Why the hell not?

Thank you for the idea Joseph_Benton_8359

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With the Wretched Mother birthing another of its undead horrors at the edge of his vision, Slade slowly dragged his finger on the 

Falling into a small dilemma, Slade finally decided on the Slash skill when taking into account that he was more skilled with the blade than the shield.

That was probably due to the fact that he was involved with a large number of enemies while unarmed.

One would be surprised at how sturdy the leg of a chair was when it collided against someone's skull.

Taking those past experiences into account, Slade dragged his finger and finalized his decision of selecting the slash skill.

But as he did so, a lightbulb seemed to light up above his head

Mentally staring at the menu because of the idea, he recalled the wise words of his now deceased comrade.

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{} is now used for past memories

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{Slade, don't forget to keep an open mind}

{The heck you're talking about old man?}

{I'm not telling you to allow things like rape and murder in front of you, but I'm asking you to keep your mind flexible and to look at a problem from different perspectives.}

{No seriously, what are you talking about?}

{is the solution you're thinking of the best one for the situation? I'm telling you that it is not a good idea to accept the choice you are making is the only choice, think outside of the box for once and see if that solution is better than the previous one.}

{Old man, if you think saying wise shit will stop me from stopping your drinking addiction you are terribly wrong.}

{I'm asking you to keep an open mind}

The old man lying on his chair chuckled as the beer bottles were strewn around him, having been there for a small while, Slade had no doubts that his Liver was fighting for its life like a war torn veteran.

{So that's why, it's better to keep an open mind and stop me in a different way instead of taking away my drinks.}

Swirling the liquid within the glass bottle and downing it with ease, Slade seemed to think for a few moments before smirking.

{Fine Old man, I'll let you drink your life away.}

Moving out of the room, the old man smirked underneath the network of wrinkles covering his face.

{Hmph, good riddance.}

Downing the last beer bottle in his hand, he grinned as he thought about how great it was to spout bullshit all the time to the point the young soldier had given up.

That was until his expression shifted quickly at the beer alarm ringing within his abode rang out.

{You bastard!}

Hearing the beer alarm, the old man hurriedly got up from his seat to the laughter of the young man running off into the distance while carrying several beer baskets in his arms.

---

'...Probably not the best comparison but okay.'

Mentally noting how terrible yet how great of a teacher that man was, Slade moved on.

'This is reality.' Reminding himself of that fact, Slade looked upwards and the scroll wheel containing two different icons.

'Why do I have to be confined by the rules of a game bound by the bits and bytes which make it up when the world I live in is made up of more than bits and bytes?'

When comparing the confines of a game and the confines of reality, of course reality was much more free in its rules.

So to answer his thoughts of whether or not he should try to use both skills in tandem instead of just one of them, Slade had a thought.

'Why the hell not?'

Having those thoughts swirl through his head, Slade put off with his initial decision of slaying the wretched mother.

Moving to one of the previously cleared areas, Slade moved to an empty clearing where the mist was incredibly thick to the point that one could barely see a few feet in front of them.

Having already been adapted to the sight of his vision being confined to barely a few meters, Slade calmed his psyche down and performed a few breathing techniques.

Calming his heart beat to a constant 50 beats per minute, Slade closed his eyes and heightened his senses and his state of mind settled.

Repeating the mantra in his mind, Slade slowly spread his legs and got into a basic stance.

Slashing outwards, the flames trailed the blade in conjunction to [Slash's] Activation.

But as he did so, Slade could subtly feel a strange energy flowing back into his chest.

Repeating those actions for a few times, Slade pushed off the ground with a light stomp launching himself in a shield bash.

This time, instead of the strange feeling of something creeping into his chest, Slade instead felt that strange feeling seep out of it while being followed by the spike in heart beat.

Something he didn't really mind since his heart beat quickly returned to its previous state.

But nevertheless, since he already felt a distinct energy flitting in and out of his chest, Slade quietly smiled.

Changing skillsets, he began to use the Punish Skill.

As he did so, the strange energy slowly slipped into his body confirming his thoughts.

'It's exactly the same.'

As bursts of light in the form of a shield formed in the air when he pushed outwards, he realized the energy flowing into him was the energy that Crusaders called Wrath.

Slade instinctually realized a few things when the the fire in his chest seemed to swell with the influx of this Wrath as well.

Licking his lips, Slade moved.

Slamming his shield into the ground, he felt the energy channel out of his body, into the shield and into the ground to perform a Shield Bash.

Feeling the after effects of that, Slade widened his eyes in slight excitement as his heart beat seemed to spike at the sight to a steady 60 BPM.

Following that, Slade slashed outwards, igniting the air in front of him with an incredibly unstable flame.

If one would chance upon this sight and compared it to the sight when they saw Slade creating an inferno of flame around him they would feel confused.

Because the flame surrounding the edge of his blade was a far cry from the steady flame that scorched its enemies.

But nevertheless as he did so, Slade smiled like a child that had gotten to open their presents on Christmas Day.

Chuckling innocently, Slade slammed his shield outwards in the similar form of Punish in a not so innocent way.

But as he did so, he quickly followed it up with a weak flame reminiscent of Slash.

Following it up with a large Shield bash directed at the ground, Slade followed it up with a quick battle dance that tore through the air with an arc of flame.

It was a combination of skills that Slade had thought up in his brief time here amounting to no more than a few hours.

Heart now racing much faster than before at a base 100 bpm, Slade continued.

Punishing first to fling enemies off, Slashing later to cut off balance enemies, shield bash the ground to make enemies around him prone followed by a whirlwind of fire.

That was the combo he has made that would never fail when getting rid of weak enemies.

The fact that his fiery blade 

But nevertheless, as he finished his combo, Slade slightly smiled.

At the end of the day, he settled on the Punish skill since he needed the fully optimized knockback the skill provided.

He would later optimize the skill the same way he would do so right now, but currently, he was facing another dilemma.

'It uses to much wrath.'

It was the fact that whenever he used his bastardized Slash skill, instead of 

But this at least meant he was going the right direction, but nevertheless he had a long road ahead of him to uncover

Letting out a long sigh, Slade stopped training for the moment and just continued on.

Even if he wanted it to, the world would not stop for him alone.

A fact that he was incredibly familiar with.

Moving forwards to the final Wretched mother hiding in the mist, Slade was surprised to find out that the Wretched Mother was now surrounded by a small horde of undead.

A not so welcome fact that he recalled was that the Wretched mother could call up the dead to their bidding.

Realizing this fact, Slade's mind went blank.

Seeing the horde of shambling figures wander slowly through the mist he shook his head.

'I really should've paid attention in Hunting class.'

Having those thoughts, Slade watched the shambling horde and slinked back into the mist, ideas dotting through his mind like the stars in the night.

It was a stark contrast to the dark cloudy skies above enshrouded in darkness.

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Tree