-You have completed Wave Fourteen of the Egress Break.-
-Wave Fifteen is now beginning…-
-You have completed Wave Fifteen of the Egress Break.-
-Wave Sixteen is now beginning…-
-You have completed Wave Sixteen of the Egress Break.-
-Wave Seventeen is now beginning…-
-You have completed Wave Seventeen of the Egress Break.-
-Wave Eighteen is now beginning…-
One after another, Cynrik and Brance methodically slaughtered Wave after Wave of Chimeras until finally; they had killed the second to last creature of Wave Eighteen.
Fifteen meters from the gate, the final Chimera lay unconscious, dismembered but still breathing.
Huffing and Gasping for air, Cynrik released the compressed Mana behind his shoulder and fell to the ground on one knee, while Brance similarly collapsed due to apparent exhaustion.
Without pause, the two had worked through each Wave two Chimera at a time, with Cynrik receiving the brunt of the creature's attention due to his taunts and appearance. As Cynrik was putting on a one-man show, Brance had been lying in wait to strike at the weak points of each one when they turned to look up at his brother.
Like this, it cost them relatively little in the way of Resource stats to efficiently kill off their opponents. However, even the minute amount of MP and STAM used for each kill caught up to them over time, as it was no small task to fight over a hundred creatures, each of which was stronger than them.
Despite their expenditure, the two brothers were sitting in a good position regarding MP and STAM. Still, Cynrik had decided to act like they were exhausted and even went so far as to act as if the fake transformation had an overbearing drawback.
He did this by excreting a small amount of Lightning Mana into his muscles which in turn caused his body to spasm, a typical indication that he had overtaxed his body with an overdraft skill.
"Huff, Huff, hehe, that wasn't so bad, right little brother," Wiping the imaginary sweat off his forehead and dropping his cracked and damaged Masamune onto the ground, Cynrik said between rough exhales.
[15-minute break Brancie, so go ahead and start resting. I've fallen to 30% MP and 44% STAM. I should be able to bring both stats back up over 75% in time, but we can't start the next Wave until we are good to go.] Looking up at the floating digital clock, Cynrik smirked mentally as he read the time.
-Swarm Event National Record: 3 Hours 42 Minutes, Round 19, 0 Kills.-
-Current Progression: 2 Hours 35 Minutes, Round 18, 35 Kills.-
[We are good on time, thankfully I changed our strategy so we could drag out the clock, sure, we were killing them faster, but the time it takes for the creatures to despawn and the next batch to replace them is roughly the same as when we were fighting them in clusters.] Mentally patting himself on the back, Cynrik repositioned himself on the ground and began controlling his breathing to rest.
[Hmm, not bad, I guess. We should be able to lower the record to 3 hours since I don't see it taking us too long to double-team one Chimera and break the record. It's an excellent place to call it quits if you ask me.] Scooting over and placing his back against Cynrik's for support, Brance murmured, drawing a snort from Cynrik.
[Who said we are stopping there, Brancie?]
[Hah….fuck…me and my big mouth.] Wanting to slam his head into the nearest rock, Brance didn't bother humoring his brother and went straight into meditation since he would definitely need the added MP and STAM for whatever the hell Cynrik was plotting.
Meanwhile, the one in question was calculating the odds of setting an unchallengeable new record.
It was one thing to bearly break a record. By doing so, the option was still open for another team. If he and Brance went ahead and killed a single creature, the only thing they would achieve was earning bonus points. But if they set the bar so high that no one else could beat it, well, then they wouldn't have to worry about anyone scoring higher than them if push came to shove in later rounds.
'The question is, is it within our ability to beat an initial Tier-4 without using sneaky and underhanded methods? I could only eliminate those three yesterday because I got the drop on them and landed a critical blow.'
'Things are different this time; the boss will undoubtedly become enraged as the last one did. Unfortunately, the fact that the Wave Ten boss wasn't disoriented when it broke the barrier between worlds was a downer.' Like before, when meditating, Cynrik's brain never fully powered down, so even though he could feel his power replenishing thanks to his high regeneration rates, it was unnecessary to sit without thinking, as was necessary for someone like Brance.
---
Back in the commentary studio, Cesar had removed his suit jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt, and undid his tie. To say this Event was highly stressful for him would be an understatement.
He was already sweating through his shirt, and when he looked over at Roni, she wasn't much better. The two of them had been talking and theorizing nonstop for going on two and a half hours now, and they had witnessed so many impossible achievements that they were becoming numb to it by this point.
Despite believing the Event was over, the brothers continuously performed a stunning and highly shocking performance. This Event turned out to be one for the ages, and now, on the precipice of Wave Eighteen, the VSFA Team was resting up before what everyone believed to be the final push.
However, several people begged to differ in a particular mansion not too far from the Arena.
---
"They're only one kill away from breaking a National Record…but…why do I feel like this event isn't even close to being over," Maeve said as she rushed from the bathroom back to the living room, where she found Cynrik and Brance still resting.
"Because it isn't; if you think Cynrik will be content with barely breaking a record, then you are underestimating how stubborn that rascal truly is," Jessup responded while walking out of the kitchen with a new beer for himself and Rikard.
"That little act those two put on, where they looked tired as can be, is fake. You can tell by looking into their eyes that they are fine. By my observations and estimations, they surely burned a lot of MP and Stamina, but both should be just under the 40% mark."
"Assuming Cynrik called for a 10 to 15-minute break, they should be able to recover up to 75-80% of their reserves. If this is the case, then I do not doubt that he will push the boundary and make a run at the Wave 20 boss. However, my concern isn't for the boys' physical and mental state, but instead that of their gear." Taking a sip of his beer, Jessup tapped on his Watcet several times and brought up a window on the HoloTv with zoomed-in images of Brance's and Cynrik's swords.
The sight caused everyone to gasp loudly. Brance's greatsword was chipped in dozens of places and had just as many hairline fractures running the length of the blade. But this was to be expected; instead, what caused everyone to worry was the state of Cynrik's weapon.
Cynrik's Masamune was trashed entirely, chips and cracks covered the entire length of the 2.75-meter-long blade, and even the guard and hilt had sustained massive damage. From how it looked in the pictures, it was amazing that it hadn't shattered yet, but the question is, how did it get in such a state when Brance's wasn't even remotely close in scale with damage?
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