Sword Art Online - Midnight Assassin - Vol.1

Chapter 3

I was able to sprint past the Fruit Nepenthes through the forest obstacles which slowed it down. I gripped my dagger as tight as I could and prepared a sword skill.

Getting out of the bushes, I locked my eyes on my target; the Flower Nepenthes.

*shiing* - *slash*

The [Curve] skill got a good hit on its upper part, leaving both the nepent and myself on a very short stun as an aftereffects. The nepenth was able to move just a few milliseconds before I was, using the short chance as an opening for an attack.

I thought I was lucky that I was able to move out of the attack range before it hits when I noticed movements from the bushes where I came out from; the Fruit Nepenthes that I had left behind through the forest obstacles, it had caught up since I hadn't really left the target range.

"Hell."

I cursed to myself under my breath. I can't focus on both killing the flower while trying to avoid hitting the fruit so I have to do something about it. Unless I can hunt this down before it catches up, I need to plan on getting the fruit off my tail.

I leapt to the back of the Flower Nepenthes so I can see the movements of the fruit one and while doing so, I took the chance of catching the flower off guard and attacking its back with my fastest movements I could handle with my agility.

The moment it turned around towards me, the Fruit Nepenthes was already behind the Flower Nepenthes, trying to find a way to attack me. I leapt backwards for about three or four meters away and picked up a small rock nearby and put in my power into throwing it.

I had aimed it to land on the ground a little over three feet behind the nepenthes to distract it but it accidentally hit the roots of the Flower Nepenthes instead. Maybe I had thrown a little too low, now I know the importance of dexterity.

In any case, since both the fruit and flower was already reaching me by the time I crouched for another stone, I decided it would be useless effort and let go of the stone instead. Since the fruit one is behind the flower one, I activated a slashing sword skill as to not *accidentally* hit the one in the back if I use stabs.

The sword skill was, of course, a newly unlocked skill after I reached my current level called [Wave].

It's a two-part sword skill that sends double damage of an attack by sending along an attack wave from the blade's slash. In short, it sends four attacks at once; two from my dagger and two waves from each.

*shwing* - *slash* *slash*

The sword skill successful took half of the Flower Nepenthes' HP gauge and left it with a little less than a quarter. That was when the Fruit Nepenthes became impatient and get past the flower nepent and tried to attack me with an uppercut.

I slid aside and picked up a rock and threw it instantly towards the Flower Nepenthes before back-stepping once again. It hits this time and gave damage about a tenth of its current HP, probably because I didn't put in power and just throw it. But that aside, I crouched as low I can and gave a few cuts on the Fruit Nepenthes' roots in an attempt to slow it down and dashed for the last hit on the Flower Nepenthes.

With the most powerful stab I can manage, I was able to one-hit kill the Flower Nepenthes. Ignoring the drops screen, I sprinted away from the now moving Fruit Nepenthes into the thick forest. I took a glance on the time and confirmed that it hits exactly the fifth o'clock.

Wow, that took hours off just to find the Flower Nepenthes. I didn't take notes of what time it was when I saw the nepent but I'm pretty it must've been longer than half an hour, probably.