It was time to hunt - to flip the board, to change the game. No longer would Aaron stand by and allow the cervom to hunt them without repercussion. It was time to fight back. He’d have to be smart about it; there were too many of them to fight at once. If their actions were discovered, an unending wave of Imps would crash down upon him. Even 1 on 1, in a fair fight, most of them were still stronger than him.

That’s why he was crouched behind some rubble in the prison. Carefully watching the monsters and noting their patterns. Patiently waiting for his time to strike. The invaders patrolled the hallways at semi-regular intervals; someone intelligent was coordinating their forces behind the scenes. The imp Mages patrolled in groups of no smaller than 3. Whereas the cervom Rogues tended to travel alone. He hadn’t had the displeasure of seeing any Cervom Warriors patrolling the halls yet; they were all probably defending their Nexus Crystal.

The interval between groups was large; there should be enough time to pick one off before the other stumbled upon their position. If they acted fast enough, they may be able to ambush multiple groups before whoever was in charge caught on to what was happening.

Considering all these factors, he decided to target the next cervom Rogue that passed by. They traveled alone. So, he figured he should be able to beat them quickly. Additionally, he should be able to hide the body without much trouble. Those two factors were a perfect match for his murderous desires. Plus, he was still angry about getting stabbed in the back. He wanted revenge.

He gathered Tony and Jess from their hiding spots and shared the plan. Jess quickly agreed, but Tony had a hang-up. “I’ll heal you, but I won’t kill the aliens.”

Jess’s eyebrow raised. “What do you mean; they’re literally trying to kill us.”

“You had no trouble fighting them before. Besides, they’re not much different from the mindless monsters the System makes,” Aaron added.

Having Tony on board would not only make the fights easier, but it would also make the Healer level up faster. Something they desperately needed if they were going to be fighting monsters regularly.

How else was the old man supposed to level up if he didn’t partake in the coming battles against the cervom - all the System-created monsters had been killed already. He thought about the question; it seemed like a bit of an oversight in the System. How were noncombat classes supposed to level if they couldn’t beat any monsters in a fight?

Tony sighed. “I was only defending myself against the Rogue; I wasn’t trying to kill it.” He looked up. “I took an oath a long time ago to never kill again. I won’t break it.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to justify yourself to us.” Aaron patted the Italian on the back. “Patch us up if something goes wrong.” Jess tried to protest, but he stopped her. There was no point in offending Tony over something he wouldn’t change. An argument wouldn’t result in anything useful. Besides, he still remembered the most important rule of video games from the few times he had played: always stay on the good side of the healer.

They waited, ready to pounce on their prey. A group of 4 imp Mages passed by. They let them go. Time passed, and another group of Mages passed by. Finally, after waiting for so long, their target appeared. A level 9 Cervom Rogue. It was a higher level than the one he had fought yesterday. However, this time would be different. He was stronger than before.

He had a full pool of mana, and he was willing to use it. He waited till the Rogue turned to inspect the rubble he had hidden behind, then he struck. A Mana Bolt formed in his hand, modified to be as bright as possible.

“Banna,” he shouted as he released the blindly bright attack. Banna was a code word they had agreed upon beforehand. The terrible name wasn't his doing - it was Jessica's. The hallway flashed blue. Once the light died down, he stepped forward and fired a series of Mana Bolts. On the opposite side of the hallway, Jess did the same.

The first Mana Bolt landed, the cervom was completely blinded; it had no way of telling where the attacks were coming from. The monster's resilient body withstood the attack better than the goblin's had. Though even with, its increased defense, Mana Bolt did high damage, bruising its flesh and fracturing bone. The rest of the balls of mana whistled through the air, not far behind.

The Rogue pulled out a pair of daggers and closed its eyes. A dangerous air now surrounded the monster. Like gravity had no bearing on its movements, it leaned backward till its spine was parallel to the floor, allowing three Mana Bolts to sail over it. Aaron cursed, then targeted its new position. He hadn’t expected it to be able to dodge while blinded. It must have had some non-sight-based perception skill.

The Rogue continued to shift its weight backward till its hand touched the floor. With a twist, it rolled into a handstand, narrowing its figure. Two more of Aaron’s Mana Bolts whizzed past it. However, Jess managed to hit the agile nuisance with a Mana Bolt while it was distracted. The skinny cervom wavered for a moment, then pushed through the pain.

Using only its arms: the cervom pushed itself off the floor into the air, dodging Aaron’s latest series of Mana Bolts. They struck the floor, digging holes into it and spraying dust. The Rogue spun once while mid-air, throwing both knives at the same time. Aaron quickly tracked their trajectory; they wouldn’t come anywhere close to hitting him. That’s why you don’t throw two knives at once, dumbass.

Aaron’s grin widened; it was impossible to dodge while falling through the air, a lesson that the stone golem had rudely taught him. He fired two Mana Bolts at the Rogue’s center of mass - impossible to dodge, no matter how it twisted or contorted its body.

