HC: Pacifist | Ch. 205 - How To Keep Yourself Distracted

Roth felt like he was dreaming. All around him, colorful skills flew and exploded, metal clanged on alien shells, and alien claws on armor. Every so often, Loki threw an attack his way, which Jaw-Long swatted away swiftly.

When he’d tried to imagine what witnessing this hunt would be like, he had never imagined that he would become paralyzed, unable to move. It wasn’t because he was stunned or under the effect of any skill, but too many emotions were pulling him in opposite directions.

Every time one of the players of the guild alliance died, he felt the urge to get in the way of Loki’s attacks and protect his allies. At the same time, the visage of the hunting party besieging someone he had put in a wheelchair made him relive the day he’d beaten Loki. The guilt of what he’d done to Loki that day made him want to get in the way of the guilds and stop their attack on the Hive King, his former victim.

On the other hand, every time Loki threw him a hateful glance and then sent an attack his way, he remembered being beaten up by IronIre, all the hardships his family had been through, and how he was stuck in this game, and anger made him want to throw himself at Loki’s throat and beat him up all over again.

A game of tug-of-war was going on in Roth’s heart, and the one losing was him, the rope being pulled in opposite directions, threatening to break. His vision began darkening, and he felt out of breath. What should he do? What should he do? He could feel control of his actions begin to slip, and he feared going into one of his crazy rampages again.

He had to find a way to keep himself distracted, to get away from this battle. He wanted nothing to do with it, and he was already regretting ever getting involved. No. He had to escape. Roth sat down on the floor and reached into his inventory.

*

Ten minutes had elapsed, and half of the hunting party had already died. Only the best and the brightest among the guilds managed to stay alive while facing Loki’s barrages. The sad thing was that despite all the attacks being thrown at Loki, they hadn’t even managed to get his hp bar out of the green.

ColdHand watched as BlueFire kept orchestrating the progression of attacks on the party chat.

“Water.”

A few espers summoned frothing waves and sharp jets that hissed, cutting through the air and landing on Loki.

-9

-8

-9

The result was pitiful, and they couldn’t break into the double digits. However, Loki was now soaking wet, making the next attack more effective.

“Ice.”

This time, ColdHand joined in with the other espers who had attacks of this element.

Blizzard Rain!

Three other espers sent similar skills, and the water on Loki froze over, provoking critical damage.

-31!

-14!

-12!

-15!

The espers threw attacks of the called elements according to BlueFire's instructions. Elemental cycling was a standard strategy to maximize damage and trigger critical hits. If a wind-based attack followed a fire one, both dealt bonus damage. If ice followed water, it was the same thing. A party could dramatically increase the damage output with the right order of elemental attacks. Every little point of damage counted in this hunt. Loki's stats were incredible, and they hadn't even gotten him down to the yellow zone.

Kraken was almost finished channeling another debuff, and Loki tried to snipe him to interrupt the skill, but ColdHand stepped in.

Ice Wall!

The wall that could typically last for several seconds against elites and bosses instantly shattered to pieces, but some residual damage landed on Kraken and knocked him back slightly. Thanks to ColdHand, Kraken came out unscathed, but the debuff he had been channeling was interrupted.

He had to give it to the guild leader of Pegasus. Even though he was surrounded, he could still keep track of any skills that represented more danger to him. Despite all the crowd-control skills they were landing on him, Loki interrupted key skills that would have tilted the battle. All the while, he was methodically identifying any weak spots in their formation and attacking them relentlessly. Any little mistake that the hunting party made was instantly punished. If only they could find an opening to use more powerful skills, they might start dealing serious damage to the Hive King, but Loki wasn’t giving them the chance.

With more party members to protect the portal, the percentage of players joining the hunt increased. Another medic stepped in, shielded by two warriors who deflected one of Loki’s attacks directed at the new arrival.  Griffin assigned the new arrival a position in the medic squad while ColdHand instructed who would follow next. He also messaged Cerberus to check in on their secret weapon and received a thumbs-up from the guild leader.

Thankfully, the quintessential barrier was erected without a hitch, and they could devote more firepower to dealing with Loki. He wouldn’t have been able to save Cerberus's bow if there had been other Pegasus players.

ColdHand took in the battlefield, focusing on the critical elements of this hunt. They couldn’t be lost no matter what. Kraken was one of them. The others were Ogre, BlueFire, MountainTop, and Griffin. As long as these players remained alive, they would make this work. They were the spinal cord, the lifeline of this hunting party. Finally, there was one last essential piece they couldn't bear to lose. He glanced toward Ticket Boy to make sure he was safe and sound and froze.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. What was Ticket Boy doing? The few moments of distraction almost cost him his life as Loki spotted his distraction and sent an attack his way. The instincts honed in many battles awoke ColdHand from his stupor.

Cryogenic Stasis!

ColdHand became encased in ice. This life-saving skill ensured he became unkillable for 10 seconds. He could still move and look around inside the block of ice and stared with his jaw gaping at the ticket boy. More and more people were doing the same, and even Loki had stopped fighting to follow the gaze of the other players and see what was going on.

ColdHand could count on the fingers of one hand the times when he had been caught completely off-guard and felt this level of shock.

He wrote a private message to Roth. He had never used full capitals like this before but felt that this moment deserved it. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

*

Loki clicked his tongue as ColdHand again blocked his attack with [Ice Wall]. The moment the cryokinetic tactician of the Krakens stepped out of the portal, he knew he was coordinating this hunt. The cold, precise calculations and the efficiency with which the hunting party adapted the formation were trademarks of the icy general of the Krakens. Yet another very troublesome opponent had come for him.

