BXBX NOVEL Chapter 143: Monster Spawn, A Witch
Rin was approximately ten kilometers away from him, which was a safe distance. If they were separated even further, it would've been hard for Erix to see Rin's signal.
After a few seconds, Erix suddenly saw another spectacle in the sky, conjuring a huge black maw with rusty crimson teeth.
'Savage Maw House's symbol,' Erix thought. This signal was five kilometers away from him. 'It seems that their members are gathering up in various spots of this huge land.'
'It looks like although there won't be many Chaos Gadgets, there will still be a considerable amount of Chaos Beacons spawn often.'
Erix soon arrived near Rin while thinking of various things about this checkpoint race that was like a marathon filled with random obstacles.
"Rin," Erix said, teleported right beside her from a kilometer away.
"Let's get down," Rin nodded.
Both of them descended quickly and entered the huge mountain with a snow forest.
After arriving at a cave that Rin led Erix to, both of them entered inside and closed it.
"We are safe here," Rin smiled. "I was near this area when I appeared here and found this cave."
"Ten minutes is going to pass soon, but this cave is small," Erix muttered as he looked around. "The random Noble-order monster won't spawn inside, right?"
"It can't be," Rin wryly chuckled.
"Anyway, let's open a control scroll quickly while we still have around a minute or two," Erix said as he took out a control skill from his hunter card's storage.
"Yeah, we'll need it."
Rin also took out a control-skill scroll.
"This is good," Erix raised his eyebrows upon opening the scroll and inspecting it.
[Murky Waters]: Turn an area of a 1-kilometer radius around you, be it on the ground or in the air, into murky waters filled with sticky tentacles. Anyone inside, aside from the user, will be constantly grabbed by powerful tentacles for an absolute 1 second per tentacle. The tentacles will grab enemies as long as they are less than five meters off the murky waters.
"This is great," Rin said as she opened her scroll. "It's a deadly control skill."
[Arcane Seal Bullet]: Aim anyone within a kilometer of you and shoot an Arcane bullet from your finger upon using the skill. If the bullet hits anyone, that person's flow of mana will be sealed for one minute.
"It's good indeed. We might be able to kill even a peak Noble-order powerhouse with it," Erix muttered.
"If we combine our attacks and I use my Bloodline skill, we can one-shot anyone hit by this Arcane Seal Bullet," Rin nodded and infused the skill into a Chaos Gadget.
"Haha, let's make sure we are not hit by the enemy's projectile," Erix released a hollow laugh. "Dodging is our specialty, but we'll have to enhance that even more because we also don't want to get hit by other people's chaotic skills."
If random scrolls gave such chaotic skills, everyone would have such crazy skills.
"Low key is our best option to last until the end," Rin nodded.
*Roarr!*
Suddenly, both of them heard a roar and a heat beside him.
"Rin!" Erix quickly pushed Rin away as a meter-tall humanoid with demonic horns materialized behind Rin.
Without hesitation, Erix's slik metal gloves quickly transformed into a pair of heavy dark pink metal gauntlets. The gauntlet's front end was flat with rows of sharp structure spikes as this was a metal called Epoxinc Ore.
Since his created metals also inherited properties of the natural magical metals he scanned in his adventures, he had collected seven Tier-2 magical metals and scanned a Tier-3 metal with many effects.
This Epoxinc Ore was precisely that Tier-3 metal.
Erix consumed a whooping 300 mana for his powerful self-created skill that was only possible to release with Epoxinc Gauntlets, Machine Gun Punch!
As his fist struck the Black Inferno Demonling, His gauntlets immediately pumped tens of times within two seconds with how he structured them, releasing multiple punches at once.
*BOOM!*
However, the monster was still stuck to his fist even after arriving on the brink of death because Epoxinc metal had powerful properties to stick to anything! This was the reason for Erix's most powerful punch technique created yet, Machine Gun Punch!
The attack shaved away 89% of the monster's Vitality, and It was a level 139 Demonling of Noble-order.
[Black Inferno Demonling]
_Level: 139
_Rank: Noble-order
_Vitality: [11%/100%]
—> [ Strength: 732 ]
—> [ Agility: 694 ]
—> [ Health: 701 ]
—> [ Stamina: 680 ]
—> [ Magic: 712 ] — [ Mana: 2400/2400 ]
"Awesome," Rin grinned and drew her Blade Eater, flashing an arc of lightning on the damaged part of the demon as it was cut into two, shaving away the last of its Vitality.
