BXBX NOVEL Chapter 54: Quest: Cleared!
Cedric ducked and weaved all over the place, dodging the incoming bullet hell. Not too far from him stood a group of faceless humans riding a tank with too many guns equipped in it.
\'I don\'t think I signed up for this.\' He groaned as bullets whizzed past his face due to him barely evading them.
This isn\'t to say that he\'s having a hard time. Sure, the hail of bullets was annoying but he could manage.
Cedric kept dodging the hail until he discovered a chance to end this wave. With a surprising burst of speed, he flashed past the tanks, bisecting them in a blink of an eye. They exploded but Cedric was too far away to be affected. Releasing a breath, he saw the familiar timer above him counting down.
"Wave 10 is next..." Cedric hummed as he spun the sword in his hand.
Since he barely spent any energy dealing with the previous waves, Cedric didn\'t think that it necessary to spend the entire 5-minute rest period. He summoned the 10th wave directly to cut the time he needed to spend here.
Under his gaze, a single summoning circle appeared. Knowing that this round was supposed to be a Boss Wave, he wasn\'t surprised, he\'s just wondering what he\'s going to face next.
The shape that formed after the summoning, answered that though...
A human appeared. Blonde, six foot tall, faceless just like the humans he had fought so far here. The man was wearing leather armor with extra paddings on the joints. A rapier was attached to his waist.
The man then wordlessly took out his rapier and went into a fencing stance. Cedric observed this with a narrowed gaze, feeling quite bummed inwardly.
\'He\'s full of openings...\' Cedric commented to himself.
Still, he didn\'t dare to ignore his opponent. He focused and the two of them measured each other through gazes (which was a bit weird since Cedric\'s opponent was faceless, but whatever).
Then, the man suddenly attacked...
Others might be surprised by the man\'s speed as he lunges straight towards his opponent with his rapier thrusting forward. Unfortunately, Cedric wasn\'t \'others\'.
Everything; from the way his opponent tightened his grip on the handle of the rapier, to the way his muscles contracted as he prepared for the attack, all the way to him lunging forward with a surprising burst of speed...Cedric perceived everything. Nothing could escape his senses.
\'Must be a Squire then...\' Cedric commented as he waited for the man to close the distance.
The moment he did, Cedric swung his sword to parry the strike. The parry was performed masterfully and it completely broke the stance and the force that the man carried with him, leaving him reeling and open for a counterattack.
Cedric adjusted his hold on his sword, he then lunged forward, not going far, just enough to stab the tip of his sword through his opponent\'s skull, ending the battle just like that.
All of this took place within the span of 5 seconds. And for Cedric, who\'s expecting a challenge considering that this is supposed to be a Boss Fight, it was extremely disappointing.
And just to confirm that this is indeed supposed to be a Boss Fight, he saw the timer having 30 Minutes allotted for a rest period, not the usual 5 minutes.
Pursing his lips in disappointment, he sat down on the ground, grumbling a little bit. He took out a snack and a drink to ease his boredom. Then he asked the System:
"Hey System, how much time has passed outside?"
[Notice! To put it simply, User Cedric, the time flow here is the same as Hell Dives.]
[No matter how much time you spend here, only 30 minutes will pass outside.]
"Ah, I see." Cedric hummed as he tore open the bag of chips, "Good to know."
At the very least, though, this place wasn\'t as horrible as the Purgatory. The latter was filled with so much Demonic Corruption that breathing became laborious, not to mention, that the weather could become horrible in the blink of an eye. That hadn\'t been a problem to Cedric ever since he started his improvement though, but it\'s annoying.
What he\'s doing now (eating snacks), was something that he couldn\'t and wouldn\'t do while he\'s in the Purgatory. And just with that alone, this place is already better than the Purgatory.
That said, it\'s boring so far...
He could tell that his opponents would become stronger after each wave, but that\'s going to take some time.
Sighing to himself, Cedric decided to take his time eating his snacks. Afterward, he will continue breezing through the waves.
