Excessive Contribution

Nearly thirty minutes had passed since the party entered the battlefield and began reaping the souls of the monsters who chanced upon their path. Already the gain in experience and merit points had proven to be quite the sum.

A wide smile spread across Derek's face as he activated his skill [Fireball] which until now had to be channeled through a magic staff. A large fireball the size of a melon appeared in his palm; the raging flames attempted to break free of his control but were naturally suppressed by the skill.

After casting the fireball, he spread his palm forth and shot the flames towards the hobgoblin in which Alex currently held in a headlock. Upon making contact, the flames incarnated the monster's flesh and rapidly spread across its body, devouring all life in a matter of seconds.

The base power of Derek's skills had increased drastically; much like the others in his party, he was no longer a simple human but had begun the path of surpassing his human limitations. Currently, the number of slayers in the region who had obtained a class was practically a dozen, five of which belonged to their party.

Alex looked back in shock as he let go of the charred corpse before the flames could spread to his own body. Derek's power had improved significantly, which though expected, was still quite astonishing. However, he did not have time to admire the improvement.

A stone club was swung towards Alex by another hobgoblin. For whatever reason, this squad of monsters had more than one hobgoblin in it, and Alex was forced to engage both simultaneously. Alex stood there and accepted the mighty swing of the club as it connected with his granite chin, not causing the slightest damage to the tank of a man.

Like the others, the base power of his skills had enhanced significantly upon advancing to the class of fighter. However, because his skills were largely defensive in nature and focused on strengthening the body, his gains only became apparent when he took damage.

Because of this, Alex was able to fight more aggressively, not having to worry about defense against creatures who were on par with himself; unless they were armed with a special weapon, he could soak up the damage all he wanted and batter them to death slowly with his fists.

As the club connected to Alex's chin, a wicked smile spread across the hobgoblin's face; it could not believe how stupid the human was for simply letting itself get stuck in the head. However, before it could celebrate, a fist made of iron struck the monster in the nose, instantly shattering it.

The hobgoblin was dazed from the blow and deeply confused as it fell to its knees and covered its bleeding nose. It could not fathom how the human was able to strike it so fiercely after the grievous injury it had inflicted upon him.

However, before it could contemplate the situation, a roundhouse kick slammed against its skull, knocking the creature to the ground. Alex followed up by getting in a dominant position with his knee on the creature's belly and rained down a series of punches that eventually took the hobgoblin's life.

By now, the message that appeared in his peripheral was all too familiar.

[You have slain a hobgoblin and gain 300 XP!]

The other slayer parties on the battlefield gazed in the direction of Alex's party with awe. The creatures, which were the dread of nearly all slayers, were beaten into a pulp and charred into ashes by a single party of humans without much effort. Perhaps only the legendary achievements of the one known as the "Unyielding Tyrant" could surpass such a feat.

Another message appeared in Alex's eyes; the more often he engaged in mortal combat, the more frequently he would see this message appear.

[Ares smiles upon the display of your performance and grants you 10 favor]

Alex had inquired about the existence of "favor" among his party and even brought up the question to other slayers he drank with at the tavern. However, very few of them had ever encountered a similar message, usually, "favor" was the reward of a random quest, and nobody knew what it was used for.

He had certainly never met anyone who a god casually gave "favor" for something as simple as displaying brutality on the battlefield. However, by now, Alex had collected well over a hundred favor from Ares. Of course, they had small amounts of favor with other lesser-known Greek deities, which resulted from completing a quest or surviving a dangerous encounter.

He had, however, heard of another individual who had gained the favor from a god of the Norse Pantheon. Of course, there was no way actually to confirm this information. Still, if this was to be believed, then the gods of the ancient world had something to do with the fracture, though the specifics were completely unknown.

...

The party had continuously slain monsters at the battlefield until dusk arrived. Imposed by humans, they met with a gang member from C-Gate and displayed the proof of their overwhelming kills when they returned to the fortifications.

The woman was completely shocked to see the "trophies" they had taken from the monsters they had slain. After tallying up their rewards, the party was granted a whopping one thousand merit points.

This was no small sum, but it was to be expected. After all, their party could easily hunt many of the more dangerous monsters, which were avoided by the other slayer parties and granted a larger reward.

With this, their party would not have to worry about supplies for some time. However, they did not immediately go back to the airport and rest; they hand unfinished business with those shadow-hide foxes.

With that in mind, the party took off in the direction they had been earlier that morning; despite their exhaustion, they still needed to complete the mission. They quite some luck, as they had come across a few of the shadow-hide foxes on their way to their prior location.

After hunting for a couple of hours, the party stubbornly stayed late into the night hunting the remaining shadow hide foxes. Whether it was arrogance from the recent advancement in class or pure unyielding resolve, the party had elected to complete the mission that night rather than wait another day.

Truly, it was only after they had hunted the last fox did they realize that the light of the sun had long abandoned them. They were utterly alone in the void of night, far away from the security of the airport. It appeared they would have to struggle to make their way back to safety this night.