Thankfully, he was able to block that debuff regardless. He didn’t need whatever nasty skill Kraken had been channeling for a full minute. He looked at the list of debuffs that Kraken had inflicted on him and grimaced. Just how many skill slots did he have? On top of that, he was under the effect of seven different poisons. Just how many thousands of gold had the mad scientist of the Krakens spent concocting this nightmarish collection of toxins and acids?

Although Loki had finished several players, the ones he wanted to kill the most were still soldiering on. He just had to settle with finding the next weak link in the chain.

He saw ColdHand’s face in a very uncharacteristic emotional scowl. Loki had never seen ColdHand blink or raise a brow, much less look shocked. The Krakens' tactician was well-known for never losing his cool and always maintaining a stoic expression. What had made ColdHand lose his composure like that?

He threw an attack at him, hoping to catch him off guard.

Abyssal Bolt!

ColdHand reacted instantly and activated [Cryogenic Stasis], becoming invulnerable. More and more players stopped their attacks, glancing in the same direction as ColdHand. Loki wondered for a moment whether this was a childish attempt at trying to make him look that way too so that they could catch him by surprise with an attack from the opposite side, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he couldn’t help but look.

They had all been looking at the Slayer. Jaw-Long, too, looked stupefied at the person he was trying to protect, and for a few moments, Loki’s mind stopped working, unable to process the unexpected sight. Was the Slayer mocking him? Was this an attempt at insulting him? Why was the Slayer knitting while everyone else was fighting?

This went against everything he knew about the Slayer. Who was this man? Where was the mad berserker? Where was the brute who threw himself at his enemies if he was severely outnumbered? Where were his violent, bloodthirsty eyes?

Instead, the Slayer looked like a meek sheep, happily and peacefully knitting a blanket or whatever forsaken item he had been making. No. This had to be a prank. A practical joke. Or maybe the beating that the imbeciles from IronIre had given him had driven him mad.

The battlefield had gone dead quiet as if they had been navigating through a storm and had just reached its eye. But suddenly, a sound broke the quiet. Ogre was laughing. MountainTop, next to him, also began laughing. A few peals of laughter and chuckles went around the group of players, and even Jaw-Long’s serious face turned into a grin as he shook his head at the incredible sight.

Loki felt his face burn. He knew it. This was the Slayer trying to get to him. How dare he make fun of him? Couldn’t he see how powerful he had become? Couldn’t he see how he had one-shot several of the best players in the game? At this time, the Slayer finished knitting a pair of pants. He stretched them appreciatively and even asked Jaw-Long for an opinion on his work, wiping the old man’s grin off his face and leaving him speechless and shocked again.

“SLAYER!” roared Loki.

Abyssal Bolt!

Spectral Spear!

Wave of Death!

Jaw-Long brought his hands together, then stretched them apart, revealing a black sphere that absorbed Loki’s attacks. He then brought his hands together again, and the dark globe disappeared.

“How dare you!? I’m going to kill you over and over again.”

Loki’s vision went red. He didn’t care about Kraken’s poisons or BlueFire’s flames anymore. All he wanted to do was to finish off the idiot who dared to knit instead of fighting him!

*

Roth whistled contentedly as he knitted a pair of trousers. It had been difficult to get in the groove, but the few episodes in which he’d had a gun against his head and had been forced to knit to keep himself busy helped him to tune the sounds of battle out. He tried to focus only on the needles and the thread.

As he finished knitting a pair of trousers, he received a notification.

Congratulations! You've successfully crafted [Wool Pants].

+500 ecotailor XP.

Wool Pants (Common)

Crafting Grade: C.

Bottom

Item description: A pair of slacks that will comfortably fit any adventurer.

Item effects:

+30hp;

+2 wisdom;

+2 intelligence.

You manage to craft even when there’s chaos and fighting around you.

+2 resilience.

It looked like his ability to craft, even when there was fighting around him, really paid off. He studied the stats of the pair of trousers he’d crafted with the sheep’s wool he had left in his inventory.

It looked like he had to concentrate harder. The inhospitable environment had affected the quality of the product.

“Hey, Jaw-Long. Aren’t you the best player in the game? What do you think? Any hints on how to improve?”

The old man just scratched his head uncomfortably. He was clueless. How disappointing. One would expect that Jaw-Long would know one thing or two about crafting.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” came the inquiry from ColdHand. Hadn’t it all been in capitals, Roth wouldn’t even have seen it.

“Knitting,” he answered simply.

“While the rest of us are fighting?”

“What am I supposed to do? Fumble with my fingers? I’m not fighting. I might as well make the most of my time.”

“Still… it…”

A barrage of attacks from Loki made Jaw-Long step up and protect Roth. His hideous alien form was also screaming angrily at Roth. What had gotten into him? Wasn’t he the only one here who wasn’t attacking him? Why such animosity? This Loki was mad. Why couldn’t he leave him alone in his corner, knitting peacefully?

“Never mind. Keep knitting. Just do your thing. You’re brilliant. Thank you, ticket boy.”

ColdHand rearranged the formation and told the DPS team to use the window the ticket boy had valiantly created to use skills that took longer to channel. Window? What window? Roth hesitated for a few moments as the air in front of him was burned with energy projections of every possible color, but seeing Jaw-Long jumping up and down, blocking them all, he shrugged and got started on yet another pair of trousers.

Ch. 204 - Searing Heat

INDEX

Ch. 206 - Rusty Mist