ROTLE- Chapter 34- Violence Is Not The Answer (Patreon)

It took almost all of Aiden to pull his attention away from his notification and stare down the gargoyle in front of him.

His interface had left him with a few questions and they came to play as he moved slowly to the side, sizing up his new single opponent.

For one, Aiden had gotten a unique skill as a new skill, which was unheard of. Second, he thought he’d lost [Unarmed Engrave], consumed in his bid to gain a class.

So why was it here, staring at him. Or at least trying to.

The gargoyle flinched forward and Aiden jerked one way. He had almost moved completely to the side before stopping himself.

That’s a neat trick, Aiden thought, realizing he’d almost fallen for a gargoyle’s trick.

He would’ve moved in response only to find a descending claw waiting for him wherever he ended up.

“Alright, big guy,” Aiden muttered, one hand reaching for one of his soldier’s belts pocket, “let’s dance.”

He caught its yellow eyes switch to his hand, then it dived at him.

It was smart, unfortunately, it wasn’t fast at it.

Aiden unclipped one of the pockets and a cube fell into his palm. He was already channeling mana into it as he dived out of the way.

He hit the ground, rolled and came up with a steady arm. The cube left his hand and hit the ground right next to the gargoyle.

The gargoyle gave it a single glance, then turned its eyes on Aiden. It hesitated and that was all the time Aiden needed.

The cube shattered.

You have used [Enchantment of Lesser Gravity]

The enchantment was mostly used on a worn item. When used this way, however, it simply affected the area around it.

It tripled the gravitational force of where it landed.

With its weight tripled, the gargoyle’s legs buckled under it and it fell to the ground. It struggled against its own weight but its eyes never left Aiden. They were always watching as it scratched against the ground, scraping marks into it and struggling futilely.

No matter how many enchantments he used on the creature, there was only ever going to be one way to stop it and the gravity enchantment was only there to hinder it.

Aiden stepped forward, menacing, hoping to terrify the creature with just the idea of his very presence. It might not be truly intelligent, but like all wild beasts even a predator knew when it had become prey.

Fear was not one to discriminate, and he hoped his very presence would imbue fear in the creature.

It doesn’t matter the creature, as long as it has any level of intelligence, mind games are always an option.

It was something he’d learnt in the Order.

He stopped mid-step as something caught his attention in his periphery. He turned against his better judgement and found Elaswit on the back foot with her own gargoyle.

She was being bullied, and right now the gargoyle had managed to corner her against a wall with no escape.

Keep your attention on the time! Aiden scolded himself as he heard a low growl.

Rather than move away, he brought his sword up as his head returned to his opponent a little late.

He stepped inward, moving his sword to intercept an obvious strike. Sparks went flying as he redirected the gargoyle hand that came at him along the length of his blade. The moment he was too close for it to attack with anything but its jaws, he ducked beneath its lunging form.

Aiden turned up on the other side, came up behind it and found himself stuck with two options: attack it or attack another gargoyle.

He made his choice.

Which one is it? he thought, his free hand going for his soldier belt. You can’t be forgetting shit at a time like this.

His hand touched the pocket. Third to the right.

His fingers unclipped it immediately as his gargoyle rallied itself and turned on him. A metal ball fell into Aiden’s hand and he threw just as the gargoyle charged at him.

This was why he hated soldier belts. Well hate was a strong word.

He rallied against the gargoyle, sword swinging and turning as his metal orb landed just beneath the gargoyle Elaswit was fighting, right at its hind leg. Two strikes met his blade and he turned them aside. A third strike staggered him as his interface flashed in front of him.

You have used [Enhantment of Lesser lightning]

Effect: Deal stun damage within a chosen area.

Radius: 0.0009km

That was exactly what he needed, Aiden realized as he barely avoided another attack. He didn’t deflect this one, choosing to evade as he felt his [Weave of Lesser Strength] peter out of him.

Now he needed space, so he activated a skill and hopped back, angling himself properly for distance instead of height. He felt the mana flood to his legs as his interface came alive in front of him.

