The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 16: Slaughter

Kiik!! Kiiiiikkkk!!!

The annoying shrieks of a certain green-skinned species rang throughout the cave.

"Tch! Jinkyung, run back to the corner!" Aria brandished her sword and prepared to battle the incoming horde.

Jin-kyung hastily nodded, knowing that there was no time to waste. She covered her ears and ran away from the wide area as the goblin sounds were deafening.

Her eyes swept through the crowd. The goblins' head count was in the hundreds.

A goblin swarm.

One lower goblin can be handled easily, but their numbers were plenty to keep an entire squad busy. Hours of fighting would dull them down, and that was one of the main reasons why goblin exterminations were held in a large scale- possessing tens of members at once.

The goblins had a high reproductive rate, so their numbers would always jump back.

The swarm before her didn't seem to be ending. They rushed into the room without stopping, filling it up completely and cornering the two humans.

"Dianthe, wash them all away!"

Aria enchanted her sword and made her way into the goblin mass.

When Dianthe's waves hit the goblins, she separated the goblins into small groups she could take down with ease, moving around the harsh waves eloquently.

She jabbed her sword into the first goblin. The goblin's movements were shaky due to their puny effort to resist the harsh currents. They staggered, leaving Aria the perfect chance to aim towards the heart.

Blood splattered around, hitting her body. However, the water that soon came by washed it all away.

[Level D Little Goblin <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[<Little Goblin> 1/324.]

Aria gulped her saliva at the notification. She laughed at the ridiculous situation. 324 goblins.

Goblin hordes that numbered in the three hundreds were usually taken care of by more than fifteen people. Twenty to be safe.

But now, Aria was fighting alone. Jin-kyung couldn't be on the offensive side.

"Well.. thank you for the counter!" Aria tried to keep her mind off of the heinous notification and continued her slaughter.

Due to being contracted with Dianthe, Aria had a special tolerance towards water elements. She rushed towards the loud waves, knowing that she'd be safe.

She slashed, slashed, and slashed without any rest.

She was thankful for [Halvargg]. If she hadn't obtained the sword, her previously borrowed sword wouldn't be able to suffice.

Wherever she went, goblin bodies fell onto the ground and writhed in pain.

She aimed for the vital parts. The head, neck, and heart.

[Halvargg] was a long sword, so her mobility was affected whenever she stabbed too deep. Her strikes were made to be efficient- just enough to take the monster's life.

Within the first ten minutes, her goblin counter had risen up to the thirties. The remaining monsters finally fell under three hundred creatures.

The blood pooled around her feet, making it harder to step around and perform clean moves. It was also mixed with Dianthe's waves, although most of the water had been reused to attack the goblins.

Her entire body was covered in blood splotches, and the outfit she stole was rendered almost useless. Drenched and soggy, Aria felt that her body was getting heavier- it was harder to move.

She tried her best to not use unnecessary mana. She had to preserve every single bit of that precious energy if she wanted to survive without any fatal injuries.

One mistake and the battle tide could turn completely.

One by one, the goblins were taken down. Whether it was due to a sharp strike from Aria's enhanced sword, Dianthe's water blades cutting their heads off, or even brute force to take them down.

Their numbers lowered, but Aria was also running out of resources.

'Allocate all points into Strength.' Aria decided to take another risk.

She wanted to see if she could beat the monsters without the enhancements. Her levels had risen by two after killing a hundred goblins, and ten status points were given to her.

She put it all into the Strength, raising the number up to 43.

Aria retracted to the back to catch her breath. This battle was worse than rigorous exercises. She had been involved in this massacre for more than half an hour.

It tired her out.

She became lethargic. Her vision worsened.

It wasn't that her status was depleted.

There was something called Stamina. Something that everybody had.

Even though it wasn't displayed in the status, Aria knew that her stamina was on the verge of depleting.

A level up restored her status and physical condition, but the stamina wasn't affected.

She still felt tired.

"Enchantment. Reinforce," Knowing that her pure strikes were enough to kill a goblin, she decided not to waste her mana to enhance the sword anymore.

"Enchantment. Speed,"

Gritting her teeth, she took off and closed her eyes shut.

To others, this might seem like a dumb move. Closing your eyes in a battle like this was simply asking to be killed.

However, in the next few seconds, Aria would prove them wrong. She had a polished 'battle sense'.

Deriving from her experience, the battle sense aided her and allowed her to spot the enemies' positions. She tracked them and predicted where they would move to.

Little Goblins were simple creatures. Their movements, too, was amateurish. That was the main reason Aria was able to be confident that she could perform this outrageous act.

