My Parasite Skill System

I wanted to have fun, too!... but it was upcoming. The fun was.

Just you wait, wait, and wait further. All right?

And in the meantime: hammer, hammer, and hammer some more.

Yes: hammer.

The rapid hammering of the damage dealer's footsteps intensified to their maximum fairly quickly. My ears picked that up. They went from zero to, err, hero, or something.

So!–they were the heroes, here.

Bumped ran towards the front back again. He, too, could be called an arrow, I noticed. The swift work of footsteps he was displaying really had nothing to envy to Leader's.

Still, though–ain't nothing compared to me, "Hah, hah, hah!"

"Shh!"

"Hm."

And the heroes went hammering and kicking into the earth as they ran towards their objective. Driving these two tiny heroes on, I mentioned it, Bumped flew right across the other side of the battle.

And coming in contact with the boys at the front, "Here! I! Go! Hah!"

He was rushing still but had brought his long, black sword's tip in front of himself as he did so. Avoiding the big tank and the party's leader, he simply melted in them. Or with them.

He joined them–clang!–"And THAT is what I'm talkin' about!"–throwing his sword on both sides, as surreal as it'd have looked, he swept past two saber wolves as he tackled down the other ones behind those two.

"C– careful, mhmm…!" muttered the tank, seeing his partner breaking past himself and the leader. Was he concerned?

"Ugh!–<Double Blow>!–It's all right, Slug; let the man do–we might need it, as it looks!" did Leader explain.

"Mhmm!" and surprisingly non-hesitating, the tank agreed with decisiveness, "<Iron Skin> … <Provoke>!"

Redoing his sturdy skin positive effect of some sort, he took a step in, taking one of the saber wolves down with him pretty effectively.

His thick sword didn't seem to be unwilling to cut through that grayish wolf. Without letting out so much as a yelp, it died down.

And the battle went on.

Leader had explained. They might need Bumped to go out of his way, right now. It was dangerous. At any time, it could happen. Again.

Some wolves could put swing their saber-like teeth at him, tearing off the man's entire leg, this time about.

This process would leave him not unscathed. And still, Leader had given his approval. Right now, as things were, it was a bit challenging and dangerous, so this was okay.

The six other saber wolves remaining weren't that big of a task to handle, though. They'd just handled the same as them. Six–no, seven of them had already fallen to Party.

Like Sorceress said, they pushed through. Like she also said then, they bested any foes. And they got better at it.

The wolves weren't the threat, to Leader's eyes and most likely everyone else's.

In between two terrific blows, Leader threw his glance at us, at the rear. Clumsy's eyes instantly captured his. His deep face was marked by even deeper, serious eyes.

An apparent drop of sweat rolled past his temple as he nodded to her–"All right, we're closing in," she nodded back, driving me forward with her a little.

Sorceress also marched on, closing the distance between the forefront and the rear by a little.

This time about, no wolves seemed to have been dragged to the rear, being a threat to the human females. There was none of this, and funnily enough, as my big sis' left her grip on my hand getting it next to the other, that was to say down below her priestess' thick staff; she clenched them all together.

"Bonk, bonk, bonk," she whispered to herself, before she turned to the other support, "Just getting ready–we're just getting ready. Hmph! You never know what happens."

"Th– that is correct," silently responded her counterpart. "Preparing ourselves–that is what we do, indeed."

Doing just that, yes. And maintaining the support they were already giving, hm. There was of that, too.

And they weren't being overtaken at the front. It was well known, though, to them, at this point. At any given moment could the saber wolves call in on their friends again!

And when that happened, well.

Don't you get the wrong idea, though. They're determined to win. Maybe a little too much by me, but still. Victory. And winning. That's what they're about.

–And so they just closed in the distance between front and rear. Only a meager five meters separated us.

At one end of the distorted group, there were three men being both fighting and fought against the best they could.

Swords were swung, blood was spilled, and flesh was torn.

At the other end of the distorted group, there were two women doing their part from the rear getting ready to any counterattack–"Counterattack; counterattack; counterattack!"– as mentally prepared as could be.

And behind these two–there was the monster.

Heat went up. Hearts pounded. Blood rose up. And air was stirred.

Of course the heat went up. And of course the hearts pounded. Of course the blood and air, too.

The battle was ongoing still. It was shaken. But it was calm, mostly. It was just like the wind going breathing and blowing down on us from every angle at each turn.

It–both the wind and the battle–was fresh, neither alive nor dead, moving still, neither freezing nor scorching.

But the deadly goblins were still here, hiding about in each of their bushes. And–but the heat went up. And the hearts, too. And the blood and the air … and everything!

The wind, the battle, the everything–it took a turn.

A turn that none expected.

That goblin, the one who was my friend–it gave the order, "Screech!!!"

As the swinging swords went still sweeping about the hunting grounds in search of kills, and as the saber teeth did just about the same but for meat … goblins showed up!

About the only sounds going about ringing up and down here were the Party's elaborate breathing, the growling or yelping of the wild dogs, the teeth and sword clashes, and the sword and teeth clashes.

The feet wiping about the dry ground, and the paws stomping and clawing about, too.

The grunts emitted by the 'ttacking humans, and 'thuds' emitted by the falling gray beasts.

And then, the goblins showed up.

All at once, all as if it were nothing, every single sound didn't dare ring out again another time.

Every single sound. Everything. It became all silent. And it became all blank.

Greenish goblins flew off of their green bushes. They all jumped out of their hidings and wouldn't take long before falling back onto the ground.

Everyone had heard that screeching sound. But it all happened way too quickly. And when the screeching sound my friend had given off was double by many others–may I exaggerate, hundreds of others–the humans didn't jump out of bushes … but jumped out of fear.

The eyes were rounded up and hearts, lips instantly dried out, cheeks hollowed out, and hearts stilled.

From being all shaken, yet calmed down to being all shaking alone–from moving still to pushing violently–from neither freezing nor scorching to either both extremes!–and from neither alive nor dead … to either both extremes again!

Ha, ha, ha!