There was a large group of people joining Merlin's stream for the first time that assumed all streamers started at the same time, but Merlin's regulars quickly informed them that he had been playing for weeks now.
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[User]... : That's unfair, people got a head start over others in an MMO!
[User]... : So what? It's just a beta, it's not like they'll be level 100 when it's fully released.
[User]... : When is this game coming out?
[User]... : How do I apply for the beta?
[User]... : What happens if you die?
[User]... : Why do you just keep dodging? Kill the monster.
[User]... : No, let it hit you, for science!
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Merlin was too busy dodging the ogre to answer any questions, and he was about to ignore chat again when he received a notification window beside his chat window.
「"josh183rd" has gifted 2200 tokens with the message: "Show us what you can do, kill the monster without getting hit."」
"Oh, a challenge is it?" Merlin smirked before deciding to show off for his new viewers, "Piece of cake."
The rest of the party had traversed further down the street where they located the particular alleyway that Merlin mentioned, and after clearing the alleyway of undead, all the way to the opposite end, they informed Merlin that it was safe to enter.
"Perfect timing," Merlin responded as he started leading the ogre towards the alleyway, "Clear out, head to the other end, I've got to take this alone."
"Huh, how come?" Alvira asked.
"I got challenged," He responded, "I've got to put on a show for our audience."
"Fair enough, we'll cover the other end," Typhoeus responded, "Make it quick."
Merlin followed the group through the alleyway, but he stopped halfway before turning to see how the ogre was doing. As he predicted, the monster found great difficulty traversing the alley with such a large weapon in hand.
The monster attempted to swing its mace at Merlin, but the only thing that resulted from its attempt was a shattered window.
"Oh, you absolute oaf," Merlin mocked as the monster reached towards him with its grotesque rotting hand.
Simply stepping back was all Merlin had to do to avoid the hand, and it was at that moment he began his assault on the creature.
One of his daggers slashed open the monster's palm, and the second dagger sliced the creature's thumb clean off, causing it to fly off and hit the alley wall.
The beast roared before lunging towards Merlin with a vertical swipe of its mace, the only angle that the alleyway would allow. However, this limited range of movement made the mace ultimately inconsequential to the fight, as it was easier to avoid than it otherwise would be in a more open space.
Vines thrust out of Merlin's body, plunging themselves into the alley's walls before launching him into the air, where they were thrust into the walls once more, anchoring him directly above the ogre.
Brandishing both his blades, Merlin hung upside down from the vines, allowing him to easily plunge both blades into the back of the monster's neck before flying back out of its range as it tried to grab him again.
"You're too slow," Merlin taunted once more as he made a show of his advanced mobility with the vines, choosing to include flips where they clearly weren't necessary, "Let's speed this up."
The pale assassin gracefully bounded off the walls as if he were in a pinball machine, digging his blades into the ogre's rotting flesh, leaving deep gashes that continuously accumulated every time he flew past. The ogre did all it could to swat Merlin away, but it was always a few seconds too late to reach him.
Merlin checked his comment section, ensuring that his viewers were satisfied and that a great enough example of his skills had been provided before he ended things. It seemed as though this was the case, and members of the chat were mentioning that they were getting rather dizzy due to the rapid movements.
The ogre shattered several more windows before giving up on using the mace, instead, it seemed as though it was preparing for a ranged attack.
Before Merlin could launch himself back into melee range, the undead ogre suddenly threw its mace towards him. The mace flew almost vertically as it shot past Merlin, barely missing the tip of his nose.
"I guess you're frustrated, huh?" Merlin said as he stared down at the grotesque slab of tormented rotting meat. "You're much smarter than the average husk, but overall, you're still just a braindead zombie."
Merlin stared up towards the mace that had just run out of upwards momentum and was now at the mercy of gravity. He used his vines to fling himself into the air, where he grabbed hold of the mace in midair with one of his vines.
As he plummeted back towards the ground, he utilised the centrifugal force granted to him by his increased leverage over the weapon and swung the mace in the direction of the ogre with significantly increased momentum.
The mace plunged itself into the ogre's body, instantly pulverising the skull and crushing an incredible number of bones as it shattered the stone beneath the creature.
Merlin landed atop the bloody pulp that was once his foe, and he stared directly into the camera.
"Was that satisfying enough for you, challenger?" Merlin asked the chat, and after glancing at his own chat window, he could see that a fair few of them were flabbergasted by his performance.
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[User]... : Is... is this really something you can do in New Genesis?
[User]... : Holy sh...
[User]... : Yeah... Holy crap indeed.
[User]... : That was sick... Like gross, but also goddamn.
[User]... : That looked like it could have been a cutscene from some superhero game.
[User]... : He can do that after only a couple of weeks, so everyone else could probably learn that too?
[User]... : What was that grappling hook he used? An item? An ability? It sort of looked like some kind of plant.
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