Chapter 23 Problem

When Nial realized that Melvin was unable to accurately control the strength of his Lightning affinity, he felt extremely lucky to be alive.

Rushing further to the left, he realized that it was best if he were to clear a path for his friend so that he could attack freely, without hitting anyone accidentally.

While he did so, the Goblins that were proficient in fighting at a close range followed him, but that was not further bothersome.

There were only eight Goblins left, and Nial could clearly perceive half of them around him.

He could only visualize the closest one, but that was more than enough for him to thrust the Viper spear out in its direction.

With a breakneck speed, the Viper spear pierced through the closest Goblin that had lifted its daggers to deflect his attack.

Unfortunately, the spear's released blade cut through the stone weapon as if it was made out of butter before advancing further.

As the spear's sharp tip penetrated the hide of the Goblin, Nial could clearly feel how the spear cut through flesh, organs and even bones.

He only met a slight resistance when his weak strength wouldn't let the spear pierce entirely through the body.

With a higher physical strength, Nial would have been easily able to cut the Goblin in half or pierce through it in its entirety, but for now, this was impossible.

After a fraction of a second in which he was too stunned to move, and filled with disgust, he could finally think again.

Luckily, this crucial second didn't cause a major disadvantage as it took the other Goblins the exact same second to reach him.

Just at that moment, an extremely loud sound echoed through the surrounding, amplified by the dungeon walls it bounced off. And, even without being near Melvin, Nial knew that his friend had fired another of his lightning bolts.

This caused him to sigh inwardly because Melvin took way too long to fire a single attack.

Nevertheless, he couldn't stay focused on his friend because there were pressing matters that needed his attention.

While the tip of the Viper spear was still lodged inside the Goblin he had just killed, the three other Goblins had initiated their attack.

Meanwhile, the other Goblins had entered the range at which he was able to tell that something was moving around him.

Through this, he knew that the next few seconds were extremely important.

Firmly holding the Viper spear with both hands, he smoothly pulled it out of the Goblin's corpse before he took half a step backward, allowing himself more room to move freely.

Because of that, Nial was able to enter a suitable position to defend and attack.

Yet, instead of acting defensively, he ignored the disgust he was feeling about himself as he pushed forward, thrusting out the spear at the Goblin.

Within seconds, the spear pierced into the Goblin too as Nial's entire demeanor had changed.

He was no longer the timid youth who would hesitate to take a life, he now realized that it wouldn't do that, his opponent for sure would not bat an eyelid before taking his life!

And with his death, Melvin would be further endangered too.

As such, he had to kill in order to survive. It was as simple as that.

Thus, he let his survival instinct kick in as the Goblins surrounded him, but there were fortunately only three who were extremely close to him, while the others would need at least one, or probably two seconds before they reached him.

With the Goblin in front of him slowly succumbing to its injuries, Nial didn't even hesitate as he retracted the blade.

This allowed him to move the Viper spear without the need to pull the blade out of the dying corpse of his opponent.

Such an advantage was tremendous in the face of several opponents.

It gave him the necessary moment to use his entire force to pull back the spear.

Nial did this in order to shove the other end of the Viper spear into the abdomen of the Goblin that had wanted to attack him from behind.

With a painful squeal, it slumped to the ground, leaving Nial with only one unscathed Goblin in his direct range.

Twisting his body while moving forward, he almost lost his balance. But that was fine as long as he could narrowly evade the Goblin's spear thrust that had almost pierced into his upper body.

Through his high mana perception which was further enhanced by the [mana Perception(Poorest)] ability, Nial was able to sense certain attacks the moment they were issued.

Unfortunately, this was more difficult against weapons that didn't radiate any mana because to him they simply looked like mana-less spots.

But it was exactly this that allowed Nial to understand that those seemingly empty areas he visualized were, in fact, also objects!

Because of that, he was able to perceive the movement of the spear that had been thrust toward him.