Her movements were akin to a dance. Precise and faultless. The blade almost felt like it had its own life.

Jin-kyung, who watched from a fair distance looked at Aria's actions in awe. She was almost envious. Aria wasn't only strong, she was also capable of resting while battling.

Almost.

Aria's exhaustion was as clear as day. Even though she tried hard to suppress it, it was still visible.

Jin-kyung understood this and shuddered at the thought of being subjected to such a merciless battle.

Aria wasn't allowed to take any breaks, only seconds worth of breathers.

Resting her eyes to heighten her other senses was a compromise, not a technique. It wasn't intentional. Aria was cornered into using it.

Even though Aria was in the verge of collapsing, she persevered, forcing herself to stay conscious and keep her brain working.

If she stopped, but her and Jin-kyung would die.

The end was near. The goblin counter, which was originally numbered at 324 had just broken through the 250 mark.

Quick maths: 74 were left.

Aria staggered behind, hugging the walls and rambling to regain herself as fast as possible.

She stationed Dianthe to protect her and hold out the goblins from disrupting.

"Come on... come on, come on, come on!" Aria clenched her fists, fighting off the dizziness.

If she was at her peak, this battle would be over in minutes. Even if you deprived her of her summons, her swordsmanship was as refined as a Grand Master.

'I'll fucking train until I drop dead after this shitty dungeon.' Aria resolved herself. She had to climb back up to her prime.

After being supported by the walls for a few minutes, Aria finally knocked off some of the tiredness.

Dianthe was still doing her best, simultaneously preventing 74 goblins from coming near her. She was having troubles.

Her current activated skills were only limited to manipulating water at a basic level and the [Water Blade], an elemental skill that were made available for every spirit.

The goblins persistently aimed for Aria. They knew that Dianthe wasn't as strong as hers, nor did she kill monsters in one shot.

As a result, Dianthe was forced to use her mana extravagantly, depleting her energy source faster.

Aria got back up on her feet and used the wall as a propeller.

Her enchantments were once again activated and used to eliminate the goblins.

After another tiring round of slaughter, Aria came out as a victor.

[Level D Little Goblin <Mad> successfully murdered.]

The last death notification sounded like the best music ever to Aria's ears. A reliever that took all of her piled up stress away.

[<Little Goblin> 324/324.]

The three hundred corpses were scattered on the ground without any care. Some bodies were still twitching, but the System showed that the counter was full- meaning that those fellows wouldn't be able to live in the end.

Aria collapsed onto the ground. She wasn't devoid of injuries. There were a lot of scratches and sprains, but no serious injuries.

Her level up bar wasn't filled yet so she couldn't receive the heavenly 'full heal' feature.

"Finally... this shit is over," Aria felt all of her strength leave her body.

Just then, as if the entire world itself wanted to play a joke just to see her suffer even more, a shout ensued.

A familiar voice. It was Jin-kyung.

"S-Savior-nim!!" Jin-kyung's shout caught Aria's attention.

Aria turned around to find the girl running towards her. At first, she didn't notice why, but once she paid a closer look, it clicked for her.

Jin-kyung hid in a narrow path, the one that led up to the battlefield that now housed the piles of goblin carcasses.

The narrow path was closing in from behind Jin-kyung.

Jin-kyung ran with all her might, trying to escape to where Aria was currently in.

"Jin-kyung!" Aria ran towards her. She stretched her arms to reach the girl, but the walls had fully closed by the time she was only one meter apart from her.

A loud bang. Sounds of trickling sands.

The wall that appeared before her.

'What the actual...'

The dungeon's strange antics didn't seem to have an end.

Aria stopped in her tracks. She touched the wall. It appeared out of nowhere.

When Jin-kyung was running, it was only the back side- the wall was moving vertically.

However, if she saw correctly, the left side of the path opened at the same time as the wall before her.

She knocked on the wall. It was rigid.

'Does that mean Jin-kyung is on this part's left side?' Aria knocked on one particular side, the one she saw open right before the walls were closed.

Aria vaguely saw that Jin-kyung also noticed the opening path. She would have enough time to jump into the new zone, but what was in it?

If it was monsters, then it was bad. Really bad.

"Jin-kyung?" Aria called out.

However, there was no answer. Not even a slight movement.

She tried calling a little louder, but no one replied.

Feeling at a loss over Jin-kyung's sudden abduction, she was puzzled.

In her daze, Dianthe approached and swirled around her. It made gestures that seemed to want her to hear her.

"..Dianthe?" Aria had a bad feeling about this.

Dianthe was anxiously pointing at her back.

Turning around, Aria was taken aback.