Chapter 39 - XP, Sweet, Gory, XP

{NOW!} Giving the command, the brothers emerged from their positions and fell upon the targets nearest to them with a burst of speed. Even though several dozens of feet had opened up between them and their targets, Cynrik and Brance's AGI stats propelled them quickly to their destination.

Hidden by his ShadowVeil, Cynrik slammed down his arms, extending both hidden blades simultaneously, and kicked off the ground taking to the air a couple of meters behind his opponents. Hurtling through the air silently, his eyes locked onto the backs of the first two targets' heads, and with pinpoint accuracy, stabbed his blades clean into the backs of their skulls. Neither man knew what hit them as their worlds faded to darkness without a sound.

Using his forward momentum, Cynrik gripped the back of his backs of the now-dead opponent's heads and pushed their lifeless bodies forward before slamming them face-first into the ground, making a loud spat as their faces caved in. Just before he made contact with the ground, Cynrik flicked both wrists down, retracting his blades, and swiftly switched his Loadout to SOA. Then, landing on his toes quietly, in one fluid motion, he rolled forward while drawing SunFlare from its sheath in a reverse grip and slashed towards his third opponent just behind his kneecaps, severing both of his legs.

While Cynrik was dealing with his first two targets, Brance, who was only a few steps behind him, had jumped into the air as well. However, instead of a fancy assassination, he drew his Gladius and infused 20 points of Mana into it before using Wind Slash on his target, who just happened to be the man standing directly beside the person getting his legs cut off by Cynrik.

From right shoulder to left hip, Brances attack effortlessly tore through the man's torso before petering out of existence. Then, not bothered by what was about to happen, Brance dove through the two severed parts of the enemy, causing blood to drench his entire body as he tucked in and rolled upon impact with the dusty ground.

Just as Brance landed, Cynriks third target screamed in agony as he fell backward, flailing his stumpy shinless legs the whole way down, which in turn sent a shower of blood in every direction. When the shinless man impacted the ground, his eyes widened in terror as he watched a young boy stab him directly in his heart with a flaming sword. The final thing he saw was the ghastly grin on this child's blood-painted face…then darkness.

By that time, Cynrik had already deactivated ShadowVeil to conserve Mana for the duration of the Operation. Unfortunately, the little stunt with his sword had drained 30 MP; if you include the cost of keeping ShadowVeil Active, Cynrik was left with under 100 MP.

Thanks to Cynrik's third kill's scream, the remaining three hooded men were alerted to what was happening, but luck wasn't on their side.

Moving in sync, the brothers dashed forward to continue their massacre and attacked the second group of opponents. Letting Brance take the lead as they had rehearsed a thousand times in the HBTC, Cynrik fell in line behind his brother before reaching up and drawing ISS from over his shoulder. At the same time, Brance brought his shield up to just below his nose and, using it as a battering ram, slammed through the three remaining enemies, sending them all back like bowling pins being hit by a child-sized bowling ball. Although none of them fell over, they were all thrown off balance; taking this chance, Cynrik juked out from behind Brance and jumped into the air once again, hurtling himself towards the person to the group's right.

Twisting his body in the air like an acrobat, Cynrik lashed out with his right arm, which held his ISS targeting his new enemy's head. Seeing this, the man finally reacted, drew his sword out from his Inventory, and dodged the merciless child's attack.

A few meters away, while Cynrik was clashing with his opponent, Brance was in a 2v1 situation. The two remaining hooded men had finally recovered and were fighting back. One man was using a plain-looking black dagger to attack Brance's vital areas rapidly. In contrast, the remaining hooded man was so horrified by what he saw that he was muttering to himself in terror as he slowly backed away from combat.

