Chapter 6 – Separate

As Kuni was holding his shield, defending his teammates from a potential surprise attack, he saw the head of the Cobra raising, aimed at his body.

The snake’s mouth opens up, its teeth elongate, and its sticky saliva is dropping to the ground. Every drop of it induced a creepy drop sound.

Despite the scary factor of the cobra, Kuni doesn’t step back. He is still in his position, waiting for an attack.

The cobra lunged its head at Kuni. The shield blocked the assault. Cairelle’s eyes widened out on what he saw.

“Is this real? A snake phobic guy faced his fear?” Cairelle tells Aaron.

“That’s seems strange, but just be happy for him. No need to waste our time judging other’s accomplishment!”

“Aaron and Cairelle, prepare your weapons. I’m going to activate the ATK buff again!” Eichi shouts.

The same buff applied to the entire party again. It has the same attributes compared to previous buff.

Academic Support Skill Card Additional Description: Buffed teammate applies forest element to their attacks.

Aaron put his mouth near Cairelle’s ear to whisper. “Use your burst skill to trigger photosynthesis. I would attack next to trigger an enhanced reaction. Do it faster before Eichi’s buff runs out.”

“I understand your strategy. But that card is still on cooldown.” Aaron said.

“Just use your other skill card in your slot as much as it can apply an ocean element to the opponent.”

Cairelle pulls his bow, aiming for the eyes of the cobra. He released the arrow, applying damage to the snake. “Arrow’s Assault!”

Photosynthesis

GNH: 45,000/50,000

The defense stats of the enemy are so strong. It’s just dealt 5K damage from photosynthesis reaction.

A five dandelion appeared beside the cobra. Every spawned dandelion is glowing.

“Aaron, let’s do our plan. Apply your alpine element to that snake. We should finish this!” Cairelle shouts, her voice echoes in the whole domain.

Aaron obeys the orders of his teammates. Therefore, he retrieves his kampilan from his back. He holds it with a firm grip and goes forward to the enemy.

“Why you don’t use your flashing dagger? It’s much better!” Eichi asked.

“Then, why you don’t also use your 2H dagger? We have a different fighting style!” Aaron answered and proceed to focus.

“Wind Slash!” He swayed his glowing sword in the horizontal way. The sword aimed at the body of the cobra where the two dandelions were located.

Desert Element would be a cool idea!

Kuni joined the simultaneous attack plan. He put down his shield and grab his sword. He slashed the enemy using his elemental skill where the three dandelions are located.

Those cute dandelions explode with some strange effects. The strong wind surrounding the opponent’s body has accompanied some of the explosions. While the others explode with a fire spread around.

<_Windy Photosynthesis_>

<_Flame Photosynthesis_>

Eichi goes forward with firm determination, holding his tome and pointing his right hand at the cobra. “Elemental Skill 2: Scholar’s Willpower!”

As Cairelle saw the flying particles from Eichi’s fingers, he does a quick bow shot to apply his ocean element. It aimed at the middle part of the body.

<_Photosynthesis_>

Aaron noticed that the afforestation reaction had been applied and a four-leaf dandelion appeared. It has a 20 seconds countdown before it explodes by itself, or the opportunity to trigger a chained reaction will be gone.

After that, he stepped back with his left foot while putting his right foot forward. He leaps from the ground, reaching the snake’s body. He swayed his sword, forming a triangular slice against the enemy.

Windy Photosynthesis

< ATK buff ends>

< 0GNH/50,000GNH >

“Phew, this game is so boring! It’s just like a rock paper scissors of an earth ecosystem.” He said while yawning, watching the cobra turning into a holographic dust.

Opponent Left: 3/2+1

Extended Battle!

“Mortals, ascension quest is not just easy like that! The GM already knows that players are abusing this rock-paper-scissor elemental system. Now, what would it look like if these insects fight without their power creeping support player?” A loud robotic noise announced to all players inside of the domain.

“The game is now 1:1 ratio, without photosynthesis and explosive dandelion elemental exploit because your long-bangs boy will be now put to the grave!”

< Enemy Name: Physical Flesh-Eating Cobra>

GNH: 25,000/25,000

A new cobra appeared in front of them. Kuni’s phobia of snakes is back. “T… The snake… E… Eichi… Please use your confidence boost skill.”

Kuni ask a help, but no one answered. Everyone looked at the back to see where Eichi was standing, turns out that he disappeared.

Aaron looks to his left side, he saw a big firewall on it and a solid transparent door. He saw Eichi on it, being alone.

“Do you think that your forest element exploit will work in every situation? Your long-bangs boy is just a mortal being, don’t rely on your combat powers from him. Now, fight me without your theorycrafting.” The cobra shouts with confidence in his voice.

The cobra raised its head, choosing one player to attack. He pull out his tongue, making a creepy hissing noise echoed in the whole domain.

Enemy ATK Buff: 50%

“URGH, a talking snake. I… I want to quit right now! What if we die because our support is locked in? No one will scan our dog tags. I’m leaving this domain!”

“Bulbpoint Leav…”

GNH: 0/30,000

The snake lunge his head at Kuni. His body got smashed to the ground. He doesn’t even have a time to speak. He turned to a holographic yellow dust, evaporating on the air, and spawned a revival dog tag.

“That’s what you get, mortals! I forget to hide the transparent door! I need to close it so you won’t suffer from trauma by watching that boy tasting the wrath of a cobra!” This creature laughs and opens his mouth, showing its sharp teeth.

The wall that separates Eichi from the team turns to an elemental firewall. The transparent door was gone. Eichi was now alone in a locked and isolated place of the domain.

As the boss is deciding on his next move, Cairelle takes this opportunity to get Kuni’s dog tag. She keeps it from her pocket for the meantime. “Kuni feared the snake. This will be a nightmare to him if we revived him right now.”

“We should revive him after we complete this challenge!” Aaron nods to Cairelle.

“Now, let me clone myself! That’s why I am half of my GNH. The other half is for your support player to kill it by himself. This is such a fair 1:1 game, no forest element cheating!”

< Enemy Clone >

< GNH: 25,000/25,000 >

His clone has spawned in the other side that separated by the wall. Everyone cannot hear or see what happening to Eichi.

Aaron’s mind numbed, he doesn’t feel anything in his surrounding as he knows what happened to his dearest friend. His heart turns to black, imagining on what will happen next to Eichi’s body.

He felt a surge of goosebumps on his back, his eyes widened out at the point that his eye’s nerves were prominent. A tear is streaming on his cheeks without his senses noticing it.

“You’re a bastard! Eichi is the friend I can trust for everything and you will take him away from my life!”

Uh, but not for his bangs!

“Hey kid, much better to watch your mouth. You’re talking to a mythical creature, not to a human.” The cobra laughs at Aaron’s words.

As he is staring at the cobra, griping his sword to the full extent of his hand’s strength. His vision is blinking a red light. During this time, he saw a system notification in all caps and the text was crimson red-colored.

< Attention! Combat Advisory Notification! >

< “Eichi’s body is in a dangerous situation!” >

He tries to open the bulbpoint interface to search for his power card that can save someone. But there’s no search bar appeared.

< Error: Access Denied >

The Cobra giggles when he saw Aaron attempting to open the bulbpoint. “That’s a terrible idea. Bulbpoint is inaccessible during domain-based combat. This is not an Overworld fight!”

A loud, anxiety-inducing buzzing sound stole Aaron’s attention. A new system notification appears in front of him. The interface of it is unusual. The font gets bigger, and it becomes italic.

< Combat Advisory >

< “Eichi got his bangs ruined! Please help him to scan the dog tag of his bangs to restore it within 2 minutes” >

A floating timer appears in the upper side of his vision.

< 1:58 >

“Who the heck that programmed your brain to ruin someone’s love? You didn’t know how he cares about his bangs.”

Aaron leaps forward, he grabs his sword from his pocket. He swaying it without going in a correct direction like a toy, missing all of his attacks. He continues to attack while the enemy is dodging it without breaking a sweat.

“CMON, Cobra, stop dodging my attacks. You owe me for the atrocity you did!”

As Aaron was slicing everywhere, he felt a sudden surge of sharp pain in his stomach. He looks down, and he saw that the Cobra was lunging at his body.

GNH: 8,500/19,500

Fall Damage: -2000 GNH

GNH: 5,500/13,700

< Don’t ignore! >

< Eichi is on the verge of death with 100 GNH left. >