"He actually came, and all it took was a forum post." Several sources ofughter could be heard from the treeline.
"Oh dear, we got baited, huh?" Merlin spoke with a sigh, as if this were amon urrence. Quickly getting up off of the ground, he unsheathed both of his des. "At least give a guy time to mourn."
Merlin’spanions both unsheathed their weapons and moved into a defensive formation alongside Merlin. A few moments passed without either side making a move.
"G’day Merlin, it’s nice seeing ya again." An extremely hairyrge man stepped out from behind a tree, waving around a strange t blue crystal and speaking with an arrogant tone. "It looks like ye couldn’t afford as many bodyguards this time around, eh?"
"Oh, it’s just the puppy squad this time around." Merlin spoke as if he was disappointed by this fact, but his face had formed a smug grin, as if his sadness only moments ago was a mere facade. "I guess I wasted more money than I needed to. Damn, alright,e on lets get this over with, I’m paying these guys by the hour."
"You already paid us thou--" Merire, confused by what was going on, tried to ask a question, only to get interrupted part way through with Warren nudging her.
"You got a n?" Warren asked, staring into the treeline at all the figures still hiding, albeit poorly.
"Yeah... Kill em and loot em. We might as well get some profit while we’re here." Merlin’s tone had be as arrogant as his facial expression.
"Hunter’s Sight, Blood Thirst, True Sight." Merlin started chanting out skill names as he walked closer to the treeline.
「Skill ?Hunter’s Sight? Activated. You can sense nearby enemies, tracking bes easier.」
「Skill ?Blood Thirst? Activated. You can sense wounded creatures, your movement and attack speed increases for each wounded enemy in the area.」
「Skill ?True Sight? Activated. You can see through illusions and invisibility.」
Robotic jingles and notification windows appeared one by one in Merlin’s peripheral vision, informing him that his abilities activated sessfully, before fading away.
"Appraisal," Merlin calmly chanted while staring at the man he previously insulted.
┌───────────────────
Name: Wolfsbane
Level: 1367
Guild: Wolfpack
Origin Soul: Werewolf
Soul Slots: 2
1: ★★★ Race Soul: Werewolf
2: ★★★ ss Soul: Vampire Hunter
└───────────────────
"Ah, you did some farming since Ist destroyed you, even managed to grind out the Vampire Hunter ss." Merlin let out a small snicker, and spoke back up in a condescending voice. Merlin’s slow walk speed had suddenly turned into a dash, making a beeline towards Wolfsbane with his weapons drawn.
Wolfsbane reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial of shimmering blue liquid, and as Merlin was only a few seconds away from reaching him, he threw the vial in front of him and began chanting under his breath, the vial suddenly shattered, and the contents within it had formed a wide thin wall that continued to fly towards Merlin.
Either due to Merlin being unable to react in time, or merely just curious, the wall of liquid had sessfully collided with him, the liquid absorbed into his clothes and drenched his hair and skin, but it didn’t seem as though anything else had happened. Wolfsbane had immediately moved into melee range as the vial shattered, and without waiting a second to gloat, he started chanting while performing a stabbing motion with an empty hand.
Before the empty hand could hit, a small wooden stick with a sharpened point had appeared in Wolfsbane’s hand, and less than a secondter, the stick was stabbed sessfully into Merlin’s stomach. Merlin had received two notifications.
「You have been attacked by yer ’Wolfsbane’. Everyone within their party has been marked as an enemy, you may attack them without receiving penalties.」
「You have received 120 damage from yer ’Wolfsbane’ using skill ?Vampire Hunter’s Stake?.」
"What? Why didn’t you die?" Wolfsbane shouted out in confusion as he quickly retreated back a couple steps, the stake disintegrated into smoke.
"Come to think of it, you never got a chance to appraise mest time, did you?" Merlin spoke out, the smug grin still stered on his face. Merlin decided to show off a little, which was generally unusual for him to do. "You know what, I’ll let you scan me... Maybe this time you’ll learn."
Wolfsbane, while infuriated at Merlin’s arrogance, still decided to take him up on that offer. He held the strange crystal te in front of his face and chanted a skill, "Inspect".
Suddenly, the blue crystal te lit up, and glowing words appeared on its surface. It was a tool that replicated the appraisal skill to a limited degree.
