I turned around, and just out of habit, decided to check my status screen.
[ STATUS PAGE
PLAYER NAME: KRIARES WEBB
LEVEL: 12
CLASS: UNDEFINED
ASPECT: UNDEFINED
TITLES: MR MC SASS
-INCREASES CHARM BY 20%.
MAMA'S BOY
-INCREASES FAVOURABILITY WITH MEDEA BY 15%
COUNTERSTEREOTYPICAL MAIN CHARACTER
- INCRAESES EXP GAIN BY 45%, WHEN NOT FOLLOWING RULES
GOODY TWO SHOES
- INCREASES EXP GAIN BY 1% WHEN FOLLOWING RULES
ECHOES-
MEMORIES:
[SILVER LINING](In use)
[SIGILS OF COLCHIS]
[SWORD]
[STEEL ROPE] (In use)
[STATUS RECOVERY]
HP: 5340/40000
MP: 11980/20000
STATS
PHYSIQUE: 200
DEXTERITY:200
INSIGHT: 200
VITALITY:200
INTELLIGENCE:200
ASSIGNABLE STAT POINTS:110
ATTRIBUTES:
NIMROD PERCEPTION(Lvl 1)
SPRINT (Lvl 1)
NECROMANCY(Lvl 1)
Swordsmanship (Lvl 1)
Daggermanship (Lvl 1)
Scythesmanship(Lvl 1)
SHADOW STORAGE( Lvl 1) 』
Hmm. Pretty good. Except for...
I thought about it, and paused, as I realised that the system had neither rewarded me for killing the Baseball Devil, nor had it given me my 30 k coins. Most importantly, I was sure he was going to go "See? It isn't so hard to survive in this world," and I would respond, "Just wait till Makima finds us."
Unless..
I groaned and turned around to watch the debris which had now stopped raining on the denizen of Hell. However, just as I expected,
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
A hand rose out of the dust.
***
I sighed, then gripped Silver Lining again. I guess it wasn't that easy, which just tells me how hard it's going to be to beat a regular C-Rank Monster. When I got back, I'd definitely start off with D-Rank and C-rank Dungeons, because if I'm struggling like this against one C Rank, I don't even want to my situation against more than a dozen.
Wait, a hand?
I narrowed my eyes in suprise. Why was it a hand? Isn't that disadvantagous? The baseball bat dealt more damage, and it was equal from all sides, so it dealt more damage than a hand, which in theory, was more versatile because it could slap, smash, chop all at the same time, but the stats of the hand were just too low to be picked over the bat.
Why then?
I suddenly noticed the change, though. Unlike the hand, which had emerged before I pissed it off, this seemed bigger. Which wasn't suprising, he probably used stored blood to increase its size, but the weird thing was that it was webbed between the index finger and the thumb. Not only that, but I was ready to bet all of my money that its fingers were conjoined and could not be unstuck.
That's cause it wasn't a hand. It was a baseball glove.
Things made sense now. Technically, he should have been heavily injured at the very least, and that was only if the debris didn't smash his face in. But, after he tripped, he immediately transformed his hand to the glove, and used it to catch all the debris and throw it away, minimising the damage done to him.
This could turn into a problem.
He roared. Luckily, or unluckily, his other hand was still a bat, but it was bigger than ever.He smashed them together to create a massive soundwave that made me rethink fighting him.
(AN- Please, no D jokes.)
Eh, who am I kidding. I was looking for a fight anyway, but it would have been slightly better if they were weaker.
He grinned toothily at me, then lunged forward, his bat above his head again, preparing to swing down in an arc. I laughed, then used Sprint to leap forward, aiming for his armpit. I was pretty sure he hadn't applied deodrant in all his existence, but luckily, I resisted gagging.
Unluckily, there was a flash, when I was midway, and his other arm hit me at lightning speed, throwing me away.
I crashed on the ground and bounced twice before lying still. I coughed, then tried to get up.
Ow.
My back. My back.
It hurt so fucking much.
I spat out some blood, got up clasping my back like one of those senior citizens who drives at 5mph in a 30 zone, and bellowed up at it, "I'll kill you for that, you fucking bastard!"
Easier said than done.
The monster roared, clearly pleased at landing a hit at me. He waved his club at me mockingly, and for some reason, that really pissed me off.
I tried to calm myself. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.
Okay, I had something new to work with. The fact that suddenly his reflexes had taken a dramatic spike. Now, this indicates one of the three possible situations resulting in this outcome.
One, and the most plausible reason, his reflexes are increased only in the gloved hand. This would be self explanatory, because fielders obviously have to have quick reaction to catch balls during hits. As a result, his reflexes in the rest of his body have not changed in the least, so I have to exploit this weakness, and aim for somewhere his hand can't reach.
Second, all his reflexes over his entire body have been enhanced, and him not smashing me with his baseball arm was because he tried to lure me in. This would also mean that he had at least some intelligence, and that makes him a whole lot more dangerous. The solution would be to experiment to test this theory, and if it proves true, I'll have to make a whole new plan from scratch.
Third, and the most unrealistic reason is that his reflexes and instincts were always this sharp, but he was deliberately hiding this from me. This is the worst case scenario, because it indicates that his Battle IQ and general intellect is very high. But I'm pretty sure that I made it furious, so if it wanted to kill me, it would have just lashed out before.
I was shaken out of my internal monologue as he smashed the road next to me. I leapt sideways, jumping over the bat while it was still on the ground, and plunged Silver Lining into it.
Okay, experimentation.
