Ching!
The sounds of metal clanging echoed across the cave and into the endless crater only to dissipate. Hydra had already been fighting against the skeleton army for five minutes, and even though it might feel like a short period of time it was by no means an easy feat! Hydra had already clearly slain at least 20 skeletons in those five minutes.
Being of similar level to Hydra he was able to kill skeletons relatively quick in comparison to
the [cruglings] and [gnolls]. The [warrior skeletons] were simply too stupid and weak to compare to the other high leveled monsters . It was a free group of experience however it wasn’t that simple either as he was about to face 500+ skeletons and another 500+ zombies.
Even if he didn’t get tired physically concentrating for that long would still be taxing on the mind and he couldn’t help
but start to worry about the long run
swoosh!
stab!
slash!
constant weapons were being swung around and instantaneously Hydra was moving to dodge those blows. If one skeleton was attacking he would rush another that had missed and was unable to attack within the next few moments. There was two positive points to fighting for hydra right now. One was that the attack speed of skeletons was atrociously low which made attacking them quite easy after they missed. The next was only around 4 skeletons at a time could stand side by side. And this was even pushing it as the skeletons would Not be able to stretch the arms without touching one another. If the skeletons did they could probably reach the opposite shoulders of the skeletons. It was simply too difficult for them to fight easily without issues. However for
hydra it wasn’t way either as he had to gain his freedom fight his way through this army first.
“shadow arm!”
when dodging became hopeless hydra could only utilize shadow arm to successfully off-balance the skeletons. While the Shadow Arm wasn’t able to change directions and could only be shot straight forward, Hydra could still is it to grab hold of the skeletons and use his strength stat to disrupt their movements. He even utilized it in on a skeleton farther back in the line and either pulled or pushed the skeletons to make them fall over and slow their march down. At times it would also cause some skeletons to fall of the edge of the pathway to their deaths.
The [Shadow Rain] itself was working however it still hadn’t possessed any of the skeletons nor the zombies at the least it was lowering their stats by a 1% a minute. At this point everything mattered even if it was only a slight breeze in the wind, Hydra could use the opportunity to create a tornado.
As the only option available was to fight naturally Hydra would fight for his life. Hydra might be seen as a coward against the truly strong but that didn’t mean he would give up his life without a fight. He would simply avoid with his entire being trying to anger those said figures. But when it came to a situation where even the slightest amount of hope was possible he would take every single tiny possibility and utilize them to his utmost ability to live. Even if he was a noob in the game, his skills weren’t that diverse at the beginning anyways and relied heavily on his real life skills. Sure his level mattered due to damage, armor to take less damage and health to last longer. But as long as he kept dodging these stats were only there to supplement his strongest traits.
Therefore Hydra, started to do what he does best at. He followed the 5 D’s as if they were his bible. Of course the 5 D’s were Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge! As long as he didn’t get hit he would survive, or the poison would kill him, but at the very least it was chance to increase his level and the gear he looted from the skeletons.
As the fight restarted again Hydra struck out his sword at the closest skeleton who had just finished attacking and missed. As he a new message he had never seen before popped up!
You have binded the target due to [Shadow Blade]! The shadow within the blade has seeped into the bones of the skeleton and rooted his actions. Binded for 3 seconds.Usually the percentage of binding a target was only 3% which was to say around 3 hits in 100. However that in itself was a problem. It was like rolling a dice with 100 sides and in 3/100 rolls will be the numbers 1-3. But that wasn’t necessarily true and thus there was no guarantee that it was possible to bind the target.
So when Hydra saw this window for the first naturally he was ecstatic. The skeleton in the middle was now and immovable target that he could hide behind for 3 seconds. Taking full advantage of the fact that AI’s wouldn’t attack allies he stabbed constantly towards the never-ending skeletons increasing the damage of the targets as much as he could within 3 seconds. The next thing he noticed was that the chance of binding was increasing. As he didn’t have time to ponder about it, he was still able to quickly come up with a single possibility.
The [Shadow Rain] would possess the skeletons and they would eventually become controllable units for the user to order around but someone broke it down, wasn’t it slightly similar to binding their actions? If one thought about as binding a simplified version of controlling wouldn’t it all make sense?
This was far more effective than Hydra originally thought. As the rain kept on falling the chance of binding increased. As Hydra already struck quite fast he was able to bind at least 1 of the 4 attacking skeletons. The moment the binding was finished Hydra would have already struck a few dozen more times and another binding message would pop up.
The previous quiet convicts were dumbfounded. This young man they thought was going to be massacred or thrown off the edge was not only fighting back, he was starting to push back the army line. The Skeletons were naturally bound to their location and because he would utilize the binded skeleton to maneuver and wouldn’t retreat. Therefore once the binding was complete he would repeat and kill attack the remaining ones before finally finishing off the last one but he would make sure the previously bound target was always low enough to be killed within a few more strikes.
The only result possible was the clearing of row by row and slowly moving forward. Thus the convicts who were now quiet erupted in cheering. They didn’t care whether or not they would be beaten to a pulp if the young man died. For the first time since they have been sentenced to deaths they could now see another comrade, as they naturally thought Hydra was a convict as well because he was here, fight for his life. This lit up the dead fires within their bodies. Even if the same wasn’t possible for them, they at this moment decided that they would fight for their lives.
Although most of these convicts crimes were due to their own faults, there was still a fairly large portion of people sent here because of unjustified reasons or because of corrupt nobles such as Cline’s situation. Although Cline killed the noble, that was only because the noble acted against his family, naturally he wouldn’t kill his own race without justified reasons, and it could only be said what he did was for justice of his family.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The convicts started to slam whatever objects they had left against the bars of their cells. The chant reverberated throughout the cave and even though the chant was for him Hydra could only feel slightly dissatisfied. Here he was fighting for his life and these rude bandits were annoying him while he was trying to concentrate.
‘I’m trying my best here and you guys are distracting me?’
Of course Hydra wasn’t used to being on a stage and getting attention so the only conclusion was for him to think that the convicts wanted him to die. Even under all the tension and pressure and even the poison that would soon kill him, Hydra was still taking a step forward against an army of a 1000. For every step the cave would be drowned in noise as the convicts screamed. With every step Hydra would be closer to leveling and another item would drop. Even with all the pressure, Hydra never failed to let the item go. He picked up every piece of metal armor, swords, axes, materials and pots that dropped. One single step was enough to change the lives of everything in the cave. Only Hydra wasn’t thinking of any of that.
“More Loot! More Experience!”
These words were the only thing that Hydra kept replaying in his head over and over again to increase his own morale. It didn’t matter if he died, his smile would only increase with every item and percent of experience he gained. Death was but a single step back, but after all these steps forward how could he not come out with more benefits? With only half his health remained and having killed only 100 enemies, his goals were still far from over but the situation had now changed for the worse.
Even under the chanting and banging of the convicts, a loud earthquake could be heard throughout the cave.
Boom!
Boom!
Hydra was only able to see it after a solid minute, but after he saw it. It instilled a new fear into his body.
‘I now am seriously screwed.’
As Hydra stared at the giant behind the army of skeletons and zombies, he saw one of the gatekeepers; the minotaur!