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nEven though Cynrik was enraged, he still had the common sense to start casting skills. “Haste,” his first choice, was to activate his new skill for his Wind Affinity.

n-Tier 0 Wind Affinity Skill-

n-Haste – increases the user’s Agility by 15 points for 3 minutes.-

n-Cost 50 Mana Points-

nGreen whisps of Mana manifested around Cynrik’s body as his movement speed nearly doubled. But, that wasn’t all, “Shadow Veil” the next skill he activated was the skill he’d shown Brance not long after he awoke his Darkness Affinity.

n-Tier 0 Dark Affinity Skill-

n-Shadow Veil – The user cloaks themselves in a thin mist of shadows to reduce their presence from anything within five levels of themselves. If its user receives, any damage mist will be dispursed-

n-Cost 25 Mana Points to activate, 2 Mana Points per second to sustain-

nBrance’s eyes widened as he watched his brother’s figure speed up and turn hazy. Then, not wanting to lose out, he activated Haste to catch up and took it a step further by using one of his Earth Skills.

n-Tier 0 Earth Affinity Skill-

n-Earth Skin- The user creates a thin skin-like membrane around their entire body made of Earth Elemental Mana, Increasing the user’s Defence by 20%-

n-Cost 20 Mana Points to activate, 2 Mana Points per second to sustain.-

nBrance’s pale skin changed into a rock-like texture as he took things one step further by activating his first newly acquired Light Affinity Skill targeting himself and Cynrik.

n-Tier 0 Light Affinity Skill-

n– Bless- The skill grants up to two targets 10 STR for 5 minutes.-

n– Cost, 25 Mana Points per Target-

nUsing three Mana-based skills at once put some strain on Brance’s MP, but, seeing how reckless Cynrik was rushing headlong into battle “Leroy Jenkins” style, he took the chance to cast a STR buff on him.

nThe instant Cynrik cast Shadow Veil, the bears lost sight of him entirely and changed their target to Brance. Letting out a roar, one of the bears pulled ahead of its companion and met Brance head-on. But just before it collided with Brance’s shield, it screamed in pain as blood began spouting from the right sides of its maw. Bear One slid to a stop with bloodshot eyes while thrashing its head side to side in confusion and agony.

nCovered in his Shadow Veil, Cynrik had arrived first at the target and lashed out with his left arm. During the slashing, he formed his hand into a claw and tilted his wrist upward, triggering the mechanism on his gauntlet, which extended the hidden blade. Feeling his blade bite into the bear’s flesh, Cynrik quickly retracted his left arm. Then, while still moving forward, he twisted his upper body 180 degrees before lashing out with his right arm, making the same motion and dealing a two-hit combo to the bear face before moving on towards Bear Two.

nBrance didn’t miss a beat; the second he arrived at the bleeding Bear One, he violently slammed his shield into the already bleeding bear’s face causing a loud sound to echo in the surrounding area and subsequently gaining Bear One’s attention.

nI’ll hold Bear One’s aggro while you take out Bear Two. Using his shield to deflect the bear’s paw, Brance gave Cynrik the go-ahead to focus on Bear Two.

nBear Two saw its companion fighting and wanted to rush its aid but was stopped by a stinging pain in both its left side legs; looking down, its pupils shrunk to pinholes seeing blood gushing from its ankles before it lost its balance and collapsed onto its shoulder. Cynrik had used his hidden blades to slice through Bear Two’s Achilles tendons forcing it to collapse in one strike.

nWith a loud thud, Bear Two slammed into the ground and slid to a stop. Without hesitation, Cynrik pushed off the ground with his lead foot, spun mid-air, and landed on Bear Two’s back.

nIn rapid succession, and without hesitation, he began rapidly stabbing Bear Two in its neck just behind the base of its skull with both hidden blades, digging them to the base of the blade before pulling them back and stabbing again.

nFeeling the sudden weight gain on its back and the searing pain in its neck, Bear Two roared in pain as it frantically tried to remove the invader by any means. Thrashing about and trying to swat off Cynrik was useless; however, as he quickly drew the sword on his back and jammed it into the same spot, he had been rapid firing with his hidden blades.

