Monster Girl Contract Manual

Chapter 21: Soaring Favorability

"Leila, Sylvia!"

House shouted.

Pierce glanced at Leila instinctively.

No one understands Leila's current physical condition better than him.

Even though Leila insisted that she could continue fighting, in her current weakened state, she could only barely cast a spell once at most.

Furthermore, forcibly activating magic to unleash a skill may cause physical damage afterward.

If possible, Pierce would prefer not to let Leila participate in the battle.

Pierce was about to remind House when he heard House speak:

"You two don't need to lift a finger."

"Huh?" ×2

"Pierce and I should be able to handle them."

House spoke calmly, with a hint of composure and confidence.

Perfect timing! I can use these few wolves to test his [Slash] skill, which has already reached level 3.

"Pierce, can you handle that leader?"

As several gray wolves approached step by step, House, who had already placed the fledgling on his shoulder into Sylvia's arms, quickly asked.

With the fine armor worth 5 gold that Pierce was wearing, the wolf king shouldn't be able to break through Pierce's defenses.

If it were up to me to face the wolf king directly, the danger would be too great, and accidents could easily happen.

"Absolutely no problem!"

Pierce spoke with confidence, his five-gold armor gleaming in the increasingly bright firelight.

After quickly agreeing on a battle plan, the seven gray wolves entered the camp's perimeter.

They were less than 30 meters away from House and the others.

"Hello!"

Pierce stepped forward, raising his longsword and pointing it at the wolf king, who was the leader.

"In the name of Anderson, I challenge you to a duel!"

Although they couldn't communicate verbally, their confrontational stances, the hostility between them, and their fighting spirit in their eyes conveyed nothing more than that.

The wolf king, with his eyes slightly narrowed and a hoarse howl escaping his throat, stepped out from the pack on his own.

It appears to have accepted Pierce's challenge to a duel.

Of course, it's more likely that it sensed the situation within House's team and knew that only House and Pierce were capable of fighting.

Compared to the weak and frail Leila and Sylvia in the team, and the seemingly frail House, Pierce, clad in fine armor and wielding a longsword, is undoubtedly the biggest threat.

Therefore, the wolf king planned to hold off the strongest warrior alone, thus limiting his combat power, while allowing the other gray wolves to launch surprise attacks separately, tearing apart the others and killing them one by one.

A seven-on-two fight is not as fast as a six-on-one fight.

It only needs to entangle Pierce for a moment, and the remaining wolves will be able to quickly deal with House and his group, and then surround them and tear the isolated and helpless Pierce to shreds.

House had no idea what the Wolf King was thinking.

But this move played right into House's hands.

Pierce and the gray wolf leader faced off, one man and one beast, slowly moving away from the camp, opening up a battlefield for their one-on-one duel.

The remaining six ferocious gray wolves bared their fangs, their scarlet eyes fixed on House, their killing intent palpable.

"House, watch out."

Sylvia looked tense, her voice full of worry.

Grey wolves are more troublesome than goblins.

Whether it's their massive, powerful bodies, their swift attack speed, or their claws and fangs that tear flesh, they are far superior to the weak goblins.

In a one-on-one situation, the Grey Wolves would have an absolute advantage.

Right now, House has to fight against six gray wolves all by himself.

Even six goblins are not something that newcomers like them can handle at the same time.

What's more, those were six gray wolves!

Thinking of this, Sylvia raised her hand and slowly drew back the longbow.

Although she hasn't recovered enough to unleash her skills yet, she can barely fire ordinary arrows to cover House.

A brief standoff ensued.

When the sounds of Pierce clashing with the gray wolf leader could be heard in the distance, the remaining six gray wolves, as if receiving an order to attack, instantly tensed their bodies, growled and howled, and charged towards House in unison.

It's now!

House took a step.

[Slash]

The skill is activated, and magic flows along the body's meridians to the arm and the blade.

The cold blade, reflecting the orange-yellow flames, drew a beautiful arc in the air, easily piercing through the body of a gray wolf.

With a single sword strike, the wolf's head was split in two.

It cuts as smoothly and silkily as a hot oil knife slicing cheese.

With the [Slash] skill upgraded to level 3, and combined with House's own physical strength, these ordinary gray wolves, who weren't even considered monsters, had absolutely no chance to resist.

【Favorability +1】

"?"

House, who had just dealt with a gray wolf, suddenly received a notification from the manual.

The baby falcon in Sylvia's arms suddenly gained 1 point of affection for her?

After only a slight pause, House once again swung his sword to attack the five gray wolves in front of him, while finding the right angle to unleash his skill again.

In the midst of the battle, House had no time to figure out why the fledgling's affection level had suddenly increased.

But in the next instant, the moment the skill was unleashed, House understood why.

With one sword stroke, he adjusted his posture, causing the sword to swing diagonally.

House unleashed a diagonal slash.

This is a unique convenience of level 3.

With each breakthrough, House's control over combat skills became more and more proficient, allowing him to unleash them more easily.

This gave House a new idea.

It may not be necessary to release skills in a fixed posture and in a step-by-step manner.

He could easily swing his body and arms laterally to try and transform a "vertical chop" into a "horizontal chop".

It produces an effect similar to a crescent-shaped slash.

Back when he was at level 2, House could only awkwardly turn to the side and twist his body to barely shift the angle of his slash. His movements were stiff and the power was severely diminished.

After [Slash] is upgraded to level 3, the upper limit of control over combat skills is greatly expanded, and the room for maneuver in terms of force angle and body coordination is further improved.

After practicing a few times, House successfully mastered the diagonal slash.

However, the wide-range horizontal slashes were still difficult to control. The body twisting, arm swinging, and power release could not keep up with the rhythm. The horizontal slashes that were barely managed to be slashed were only slightly more powerful than ordinary slashes, and did not reach the strength that the skill should have.

I guess it's because they're not skilled enough yet.

Perhaps only after his slashing attack reaches level 4 and he gains greater control will he be able to smoothly execute a horizontal strike, transforming the horizontal slash into a complete crescent slash.

However, a diagonal slash is sufficient for now.

With a single sword strike, the gray wolf that leaped into the air, along with the crouching wolf and another gray wolf that was attacking House together, were instantly enveloped by this tricky diagonal slash.

The slight resistance of the blade cutting through the body came through, and House, who had just killed two enemies in one go, received another notification that the fledgling's favorability had increased.

【Favorability +10】

Not only did the notification reappear, but this time the increase in favorability was ten times greater than before.

House was slightly surprised, and a guess suddenly popped into his mind.