-You have completed Wave Twenty of the Egress Break.-
-Wave Twenty-One is now beginning; Forty-Two Initial-Tier-4 Chimera (Wolf/Avian) have breached the Egress Barrier.-
Unable to stop his descent, Brance bounced off the crushed head of the Chimera, down its back, and onto the ground, face first. Not far away, Cynrik was on his back, gripping what remained of his right arm with his left hand wearing a grimace.
[End of the line, little brother, you did well. Tsss fuck, my arm hurts; this VR shit is too realistic.] Struggling even to sit up, Cynrik could hear the aggressive roars and squawks coming from the Egress Gate but paid them no mind.
[Hah, I feel like I got hit by a bus; every muscle hurts right now.] Brance complained as he pushed his face off the ground and rolled onto his back to look at the sky.
[Hehe, it's been a while since we were put in such a condition; it feels like a breath of fresh air. I think we did enough, though. With this, everyone will believe we hit our limit at Initial Tier-4, pulling suspicion off you and me when it comes to wiping out those guys from yesterday.]
With a little effort, Cynrik sat up and pulled himself to a kneeling position only to notice there were already 10 Chimera racing toward him and Brance.
"On your feet, little brother, we have to go out with style," Cynrik said aloud as he looked down at the stump which used to be his right arm and chuckled.
"Yeah yeah, I hear you; UGH, remind me not to do that human cannonball thing again; sheesh, if this weren't VR, I'd be dealing with a sore back for weeks." Walking up beside Cynrik while dragging his greatsword behind him, Brance complained, creating a momentary silence between the brother's before they started laughing together.
"Haha, right, let's see if we can take a couple of them down with us, ONWARD!
[This feels pretty familiar amirite Brancie?] Cynrik took off with his left arm pointed forward in a finger gun and began burning through the last of his Mana while half stumbling, half jogging.
[Yep, but you didn't scream about going to Valhalla this time.] Brance replied with a smirk as he parried an attack from the first Chimera.
[Fuck the Gods, I do what I want!] Cynrik snorted as he unleashed a basic Futae No Kiwami into the paw of another creature, cracking some bones on his hand in the process.
[Sigh, I'm not even going to bother correcting you at this point. Anyway, are we going down swinging?] Deflecting another attack before slashing out with a flurry of heavy hits, Brance went back to back with his brother.
[Do you even have to ask? The plan is to take as many of these fuckers down as possible. If you think it's game over, pop your Codex for one last hoorah.] Twisting and turning like a gunslinger, Cynrik repeatedly shot out baseball-sized Fireballs from his fingertip.
Unfortunately, due to his low MP, the strength behind these blasts was nothing more than a tickle to the 25 by 30-meter creatures and only served to piss them off after getting smacked in the nose.
[Cyn…unlike you, I don't experiment with my body like a mad scientist; care to fill in the peanut gallery on how the fuck I "pop" my Codex?] Wearing a dead-eyed expression, Brance hit a Chimera so hard with his greatsword that half of it shattered, and the weapon reverted back to a single teardrop-shaped kite shield.
[Tsk, who's a mad scientist? ART IS AN EXPLOSION, BRANCIE! Besides, I've known roughly how to implode my Codex since the first time I overdrafted it.] Ducking under a sweeping claw attack, Cynrik bounced up and returned fire with his finger gun.
[Basically, all you have to do is cause the elements stored in your Codex to flow against each other until they erode any protection your Codex has against chaotic Mana interactions. Do that, and push it to the extreme, and BOOM, you turn to mist, easy peasy.] Shrugging his good shoulder, Cynrik jumped up, avoiding another attack.
[Easy my ass Cyn, just controlling the Mana in my Codex to fight itself will take all my concentration; how bad is this going to hurt?] Frowning in worry as he blocked a breath attack, Brance swung out his shield and smacked two Chimera heads away as they tried to bite him.
[Eh, I can assure you it won't be comfortable. If anything, it may be the worst thing you've ever felt. When I carved my Mark of the Tamer on my Codex, it felt like taking a hot iron and digging it into my chest. Keep in mind that your Codex is like a cluster of highly sensitive nerve endings; anything you do to it will hurt like a son of a bitch.]
[Ugh, find damn it, let's get this over with already!] Stomping his foot and summoning some Stone Spikes, Brance took a few steps forward and launched them through the bottom jaw of an unsuspecting Chimera.
---
In the Commentator Studio, Roni and Cesar were utterly silent as they watched the final act of the Swarm Event. Seeing Cynrik and Brance unwilling to go down without a fight earned them a level of respect usually not given to Low Tier Beings.
They had been givin quite a shock today; not only did the brothers break the National Record, but they also did the unthinkable and stunningly beat the Wave Twenty Boss. Although it was rare even to see the boss spawn, they could count on one hand the number of times they had seen a team win against the Initial Tier-4 Creature, and usually, those teams had the means and an effective strategy to counter its high Regeneration Rate.
Cynrik and Brance had pulled one trump card out after another, practically shattering how the two commentators viewed Tier-3 Beings. To make matters worse, they went into the battle with severely damaged Gear and low Resource Stats.
Roni held her breath while watching Cynrik go down first, after getting overwhelmed by a group of six Chimera. At the last second, Cynrik yelled in fury as he exploded in a shower of Mana Particles. To her keen eye, she saw he had detonated his Codex, something which should be impossible at Lower Tiers, yet once again, Cynrik was rewriting the rule book on his Level's abilities.
Cesar: "Cynrik has fallen in a blaze of glory, literally…but he was able to bring down four Chimera with him." Cesar said with a solemn expression and serious tone.
Two minutes later, Brance was eliminated, but like his brother, he didn't go down without a fight, as he, too, self-destructed his Codex, taking out a handful of Chimera.
With Brance's elimination, the screen cut to black, revealing a red text with a golden border.
-A NEW SWARM EVENT NATIONAL RECORD HAS BEEN ACHIEVED AND MARKED IN THE HALL OF FAME!-
-TIER-3 TEAM SWARM EVENT NATIONAL RECORD: 6 Hours 18 Minutes 22 Seconds, Wave 21, 9 Kills.-
-Congratulations, VSFA Tier-3 Competitors Cynrik Jetlensr and Brance Jetlensr.-
-Points awarded: 20.-
Roni: "And that will Do it for the Round One Swarm Event…." Roni practically whispered as she watched the camera's come back on, revealing Cynrik and Brance stepping out of their VR capsules.
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