LIGHTNOVELONLINE [21] : Dance of Death, One Against a Hundred, The Art of Combat
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"Hu!"
Exhaling slowly, Mika's gaze gradually sharpened.
At this moment, the path he had previously cleared was once again blocked by monsters, completely surrounding him.
"Roar! Roar!"
"Squeak! Squeak!"
Various monster cries echoed continuously, growing closer and closer.
The monsters were rapidly advancing towards Mika.
"Let the slaughter begin!"
Holding a weapon in each hand, Mika didn't wait for the monsters to attack; instead, he charged into the monster horde ahead.
He knew very well that he couldn't let the monsters completely encircle him.
Running swiftly across the grassy ground, the flames behind Mika's feet propelled him into the midst of the monster horde in an instant.
Using his shield to fend off the front, Mika directly knocked away the monsters colliding with him head-on.
With a swing of his flame-imbued greatsword, Mika executed a 'Water Surface Slash,' slaying several nearby monsters and clearing a space for himself to fight.
"A foothold is cleared."
Mika steadied himself, immediately retracting the flames from his sword.
Although the flame-imbued greatsword significantly increased his destructive power, his LV.2 magic couldn't sustain it for long.
Moreover, the weapon's endurance meant Mika could only use magic at the most critical moments.
For example, clearing space in the monster horde to unleash his full strength.
Currently, Mika was fighting against a hundred.
And these "hundred" were not all weak monsters. This was the twelfth floor, the deepest part of the upper layers, where monsters were terrifyingly strong in physical abilities.
But physical ability and combat strength were not the same.
The difference lay in skill, experience, and awareness.
These factors determined the gap between two individuals with the same physical abilities.
And in these aspects, Mika surpassed these monsters.
But that was it. After all, this was one against a hundred, where numerical advantage could negate the skill gap. Any attack from these powerful monsters was hard to withstand.
So, Mika aimed to turn this one-against-a-hundred into a hundred one-on-one battles.
He would use his skill and endurance to defeat them.
Therefore, he needed space where he could fully unleash his abilities.
Without this space, being squeezed in the dense monster horde, even the highest skill would be hard to showcase.
After all, the foundation of martial arts was footwork.
"Clang!"
A heavy wooden club slammed into Mika's shield, the heavy sound echoing through the monster horde.
"Tsk, I've never hated the weaponry here so much!"
From the tenth floor onward, the foggy environment had changed the rocky ground into a grassy field, with trees growing in the grasslands.
These trees were not ordinary plants; they were natural armories in the dungeon.
The half-beasts living here could easily pull these trees out, which then transformed into clubs, becoming the most handy weapons for the half-beasts, greatly enhancing their attack strength.
A blow from a half-beast's club was unbearable even for Mika.
With a strong shove, Mika redirected the half-beast's attack to the side, leaving it defenseless at the front.
With a swift swing of his greatsword, Mika cut off the half-beast's leg.
The half-beast, losing a leg, fell towards Mika. Mika quickly jumped back, avoiding it, then decapitated the half-beast.
"What a hassle!"
Though Mika quickly dealt with the half-beast, it was still too slow for him.
In this encircled situation, efficiency in killing was crucial.
But the half-beast's size made it hard to kill in one hit, being too tall.
A typical half-beast stood three meters high, its vital points unreachable by normal attacks.
This was one reason why large monsters were tough to deal with.
"The most important thing now is to reduce the number of monsters, or my space will keep shrinking."
"I also can't stay in one place fighting; I need to keep moving."
"If half-beasts are hard to deal with, I'll kill the lesser demons first!"
Among the hundred monsters, most were lesser demons.
If Mika could eliminate these lesser demons first, he wouldn't have to worry about being completely surrounded.
As long as he wasn't entirely surrounded, Mika was confident he could defeat them all.
Scanning the area, Mika spotted a group of lesser demons huddled together.
Immediately, he turned and charged towards the lesser demons.
"Water Breathing, Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow!"
This Water Breathing technique minimized landing time and area, allowing the user to move freely, suitable for combat in confined spaces.
Now, Mika was heading into the monster horde with hardly any landing points.
Dodging a half-beast's swinging club, Mika ran up the club, reaching the half-beast's shoulder, then leaped towards the lesser demons behind.
"Water Breathing, Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!"
Crashing into the lesser demon group, Mika killed the nearby lesser demons with one strike.
But it wasn't over.
With Mika's arrival, various Water Breathing techniques were unleashed.
Water Breathing, Third Form: Flowing Dance.
This technique allowed Mika to move like water, with astonishing speed, leaving afterimages among the lesser demons.
Other techniques like 'First Form: Water Surface Slash' and 'Third Form: Striking Tide' were continuously used, slaying the surrounding lesser demons.
But this didn't last long.
Unlike other monsters, lesser demons had some semblance of intelligence.
They coordinated, fighting as a team.
Other monsters grouped together by chance, but lesser demons did so to fight collectively.
Thus, adventurers often said they would rather face one half-beast than a group of lesser demons.
In battle, with the lesser demons' coordinated attacks, many wounds appeared on Mika's body.
But that wasn't the main issue.
With Mika targeting them, the lesser demons seemed to realize his plan, dispersing and no longer clustering.
They surrounded the half-beasts, coordinating with them in battle.
"Looks like it's going to be a tough fight!"
Mika took out a high-grade healing potion from his pouch, bit it open, and drank it, feeling the surge of energy within.
"Clang!"
Blocking an armored mouse's charge with his greatsword, Mika still retreated a few steps.
A strike with his left-hand sword on the armored mouse's body rebounded with force, surprising Mika slightly.
What toughness!
Even his full-strength strike didn't kill it.
But Mika managed to cut through its armor.
Pulling out his greatsword, he finished off the fallen armored mouse, then looked around at the surrounding monsters, sighing.
"This is going nowhere!"
The monsters around him were still as numerous as before.