NOVEL WEB 31: Assassins (2)
Protect the bag. Kill the enemies. Protect the bag. Kill the enemies. Protect the bag. Kill the enemies. That mantra occurred on repeat in Gloria's mind as she cleaved her axe through the skull of a man dressed in all black.
Her master had given her the duty to keep the baron in the bag safe until they reached the safe zone and she would surely do as she was ordered.
An assassin jumped out of the smoke behind her, attempting to stab their knife into the back of Gloria's neck that had remained unprotected as she had not yet gotten adequate armour to protect that part of her body. The attempt was stopped as Gloria's tail moved with extreme speed, the sharp vertebrae expanding rapidly, before plunging deep into the attacker's chest cavity. The attacker remained elevated in the air, leaking blood and viscera like a fountain, as Gloria sneered at the would-be assassin's feeble attack.
Around her, many assassins faltered, refusing to step into the sight of such a barbaric foe and meet the same gruesome fate. Gloria noticed that the sounds of the scampering rats around her had stopped and her disdainful grin widened.
It seemed that none of the assassins were willing to approach after watching one of their own dangle upon their enemy's tail as she brutally killed them without the slightest hint of mercy.
However, from within the smoke one set of footsteps began echoing out around Gloria.
Gloria's smile dropped before she readied herself for the coming fight, surely whoever was approaching would be quite strong since they had such confidence in their abilities and judging by the sound each step made, the challenger was quite large.
Like a veil being lifted the smoke dispersed around the form of a large man, dressed in little clothing but a thick loincloth made from the fur of some animal. He was one of the most muscular men Gloria had ever seen, with red tribal tattoos atop those muscles. Despite his body looking as if Michelangelo had carved it himself, his face ruined such notions as he was horrendously ugly. In his hand was a giant, but rather crude looking axe.
Disgusting... A barbarian. Gloria grimaced, immediately recognising the race of the man in front of her.
Within Galdrash there were many variations of humans, to the point some called them the goblins of the civilised world. It came to the point that some theorised that almost all humanoid beings shared ancestry with humans; though the evidence for this was not air-tight.
2 of the more famous races within this human variant category were the amazons and the barbarians. While they shared many similarities, such as their advanced strength, but dismal intelligence, they also differed greatly.
The amazons were descended from crossbreeding between humans and ogres, resulting in a mutation in which humans with the physical attributes of ogres (minus the horns) were born. The most peculiar factor of the amazonian race was that they were entirely women, but also that they only ever gave birth to more amazonians.
On the other hand, barbarians descended from crossbreeding between humans and orcs. They similarly were born with exceptional strength and low intelligence, but also kept some other undesirable traits: Mainly the orc's libido and temper. This made them incredibly violent and a race that most tended to avoid, as opposed to the amazonians who were mostly welcome everywhere - though many treated them condescendingly. Like amazons, barbarians only gave birth to barbarians, who (like the orcs) were an all male race.
Ultimately, the barbarians were vastly hated throughout Galdrash for their violent temper and their tendency to kidnap women in order to forcibly reproduce.
"Well lookie here!" The barbarian called out, staring at the curves of Gloria's armour with lascivious intent.
Ugh... They really will fuck anything. Gloria thought, controlling the urge to cut him to pieces; she did take a moment to take a look at his level.
[Brak (49) (NPC)]
49, and probably has the brute class or something similar. Won't be too hard then. Gloria began forming a strategy in her mind, considering the best way to kill her enemy; even with her handicaps. They're always making the idiot angry.
"Why'd they send the idiot to deal with me?" Gloria mocked, hoping to take advantage of the barbarian's short temper, "Couldn't even spare me a real assassin?"
As Gloria laughed, she thought she could see steam coming from Brak's ears as he began to turn red and tremble in rage.
"GAAAARRH!" Eventually, he could no longer control himself and ran forward, raising his axe up high in order to attack Gloria. Light began gathering, both around Brak and his weapon, ready to strike.
That was easier than I thought it would be. Gloria thought. She then moved swiftly to his left, easily evading the obvious frontal attack - but as her axe swung and made contact, nothing happened.
Gloria's attack didn't even bounce off as if repelled; instead her axe just slowed as it approached Brak's body until her attack became a meagre tap against his rock-hard muscles. Her attack did literally nothing.
As she was shocked by not even scratching Brak, she was unable to evade as his fist swung around into her face. With the attack, Gloria's feet left the ground, throwing her through the air until she landed and rolled through the mud of the ground.
What the hell was that?! Gloria panicked, but had no time to consider as Brak's foot stomped towards her head, having closed the distance between them in less than a second.
Brak barely looked different, the only indication of what was occurring was the light silver glow of a skill surrounding Brak's body and weapon; but Gloria had never known a barbarian to have a skill like this. Typically, they abandoned any form of defence, focusing all their energy towards attack - but this monster seemed to have found a way to do both.
