Reborn Regress Return: I Am the Heir of Shadows!-Chapter 66: To the End
The gauntlet might not be so difficult if the game worked like other multiplayer games.
For example, when playing on a computer.
You do not need to worry about muscle exhaustion, breathing, or mental focus under a constant swarm of monsters that carry a foul scent and are visually disgusting.
"Haa... keep going!"
'How long had we been fighting these goblins?'
Time seemed to move differently from the moment the party reached halfway, and Julian's thighs burned. His body screamed in agony after sprinting several hundred metres while fighting and taking no breaks.
Clang!
Umbra's spear flashed with sparks, blocking a goblin's sneaky attempt to stab Fran in the back as she fired a volley of arcane arrows in the darkness.
"Nora, Fran how are you doing... huff... Haa..."
"Master it's dangerous, summon Nocta!"
With the flick of his wrist, he tossed a shadow orb, detonating with a blast of powerful force, knocking ten goblins on their backs. But it wasn't enough to kill them without overcharging himself—relying on Umbra to finish them off, he staggered towards Eleanora.
"Are you alright?"
"Ngh... my feet are sore, my legs won't listen to me, but I'm alive!"
As Julian took a moment to observe the expansive junction, their goal was only a few hundred metres away, but the mass of goblins only increased with each moment they delayed.
Yet, even he could barely breathe, a burning sensation running down his side each time he tried to move or take an action.
"I see, damn it—' He broke off into a sudden, loud cough, trying to clear his throat. "It's harder than I thought."
Julian's right hand shimmered with a dark glow as he pointed to the floor beside them and called out for his shade. "Nocta, come to me."
Bzzzt!
The moment Nocta appeared, her arms tightened, and she slammed the goblins with her massive shield in a sweeping arc, crushing them.
Countless experience gain messages flooded Julian's screen, the numbers for damage filling his vision and causing him to become irritated.
"Damn it..."
Frustrated, he disabled all combat texts and tried to focus. His head throbbed from the constant usage of his new items and relying too heavily on his high mana regeneration.
"Fran, can you keep them at bay for a few moments?"
The Sakurapaw ranger grimaced, her eyes flopping as her fingers oozed a trickle of blood from overuse. Her fingers became swollen and bloody, constantly healing and reopening thanks to Eleanor's healing aura, which started to wane.
"I don't know... Ugh... my arms are a little stiff."
'Damn it, this is the difference between reality and a game...'
Julian knew that this would be possible to clear easily in theory. But in the nightmare world where all penalties and the synchronisation rate increased to make it equivalent to fighting with your flesh body, everything became one level harder.
"Nocta, carry Eleanora and help us increase the pace, Umbra focus on Fran's safety—"
"What about you, Master?!"
"I have ECLIPSA!" He snapped back, frustration and anger mixing with his current exhaustion as his hand grasped the air, clutching three goblins and tearing them apart with his shadowy claws, breaking the game rules as they died from punctured throats.
However, nobody noticed this discrepancy—when the experience flowed into him, Julian pushed onwards, sweat oozing down his face in small beads. He felt hot and sticky while heaving with a burning chest as they reached the last 200 metres.
A small set of stairs leading to an archway would collapse into the original dungeon.
"Arcane Flurry!"
The moment Fran's bowstring twanged, ten beautiful arrows flew towards the goblins. Her face grimaced, causing Julian to narrow his eyes as their feet hit the floor. Dozens of goblins replaced the ones they had killed a moment before.
A sense of frustration and worry set in before finally...
They reached within the last few metres as the goblins stabbed and clawed at them. Nocta's shield slammed into the ground, pushing back several goblins, and the halls began to glow with a deep red glow.
"Haa.... Haa... Julian... we're almost there!"
Nora called out before jumping from Nocta's arms and standing atop the platform, her pale face dripping with sweat.
She flicked her wrists and started to manoeuvre her balls of ice, slicing the goblins' feet, hamstringing them to slow their speed.
"Fran, jump!"
As the distance narrowed, the spear of umbra flashed several times, killing three goblins and suddenly...
Fran, Eleanora and Julian's bodies all flashed with a golden light.
[You have Levelled up!]
The moment the light flashed and soothing energy flowed into the trio, their eyes changed in an instant.
