Chapter 31 - Party Assault

Alex and Sheri came out of the portal and began moving towards their carriage.

"What will happen to those two?" Sheri asked Alex.

"We did hear the sound of the barriers being shattered. They will be fine, but it is very likely that we may need to fight them for using them as decoys." Alex replied.

Alex and Sheri returned back to the cart and caught up with Lucas who was standing there. Surprisingly, the Flame winged horse was not near the cart.

"It will be a bother to take all these thirty four dead bodies with us, so let's dig out their cores and fangs. We will take some of the flesh to sell to any restaurant and the remaining needs to be dumped away." Alex said and began extracting the core and fangs from the dead mana beasts.

When he was nearly finished with his work, two footsteps could be heard arriving towards him. Alex looked up and Thomas and Dirren walked out from the thickets.

Both of them had some minor injuries and more than half of their mana was already drained. Dirren had a scornful expression while Thomas's expression was much more vile and ferocious. Just a look in his eyes could tell Alex that he was hungry for blood.

"Bastard. You dare to use us to lure out the barrier hounds. Good! Very good! Since you have already done it, don't blame us for what is going to happen now." Dirren laughed in anger.

"I was really going to let you off if you had returned the girl back to me, but since you have already decided to offend me, you can leave all your belongings to me. Also I forgot to mention, leave your life as well." Thomas said as the expression on his face became even more twisted.

Without giving Alex any chance to answer, Thomas appeared before him and swung his sword with all his strength. Alex knew that it was useless to talk or give an explanation, not that he planned to in the first place.

Alex also didn't waste any time and drew out his sword. A new system notification appeared before him.

[New Mission : Party assault.]

[Mission description: The host's actions have enraged the two individuals Thomas and Dirren who seek the host's life to satisfy their bloodlust.

Survive their attack and make sure that they never cross paths with the host again.]

[Rewards: +400000 exp, 5 skill points, exp equal to thrice the cumulative damage dealt by host]

Alex had already decided to confront those two when he came in his own carriage, so this new mission was a welcomed addition , but he noticed something else.

The mission included making sure that they never crossed paths again, this meant that the system was indirectly encouraging him to kill them or at the very least cripple them to such an extent that they couldn't ever heal or recover.

But it was easier said than done. In the world full of magic, healing broken or cut off limbs was as common as healing minor injuries, so the only option was to put an end to them.

Before the two swords could touch each other, a spear came out of nowhere and collided with Thomas's attack. Even the aftermath of the collision left a small crater on the ground, but neither the spear, nor the sword moved an inch.

"Alex, he is tier 3 and you are still tier 1. Let me fight him." Sheri said while holding her spear in both her hands.

Alex knew that even if he could block the attack with his sword, he wouldn't have been able to take the impact. This wasn't an opponent that he could fight yet, so he had no other choice except switching his targets to Dirren who was also charging in on them.

Darren's speed was hindered by an injury on his ribs which he received when he was hit by the explosion that Thomas had created to blast the barrier apart.

[Name : Dirren Alion]

[Race : Human]

[Level : 75]

[Mana core : Yellow (68)]

[MP : 3600/6700]

[HP : 5264/12,780]

[Stats]

[Strength : 980]

[Agility : 900 ]

[Endurance : 1000]

[Intelligence: 600]

[Charisma: 620]

[Perception : 680]

[Status : severely injured (strength, agility and endurance have been reduced by 40% from the base stats.)]

Alex had known that Dirren was an augmenter who relied on mana for physical enhancements, so his MP was lower than his HP.

Dirren drew out his broadsword mid way and swung it towards Alex. An expression of pain was evident on his face as he swung the sword. Alex dodged sidewards and immediately stabbed his sword towards Darren's throat, but it was stopped midway by Darren's broadsword. Dirren grinned at Alex's futile attempt. He belonged to the berserk augmenter class which was more inclined towards augmenters, so close range combat was his forte and not to mention that there was a difference of an entire tier between him and his opponent.

But his grin didn't last very long and was replaced by a pained expression when he was suddenly covered by layers of black flames emerging from Alex's sword.

"Aaarrrrrrggghhh!!! You bastard. That hurts...." Dirren cursed out and immediately began circulating his mana crazily. A layer of mana appeared on his skin and the flames were put out, but the damage was already done.