You have used skill [Leap]

He burst through the distance, clearing over fifteen feet away from the gargoyle.

When he hit the ground, he slid backwards, hand and feet doing everything to bring himself to a halt.

Aiden sheathed his sword even before he came to a stop. His eyes glanced at Elaswit momentarily. What he saw was good. She was out from where she’d been cornered against the wall and was now the one putting the gargoyle on the back foot.

Aiden returned his attention to his fight as he brought his hands in front of him.

Really got to master weaving with a sword, he thought with a frown.

You have activated Class skill [Enchanted Weave]

…

You have used [Weave of Lesser Lightning]

…

[Mana 43%]

Aiden felt faster, the effects of lightning running through him. But that wasn’t the purpose of the enchantment. He reminded himself of this as he unsheathed his sword and watched the gargoyle charge him.

While his body could stack up at least three weavings at a time, Aiden had since learned that he couldn’t spam enchantments on himself. He always needed some time for his body to rest before using a repeated enchantment.

It was like using certain types of alchemical potions, apparently. It took a toll on his body somehow.

Aiden dashed forward, ran straight into the gargoyle.

It took a swipe at him and he dodged it, ducked beneath it. His body carried him faster than normal, moved him quicker.

He could feel the effects of the increase in stats he’d gained even if he hadn’t checked it. Still, this was different. When he brought his sword up to block a blow from one of the gargoyle’s hind legs, he was a step ahead, even of himself.

There was a delay of a fraction of a second in his timing so that when the blow finally came, he wasn’t braced properly. The force of the impact staggered him a few steps back and he swore under his breath.

The weaving was making him a little too fast and he needed to readjust to it. It wasn’t just his movement that was fast but his reaction time too. His body worked almost as quickly as he thought of the action.

There wre pros to such a thing, but cons as well.

Aiden repositioned his sword, took a different stance.

“Alright then,” he muttered. “Let’s go for it.”

He stepped forward once more, carried himself towards the gargoyle. [Dash] came alive easily and he darted past the creature. With the speed of his momentum, he came to a skidding stop right behind it as it turned to face him.

Aiden took a moment, timed himself.

When the gargoyle swung at him again, that was when he moved. Claw met blade and it took a little out of him to parry the strike.

He stepped back once more and caught the streak of electricity that went through the gargoyle. It stunned it for what felt like a fraction of a second.

But it was all the time Aiden needed. He charged forward and spun into an upward slash. He would’ve gone for the stab but something told him there was too much risk involved in it.

Personally, he preferred being proactive in a fight, anticipating the enemy before striking. But with [Weave of Lesser Lightning] going through him, being proactive was problematic. There were a lot of things he could risk but overreaching a little too early wasn’t one of them.

So now he had to be reactive in a fight until the weaving ran out. And being reactive was the worst way to fight, especially when your opponent was stronger than you.

Aiden’s upward slash was aimed perfectly and he cut a deep gash where the gargoyle’s parried limb met its torso.

Dark grey blood sprayed out from the wound and Aiden allowed his spin carry him away from the gargoyle, adding three more turns to the action.

The gargoyle let out a pained shriek that pierced Aiden’s ear.

Fuck, Aiden swore as he swung his sword to get rid of the blood before it hardened on his blade and became a problem. If there were no gargoyles close by, they’ll be flooding here soon.

Now they had to hurry.

They couldn’t risk wasting anymore time.

With lightning running through him, speeding him up faster than he needed, he held his sword down and away so that the tip pinted to the ground and lowered his stance. Most of the monsters on Nastild that moved on four legs had weak underbellies, and Aiden was yet to see a type monster the Order didn’t have a fighting style designed to kill.

And he still remembered all the ones he’d learned.

Aiden took a deep calming breath and checked on his stamina.

[Stamina 62%]

It had to be enough.

“Third Order sword technique,” he muttered under his breath and really hoped his body could handle it. “First Flow…”

…Rising Dawn.

[Dash] moved him and he shot through the distance. When he came to a stop in front of the gargoyle, his arms were already moving. He twirled the sword from behind him in a flurry of movements.

