"Phew...seven down, five to go..."
Hal wiped the sweat off his forehead as he used the last charge of [Sparkblast], harvesting a total of four slightly damaged Mischievous Housesprite wings and seven F-ranked arcane cores.
He was now left with only four charges of [Fireball] but Hal didn't regret using his offensive spell cards.
Only five sprites remained, anyway, but more than that, what he obtained was already worth the spell card charge investment.
After defeating the remaining arcane monsters, he would obtain even more rewards, and he could potentially get more cards from the projected total of 12 Chaos Points that he would have after everything was over.
Hal's first mission was looking like a resounding success.
With increased confidence from his previous victories, Hal proceeded towards the eighth Mischievous Housesprite, finally deciding to try using his [Weak Mana Blast] to test how much damage it could deal.
Peering through the window, his next target seemed an easy hit.
The arcane monster was in the process of extracting mana.
Forming a claw with his right hand, a plain-white magic circle appeared, from which a small, translucent-blue ball shot forth.
It silently cut through the air, landing cleanly on the unsuspecting sprite's back and exploding violently, sending the arcane monster crashing to the wall.
Gray smoke billowed out.
The destructiveness was significantly weaker than the [Sparkblast] and the [Fireball], though, leaving Hal sighing.
'Fair enough…'
"Eeeeeahhh!!!"
Meanwhile, the Mischievous Housesprite screeched in pain.
It was unclear whether the monster was simply infuriated or calling for help—perhaps both.
Hal already somewhat expected that, unlike his first two offensive spells, the [Weak Mana Blast] wouldn't be able to take a Mischievous Housesprite out in a single hit.
But the damage it inflicted was still quite decent.
'Three to five blasts, depending on how clean the hits are, should take one down...'
The [Weak Mana Blast] was a spammable spell anyway with a cooldown of 0.5 seconds per use.
It shouldn't be too difficult to hit and take down his remaining opponents...
Nevertheless, Hal didn't dare allow his current target to live, especially not when the sprites from the other houses were most probably already approaching.
He quickly shot another [Weak Mana Blast] at the monster the moment it went off cooldown.
But the Mischievous Housesprite naturally wouldn't allow itself to die easily.
Parting the smoke was a huge piece of rock that shot toward Hal, clashing with the translucent-blue projectile he had just fired and exploding into yet another cloud of gray smoke as rocky shards flew everywhere, one of them grazing his face.
Hal gritted his teeth as he heard angry noises from various directions approaching the house where he and the Mischievous Housesprite were doing battle, his inexperience making his heart race with anxiety.
Still, he was someone who performed well under pressure, so he simply shifted his focus back to the enemy in front of him and fired another [Weak Mana Blast].
The sprite was about to cast another Rock Bullet spell but was interrupted by Hal, forced to fly to the side to dodge.
The Mischievous Housesprite, teeth clenched, began to cast another Rock Bullet, as it was the only spell it knew.
To the arcane monster's horror, another translucent-blue ball was already upon it.
"EE–"
Boom!
A small explosion ensued as Hal's [Weak Mana Blast] struck its target square in the face, causing the sprite to tumble through the air and land headfirst on the solid concrete floor, dead.
[Congratulations! You've earned 1 Chaos Point!]
It appeared that only one [Weak Mana Blast] was needed if he could hit a Mischievous Housesprite at an angle where both sides of its head would suffer significant damage.
Unfortunately, he would have no chance to try it.
The remaining four sprites were already coming for him.
Hal didn't even have time to harvest the dead sprite's core and wings, as, the next moment, four Rock Bullets shot toward him from the open windows.
'Sh*t!'
He would be destroyed if all four hit him!
Luckily, Hal managed to crouch in time, supporting his weight with all four limbs before scurrying out the door and taking cover behind the wall.
A Mischievous Housesprite then emerged from the other side just a moment after Hal caught his breath.
He quickly clawed his hands and fired a [Weak Mana Blast] at the arcane monster, though another Rock Bullet was also headed his way, resulting in another clash that sent shards flying toward him, this time much closer, as this specific sprite seemed slightly more powerful than the one he had defeated earlier.
Its spells were evidently a fair bit stronger.
Consequently, Hal was hit by two shards—one tore through his academy uniform, while the other grazed his forearm.
It certainly stung, but Hal had no intention of focusing on the pain, not until he was safe.
He was disadvantaged in power, but he had a tremendous advantage in casting speed due to the extremely short cooldown of [Weak Mana Blast].
Hal fired another blast that interrupted the sprite's next cast, and then another that hit it cleanly in the chest.
However, it unfortunately wasn't enough to end the sprite's life.
Hal naturally wished to finish the Mischievous Housesprite then and there, but its comrades were already close, forcing him to flee deeper in the opposite direction, farther from the safety of the defenders' barricades.
He huffed and puffed in exhaustion as he desperately dodged the furious Rock Bullets, weaving through the occasional trees.
Spotting the next house, Hal swiftly ran toward it for cover, barely managing to dive through the window as three earthen projectiles struck the walls and the window, causing parts of it to collapse.
'Haaah…Haaah…damn it…'
He certainly didn't expect that fighting five F-ranked monsters would be this hard without standard elemental spells…