Kapitel 60: Alpha (IV)
The surrounding manslaughters rushed over to gobble their fallen brother. It was a wild feeding frenzy. The loud sounds of bone cracking, shells ripping, and blood being slurped could be heard. The smell of sulfur filled Zero's nose.
"Careful. Don't let the blood touch you," Agnis shouted over the roaring monsters. Zero quickly spat out the chunk of monster head. He didn't want to accidentally drink its blood and somehow end up with a hole in his stomach. He dashed forward. Ducking underneath a rearing manslaughter, he slid underneath it, barely keeping his head from being chopped off.
Agnis followed after with a clean slice that cut through its stomach, spilling out blood and guts onto the ground. It reeled up in pain as it attacked them with its pincers. Zero hopped out of harm's way but was slammed viciously onto the ground with its forked tail pinning him by the neck.
Drawing in a huge breath, Zero spewed out a bright red flame that spread outwards, burning the manslaughter in front of him. It let out a horrifying ear-piercing scream that shocked Zero's ears. In that split second Agnis jumped off of Zero's back and slashed off its tail.
Freed at last, Zero pushed himself hard off the ground, making him fly upward ten feet in the air just in a nick of time before another could tackle him. Agnis hopped on top of the manslaughters like a stairway and jumped towards Zero. She grasped onto his legs and has begun to scale up onto Zero as if it was nothing.
Zero once again filled up his lungs with air and blew out a raging inferno onto the monsters that were snapping upwards at them. The roaring flames burned everything they touched. Their skin melted like wax, and their bodies caught on fire. A screeching melody of the dying rang like the lullaby of death.
Zero fell back down. This time he was ready to take out the ones that caught on fire. He wasn't going to let this easy stack of points go to waste. At the moment of contact on the ground, he rushed towards the burning manslaughters.
"Zero, what are you doing?" exclaimed Agnis as she held tightly onto his fur.
"Don't worry. Just keep on firing. Don't mind me."
"How can I not mind when you're running towards a blazing inferno?!"
Zero laughed. He had loot that he needed to collect from the dead manslaughters. Every chance he got, whenever he saw a precious item lying on the ground, he swiped it up with his hands, claws, or jaws and stashed it away in his magical bag that was transformed into part of his collar.
Weaving in and out between the snapping jaws, Zero clawed through legs, tore through shells, and even decapitating them on the run. Agnis swung left and right like a wild cat howling with each swing.
"Zero, they are climbing up the walls. Some are already in the city!" she shouted urgently, pulling his hair towards the direction. "We need to keep them back more!" Agnis aimed and shot another squarely in the eye.
"What do you think I am doing right now?" Zero blew out another fiery blast in an arc. He ran across the edge of the wall, pushing as many of them back with his fire as he could, but his fire did not encompass enough area. So instead he ran towards the gates, blowing fire on the ground as the plants caught on fire. The flames spread, creating a large fire wall. Some monsters reeled back, while others still passed but were caught on fire, and many more instead concentrated on a different path. Half of the east side of the city's outer-walls was covered in crackling flames.
While Agnis and Zero were busily keeping the manslaughters back, Zero saw glimpses of what was happening around them throughout his bout. Away from the protection of his fire, the guards were being pushed back one by one. The manslaughters were climbing up and snatching fighters from the tops of the walls. Many were eaten while the others were killed. Mages cast magical spells from fireballs to icicle attacks that penetrated or froze the manslaughters in their tracks.
The players from KillemAll guild burst from the gates and jumped into the frenzy of the fight. They pushed back the monsters that were attacking the residents. Kyo led at the front with his guild mates following closely behind. Slashing through the manslaughters like bulldozers, spamming continuous large scale magic that decimated the monsters, they were turning the tide slowly but surely.
Dodging, jumping, biting, and spewing fire, while Agnis hacked away at the ones still struggling to survive, they somehow ended up near the gates where Kyo and his guild mates were clearing out the manslaughters in droves.
The waves of manslaughters had begun to shift towards Kyo's guild from the fire. One-on-one fights grew to one against two, three, five, and even seven. Even though many of his guild could stand face to face with a couple, five to seven were too many. They were slowly being overrun.
"Challenge of the Beast!" yelled Kyo at the top of his lungs. A blast of energy spread outwards. The manslaughters that were around him were affected by the howl. They froze as their attention was drawn towards him. Even the ones that were attacking his guild mates switch their targets towards him. They clamored and chattered with their pincer-like teeth and made a beeline towards Kyo.
"Kyo, are you insane!" one of his guild mates cried out as he hacked one of them before it could attack Kyo.
"Kill them before they get to me!" Kyo shouted. He swung down with his large heavy sword onto the ground. "Shatter into pieces, you ugly shits! Earthly Spikes!" He laughed brazenly. Dozens of hardened earth spikes erupted from the ground around him like a fortress, impaling the attacking manslaughters.
The manslaughters squirmed, trying to break free, while Kyo's guild mates rushed in to extinguish the dying. One of the manslaughters got loose and struck at Kyo's blind spot.
Zero rushed in and tackled it before it could hit. Slashing with his teeth and claws, he shredded its underbelly into mincemeat, while Agnis stabbed it with an arrow in its eyes. It staggered and roared, thrashing around blindly, and fell dead.
"Hmph, I could have handled that." Kyo grunted. He flicked the black blood off his blade.
"If you say so." Zero rolled his eyes and bounded forward away from Kyo.
"Zero, you're bleeding. Are you alright?" Agnis asked worriedly. She brought her hands up to her face. They were covered in red blood.
"I'm bleeding? Where?" He slowed down. He peered to his side, looking for it.