The first sword strike slammed into the gargoyle’s leg just above it’s claws. The monster reacted instinctively and pulled the leg back, but Aiden wasn’t done. His sword was already moving and a second strike slammed into its knee just behind its second front leg.

The gargoyle’s reaction was the same. It pushed itself up with the single front leg still on the ground so that its entire torso was raised high. There was a clear opening but Aiden didn’t step into the gap for the kill. Instead, his legs carried him two steps closer, both hands twirling the sword between themselves so that it whistled as it cut through the air, gathering momentum.

He stepped to the side and the third strike was into the side of the gargoyle. It was a powerful blow… at least it was meant to be. In Aiden’s less than level thirty body, there was a loud clang that filled the air on impact, and the gargoyle reacted as if he was being nothing but a nuisance.

The monster turned in what would’ve been anger on a monster with more facial expressions and swung at him from the other side.

Aiden stepped in the moment it did and struck upward. With the momentum of his attack and the force of its swing, the tip of his sword pierced into its mark easily where it was weakest.

The gargoyle shrieked in pain and tried to back away from him as he withdrew his blade, his feet still moving through the footwork of the technique, and he was on its other side in the blink of an eye. He pierced a second stab wound before the creature’s eyes could follow him and drew his sword free cleanly.

This one was quick, deep, and precise.

The technique ended in two more spins, carrying Aiden away, and he came to a stop well away from the gargoyle as it dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

Aiden didn’t need to check to know that it was dead. He didn’t even need his interface’s confirmation.

His interface lit up in front of him.

[Stamina 21%]

“Weak,” he muttered to himself as he turned his attention elsewhere.

His interface lit up in front of him with new notifications before he could focus his attention on his next and final target.

[You have dealt a fatal blow!]

Congratulations! You have slain [Gargoyle Level 27].

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Level 21 à23]

[You are now Level 23]

…

Congratulations [Prisoner #234502385739]!

[You have used a Flow from the Order Sword Technique.]

[You have used the first Flow of the Third Order.]

[You have learnt Rising Dawn]

…

[Error! Error! Error!]

[Error detected!]

[Prisoner #234502385739] does not meet the requirement to learn this Technique]

[You have not learnt Rising Dawn]

Aiden would’ve laughed if he wasn’t more interested in Elaswit and her survival.

He had been more surprised by the appearance of the notification telling him he had learnt the technique in the first place. Every [Technique] had a requirement to learn, and while he wasn’t sure what the few techniques existing on Nastild required, Aiden knew for a fact that one requirement for the Order’s was that he had to be level fifty.

So it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t learnt it. Also, it had taken almost forty percent from his [Stamina] when before his regression, the average Order technique like this one only took ten percent from him or less.

He still had a long way to go before he was ready to be able to go around playing overpowered regressor.

Regardless, overpowered regressor was exactly what he was aiming to be and nothing was going to stop him from getting there.

For now, he had to help a princess deal with—

There was a loud boom where Elaswit was fighting and Aiden turned to the sight of a cloud of dust.

…

This wasn’t how she liked fighting, Elaswit thought as she swung her cleaver straight into the side of the gargoyle. Not for the first time, the blow threw it to the side but didn’t cut it. At this point she could swap the cleaver for a cudgel and feel like she was actually doing damage.

When the second gargoyle had gone after Aiden she had been worried, but he had seemed to be handling himself well. Then she’d tried to circumvent her massive opponent over here and help him, but it seemed quite adamant on keeping her to itself.

Now it was refusing to die.

She was stronger than it, but it was faster than her. As a [Butcher], she was built for strength not speed, which was a downside to the class.

Then Aiden had gone and gotten himself trapped in a cloud of dust with two monsters that were supposed to be nocturnal and that had quite literally scared her enough to lose her focus.

Then the gargoyle had gotten her on the backfoot. It had been a bit of a struggle from there. She was strong enough to push herself out from under it but it was too fast so that was a risk. She could make a mistake in her need to escape and end up with a claw to the side for her worries.