Alex could see a series of debuffs on Dirren, whose expression only got worse. Dirren continued circulating his mana crazily, ignoring Alex's attacks. The flames had been extinguished, but no matter how hard he tried the debuffs on him didn't subside.

Alex continued attacking Dirren while taking advantage of his opponents attempts to dispel the debuffs. All of his attacks landed on the layer of mana covering Darren's body which reduced the impact and only small cuts and scratches were left, but it was working nonetheless. Alex had already drained one third of Darren's remaining HP and blood was flowing out from the multitude of cuts.

Since his attempts to dispel the strange weakening effect on himself were going in vain, Dirren decided to leave it be and kill Alex before doing that.

"Bastard! Where is your shame? I wasn't fighting back, still you continued to attack me. I haven't seen someone as debased as you in my entire life." Dirren roared in a self righteous tone.

" Don't be so self righteous. It's not my fault that your parents didn't teach you to concentrate on your opponents while fighting, so don't come crying to me if I attack you while you are playing with your mana. Even your parents would be disgusted by that look on your ugly face if you don't stop crying in such a self righteous tone." Alex retorted without an ounce of emotion in his voice. It was as if he was just stating some well known facts and his tone only worked to further enrage Dirren.

"You....You... son of a..." Dirren roared in anger and swung his broadsword. Alex dodged sidewards and cast a fireball at Darren's injured ribs as he pulled back.

Due to Darren's level being nearly double to that of Alex, the mana analysis was still in progress. So, Alex was unable to use his reverse mana effectively.

Alex had already tried the mana circulations of all the reverse mana that he had used before this and the one he used against the Rock Armadillos was the most effective on the layer of mana barrier covering Dirren.

The full might of a level 3 spell was unleashed and Dirren was thrown away from the explosion. Alex cast wind blades one after another until dozens of them were hovering in the air around him.

Dirren felt another wave of pain wash over him as his injury worsened. He struggled to get up on his feet.

Alex suddenly felt Dirren's aura change as his skin began turning red and emitting heat.

"You forced me to do this. Now pay for all your trickery." Dirren laughed and dashed towards Alex.

Alex stepped back, but Dirren followed him like a magnet. This was a level 3 berserk skill Raging rock.

Unlike Alex, using a skill that he hadn't mastered and which was beyond his current power level would definitely have a negative impact on Dirren, but he was blinded by rage, pain and hatred.

He had attacked Alex who was weaker than him, but even then, he was on the receiving end. This didn't sit right with Dirren and he decided to finish Alex without any care of consequences. He would become a laughing stock for the world if he couldn't even defeat a puny tier 1.

Alex was still able to find loops in Darren's attack because of his higher level of sword mastery, but he couldn't use it to his advantage.

The skill used by Dirren was capable of neglecting any damage below a certain threshold. No matter where Alex attacked, he wasn't able to leave even a scratch.

Seeing Alex's futile attacks, Dirren's confidence peaked and he began ignoring his defense completely and swung his sword at Alex.

Clank!

The sound of two swords clashing was heard and Alex was thrown away by the impact. Dirren began laughing hysterically as he continued to attack Alex.

Alex could see his own HP plummet drastically.

Faced with no other choice, he pulled back and launched a fireball in the air.

Due to the system rewards, he didn't want to do this, but the situation wasn't in his favour.

Dirren was alarmed at the signal and turned around. Seeing that Sheri was still fighting Thomas, he heaved a sigh of relief. He had seen the three of them fighting. Alex was only tier 1 and Lucas didn't know anything about fighting, only Sheri would be able to deal some damage to him, but she was already preoccupied.

Thinking that it was Alex's tactic to divert his attention, Dirren dashed towards Alex once again. Looking at Alex who had already ran away tens of meters away, his confidence in his theory grew.

Dirren began closing in on Alex, but suddenly the fireball that was launched in air came curving back towards his injured ribs.

Dirren knew that this was Alex's most destructive attack and the only attack that posed some threat to him, so he jumped sideways to dodge.

It was at this moment that an intense feeling of threat enveloped Dirren's senses and his spine chilled.

A stream of fire that was much stronger than Alex's fireball had ever been, hit Dirren from the other side.