respite reduced a lot of effort, since he didn't have to regular his breathing with his strokes, he is much faster.
Of course, he didn't have hope to out-swim them all in water. That would be stupid and naïve.
'Observe'
'Think'
'Focus'
His mind ran faster than he was swimming, he noticed that the serpents chasing him have increased in number. There over a couple of dozen. However, they also seemed more rabid. As he was swimming away, chased him blindly, crashing into the surroundings.
He immediately took a right and swam into the narrowest street in the surroundings and that is not all, he dove into a ruined building.
The water serpents that were chasing him in a straight line turned sharply and tried to enter the building.
Some serpents slipped through the building holes and entered, while the others crashed into the building ruins.
Ayaan didn't stay in there for long though, instead he slipped past one of the cracks and entered into the next building without wasting any time.
He was swimming at the full speed possible. The serpents spread apart even more.
Now, there is no swarm chasing him. When he slipped into the third building he finally halted.
His current Aqua respite holds for 12 minutes. It has already been five minutes. He is even surprised by himself for managing to keep up with their chase for that long.
Five seconds after he halted, one of the serpents entered the building through a hole. Ayaan charged towards it. He used the same tactic as before. He first tried to control its movement by stabbing the knife into its head. He ensured that it didn't chomp on it.
He let it coil around him with the sword in between and slashed it open when it least expected it.
He killed the serpent, took the loot and swam to the next house.
He agilely moved around in the narrow street and even narrower buildings, taking down one serpent at a time.
When he only had three more minutes with Aqua respite, he knew it was time to change tactics. He stopped the killing and increased his speed.
He went to the only other structure that is of similar height as the watch tower.
The church.
The church of the city is tall and its attic is way above the water surface. He entered the church when barely there is one minute left for the Aqua respite.
Just when he thought he could reach the church, all of a sudden, he saw more than half a dozen serpents emerge out of the church building and come at him.
'Fuck'
Ayaan cursed in his mind. There is not much time left on Aqua respite. He turned to the right and moved towards the nearest building. But that place is also covered with serpents.
He halted in his tracks and looked at four sides.
Only his rear is left and that too is a building. He doesn't have a proper way out of there. He looked at the building and without hesitation entered it.
Once he did, he swam upwards and found a hole in the room to break through and reach the surface of the water.
The building is completely submerged, but just like the hotel building, the roof is not too far off. The water here also is just knee deep.
The water respite is turned off and he took deep breaths to calm himself down.
His frown disappeared.
He could hear the splashes of water created due to the incoming serpents from all four sides.
The frown is replaced by a smirk. Adrenaline rushed through his body as he felt a bit simulated.
'It has been a while'
His face is still cold, but there is a slight insanity accompanying it instead of usual indifference.
He took out his dagger and let the water serpent come at him. As usual he stabbed the knife on its side and controlled its movement, then he took out his hand gun from the inventory and shot it from point blank.
*BAM*
He bullet went through from one side to another, killing the snake.
He didn't even care about the loot and focused on the incoming serpents. He really wished he could put his back against the wall, but there is no such thing right now.
He is covered in water on all four sides and right now standing in knee deep water. His movements are restricted a bit and the serpents are in their natural habitat.
This made him feel a bit excited instead of nervous.
*STAB* *BAM*
His movements are short and precise.
'Stab'
'Push'
'Hold'
'Shoot'
'Dodge'
'Step'
'Knee to its head'
'Kick to the side'
'Stab in the Jaw'
'Shoot'
'Multiple serpents'
'Shoot'
'Stab'
His mind is only focused on the immediate action he needs to take. He didn't think about anything else. Not the sea breeze or the cold it carried, not the accumulating fatigue, nor the bullets that are running out.
He focused only one killing.
He did have one other thing in his mind though.
'One bullet, one kill.'
He has two loaded guns and two extra magazines. Each magazine has fifteen bullets. So, sixty bullets in total.
Just from a sweeping glance he could see almost fifty serpents around him. There are no other serpents coming. Only these fifty.
He has to kill them all no matter what.
However, even that zone state and his precise movements are not enough. He was soon surrounded by the serpents on all four sides. He didn't even know how many he killed. But there are around a dozen left over.
All of them swarmed at him at the same time. One of the water serpents coiled on his leg and tried to chomp on it.
*BAM*
A bullet went through, but it managed to trip him down.
Trying to get away…
*BAM* *BAM*
He shot two more snakes in the head and kicked the ground, sliding away from the group of snakes. However, that's where broken railing is and he went off the building.
In process….
*ARGH*
One of the snakes managed to bite on his leg, albeit barely. But the sliding made a tear on his flesh.
'FUCK'
He cursed and swam away. Leaving a trail of blood behind.
*BAM* *BAM*
One more serpent down and he missed the other. They swam deeper into the water and now, they have much more moving space.
The whole reason he chose roof top was that he could have some footing and the serpents will have less maneuverability.
But now, that advantage is gone.
He swam to the surface and started shooting around.
While doing that, he also collected all the loot there.
When there are still around eight-nine monsters left, he suddenly got a quest progress notification.
==============================
QUEST PROGRESS
==============================
Quest Name: **The First Guardian**
Objective:
Defeat the Water Serpent King.
Clear Conditions:
Collect at least **12 Water Serpent Pearls**:
Progress: [█████████████████] 18/12
Kill the **Water Serpent King**:
Status: **Incomplete**
==============================
Collected the required number of pearls.
The First Guardian, The Water Serpent King is Summoned.
==============================
The Serpents stopped attacking him. When he was killing them on the rooftop, he didn't think of collecting the loot.
He was focused on killing them and went into the zone.
In the last minute, when he was dodging all of them, he collected the loot in progress. And he seemed to have collected all the pearls at the same time and more. He collected more than twelve pearls.
While he was thinking about what might happen, the Water serpents that were attacking him, froze in the spot and started running away as if they were scared.
At that moment, he took a breather and stood on the rooftop. And then he saw it.
Not the boss, but the special effects that accompanied the boss. A huge wave…
A wave that made the last one look like a small gold fish in front of a shark is coming towards.
With a wave of his hand, the inventory opened and the extra six pearls were all consumed in an instant.
Aqua respite updated to 18 minutes. He put the guns away and hung the knife in its holder and braced for impact.
He once again went into a fetal position against the railing. As he was waiting for the wave to hit him….
*DING*
==============================
HIDDEN REQUIREMENT
==============================
A hidden condition has been met!
**Player has consumed 12 Water Serpent Pearls**:
==============================