Her issues were beginning to seem way more than they were.

As the princess of Bandiv and the daughter to her parents, she had two artifacts that she kept on her person at all times, gifted to her by them. The first was a fragment of the mad king’s bar which her brothers also had and the other was a piece of Tanarim’s staff.

According to the myth, Tanarim was a very powerful [Sage] who had lived many civilizations ago. Apparently, he had used the staff enough times that it had become an aura-blessed artifact. Anyone that had it equipped had an extra skill added to their class skills and two additional points to all stats. The skill was always an evolution of a random skill and was always useful.

Elaswit had no issue telling Aiden about the mad king’s bar but she definitely wasn’t going to tell him about Tanarim’s staff.

But there was a third artifact with her, one she’d borrowed from her mom before this trip. It was designed to save her from what was supposed to be an instant kill attack as well as preserve her from dying from an injury.

It was called the [Healer’s Greaves]. She could bleed out for two kilometers before she would have to worry about dying. However, while a claw wound from the gargoyle, no matter how massive its claws were, would leave her with a fatal injury that the artifact could keep her alive from, the artifact would not save her from being eaten alive.

So Elaswit leaned into the defensive as the monster backed her into a wall. She had half her attention on confirming that Aiden was still alive and the other half on confirming she had no openings that the gargoyle could exploit.

The gargoyle beat against her defense, clawing at the flat of her cleaver she currently used as a shield. Each strike let out a loud clang and Elaswit knew that a lesser blade would’ve broken under the strikes by now.

A loud thud filled the air suddenly and Elaswit did her best to keep her attention—at least most of it—on her enemy.

When she saw Aiden burst out of the cloud of dust as it was dying, she almost let out a relieved sigh even in her situation.

The last thing she needed was to be explaining to her parents how she’d stood by and watched their most resourceful summoned savior die.

Pull yourself together, Elaswit, she scolded herself the moment her back hit the wall.

There was no escaping the gargoyle now. The only way out was to take a risk. She could not outpace the monster. And while she could overpower it, there was scarcely anything she could do to actually crush it.

Should I change weapons?

It was a good question but also a moot one. Elaswit’s cleaver was proving itself to be a disadvantage in the fight. From what she and Aiden had learnt about the monsters, she needed to pierce it just right beneath any of its front limbs to reach its heart. The problem was that a cleaver was not made for stabbing.

And the two times she’d succeeded in striking its weak spot accurately, all Elaswit had done was cut a gash in it that bled a dark grey blood that had solidified into something strong. The second time, she had received the same end result but with more strength.

She also couldn’t change weapon because it would take a little too long to retrieve something capable of stabbing from her spatial storage.

And [Sword strike] isn’t doing anything.

After a few strikes, Elaswit was beginning to find a cadence in the gargoyle’s strike. A pattern. It rhythmical but it was also fast. Now that she had it down—arguably—she could focus on taking a different kind of risk. If she could break its rhythm before trying to get away, she stood a better chance of turning the tide.

Right now, though, Elaswit was experiencing something new. The horribly disgusting feeling of being overpowered by an opponent that was clearly weaker than her.

She braced against one of the strikes as she continued to run through her chances of escape. It rang loud in the cave. Then she adjusted her cleaver, bracing for the next.

It didn’t come.

Wha—

She shut her thoughts up immediately. Thinking wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing right now. Her father had always said that sometimes, in a fight, you had to learn to react. You had to let your body do the thinking for you.

That was what it meant to trust your own instincts.

Elaswit dived away from her position, praying to the gods that she wasn’t about to get herself a claw in the side.

The gods answered because she hit the ground in a roll and the only pain she felt was from the impact of hitting the ground and a poorly executed roll.

She came up to her feet, sword swinging in case the monster had followed her. It did not. Her cleaver cut through the air and she was met with the sight of lightning coursing through the gargoyle.

Whatever had happened—and she strongly suspected Aiden had a hand in it—had left the gargoyle stunned long enough to escape.

But the lightning was dying now. The gargoyle was moving.