Brak was currently using [Kinetic Barrier]. It was a thin barrier that surrounded his entire body and anything he was touching that dispersed the kinetic energy of anything approaching him, but more than that he could direct the energy in the form of an attack.
The thing is, Brak didn't even know he had the skill. Even for a barbarian he was especially idiotic and any slight provocation was enough to send him into a blind rage. Without this skill he wasn't even an average member of the barbarian clan. He hadn't even gained the skill as a result of his own merit: It was purely accidental. A few months after being exiled from his clan, Brak had wandered into a ruin and found an S-rank skill scroll after falling through a wall.
Following this, Brak won fight after fight and his ego skyrocketed despite him having absolutely no real combat skill. [Kinetic Barrier] was passive so Brak didn't even know he was using it when he did, but it allowed his defence to be near impenetrable, but also massively boost his attacks through only his will.
How the hell do I win this?! Gloria thought, dodging another attack as Brak's fist caused the ground to fracture.
Not only was this monster extremely powerful, but she had to protect the sack she was carrying or risk killing the baron. Gloria had realised that whatever was covering Brak's body was a skill; but even after dodging around for 5 minutes, it did not disperse, so her initial plan had been thwarted. Unfortunately, she had no more plans following that.
Gloria jumped back, creating distance and activated her skill [Incompetent Strike], hoping that simply increasing her damage would be able to push past the barrier.
As before, Brak charged with wild abandon allowing for Gloria to set up a perfect attack. The moment he entered range, Gloria swung with as much power as her arm could manage, the empowered axe quickly coming into contact with Brak's barrier. Like before, Gloria noticed her force reduce significantly. Thankfully, she managed to do some damage, having enough kinetic energy to pass through the barrier: A single cut.
It didn't even stop Brak as his own axe swung down towards Gloria's skull. She quickly side stepped, but it was not enough to evade all coming damage as a large cut now ran down her arm, dark blood seeping from within. But this damage was of no concern as Gloria's eyes widened in glee.
Got you! Gloria giggled, uncharacteristically, within her mind.
Gloria did not try to create distance this time and allowed Brak to turn and punch towards Gloria's face. Again, Brak failed to hit, but this is exactly what Gloria had planned and wanted. She activated [Corrosive Flurry] for the extra damage and executed an attack, mere milliseconds after Brak attacked and as she expected the attack hardly slowed at all. Gloria's grin grew wider as blood flew from the wound, the edge of the wound turning grey as [Corrosive Flurry] took total effect.
"GRAAAAAHH!" Brak screamed in pain he hadn't felt in years, some clarity returning to his eyes before they were once again clouded by rage. His ego damaged even further at the perceived attack on his skill.
Gloria could see Brak's train of thought like she was observing him under a microscope and to rub it in further she began to laugh mockingly. Gloria would not typically act this way, her stoic demeanour having been eroded away by her momentary fear at being unable to accomplish her master's orders.
Brak turned, another light covering his axe as he activated a skill; but in his rage he could not act rationally and Gloria easily evaded the attack, once again slashing into Brak's side, before the ripple of Brak's attack pushed her away from his body.
Gloria landed easily and rushed back at Brak; baiting the barbarian into attacking again before avoiding it and pushing her axe blade into his chest.
This dance continued until [Incompetent Strike]'s cooldown ended and Gloria activated it with the final seconds remaining on [Corrosive Flurry].
Brak was still fighting strong, having activated a berserk-type skill to ignore the pain [Corrosive Flurry] was doing to his body; though it did nothing to hide the disgusting image he had become. Black blood oozing from each of his wounds and his skin turning a sickly grey colour.
"Goodbye dumbass." Gloria sneered as she evaded another punch and her axe ran through Brak's torso. His angered face contorted in pain before returning to rage in his last moments; the upper half of his body falling to the ground moment later, black blood seeping from both ends.
Consistent to the end. Gloria thought, looking down at 2 pieces of Brak; she then looked around, as if peering deep into the smoke.
All the assassins within the smoke were shocked beyond belief.
They held no respect or admiration for the idiot - in most cases they truly hated him - but nonetheless it was still shocking to see him die. Even at his low level, his skill was enough to destroy enemies almost double his level. For this woman to have defeated him, and with such a clear advantage was absolutely horrifying. But it changed nothing.
They knew the consequences of stopping here, what their employer would do to them. Failing was bad enough, but fleeing was even worse.
What followed was a bloodbath as Gloria’s axe ran through body after body, her tail whipping through the skulls of dozens of assassins.
Gloria thought back to her time in her home realm. Fighting against impossible odds for what is important, the blood flowing around her like rivers being a familiar sight that brought both great and horrible memories.
Gloria’s grin widened as she pierced through another assassin.
This time will be different.