"So you ended up taking out ten of the Greats without me, huh?"
"Told you I'd get a leg up on you if you weren't careful."
"Yeah, yeah."
A significant amount of time had passed, and we had killed a large number of the Goblins. I made sure to keep score since we made a bet to see who would have more kills than the other.
"I've really grown a lot bolder ever since becoming a Warrior, haven't I? After all, here I am, an F-Rank Warrior competing against a freaking A-Rank Spy Class-someone whose efficiency in killing is probably only second to a Ninja Class and third to an Assassin Class-to see who gets more kills. Raid, you madman… Still though. I'm doing a lot better than I would've guessed..."
As a matter of fact, I was winning.
Yeah, that's right. WINNING. Like I said, I was keeping score.
"Yeah, but… Why though?"
"Huh? What do you mean 'why'?" I didn't understand Peyton's question. I mean, how else were we supposed to know who the winner would be otherwise.
"Well I mean, since the System already makes sure to keep count of every kill each individual makes in a party, is there really any reason to try and keep score yourself?"
"….… Oh… So the System does that already?"
"Uh, yeah. You didn't know?"
"No I...I really didn't. Thank you…for telling me that, after I wasted my time, energy and…effo-"
"Okay, in my defense, I thought you knew. I really did."
"Right. Sure. Pretty good defense…"
"…I'm sorry-"
"-Yyeeaah."
"… O-on the bright side, though… I-It's uhm…pretty impressive how you were able to keep count of all those…kills while fighting sooo many-"
"Please stop-"
"-Okay."
Of the 9986 normies that were present, 1817 of the 2929 archers along with 3395 of the 7057 spear Goblins were all killed by me. Thus giving me a total of 5212 points. Peyton however, having killed the remaining 1112 of the archer Goblins and the remaining 3662 of the spear Goblins had a total of 4774 points. In addition to that, of the 313 High Goblins we fought, Peyton took out her fair share of 169 of them, giving her a very generous total of 1690 points.
As for me, the remaining 144 High Goblins I took out gave me 1440 points while the extra 10 Great Goblins I killed before Peyton could catch up gave me an extra 1000 point totaling my overall point value to 7652, whilst Peyton's was 6464. I forcefully gave out this exaggeratedly detailed explanation to Peyton, despite her obvious disinterest on the matter, what with the fact that the System had it all covered. I didn't care though, I wasn't about to let my hard work go to waste like that.
"You're a real handful, you know that?"
"You wanna know what a handful is?! I'll tell you what a handful is! A handful is…is, is…taking the time…to-to expertly keep track of such a large number of bodies! ALL-THE-WHILE! Masterfully taking out sooo many enemies! And then, finding out later that it was all for nothing. That's what a real handful is-"
"Okay, while you complain your ass off about meaningless things, I'm just gonna go ahead and take out the rest of the Goblins. Cool? Cool." She then walked towards the remaining Great Goblins after saying that. If you asked me though, she was just running.
"Hey! Get back here! I demand to be heard!"
"Demand denied. Focus. There's twenty Great Goblins left. Since it seems like you've already won the bet, we might as well split them evenly, how about it?"
"Hm… Yeah sure thing. Then I can have a real one-on-one go at the Boss."
"You go girl."
"Shut up." I instantly dashed toward the Goblins. She followed.
The Goblins, noticing the arrangement of the numbers, decided to spit up accordingly. Ten would take me on, the other ten would go for Peyton.
And she wasn't messing around. With a single swing of First Dawn, she took down three Great Goblins. Four more attacked in unison, attempting to catch her off guard. Little did they know, you can't catch an A-Rank off guard, not with their Ranks. She quickly jumped upwards, avoiding their downward slashes, then back flipped back down to behead each of them. The three remaining Great Goblins started to panic, they didn't know what to do next. And to top it all off, they didn't know what she'd do next. In a split second, she had disappeared. The Goblins were baffled. Before they even knew it, they were dead.
One, as if out of pure instinct, not because he might've seen her, looked behind him. There she was. The woman who bore the beauty of a princess, the elegance of a queen and the strength of warrior. Her short silky blonde hair shinning, as was the blade she held in her right hand, reflecting her figure as if to duplicate her already incomparable beauty, it was as if she had been using it for years. Even Goblins, who had better eyesight than most monsters and Warriors of the same Rank, couldn't see her attack. She was just that fast. And with that, the Goblins' bodies fell down into multiple pieces.
"Well that just gave me a sense of déjà vu. It's the same technique she used when she fought that assassin from before."
My fight however lacked the showmanship hers had. I wanted to keep things simple, all the while exploring my newly attained Special Attack and just how far I can mess around with it.
"Inferno Cyclone, as the name suggests, is a cyclone of flames, so it's an AOE attack, but if I can compress it the same way I did those arrows from before, I can decrease the blast radius but still keep its efficiency."
I concentrated and circulated my Mana. Soul-Piercing Eyes and Trigon Element King were still active so I reactivated Fury of Dantian and Astral Unification, essentially activating Cultivator.
Then, I conjure out ten Inferno Cyclones. The amount of Mana they consumed was immense. I was slowly losing my ground.
"Damn, at this rate, I'll have another Werehyena near-death experience, except…y'know, this time with Goblins instead. Okay, gotta focus. Concentrate the Mana to a single point and then compress the arrows to make them thinner… There we go, that's what I'm talking about."
I had succeeded, the arrows had gone from consuming ten times the amount of Mana that the Inferno Cyclone from before did to consuming a mere tenth of that Mana.
"With this, the speed and piercing power is increased significantly compared to a normal Inferno Cyclone, however the Mana consumption and blast radius is decreased, meaning that I can launch the attack continuously without getting tired and at very specific targets too. It's win-win! There's really no downside to this! And it's honestly scaring me. That crazy chick might've been on the money when she asked if I was some broken video game character."
I instantly launched all the arrows at once as I uttered. "Inferno Cyclone."
Ten arrows, ten Great Goblins, an arrow for each one of them. Some were pierced through the forehead, and the rest, through their chests. They all fell in unison afterwards.
"Bullseye-"
"You just don't stop, do you?'
"What do you mean?" I knew exactly what she was talking about. It's just felt easier to play dumb.
"Don't play that game with me 'Mr.'! You know exactly what I mean!" And of course, she saw through my act. "It's only been a couple of days since you awakened. Do you know how long it usually takes Warriors to modify a Special Attack, let alone even realize that they can do that?!"
"Obviously, I don't. How long? Like uhh… Like a few weeks maybe?"
"Few wee-… Freaking years man!"
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Well…what about you then? How long did it take you?"
"'Bout seven months. And that's only because I'm a special case. A rarity even among talents."
"Toot your own horn, why don't ya! Not like anyone else will." Obviously, I only had the luxury of thinking that, not saying it out loud.
"Now at least, I know why and how you can crush other high level A-Rank Warriors like insects." I said with a thin smile.
"You on the other hand. You just scream anomaly."
"Gee thanks. That means a lot."
"I said what I said."
"… Oh look, a Dungeon Boss. I should probably go check that out." I walked away towards said-Boss after a lengthy pause. I was definitely not running away or anything. What did I have to fear?
"And he says I'm good at avoiding conversations. Whatever. You want your blade back?" She held First Dawn up as she looked at me with quite the blank expression.
"No thank you. I doubt I'll need it."
"Hehe, okay then hotshot." She backed away to give me and the Boss some space.