n“RAHHHHHH,” roaring in fury, Cynrik used all of his strength to stab the sword through the tough hide to the sword’s hilt, subsequently severing its spine, silencing Bear Two, forcing its head to the ground, dead.

nThe instant Bear Two’s heart stopped, it burst into green particles triggering a chain of notifications for both Cynrik and Brance, but both chose to ignore them and deal with the remaining enemy.

nWhile Cynrik was dealing with Bear Two, Brance was having a hard time with Bear One. Unlike his practically invisible brother, Brance had to duck, dodge, and block every attack thrown at him. Comparatively, Cynrik was able to kill Bear Two without being attacked once.

nIn the time it had taken Cynrik to kill his target, Brance had dealt with over a dozen blows from Bear One, and his HP was steadily dropping. If it weren’t for his Earth Skin, he would have been in worse shape, but the 20% defense buff was holding firm as he moved from blocking or dodging to hacking at the bear with his short sword.

nSoon enough, Cynrik arrived and, just like he had with Bear Two, severed the enemy’s Achilles tendons forcing it to its belly. Then, moving in sync, Brance and Cynrik took the air and struck Bear One on opposite sides of its head with powerful well placed kicks, causing it to snap left and right violently. Next, Cynrik took to the bear’s back and pierced its spine while Brance slit its throat simultaneously. Then, letting out one last sorrowful roar, Bear One joined its counterpart and burst into a shower of green particles.

nFinally, out of combat, a wave of fatigue flowed into the brothers, causing them to both crumble to the ground. Before the battle, they were already running low on Stam, tack on the 28-hour training marathon; they were exhausted.

nSprawled out on their backs and staring into the endless white sky, they started to chuckle to themselves. “Take that Carlisle one and two.” Cynrik’s comment made them both laugh even harder until streams of tears ran down both their cheeks.

n“You seriously hate that bear that much, huh?” Brance hadn’t been around for the beginning of Cynriks hatred, and his brother had never gone into detail about why he disliked it so much.

n“Listen, Mother hasn’t tortured you in the same way she did me,” thinking about all the endless hours of being forced to sit on the couch and watch that stupid **ing cartoon made Cynriks blood run cold. “Before you got here, every single time she wanted to keep me occupied, I was placed in either my bouncy chair, playpen, or on the couch, and guess what was on TV every single **ing time.”

n“Ha, sucks to be you; at least now she just puts us together to play instead of making you watch it alone. Let’s check our gains and head back. I need some sleep,” waving his hand, Brance quickly sorted through the handful of notifications from their battle.

n-You have killed Level 5 Virtual Creature (Carlisle Clone) x2 –

n-You have gained 200XP –

n-You have gained 200XP –

n-You have gained 0.2 Vitality –

n-You gave gained 0.2 Strength –

n-Haste has worn off –

n-Bless has worn off –

n-You have deactivated Earth Skin –

nReading through all of the notifications, a feeling of satisfaction overcame the brothers. “Well, Brance, if I do say so myself, I do believe our first fight here on Vinestra was a success,” letting out a small laugh Cynrik picked his tired body up and walked over to help up Brance.

n“It’s going to take some getting used to using cold weapons and magic, but I think it went well. I kinda miss my rifle, though. We coulda dropped those **ers a lot faster and with a lot less effort,” reaching up and catching Cynriks arm, Brance replied, accepting his help to stand up.

n“I’m sure there are guns in Vinestra, maybe laser rifles or something, but it’s more fun to hack at things with a blade.”

n“Says the guy who can practically go invisible and assassinate his target; I had to sit there and get abused by the damn thing while you had fun playing ninja.”

n“OI, NO. ONE. TOLD. YOU. TO. GO. TANK. BRANCE,” the brothers started bickering as they trudged back to the Rest Area.

nOnce they finally stepped onto the marble tiles, a sudden thought popped into Brances head. Looking down at his clothes and then over to Cynrik, he just now noticed they were both covered in blood. “Hey…uh Cynrik?”

n“Hm?” Cynrik was already kicking off his shoes and taking off his training gear when he stopped and glanced over at the motionless Brance.

n“D…Does this place have a shower?” only then did Cynrik seem to realize he was covered in blood.

n“Ah…I….I uh don’t know.”

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