Chapter 59 - The First Adventure - The Tower (Part Six)

Lucas quickly used his [Inspect] to see what was approaching them.

[Advanced Tier Beast - Hobgoblin Iron Shadow]

[A hobgoblin with the affinity to the element of Darkness. Able to regenerate and can't die when it is in the dark. Weak against Light Magic and Fire Magic. Other properties are the same as a hobgoblin]

Lucas gulped as he saw the description. "Just what kind of a tower is this? Do they even have element-affiliated monsters? And that is a rare element!", he thought as he looked at Robert, clearly worried about him. "Be careful", he muttered under his breath as he began to continue the process. "Every moment I waste is a moment I could get stronger", he thought as he was injecting his Aura.

Robert saw the hobgoblin in front of him and smiled. The hobgoblin was the same size as the other hobgoblins, only that this one had a very dark shade of green skin. "It's almost like it's black", he thought as he looked at the skin tone. He then got into his stance, ready to do the same thing he did to the shield last time.

"Muramasa Blade: Third Form. Kuiarasu!", he said as he did a quick draw. The Aura left the sword, like last time, and it was met head-on with a pitch-black club, and it was shattered. Robert's eyes widened, but a smile crept up his face. "You broke it. Congratulations!", he said as he jumped a few steps back.

He then took out his katana, and he concentrated his Aura around it. He jumped towards its head, and he was ready to slash it. But his sword couldn't get past a certain limit. "Something invisible is blocking my strikes", he thought as he came back. "Seems like this thing can manipulate an Element", he concluded as he landed.

He then looked around, and the hobgoblin used the darkness as a whip. It wrapped it around Robert's leg and pulled him towards its club, and struck him square in his guts. Robert coughed as he landed near everyone. He wiped his sleeve on his mouth, and a smirk was seen. "Very good. I was just testing. Let me get just a teeny bit serious now", he said as he moved from the place.

"Just get a little bit serious? What is he thinking?", thought Lucas as he heard the words from his mouth. The movements from him became faster, and Lucas used [Mana Vision] to see what he was doing. "He's using both Mana and Aura simultaneously?", he thought as he saw him using Wind Magic and his Swordsman Aura, and they were complimenting each other quite well.

"Is this his style of fighting? Or is this something that was taught at the Muramasa School?", he thought as he looked at him in awe. His movements were unpredictable, as he used the Wind element to maneuver swiftly, and used his Aura to attack the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin responded to his attacks with a Darkness strike, shattering it into pieces.

"Well, well. What have we got here?", he smirked and disappeared. "What's that speed", thought everyone as Robert vanish from his spot. A moment later, they saw him flying behind the Hobgoblin, ready to strike him behind his neck. But he held his katana in his hand, and the blade was glowing red.

"Muramasa Blade: Seventh Form. Surasshubarāji!", he said as he slashed the katana rapidly, and each was from a different angle. It was eight slashes right here, and when the hobgoblin blocked it, he did the same from a different direction. He continued this until he had slashed in all eight directions, rendering him defenseless. "You will have to get hit now", he thought as he watched the hobgoblin lower its guard.

It then raised a dome around it, and the slashes all bounced off of it. Robert smiled. "I expected that. Now let's see how you deal with this one", he said as he got down to the ground. He then lowered his body, and once again his katana glowed red. "What is he going to do now?", thought everyone as they watched him in anticipation.

Robert then changed his stance and pulled his legs together. He began to charge wind into his body, and his clothes began to flutter. A dark red halo surrounded him, and the sword's glow was intense. "Muramasa Blade: Tenth Form. Kieru surasshu!", he said as he slashed.

His slash wasn't viewed by anyone, except Lucas. He was using his [Mana Vision], and he learned a lot from this one fight. He was still channeling his aura whilst concentrating, thus training his mind to concentrate in two different ways. The strike was only visible to him, and he saw it go towards the hobgoblin.

