The Gamer's POV-Chapter 191: Home of the Hollow Ones [7]

Actually, the creature wasn’t just toying with Cedric for the sake of it. It was analyzing him.

You see, the Hollow Ones were masters of combat, but more than that, they had the ability to copy the combat style of their opponents.

The worst way to fight them was a drawn-out battle, because not only do they never get tired, but the longer the engagement lasted, the more of their opponent’s techniques they absorbed.

By the time a warrior realized what was happening, they would find themselves fighting a perfect, better, tireless mirror of their own skills.

Right now, Cedric could not rely on the property of his Yoroi, [Blight of Will], because it took longer to take effect on creatures whose levels were higher than him. In this case, where a drawn-out battle was a recipe for disaster, with the creatures also having ninety five percent immunity to magic, leaning on that power wasn’t the wise way to go.

’I need to end it quickly.’ Cedric thought, wiping the blood that stained his mouth.

At that moment, the creature surprised Cedric. It smiled and began talking in a foreign language.

Almost immediately, a notification popped up for Cedric.

[Gamer Privileges has activated subtitles.]

A screen appeared translating the words of the creature:

[...you look fun. You know how to battle. And you reek of such delicious desperation. Come, amuse me further.]

Cedric scoffed, tightening his grip on the nodachi. ’Of course I know how to battle! I have the best teacher, Gamer Privileges. But unfortunately, I do not have the time to entertain you.’

Cedric threw his nodachi to the side, then flexed his hands as if he was planning on fighting without it.

’Come on, you battle maniac. Do the same.’

The creature stared at him expressionlessly, then it spun its spear and drove it into the ground.

A smile tugged at Cedric’s lips behind the mask.

He began taking cautious steps to the left, and the creature slowly mirrored him, taking the same calculated strides in the opposite direction.

Both of them locked eyes, and then, in an explosive blur of speed, both Cedric and the creature lunged at each other.

The Creature was faster, so it reached out and before Cedric could react, it grabbed his neck, lifted him up, then brought him down to smash him on the ground. But just as Cedric’s body hit the ground, it exploded into a flurry of black feathers.

The hollow one suddenly grew confused, but its nose sniffed twice and it immediately turned around to look up.

Cedric had appeared lying in an horizontal position in the air above it. He immediately spun, unsheathed his katana, and brought it down with a whistle of clashing air.

The creature immediately raised a hand to block Cedric’s blade. However, right before the metal hit its hand, Cedric vanished again. He reappeared crouched low to the ground with his katana thrusting forward, and just before the creature could react, the tip of the blade drove directly into the tiny opening on its chest.

"Caught you."

Caught off guard, the creature’s eyes widened as it took a weak step back. It tried to grab Cedric, but Cedric lunged back, leaving the katana still buried in its chest.

It desperately grabbed the blade, but before it could pull it out, its knees buckled. The light faded from its eyes as it collapsed, falling sideways until it hit the ground dead.

Cedric took a few breaths, then walked to the fallen monster and pulled out his katana. Then, he took a look around.

All around him, the vanguards were still fighting. Some used their magic, only for it to have little to no effect on the creatures.

The most impressive was Aurora. She had ten swords made of ice hovering in the air behind her as she fought with her glaive. It was unreal to see how the creature kept deflecting all the swords with its spear as the ice blades lunged for it over and over again, trying to pierce the opening in its chest.

At a point, it simply stepped to the side to avoid the blades, then closed the distance in a blur of motion.

It was almost about to strike, when Aurora leapt back a few steps, but instead of her feet touching the ground, ice solidified beneath them, making her run backwards up into the air.

As she ascended, the ten ice swords swirled around her like a protective cyclone, then dove back down at the creature from her new vantage point.

The Hollow Ones had a ninety-five percent magic immunity, meaning all forms of offensive magic would just bounce off their bodies and wouldn’t hurt them at all. However, if a magic attack managed to find its way to the opening on their chest, although they wouldn’t die, they would be injured.

So Aurora kept targeting that spot.

As the creature kept swatting the descending swords, she turned her glaive, aiming the blunt, weighted side at it. Then she spoke. "Absolute Zero."

Suddenly, the creature froze in place and a sword drove itself into the opening in its chest, then lunged out almost immediately. In that split second, Aurora descended like a star, plunging her entire weight behind the shaft of her glaive as she drove the pommel straight into the opening in the creature’s chest, while releasing her ability.

The creature crashed to the ground and Aurora landed firmly on top of it, pinning it to the ground with the pommel of her glaive still buried deep in its chest. It let out a choked, hollow rattle before finally going limp.

Aurora remained there for a moment, then she clutched her heart and grimaced in pain, while exhaling cold air.

Cedric knew a bit about her bonded ability as she was an important character in the game he played back then.

Aurora’s bonded ability, Absolute Zero, granted her the power of kinetic stasis. However, her heart began to freeze when she used that ability, and depending on the number of opponents she used it on and how long she used it, the rate at which her heart froze would accelerate.

It was an ability that could get her killed depending on how she used it. The only good thing about it was that as long as she was still alive, her heart would thaw on its own after only a few minutes, or some minutes longer, depending on the severity of the freeze.

...Looking away from her, Cedric could see that Celeste and Levi had joined the fray too, battling the Hollow Ones with brutal efficiency.

He could see one of the Hollow Ones strike its spear into Celeste’s neck, but she completely ignored the wound and simply continued moving forward. The spear shaft kept protruded from the back of her throat as she closed the distance in a blur, then sank two claws into the opening on its chest.

...Cedric’s eyes darted to the ground to see that two of the vanguards were already dead. One of them had his body torn clean in two, the remains scattered across the blood-stained tiles.

Cedric looked away from both bodies, to the temple.

By now, the other Cadets had already run into it and he could hear the clashing of metal and battle cries coming from the inside.