Hate

As soon as Siegmund appeared and dropped the purchase box on the ground, Ignatius reacted at lightning speed.

He'd performed very similar actions many times in his previous life. In fact, he'd even practiced this sequence of actions so that he could avoid wasting even a few extra seconds in situations where those moments mattered… situations exactly like this one.

He drew the five items from the box and dropped all but two into his inventory—taking two healing potions and a piece of equipment. "Drink the last potion yourself and prepare that last item for when I give the signal!" Ignatius ordered the Onion Knight.

A moment later, he swallowed a healing potion himself and then staggered away as three of the Scab Fiends caught up with him and clawed him in the back! The immediate healing from the potion mitigated a lot of this damage, and the small regeneration effect began restoring his HP.

Thankfully, only one Scab Fiend had stayed behind to attack Siegmund, who had also swallowed the contents of a healing potion and was now trading auto-attacks with his enemy. Against only a single foe, the Onion Knight would do a perfectly good job tanking.

Ignatius ran swiftly away from his pursuers, trying to buy himself just another spare moment. He took a path through the winding, smoke-stained facility that would give him the most room to dodge away from his pursuers, but this required him to jump over a particularly thick section of burning floor.

He leaped!

He didn't quite make it.

Ignatius's rear leg landed within the flames, and he yelped in pain, cursing himself for failing to make the jump. But he quickly exited the hazard and caught his bearings.

Then he was cornered.

There was nowhere left to run.

And as the swarm of Scab Fiends closed the distance between them, Ignatius performed several steps in the span of a few seconds.

Open inventory.

Equip the new item Siegmund had bought, [☆ Dull Newt's Eye], in his left hand, replacing the shield which he'd been holding.

Equip a certain Skill Gem into that new item…

The Scab Fiends began their attacks.

Ignatius responded by raising the magic focus he'd just equipped and then casting [✧Cold Heart] twice, draining his entire bar of Energy!

Waves of shimmering frost burst outward from the [☆ Dull Newt's Eye] in his left hand, expanding in a shock wave all around him. Ignatius felt his flesh turn cold and hard as a Siberian mountainside for a split second as the energy passed through his own body… but it neither damaged nor slowed him, only affecting the Scab Fiends.

His two uses of this skill each added a stack of the Icy Hate effect on the monsters. Though they'd lose a stack per second and quickly return to normal, Ignatius had a full second during which the enemies were too slow to finish their attacks. At the same time, they'd take much more damage than usual.

"Now!" Ignatius roared. He leaped forward and rammed his fist into the face of one Scab Fiend. [✧Sacred Fist] had the same cooldown as his basic punching auto-attack, so Ignatius was able to swiftly attack each of the Scab Fiends before the first second passed.

By that time, Siegmund had obeyed Ignatius's call. He'd approached the enemies from the back, ignoring the one Scab Fiend still attacking him as he fled.

Over the final moment of Icy Hate, Ignatius and Siegmund carefully dealt just enough damage to each of the three Scab Fiends so that they were almost dead.

Then Siegmund used the one last item which Ignatius had instructed him to buy.

It was a simple [✧Acid Potion], an expensive item which, when thrown to the ground, would create an acid cloud that would deal a small DoT effect to every enemy caught in it.

The Onion Knight hurled this to the ground at the Scab Fiends' feet, then leaped back to continue dueling the final enemy trying to attack him from behind.

Ignatius did his absolute best to dodge attacks for just a couple of moments longer. His HP was getting dangerously low again, now that he no longer wielded a shield in his left hand.

Yet, he didn't attack again.

Instead, Ignatius waited for the acid to take full effect.

Small numbers popped into existence above each of the screaming Scab Fiends' heads, showing the trickle of damage they were suffering as they tried to claw Ignatius to death…

Then it happened.

Within the space of a half-second, each Scab Fiend dropped to 0 HP and began charging up their death explosion.

Ignatius breathed a sigh of relief…

…Then, he cast [✧Balance].

This was the same skill he'd used to counter Daemon's skeleton attack back during their duel.

Just as it had then, the first second of the skill gave Ignatius full invincibility.

The explosions overlapped as they blasted through the space where Ignatius was standing, scorching the heavy stone and iron around him with soot and ash. Even if he'd been at full HP and had blocked, the combined attack power would have killed him in an instant.

But the careful timing paid off, and Ignatius was completely unharmed as the effect of the explosions died down. Then he immediately moved to the side of Siegmund, who was still slowly dueling the last Scab Fiend, and cast [✧Sacred Fist].

The foe died, and both Ignatius and Siegmund moved out of the explosion's range, remaining safe.

The last bit of burning floor faded away, leaving only a lace-like pattern of scorch marks behind as proof that these vengeful spirits had lurked in the Hell-Iron Jungle.

At long last, Siegmund fell onto his back, taking huge gulps of the hot, stale air. "We lived again, my friend!" he laughed. "Truly, there is no foe who can stop us when we fight as brothers!"

Ignatius grinned. The thrill of victory sent a surge of adrenaline through him… a simulated one, at least, since he no longer had a physical body. "Don't celebrate too much just yet," he said. "We haven't even cleared the whole floor yet. We'll need to restock before finishing it… and then we'll see what kind of challenge the Floor 5 boss has waiting for us."