They all got on the carriage again, except this time, Ayva was distant from Micah. The knight has a distant sad look, however, they still continue to travel. For the rest of the journey, sir Micah stays silent after Ayva's refusal. Sometime it looks like he has something to think about, that constant vigilance was dropped due to his mood.
Was it any surprise that he misses the moment where they were ambushed?
At that moment, Ayva was staring out of the window, a bright light appears for a fragment of a moment, his eyes immediately widens.
Violently he kicked the carriage door open. The door flew through the air, landing somewhere in the distant forest. Their assailant was surprised by the act but not as surprised as when Ayva reacted faster than their magic, dragging the surprised Aeana and Micah out of the carriage.
However, that was all that he accomplishes. He was not fast enough to take the carriage driver too.
Ayva looks back with horror as a [Fireball] flies through the air and impacted the entire carriage. It hits the carriage and throws the driver into the air, burning him. Even if the fall was not enough to kill him, the third degree burn will.
A pit slowly forms in Ayva's heart, no matter how many time it is, he will never get used to it. Seeing a person die, even though it is a reality of war, is too much for a normal person like him. But not Micah and Aeana though.
Quickly, they form into group, taking their shield out to protect the momentarily downed Ayva.
Suddenly, Ayva remembers an important detail with the two knights holding up their shield. Because of his distrust, he has not given the duo any of his special items.
That mean, they won't have much time against a mage.
Ayva starts scanning the battlefield with his eyes. A mage, two archers and 3 swordsman and 2 pikeman.
It seems they have to travel in small group to avoid detection being so near to a big city.
Also, they were all human.
Human easily perish, it is just that those kind of enemies are the worst for Ayva's heart. He never got used to it. However, he looks at the charred corpse of the carriage driver, that could have been him. If they wouldn't hold back on their intent to kill him, why should he?
Punching himself in the guts, Ayva stood up from where he has fallen. Micah and Aeana was up before him, holding their stance. Ayva keeps punching his guts while yelling 'FOCUS' in his mind. 'It is you or them.'
The enemies this time was not as overwhelming as last time, however, this time, it was the enemies that has a mage. It was a mage that uses the signature [Fireball] too, cementing their status as a human wizard.
In game, Fireball was a unique player skill that does not appear on any of the NPC except for one. However, that NPC was killed so fast that Ayva has never seen it being used against his own avatar before.
In game, the enemies' signature fire skill is the [Fire Draw] that Eliza uses. However, Fire Draw was a pathetic damage skill in game, with very low damage.
However, Ayva has witnessed it firsthand before, Fire Draw offers control of fire, allowing Eliza to direct the direction of a fire. Fire in the real world is really dangerous, magic to make it even more so.
However, what about [Fireball] the objectively better Player only skill?
Ayva detects that something was wrong. This Fireball that causes an explosion was powerful, however, it was not as versatile as Fire Draw could. Was it because this is the real world and not a game and so something that was strong in game is not as good in real life or was it just Eliza that is special?
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Wiping away those useless thought, Ayva slaps himself again to psyche himself up.
He has to psyche himself up to kill other human.
Because the other side has a mage, he has to kill them first else they would kill Micah and Aeana.
Slowly, his hesitation disappears. His entire body felt cold. Ayva felt scared because of the strength that is flowing through his body, the intention to kill, his mindset.
At that moment, he was not Ayva anymore, but a different person. A person who will not hesitate about killing another human being, a person that will always win. Even though he is 'cursed' to not be able to hold back, every strike is decisive, there was not a hint of mercy or hesitation when Gungnir flies in the air with Ayva chasing it. He told himself that it was not him standing on the field, but [Evra], and [Evra] is a unit in game, [Evra] never hesitates.
And so Ayva doesn't hesitate, his mindset becomes closer to [Evra]. He activates [Strength], an adrenaline rush-like skill to push his performance and mentality even further. And so, when he throws Gungnir, it penetrates through the fire mage's torso.
Ayva was able to take a quick look of him before closing in
"Apprentice Wizard
HP: 500
Damage: 5
Hit: 1
Spell: Fireball, Lesser Magic Heal"
The Fire Mage was a lot stronger than the previous Bandit Archer. With Fireball alone, he was a threat to an entire party, and his HP is already triple that of an archer. Even with [Strength] activated, Ayva knows that he can't kill the Wizard in one hit, however, he has always had something he wanted to try.
The game was different with the real world, in game, an NPC only drop when their HP hits 0 and not before, however, in the real world, wounds stack on, and debilitate effects are lethal.
And so when his arms move on auto pilot, Ayva tries to aim at his chest and throat to see if there would be any different.
When he hits the wizard the second time, he feels resistance from his clothes even as the wizard chokes on his own blood. A transparent barrier appears in the air almost stopping this attack
'So this is why he has more HP' Ayva thought.
However with raw strength alone, he smashes through.
In the matter of HP, Ayva didn't deal enough to damage to kill him
[Evra attacks enemies Apprentice Wizard five times.
130 CRITICAL! 30]
It has only been two times, however, one of the wizard's guard was quick to react, he tries to block Ayva, but at that moment, Ayva was not Ayva. He was the inhuman [Evra] or so he told himself despite not activating [Lightning Reflex], and so he smashes through the guy's arm, crushing it through his steel gauntlet and brought his spear down on the wizard again, this time however, the attack was quite lack luster due to the interference
[13, 12, 12]
In total, he dealt [197] damage, not enough to kill the wizard outright. However, he aims for the throat and chest everytime, puncturing the guy's lungs and almost tearing out his throat.
In game term it was not enough to kill him, and true to that stat, the wizard was alive.
However, he was choking on his own blood. He has a tenacious will to live, however, he couldn't speak with his lungs filled with blood and his throat torn out.
The wizard wobbles in place, but he was just choking. Ayva immediately retreats from the the scene, dashing behind one of the trees near the road to avoid some arrow. When the swordsmen tried to chase him, he went around the trees to tie up their movement.
But the wizard has eventually succumb to his wound and that mean they are out of hope.