Skill-Eater: Prison World Saga-Chapter 137: Melee

“Check your updates, everyone,” Violet called out. “That many kills should have let our core-wielders gain a few cycles.”

Sure enough, when Edge summoned his Guide, he had some updates waiting for him. He had forgotten that fighting as a crew distributed experience to the entire team, although the amount was reduced when using traps instead of prevailing in a direct confrontation.

You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [8].

You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your new cycle is [9].

You have six attribute points awaiting allocation.

Since it seemed like the fight was going to become a massive brawl before much longer, Edge needed to put his points into the attributes that would help him survive the melee and take out the stage-two monsters. After a moment of consideration, he decided on an even split between Speed and Durability.

He sent his intentions into the System and allocated his free points, gasping as the potentia was released from his core and went surging into his tissue. Half of the crackling energy rewired his nerves and fast-twitch muscle fibers, making his body faster than before.

The rest was distributed evenly. He could feel his muscles and bones, his organs and skin, softening before shifting into a new, more resilient configuration—denser and more tightly packed than before.

By now, everyone besides Jumo, Blue, and Edge was starting to run low on mana. When he glanced over his shoulder, he noticed that Trapper was standing still, with a look of intense focus on her face. If she’s not getting ready to fight, she must have something else planned. We need to hold the blightlings back long enough for it to work.

That was all the time for reflection he was given. Because that was when the first group of crab monsters pushed through to the far side of the acid field, using the bodies of the fallen as a land bridge. The dog-sized crustaceans started skittering toward the crew, intending to overwhelm the hunters and bury them beneath a tide of razored limbs and venomous tails. But Edge and Blue weren’t about to let that happen.

While Jumo moved to guard Trapper, Edge dropped his bow and grabbed his naginata. He started sprinting for the breach, extending the length of the wooden shaft along the way. Edge was fast, but Blue was faster still.

Before he closed half of the distance, the combat trained beast was there. The azure dino lowered her triple horns and charged, racing forward in a ground-devouring stride while trumpeting a fierce war cry.

She ran right over the first pair of crabs, smushing them to pulp beneath her feet. Then she drove her horns into a pack that was climbing onto the cleared ground. Her natural weapons impaled two of the monsters and sent the rest flying back, where they landed in the acid and began to dissolve. Another squadron of the spindly-legged horrors broke through in a different place. The stinking monsters tried to surround the valiant beast—circling around to attack from her blind spot.

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Blue let out a contemptuous bleat as she spun in a flash. She reared back and thrust. Mana congealed around her horns as her body lunged forward, impacting her opponent with such force that its shell broke apart despite it hardening in time.

She brought her head down low and gored another blightling—a rising strike that parted its chitin armor and carved into its guts. Edge watched on in awe as he closed the final few feet. Gore makes her horns sharper, while thrust multiplies their force. A combo with both must be devastating.

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Despite the dino’s incredible offense, more of the monsters were breaking through by the second. A third group had arrived and was about to hit her from behind while more attacked from the front.

Edge raised his weapon and got ready to strike. He came to a skidding stop in front of a trio of monsters, a heartbeat before they could sting Blue with their tails. He used the momentum to bring his polearm around in a wicked swipe, slashing midway through to increase the strength of his attack.

Mana went surging into his arms as his reactor flared to life, adding strength and penetration to his swing. The first monster didn’t see him coming and his naginata cut straight through with no appreciable resistance. But the next was able to harden its body in time. There was an incredible impact as the skill-bolstered blade struck mana-reinforced chitin, biting into the tissue below but not carving all the way through.

Edge pulled the polearm back and then lunged into the wound, sliding the tip into the soft tissue that was already exposed. The blade sliced through its guts, killing the creature instantly. The third blightling was able to sting Blue once, but it wasn’t enough venom to affect the resilient beast. Before it could follow up, he kicked it hard, sending it skittering across the stone.

The blightling let out a shrill shriek, then turned to face him and leapt, barbed stinger probing for his throat. He was still getting used to his new weapon, and the monster was inside his guard before he could bring the blade to bear. He thought about activating harden a second too late, since he hadn’t practiced using it at all.

A blink of the eye before the venomous crab reached his neck, a flaming arrow struck it in the head, setting it aflame. The burning monster missed his face by inches and went skittering off, screaming like a banshee all the while.

He gave Sasha a grateful thumbs up before returning his attention to the battle. Blue needed some time to recover after the intense melee, so she traded places with Jumo. The athletic warrior readied his spear and fell into position beside Edge. Meanwhile, Sasha moved to a place where she could guard Violet, but fire along the frontline as needed.

By this point, the crew had eliminated perhaps half of the swarm. It was an incredible achievement, but it wasn’t good enough. There were still far too many monsters to defeat in melee and the last of the acid glue was barely slowing the blightlings down.

That was when Riller called out. “The big ones are coming! They should scale the rise sometime within the next thirty seconds.” Sure enough, when Edge looked out across the battlefield, the trio of stage-two monsters were on the move. They must have decided that the time had come to finish the hunters off themselves.

He thought that he could handle one of them, maybe two if he was lucky. But there wasn’t anything that he could do about the horde of smaller monsters following in their wake. Fortunately, the crew had a plan.

“It’s time,” Violet called out. “Use the gas bombs.” At the quartermaster’s signal, Jumo and Sasha started lobbing a type of device that Edge hadn’t seen before—deep green spheres that were a bit bigger than his fist.

When the first one landed in the middle of the swarm, it began releasing a thick, mustard-colored cloud. As the dense vapor broke over the crabs, they started to scream. Most of the monsters darted out of the gas and away from the crew, including the big ones.

The hunters threw six bombs in total, cutting off the approach to the summit and driving the blightlings back down the hill. Unfortunately, the gas was less potent than the acid and didn’t finish any of them off.

The crew had bought themselves a momentary reprieve, but they were running on fumes and the battle was far from over.