46***Mad Dash

'Come on you damn nerd!!! What's the f****** hold up?!!' Angus whispered frantically at me as I struggled to simultaneously fight and think up a strategy at the same time!

'Just wait! And don't break formation no matter what!!!' I whispered back, equally as frantic! Between fighting off incoming mobs, protecting everyone and myself, and thinking of a strategy to defeat the last Boss Monster, I was strapped for mental space!

And to make it worse, my old arch nemesis was rearing its ugly head at me once again, and in a situation like this no less!!!

'Geeze! If only I had some Strength Potions on me right now!' My brain started, 'But then again, if we had those then we'd have used them ages ago and underwent Damage Fatigue!'

*clash* *clank* *screech!!!*

'And even then, there are too many mobs here to counter with just that! By the way, how is Crash doing? I hope mom is awake to change his water bowl.'

*smash* *slam* *screech!!!* *screech!!!*

'We've been down here for… actually, how long have we been down here?!!! We're going to miss the preliminary Gala celebrations at this rate!'

*howl!!!* *crash* *splick* *splick* *howl!!!* *screech!!!*

'But really, the Goblin King might not have become the Goblin on purpose?! This explains so many things in the lo… Wow!!!'

*HOWL!!!!* *CRASH!!!*

'Cavern Hound. Has a scream attack. Rush him then veer off to the side and slam him in the head. Anyway, what was I thinking off?'

*duck* *swerve* *Shield Bash*

'Ah right, how are we going to kill the boss?!!! But before that, how are we supposed to get out of this mess?!!'

See what I mean? I have this tick of thinking about a multitude of things at once. I usually have no control over what I actually think of, and I'd spend hours going around in circles and forgetting where I started off. The thing is; I don't usually think of so many things at once, and this only happens when I'm in an idle state! When I'm in an intense situation – like a test, a tournament, or a situation like this current one – all my thoughts are razor focused on it, sometimes to the point of NOT thinking!

Yet here I am, trying desperately to keep my head in order, in the middle of a high-tension fight!!! I never had this problem since I got in the game even when I was idle, so I almost forgot it was still an issue. Now that the idea of me subconsciously pumping Improv essence into my head is a possibility, maybe that's what was holding it off!!!

'Man I wish I had enough essence to use Improvisation, but I can't even spare a bit for….'

… Wait a minute. Something doesn't feel right…

'I didn't remember….?' I thought to myself once again.

At that, my thoughts lifted as I felt my head focus for the first time in what must have been an hour and a half!!!

My eyes shot around the whole room as I finally started looking properly at 'the situation'. There were 10 Cavern Hounds, 7 Minto Mice, and at rough glance, 15 Glide Worms, plus 2 pudgy green guys barely a foot tall, with helmets and Stubbed Clubs taller than them that I realised as Berserker Goblins! A quick look at the loot floor told me that there were also regular Goblins, and some Goblin Riders in the mix!

'We're in Area4?!!!' I thought to myself in surprise before shutting my mind back up!

'No idiot! Of course we aren't. Calm down and let's get the f…. flip out of here before I do any more thinking! Now think!!!' I shouted to myself, psyching myself up before running my eyes everywhere to see if I could get out of here!!!

Angus and Eleora were busy making hell for the mobs… or at least trying to. Eleora had her hands full with the Berserker Goblins, meanwhile Angus was trying to run interference on the Cavern Hounds! They were holding up quite well all things considered, but with the Minto Mice and Glide Worms running interference, they could only hold up so long! Meanwhile, I was running back and forth between them to handle projectile interference.

'Funny,' My brain started again as I tried to get into a rhythm after it's unexpected wake up, 'this situation looks just like… wait.' I thought of one thing, and from somewhere deep within, all the pieces aligned, making a bomb go off in my head!

I immediately stopped what I was doing and started rooting through my inventory like a mad man!!!

"What the f*** are you doing you lazy **s, spaced- brained, death s*** nerd!!!" Angus fired off at my pause. "Get the f*** back up here!!!" She was so pissed she forgot to use whisper!

I flinched at her voice, but powered on with my search without even attempting to correct her language, only sparing enough concentration to say,

"I found out how to defeat the next boss, but we need to get out of here, now!!!" I shouted back.

I flipped through my whole inventory and belt before finally finding something… an Antler Root!

'Yes, I found something!!! But just this isn't enough!!! I need something more!!! Wait, when did I take this up again? Ah right, it was a drop from the floor behind… enough of this!!!! I need to keep searching!!!' I scanned back through everything in my inventory and belt but to little success! I even looked into my Money slot to see if I took up any Cursed Coins (which I did pick up a few, but none were cursed with what I needed!!!)

