Chapter 69: [Day 24] – “Sucker-punched” (1/2)

∼ Day 24 ∼

Shock flashed on my face after having my attack swatted away that easily, not mentioning the speed too. But my eyes quickly hardened as I was now left completely open to a counter-attack. With the dark premonitions of my danger sense whispering in my ears, I unhesitatingly performed what would've been a world-class acrobatic feat back on earth as I twisted and contorted my body to evade the unseen attack heading directly for me.

It was purely my instincts and intuition that commanded my body in that split second, and to my delight, I managed to dodge whatever counterattack had been thrown at me, although just barely. While I hadn't even seen what had not only parried my attack and then almost instantly countered, my combat experience has lept leaps and bounds ever since becoming an Azde, allowing such a feat to be performed.

The second I landed on the ground, Blink had become available once again, without hesitation I used it to disappear. While Blink didn't really have a cooldown per se, it did have a downtime of sorts. It really depended on my body and mind's capabilities to activate the skill. It's quite hard to explain but what is certain is that Blink can't be used continuously without any lag time in between uses until I simply ran out of stamina.

Where I had appeared now, was in the group that I had brought with me here. I was currently using them as cover, whilst using Obscurement to camouflage my figure amongst the bodies of the monsters. With their current mental states and the succinct shock at what had just taken place, they didn't even notice me right in their midst. Standing in front of the group with an extremely sour and worried face, was the beastkin I had just tried to surprise attack.

By hastily analyzing what had just happened, my mind quickly pieced together what had transpired. Without a doubt, the beastkin had activated a skill to avoid death. I had no idea what the skill was, but there was no way that his agility and dexterity allowed for such an insane block and counter of my surprise attack. Even though I had a whopping 50 points in agility and him with his measly 35, that parry was more than twice the speed that I could even produce with an attack of my own.

Unless he had some crazy ability, trait, or title, that I didn't even know was possible to create such an ability, then this was almost certainly a skill. But if he had such a convenient and useful skill at the power-level of somebody like him, to make him basically cheat death and deliver a blow, then it was highly likely that it couldn't be used more than once or at least consecutively.

With that in mind, I launched my next attack. With the flash of something metallic, an object flew towards the beastkin who barely managed to swat it away with the claws on his hand. This had mostly confirmed my assumption as I once again used Blink to almost instantly appear behind the now scared-looking beastkin. The next second, I had torn open the nape of his neck and severed his spinal cord, instantly killing him with the swift use of Weak Infusing Slash.

[Fjende has taken 202 damage, a critical hit!]

[LVL: 35 - Lycan (Fjende) has been slain!]

[You have been rewarded with 2565 points of EXP]

[Congratulations! You've reached level 17]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 17]

[Skill - Weak Infusing Slash has reached LVL: 8]

The reason I dared to once again try to use the same attack without the fear of getting countered like before, was that I had stolen the gladius of one of the orcs in the group and thrown it at the beastkin. The attack was lethal if it would've hit, but it didn't illicit the use of that skill again. Instead, he had to block it on his own. Knowing that he most likely couldn't use that skill again, I swiftly ended the wolfman's petty life.

While this opponent was actually very powerful and high-leveled, I had managed to instantly kill him. This was mostly due to his arrogance and pride having underestimated my small figure. He was also more of a glass-cannon in the sense that he could probably deal lethal blows towards even someone like me, but his defensive capabilities were severely lacking. With him missing the opportunity to kill me when he had originally countered my attack, he lost most of his advantage, allowing me an easy kill.