The frantically running group was swiftly drawing near with the monster hot in pursuit. Delvin motioned them to get behind him, much to the wonder of the survivors who thought he was here to guide them to shelter or bunker of sorts. A cursory glance was cast to his resources giving Del a clear idea of his current combat readiness.
HP: 112/112
Mana: 48/73 [+20]
Stamina: 54/112
'Good enough I guess.' Both his arms and legs were hurting from using Mana Infusion. Delvin wasn't given a moment to breathe and assess the aftereffects of the skill, and would just have to make do with his constricted muscles and their soreness. He cursed his non-existent Luck stat as the timing of the fight couldn't be worse.
Fortunately, the group quickly passed him by and he identified two teenagers, their potential parents and an elderly gentlemen who was being carried by one of the youths. They urged Delvin to run away with them, claiming the young female could slow the monster down with 'earth magic'; it would appear she was rather adept at wielding mana.
Much to the quintet's dismay, the man simply stood his ground while they cowardly made their way further and further away. After a bit of running, the apparent family was shocked by the scene some 200 meters away.
The brave(or stupid?) stranger was locked in a faceoff with the three heads taller behemoth. He was staring it down, trying to figure out the monster's mental state or weaknesses; at least that's what the quintet thought.
And their thinking wasn't far off. Delvin was scanning the mutant and remembering the movesets previously displayed by axe-types. With his diminished resources, blindly rushing into a fight would spell doom so he was coming up with a viable tactic that wouldn't end with him dying or worse, winning but being left with little-to-no resources to fend for himself if the quintet chose to try their chances at killing a fellow human.
The first thing Del noticed was a feint aura emanating from the mutant, indicative of its advancement to Tier 1. The aura of pressure was further strengthened by its lengthy axe adorned with a serrated edge, and further expanded upon by a suit of armour; if it could be called as such. A mismatch of scrap leather and metal plates was stitched together with some thick twines providing a degree of protection. Anyone willing to exploit the small holes cushioned between the plates would have to get up close and personal with the mutant.
Fighting in such close quarters was just what the mutant excelled at. With chaos raining supreme in those circumstances, the attacker would him or herself with no downtime to take advantage of those small opening in the armour all the while being pressure by the mutant's superior strength. That is if he or she lacked a well-timed and precise means of attack
And as fate would have it, the mutant would face a cybernetically augmented enemy with hyper-inflated AGI and superhuman accuracy with an equally deadly weapon to boot. Delvin hadn't forgotten to coat his spear in Plague Hopper venom and if things went south he was more than willing to prolong the fight.
Not that he wanted such a scenario as a flow of energy trickled from his body into an unfamiliar skill; it was time to take Warrior's Vigour out for a drive.
The distance between the two combatants remained at 20 meters while they continued observing one another. The band of survivors had split up, with the father-daughter duo returning to assist Del and the rest hiding a safe distance away. The man summoned a two-handed greatsword smudged with blood and adorned with cracks while the daughter paused and placed her hands to the ground, chanting in some unknown language.
'The father is using a mutant's weapon and the daughter is a mage, good. Looks like some people adapted better than others.' The monster seemed content with Delvin making the first move, but the android was more than satisfied with stalling it out for another dozen-or-so seconds. The father-daughter duo were slowly getting in position and his skill was working wonders.
Warrior's Vigour had proc'd five times already, giving Delvin a nice surprise when the increase in stats happened the moment the skill was activated. This meant the skill would consume five less stamina than he originally thought; an almost negligeable amount–but hey– beggars can't be choosers.
As another 10 seconds passed the man was next to Delvin with sword in hand, he signalled the daughter who had conjured 3 floating spike, all poised to break the status quo. But it was Delvin who broke it by throwing one of the many daggers freshly summoned by the inventory. His days of grinding the Throw skill were paying dividends as the first dagger caught the mutant by surprise, making it defend the torso with its forearm. The daughter's three earthen projectiles did little to no damage and were swiped away by the now-focused monster.
It tried to reach the group, but was interrupted by a second flying dagger, and then a third. Both failed to hit the mark, being easily swiped away by the now-focused monster; but they accomplished a separate task: keeping the monster busy.
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A swoosh and a squelch were what followed next as a fully-powered, mana infused Javelin Throw bludgeoned the mutant's upper body and sent it crashing for several meters. 'There really is no point in dragging this out anymore.'
While slow and steady did win the race, it did not win the sprint. Delvin deduced the mutant had some rudimentary level of intelligence, capable of thinking on its feet and making crude decisions. It had probably assumed the pitiful human was frozen in fear, unable to act after glimpsing the towering frame and savage-looking axe of its opponent.
'HAHAHA, puny human no power. Feast your eyes before die, HAHAHA!' Was the placeholder assumption on the mutant's inner monologue that Delvin came up with.