Both of them immediately left the cave afterward as the second monster was outside.
Just as they dashed outside, a huge minotaur of level 162 was standing there with his mouth open. There was also a chaos beacon floating there for who knows how long!
On the other hand, the moment Minotaur saw Rin and Erix, a huge sphere of flame materialized before its mouth and shot towards them.
Erix readily created a metal shield of Flaminite Ore, a Tier-2 ore with high resistance to flame and used to create armors with flame-attribute.
The sphere of flame hit the shield, causing the shield to turn bright red as it absorbed all the firepower before it was destroyed.
Rin made a dash afterward and released a flurry of attacks of her Katana-Blade Eater, using Blade Frenzie as the Minotaur was swiftly slashed ten times and was paralyzed as it screamed.
Moreover, a wormhole opened right before the monster as Erix's fist came out with his powerful Sling Shot Punch released through the Sling Shot gauntlet.
*BOOM!*
The piercing fist hit the Minotaur's powerful head and cracked it.
Still barely alive due to its powerful Vitality, Minotaur hurled its glowing red fist towards Rin, who was near, but she was ready to retreat as she flashed ten meters behind before piercing her katana into a wormhole that appeared before her with Erix's control.
The katana also pierced its already cracked head, dealing it a finishing blow as the monster turned into motes and vanished.
Erix destroyed the Chaos Beacon afterward, gaining one Chaos Gadget in his inventory.
*Clap…Clap…Clap…*
Rin and Erix immediately turned to the sound of clapping as they saw a woman with a purple wizard outfit wearing a big witch hat.
"Oh my, you two are scary," the woman said with a smile, her aura powerful and her level 200.
"Just barely entered Noble-order and already have level 2 affinities and powerful concepts, both weaved into powerful techniques."
"And this young man with space affinity, scary combos indeed," the witch smiled at Erix and Rin.
"What do you want?" Rin said as she took out the chaos gadget containing Arcane Seal Bullet, and Erix did the same as he took out his chaos gadget containing Water Rebound Barrier.
If a fight broke out, only chaos gadgets would work against other participants.
"Relax," the woman raised her hands, showing that she didn't intend to fight them.
"This is a race where people will work with others to pass checkpoints until they can't."
"You two will need one more person to pass smoothly," the woman continued with a smile. "And I am the best teammate you can get."
"What if you attacked us with a Chaos Gadget while we were not aware?" Rin narrowed her eyes. "You are more powerful in terms of stats, so you have a higher chance of succeeding in sneak-attacking us if we work together."
"True," the woman chuckled. "But I won't do that, at least not in this race. So, let's work together just for this race. What do you say?"
'What do you say, honey?' Erix asked.
'I say we work together with her to pass this stage. All we have to do is to keep an eye on her,' Rin replied.
'I was thinking the same, but only with one condition,' Erix said before he nodded at the woman. "We have one condition."
"Shoot," the woman grinned.
"You will have to be at the frontline in anything we do. We are not interested in making powerful enemies, so we won't hurt you from the back. If you agree, we can work together."
"Alright, no loss for me," The witch shrugged. "I have two reasons that prompted me to work with you."
"Which two?" Rin raised her eyebrows.
"First, you two are more powerful and troublesome despite being early Noble-order powerhouses," the witch grinned. "And I see a smooth chance of passing this race if we work together."
This reason was sufficient, so Rin and Erix automatically wondered about the second reason.
"Second, I can't trust my peers, but I am confident in escaping unscathed if you two betray me, which is why I chose you."
'She is praising us and underestimating us both,' Rin snorted.
'Well, let's just take her for her word,' Erix laughed.
"Cool, so what are your main powers?" Erix asked.
"I have Wood affinity at level 2 and Darkness affinity at level 1," the witch smiled. "As for what I can do, you'll have to see it when the time comes."
'Darkness and Wood. What kind of skills and combos she must have?' Erix wondered.
'I am also curious, haha. I want to compare our skills with others,' Rin smiled.
"So, what do we call you?" Rin asked.
"Melissa."