┌───────────────────
Name: Merlin
Level: 894
Guild: Hell’s Benefit
Origin Soul: Angel of Vengeance
Soul Slots: 5
1: ★★★★★ Hybrid Soul: Angel of Vengeance
2: ★★★★ ss Soul: Umbral Agent
3: ★★★ ss Soul: Bloodseeker
4: ★★★★ Job Soul: Loremaster
5: ★★★★ Skill Soul: Eyes of Thoth
└───────────────────
"W-wait what, you’re not even a vampire, wait no, more importantly, a five star hybrid soul?" Wolfsbane was a little shocked at this revtion, he had seen Merlin in the past use what looked like blood magic and dark magic, both which were the distinct traits of the vampire soul, but it seemed Merlin used two separate sses to aplish a simr y style.
"Thoth’s Library." Merlin quickly chanted another skill, which brought up another notification window.
「Thoth’s library of knowledge has opened, what would you like to research?」
"Vampire Hunter Skill, ?Vampire Hunter’s Stake?, brief description." Merlin answered, a little curious at the skill he had been hit with.
┌───────────────────
Vampire Hunter’s Stake is one of the Vampire Hunter’s core abilities.
The ability summons a wooden stake that can be used to attack.
If used against a non-vampire enemy, the stake will deal moderate piercing damage.
If used against a lesser variant vampire of a lower level than the user, it will instantly kill the vampire, otherwise it will do significant damage.
The ability does significant damage against vampire yers, elite monsters and boss monsters, as long as the vampire has been weakened with holy water or holy magic, and as long as the vampire does not out-level the user by arge margin.
└───────────────────
"Ah, so that was holy water... That’s quite thebo you’ve got there, did you practice it just for me?" Merlin had satisfied his curiosity, and his mind shifted back tobat. "My turn!"
Merlin dashed towards Wolfsbane once more, and the instant he reached melee range, his des were already urately aimed for Wolfsbane’s throat, with both des connecting.
「1140 damage.」
「3600 damage, critical hit!」
「Passive skill ?Rupture? has triggered, target is now bleeding.」
Chunks of werewolf hair hit the forest floor as Wolfsbane’s throat opened up, dealing a sizeable amount of damage, and sending him into a panic as he noticed his health rapidly decreasing. He began barking out orders while trying to back away. "Everyone attack!"
Several werewolves left their hiding spots within the treeline, Merlin scanned over them briefly and noticed twelve of them were gathering mana, while the remaining seven were running towards him with swords drawn.
"Angel of Vengeance." The whites of Merlin’s eyes ckened as soon as he finished chanting, and illusory ck feathers started forming within the air around him, suddenly dissipating if they touched anything.
「Skill ?Angel of Vengeance? activated, after receiving fatal damage you will be unable to fall under 1 HP for three seconds, all damage taken during this form will be stored temporarily.」
Merlin stopped moving and took a defensive posture as the armed werewolves were gathering close. Mere secondster, the enemy mages had all finished chanting their spells, magic of various shapes and colours flew towards Merlin’s position, before they suddenly all made contact.
Merlin was bombarded with notifications.
「2922 damage received.」
「2050 damage received.」
「4009 damage received.」
「780 damage received.」
「Fatal damage taken, you are being kept alive at 1 HP by ?Angel of Vengeance?.」
「4551 damage received.」
「1290 damage received.」
「3707 damage received.」
「4772 damage received.」
「630 damage received.」
「2587 damage received.」
「4200 damage received.」
「969 damage received.」
Wolfsbane let out augh as Merlin was buried under an array of rainbow explosions, unaware of the massacre that was about to happen.
「32,467 damage has been stored temporarily.」
"Oh this is going to be so unfair, even I feel sorry for you guys." Merlin stared at the number with excitement, his already obnoxiously smug grin was amplified and he couldn’t help butugh maniacally. Merlin immediately started running towards thergest grouping of enemies, hisughter became insane. His enemies, Wolfsbane in particr, had let down their guard, leaving themselves defenceless as Merlin ran towards them at full speed.
"Revenge counter!" Merlin yelled out while jumping into the middle of group of enemies.
「Skill ?Revenge counter? activated, 35% of your stored damage will be used, the rest discarded.」
Suddenly, a wave of ck energy shot out from Merlin’s chest, quickly expanding to arge bubble that enveloped half of the visible treeline, alongside all of Wolfsbane’s party. Merlin watched as everyone around him fell to their knees, or copsed, as the ck energy dispersed, leaving a rain of ck feathers in its wake.
Merlin stood there, somewhat entranced at the macabre scene he had created, several corpses resting around him, and the sky being ckened out by hundreds of ck feathers slowly making their way to the floor. The only thing ruining the scene was the notification box sitting on the edge of his vision.
「You have killed several high level enemies, congrattions you are now level 895.」