Chapter 44

The Hunt is Going Well

「Combo Attack! Combo Attack! Combo Attack! 」

So far, she was building up power from the combo like the fight earlier. The only difference is she added one more Combo Attack to have a bit more power.

Then―

「Shockwave! Wide Attack! Wide Slash! Broad Slash!」

She activated four AoE Skills in succession that hit all three monsters at once. Powerful Skills have this thing called a cooldown. Once they’re activated you’d have to wait for the Skill to come off cooldown before you can use them again.

And AoE Skills have long cooldowns. Combo Attack has a cooldown of 0.3 seconds. Among her multi-target Skills, Wide Attack has the shortest cooldown but even then it’s about ten seconds.

So when facing multiple enemies, you need to learn a few powerful AoE Skills and use them in succession alternately. Activating Skills at the right timing when unleashing a combo is actually difficult. In BBO, players would practice to get the timing down perfectly. If you’re too fast in activating the next Skill, your weapon might not be able to keep up, and if you’re too slow, the opening you create becomes wider.

But Mylia was able to pull it off on the first try. I knew she had a good battle sense. Her movements are still a bit unrefined, but I can more than compensate for that.

「Once we take down the rest, let’s go for a whole group next! If your AoE Skills hit all of them, you can slay them with the same combo.」

「All right!」

AoE Skills don’t lose much power even if the number of enemies increased. Basically you can kill ten monsters with the same amount of mana you’d use in killing two monsters. If you master your AoE Skills, it’ll be way more efficient than taking monsters one at a time over and over.

Still, the burden on the tank increases with more enemies and it gets harder to hit all of them with AoE Skills. When against six monsters, some technique is necessary. But from what I’ve seen from Mylia, I think she can handle it.

「Let’s head into the forest, then.」

「So it’s time we enter the Forest of Death…」

We’ve only been fighting monsters right at the edge of the forest and it seems we’ve pretty much killed them all. If we want to hunt some more, we’ll have to enter the Forest of Death.

「Just keep doing what you’ve done so far. I’ll go around so you don’t get flanked from behind and you do your thing.」

「…Roger that.」

A tinge of nervousness flicked across her face. I couldn’t blame her. She just had her first battle with her new Skill Tree and we were about to head into the Forest of Death. But she wasn’t tensing up. She should be able to fight.

I led the way to the safe route, along the cliff and stepped into the forest.

「There’s our first target, six of them.」

「Roger that!」

I baited all of the monsters and used critical counters and spells to restrict their movements. From there, Mylia rushed behind them and attacked.

「Combo Attack, Combo Attack, Combo Attack, Shockwave, Wide Attack, Wide Slash, Broad Slash!」

It was smoother than the previous one. The total time it took to unleash her full combo was one second less than before. She got the timing down perfectly as well.

「Wow… and this is only your second time. Your battle sense is incredible.」

I put the monsters we killed in my Magic Storage. Monsters in the Forest of Death are apparently valuable both for achievements and as a commodity.

「I don’t know what to feel about that coming from you… I don’t think I can ever send a Blood Tiger flying by simply striking its claws.」

「Nothing to do with sense. It’s a result of countless hours of practice.」

「Fifteen years old and you’re that good? If that’s a product of practice then you must’ve trained a hundred hours a day.」

For the record, this world only has twenty hours per day, much like in my previous life. I was about to answer her when the next group of monsters was getting closer.

「On to the next one. Are you ready?」

「You bet I am!」

Approximately one hour later.

Mylia was taking on seven enemies at once when she screwed up.

「Combo Attack, Combo Attack, Combo Attack, Shockwave, Wide Attack, Wide Sla― wha?!」

She tried to use Wide Slash just a tad sooner. After the previous Skills Recovery Time, you need to wait a bit before using your next Skill. If you miscalculate that time, the Skill won’t activate. It’s one of the common mistakes a Hero makes when they get a bit used to their Skill Combo.

「Wide Slash! Broad Slash!」

Panicking, she tried to use the next two Skills in her combo but with the combo broken, they didn’t pack enough power to kill the monsters. There’s actually a way to salvage this kind of situation… but I think it would be difficult for her.