Massin: Magic and Daggers
Before any of the party members had a chance to stop him, Bjorn crushed the scroll.
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Ding!~
You have learned Fireball Lvl 1.
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"All points into intelligence."
Without waiting to see what was coming out from the bushes, Bjorn raised his hand to point at the party leader.
"Fireball."
…
Nothing happened.
'Ah, magic was some kind of mental cue, right? Fireball!'
As he imagined a giant plume of flame exploding out and engulfing the entire enemy party, there was finally some reaction from his hand.
A brilliant orange flame flickered to life, then shot toward the enemy.
There was only a slight problem. It was no larger than his clenched fist.
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The enemy has no magic defense!
You dealt 64 damage!
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It was impressive damage, but it used up a large amount of mana. There were five enemies, and he only had the mana to use it four times. If he only used it, he could only take out a single enemy with it at best.
Instead of backing away to kite like a normal mage, Bjorn charged forward before the party could react. Focusing on the same player who'd just been struck by the fireball, he slashed his 'Green Tooth' dagger against the player's neck while casting a second fireball in his other hand.
Thanks to the 'Blade Flurry' skill, he managed to land three attacks with his dagger and launch the fireball before he had to back away to avoid the player's teammates' weapons.
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Critical Hit!
…
…
Critical Hit!
You dealt 29 damage!
You dealt 29 damage!
You dealt 29 damage!
You dealt 80 damage!
You have slain an enemy!
Karma -1.
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Combined with the initial fireball, it was plenty enough to decimate the player's entire health bar.
A small cloud of light motes floated into the air, replacing the now-dead player's body and shocking the party.
Their leader just got one shot without being able to react.
On the first day of the game.
"What the hell was that?!"
Bjorn wasn't about to give them time to figure out the situation.
He quickly withdrew the rusty dagger from his inventory, tossing it at one of the players and causing him to flinch. At the same time, he charged at the gap in the middle of the group.
Instead of trying to strike them, he rolled beneath them, his hand sweeping up the loot that'd dropped from the first kill. It was a single copper.
Sweeping his leg as he rolled past, Bjorn knocked one player off his feet, then swiftly turned as he got up and kicked another in the shin.
The pain amounts were turned down from reality, but it was a strike that one could definitely feel. In a group of now four enemies, two were momentarily incapacitated, and the third was on the opposite side from them, unable to stop Bjorn for the moment. The fourth member was the group's own mage, and she looked terrified to see Bjorn right in front of her.
"Drop your wand, would you?"
Despite looking like she was about to piss herself in front of the incoming dagger, the mage actually reacted to his attack, side-stepping and raising her wand toward Bjorn.
"Magic missile!"
A small magic bolt jumped from her wand, zooming toward Bjorn's chest much faster than any of his fireballs had moved.
"Hm? Not bad."
With movements that seemed unnatural, Bjorn twisted his body and dodged the strike, then immediately charged the girl again. The shin-kicked swordsman charged at him from behind, having recovered, but this time Bjorn wasn't going to miss his attack on the mage.
Seeing as how she seemed to be fairly skilled, he wasn't going to hesitate in dumping some mana into killing her.
His clenched fist slammed into her chin, momentarily stunning her, and the dagger in his other hand shot for her throat. His first slash was a regular one, and before his dagger fully finished swiping across her skin, he activated the 'Blade Flurry' skill and made three more weak cuts, followed up by one more strong regular attack.
His hand that'd just punched her chin also channeled a fireball at the same time.
Even though the weakly delivered triple strike from the blade skill didn't count as crits, it was still an enormous amount of damage, too much for the mage to endure.
Bjorn chuckled as he sidestepped the charging shin-kicked swordsman's blade.
'It's so easy. My stats aren't even great yet, but since none of these people have any defensive equipment yet, they all go down in an instant!'
Bjorn's one-shotting days would probably end soon as players invested in armor or defensive objects, but for now, he was unstoppable.
It didn't help them that he was a level or two up, thanks to killing the field boss chicken.
Bjorn now had only roughly a fifth of his mana left, enough to use fireball once or blade flurry twice.
He didn't really need the skills to win the fight, but it was better to use them and get a bit closer to leveling them up and improving their damage.
All three of the remaining enemies grouped up, facing Bjorn together.
Just fifteen seconds later, their health bars were falling quickly, and they realized they stood no chance.
One of them- who looked to be a hunter or assassin- patted his hand on the backs of his allies, and their weapons disappeared from their hands. Instead of being surprised, the two players threw themselves at Bjorn, giving the hunter a chance to run.
Even Bjorn was unable to completely avoid their grabs, and the hunter gained over a dozen-meter lead on Bjorn before he killed the two players and started chasing.
'Damn those bastards! They transferred their entire inventories to this guy so he could escape!'
Behind Bjorn, there were no items on the ground. The mage had only dropped a single copper- the same as the party leader- and the two unarmed men both dropped nothing.
Furthering his anger, the other player seemed to be a bit faster than Bjorn. The 'speed' portion of the AGL stat was next to useless after the first few levels- most damage or stealth calculators ran off the agility stat itself instead- but it did slightly increase movement speed, and was most noticeable at lower levels.
'This bastard must've pumped every point into it to be running this quickly!'
Seeing that he didn't stand much of a chance at catching the fleeting player, Bjorn drew back his right arm, clutching onto the dagger.
After taking a moment to aim- and while still running- he launched the weapon forward.
It sliced through the air, taking the perfect trajectory to intercept the running man.
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Ding!~
Critical hit!
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The player stumbled and nearly fell, but he recovered and continued running. Bjorn wasn't done, as a fireball was already rocketing ahead.
Somehow, even while he was running at full speed, and with an also moving opponent over a dozen meters away, Bjorn's second projectile also hit the player's head.
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Ding!~
Critical hit!
You have slain an enemy.
Karma -1.
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