Chapter 41 - Whipped (1)

"Damn it! That no-name bastard took the weapon!" Rami, one of the twins yelled in rage, "I told you one of us should have taken the curse and the weapon."

"Shut up Rami," The redhead barked at him, "We can still get the weapon from him. All we need to do is to kill him. So stop barking like a dog."

"Nathan is correct," The second half of the twins said before yawning casually, "after all, that's what our plan was from the beginning. Our father even paid a huge sum of money to put us all in the same group, making this easier for us."

"Damn it, Rick! It was supposed to be a secret!" The red-head known as Nathan cursed once again.

And soon all three of them were busy cursing each other, completely ignoring the fact that their enemy was standing right there in front of them.

'I was afraid of taking on this bunch of airheads?' Ashton smirked before taking a good look at the weapon in his hands.

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Item: Bone Whip

Type: Weapon

Damage: 100-133 HP per strike

Stats bonus:

>> Strength: +10 while equipped for use.

>> Deals 1.2x damage against Night Creatures.

>> Deals 2x damage against Werewolves.

Rarity: Uncommon

Description:

A bloodied whip made out of the bones of numerous night creatures who fell prey to its attack. A somewhat rare find and an effective weapon to fight against werewolves and night creatures. When in the hands of an expert wielder can cause havoc. One of the most preferred weapons to keep enemies at a range and attack them as well.

The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects.

Effect(s):

Attacking enemies using this weapon exposes them to Haemmorage, making them lose 2% of their HP for the next 5 seconds. This ability has a cooldown period of 10 seconds (Ineffective on Elite beasts).

Grants the user a passive effect: <Stun>.

Whenever the user parries an enemy attack, the attacker has a 100% chance of getting stunned for 1 second. This effect has a cooldown period of 10 seconds. One target can only be affected by this skill 3 times in an hour.

Grants the user the active skill: <Cloaked>.

Temporarily increases the user's evasion rate for 5 seconds. Thus making it tougher for the enemies to attack the user down.

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"This is quite a treasure..." Ashton mumbled slowly.

The damage of the whip was lesser than that of the twin blades as well as the stat boosts were not as high as the blades either. However, the whip more or less made up for it thanks to its passive and active effects. Stun and Cloaked were abilities that heavily complimented each other.

With Stun, Ashton could [Stun] attacking enemies and in case he failed to parry the attack, he could always use [Cloaked] to evade the strike either way. With these two skills coupled with his [Reflex] perk, he was essentially untouchable. Especially if the other examinees were on the same level as the three in front of him.

'Let's test them out, shall I?'

Without wasting a second more of his time Ashton leapt in the air and swung his whip to the nearest twin. All of them were so busy bitching about each other that by the time they noticed something was amiss, it was already too late.

The white bony whip wrapped itself around Rami's head and the next moment he was slammed headfirst on the ground. The stat boost provided by the whip might not have been much, but it was enough for Ashton to overpower them individually. After all, even with the curse on him, he was just as strong as the three of them.

"What the hell-"

The two remaining brothers blurted out simultaneously. But couldn't do anything else apart from that. Ashton's sudden move had startled them. Their minds could not produce a suitable counter for him in time. This is what happens most of the time when someone suddenly attacks a group alone.

It was in their nature to expect a pack to be stronger than a lone wolf. Such thinking wasn't wrong per se, but it was not valid all the time. Also, whenever one has attacked a group, the group would be shocked without fail, not by the strength of their attacker, but by their audacity to do something like that.

Ashton knew it very well as the mistress had taught about the basics of fighting even after being outnumbered. She did so, thinking Ashton might get attacked by the team of Vampire and undead that had been haunting Maddencreek.

However, this phase only lasted a second or two at max. This time could be either used to attack more enemies or retreat, depending on the situation. But Ashton being Ashton, running away from them wasn't something he would even entertain thinking about.

Thus, he decided to knock down at least two of them for good before the element of surprise wore off. Getting rid of two of them would make it easier for him to focus on the third. It was the best thing for him to do now. Theoretically, at least.

He threw the whip in the direction of the other twin. The whip, however, was not meant to target the twin, instead, Ashton was targeting the tree behind Rion. As soon as the whip wrapped itself around a sturdy branch of the tree, Ashton used the momentum to swing towards Rion with all his might.

A moment later, two feet were firmly planted on Rion's chest throwing him away and shattering his chest piece. At the same time, an announcement was made throughout the zone.

"Rion Marcello has been eliminated!"

It was the first elimination in the zone. However, Ashton was worried rather than being happy. This was the first announcement like that which meant...

'Shit!' he immediately turned around only to see that Rami was still in the game along with the redhead, 'Fck.... me and my hastiness gets me screwed every time!'