Chapter 22: So Dumb, It Actually Works

Kairos didn't put his full strength into the attack, but was also pretty confident that he would be able to hit the hooded monster hard while it was in the air. Worst case scenario, it blocks the attack with its arm.

However, his future vision showed him that things could be worse.

A third hand burst out from the monster's chest, extending out and grabbing the blade of the fire axe.

Seeing this, Kairos immediately stopped his swing and shot backwards.

However, he quickly saw that the arm coming out of the monster's chest wasn't so simple. It had no skin, making it a bright red mass of muscle and was able to extend out much farther than its normal arm.

Despite the fact Kairos retreated, the arm continued to shoot towards him and grab onto the blade of the axe. It was simply too fast for him to do anything.

Kairos attempted to resist, but quickly realized that this arm was far stronger than normal, to the point it could lift him up if he stubbornly held on to the axe. As such, he decisively let go of the axe despite knowing that it was his only weapon.

A little bit of insanity seeped into his adrenaline-filled mind once he realized that he would have to beat the monster using his bare hands.

Kairos' eyes became bloodshot as he hunched over.

Then, he blinked a few times before calming down.

The monster spoke.

"Pass."

It was horribly distorted and fleshy sounding like usual, but the tone behind it made the meaning clear even if the word itself wasn't so clear.

The arm that had burst out of the monster's chest continued to extend out towards Kairos, but at a moderate pace. It held out the axe right in front of him, which Kairos promptly took.

The arm then rapidly disappeared into the monster's chest as it went back to its original position. However, before the monster went all the way back, it turned its head around to look at Kairos and nodded.

"Strong."

Kairos blinked a few times before walking back to the others.

"I guess they want to test us for some reason."

Nicole took a deep breath.

"That was dangerous!"

Kairos nodded.

"That arm was unexpected."

As they were talking, three of the hooded monsters walked up. The one in the middle was at the front and raised three fingers.

"Three."

Seeing this, Harold furrowed his brows.

"We don't have to listen to them, right?"

Chase shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose not. But that would be boring."

Tori's eyes were slightly widened.

"It would be a waste not to interact with monsters that actually have intelligence!"

Kairos sighed.

"But of course, I don't think those things would hesitate to kill one of us. So if you do choose to go up, you should understand that your life is at risk."

Chase smirked.

"Haha, that is not enough to stop me."

With that, he walked a few steps forward, but still hung back. Tori shot a look at Kairos before turning to the monsters.

"They seem tough, but... I should be able to deal with them."

She walked up until she was only a few meters away from the monsters. They did not react to her presence. It seemed like they wouldn't act until three people stepped closer.

Sydney and Harold were both extremely reluctant. They didn't look like they would step up anytime soon. As for Nicole, she was also hesitant, but eventually grit her teeth and walked up as well.

Harold's eyes widened slightly as he saw this.

"Nicole!"

Nicole cowered slightly, but remained resolute in her decision.

"I will back off if it gets too dangerous!"

Sydney also seemed concerned.

"But..."

Nicole gave a small bow.

"I want to build a peaceful future, so I won't give up any opportunity!"

With that, she left her parents speechless, then got up next to Tori. Nicole stared at Tori with a frown, clearly showing her dislike.

In response, Tori simply cleared her throat.

"You can't just go charging in recklessly."

Nicole pouted.

"I will do what I want to do."

Tori pressed her lips together.

"You can't completely commit to any of your actions, or you will be left helpless once the opponent reacts in time. That's why I was able to knock you out immediately, but couldn't for your friend."

Nicole furrowed her brows.

"What are you talking about?"

Tori sighed.

"If you were paying attention to the fight he had earlier, you would notice he constantly gave up on swinging once he noticed it would be unfavorable to do so. Keeping your options open is always necessary."

Nicole seemed a little hesitant, but eventually decided to ask for advice.

"What options should I be keeping-"

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"Proof."

The monster at the front interrupted her. Tori narrowed her eyes.

"No time!"

She immediately swung her katana, which the monster at the front blocked.

A clear thump rang out.

Though her attack tore through its flesh easily, it stopped right in its tracks after hitting the bone. The monster began pushing back, but Tori immediately retrieved her katana and backed off.

Her strength was not enough to deal with this kind of monster easily.

On the other hand, Nicole hurriedly put on the red watch during this time. Right afterward, she swung the fire axe at the monster's head. Unfortunately, the monster was one step ahead, literally. As in the monster took a step forward and let the handle of the fire axe hit his forearm, thus rendering the attack null.

Nicole's eyes widened as she found herself at a loss. The monster wasn't going to show any mercy and shoved her hard, making her stumble back a few meters before falling onto the ground.

Tori clicked her tongue and turned to Chase.

"Damn. Can you help us out?"

Chase simply frowned as a mana arrow formed on his bow.

"There are two other monsters to deal with and you two can't deal with a single one?"

As he said, there were two monsters standing a few meters behind. They had their hands outstretched as blue mana slowly gathered in their hands.

Kairos who was watching this couldn't help but be displeased.

"Why do they get to use magic already..."

Chase had his arrow pulled back already, while the two monsters still seemed to be gathering mana. The monster at the front immediately noticed this and had his eyes trained on him.

As Chase aimed toward one of them in the back, the monster in the front also moved over. This made Chase curse under his breath.

"You have to hold down that guy in the front!"

Tori sighed.

"Easier said than done!"

Chase's eyebrow twitched.

"If you can't find a way, we are just going to make a fool of ourselves."

Nicole got up to her feet and repeated to herself mentally that she had to find a way to prevent the monster at the front from moving.

However, no ideas came to mind, thus she ended up charging forwards and raising her fire axe. Tori seemed a little frustrated, but did the same thing as well since she couldn't think of anything better.

The monster held both of its forearms up like swords. It simply remained in that position, standing there like a rock.

Nicole swung the fire axe, but did not use all of her strength as Tori said. Though it was definitely not slow, the monster was able to step back and avoid it entirely. As for Tori, she did a rather elusive strike, one that seemed to go for the torso, but actually went for the neck.

The monster seemed to fall for it, blocking its torso. However, it also hunched over, protecting the neck with its forearms.

With another thunk, Tori's katana pierced through its flesh but stopped at the bone. Knowing how hard this monster's bones were, she did not even try to push any further, taking a step back.

Though their first attacks weren't successful, the two of them swung once more.

Chase thought that he could use this time to shoot his arrow, this pointed it towards the other monster in the back.

However, the one protecting them immediately noticed. It kept its forearms up and charged to the side like a bulldozer, knocking over Nicole and forcing Tori to retreat.

Chase clicked his tongue once more.

He began sweating slightly, thinking that his only chance of hitting the arrow would be by curving it to throw the protecting monster off. However, he could only curve the arrow once and really didn't want to use it just so that it would go in the monster's direction.

Ideally, Chase would use that curving ability to redirect it towards the direction that someone dodged.

He slowly narrowed his eyes as he began to lose faith in the two people up front.

Nicole got back up to her feet with frustration. Although she intended on listening to Tori about having more options, she also had no idea what those other options were supposed to be.

It was almost like someone was telling her, 'Just solve the problem using calculus.'

As though that was supposed to help her when she didn't even know calculus.

The monster had taken a decent amount of damage from Tori's attacks. However, the bleeding from his wounds would stop in a matter of seconds while not affecting his ability to move.

In other words, it would take an extremely long time to injure the monster enough so that it was no longer a threat. Considering that there were two monsters in the back, casting something, they did not have that time.

Tori swung her katana once more, trying to be tricky like a snake.

However, the monster was able to cover most of its vital points with its forearms, thus it simply landed on the forearms once more.

Nicole charged forth while raising the fire axe as several thoughts flashed in her mind.

'I need to stop it, but what can I do?'

'Options... what are my options...'

It was hard to think under the effects of the red watch, but she forced herself to do so.

Tori frowned slightly as she felt that the same thing would happen again. And as for Nicole, she thought the same. Her axe shot towards the monster's chest, but Nicole was still thinking about what she could possibly do.

She thought about doing a wrestling move, but didn't even know what those looked like.

For some reason, Nicole thought about Kairos and how she would wrap her around his shoulder as a greeting.

She tried to get rid of that thought, thinking it was useless. But then, a rather strange idea came to her mind.

The monster bent its knees, getting ready to take a hit. However, Nicole ended up dropping the axe altogether. In that short moment where pretty much everyone was confused, she got behind the monster and threw herself forward at full force, with one arm extended out.

Nicole would always do this same move to Kairos pretty much every time she saw him. The first couple of times, Kairos always seemed to be able to resist the push, hardly even stumbling.

For whatever reason, this made Nicole feel dissatisfied. As such, she slowly learned how to tackle more effectively, while Kairos would learn how to remain as stable as possible. This mini-war that they had with one another for so long made Nicole really good at toppling people over.

It was a really strange skill, but it came in handy during this time.

The monster currently had his knees bent in a way that would let him take on a lot of force from the front without falling over. However, the same didn't apply to his back.

As such, when that arm suddenly slammed against the side of its shoulder, it stumbled forwards, hardly able to control itself. It even ended up falling over, using its hand to hold itself up.

And at that moment, Chase released his arrow.

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