Seeing Tsukuru charging towards them, the two remaining Hobgoblins smirked, and did the same.
Once they reached one another, one of the two Hobgoblins thrust her spear forward at him.
However, due to his current Agility of 19, Tsukuru was easily able to avoid it.
He ducked down, causing the spear thrust to pass harmlessly above his head. Though he did feel the wind from the thrust on the top of his head.
Tsukuru then re-orientated the dagger in his hand so that the edge of the blade was facing up.
He swung the dagger upwards, slicing through the shaft of the spear, similar to what Quinn had done to Brandon during their first fight.
The sliced piece of the spear began spinning up in the air due to the force of the slash.
Instantly, Tsukuru's empty left hand became enveloped in an aura of glitching pixels. In the air above him, the sliced piece of the Hobgoblin's Speardid so as well.
As it did, the piece of the spear came to a sudden stop.
Tsukuru twisted his hand.
The Hobgoblin watched, wide-eyed, as the broken piece of her spear, which still had the spearhead attached, began to rotate in the air until the tip was facing her.
'Aw, shit,' the Hobgoblin thought.
Tsukuru thrust his left hand forward, causing the piece of the spear to shoot forward through the air like a projectile.
The spear tip pierced the Hobgoblin right between her eyes, causing her whole body to freeze.
She fell backwards onto the ground, where she exploded into pixels.
A new System message popped up in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed an Infantry-Rank Pawn-Grade Hobgoblin. Video Emperor's Battle Arena-Specific Effect: 60 XP received. XP: 1505/8000]
The aura of glitching pixels then faded from both Tsukuru's hand and the broken piece of the spear, as Tsukuru deactivated the Skill.
He turned to the last remaining Hobgoblin, and threw the Scordana Gunblade at her.
The Hobgoblin brought her right arm over to her left shoulder, and then swung her arm out in a wide arc towards her right, attempting to parry the dagger with the spear tip.
Unfortunately for the Hobgoblin, due to the dagger being of a higher Tier, as well as it being made out of the special High-Density Glathrium Alloy, rather than the spear tip deflecting the dagger and diverting its path, the tip merely shattered on impact without affecting the dagger's trajectory in the slightest.
The Hobgoblin's eyes widened in shock upon seeing this.
The Dagger continued on unabated, and pieced right through her chest.
The Hobgoblin's whole body stiffened, and she fell back onto the ground.
A moment later, she exploded into pixels, causing a System message to appear in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed an Infantry-Rank Pawn-Grade Hobgoblin. Video Emperor's Battle Arena-Specific Effect: 60 XP received. XP: 1565/8000]
With the final enemy defeated, the arena was silent once again.
Tsukuru used this silence to retrieve his dagger.
He activated his Video Stasis Skill, causing the dagger to become enveloped in an aura of glitching pixels.
A moment later, he activated his Stasis Shift Skill.
The dagger took on the likeness of a hologram, before then glitching out of existence.
A moment later, it glitched back into existence in Tsukuru's hand.
Not long after, the sound of electronic inference could be heard, indicating the start of the next group of enemies.
Looking over, Tsukuru saw an absurd fifteengroups of pixels beginning to form. And like what was typically the case when a group this largeshowed up, they all clustered into the shapes of the Swarmers.
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"The size of these swarms of pestsis getting out of control," he muttered, a slight annoyance in his tone.
"There's got to be an easier way to deal with them instead of just chunking grenades at them."
Then, Tsukuru's eyes widened, as a memory flashed through his mind.
It was from back on the Red Portal Planet, Pioletic. In the memory, Tsukuru was knelt on the ground, examining the strange spreadfire-wounds on the group of Rattlaclaws from when Quinn had used his new Blood Spray skill on them.
Tsukuru glanced down at his Scordana Gunblade, which currently had an empty cylinder.
Slowly, a smirk crept across Tsukuru's face. He had an idea that just might work.
Tsukuru closed his eyes and concentrated.
He activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard, and six groups of pixels began to appear in his hand.
Each group of pixels clustered together into the shape of a cylinder. The exact same size cylinder as the bullets for his gun. However, there was no spiked tip at the top. Rather, it just stopped, as if the projectile had been sliced off.
There was a flash of light.
Once it faded, Tsukuru was holding six rather strange-looking bullets. They had the same bronze-copper alloy cartridge as his normal bullets, but lacked the projectile.
Instead, they had a form of a plastic, yellow-coloredlid at the top. This "lid" appeared to be cut into six pieces like a pie, and the corners of each segment were bubbling up near the corners.
As Tsukuru looked down at them, his System's "Scan" Skill automatically activated. The system's "vector" appeared on top of the center-most bullet, and a line extended out of the left of it. The line then went up, leading to a square that showed a close-up image of the bullet.
Underneath, information was displayed.
[Flechette Round
Ammunition
A Hybrid bullet containing properties of both a bullet cartridge and a shotgun shell. When fired, it releases a set of 20 Flechette Darts made out of a High-Density Glathrium Alloy in a wide spread-fire.]
Tsukuru turned the Gunblade back into its Gun Form, and popped open the cylinder. Due to a safety feature Logan had put in, the gun's cylinder could not be opened while the gun was in Dagger Mode.
Tsukuru placed the Flechette Rounds into the empty cylinder, filling it completely.
He then aimed the barrel of the gun at the incoming Swarmers.
'Hope this works,' he thought.
Tsukuru then pulled the trigger.
Once again, the sound of a gunshot rang out, but this one was more reminiscent of a shotgun.
A set of twenty black darts shot out in different directions, being propelled by the force of the gunfire at high speeds.
Normally, a person would not be able to see such high-moving projectiles, but given Tsukuru's high Agility Stat, he was able to see them, even if just barely.
He could make out the vague shape of the darts, but couldn't see them in any fire detail.
A cluster of five Swarmers were all sent flying backwards, their bodies pierced in multiple locations by the darts.
They all shrieked in pain, as their bodies were pierced, and moments after being launched backwards into the air, they exploded into pixels.
A System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed 5 Swarmers.]
Tsukuru smirked in satisfaction.
He turned the gun towards the remaining Swarmers, and fired again.
Another five Swarmers were dealt with, causing the same System message to appear.
[You have killed 5 Swarmers.]
With one final gunshot, the last five Swarmers were killed.
A set of two new System messages appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[You have killed 5 Swarmers.
Wave 3 is now complete.
You have received 2 Battle Points.
Battle Points: 6
You have received 100 Gold.
Current Balance: 1,340 Gold]
[Wave 4 will now begin. Would you like to continue?
[Continue] [Retire] ]
Tsukuru looked down at the gunblade in his hand with a smirk.
'Those flechette rounds worked out better than I could have ever hoped,' he thought. 'Looks like I just found my new Anti-Swarmer Ammunition.'
He then turned his attention towards the lingering System message. The one asking him if he wanted to move onto the next wave.
'Hey, mom,' Tsukuru thought. 'How long have I been in here, anyway?'
Almost immediately, Reiju responded.
"You've been in the Battle Arena for roughly one hour," she replied.
"Hm," Tsukuru replied, mulling this information over in his mind.
"That's not actually too long, all things considered," he replied.
He reached forward, and pressed the "Continue" option.
"No reason not to keep going, then," he replied.
The option on the System screen lit up brightly, and an electronic beep was heard.
Once again, Tsukuru's body became enveloped in an aura of green light, and he felt a warm, soothing sensation flood his body.
A set of two System messages appeared in front of him.
[Your In-Game HP, Energy, and Stamina have been fully restored.
HP: 55/55
Energy: 180/180
Stamina: 15/15]
[Wave 4 will now begin.]