The beast howled, and struck out with his other hand. I tried to block with the pole, but I had underestimated the momentum of his hand. It knocked down on my back, and I barely managed to backflip into a fighting position to avoid getting steamrolled by a baseball bat.
I slapped myself. Focus. Experimentation.
I leapt forward, using Sprint to poke it in the back, but it spun around and slapped me away again. This time though, I had already figured out the solution: as it did, my equally fast reflexes thrust the weapon into its palm, and hung on for dear life.
It screamed, a high pitched sound that really didn't belong in its mouth if you ask me. It then tried its best to shake me off, but I just sunk deeper. Its shaking grew more and more frantic, trying to throw me off and started spinning around, but I activated Sprint again, this time fully focusing on my kinetic vision.
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
As he spun around one last time, I pulled out the scythe with a loud grunt, and the momentum threw me off , and instead crashed into his face. I don't really think he was anticipating being hit a human projectile, because he staggered and tripped over his ankle, to fall down again.
I jumped off his falling body, and managed to cover up enough distance not be hit by the remains of our battle, but I was still grinning like a maniac.
"Where's your Babe Ruth now, huh?" I shouted at him, cupping my hands so the waste of space could hear me better. "Where's your Aaron Judge?"
The baseball references made him even more furious, but he must have broken his leg or something, because he couldn't stand up. He instead started sniffing with his nose in the air. Even though, he didn't technically have one.
Eww, who is this loser?
Then he looked at me in apprehension, and something else at me, and lunged.
Remember when I said I wanted to be popular? Well, this was definitely NOT the way I wanted it.
I darted his baseball hand, and fell flat on my stomach to avoid getting hit by his bat like Jake from Subway Surfers. Then I looked closely at him, and realised what he was up to.
Devils needed blood for regeneration.
And I looked like the world's biggest can of Monster Energy to this guy.
[I hope he gets indigestion.]
"Me too- WAIT, WHAT?"
I dodged backwards again, skidding, and then decided I had enough of dodging. Sure, this guy could swat me like a wingless fly, but I was learning. Thrust Silver Lining, wait it out, crash into face, and then mutilate it.
That was supposed to be the plan.
I had completed the experiments to figure out all about its reflexes. And just as I had guessed, it was only that good in his glove arm. So as long as I could restrict the movement of that arm, or maybe even slice it off, I'd be good.
I growled, and then took maybe the deepest breath of my life, pushed 3 HUNDRED Mps, and lashed out. Everything had slowed down by at least five times. Its hand came slowly, too slowly. I lunged, caught it in the stomach, and started slashing my way upwards.
It desperately tried to slap me out, randomly hitting parts of his abdomen. But I was quicker than ever before, as in 3000% quicker. I jumped over his hands as if I was strolling in a garden, and poked it in its chest whenever I felt things weren't painful enough.
This time though, I think it was at the peak of its anger. It used the last of its blood to heal all his wounds, and even increased its speed. The piece of shit then tried to throw me out.
Hadn't he learnt anything in the last couple of minutes?
Unexpectedly, he jumped backwards, not trying to make contact, but instead creating distance. I was confused, but I tried a leap forwards. Its another classic. Big guy hits, you step backwards like a classic anime aura farmer, and then use your weapon to ride the merry-go-round.
But he didn't take the bait. I narrowed my eyes till the realisation hit me.
He's having aneamia.
It was easy to see, all you had to do was look at his drooping eyes, and shaking muscles, and it was even easier to forsee.
[And yet you weren't able to.]
I mean, the guy had been fighting at full, umm, power for the last couple of minutes. I had used my brains and speed, he had used his muscles and brawn. I was the more efficient one, tiring him out, leaping, dodging, and landing critical strikes when he let his guard down.
I felt sorry for him, but I didn't have time to be late. He might have been powerful, but I was still the faster one.
We were standing around ten metres away, carefully watching the other, and keeping our own movements restricted. I broke it first.
The scythe spun in my hand, till its sharpened butt was facing upwards and the blade was on the ground.
I leaned forward in the stance my muscles had learnt by heart by now, and aimed the butt as my arrowhead.
The monster looked confused, but as he realised, panic set him out. He tried to turn around, but I already shot forward.
I covered the ten metres in less than a second, and all of my momentum, concentrated on the arrowhead, crashed into his stomach.
His scream was a truly horrifying sound, as if his blood was churning, and his throat was scraping against gravel. He spat out blood, and kept screaming. I pierced through his chest, and landed with a crash on the roof of a car.
I looked back, groaning. What I saw made me widen my eyes in suprise.
I had made a hole the size of a small box through his chest. Of course, the contact area of Silver Lining's butt wasn't that much, but the force had been so much, that pieces of flesh and bone had started falling off by themselves.
I smirked, then did one final shit.
I jumped up, behind his back, where he was desperately trying to heal and chopped his head off.
The detached abominable head fell slowly through the air, as the body fell to its knees, before falling completely.
[Congratulations on killing Baseball Devil!]
[You have claimed bounty of Baseball Devil!]
[You have gained 30,000 gold!]
[Current balance:230,000]
I looked at the disgusting head in contempt, which was now oozing blood.
"Rot in hell, you fucking shit."
AN-
New chapter!
I'll see if I can upload a bonus one today, because I owe you one last one.
BUT-
*suspensive drumroll*
We're only 27 collections away from 300 collections, meaning that we'll get a bonus chapter at that point.
And the bonus chapter I'll upload today, is going to be because of 50 powerstones.
For those who don't know, 50 powerstones=100 collections=50 k views= new chapter.
Kudos!