Two new knives flew into the cervom’s hands through some sort of magic. Its blank white eyes shot open as it stabbed its two knives into one of the Mana Bolts. The two forces collided for a moment. The blades dug into the mana construct, destabilizing its structure. The cervom’s muscles flexed wildly, as it grunted, barely holding back the attack. It held on till the second Mana Bolt arrived, directly behind the first. The two spells collided, resulting in a violent wave of force. Something in the cervom’s long arm snapped as it was sent flying through the air.

“Behind you,” Tony screamed at him.

He glanced backward; his eyes widened. The Rogue’s daggers had curved through the air, somehow ending up behind him, without him noticing. He threw himself to the floor, just barely avoiding death. The daggers missed his vital points instead, delivering a pair of surface-level cuts. Heat-seeking daggers aren't very fair; what the hell?

He pushed himself off the ground. By that time, the Cervom had recovered. It dodged Jess’s attacks as it charged towards him. Once again defying gravity, it ran on the wall with one of its arms flapping uselessly behind it, broken.

He fired a series of Mana Bolts, trying to keep it away from him. However that failed, he had grazed the monster a few times, but it was able to shift out of the way of any major damage. Only five steps away, the monster grinned in an alien way - it had gotten close, it knew it had the advantage now. Aaron took a deep breath as his mind rapidly searched for ways to get out of this situation.

He couldn’t think of any good ones in time. A dagger flew from its belt; into its one working hand - ready to cut him open. Lightning fast, it stabbed its blade forward, aiming for his heart.

He’d have to settle for a dangerous solution. With his palm open, he threw his hand forward, towards the knife. At the last moment, he formed a Mana Bolt in his hand. Metamagic strained to keep the powerful ball of magic, stuck to his hand - he didn’t have time to make any other changes. Miraculously, Improvised Weapon Mastery activated, reinforcing the spell’s structure.

The two weapons clashed, resulting in the blade being knocked away and the Mana Bolt harmlessly fading into blue motes of energy. Aaron took advantage of cervom's surprise. Ruthlessly, he punched the monster's broken arm as hard as he could. It roared in pain and collapsed to the ground. At that point, Aaron and Jess rained Mana Bolts down on it till it stopped moving.

Cervom | Rogue Level 9 Slain! 225 Exp Gained. 9 Invasion Points Earned. Congratulations! Mana Bolt Lvl 49→51. 2 Skill Points Awarded. Improvised Weapon Mastery Lvl 25→26. 1 Skill Point Awarded.

The improvement of Mana Bolt had slowed to a crawl. A fight like this would have given him at least ten levels yesterday. Additionally, the fight had only given him 9 Invasion Points. He asked Jess, and she confirmed that she also received 9. He did some quick math.

Assuming that they shared their points and saved them up for the Assault Ship without buying anything else, they would have to kill over 500 alien invaders of a similar level. If Jess didn’t contribute, that number would be pushed over 1,000. Put simplicity that would take a while. He wasn’t even sure that there were that many Invaders on the island.

“Hell yeah, baby. I’m level 5,” Jess said with a fist pump. Tony crawled out from under where he was hiding and gave her a high five.

Aaron ignored their celebration. Instead, he kneeled down over the cervom’s mangled body. Something had caught his eye - something shiny. He couldn’t contain himself; he flipped the Rogue over. Hanging around its chest was a piece of a blue antler - a clear contrast to its bright white antlers.

He gently removed it from the cervom, examining it in his hand. The light refracted off of it, making it sparkle like a diamond. When he looked at it closely, he was able to see sparks of multi-colored energy dancing within it. He couldn’t resist. It looked too cool. Using one of Improvised Weapon Mastery’s many sub-abilities, he formed a clasp and put the necklace around his neck.

“What do you think?” he asked as he showed it off.

“I didn’t know you were into fashion,” Tony said as he worked on healing Aaron’s injuries.

“I’m not; I just like shiny things.” While Tony patched him up, he checked his [Status] Screen. Once again, he had accumulated a monstrous amount of Skill Points. He would have to spend them soon; they were burning a hole in his pocket. Additionally, he was close to reaching level 10. He at least wanted to continue till then. He had plenty of mana left, and his HP was still high; he was safe to continue his hunt.

He asked Jess if she was able to continue.

“Ya, I still have a lot of mana left; I want to try out my new skill.”

With that settled, he hid the body and retrieved the daggers the cervom had thrown. That left a pool of blood on the ground. There wasn’t any good solution to that problem. So, he decided to just throw some shattered concrete over it, hiding it from view. Honestly, it didn’t stand out much. Everything in the prison was damaged - a pile of rubble on the floor wouldn’t stand out much. Even the holes that had been dug into the ground from his stray Mana Bolts didn’t look too out of place.

They returned to their hiding spots, ready to continue the hunt.