But all those arrogant notions were thrown out the window when the human launched a small missile, utterly shattering both the monster's arrogance and armour. The venom-covered spear penetrated deeply and lodged itself in between ribs, muscles and lungs. The wound bled profusely meaning venom successfully entered the bloodstream. Struggling to get its bearing, the mutant looked to be wide open, but Delvin was nothing if not cautious.
He opted to Inspect the monster before proceeding, giving him a full picture of just how serious the attack was.
[Mana-cracked Human] (Uncommon)
Level: 12 (Tier 1)
HP: ??? (Severe bleeding, Mild internal bleeding, Mild poison - Paralysis)
Highest stats: ???
The monster's conditions were severe to say the least. His estimates would put its remaining Health Points at 35%, but that number would drop quickly with all the debilitating debuffs plaguing it.
Just as Delvin was about to start his assault, the middle-aged gentleman suddenly yelled out, "Hey, wait! We'll take it on together, I can endure at least two full-blown attacks, and with the thing's current condition I doubt it can exert even half its original power; name's Davor by the way." The man's voice was just one expected from a man sporting a bald head and majestic full grown beard, though it was a bit shaky after having witnessed the stranger throw a literal missile.
The man, Davor, wore worn-down grey overalls above a blood-and-dirt stained tank top; evidence his group wasn't one to shy away from a fight. A series of tribal tatoos extended from the cap of his head down the neck and under the shoulders making him rather hard to miss.
All in all, Davor looked like someone who knew a thing or two about fighting long before even the S in System showed up on Earth. His attitude and general disposition gave him the vibe of a reliable partner, primed to guard your six.
"Okay then." He nodded to the tribesman, "You'll draw its aggro and keep it occupied shortly, I'll sneak to the side and try to retrieve my weapon; when I do, you fall back...don't want you dying with your family watching."
A heartened you got it was the man's response and the duo immediately sprung into action with Davor screaming at the monster, "Chaaargee!" Delvin tip toed around the periphery while being perplexed by Davor's action, 'Why yell out what move you were executing; do you want enemy to know in advance?'
The man's charge was met head on by the mutant's axe, now being held in its only good arm. Davor was perplexed by the sight of the monster, it had cleaved a car in two earlier today, yet now its entire left side lay in shambles; how high would his own STR have to get before scenes like this would be possible.
A large boulder suddenly flew over the jungle lot, colliding with the beast's head. His daughter's Soil Control skill wasn't rated Rare for the sake of display.
The mutant was lost and disoriented after the collision, and Delvin hastily swooped in from the undergrowth to dislodge his weapon. Davor pushed his assault and sliced the mutant with wide arching attack infused with some blue light. 'Is everyone in this family a prodigy of using mana?'
Not wanting to lose the exp bonus from killing the beast, Del told both of them to back off just in case.
He Swiped the mutant's chin and stabbed its gut, inducing even more poison into its already struggling bloodstream. A textbook duck under the mutant's axe put Del behind the monster, and he capitalized with an impressive 77% efficiency Slash.
Blood gushed forwards and the mutant fell over in strained breaths. It would die within minutes from blood loss and poisoning, but Delvin wanted to seal the ordeal before his original two companions decided to leech some experience off the kill. A simple stab through the back of the head marked the conclusion.
[You have slain Lvl.12 Mana-cracked Human (Uncommon)]
[You have received 35.5% exp]
[The following skills have levelled up: Mana Infusion, Throw, Sprint]
'Only 20% left.' The threshold of Tier 1 was looming ever closer and Delvin wanted to be the first to cross it. He was banking on there being an Achievement for doing so; one that would propel him from being an above-average newcomer to a budding and gifted prospect.
The axe was snatched by Del's inventory and seeing no other items of value he leisurely walked over to the silently talking father-daughter duo. It was a facade saying he was still in top shape after the encounter and wouldn't find it a problem to take them both down. In reality the pain coursing his body was getting overbearing and he couldn't move any faster even if he wanted to, there really was something wrong with Mana Infusion; no skill ever made Delvin want to crawl into a hole and call for his mother like this.
The pair finished their talk and Davor loudly instructed, "HONEY! Bring them out"
Before Delvin could ask when the tribesman meant he by that, the middle-aged woman brought out some ball-looking object from underneath her attire and gently placed it on the ground. The object shook violently before cracking and letting out a cloud of steam big enough to fit a building in it.
'They think they'll pull a fast one on me eh? No probl- Huh??' Our paraonid protagonist had assumed the mist was toxic and that the quintet had turned on him; but was quickly rebutted from that idea when a child exited the cloud.
"Bianca wait!" The voice belonged to the child's mother who was materialized from the cloud and was soon joined by dozens of others; all of them somehow coming out of an object the size of a basketball.
'More than fifty survivors...make that fifty two.' Was the final number when taking into account the two straggler soldiers.
Hannah and Joshiah eyed Delvin with bewilderment; it seemed he was a lightning rod for drama and confusion.