LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 13: Tutorial.10
At the same time, I felt a distinct sense of danger behind me. No... it wasn't just the sense of danger, but the certainty of death. Time seemed to slow down as my senses were heightened like never before. I saw, no, I felt the battlefield. The axe-wielder rose once again, blood streaming from his eye, but he managed to grab his axe, ready to strike again.
The average warrior was on me once more, raising his sword for another blow. But more importantly, behind me... an arrow was flying toward my head. For the first time, I fully embraced the sensation of these unfamiliar, new senses. But more than that, I followed exactly and unquestioningly what my instincts told me to do. Something had been unlocked, and I accepted it more than willingly.
I shifted slightly to the side, raising my left hand behind my back as I caught the arrow. The same movement easily dodged the overhead strike from the average warrior, as I struck the arrow into his hand, making him scream in pain as he dropped his sword. The axe-wielder behind me tried to strike me once more, but I evaded the blow by ducking underneath him as if I had eyes behind my back. In the same motion, I grabbed the sword the average warrior had dropped earlier.
In one quick, fluid motion, I slammed the sword into the knee of the axe-wielding warrior, making him bend over and scream. Instead of trying to finish him off, I ran toward the now unarmed average warrior with the intent to end him. I rushed at him and slashed once across his arms as he raised them to block, with the second blow cutting his neck, spraying blood around me and soaking me from head to toe.
Another arrow flew toward me, but I just swayed slightly, causing it to miss as I ran again toward the heavy axe-wielding warrior, who was trying to grab me once more. However, I didn't give him time to do so; as I ran, I kicked his head. Before the disoriented warrior could recover, I raised the sword and drove it down into the skull of the kneeling man. With all my weight behind the blow, the sword sank only a few inches, but it was more than enough to deeply pierce his brain, killing him instantly.
However, the sword got stuck, so I pulled two arrows from my quiver, one in each hand, as I dodged another arrow shot by the enemy archer. The attacking archer was clearly disturbed, and fear was evident in his eyes as I, covered in blood, advanced toward him. He was hidden in some bushes nearby, but locating where the arrow had come from was the simplest thing in the world.
The archer threw his bow to the ground, realizing he didn't have time to fire another arrow, and drew his knife. A smart choice, as I already found his bow and arrow extremely lacking. Clearly a rookie before the system, and I had the feeling the man wouldn't be much better with a melee weapon either.
I smiled as I easily dodged the first knife strike, leaning and driving an arrow into the arm of the archer wielding the knife. To the man's credit, he didn't drop the knife, but it didn't help much, as another arrow struck his stomach, causing him to drop the knife from the shock of the blow.
He tried to retaliate, but I easily pulled another arrow from my quiver and shot it into the archer's chest, followed by another, and then another. The poor man could only flail his arms as he tried, in vain, to push them away.
Nine arrows later, the man finally stopped fighting when his last breath left him, now with a total of 12 arrows sticking out of his corpse. I stood up and looked at the sky, a small smile still on my lips. The sense of danger was gone, and my killing instinct had calmed. I had survived.
The others in the camp were now more than awake and rushed toward me, all clearly still nervous. The moment they saw the scene, they were instantly horrified by the sight. A man lying face down in a pool of blood, right next to another man still kneeling, blood dripping from his eye with a sword protruding from the top of his skull. The image became even more grotesque because of a smiling Alexander, completely covered in blood, standing over another corpse with a dozen arrows sticking out of it.
"What... what happened?" Lucas stammered, clearly disturbed by the carnage. His mind was in turmoil as he looked at me, horrified.
Smiling, I turned to him, still savoring the euphoric feeling I was experiencing, and my smile grew even wider as I responded.
"I won."
I felt good. Incredibly good, in fact. The sensations of facing certain death and emerging victorious were wonderful. I didn't notice the strange look Lucas was giving me, as I simply enjoyed how I felt. I didn't realize that the others from the group had also arrived, though some of them quickly turned away when they saw the scene.
Among the newcomers, Beatrice looked at me with a mix of concern and fear.
"Are you hurt? There's so much blood..." she asked quietly. She seemed a little nauseous, staring at the haunting image of me standing next to a man full of arrows, the blood glistening as it reflected the moonlight.
"I'm fine. None of this is mine," I replied casually, with a slight smile. I hoped to end any potential conversation so I could focus on more important matters. I had already received several system notifications and was more than eager to check them.
"Ah... okay," she responded timidly.
Beatrice didn't seem inclined to ask more questions, while Lucas appeared to have something to say but chose not to speak. I took the opportunity to slip away, as no one else said anything.
"I'm going to sit and check my status messages. There are no more enemies, as far as I know, so everyone relax," I said, considering whether I should suggest they go back to sleep. I decided against it, as I had serious doubts that anyone would want to rest now. I certainly didn't, my spirit was too high.
I walked over to the campfire, which was still burning strong as always, sat on the same log where I had kept watch earlier that night, and finally opened my notification window, eager to check a series of messages.
["You killed [Human (G) - Level 3 / Warrior (Medium) - Level 7] – Bonus experience gained for killing an enemy above your level. 478 TP gained"]
["You killed [Human (G) - Level 2 / Warrior (Heavy) - Level 5] – Bonus experience gained for killing an enemy above your level. 340 TP gained"]
["You killed [Human (G) - Level 2 / Archer - Level 4] – Bonus experience gained for killing an enemy above your level. 294 TP gained"]
["DING! Class: [Archer] reached level 4 - Status points allocated, +1 free point"]
["DING! Race: [Human (G)] reached level 2 - Stat points allocated, +1 free point"]
["DING! Class: [Archer] reached level 5 - Status points allocated, +1 free point"]
I won, not because of my stats, but purely because of how I fought. They were amateurs, and I even doubted that they had used all of their abilities during the fight. Aside from the medium warrior using that glowing sword, I didn't notice anything else... then again, they were all low-level, and it didn't seem like abilities really had any kind of real visual prompt, from what I had seen so far. In fact, I should be surprised that the guy even had an ability to make the sword glow like that, to begin with.
I looked at the battle rewards; the stats and levels were nice, but the real gains came in the following notifications. Although, they were a bit different from any previous ones.
["Bloodline detected"]
["Processing..."]
["..."]
["Bloodline analyzed."]
["Bloodline Awakened: [Bloodline of the Fatal Shot Rare Destined (Bloodline Ability - Unique)] – Dormant power lies within the very essence of your being. A unique and innate ability awakened in the bloodline of the newly initiated human, Alexander Wood. Increases innate instincts. Enhances the ability to perceive your surroundings. Increases danger perception. +5% to perception."]
A new ability had been unlocked, or was it an ability? I had no idea what this so-called bloodline was. My family background was nothing extraordinary, as common as it gets, yet apparently, I had an innate ability linked to it.
Not that I would complain just because I was a bit confused. The effects of the ability were, in my honest opinion, amazing. This also explained why I had these strange senses that no one else seemed to have. The most amazing thing was that the description even included my name. That was kind of cool on its own... right?
....
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