The dust settled with heavy tension, and before me, a familiar red-headed, rabbit-eared girl lay, eyes glancing up at me in shock and confusion as she held her bruised cheek. “You… hit me?”
I held up my Tungsten-Copper Gauntlet. She saw it immediately. Encrusted unto the material like glitter, tiny white particles that designed and decorated it. “Halite.”
“Ha…lite?”
“Commonly known as the mineral form of sodium chloride. Rock-salt.”
The halite on my gauntlets had been intentional, but the automatic counter was not. I had all but forgotten about my Mask of Janus having such an effect as immunity to flanking. I assumed it would simply nullify the damage I got when hit from behind, but that would not be accurate as it did not grant immunity to flanking damage, it granted immunity to flanking.
So, I cannot be attacked from behind… no matter what?
“Arol!”
Three black spines tore through the air. They should have been fast. I knew, that they should have been fast. Yet, they were almost moving in slow motion to my vision. I could not tell if it was because I had leveled up considerably, or if it was because of the speed-boost buff that had been applied, but it was child’s play to reach out with my left hand and smack them aside.
Wunder appeared at Arol’s side, and it was our second time meeting. Yet, for them, it was the first time we would cross paths. Now, in this timeline, the circumstances of our meeting were completely reversed. The hunters were now the hunted.
“I – I’m fine –”
“He hit you. How did he hit you?”
“His gauntlets – there’s… salt on his gauntlets.”
I clambered down from my mount, leisurely adjusting said gauntlets as I approached the downed Arol. Wunder, to my surprise, leaped in front of her, snarling at me. Was he protecting her? “Who are you?”
A flitter of amusement entered me. “You’re asking the wrong question.” I rose my right hand into the air. “Artillery,” I called. “Fire on the porcupine.”
“Arol! Move!”
The poltergeist melted into the earth just as the Copper Golem Artillery let loose with their coilguns. Heavy metal balls slammed into Wunder like rounds from an assault rifle, yet, to my utter fascination, despite the projectiles having no difficulty turning a giant cyclops to swiss cheese, the only thing they could do to Wunder was to impact large circular bruises on his him.
“Hah! If you think something like that is enough to hurt me –”
“P=F/A.”
Wunder stopped. “What?”
“The formula for pressure. Force divided by area of surface area on contact.” I pointed at his chest single finger. “While it’s easy to notice heavy projectiles slamming into your skin and doing no damage, it’s harder to notice when a small, sharp obsidian needle manages to be hidden underneath all those objects, and when this needle successfully breaks through.”
Wunder’s gaze went down. The small hole was difficult to notice. He scoffed. “So what? You managed to pierce my chest with a needle? Am I supposed to be impressed?”
“Considering the needle was poisoned, yes. You should be.” I made a show of looking at my wrist. “And the poison should start working right about…”
Wunder coughed. Blood dribbled from his lips and his eyes went bloodshot.
“Now.”
“You…” he coughed, blood pooling from his mouth as he dropped to one knee. “Who… who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, walking over to the kneeling Wunder. “You wouldn’t remember even if I told you.”
Grabbing his head with my hands I took a deep breath, and twisted. The crack echoed throughout the Fort. I let go and Wunder dropped to the floor, his head facing the opposite direction, his bloodshot eyes wide and in shock. Shock. As if he could not believe it, could not believe that he was, in fact, dead.
“I suppose one hundred years went by rather quickly, didn’t it?”
[You have slayed a Lieutenant of Fort Zyvar!]
[You slayed Wunder the Barbeast!]
[1,000,620 Experience Points Gained]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
[You have gained a level]
The notifications seemed to have almost no end to them. Dozens upon dozens, of levels gained in an instant. A million experience points, gained in an instant. I remembered, of course, that thanks to my Daily Task system, I was receiving double experience points for each kill, which meant that it was not that Wunder was worth a million experience, but somewhere around 500,000. That was still a ridiculous amount of experience to gain for killing one creature.
The title [Genocidal] has come into effect for the Species: [Barbeast].
[25 Genocide Points Earned]
[You have unlocked the suitable conditions for evolution.]
“WUNDER!”
Arol’s cry came, the poltergeist’s gaze landing on that of the dead Barbeast, and then going up to me. It took everything I had not to flinch from the amount of loathing I could see on her face. So much that it annoyed me. Irked me. I thought nightmares had no empathy? I thought they had a live and let live approach to such things? Was she not the very same person who claimed to enjoy pillaging and destruction?
Hypocrite. I thought, shaking my head. They’re all hypocrites.
“RRRAAAAAH!”
There were various smarter strategies she could have used. Hit-and-run tactics. Possessing the body of one of my golems. Using her sonic scream. There were dozens of other things she could have done that would have been a more viable tactic than a full-on, rage-fueled rush in my direction. A rage-fueled rush against someone who had already proven to have the foresight to come prepared with her major weakness.
“Sorry.”
I rose my right hand and focused on my most sure-fire skill, focused on changing it from diamond to something else.
“[Halite Bullet].”
The rock-salt bullet tore through the air with a crack. I side-stepped. Arol’s charge came to a dead stumble as she crashed into the
