The sound of swords cutting flesh, and the sound of heads being ripped off by monsters could be heard, and the smell of blood and gore filled everywhere, this place could have been said to be a battlefield, except the battle was between just twelve Hunters and a horde of monsters, so it could almost be said to be a one-sided massacre.
"Retreat!" The voice of Mr. Jack could be heard calling out to the rest of the Hunters, as the monsters were just too many and couldn't be dealt with head-on by just a couple of Hunters; that would be suicide. If they were going to win this thing, they needed a solid plan and fast. "Everyone, head towards that cave." Mr Jack shouted as he pointed towards a cave a couple of feet away from where they were fighting.
The rest of the Hunters yielded his call and started running toward the cave while still fending off the monsters.
"Ah! No, no!" A Hunter screamed as he was dragged by a monster while running before being torn to pieces by its mates.
"Don't look back; keep going; we're almost there," Jack shouted to his teammates as some of them stopped to help their fallen friend.
The death of another teammate was very painful to Jack, but it couldn't be helped now, as the monsters were just too many so they needed to get to safety, or else it wouldn't just be a few Hunters dying here today, it would be all of them, and Jack didn't plan on dying or losing all his friends to a C-rank gate.
"Get in, get in!"
They all rushed into the cave as fast as they could, each bending to catch their breaths as soon as they entered.
"You, come over here, quick!"
"Roll this stone with me."
Sir Jack and the other Hunter rolled the stone to block off the mouth of the cave against the monsters, and only until this was done did Jack take a breather.
Sir Jack looked around and could see that the number of his crew had reduced, so he decided to do a head count.
"Darren?"
"Present."
"Cole?"
"Present."
"Jane?"
"Present."
It went on like this until the names of the surviving people and the names of the fallen ones were confirmed.
"Four." Jack punched the wall as he couldn't control his anger. He had lost four people today, including that of the young Hunter who signed a contract with him today.
"How was this possible?" Jack couldn't understand why it was like this. This was supposed to be a C-rank gate, yet the monsters in it were a lot stronger than C-rank monsters.
"Or was there a glitch in the measuring device when measuring the energy of the gate?"
Different questions kept running through his mind, as he couldn't quite lay his hands on what was wrong.
"Sir Jack, what do we do now?"
"We need a battle plan, or more like an escape plan, but because there is no leaving this place without killing those things outside, we have no choice."
"So, what do you say, sir?"
"Give me a moment, and I'll let you know."
"In the meantime, you guys should recover your energy, and prepare for the next battle, and if you have any idea on how to deal with those things, inform me, okay?"
"Ok, sir Jack."
"Ok," Jack said as he turned around and found a place to sit while he tried to develop a strategy to take care of the monsters.
***
Outside the cave.
Amidst the dead bodies of monsters and Hunters alike strewn all about, a lone youth could be seen battling an entire horde of monsters spilling out lava from their mouths, although the monsters were many and there was just the young youth, he didn't seem bothered, as he easily waved and dodge their attacks while slicing and dicing them into different shapes.
Friing!
A certain dagger, made weird noises, as it flew about in the air, sliding off the heads of monsters, who fell with confusion written on thier faces, as they couldn't understand what killed them.
The dagger sliced off one more head, and came to stop in the hands of this young man.
Of Course, this youth was none other than the supposedly dead Hal Rodgraim.
When the fight broke out, and everyone was busy saving their a**es, Hal had simply stood in a corner and watched everything going on, not interacting in the battle, as per the terms of his agreement with the Hunters guild, but when things went south and everyone started running away he was left behind, as he was on a different side of the battlefield, hence his current situation.
'Knee.'
'Waist.'
'Left shoulder.'
Hal kept fighting as he easily reduced the number of the monsters.
"Well, this hasn't been a futile endeavor, huh?"
He had leveled up three times and the number of monsters was still over fifty, so there was still a chance for him to level up one more time.
Hal ran forward a few steps, before sliding under a Pyrex and sliced open its belly, letting all the intestines drop out on the floor, he kicked off the floor and spun his dagger at the head of another monster, nailing it to the ground, he ran forward and removed the dagger.
[Skill sprint has been activated.]
With the activation of the skill 'sprint', Hal went through all the monsters, cutting and slicing off heads and limbs like a master chef. His dagger kept waving around as it killed the monsters with accurate precision, his footwork was mind blowing, his body never stopped moving, and the whole act was like a beautiful piece of art.
Anywhere he went on the battlefield, blood flowed, and bodies dropped; he was like a war god, ruling the battlefield; the monsters had no other choice but to kneel in death; to that overwhelming force, he was a terror!
Hal blitzed around the battlefield and sliced off the head of the last monster in a forward motion with his dagger held in reverse grip as he came to a stop, and with that, the skill sprint came to an end.
[Skill 'sprint' has ended. Wait for the cool-down time of 1 hour, before reusing.]
[Level up!]
[Title: "Supreme Solstice" has been acquired.]
[Gained 30 stat points.]
Hal watched as the reward for his fight, popped up and was pleased, but that wasn't what was on his mind right now.
It was the thought of him single-handedly killing over a hundred monsters and the fact that he did all that in just 15 minutes.
It was simply amazing.
If ever told once Upon a time that he would be able to achieve just half of that feat, he would have laughed hard at the person who said it, but here he was now, gradually climbing up the ladder of strength, gradually making and surpassing feats that would have once been impossible to him.
This strength was good for a change, but still, it was not good enough. If he wanted to have a stand in the world's power rankings, he needed to be stronger than this, as they were people who could easily take down the amount of monsters he had just defeated now with a single strike of theirs.
But now wasn't the time to think of all that now, was it? After all, he was growing far stronger and faster than any other Hunter out there, and that in itself was an edge.
"Now, time to check my rewards," Hal said with a smile on his face.
"Ahh, I even got a title this time around, wow, that's great."
"Let's see what we have here," Hal said as he concentrated his gaze on the Title bar, and a description for it came up.
[Title: Supreme Solstice: When faced against fire-type monsters, Agility, and Speed stats are increased by 10% and increased fire resistance of 30%.]
"Now, that's one hell of a title to have, huh?"
"Very beneficial. Good!"
"Now for the stat points."
"Status window."
A blue screen popped up in front of Hal, displaying all his stats and skill, this was the system interface of his status window.
Name: Hal Rodgraim
Level: 16
Class: C
Title: Supreme Solstice
HP: 350
LF: 18%
[Stat]
Strength: 40
Stamina: 25
Agility: 20
Speed: 28
Intelligence: 25
Perception: 20
(Available points to distribute: 30.)
"Ok. I'll add 5 points to each stat."
[Five points added to each stat.]
Name: Hal Rodgraim
Level: 16
Class: C
Title: Supreme Solstice
HP: 350
LF: 18%
[Stat]
Strength: 45
Stamina: 30
Agility: 25
Speed: 33
Intelligence: 30
Perception: 25
(Available points to distribute: 0)
"Good. Now that my stat has gone up by a good margin, I think it's time I faced the boss monster." Hal said as he raised his head to look at the Pyrex that was the boss monster of this dungeon.
"Scrrchh!" It let out a loud sound from the top of the volcano where it stood before it started running down at a blistering speed.
"Come on, you piece of rock, let's have it," Hal said as he summoned his daggers, before activating the skill 'Dash' and ran in to meet the monster; with hands behind his back, he left a trail of dust in his wake.