Chapter 66: The Art of Barrier Grinding
Finn appreciated the blade for a bit, swinging it around, and practicing some of the standard moves that he knew about from movies. The rest were more instinctual, and he’d credit it to the [Blade Proficiency] passive.
Of course, while the usual focus of halberd wielders was brute strength, the weapon could also be used by lean people if their focus was on reach and speed.
He placed a few more jerky on the corners again, letting them slam themselves on the corner while he improved his handling of the halberd.
Soon, his movements got as fast as they were fluid. A shoulder roll became a full spin, and the halberd traced arcs in the air like a ribbon. Sweat began to form, making his shirt cling to his back, but a smile graced his face.
He must look very cool right now—
ROAAR!
The monsters roared, slamming into the barrier with increasing fervor.
He had ignored them for an hour, so they were definitely impatient. An hour of slamming heads on the corner also damaged them a bit, fortunately.
He used [Ingredient Scan] to look at them. Although he was already familiar with this monster, he’d like to know which ones to handle first, for efficiency purposes. He zoned in on two monsters side by side with each other, one brindlejaw and another a glecksmar, a.k.a. The ugly pork source and the unpalatable deformed pug-lion, respectively.
He once again wounded his non-dominant upper arm again, this time with the halberd’s hook and only a nick. This was sharp after all, he was afraid he’d make a deep wound by accident.
He was really not fond of pain, so the wound this time was especially small, literally just a bit bigger than accidentally getting hit by a staple gun.
Interestingly, even with just this bit of blood, the monster reacted with no less fervor than when he was dormant with a larger wound. The monsters were not only more manic, but the monsters that had been dispersed around congregated here. He was just more efficient when they were in one place, weakening each other.
Further, with the wide range of his new weapon, the denser they were, the more he could hit.
BANG!!!
ROAARRR
[-1 Defense Point]
Finn nodded. He heard that the blood of intelligent beings was attractive to these monsters, and especially so when they had awakened. Now he could see that it was very true.
A single drop had the same effect as a pint of his blood as a dormant. No wonder even toughened monsters followed Syl so far away from their usual habitat.
He held on to the spear securely so that it wouldn’t get pulled like how the bone sword had been pulled before. At the same time, he didn’t allow himself to be too stiff because that’d affect his movement and flexibility too much.
The first thing he did was to make a stab at the Brindlejaw’s eye.
Stab!
Unlike his pitiful attempts with the bone swords before, this time it was accurate and sharp. A single shot caused it to bleed, and a single stab actually embedded into its eyes.
ROAAARR!
The monster reacted as he thought, by squirming wildly in pain and bumping its head harder against the barrier. If this were the glecksmar, there was a chance that it would shift its head away, focusing on ridding the stick from its eye first.
However, the brindlejaw had a tendency to go forward due to its larger mass up front. It just didn’t do sideways well, which was why the previous strategy of ’squeezing them in’ was so effective, because the mob back then was composed of this pork source.
If he set a ’target’ in a certain direction, they’d only move forward and struggle to avoid the attacks happening elsewhere.
ROAAARR!
Finn smirked, quite proud of how he was becoming an ’expert’ with these monsters. He parted his legs for stability and pushed his weight as he held the pole at an angle, all while he watched as the monster pushed toward him.
Thanks to the scent of his (drop of) blood, it literally stabbed itself to death, the halberd pushed further and further into its skull until—
ROAARRR!
[Killed! Brindlejaw (Awakened)]
His amber eyes were sparkling.
How nice.
Gone were the days he was fighting for his life, consuming his entire stat, against a single monster!
Now he killed one, and it hadn’t consumed a single stamina point! Even the drop of blood hadn’t reduced his HP at all.
It got healed fairly quickly tho, so he had to unfortunately prick himself every so often, eventually leading to a few HP losses.
Anyway, Finn, using the halberd that was embedded in it, pulled a third of the carcass in. He could easily pull it a few more times and it’d be completely in, but he didn’t want to work by himself!
"PANG! Take these monsters in!" he said. "Otherwise, I won’t cook you a meal!"
"...eh." The panda mumbled, chilling on the porch. Darned lazy ass.
"Well, suit yourself," Finn said, and he smirked when the panda literally dragged himself to the edge of the barrier to help him with the cleanup.
Anyway, dude’s eating for leisure. He ought to put him to work for consuming precious resources! And he consumed a lot of resources!
Next beast was the glecksmar, which was right next to the brindlejaw he just killed. He attempted to repeat the same movement, though it wasn’t as straightforward.
The glecksmar had less force than the pork source, but it had a wider set of movements. It avoided his attack first, but this time he pushed further, rotating the halberd so its axe would hit instead!
Slash!
ROAAR!
It wasn’t as deep as it would’ve been if it were the spear that stabbed it, but it was bleeding, and it made the monster go berserk, hitting its head on the barrier even harder in anger.
He smiled. Because the monsters were close together, the monster’s movements were limited, so he could more or less guess where he’d bump next.
This time, he let the spear enter his brain!
SQUELCH!
[Killed! Glecksmar (Awakened)]
"Ohh~ That one has an essence core~" Pang said as he pulled the monster into the barrier.
He could still recall how this monster—the first one he had seen coming to this world—terrified him so much he almost peed himself.
He raised his spear, a bright (smug) smile gracing his face.
"VIVA UNLI MEAT!"