It wasn't until I was flipping through the documents I got from our speed run down the previous floors, when I finally found something promising!!!

'Angus!!!' I whispered to her quickly.

'What is it?!!!' She whispered back in a hectic I-can't-bother-right-now tone!

'Switch out with me and use this!!!' I replied quickly, jumping up from my sitting position and running to her with a Shabby Scroll in hand!

'Ew!!! What is this?!' Angus cried out in surprise with her whisper as I handed her the scroll.

'Just use it!!! You'll need it to get out of here alive!!!' I whispered back!

What I gave her was a Power Up Scroll. They come in a variety of forms, like Spell of the Giants, or Dragon's Seal, or The Great Sage Channelling Arts, but at their cores, their just ways to increase a few stats by a lot of points without having to level up, plus get a Passive Skill with it, restrictions included!

The one I gave her was named the Goblin King Style: Breath of the Beetle, which increases one's speed of essence regeneration by 12% by, and I quote:

Through breathing like a bug, the rate of breath heightens, increasing the intake of essence and exchange of gases, allowing for quick changes in movement and attacks.

So, breath like a bug, fight like a bug.

If I guessed right, she wouldn't put up much of a resistance if I gave her an excuse to do it, and just as I thought, she started reading the scroll and was already practicing the breathing steps, mumbling "I'm only doing this because I have to" under her breath the whole time.

I rolled my eyes, then focused my mind forward. From this point on, it was a gamble!

'Mi… Eleora! We need to buy her three minutes! Go all out on holding the line!' I whispered to Eleora.

With a nod in my direction, she switched her stance from offensive to a more… liquid?... state? Idk how to describe it.

What I do know though, is that with that simple shift, I could feel the pressure from her change!

Crashing Rapids is a water-based fighting style focused around destructive kick boxing base, but it is still fundamentally a water-based Series, else water style attacks wouldn't be able to merge with them. That means that even though it is mainly destructive, that form of destruction is best executed in defence!

*CRASHING RAPIDS!!! TURRENT STEP!!!*

A Berserker Goblin came in swinging with a wide attack right at her, which was slid around and countered with a Palm Smash into the stomach, sending him flying! A spit shot from a Glide Worm was evaded with a turn to the right, a kick, visibly stronger than the first attack, pushed back a Minto Mouse so hard, it shot its gas prematurely!

With each turn she made to avoid an attack, the following counter got stronger, and once her moves got so fast she was a blur, I got in and started blocking where her field of vision couldn't keep up!

We held out as long as possible, and by the 2 ½ minute mark, my hp. was in the red and Eleora was getting hindered by Fatigue, but onward we pushed!!!

"Finished!!!" Angus shouted to us! I sighed a huge sigh in relief that my gamble paid off!

"Eleora! Send one of those Goblins to me!" I shouted, not even bothering to whisper! I then whipped out the Antler Root, and ate it without a second's waste, reaching my hand out right after!

A split second later, a Berserker Goblin was flying at my outstretched hand!

You Received An Adrenaline Spike!

Conservation Increased

Speed Increased

I caught him by the face in a death grip then pumped his head with Explosive Essence!

*TIME BOMB!!!*

'and..' I took up a Rock and threw the thing as far as possible!

*EXCHANGE!!!*

The Goblin switched places with the Rock as it flew past the Glide Worms, and it exploded up there, taking out a ton of them while the now ground level rock cleaved through the unsuspecting mobs!

Mastery Unlocked: Rock Throwing!

"Now Angus!" I shouted!

"You are one crazy nerd you know that?!" She replied before jumping onto the side of the wall!!! She crouched her legs, set her arms and then pushed off, hard!

*BUG'S BREATH!!! DRAGONFLY TORNADO!!!*

She flew through the mobs with a death blade spin, killing any that were too weak!

"Follow behind her!" I shouted to Eleora, and we both ran like hell through the path of data dust and weakened mobs, killing any we came across!

"Hard left!!!" I shouted again, and we all practically drifted – save for Angus. She changed direction with a kick to the wall – around the corner and into the final floor's waiting room!!!

"How….?" Angus started at seeing where we were, but was then interrupted by something unexpected…

"Hehehe, hehehe, hehehe!"

'Huh? Who's laughing?' I thought to myself. I look up then to see both women looking at me with varying levels of troubled expressions on their face!

'Eh, why are they looking at me like that?' Then I realised where the laughing was coming from…

'Ah, I see… I'm the one laughing!'