\'Let\'s see how far I can go here.\'
***
Bang! Bang! Boom!
"Wow, this is crazy..." Cedric deadpanned as he ran around the battlefield, dodging waves upon waves of incoming attacks.
He was being harassed on all sides. There were bullets, energy projectiles, arrows, bombs, shrapnels, and even a god damned orbital bombardment.
Cedric was being forced to move here, and it\'s quite displeasing but there\'s nothing he could do about that.
He wasn\'t passive though. If anything, Cedric was blitzing at his top speed, taking out squads of enemies at once. Some of his opponents were ruthless though, the moment they see him near, they will immediately blow themselves up, causing him to be wary of them at least.
This chaos was Wave 99, and as much as this was dangerous and chaotic, Cedric was having the time of his life.
He got the stimulation he wanted. It took some time but his opponents did scale to the point where he doesn\'t have to hold back anymore.
Cedric was using all his active skills here. His combat experience was climbing as he studied the way to deal with the masses of enemies spawning around him.
Unlike the Endless Undead Horde, the current wave of enemies he\'s facing is far more dangerous. They carried all sorts of weapons and paraphernalia. Not all were humans, too. Yet for some reason, they seem to be working perfectly together as if they\'ve done this before.
Cedric was forced to utilize everything he had so far. And with that, he could feel himself growing exponentially.
Despite being surrounded, Cedric was still full of energy. He dashed around, decimating squads of enemies in his wake. That said, this isn\'t like his Hell Dive where the waves just constantly spawn without rest.
The wave here spawns all at once, and once he reduces their numbers enough, their lethality also goes down with it.
And so, just like the previous waves he cleared so far, Cedric also cleared Wave 99.
The 5-minute resting period comes after that. Cedric wasn\'t idle though. Adrenaline still pumps in his veins as he swiftly downed a bottle of water while moving around, leaving behind traps for the next enemy that\'s coming in.
Yeah, he\'s employing this strategy now. He leaves a nasty trap for the next wave during the resting period to gain just a slight edge for himself. He doesn\'t do it often though since he has limited resources with him. So far, he\'s only doing it during Boss Waves since every Boss recently had been accompanied by groups of additional enemies, making it more difficult to handle them.
The five minutes swiftly passed and by then, 100th Wave began.
A Tier 5 Lv.1 Expert appeared, accompanied by a military squad under his command. The moment they spawned, however, the traps Cedric left behind were triggered. That got most of them so now, the pressure Cedric faces became lighter.
Not wanting to be caught idle, Cedric dashed around once more. The Boss was hot on his trail while he dealt with the remaining small fries. When it was just him and the Boss left, Cedric engaged the Boss in a melee, putting everything he got on each strike.
He\'s facing a Tier 5 Expert, even if he wanted to, he couldn\'t hold back here. It\'s already mighty impressive that he could confront this phantom. Other people at his level wouldn\'t even be able to reach this far. Hell, they wouldn\'t even dream of it.
Bang!
"Shit!"
Cedric groaned as his opponent suddenly exploded with an unknown force that blew him away. Despite his superior senses, he was unable to react to it, he couldn\'t even sense it happening.
He didn\'t have time to dally either since he could literally feel the blade of his opponent grazing his neck. Thankfully he was as flexible as a gymnast or else he would\'ve been decapitated by now.
With a timely parry, followed by a feint which his opponent fell for, and him capitalizing on that window of opportunity, he wouldn\'t have been able to do substantial damage to his foe.
Sadly, despite him squeezing everything he had left on his body to fight back and his opponent missing an arm, their fight ended up with them stabbing each other in the chest...a draw to be exact.
Collapsing to the ground, Cedric had enough time to see his opponent turning into dust and seeing the conclusion of the wave before the system determined that he couldn\'t continue anymore.
"...that was fun..."
[Alert! Class Change Quest; concluded! Congratulations, User Cedric for reaching the 100th Wave!]
[Notice! Obtaining New Class...]