Hydra was preparing to a.s.sault the group of [Gnolls] again however he had to be careful as they were all bunched up. He had no choice but to patiently wait to see what their next move was. This time they didn’t foolishly send one [Gnoll] to fight him while they surrounded him. Instead they sent two! Their ability to adjust to the situation was indeed plausible, cause they knew one wasn’t enough why not just add another one? Unfortunately their brain capacity was only able to think to there. They were not able to see just how strong their opponent was, after all they were just zombie like beings. They didn’t have a conscience anymore and were not able to determine a proper tactic even with their numbers.

As the two [Gnolls] one spear one dagger, with the dagger leading, they charged towards Hydra with no hesitation. But Hydra was in fact thrilled at such an opportunity. He would easily be able to handle two [Gnolls] effectively without taking any damage. The problem was dealing as much damage as soon as possible. However this was not a problem, instead on himself dealing damage why couldn’t he utilize the low brain capacity of the other party?

“[Shadow Arm]”

As Hydra called out the [Shadow Arm] from the [Dusk Glove] sprang out and attached itself onto the [Gnoll]. Unable to react in time the only result was the arm latching onto the skull of the [Gnoll] but it didn’t end there. Hydra swung his off-hand as hard as he could pull the [Gnoll] towards his kin. As they were both charging fast the spear wielding [Gnoll] was unable to react in time and thus charged straight into his kin!

The two collided and the dagger [Gnoll] was impaled. Hydra now knew it was his chance to kill them off while they were both tied up with each other. As Hydra drew his sword it was the spear wielding [Gnoll] that he targeted first. While the other was impaled it would be hard to react and if the spear [Gnoll] wanted to recover his weapon he would have to pull out the spear deeply imbedded in its kin’s body.

Slash!
Stab!

Constant swings of his sword left red cuts and particles hissed out of the wounds of the [Gnoll]. The only option available was hand combat but how could a feral scavenger know any useful martial arts? Especially when going against someone of Hydra’s caliber. Thus the only result was a punch in the air that completely missed Hydra that left the [Gnoll] wide open for retaliation.

The windows kept appearing until the only result was the complete destruction of the [Gnoll]. It didn’t stop there though. Hydra rushed to the remaining one, while glancing at group that had just finished surrounding him again.

‘I have to hurry!’

Hydra was panicking. They might not be intelligent but they aren’t stupid enough to easily let their target escape their encirclement a second time. Thus he swung with all his might even if it gave him an extra few milliseconds to fight off the encirclement that was enough. But it was then, that because Hydra was rushing just that little bit more that it happened. The [Gnoll] knowing full well that death awaited it, charged at Hydra but instead of trying to stab him it opened its arms to tackle him!

Hydra was unprepared to take such an attack and the [Gnoll] successfully grabbed unto him even though Hydra reacted as fast as he could. Toppled, Hydra fell onto the ground and unfortunately the [Gnoll] landed straight on top of him. Hydra reacted immediately, and started to stab constantly at the [Gnoll] on top on him. The health bar went down it was only at 75% when the rest of the [Gnolls] reacted.

‘Oh boy, this is not good.’

As Hydra impatiently kept stabbing at the [Gnoll] he could only stare as the remainder of the [Gnolls] got closer and closer. But as they started to charge a slight charge in the wind occurred. Just as Hydra had lost hope three arrow struck at three different [Gnolls] knees tumbling them in succession.

‘Irina!’

Hydra didn’t fail to notice that the arrows came from Irina. He somewhat cursed in his mind, he told her not to join the fight unless they knew for sure they could win! There might have been 2 already killed however there was still 10 monsters. And now that Irina joined the fray it was no doubt that [Gnolls] would be aggro’d to her.

“Irina! Get away!”

Before he could warn Irina, 4 [Gnolls] were already on their way to Irina. He called and roared for Irina to escape as his strength in his arm flexed he stabbed continuously until the [Gnoll] on top of him was dead. But there was still 3 [Gnolls] charging at him after 3 had fallen over and 4 had left to chase Irina! He was unable to dodge the three hits and took two spears and dagger straight onto his body.

