Chapter 272

“Now let’s do this shit,” Brance said as he tried removing his finger from Gabby’s lips, but as he did, Gabby caught his arm, pulled him into her, and planted a kiss on his lips while giggling.

“You little, Selene is such a bad influence on you!” Drawing back from Gabby, Brance grumbled and shook his head.

“Hehe, how do you know it was Selly’s influence and not Big Bro Cyn?” Gabby said gleefully, still in shock that she had been so bold as to make a move.

“Tsk, because my brother isn’t nearly that affectionate, it would be some kind of grope or ass smack.” Brance snorted as he double-checked that the Mana Costs for sustaining the Tower had been transferred to the Pseudo-Codex. After glancing at his resource stat bar and noticing only his Stamina was slowly dropping, he nodded and handed the make-shift shortsword to Gabby.

Brance had broken the already half of a broomstick further, making it into a size that she could easily wield. His reasoning was simple, this would be a real battle, and unlike Benny and himself, who were accustomed to using longer and heavier weapons, Gabby had been trained by both Selene and Cynrik in the art of using a Shortsword or Dagger.

Upon receiving her reinforced weapon, Gabby expertly spun it in the same way she had seen Cynrik do a million times and tucked it into the sheath she had been using for her own secondary weapon, a long dagger, which was a gift from Selene on her most recent birthday. However, she was still acting a bit absent-minded and was trying her best not to feel her lips and hide the blush turning her face tomato red.

“Gabby, lock it up; now isn’t the time to be distracted; I need you focused; we can talk about the other thing later, but right now, we are about to enter a life or death battle.” Holding the broken piece of broomstick with one hand, Brance forced as much Light and Terra Mana into it as the tool could handle, turning it into a make-shift kite shield large enough to cover his forearm. Although it wasn’t great, it could still block a handful of strikes from the Early Tier-3 enemies.

Equipping the shoddy Elemental shield into the slot open on his left arm, Brance pulled the Greatsword off his back and tossed it up several times before executing a couple of slashes.

“Get ready; I am moving us now. [Vanish] is absolutely useless against them and will only hide us from Mid Tier-2 or lower, so hit the ground running. Be prepared for the sudden assault and keep on the move; I will try and pull their attention while you get into a favorable position. There is no telling how high these guys’ stats are, but the second we get in, our Stats will be buffed by 20%, and theirs negged by 20%, so try testing the waters with [Confusion].”

“If we can throw them off their game, we have a better shot at cleaning them up quickly.” Looking away from the monitor, where the two men were creeping around the dark room looking for anything to use to get their baring, Brance told Gabby his half-formed plan.

“Don’t worry, my [Confusion] is at Tier-2.5 now, so it should land the Status Effect, providing their MIND isn’t too high and they don’t have any equipment to block it.” Gabby’s eyes narrowed as she examined the gear on both the men.

“It looks like we are dealing with a Swordsman and a Mage. I will go after the Mage first since he’s squishy, but if that Swordsman is quick on his feet, I can’t guarantee I make it to the Mage in time.” Drawing the weapon on her back out of the sheath, Gabby spun it around in her right hand and held it in a reverse grip. Since the length was between a dagger and a shortsword, and Brance had matched her forearms size, it fit perfectly against her arm, almost flush with her skin.

“Ha, don’t worry about that; they are in the dark right now; the second we teleport, keep your eyes closed for exactly 2 seconds.” With that said, Brance closed his eyes and readied up his trump card; there was a very good reason why there were no windows on the 2nd floor.

Seeing Brance close his eyes, Gabby followed suit, and reached out, caught the cuff of her boyfriend’s sleeve, and gave it a sharp tug, indicating she was ready.

Fwoosh.

Half a second later, the Command Center fell utterly silent as Gabby and Brance teleported to the 2nd floor. Unknown to them, the moment they left, a certain monochromatic transparent AI appeared in their place, extended her hand over the command column, and turned back on the Screens. Brance wasn’t aware, but someone had to always be present at the column unless it was running on self-sufficient mode, and that’s where Tobs came in.

Since the CSH recognized her as the official AI for both Brance, Selene, and Cynrik, she had full authorization to assist with their skills, and the [Radiant Tower] was no different. With her present, the Tower could run efficiently and not quickly burn through the resources Brance had left behind.

—

-You have received a 20% Stat buff to all of your non-hidden stats.-

-Two Targeted Enemies have received a 20% Debuff to all non-hidden stats.-

Touching down silently in the center of the arena, Brance kept his eyes tightly shut and activated his trump card, which had been charging. First, Brance extended both his arms out and activated two Light Affinity Skills, [Glint] and [FlashBang], hurling the grenade in the approximate direction of the enemies and firing the [Glint] straight up above his head. Once the grenade left his hand, he tapped Gabby on the shoulder, just for good measure and to ensure his Paladin Skill, [Devotion’s Halo], was in effect, allowing for a 5% damage reduction.

SHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEE

BOOOOOOOOM

“AHHH, MY EYES!”

“WHAT THE FUCK DAMN IT, THEY’RE HERE!

-You have inflicted (Blind) on Marristal Kain. The effects will last for 30 seconds-

-You have failed to inflict (Blind) on Hodger Pasil wholly. The effects will last for 15 seconds.-

The two men’s screams were the signal making Gabby and Brance move into action, snapping their eyes open and locating their targets. Both men were ten meters away on the far left side of the cobblestone tiled arena, rubbing their eyes furiously and trying to get their bearings.

Holding his shield up and raising up his Greatsword onto his shoulder, Brance kicked off the ground as quietly as possible, propelling himself forward and casting Haste on himself and Gabby, increasing their speed further.

Brance and Gabby separated as they arrived before their targets, with Brance delivering a powerful rolling body kick into his target’s stomach, silencing his angry yelling, depriving him of oxygen in his lungs, and catapulting him across the arena into the far wall with a loud BOOM!

Gabby, arriving half a beat after Brance attacked his target, lunged forward, kneeing the Mage in the stomach, using her forward momentum, and went to the ground with him. On the way down, she channeled an amethyst orb in her free hand, the [Confusion] skill, and slammed it right into the man’s temple. Unfortunately, the moment it made contact with his head, she received a notification that her attempt had failed, so she quickly changed her strategy and whipped her make-shift weapon forward, attempting to plunge it into his heart.

But the moment she did, the man shattered into particles and appeared five meters behind her, gasping for breath. Recognizing this skill as the Mage’s teleportation movement skill [Blink], Gabby kicked off the ground and chased after him before he could try casting any spells.

Meanwhile, Brance flashed to the Swordsman, brought up his Greatsword, gripping it with both hands, and used [Prominence Strike.] Instantly a ring of five replica illusionary copies of his weapon appeared before he brought it down right on the man’s chest.

CRACK BOOOOM

“FAHHH” Was all the man could say as he felt the front of his black plate armor cracking and folding in on his body from the force of the strike.

Without hesitation, Brance pulled back his sword, spun around, and delivered a head kick straight into the right side of the man’s jaw, forcing him out of the person-sized crater in the wall and skittering across the ground like a pebble on a pond.

Just as he was about to take off after the man, the whole Tower shook and suddenly heated up before a loud explosion rang out behind him. Watching in horror, Brance saw the motionless body of Gabby flung through the air and flying into the nearest wall a total of 15 meters away from his position, causing his heart to skip a beat. But instead of a bloody mess as he feared, the moment Gabby made contact with the wall, her body shattered into Amethyst light.

Looking away because he knew it was only a construct, Brance stomped the ground hard enough to kick up some splintered stone and dashed after the Swordsman, who was struggling to get back to his feet while tearing off his dented helmet and chest armor.

The man had just enough time to notice the movement of a blurry figure surging towards him before Brance again slammed into him, using his shield and executing a perfect [Shield Bash]. Unfortunately, as the man was once again airborne, he spun, drawing his sword, and used the wall as a springboard to charge forward at Brance.

Bringing up his Katana-look-a-like, he tried stabbing forward but only made contact with Brance’s make-shift shield, generating a loud crashing sound and bathing them both in sparks and chunks of rocks. Bouncing off the shield, the Swordsman flipped through the air and rushed forward again, entering into a back and forth with Brance, who was finding it challenging to keep up with the flurry of swift attacks.

While this was going on, Gabby was running circles around the flustered Mage, who kept firing small [Fireballs] without any success. His vision had already come back since he only had a 15-second (Blind) status effect. The one attack he was sure had landed only ended up dealing with a replica, and with how fast this little girl was moving, it was nearly impossible for him to land a single target skill on her. Even with the few tracking skills like [Firebolt], Gabby found a way to dodge or counter at the final second of impact.

Staying low to the ground, Gabby was rapid-fire summoning Replicas in an attempt to confuse her enemy, but no sooner than did she make one was it blown up, leaving her feeling helpless.

‘Faster, I need to move faster, just like Big Bro Cyn.’ Gabby thought to herself as she began stacking up multiple instances of her [Longstrider] skill, with each one giving her an additional 5% in her AGI stat. Running so low to the ground that she could easily touch it, Gabby began dropping tiny seeds in a ring around her opponent. She was setting up a trap even as she was fighting a Fire Mage; however, to her dismay, he quickly caught on. Between destroying her replicas and trying to control her movement, he began to lash out at the poor tiny sprouts trying to emerge from the ground.

With each step she took, she could feel her muscles straining as her AGI stat increased too fast for her body to handle. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain, Gabby stutter-stepped and bolted right toward the Fire Mage, suddenly appearing like a shadow, and plunged her blade towards his chest.

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