After Nial evaded it, he quickly swung the Viper spear towards the mana-less spear, pushing it away.

Immediately after, he pulled back his leg towards his stomach a little before exerting as much strength as possible to kick the Goblin.

His impactful kick flung the tiny beast away along with the one behind it.

The Goblin was hurled like a weightless feather and it collided with the one that was struggling to get up after Nial's spear had knocked it out earlier.

Only moments after Nial had killed the Goblin, the remaining Goblins reached him.

However, now he had already adjusted to their fighting style, moves and was better prepared.

That was one and a rather massive advantage Nial had, he could quickly determine his opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

At least that was how it had worked until now, even when he had sparred with his father!

In the end, Goblins were relatively less threatening creatures, and so was their combat style, which was focused on attacking straightforwardly without any scheming.

The only tactic they could use was a numerical advantage which they would use to surround their opponent in order to slowly wear him down.

Unfortunately, this was not something they were able to accomplish while fighting the blind youth. Nial was preventing them from splitting up, to begin with, as he adjusted his grip on the Viper spear, before inserting the majority of his mana into it as a blade emerged on the side of the tip.

Utilizing the Viper spear in order to slash horizontally, Nial decimated three Goblins at once, only to continue the massacre he had started earlier.

As the Goblin's bodies collapsed on the ground one after the other, a simple thought flashed through his mind.

'This spear is...amazing!!'

After he had defeated all the Goblins, Nial took a deep breath, only to flinch before he instinctively jumped backward.

Even though he was not sure what was happening, it was barely a moment later that he heard something whip through the air. His mana perception sensed something approaching him with a rapid pace.

Unable to move further, the arrow that had been shot towards him, missed Nial by a hair's breadth as it lodged itself into the ground and vibrated before going still.

Just a second later, the fourth bolt of lightning resounded through the surrounding before Melvin shouted excitedly, "I got all of them!"

Yet, Nial couldn't be happy about his friend's exclamation as he pulled the arrow out of the ground.

With a serious expression, he approached his heavily sweating friend, not sure what he should say as he grasped the arrow tightly, only to hear Melvin trying to explain himself.

"Well...I have only comprehended the lethality of the lightning affinity...not its speed and neither how to control it…"

Even though Nial didn't ask a single question, Melvin felt the need to explain himself.

That spoke volumes of the fact that he was guilty of his actions and the two young men were aware of the mistake Melvin had done.

As such, Nial didn't want to shout at his friend who had already accepted one fault.

Unfortunately, the situation forced him to say something, even if it might hurt his friend's pride. Nial valued his life, after all!

"You don't have to tell me that, I could feel it!! Don't you have a bow and arrows? That would be less dangerous and more useful right now, because I cannot see if the Goblin Archers ignore your attacks, and focus on shooting at me….…."

Nial didn't want to sound harsh, but Melvin's attacks were simply...devastating and way off the mark if Nial were to put it nicely.

If there were dozens of opponents in a straight line, Melvin could kill them all, but if they were surrounded by beasts, he wouldn't even be able to release Lightning currents from his body owing to the huge pressure.

That was bad, to put it simply, and Nial could clearly tell why Melvin's family was able to purchase the Lightning affinity crystal with the (Comprehension) tag.

It was simply too difficult to learn everything about the Lightning affinity that was labeled as one of the most dangerous and difficult to comprehend.

At least that was what Nial remembered from the few days he had been in school.

'Well, Melvin is still young, and if his family hires an instructor, it shouldn't be an issue for him to learn to make use of the (Comprehension) tag!'

Yet, in the end, Nial couldn't help but feel uncomfortable fighting Goblins and Kobolds that had more than three long-range units.

Not only did it exhaust Melvin, and use an extremely large amount of mana, but Nial's safety as well was also endangered.

That was obviously not something anyone would want.

Thus, Nial forced Melvin to have a serious discussion about their teamwork because it couldn't go on like that!