BXBX NOVEL Chapter 201: Party Leader
[Nyx\'s Hit Points: 20/200]
"-I\'m okay-" Nyx said with a groan as she managed to return to her hooves. The pain of the impact was already nullifying but Henry knew she did not feel as okay as she had claimed. Not with her Hit Points so low.
"-Rest!-" He ordered her.
*Crackle!*
Now that Henry\'s attention was not grabbed by other enemies, his ears picked out sounds of happenings all around him.
"Cut that shit out!" Yelled a Mercenary Fighter who had gotten struck by Louis\' Lightning but had survived through a mixture of Mana-surge Shielding and Louis\' lessening Mana Reserves that caused his spells to pack less of a punch than they originally would.
With Andor getting embroiled in singular combat situations, Louis\' task was to attack from a distance and provide support, and he would have done that had the vast majority of the enemies not quickly marked him as their target.
Trying to increase the distance had not done much good against enemies whose agility surpassed his by multiple digits and while Louis could not be accurate about the difference, he could at least feel and sense that it was a lot.
They closed in on him quickly and while he vowed to invest in some movement spells next time he went spell shopping, he had to deal with the enemies in melee distance.
He had electrocuted a bunch and tossed out lightning streaks and while he had successfully taken down three of the bunch, the others had taken advantage of those moments to consistently strike at him. Their weapons had cut him all over and his shield was far from the versatile sort so while it defended him from attacks coming at him, it left his back open, and again, the enemies sought to take advantage.
Which brings us to now.
A Mercenary Fighter tried to stab Louis and since he had just cast a spell, he was forced to use his Staff as a melee weapon. He managed to knock the blade aside but a fist to the face landed and sent him flying.
Another Mercenary awaited with a Spear poised for Louis to fall and Stab himself on.
*Blam!*
The sound of the shot sounded from far off. As far off as many other shots Louis and the Mercenaries had heard since they had been battling but had paid no attention to.
Except this time, the result was a gaping hole through the back of the head of the Mercenary who had placed his Spear for Louis to fall on. The bullet tore violently out of his forehead but even before he fell, and his Spear with him, Louis was sure to still get skewered.
But then, a tentacle wrapped around Louis\'s body and pulled him a foot away from the Spear tip until he hit his ass on the ground, his ever-wide eyes surprised.
He looked down at the blue watery tentacle that was now unwrapping from his body and turned to look at the one responsible for the save but Henry was already walking past him pointing \'Violent Retort\' at his next victim. He pulled the trigger and with a bang, the slugs struck and blew half of a Mercenary\'s head off.
[Kill-Reward: 250 Exp]
[Kill-Reward: 250 Exp]
By the time the second victim hit the ground, the remaining two were already alert. With Mana-Surges and their reflexes to guard them, they began to make exaggerated motions to throw off Henry\'s aim. At the same time, they charged forward toward him. Their desire to escape death and take down the enemy completely blinded them from the tentacles behind him.
Big mistake.
Despite their exaggerated motions, once they were close enough, Henry only needed to make a sweeping motion with his fine \'Extra Arms\' to sweep them off their feet.
The moment their backs hit the ground, he shot them. One died to \'Violent Retort\' and the other died to a shot from
\'Cudgel\'.
[Kill-Reward: 250 Exp]
[Kill-Reward: 250 Exp]
Following unsuccessful attempts to kill Orson and the escape of the Water Mage, Henry was feeling a bit thrown at how easily he had made the kills. But of course, he understood why. These Fighters were not on Orson\'s level. They weren\'t even on the level of the one Individual Rider Henry had managed to kill. They were certainly not on the level of the Water Mage.
"Thank you," Louis said but his voice sounded so awed and Henry knew why. Louis\' wide eyes were currently staring at his Tentacles and wondering how he had them. The Mage probably had a lot of questions and so far didn\'t know how to ask them.
"Andor," Henry said then with his eyes on the Fighter.
Andor was fighting against two Fighters who had forced him to his knees but even as he gritted his teeth, he still managed to keep them away. Both Fighters were armed with swords so Andor certainly had the advantage in reach but with them so close and so more physically capable than he was, he struggled.
Violently letting his Mana surge loose through his Spear also didn\'t prove a great move in his arsenal when the enemies constantly seemed so keen that they deflected all attempts and smacked him with their Mana surges before attempting to make a kill.
Louis tried to stand up.
"Rest," Henry told him and was already pointing his guns to shoot. Louis was bleeding and looked sapped of Mana and Stamina so why ask him to move? It also didn\'t seem necessary.
All his fired shots missed.
His attacks had been expected. He had been spotted taking down the others so when he fired, the Fighters were alert and studied the barrel of his guns enough to make snap decisions on where to dodge.
Fortunately, the split second they had taken to make their decision and the full second they spent to complete the dodge was enough for Andor to make two moves in one.
He slammed the end of his Spear into the stomach of one and stabbed the tip into the stomach of the other.
The pain alerted the Fighter and he made a quick leap back to dislodge the weapon out of his stomach knowing the blast that was coming. He didn\'t get far enough away to get the tip out of his body when the Mana-Surge was let loose with a BANG! that ruptured that part of his stomach, as he was sent flying.
He never stood up again. A shot to the head by Henry made sure of that.
[Kill-Reward: 250 Exp]
As for the second Fighter, just after Andor had struck him in the stomach with the end of the Spear, he made to retaliate only to be slammed by the full force of five Tentacles which sent him rolling at least five feet away.
Andor, fresh off of his blast against the stomach of the other Mercenary, followed. By the time the Fighter that had been struck by the Tentacles managed to regain his footing, a Spear was stabbing toward his neck.
"Ack!" Was the only sound he was able to make.
Andor went further by twisting his Spear and cutting through the neck completely so that the only connection keeping it tethered to the body just left the head dangling as blood spurted from the wound until finally the body hit the ground and moved no more.
"It\'s over," Louis said with a relieved sigh.
Henry paused.
[Quest Completed!]
"Yes, it is," he agreed now that he had received confirmation. There would be no more danger now.
[You have received 5000 Exp]
*[Nyx has received 2500 Exp]
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 27]
[Hit Point Maximum increased to 270]
[Mana Point Maximum increased to 380]
[You have received 6 Stat Points to Allocate]
[Nyx has Leveled Up!]
[Nyx is now Level 13]
[Nyx\'s Hit Point Maximum increased to 215]
[Nyx\'s Mana is now 225]
[Strength: 90 ———> 95]
[Speed: 170 ———> 180]
[Stamina: 85 ———> 90]
[You completed this Quest as a Party Leader. As such, your Party members will also enjoy status improvements.]
With a raised brow at a development he had not expected, Henry looked at both Louis and Andor and activated <Insight> to inspect their Status screens.
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[Name: Louis]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Mage]
[Health: 190 ———> 200]
[Mana: 260 ———> 280]
[Strength: 14]
[Agility: 19]
[Stamina: 30 ———> 32]
[Intelligence: 96 ———> 100]
*[Remarks: A young Mage who makes up for what he lacks in Magical Training with a lot of enthusiasm and Talent. Has only discovered one Elemental Aptitude (Lightning).
Has impressive potential but Killable should you want to.]
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[Name: Andor]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Fighter]
[Health: 250 ———> 270]
[Mana: 190 ———> 200]
.net
[Strength: 80]
[Agility: 34]
[Stamina: 36 ———> 42]
*[Remarks: A Fighter who makes up for his limited Martial training with enthusiasm and Impressive strength. Has Impressive Potential but is killable should you want to.]
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