Maji seemed to have lost the ability to resist.
It was not because he had given up on life and decided to die quietly.
He was certainly desperate, but he had survived years as an adventurer. His nerves were not so fragile that one failed attack could make him surrender completely.
The problem was physical.
The hunter could not move.
[Precision Strike] was an exclusive skill of the ranger class.
It helped a class holder lock onto an enemy’s vital points in a chaotic battle and provided a small increase to the damage of an arrow.
As a combat technique, it consumed no mana.
But that did not mean it was free.
The user’s body still had to endure the strain.
For a true class holder, that level of physical expenditure was trivial.
Hardly worth mentioning.
Maji, however, did not possess a class level.
He had none of the basic physical enhancements that came with one.
For an ordinary person like him, using [Precision Strike] came with a brutal side effect.
After every use, he entered a state of extreme weakness for nearly fifteen seconds.
While it lasted, forget fighting.
He could not even walk without someone supporting him.
That was why [Precision Strike] was normally Maji’s final trump card, something he only used when there was no other choice.
Against a monster as dangerous as the bugbear, he had chosen to reveal that trump card right at the beginning, combining his strongest attack with Gagu’s assault in hopes of seizing the initiative.
There had been nothing wrong with that decision.
The attack had simply failed.
An unknown force had deflected the arrow.
Their best opportunity was gone.
And naturally, the balance of victory swung toward the enemy.
“Huff!”
The bugbear, Henk, blew a cloud of white vapor from its flared nostrils.
“Ruined Henk’s lucky day,” it muttered.
Its murky yellowish-brown eyes reflected the fragile human standing helplessly before it.
“Little bug must pay.”
Several months earlier, Henk’s underlings had dragged a woman back from somewhere.
Henk had been hungry.
It also especially liked the taste of creatures called humans.
Smooth skin. Tender flesh.
Much better than the wild boars and spotted rabbits roaming the forest.
But Henk had only recently left its tribe to live on its own, and it still remembered the teachings of the tribe’s priest, who was said to have lived for two hundred years.
“Keep females for breeding. Eat them only after they give birth.”
So Henk had waited.
And waited.
It had spent months guarding its prey inside the lair, drooling more times than it could count.
Today, at last, the woman had finished giving birth.
And before Henk could even take one bite, these little bugs had barged in.
“You must be punished. Henk will…”
The thick smell of blood flooded its nose.
Henk paused.
The wonderful scent made it lick its dry lips.
Then, as if a new thought had suddenly occurred to it, the irritation on its face gave way to delight.
The bugbear raised its spiked mace high overhead.
Muscle swelled along an arm as thick as an ordinary person’s thigh.
The steel spikes covering the mace gleamed coldly in the firelight.
Then Henk swung it down at the little bug beneath it.
At that exact moment,
Whoosh!
A sharp silver-white flash cut through the dim cave.
[Spinning Slash]
The rushing edge of the attack stung Henk’s skin.
A sudden chill touched the side of its neck.
Instinct took over.
The bugbear twisted aside.
Its arm hesitated for a fraction of a second.
The mace, originally aimed at Maji’s vital point, shifted off course.
It slammed into his lower right leg instead.
“Argh!!!”
Human bones had no chance against that kind of force.
The mace pulverized Maji’s lower leg in an instant.
His knee shattered with it.
The entire limb twisted grotesquely out of shape.
Maji screamed.
Cold sweat poured over his bloodless face.
But at that point, nobody on the battlefield was paying attention to him anymore.
Xia Nan’s eyes were locked on the hulking figure ahead.
A trace of regret flickered through him.
For someone who, until yesterday, had never even killed a chicken, Xia Nan felt he had already pushed himself to the limit.
In the half second after watching the bugbear crush Gagu’s head, several thoughts had raced through his mind.
The enemy was too strong to fight head-on.
Its explosive speed made escape unrealistic.
And since it had not yet noticed what was happening on Xia Nan’s side of the battlefield, a sneak attack was his best option.
He had even waited patiently for the precise instant the bugbear committed its strength to swinging the mace.
The timing had been good.
Almost perfect.
What he had not expected was that a monster from a fantasy world could still redirect its body after committing to such a powerful strike.
“This is bad…”
Xia Nan stared at the bloody cut he had left on its neck.
Still, there was at least some good news.
He had hurt it.
Which meant this inhuman monster was still flesh and blood.
It had a health bar.
More importantly, his attack had not triggered the energy barrier that had deflected Maji’s arrow.
That suggested one of two things.
Either the barrier had entered some kind of cooldown…
Or melee attacks simply did not trigger it.
As for the bad news…
First, after using [Spinning Slash] three times in such a short span, Xia Nan’s body had reached its limit.
Even just holding the sword made the muscles in his forearm tremble.
If he exerted himself much more, they felt ready to cramp.
Second, although his attack had struck a vital area, the bugbear’s last-second dodge had reduced the damage considerably.
He had failed to meaningfully weaken its combat power.
Instead, he had exposed himself.
And worse, he had earned its full attention.
“Rrrraaaagh!”
A furious bear-like roar exploded through the cave.
Low.
Savage.
The sound was so violent it seemed to send an invisible wave through the air.
The little bug had ambushed Henk and sliced open its neck.
The bugbear instantly flew into a rage.
Then it charged.
The hulking mass of muscle and fur came at Xia Nan like a tank made of flesh.
There was no time to think of a strategy.
No time to plan.
His survival instinct took over.
Xia Nan threw himself sideways and followed the dive with an utterly undignified roll.
Boom!!!
The pitch-black mace scraped past his head and smashed into the ground.
Cracks spread across the floor like a spiderweb.
The blast of wind kicked dirt into his face, sharp enough to sting his cheeks.
Perhaps it was because he had already died once in his previous life.
Perhaps the surge of adrenaline had simply drowned out everything else.
Whatever the reason, Xia Nan felt no fear.
Not even now.
Not even with an enemy in front of him that he could not hope to overpower.
He pushed himself to his feet.
And before the bugbear could recover,
His sword was already swinging for its neck again.