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nKairos 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.

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

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

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

nHowever, 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.

nDespite 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.

nKairos 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.

nA 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.

nKairos’ eyes became bloodshot as he hunched over.

nThen, he blinked a few times before calming down.

nThe monster spoke.

n“Pass.”

nIt 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.

nThe 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.

nThe 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.

n“Strong.”

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

n“I guess they want to test us for some reason.”

nNicole took a deep breath.

n“That was dangerous!”

nKairos nodded.

n“That arm was unexpected.”

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

n“Three.”

nSeeing this, Harold furrowed his brows.

n“We don’t have to listen to them, right?”

nChase shrugged his shoulders.

n“I suppose not. But that would be boring.”

nTori’s eyes were slightly widened.

n“It would be a waste not to interact with monsters that actually have intelligence!”

nKairos sighed.

n“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.”

nChase smirked.

n“Haha, that is not enough to stop me.”

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

n“They seem tough, but… I should be able to deal with them.”

nShe 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.

nSydney 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.

nHarold’s eyes widened slightly as he saw this.

n“Nicole!”

nNicole cowered slightly, but remained resolute in her decision.

n“I will back off if it gets too dangerous!”

nSydney also seemed concerned.

n“But…”

nNicole gave a small bow.

n“I want to build a peaceful future, so I won’t give up any opportunity!”

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

nIn response, Tori simply cleared her throat.

n“You can’t just go charging in recklessly.”

nNicole pouted.

n“I will do what I want to do.”

nTori pressed her lips together.

n“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.”

nNicole furrowed her brows.

n“What are you talking about?”

nTori sighed.

n“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.”

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

n“What options should I be keeping-”

n“Proof.”

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

n“No time!”

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

nA clear thump rang out.

nThough 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.

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

nOn 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.

nNicole’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.

nTori clicked her tongue and turned to Chase.

n“Damn. Can you help us out?”

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

n“There are two other monsters to deal with and you two can’t deal with a single one?”

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

nKairos who was watching this couldn’t help but be displeased.

n“Why do they get to use magic already…”

nChase 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.

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

n“You have to hold down that guy in the front!”

nTori sighed.

n“Easier said than done!”

nChase’s eyebrow twitched.

n“If you can’t find a way, we are just going to make a fool of ourselves.”

nNicole 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.

nHowever, 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.

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

nNicole 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.

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

nWith 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.

nThough their first attacks weren’t successful, the two of them swung once more.

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

nHowever, 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.

nChase clicked his tongue once more.

nHe 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.

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

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

nNicole 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.

nIt was almost like someone was telling her, ‘Just solve the problem using calculus.’

nAs though that was supposed to help her when she didn’t even know calculus.

nThe 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.

nIn 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.

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

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

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

n‘I need to stop it, but what can I do?’

n‘Options… what are my options…’

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

nTori 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.

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

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

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

nThe 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.

nNicole 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.

nFor 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.

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

nThe 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.

nAs 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.

nAnd at that moment, Chase released his arrow.

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