But then, using his wind element, Robert turned the strike away from him, making the strike appear from a side that was unlikely to hit from. Then, the wind that was covered as a layer on top of the slash dissipated, allowing the thick dark red slash visible to everyone. Everyone was taken aback at his strike, and they looked at him in awe.

The strike hit the hobgoblin, and it sliced off its leg. It tried hopping into the darkness to regenerate, but Robert used his Third Form, Kuiarasu, and cut it off. The hobgoblin fell to the floor. He jumped on top of its head and cut off its neck in one clean strike. Everyone was in joy as they moved up to the fourth floor, and met with the same two hordes of hobgoblins and bugbears. Everyone fought tirelessly, and Emilia wanted to face off against the boss.

"Well, allowing them to fight alone also exploits their strengths and weaknesses. Thus allowing me to formulate more clear plans for a fight in the future. Let's just hope that Emilia is as good as I believe her to be. She is a Gunslinger, after all", thought Lucas as he looked at her walk confidently to face the monster that was going to come out in ten minutes.

She readied her guns, and took her stance, "Guess I'll be facing against the next boss?", he thought. She was checking her guns and cleaning them up when the floor rumbled, signaling the boss was here.

[Advanced Tier Beast - Hobgoblin Captain]

[A hobgoblin leader with intelligence. Properties are the same as any hobgoblin. Easily enraged. A strong one even among the hobgoblins]

Emilia smiled as she clicked her guns. "Let's see what I'm up against, shall we?", she smiled as she shot bullets made of Fire, Ice, Wind, Lightning, and Earth. When shot with the Lightning and Fire bullets, it roared in pain. When shot with Earth bullets, it just grunted and shrugged it off. And when shot with Wind and Ice bullets, it didn't leave a scratch on its body.

"Well, seems like it is weak against Fire and Lightning. Let's use this to my advantage", she thought as she began to run around as she fired off Fire and Lightning bullets at the hobgoblin. It roared out loud, and it was enraged. It began to rub its leg on the floor like a raging bull, ready to charge at her. Emilia noticed it and smiled.

"All it needed was this to be angry?", she thought as she didn't stop running, and kept firing off bullets. Then suddenly, it took off from the place, charging with its broad and wide shoulder towards Emilia. Emilia moved from the place at lightning speed and avoided the strike.

The hobgoblin hit the wall and was fazed a little bit. It just stood there, with its guard lowered. "Let's make Overload Bullets", she thought as she began to channel extremely concentrated Mana. The Mana around her began to distort, as lightning sparks and streaks of fire began to appear around her.

She channeled the Mana into her guns and began to compress them into bullets. Soon, they formed bullets, and it had enough power to one-shot a Legendary Tier. But she didn't mind any of that, as she knew that these monsters and the beasts of their world had different standards.

She then aimed her gun at the shoulder, and just as she was about to shoot, the hobgoblin charged towards her. She once again did the same thing and disappeared from its sight. She showed up on the other side and steadied her aim. "Ready... Deep breath... And now, Shoot!", she said as she shot the Lightning Overload Bullet.

As soon as it hit the hobgoblin, a thunderstorm began to form right above its head. Lightning began to strike it, and it roared out loud. It was kicking around as the lightning struck, but it didn't seem like it was dying. "Now, to agitate the wounds, let's fire it up", she said as she shot a Fire Overload Bullet.

It hit the hobgoblin and lodged itself firmly into its shoulder. Then, fiery red lines began to show up on its skin, and the wounds that were caused by the lightning strikes began to burn, and release a small number of flames. It let go of its weapon as it fell to the floor, rolling to disperse off the pain. All efforts were futile.

After a few more minutes, she shot two more bullets, and the body began to puff up. Then, after a certain limit, it blasted, spraying blood all around the place.. "Ugh! I did want to kill it instantly, but didn't think that this would overload its nervous system if they did have one", she said as she walked back to a mouth agape group.