Chapter 96: Blood-Eyed Howlers
Chapter 96: Blood-Eyed Howlers
It took almost three hours of traveling without any breaks, but Leo and Nina eventually arrived at their destination.
“There are three kinds of monsters in this area, and they’re all B-Rank monsters. Berserker Boars, Desert Stalkers, and Blood-Eyed Howlers.” Nina said.
“Berserker Boars are monsters with great strength and are incredibly resilient, almost like cockroaches. They’re quite simple to deal with because of their straightforward attacks, but they are also quite annoying because they get stronger as they receive more damage, so you want to finish them off as soon as possible.”
“Blood-Eyed Howlers can use earth magic, and they usually like to throw large boulders at you from a distance. They also usually travel in groups of three or four.”
“Desert Stalkers are vexing monsters that like to sneak up on you. They can use camouflage magic that makes them blend in with the environment, which makes them incredibly dangerous, especially when you’re distracted or not paying attention. However, they’re not much of a threat if you’re paying attention because while they can camouflage themselves, they cannot hide their obvious glowing purple eyes, so keep your eyes out for them.”
Leo listened to Nina lecture him about the monsters in the area as they slowly wandered the area on their hoverboards.
A few minutes later, they stopped when they noticed three medium-sized figures in the distance.
These figures resembled monkeys, had black fur, a robust physique, and distinctive crimson eyes.
“Are those Blood-Eyed Howlers?” Leo asked for confirmation.
“Yes.”
“How should we deal with them?”
“They will start throwing rocks at us the moment they see us. I will distract them with my servants while you attack them from a blind spot.”
“Alright.” Leo nodded.
He left Nina’s side the next moment and sneaked around the Blood-Eyed Howlers.
Once Leo was prepared, Nina summoned 10 skeleton mages and had them barrage the Blood-Eyed Howlers with magic, injuring them, but it wasn’t enough to kill them.
When the Blood-Eyed Howlers realized that they were under attack, they immediately started casting earth magic, creating large boulders with their mana before chucking them at Nina’s direction.
“Destroy them!” Nina commanded the skeleton mages to target the boulders in the air, destroying them before they could reach her.
Meanwhile, Leo activated Feather Step and rushed at the Blood-Eyed Howlers from their blind spot.
Since Feather Step directly affects his body and is undetectable with one’s bare eyes, Leo decided to use it to increase his speed.
Once he was in range to attack, Leo quickly swung his sword at one of the Blood-Eyed Howlers, instantly decapitating it.
By the time the other two realized what had just happened to their companion, Leo was already in motion for a second attack.
Whoosh!
Another Blood-Eyed Howler was decapitated.
The remaining Blood-Eyed Howler released a deafening roar after seeing its companions being killed.
The roar was enhanced with mana, which took Leo by surprise, causing his body to freeze for a second.
The Blood-Eyed Howler wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to attack Leo, but it was bombarded with magic spells by Nina’s skeleton mages.
Once Leo could move his body a second later, he immediately swung his sword for a third time, killing the final Blood-eyed Howler.
Nina ran to Leo afterward.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes… I don’t know what happened, but that roar just now made my body freeze for a second.”
“You got stunned by the roar that had been infused with mana. If you want to prevent something like that from happening again, make sure to protect yourself with mana.” Lilith said to him.
Nina also said something similar to him a moment later.
“Anyways, good job, Nina. We got 3,000 points just like that. If we continue fighting like this, we’ll definitely achieve rank 1!”
“I still don’t think this will be enough. We will need to split up, which will be more efficient.”
“Split up? I don’t know… That’s a little risky.” He said.
“Of course it is. However, the others are also risking their lives. We won’t defeat the others at this rate.”
Leo pondered for a moment before speaking, “Let’s continue fighting together for a little longer. I am still not familiar with the monsters here. Once I am used to fighting these monsters, we can split up.”
“Okay.” Nina nodded.
The two of them continued to look for monsters shortly after.
Their next three encounters were all Blood-Eyed Howlers.
“So that’s a Berserker Boar…” Leo muttered when he saw its appearance for the first time.
The Berserker Boar was about the size of a minivan with short brown fur and several red stripes on its body. In its mouth were two long, sharp tusks that pointed directly in front of its face.
“My skeleton mages aren’t strong enough to kill it quickly. If you want to kill it quickly, aim for its forehead.” Nina said.
“Alright.” Leo nodded.
After preparing himself, he approached the Berserker Boar.
When the Berserker Boar noticed him, it immediately started running at him.
However, Leo didn’t even try to dodge it. Instead, he aimed the tip of his sword at the boar’s forehead and waited until it ran into the sword by itself.
“W-What are you doing?! Hurry up and dodge!” Nina was shocked when she saw that he wasn’t moving.
A moment later, almost as though it was blind, the Berserker Boar ran directly into his sword.
The sword penetrated into its head with ease, instantly killing it.
Leo was surprised by the results. He didn’t think the Berserker Boar would really run directly into his weapon. But he was not as surprised as Nina, who didn’t even think he would be able to penetrate the Berserker Boar’s defense so easily with his sword that wasn’t even an artifact.
The Berserker Boar probably thought the same, hence why it dared to ignore his sword and ran head-first into it, completely unaware of Leo’s invisible artifact.
“Are you okay…?” Nina asked him a moment later.
“Yes. Are all Berserker Boars this dumb?” he then asked.
“I don’t know what happened just now, but it probably won’t happen again,” she said.
However, she would soon find out how wrong her statement was when Berserker Boars continued to run into his sword due to arrogance.