"This is crazy! Flexy is able to defend against the barbarians' attack easily! He even snatched their weapons and returned Breeze's axe to boost the efficiency further!"
The stage was filled with excitement. Evelyn's voice turned louder and louder as she realized this would become the second time the world record would be broken today.
All the production crew was also taken by excitement. None of them moved their eyes away from the screen except for two people.
"How are his vitals, Doctor Ardi?"
"All green. It's pretty amazing, considering he has 98% SR. They can continue this even to the second round without any problem, Mr. Taka."
"That's good." Mr. Taka nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the screen.
Max decimated the enemies one by one. He jumped around inside the area swiftly, making his movement hard to predict. His job was to protect Flexy's back and take down enemies that his friend couldn't see by throwing weapons at them.
The progress bar had reached 57%. At the same time, the timer also reached the 40-minute mark. As long as they were inside the area all the time, getting subs 45 wasn't a dream.
"Get closer to the center! Your legs are about to touch the boundaries!" Max shouted at Flexy and punched the barbarian.
The enemy flinched a little, opening his defense. Using this chance, Max snatched the crude blade and slit his neck, killing the barbarian easily. The corpse rolled down before turning into bits of data, disappearing from the roof.
Following that, Max scanned the area and threw the sword at the barbarian, jumping at Flexy.
Swoosh!
It pierced his head cleanly and blew him away to the hole.
-- Headshot!
-- Phew! Triple kill!
-- He's rampaging! This Breeze knows no chill!
"Give me a minute! There are too many enemies here!" Flexy answered. He gripped a greatsword tightly to defend against the fury of attack from the other side. "Get away from me!"
His greatsword created an arc that left a silvery and red trail behind. Many barbarians were killed at once.
In the middle of the confusion, Flexy jumped back and met Max again in the center.
"Hey, is this just my imagination, or the enemies are way more than usual," Flexy asked as he kept defending himself from the barbarians' attack.
"It's not just your imagination. Because no one is aggroing the enemies outside the door, they returned and climbed the wall to reach us!"
Replying to Flexy's whining, Max kicked the barbarians near him. It caused a chain reaction and pushed the ones behind them into the hole.
"Just kick them or push them! There are too many of them to kill. Our goal is to stay inside the area and not massacre them!"
"Got it!"
Having a good understanding of the best strategy to survive, they discarded their weapons and began to punch and kick the enemies. Their armor was good enough to defend against the crude attack.
Usually, that wouldn't be the case. But the barbarians were also unable to attack at full strength without hitting their friends.
"They are now discarding their weapons! How dare they?" Evelyn asked with a confused expression, "However, it seems that they are doing better. How is that?"
"It's because their enemies have no space to swing their weapons," StoneSword answered.
"That means their attack is weaker than usual. And due to their large numbers, from what Breeze explained earlier, the best strategy is to push them and create a domino effect. Having weapons will just slow them down. It's a brilliant strategy."
"Hyahaaa!!!"
Noticing the loud noise that the barbarian made, Flexy's eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't avoid it without risking himself. His only choice was to get stabbed or jump toward the crowd of barbarians in a suicide attack.
99% was shown in the progress bar, and 44:42 was shown in the timer.
If he died, the run would end here. His mind was racing. The only way to dodge was to take that risky move. But if he did that...
'I might ruin the sub 45 run.'
-- What's he doing?! He will die!
-- Dodge, Flexy!
-- Just dodge, idiot!
Max noticed Flexy's predicament from afar but couldn't help because he was too busy. The only thing he could do was to shout.
"Jump!!"
Hearing his friend's voice, Flexy immediately moved into action. He threw himself toward the crowd of barbarians without hesitation and fell into the hole together with them. At his last moment, before disappearing, he gave a thumb up to Max.
44:54.
The last 1% was the longest. It was filled way before, and there were only a few seconds left. Max struggled to fight the remaining enemies alone. He just jumped around without even pushing, taking a lot of damage from the attacks he couldn't dodge.
And then, after a few seconds... The progress bar was filled up.
Ding ding ding!
Just like what happened in StoneSword and Lily's run, colorful papers began to rain down from the sky. The enemies stopped.
It was over.
-- HE DID IT!!
-- ANOTHER WORLD RECORD!
-- I WAS HERE!
-- POG BREEZE! GG
-- GG!
-- We can see Larissa again!! Uwooogghhh, Princesssssssss
-- Two world records broken in a few hours!! GG
-- Good job risking yourself, Flexy! You da best!
-- HE'S FCKING GOAT. No, he's the only GOAT!
The question was...
'Did I do it?'
Max didn't know his record time before the Princess announced it.