When it turned to her, Elaswit was ready for it, and they clashed in a flurry of sword swings and swinging claws.

This time, she had it fixed firmly on the defense and wasn’t going to lose the advantage. If Aiden had gotten enough freedom to help her in her situation, then she had to believe he was doing just fine.

She wasn’t happy to find that it bothered her that he was doing just fine when she was not.

Is it jealousy? She thought as she ducked a vicious claw and swung an angry sword strike into the gargoyle.

Elaswit felt the impact as the gargoyle’s skin gave way to the sharp edge of her blade. Unfortunately, instead of lopping of the limb, her strike ultimately sent the gargoyle flying.

“Oh no, you don’t.”

Elaswit swung her sword, activating [Sword Strike].

A flash of mana shot from her swing and arced through the distance. It slammed into the side of the gargoyle and Elaswit used the skill again.

The gargoyle took the blow with the top of its head, bent its head into the arc of mana. When the arc exploded on impact, the gargoyle was left standing there with its body completely riddled in cracks.

A lesser beast would’ve been lying in pieces by now. But it seemed a gargoyle was far from a lesser beast.

One thing was certain, her father needed to hear everything there was to hear about this.

But there was a bigger issue at play. They still had far more gargoyles to kill. So far they’d only run into four. If gargoyles were giving her this kind of issue, how was she going to be helpful to Aiden when they ran into the others.

It wasn’t like they could just skip all the way to the final gargoyle.

The gargoyle rushed Elaswit and she swung her cleaver. The beast struck in return and both attacks clashed.

Elaswit almost laughed at the disrespect. Her attack struck the beast’s limb to the side and she still had enough power and control to slam a second attack into its side. The blow sent it flying once more.

So far she’d been fighting with finesse which really wasn’t her style, trying to kill it and not beat it down.

Now, however, she was done with the finesse. She was going to face the beast the way she would face any other.

With the brute strength of a [Butcher].

“Come on, then,” she goaded, stepping up to it. “Let’s beat that special behavior out of you.”

The gargoyle took a step away from her. It confused her.

“Are you scared?” she asked.

Were demons with little intelligence capable of possessing fear? It would’ve been an interesting concept to ponder on if she wasn’t faced with the fact that the end result of their cave escapade was the monster that was supposed to be more powerful than the one in front of her.

Elaswit’s mind was already working as she took another step forward only for the gargoyle to back away once more.

After this fight, any other fight she and Aiden come across, they would fight it together. She would beat down the opponent with insurmountable strength and he would kill it with his precision.

Then the system would share the benefit towards leveling up between them. Chances were that Aiden was going to be getting the bulk of the leveling up, but it wasn’t a problem. He was one of the saviors and was new to the world, so he needed all the levels he could get.

Leveling up wasn’t easy, after all.

But until then…

She activated [Dash], covered the distance between her and the gargoyle. Reaching it, she attacked with a downward strike, cleaver held in both hands.

The gargoyle darted away quickly, but its awareness was lacking. Elaswit smiled when it covered a very short distance before bumping into the wall behind it. The disorientation that came with the mistake was something Elaswit capitalized on immediately.

An upward swing, slammed into the beast, sending it a foot off the ground and cracks rippling through its body, crisscrossing with the ones she had already left on it.

Before it fell back to the ground, her cleaver was already swinging. With all the strength she could muster, she smacked it back into the wall.

It was violence from there. Standing over it, she struck downwards and continued to attack. Each strike was aimed as close to the same spot as she could manage. Sadly, with all the strength she needed for each swing, accuracy became a foregone alternative.

Still, she continued to strike, forcing down every blow as she stood over it.

You have used Class skill [Sword Strike].

Elaswit ignored the notification even as the burst of red mana exploded in front of her. Violence, the people of Nastild always said, was not the answer.

For her, her response to it was always the same. She was a [Butcher], violence was all her class knew.

You have slain [Gargoyle Lvl 31]

[Congratulations! You have Level Up!]

[Level 38à 39]

[You are now Level 39]

“Sometimes,” she sighed, looking at the notification, “you just need enough violence.”