Fran's body hopped forward, jumping almost two metres and landing on a broken pillar behind Nocta and Eleanora while holding her bow with a faint smile.
"I can keep going. Let's kill some more!"
Without a word, she rapidly shot two volleys of her arcane flurry—twenty arrows rained down, tearing through the goblins, as Eleanora joined her dancing in a sultry tango style as she called out her skill, with a smirk, no more sweat or dark circles.
"I see..."
Julian turned around at the base of the stairs and clenched his right gauntlet, killing another three goblins as he realised the main benefit of bringing Eleanora here.
'100% bonus experience.'
VWOOM
In his left hand, the sphere of a shadow bomb pulsated as he closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath.
'Umbra, Nocta... for the next minute, we are going to kill as many goblins as possible.'
'Keep me safe, Eclipsa.'
[Eclipsa used Umbral Infusion]
• Movement speed increased by 20%.
• Damage taken decreased by 20%
The moment her dark aura wrapped around his skin, making it look like Julian's skin turned grey, he tossed out the boosted Shadow bomb, blowing the goblins up and taking more than twenty along with it.
'They're coming, let's go Umbra!'
This battle would be the first time that he tested himself... his current limits as he put a point into attack and one point into magic.
"Shadow Claws."
The moment Julian uttered his new skill, the two gauntlets vibrated and hummed with a violent force as purple blades grew from above his hand, creating claws that were close to 20cm longer than his fingers.
Bzzzzt!
Like blades of plasma, they vibrated with wild energy as he rushed forward with the movements buff from Eclipsa and cut across the air, with a purple number 31 appearing, gouging the goblins twice for 62 damage.
However, the blades burned through the goblin's throats and sent their experience flowing into him as Julian realised something.
'In this world, fatal wounds can even kill the monsters!?'
"AIM FOR THIER THROATS!"
With this knowledge, Julian's body moved using his previous life's abilities, his speed equal to the monsters, while his blades burned and sliced open their necks.
He jumped at a pack of goblins, digging his claws into the chest of the first goblin while his right arm swung out, blocking another goblin's sword.
Eclipsa's body also slipped out of his shadow and grabbed the goblins by their feet, allowing him to twist himself and avoid a blow to kill the second goblin with his right arm.
Julian yanked his left arm from the chest of the dead goblin to cast a shadow grasp on the other three, lunging towards him.
"Haa.... this is it, this feeling!"
When fighting as a summoner, there was always something missing: that sensation of being strong or able to fight back.
However, now using this skill and weaving magic slowly in between, thanks to the gloves allowing him to channel his mana and cast spells while fighting. He cast a lance of shadow at a distant goblin, knocking him off Fran's pillar, before stomping on the head of a goblin that Nocta's shield slammed to the ground...
"Okay... let's start pulling back."
Julian huffed; enough was enough; his mana was low, and the health of Nocta, Umbra and Eclipsa reached below half.
The biggest reason was that he now understood that this item would ONLY level up through him using it to kill monsters, and the rate was horribly bad.
Growth Level 1: [□□□□□] 0/100 -> [■■■■□] 86/100
"Julian are you alright?"
Eleanora's lips curled into a smile, and her cheeks flushed as she stood performing muscular stretches. She was likely exhausted beyond her limits right now.
"GREAT!"
However, he didn't have long left on his blades... hoping to rank them up, he constantly swiped at the goblins, cleaving them like beasts.
Their group must have killed almost a hundred of these things.
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[You have gained 60 experience]
[You have gained 60 experience]
Slowly, the gauge filled up while he twisted and dodged the goblins—each moment he delayed, the closer to death they came as the distant hallways rumbled, and a low guttural roar sounded as something descended in the layers below them.
'It's awake!'
However, just as he started to worry, the sound he expected flickered in his ears before the purple glow of his gloves faded... and Nocta's hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back onto the podium.
[■■■■□] 86/100 -> Growth Level 2: [□□□□□] 0/200
+1 Magic,
+1 Defence
+1 Attack
"Let's leave! We've done it!"
"You're such a fool."
"Haa..."
With that, we rushed into the bright archway, which led to the dungeon's exit and stopped the gauntlet. It might have been the first time that Julian correctly abused the game and his benefits as a summoner.
And he finally saw a path to pursue... A path of survival.
