Parallel Vol. 4 [LEGACY EDITION]

Chapter 88.2: Stupid.

Somewhere in Serisis.

00:56 am. 23rd Banem 1092.

31 Days to World's End.

Kashi and Drixlia appeared within the sigil he left behind. The daeben sighed as he thought back to Syel's daring request. He'd never expected Syel to be the type to propose a date. Not in a million years. Even more shocking, Shoko not only accepted, but immediately logged out after dragging Syel into Orez.

The ensuing silence between Kashi and Lunette could only have described as deafening. The daeben quickly escaped before the situation got even more awkward. Kashi let out another sigh. He knew he could not avoid Lunette forever. Still, this was not the time. Right now, he had to figure out a way to defeat Razznik.

That's right. Despite what he told the kings, Kashi considered it a foregone conclusion that Razznik would be successfully summoned. This was not because of some prophecy, or fate, or feeling. No matter what, Kashi did not forget that this was still a game world. The return of Razznik could be considered the end of a major story chapter. What developer would introduce this massive threat, and then not use it? The Chaos Order would undoubtedly be tough opponents, but they had yet to generate enough clout amongst casual gamers to justify being an opponent capable of uniting the entire playerbase.

No. Razznik would definitely show up. And when he did, Kashi had to be ready.

But there was one small problem.

Razznik had trained for a thousand years sharpening every skill he had to perfection. The Chaos God's battle instincts were as close to perfection as one could reasonably get. Kashi, on the other hand, had slacked off greatly when it came to improving his basics. Increasingly, he found himself reliant on [Gilgamesh] and [Asura], a pair of OP skills which decimated opponents without requiring much strategy on his part.

'Razznik was not like this.' No. Razznik, despite his overwhelming strength, often fought with the bare basics. It was precisely this simplicity that often made it nigh impossible to catch the warrior off-guard.

What about Kashi?

Kashi was definitely strong. No one could reasonably doubt the daeben's accomplishments. But, his over-reliance on powerful one-shot abilities would be easily found out in a fight against true experts. [Gilgamesh] and [Asura], despite locking Kashi in place when activated, were godsend against monsters. But would he dare use them against Syel or Shoko?

'No. That would be suicide.' Kashi placed his bow on the ground as he recalled Nornesh's test. What was the difference between he and Syel in that fight? That was the first time Kashi fought an opponent that did not give him any chance to use Gilgamesh. No. That was not quite right. It was not that Nornesh did not give him any chance, but that Kashi did not dare use any skills that would lock him in place for the briefest second.

'Useless.' Razznik's rebuke echoed in Kashi's mind. The daeben sat next to his bow as he pondered. Was he truly useless? When did he start relying on system skills? Even without skills, he should have been able to injure Nornesh much earlier. Compared to Syel, Kashi's performance had been subpar, both at long and short-range. While Syel pressured Nornesh with a myriad of intelligent combination magic, Kashi relied on his body to catch the dragon off-guard.

On one hand, Kashi's immunity to fire and dragon blood were his hard-worn abilities. To not use them was stupid. But on the other hand... Kashi clenched his fist. 'I'd have lost if Nornesh specialized in ice magic.' Kashi had been lucky so far. Fire was the most common attribute among mages for its destructiveness. He had gotten cocky because his fire attribute countered most mages. Couple that with the fact that his dragon blood made him physically stronger than most of his foes, then it was no surprise that Kashi had neglected his training.