753 Rejecting Goodwill
A force like no other rammed into everyone close to Skullius.
He, the Hybrid Luman, immediately knew that what he had sworn to never use in the future of the Royale, had been used against him, ironically.
What had fallen at his feet… was a Scatter Crystal, and as he had surmised, it really did what a Draw Bubble could do, just in reverse. As a result, as he was pushed so far off, and with such an intense speed that even his [Graceless Hunter] couldn’t pinpoint which direction was where, the same happening to Tallo, Maxim and Baddan’s group. They were all blown away in different directions, over a vast stretch!
Even as Skullius couldn’t discern where he was going though, he could at least tell that this was the work of other contenders, but to what end, he didn’t know.
The white paper on the side of his armour, still burning with a light, silvery-blue flame, hung on, its purpose unclear to Skullius, who didn’t have the time to try and figure it out before he slammed heavily on the ground!
Perhaps there was another difference between the Draw Bubble, and the Scatter Crystal. At least the former was gentle, and wouldn’t have seen him crashing down at his destination.
Skullius had sunken into a deep crater of his own making. It only took him two seconds to rush out, and try to find out if he was that far from the others, in truth, an answer he already knew.
That didn’t make the prospect any less infuriating.
He had acquired semi-reliable teammates, and had been feeling hopeful about this ordeal, yet now…
“Dammit! Such impeccable timing!” he cursed as he searched around with [Graceless Hunter].
The ground under his greaves was soft, and muddy, with a few, withering plants peaking from it in their own definition of healthy. A varying assortments of hills, and large rocks were scattered about, leading to a vast mountain range about two kilometres east of Skullius’ position.
Not a single was in sight.
This was a vastly different area compared to everywhere Skullius had trodden so far, and it made him scowl even more.
What was he to do now?
Well, trying to find his partners was probably best.
They had lost their advantage in Baddan, but from the looks of it – through patches of bare skies amid the clusters of close set clouds – the mountain wasn’t too far off, at least for him. It was certainly much, much farther than it had been seconds ago, but still reachable quickly enough if he could find a Fleeting Pioneer.
He could search for his mates along the way.
However…
Skullius felt the mushy ground.
‘According to Baddan, the Pioneers don’t like wet areas…’ Skullius grumbled inwardly. ‘Maybe if I head into the mountain range then…’
…!
Suddenly, his [Graceless Hunter] picked up something quickly approaching. It was like four swollen, dark rocks stitched together, flying in his direction from the skies. In fact, they were soaring from the direction he had come from!
Warily, Skullius prepared.
He already felt the shimmering powers of four Masters, and when the bundled flying rocks smashed down tens of meters away from him, exploding into fragments, four individuals emerged from the broken pieces.
The piece of paper on Skullius’ armour burned fiercely before turning into ash, as though to symbolise that its job was done. Skullius took this to mean exactly that.
It seemed, these enemies didn’t simply split him and his group without a plan. He was targeted immediately after. The burning paper was likely something the four contenders striding from the crater they had made, used to attract themselves to his exact location.
‘Were the others targeted too then?’ Skullius wondered, though he didn’t think Maxim and Tallo would be easy pickings.
“Well, well, well. Luck’s on our side. This whole Cluster is clear now. Nothing but a few beasts running about, and after all that searching, we finally found something to pick on,” a lanky man with a lithe body said with a rather radiant smile that made his handsome face even more handsome.
He had lush, blonde hair, icy blue eyes, and a rather cute, small, hooked nose. One wouldn’t count him as the villainous type without hearing him speak.
“I still insist that we should follow after the Mage immediately, Grutus. I want a challenge. You can’t expect me to settle for bullying some small fry,” another from the group said, a woman this time.
She was larger than the hook nosed man, and well built. A staple for the brute stereotype at face value. Her leather black hair which only reached to her ears featured stylish strips of white, and her attire revealed a lot more skin than one would expect.
“Oh, shut up, Liura. Can’t you see he has more Units. If he isn’t a bit strong himself, he must have found himself shum schweet fwends. Hahaha!” the third individual in the group cackled at his own words, his wide set dark eyes narrowing into crescents. He was the shortest out of the four, at only about 1.3 meters. He could be mistaken for a man-faced child.
“Let’s make things easy for him, why don’t we?” this short man said, and turned to Skullius. “Give us your Units, and we’ll leave you alone. Trust me, I for one have had enough killings for one day.”
Skullius raised his brow.
Give them his Units?
‘Do they have a Snatcher or something?’ he wondered.
Seeing the confused look on Skullius’ face, the fourth individual in the group, his frame similar Liura’s – the bulky woman – but a little taller, spoke.
“See? He’s just like the rest. He doesn’t even know you can share Units, Hun.”
The short man, Hun, sighed.
“I got ahead of myself. Maybe I should explain it to him. Only Grutus and Mandon are a little too lacking in Units right? I’d rather not be brutal about this one,” he said while looking to his fellow mates.
Skullius indeed was puzzled.
“You can share Units?” he voiced.
Hun so gracefully obliged to answer him.
“Why, of course! It only makes sense that that Game Master didn’t bother to mention it because… well, we’re all killing each other here! It’s a bonus for us who gather up to kill together, isn’t it?! Clever thinking! Adapting!”
Skullius frowned.
So all this time…
He hadn’t even considered it a possibility that he could share his Units. Only after finding the Snatcher, which could forcefully take away a tenth of a contender’s Units, did he imagine that Units could be taken by anything other than heavy hits, lethal hits and killing.
“Get on with it,” Liura, the burly woman urged Hun.
“Right, right! Look here friend. All you have to do, is point at or touch whoever you want to gift Units to, alright? Easy enough, right? Now, kindly point towards this handsome man right here, and send all your points, alright?” Hun said with a ‘kind’ face, and pointed at Grutus, the blondie with the hooked noise.
Skullius used Crude Vision, and saw that Grutus had 2,350 Units. Liura had 3,110 Units, Hun had 4,000, and the last man, Mandon, had 2,100 Units.
Their distribution of Units were much lower than he had expected, but Skullius supposed it made sense. He didn’t have any doubts that some contenders had fallen prey to the harmful items and monsters here, and thus the number of Units was bound to already be insufficient for the remaining contenders to all reach the 10,000 Unit limit.
‘Yeah, Maxim’s suggestion wouldn’t have worked,’ Skullius thought.
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“Well? I really, really… wouldn’t like for us to devolve into violence so late into this game. You could even tag along with us after surrendering your Units. We have a lot of special items that can get us to the GOAL quickly. You can have a fighting chance with the Inhibiting Angel to gain more,” said Hun, trying to convince Skullius.
Skullius scoffed.
“Of all the idiots and socketholes I’ve met in this game, you guys definitely rank first,” he said, and his blackish crimson armour ignited lightly with a weak flame.
“Excuse me?” Hun said, a cold smile appeared on his face. “Are you truly rejecting my goodwill?”
Skullius spread his feet wide, and placed his left hand on his scabbard, his right just above his chest. An irregular ring of weak flame formed around on the muddy ground, causing a hiss of steam.
Then Skullius replied to Hun’s question.
“I’m just saying… your goodwill is a severe downgrade from what I can get if I kill all you overconfident socketholes.”
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