A Bit of Awesomeness

Zombies surrounded Rin, but the bare-chested youth was unimpressed. He bolted over a couple of deadmen, taking advantage of his super light body, which weighed no more than twenty kg.

His mastery over the ability [Mana Cloak] let him move more freely and also deal damage which shouldn't be possible for him.

Shoving his sword into the skull of one zombie, Ulysses jerked his knee at another, fully airborne. Congratulatory messages came, but he was too busy with the massacre to take note of them. Luckily, his mana pool rose by a substantial amount after he absorbed most of the gems, leaving him unfettered to showcase a bit of his awesomeness.

Claws rammed at him from all directions as he blocked one, cut through one, and dodged one in the nick of time. There seemed to be no end to them. So he went back to assaulting their weak spot again, on the neck where he needed to put less effort into severing.

These deadmen had a superior physical constitution to normal humans, but their agility was questionable. Some of them were pretty fast, while a few were terribly slow, probably because of the way they died and involving the evolution gems.

The elements of speed and dexterity put them in various ranges of strength. Ulysses took care of the one, which seemed easier at first. He just severed the head of his third target when he noticed an arrow piercing one of the zombies at his right.

Even though Rin told the other two to stand and watch, they decided to help him. Well, Luke was half-arsing it by hiding behind a tree a couple of metres away, where the girl was outside the circle, where the zombies surrounded Rin. The way she was dealing with the zombies made him frown.

Elise was clearly careful, maybe a little too much. She dealt a blow and withdrew a step. When the Zombie approached her, she came back again, dealt a blow, and withdrew again as if she was doing a dance step. Whatever it was, it was definitely a cycle of inefficient work.

Sure, the girl looked frail, and couldn't seem like she could even deal with one of the zombies, but she had put down one deadman already.

Certainly, she had a certain level of strength, preferably more than Rin himself as well as the zombies. Or else, her way of attacking would never work. Well, mana made all of it possible, because even with her superior strength she would never have made it.

The machete in her arm was glowing with faint red light as she attacked. Luke was assisting her more than Rin, but he was not envious of that. Well, it's rather difficult to be envious of the archery that failed to kill even a single enemy.

Luke's aim was all over the place. He missed a couple, probably because the two of them were close by, but still, he was aiming at the deadmen all over the body.

"Aim at the head, boss," Rin shouted, climbing over one, before striking his sword against its neck. He ended its misery Black reddish goo bobbled out, but Rin had worse things to worry about, as a hammer of a claw was aimed at his head from behind.

Well, he couldn't see it, but his superhuman intuition was pretty sure that if he stayed there like that, he would be screwed. So he leapt, giving all the mana he could into the cloak, and in the next moment, he was two metres in the air.

Rin hadn't managed to use the weight reduction ability of the Mana Cloak that efficiently, but this time it worked fine. He barely needed any strength as he leapt higher.

When he came down, he swung his sword horizontally, aiming at whatever came his way. Blood sprayed, reddening his vision, and smearing all over him. Zombies screeched, leaping at him. Rin lunged at them too, ramming his sword that needed to be dealt with in close proximity.

"How are you doing that?" Luke shouted from behind.

"Of course with my awesomeness," Rin answered, evading the zombies' attacks.

"You can already use mana," Luke concluded, his voice a bit down.

"It seemed everyone can," Rin said, laughing, "everyone but you."

Luke snorted.

"Well, it's not that difficult," Rin said, leaping over the zombies to come at Luke. "All you have to do is: Trust the force, Luke."

Luke shook his head.

Without saying anything more, he seized the bow from his friend.

"Hey."

"You're wasting too many arrows," Rin said and took the arrow from the quiver on Luke's back.

After Rin withdrew from the middle of the conflict, a few of them engaged Elise, while three of them still came for Rin.

Rin aimed, focusing with one of his eyes, infusing whatever amount of mana he could work with. He shot as the arrow was released. It hurled through the course and pierced right into the left eye socket of one deadman. It penetrated right through the other side of the head as the zombie dropped dead.

[Congratulations! You have learned Archery.]

[Archery has reached Level 2.]

"Sweet," Rin said and aimed at the one next to it.

"Help Elise first," Luke said from beside him, his voice filled with worry.

Rin released the arrow first, which killed the one he aimed for. Then his eyes darted towards the young woman, running towards them, three more chasing after her.

Rin drew another arrow and shot, bursting into the head of one behind. Blood and disgusting blackish-brown goo sprayed in the air, and some of it stained Elise on the back.

"Oh boy," Luke grunted.

Rin shot again, killing the other two in the same fashion. He was ready to draw another arrow to find the quiver was empty. So he returned the bow to his friend. "You're better off being a mage."

Luke grunted and crept towards the teenage girl.

There was only a single one remaining. Rin drew his sword back and lunged at it. Within a couple of more swings, it fell dead on the ground.

"Huh, that settles it," Rin said, and found Elise vomiting on the side, while Luke was shaking his head next to her. "What's her deal?"

"She seemed to have some problem with blood," Luke answered, showing how much of the blood smeared on the poor girl after Rin started shooting. In one sentence, her clothes were ruined.

"She has Hemophobia or something?" Rin asked. "You should've told me that sooner."

Rin was similarly full of that disgusting blood, and worse, he was bare-chested. Disgusting stinking blood was stained on his chest, even his face wasn't that clean.

The Mana cloak was greatly efficient. However, whenever he disabled the ability, whatever was above it smeared on his body like it was a natural thing.

Rin got a dozen of notifications, most of them from the muted on the skills he wouldn't want to know about like Swordsmanship, Focus. Only the notification of dead enemies was worthwhile during a fight. There seemed to be some other notifications, too. He would check that in a minute.

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