"On your right side, there's a mat of sticky blood. I think it was when your neck was trapped underneath the tail. We should go find a place to recover. At the rate we are going we won't survive till tomorrow."
"You're right. It seems you're not faring any better." He turned his head towards her and chuckled.
"You should look at yourself."
"Wh-hat?" Agnis stammered. Her hair was in a mess, blood streaked her face, and her arms were all scratched up.
"I suggest you to tie your hair back. That will solve the issue." Zero smiled.
Blushing, Agnis pulled out a hair band and pushed it back. "Done."
Even covered in blood and gore, she still looked amazing. She was a bona fide battle maiden.
"How many more of these monsters are there?" he asked. Throughout the battle he thought there were going to be an endless number of them.
"Less than half still remain," stated Agnis, reading off her status screen.
"Already?"
"Yep."
Zero continued to trot towards the gate where there were fewer fights and monsters. They bypassed dead bodies of manslaughters and players alike. It was a complete wasteland of the dead. The largest of the manslaughters were being pushed back by the KillemAll guild, who served as a layer of protection so the low-level players could safely take down the smaller manslaughters. Around the city gate there was a small "safe" zone that KillemAll guild had created, giving the lower-level players a chance to fight back. It was a tag team of strong vs. weak, wiping the monsters out one by one.
A thundering roar could be heard as a manslaughter the size of a double-decker bus bulldozed its way through from the left side of KillemAll guild. The players that tried to stop it were trampled underneath its weight and destroyed in matter of seconds.
"To your left!" Agnis yelled and stood up on Zero's back. Her aim was steady as she pulled back her arrow and fired. Out of all her arrows that she had fired, this one was enchanted with magic. It was swifter than the others, and the wind wrapped around it, amplifying its speed. In a flash it took off a good portion of the oncoming manslaughter's right legs, and it stumbled and slid, banging its head onto the ground.
She nocked a couple more arrows and let them loose. Each one either pierced its thick skin or blew apart more legs. Zero on the other hand raced forward, ignoring the slight buzzing pain on his side. He slammed into the manslaughter that was teetering on the edge of falling over. Agnis climbed over its back towards the head.
Her gleaming blue sword slashed down upon its head, impaling it into two. The low level players looked upon her with awe. They cheered in unison as the manslaughter fell down dead. She pulled out her sword, now covered in black blood. She flicked it once and the black blood splattered onto the ground. A loud hissing sound could be heard as the plants wilted away from the black blood that touched them.
A group of female players ran up to her squealing in delight as they surrounded her with awe and admiration.
"Hell yes!" cheered a young girl wearing a light armor.
"You're so cool!" said another player.
"How did you do that?"
"What kind of blade is that?" Their voices rung like annoying birds.
A couple of the males walked over to Zero, inspecting him with interest.
"Where did you get your mount from? I've never seen one like that before."
"Is it vicious?"
"How were you able to control him?" They walked around him. Zero ignored them and examined the dead manslaughter to see if there was any loot left behind.
Only a couple of silver coins were given with a small ruby the size of a quarter. Picking it up gently with his claws, he examined it.
A ruby.
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gem. The fiery captivating ruby represents nobility. It may be used to make jewelry or other items.
His hands itched with good fortune. This was already his fourth one, and he was excited to get some more. He stashed it away.
The irony of being a hybrid character, Kiyro sighed. The number of times he had to tell people he wasn't a pet, a horse, a monster, and now a mount was getting tiring. Maybe it was best to play along with it.
One of the male players tried to pet Zero.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. He bites," Agnis replied in a hurry.
Zero smirked and looked toward Agnis. She already knew what he was about to do.
"She's right, you know. You might miss a finger or two if you're not careful," said Zero with an impish grin. The male player pulled back and hid his hand from Zero. All their jaws dropped with surprise.
"It talks," said a dwarven male player.
"He's an actual player," Agnis pointed out. "Now, if you don't mind. There are more coming your way. If I were you, I would get ready."
The group of players turned around in a battle stance. Approaching them were a few smaller manslaughters.
"You know me too well," Zero snickered. Agnis climbed back onto his back.
"How would I ever forget the noble Drezo Regalia." She patted his back. "You and me have been with each other for long enough now that it's the same thing over and over again. Don't you ever get tired?"
"Yep." Zero nodded.
"Can't be helped when nobody knows what you are."
Zero trotted away from the group of people and towards the hordes of manslaughters.
"Our bet is still on. Let's go win this." He grinned from ear to ear. Zero was looking forward to getting that piece of amulet from Aldran and winning large quantities of gold.
"You think you're going to win? Highly unlikely," said Agnis with a playful tone of voice. She pulled out an herbal paste from her bag and lightly applied it to his side where he was bleeding.
Zero winced. "Careful, that hurts."
"You'll be alright," said Agnis as she applied some more thick paste of healing homemade herbs.
"See, all done."
Zero turned his head to look at her handiwork and noticed a glob of unevenly pasted homemade medicine. He looked at her and back at her handiwork. "What? You serious?"
"What?" Agnis asked.
"You're supposed to even it out. Not just throw it on it. You're wasting some valuable materials," he chastised her. "You want the medicine to last, especially when you're on a tight budget."
"Well, I thought this was better. It would last longer."
"Not really, you don't need to put so much to get the needed effect," he replied. "But, either way, thank you. That took the pain off my side."
"You're welcome," she chirped with happiness. "Let's go for round two."
A loud explosion was heard. Agnis's and Zero's heads whipped around toward the noise. Out before them were two very large manslaughters, bigger than the one that they'd just killed. But they did not just have one head, but two.
"That is one ugly-looking beast," said Zero.
"Agreed," replied Agnis.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein