Chapter 55: CHAPTER 54 - The layer of kobolds.
Till now, Alex had yet to use his abilities to their full extent.
He had always been cautious, so he tried his best to not have his cards revealed to someone he didn't trust.
That was the main reason why, even though he could, Alex never used his skill unless necessary.
That one time when he had no other option but to use his killing intent in order to stop the goblins from harming Ridha was the only time he ever used his abilities.
Now, however, there was no one who was going to observe his abilities and try to find their weakness.
Right now, the Kobolds were the only beings that could even get to know about his skills.
But what does it matter? He was going to kill them anyway.
*Grip*
With a tight grip on his dagger, he dashed toward the incoming horde of around 20 kobolds.
He had tried his skill on a small group of goblins before, so now he wanted to see how it would work on a group this large.
*Glare*
His eyes sharpened as he glared at the kobolds with his killing intent spiked.
"Gah!"
"Krok!"
"Grrah!"
"Kriek!"
…..
…
.
The kobolds, who fell prey to the killing intent—one of Alex's strongest abilities—froze in fear.
Their bodies stilled; they couldn't even turn to the side or move their heads. All they could do was watch in horror as their reptilian eyes reflected the metallic gleam of Alex's dagger.
'Battle analytics.'
But Alex wasn't done; the next second, he activated another one of his abilities.
His graphical representation of his movements formed again; this time, however, there were not many changes in the graph.
Yes, the graph did show him ways to improve his fighting style, but all of them were just inch improvements.
None of them were changes like the ones he saw at the start.
He knitted together, but he didn't stop.
*Slash*
He waved his arm, directly aiming for a frozen kobold.
*Slice*
The blade sliced through the kobold's neck without a pause.
Its hard scales couldn't even make the blade pause for a second, and the blade passed through them like a hot knife on butter.
*Gurgle*
That frozen kobold died without even being able to scream, gurgling on its own blood.
<Your fighting style was strong but unrefined before the apocalypse; that was the reason why that graph could find a lot of mistakes in it.
Now, however, it is refined and swift, so it will take some time to make it better.
To hasten the process, though, you could integrate more battle arts into it.>
The AI, on the other hand, tried to help Alex with the problem he was facing.
The AI knew more about skills than Alex because it could understand the basics of every ability, so it explained to him why he couldn't increase his proficiency in his battle arts.
'If you have already mastered something to the best it could be, then how could you ever find a mistake in that?'
It's as simple as that.
Alex's battle art, something that he created all by himself even before the apocalypse arrived, could only reach rare rank at its best.
Now that it was already at its best, finding fault in it was hard for the ability itself.
But that is where the other function of that ability comes into play.
Integration.
An ability that helps Alex combine different battle styles and arts into his.
By doing so, although he would be making his battle art stronger, he would be making it flawed as well.
Once there are flaws, then the battle analytics would let him make it closest to perfect, helping him get a huge improvement.
That's how it would go on and on; it's not a special upgradable skill for no reason.
This skill was so strange that even the system had raised a brow when she had noticed it.
'Hm.'
Alex, who heard the AI's words, nodded his head inwardly, and his browns returned to normal.
His eyes then moved toward the other kobolds, all of them frozen in their spots.
But then he frowned again…
'My mana…'
He could already feel his mana being drained at a fast pace; in just 2 seconds, he had already expended 5% of his mana, which was not low since all of his mana would run out in just 40 seconds.
Yes, that much time would be enough for him to deal with all of the kobolds in front of him, but he would be left with a very low amount of mana after all that.
The AI again advised Alex, and he did just that.
There was no need for that ability to stay activated for these beasts; they were weak.
The battle analytics also provided him with a little boost in his powers and perception, which he didn't need right now.
Not for these low-level kobolds.
Alex just rushed toward the frozen Kobolds with his dagger, ready to cut them down.
Even his killing intent was taking chunks of his mana.
It would've been fine if it was just one kobold; their power was low, and their will to fight would be shaken by the killing intent, but the same couldn't be said for a horde of 20 or more beasts.
*Slash**Squench*
Alex just slashed another kobold, hurriedly moving to the next one, not wanting to waste more time than it had already been wasted.
What he failed to notice was that the beast that had been shooting arrows at him was now trying to run away.
That beast was the kobold chief, and he was thinking of rushing toward the small layer that these kobolds had built.
The kobold chief looked almost the same as the other kobolds; he was just a bit thinner, grinding him higher agility, and his scales were green colored—stronger than other kobolds.
But the moment he saw his subordinates—20+ underlings—freezing in front of Alex, it became clear that he wouldn't be able to defeat Alex.
He could still try shooting Alex from afar, but looking at the surroundings filled with trees, he knew that it wouldn't be long before he got killed as well.
So, he decided to rush toward the place he knew the best: his lair.
That was where he was going to wait for Alex.
But just as he was almost sneaking away from the place, he suddenly started to feel cold, and a shiver went down his spine.
His body froze, and his head creaked toward the cold gaze he felt, and he trembled the moment he saw two frosty golden eyes staring at him.
Alex could surely miss some sneaky moves of the kobold chief since he was dealing with the low-leveled kobolds, but how could he not notice it running away when he had placed that beast under the list that posed danger to him?
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