Chapter 8: Tricks

For bottom-tier adventurers like the Stinking Fish and Rotten Shrimp squad, it is often enough to judge a person's strength simply by looking at their appearance.

In the vast majority of cases, a man who looks thin and frail will not possess any significant combat power.

Likewise, if your opponent is a barbarian with muscles as hard and massive as boulders, it is obvious that they possess strength commensurate with their physique.

An adult bugbear stands about seven feet tall, or roughly two point two meters.

Coupled with a hulking frame packed with the brawny muscle and thick fat of a brown bear, it looks like a small mountain of flesh from a distance.

Compared to this, although Gagut possessed a thin trace of orcish blood, his height and build were only slightly larger than an average adult human.

Even when he ignited his bloodline and entered a combat state, he barely reached the bugbear's shoulder.

Standing together, the difference between the two was almost that of an adult and a child.

And as for actual combat ability, it was even more pathetic.

Previously, Xia Nan’s entire focus had been on the battle with the goblins, leaving him no time to attend to his surroundings.

Therefore, he did not know what had happened on the other side of the battlefield during those twenty-some seconds.

He only saw the scene that appeared before his eyes.

Compared to the ambush they encountered last night, Gagut’s body was clean; covered in a bit of dust, but almost no bloodstains were visible.

He was also very quiet.

There were no incomprehensible orcish slangs, nor any deafening roars of rage.

Of course, this was not because the half-orc had suddenly learned human etiquette.

It was because, at this moment, he had lost the ability to speak.

Jagged, pale bone fragments pierced through skin and flesh, protruding from his abdominal cavity.

In the very center of his chest was a deep, inward-sunken hole.

His eyes rolled back, his mouth hung open unconsciously, and white foam mixed with blood dripped from the corners of his lips.

Like a broken toy, Gagut was held by one ankle and dangled upside down by the bugbear.

A dark, iron-spiked morning star lay in wait in the cold air nearby.

In that instant, for some reason, seeing this scene, Xia Nan suddenly thought of the ancient night watchmen who struck gongs in the dead of night.

The next second, the morning star vanished from its spot, and the gong was struck.

*Chi-peng—*

Accompanying the whistling sound of a hard object tearing through the air was a strange noise, as if an egg had been crushed, a mixture of a hard shell breaking and viscous liquid.

The half-orc’s body swayed like a pendulum.

A patch of red and white slime appeared on the face of the mace, and Gagut had physically lost the ability to make a sound.

"Plop."

The headless corpse was tossed onto the ground casually, blood gushing out like a fountain, gradually forming a pool beneath him.

"Die, damn you, dieeeee!"

The moment after Xia Nan witnessed the half-orc being completely pulverized by the bugbear, a hoarse roar, vaguely tinged with expectation, rang in his ears.

Although Gagut had died a miserable death, he had ultimately completed his task of "stalling for time."

The bowstring was taut, the bow bent until it was on the verge of snapping.

An iron arrow with a metallic luster was gripped tightly between Magi’s fingers, the faintly purple arrowhead aimed directly at the bugbear’s head.

[Precision Strike]

One of the prerequisites for the "Ranger" class.

It was also the only offensive combat skill Magi had mastered in his years as an adventurer.

In higher-level combat, the effect of this move is primarily to pinpoint a target's location.

But for a bottom-tier adventurer like Magi, the "slight" power boost it provided—at least by the standards of high-level professionals—was enough to handle the vast majority of situations.

Even when facing a bugbear, known as a "newbie killer," he held full expectations.

If this arrow could pierce directly through the eye socket and into the skull, it would kill the bugbear instantly;

If it struck the cranium, the force attached to the arrow would be enough to leave the bugbear in a dying, severely wounded state, which he would be fully capable of finishing off;

Even in the worst-case scenario, if he missed, the properties of the [Precision Strike] skill would ensure a wound was left on the target.

At that point, as Magi’s trump card, the specially crafted metal arrowhead he had spent a fortune on would play its part.

The snake venom smeared on the surface of the arrowhead would rapidly paralyze the bugbear’s body, significantly reducing its speed and slowing its reaction time.

When that time came, whether to press the attack or turn and flee, the choice would be his.

Complex thoughts flashed through his mind.

Magi held his breath, aimed at the enemy’s vital point, and gently released his fingers.

*Whoosh—*

The sound of air being torn apart came from before him, and the impact of the bowstring rebounding sent a numbing tremor from his fingertips to his forearm.

The moment the arrow was loosed, decades of experience in the jungle told him

"This shot is true."

Under extreme pressure, the hunter had performed at his best, with almost every movement executed to the standard.

A few strands of white hair at his temples swayed gently in the breeze created by the arrow’s flight.

Magi was incredibly confident; he felt as if he could already hear the dull thud of the arrowhead piercing the eye socket and entering the skull, and hear the bugbear’s painful scream cut short.

But immediately after, a flash of brownish-red appeared, shattering all his fantasies like waking from a dream.

As if sensing the fatal blow the bugbear was about to face, a translucent, red-glowing barrier appeared out of thin air in front of it.

Its material was neither light nor gas; it seemed to be some kind of free-floating energy temporarily condensed into an unstable brownish-red force field.

The iron arrow, carrying the full strength of the hunter, merely grazed it before being deflected by the brownish-red energy.

The force remained undiminished, but the target of the arrowhead shifted from the bugbear’s head to the wall behind it.

*Whoosh-thud!*

The metal arrow easily pierced the mud and stone wall of the cave, leaving only the violent trembling of the fletching at the tail, and the hunter’s pale, despairing face.

"H-how is this possible!?" Magi’s bloodless lips quivered, his body trembling with terror. "My arrow..."

Facing the hunter Magi, who had revealed his final trump card, the bugbear spoke the first words since it had appeared in their sight.

"Your little tricks, magic."

The gravelly, coarse voice echoed eerily in the cave, the broken Common tongue making it impossible to understand exactly what it meant to express.

But at this moment, what the bugbear said no longer mattered.

Because the next second, its hideous shadow, reeking of death, had already arrived before Magi, enveloping him.

(End of chapter)