The damage window appeared but he didn’t care. After taking the blows, he could only roll away as he jumped up into a standing position. But at this point the 3 [Gnolls] where were knocked down had already recovered. The situation looked better because it was now only 6 against 1, but Hydra was even more worried. He didn’t know much about [Archer] cla.s.ses but he knew it was dangerous for them to get into close combat with them. He wasn’t able to run past to aid her because now he iin between him and her were the 6 [Gnolls].

“d.a.m.nit!”

Hydra yelled as he charged straight to the already weakened [Gnolls]. Two of which were already dealt half their health. Hydra heightened his abilities to their extremes and dodged the incoming blades and spears by sliding on the ground. He jumped up and uppercutted the 50% health [Gnoll]. As the [Gnoll’s] body was thrown into the air he used [Shadow Arm], and before the [Gnoll] could even rise a foot off the ground it was grabbed and shoved headfirst into the ground! As [Gnoll] impacted with the ground a window popped up.

Hydra didn’t care though, it wouldn’t even have time to stand. Hydra didn’t allow any of the [Gnolls] to react and charge at him. He was already continuously stabbing the throat of the [Gnoll] and just as he did the particles flew everywhere until finally the entire body was nothing but particle dust.

At this moment Hydra, wasn’t thinking straight. His only concern was to kill these beasts and rush to Irina’s aid. It didn’t matter what happened in between, as long as the result was him protecting her, that was all that mattered. He rushed like a crazed madman towards the other [Gnoll] with 50% health and even as he was slightly cut and his own particles started to flow out he didn’t care. He had to win as soon as possible, his health? As long as he lived what did matter if it was 1000 or just 1.

The result of the low health [Gnoll] was the same as the ones before it, death. As it was now only 4 [Gnolls] left the barricade from him to Irina was softer.

‘If it’s now, I can get past.’

As Hydra was thinking, before his final thoughts lingered he had already rushed towards the remaining [Gnolls]. Although he didn’t care about his health, that didn’t mean he would take damage for no reason. If it was for the cause of escaping or killing another [Gnoll] he would take it, but now that wasn’t the case. As he once again used [Shadow Arm] he pulled the arm downwards and the [Gnoll] had no choice but to follow the arms motions. As the [Gnoll’s] head bent down, Hydra jumped onto its back and leaped over the other 3.

He has escaped but that was just the beginning! He was now already on his way towards the stalagmite. He couldn’t see Irina fighting but he knew the situation couldn’t be too good for her. Thus he tightened the muscles around his legs and flexed them as much as possible, bolting to her rescue.

But upon finally arriving, the situation was different from he imagined. In fact he was so dumbfounded he didn’t even know what to do any longer. He just stood there and watched as Irina, who was an archer, was now fighting in close combat with a green dagger. He has never seen her use the dagger before but upon seeing her fight, he knew that she knew exactly how to fight with it.

Out of the four [Gnolls] that had come to kill her, two were already dead and a third only had a few remaining health points until it perished. Then seeing Hydra, Irina happily called over while fighting.

“Are you done already? Just wait I haven’t stretched like this in a while give a few more seconds.”

Feeling like an imbecile for worrying, Hydra turned around and left. Somehow he was depressed that she had already killed nearly three [Gnolls] before was able. Although it can be said he killed 2 and the time it took to escape was a factor, however the two he killed were already low. This meant that she effectively was dealing more damage than him. As a man of pride, he could not allow that.

Now the situation instead of being a terrible situation filled with fright of Irina’s death, it was not a compet.i.tion to see who could kill their groups first. Naturally, Irina who only had 1 more after slaying the near dead one was the winner. But she didn’t brag and only watched patiently as Hydra finished the remaining [Gnolls]
—————————————-
“I seriously underestimated you.”

“Don’t worry we both been hiding stuff from one another. In fact I’ve been hiding more things from you than you have.”

“Ah don’t worry, if you don’t want to tell me that’s fine. I a.s.sume you have your reasons right?

“….Right”

As Hydra felt it was obvious that Irina didn’t want to talk about the information she knew, including about his cla.s.s, he wasn’t about to intrude on that and force her. But there was something he was severely curious about and could not help but ask.

“So, what cla.s.s are you? For you to have such skill in close combat you can’t simply be an archer?”

“ahah, I didn’t tell you? I’m a hidden cla.s.s [Wind a.s.sa.s.sin]”

“Huh?!”