Chapter 44 44 - Bloody Idea
With wide eyes, Gabe was surprised as he looked at the two daggers floating in front of him. He had already tried to control two daggers at the same time, but the mastery he had to control them was very low. While before the mission he needed full concentration to control the daggers, just like someone who had just learned how to use Chopsticks to eat sushi, Gabe could now feel that he controlled the daggers like an experienced sushi eater. As much as he didn\'t control the two daggers at the same time like the Asians who had eaten using them practically since birth, he was already able to control them very well to do simpler things.
"Uff…" Max sighed as he sat on the ground, breathing hard after finishing killing all the monsters.
The scene around them was almost like a sea of Gnoll corpses, as they had killed at least 40 or 50 of the monsters. Among the people in the group, the only ones who weren\'t completely worn out were Gabe, Caitlyn and Marcus, as their weapons did ranged damage without much physical effort, unlike Madison who had to pull her bowstring nonstop.
So the difference in the way everyone was acting was pretty big.
Max, Draum, the young man with the spear and Madison were very out of breath, while Caitlyn and Marcus were wandering among the corpses of monsters looking for Mana stones, but without much fatigue. Gabe was only one slightly pale from the continuous use of Mana, but still relaxed enough to play with two daggers floating in front of him.
Fortunately, Caitlyn and Marcus found a Rank E Mana Stone, which could be sold for 20 to 30 thousand, which, after being divided among the group of 7 people, would still leave around 3.5k for each of them.
Considering that a Rank E mission paid 1k, just the profit from that Mana stone was enough to pay for 3.5 more missions that they would have to do. The one who was most happy with that was Caitlyn, who, despite customizing weapons for other Players, still had a debt in her name that needed to be settled as soon as possible.
"Hey dude, you did great with that dagger." Max smiled as he looked at Gabe, who was playing with the floating daggers.
Gabe commanded the daggers to return to his waist as he smiled back. "Thanks, bro. I tried my best to get the best out of it."
"You cutting the monsters\' tendons was of immense help to us. I think the probability of someone dying, or at least being seriously injured in this battle was very high; at least, without that assistance it would have been. Well done Gabe." Draum praised with a smile.
The atmosphere in the group was very good, mainly because everyone knew that the amount of monsters they had managed to kill this time was so high just because of Gabe\'s support, which made many sigh internally because of the difference in power between a Player and a Developer. Despite both being Rank E, it was clear to the group that even on Rank D missions, Gabe\'s power would be very useful. This was true even more so after Gabe managed to control his power even better, since initially he could only control one dagger, but after that battle it was clear from his demonstration that it would not be impossible to control two daggers in the near future. If he was already so useful while only controlling one dagger, imagine if he could control 10 daggers at the same time? He would almost be like a god of war on a chaotic battlefield like this one they were on.
After a few minutes of banter, the group finally rested enough to enter the Gnolls\' camp and finally kill the leader of these monsters. Even if they had killed nearly 90% of the Gnolls\' population, it would only take a few months for the Gnolls not only to recover that amount, but to double that amount. So they knew that despite having to fight a very powerful monster, they had to keep going.
Looking at the camp in front of them, even Gabe, who had never participated in quests and dealt with powerful monsters, could feel the danger that it would be to approach this.
"Wowowowoooooooo…"
From afar, they could hear the howl of an angry Gnoll, which was soon joined by a few more howls from other Gnolls who probably stayed at the camp to protect their leader.
"I think they figured out our location! Let\'s go!" Draum ordered with a serious expression.
It didn\'t take long for them to arrive at the center of the camp. There was a big Gnoll surrounded by 5 other smaller Gnolls, all equipped with metal armor, which nobody knew where they got it, and to make matters worse, they were also equipped with metal weapons.
Seeing that there was a Gnoll holding a bow with a metal arrow pointed in their direction, Gabe became very attentive.
Swoosh!
Gabe didn\'t even have to pay close attention to see the Gnoll shooting that arrow without any mercy. The Gnoll\'s target, incredibly, was Gabe!
Not only was Gabe slightly surprised by this Gnoll\'s attitude, in addition to the weapon in his hand, the other Players were also surprised by it. They didn\'t expect the Gnolls to actually have ranged weapons, which were much harder to deal with.
Draum desperately tried to raise his shield to protect Gabe from the arrow, but Draum\'s muscle speed wasn\'t as fast as the speed of the arrow\'s flight. This caused everyone\'s expressions to freeze, already imagining the bloody scene that would be Gabe\'s head exploding from the impact of the arrow shot by a High Rank E monster. But to their shock, the arrow that was fast approaching Gabe quickly stopped.
Looking at the arrow just inches away from his face, Gabe broke out in a cold sweat, mentally thanking himself for being prepared for this and being able to react to stop this arrow. If it had been before the previous battle, Gabe would only have the confidence to change the trajectory of that arrow to save himself, but considering that there were several Players beside him, the probability of him changing the direction of that arrow at such high speed and making it hit another Player was too high, which would probably cause a disaster! But now, with the power he accumulated and mastered in battle, despite consuming a lot of Mana, it wasn\'t such a difficult task to control this arrow.
Angry for the first time, Gabe said nothing, and using his power, Gabe aimed the arrow back at the Gnoll and used a huge amount of Mana to try to make the arrow fly as fast as possible. Just as the Players were shocked at how tensely Gabe stopped the arrow and in the next second aimed the arrow at the Gnoll, sending it back, the Gnolls were also shocked at what had just happened, not understanding what this human had done to the arrow to stop it, until suddenly the arrow was flying again in the reverse direction of the trajectory that it was.
Whoosh!
The Gnoll who shot the arrow at Gabe didn\'t even have time to react as the sharp metal-tipped arrow came flying back almost as fast as he sent it and penetrated his skull, causing blood to leak everywhere as the monster\'s body fell.
Wowoooooooo!
The big Gnoll finally reacted and was enraged to see one of the most powerful and loyal minions beside him die so easily and started running towards these humans. The other Gnolls also reacted and wasted no time attacking this group, swinging their weapons angrily to try and kill everyone. As this time there was no safe position to hide, Draum would not be able to protect everyone, making Max and the young man with the spear also have to face Gnolls on their own without being able to count on Draum\'s shield to protect them.
Draum was holding the biggest Gnoll with his shield, the Gnoll with Peak Rank E strength, while Max and the young man were each contending with a High Rank E Gnoll.
The other two Gnolls had no one to stop them, so they ran desperately towards Gabe, Madison, Marcus, and Caitlyn, who didn\'t think twice before opening fire on these monsters.
Even though the Gnolls were in metal armor, there was still a lot of skin exposed, which made it possible for them to take damage, but with the thickness of the hide they had as High Rank E monsters, Caitlyn and Marcus\'s bullets didn\'t penetrate as deeply or do as much damage as they wanted.
But feeling the metals wrapped around the bodies of those monsters, a bloody idea came to Gabe\'s mind!
But feeling the metals wrapped around the bodies of those monsters, a bloody idea, one could even say a bloody good idea, came to Gabe\'s mind!
//NunuNote//
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