Although the man was swiftly delivering attack after attack, it was within Brance's abilities to handle, and he casually deflected each one with his shield. Seeing this out of the corner of his eye Cynrik turned his full attention to the man he was fighting. Several cuts had appeared in the man's robe as they had gone through over ten rounds of combat. Unfortunately for the hooded man, he couldn't seem to land a single hit on the small demon of a child he was fighting, while the devil was able to hit him seemingly at will. While each cut was shallow and didn't cause much pain or damage, it was starting to add up, and he could feel his robe was now slick with blood. Seeing that his opponent was losing focus, Cynrik capitalized on this opportunity and lunged forward, using his ISS to deflect his sword, and thrusting his SunFlare directly into the man's eye socket.

As Cynrik was moving in for his kill shot, Brance had put several meters of distance between himself and his opponent. Then, twisting his body to the right and wrapping his shield in Wind Mana, he launched it directly at his target's neck, much in the same way a specific American-based comic book hero throws his shield. Completely caught off guard by the attack, the man stood there like an idiot as the shield hurtled towards him—Cynrik and Brance's attacks connected simultaneously. Cynrik had imbued his blade with his Fire Affinity at the last second, so upon connecting with the man's head, it burst into flames; unfortunately, the man had no idea what had hit him as he had died the instant his brain was pierced. While Brance's target's head was severed and he watched in horror as he floated away from his own body.

One minute thirty seconds was precisely how long it had taken for the siblings to eradicate a total of six people. Watching the events unfold covered in urine and feces, the final hooded man collapsed onto his butt. He started kicking at the ground in panic as the two demonic children turned at the same time and looked fiercely in his direction.

"Ah mannnn your guy died first, last ones all yours, brother," ignoring the coward on the ground in front of him, Cynrik spoke up in a dejected manner.

In Fact, Cynrik's opponent had actually died first, but he figured he would toss the last one to his brother anyway since it was apparent just how upset at the whole situation Brance was. That and he had already gained a higher kill count.

Arm still extended after throwing his shield. Brance gave a short nod in reply while swiftly bending his right arm towards his shoulder, using his Wind affinity to bring back his shield, and caught it before slowly stalking towards the final opponent.

To Cynrik, what he was watching was quite comical. Brance was only six years old, but this 6-year-old was covered from head to toe in the blood of his foes and carrying a shield that was bigger than his whole upper body. While Brance began to subjugate and torture the final opponent, Cynrik took this chance to check his gains. Whistling a little tune, he scrolled through several notifications from Tobs while the continuous sound of meat on shield became the accompaniment to his whistling.

-You have killed a Level 5 Human-

-You have obtained 200 XP-

-You have obtained 1 AGI point-

-Tier 0 Mana Codex located would you like to extract it Y/N-

-You Have Killed a Level 5 Human-

-You have Obtained 200 Essence-

-You have obtained 1 STR point-

-Tier 0 Mana Codex located would you like to extract it Y/N-

-You Have Killed a Level 5 Human-

-You have Obtained 200 Essence-

-You have obtained 1 MIND point-

-Tier 0 Mana Codex located would you like to extract it Y/N

-You have Killed a level 6 System Host-

-You have Obtained 300 Essence-

-You have obtained 2 DEX points

-Tier 1 Mana Codex located would you like to extract it Y/N-

-You have received 4 KIN points-

Scanning through the notifications, clicking yes on all the extraction requests, and checking his Stat panel, the blood-soaked Cynrik smiled gleefully, creating a very sinister appearance to anyone who would have seen it. "OI Hurry up so we can prep for the next group; I'm sure once they notice these guys missing, more will come," Cynrik said as he glanced around above him with Mana Sight.

Taking note of the mass of Mana Signatures congregating above him, Cynrik shifted his attention to his brother. The latter was still standing over the corpse of the final hooded person. {You good?} Even though Cynrik had known his question had an obvious answer, he found himself unable to stop it from entering their mind-link.

With a sigh for a response, Brance nodded while kneeling by the dismembered corpse, searching for something amongst the pile of body parts.. This sudden action caused Cynrik to tilt his head like a puppy as he hadn't realized what Brance was looking for.