Chapter 135 Attempt

Captain Adeline's roar finally snapped Xia Nan back to reality. He had already begun to guess what was happening just by watching the shifting expressions and movements of the people around him.

'Taunt?'

His first reaction was utter absurdity.

In his past life, though he had buried himself in work after graduation, he had played his fair share of games during his student days. Naturally, he knew about special skills like "Taunt" that drew enemy aggro.

But in his experience, the players who used this kind of skill were usually Warriors with outstanding defense and robust physiques. Their goal was to create breathing room for their teammates to deal damage, or to pull enemies away to relieve the pressure on the party.

After transmigrating to this world and learning of the existence of combat techniques and magic, he had even imagined encountering similar abilities during his spare time between training sessions.

He had even considered how to maximize its effectiveness in battle if he or his teammates ever acquired such a skill.

He just never expected his first encounter with it to happen like this.

'Did I just become the mob?'

After the absurdity faded, a bone-chilling cold crept up from the depths of his heart.

His thoughts had been silently tampered with, indirectly manipulating his body into bizarre actions against his will.

It made his scalp tingle with dread. Fortunately, his physical constitution—fortified by his Panel Attribute Points—along with the Perception he had boosted through extra training in recent days, helped him resist the brunt of this invasive energy.

Though he was still under the influence of the "Taunt" and unable to flee, he was at least aware that some special skill from the Bugbear had rooted him to the battlefield.

He wasn't like Abi and the ordinary villagers nearby, whose faces were flushed with battle lust, charging forward courageously to protect the village as if entirely ignorant of the manipulation.

'I resisted it, but not completely.'

On the other hand, it was something to be thankful for.

At least for now, the Red-Mane Bugbear's area-of-effect Taunt didn't seem to carry any additional effects beyond the "Taunt" itself.

It drove villagers who should have fled in panic to grab their pitchforks and hoes, and even ignited a fighting spirit in Abi—who had never faced such a powerful enemy—that far surpassed anything he had shown before. In a way, it had actually boosted their overall combat strength.

Xia Nan knew his own body perfectly well. His stamina was abundant, and his mind was clear.

Only when he thought about retreating did a bizarre, inexplicable resistance well up from the bottom of his heart. In all other aspects, he remained entirely unaffected.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind.

As if driven by physical instinct, his right leg—which had previously been rooted to the spot, completely immovable—suddenly took a step back, away from the Bugbear.

"You—you managed to resist it?!" Berg cried out.

Pale-faced and clutching his longbow, the veteran stared at Xia Nan, his eyes brimming with disbelief.

Xia Nan simply shook his head, offering no explanation.

And after that, he never managed to take a second step backward.

Of course, it wasn't a coincidence.

He had been able to move backward, but not because he had broken free from the Taunt's control.

At that moment, considering his combat style against a physically robust enemy like the Bugbear, he had reasoned that looping around behind the village to flank it would yield better results. Thus, he had unconsciously taken a step backward.

He hadn't harbored any thoughts of avoiding the battle or retreating.

But afterward, thinking he had found a loophole, he tried to extrapolate from that logic. He attempted to exploit the mechanism by thinking, 'I will return to Rivervale Town to rest and recuperate, then come back to fight when my energy is full,' or 'I'm not strong enough right now; I will settle the score after I become a Class Holder.' Yet when he tried to use these thoughts to leave the battlefield, his body wouldn't budge an inch.

Suddenly, realization dawned on him.

Once he failed to completely resist it, the Bugbear's "Taunt" skill had formed an invisible shackle over his consciousness.

Even if he forcefully convinced himself that a temporary retreat was only to fight the enemy better later, the slightest hint of actual intent to retreat would instantly ruin the attempt.

After all, you couldn't lie to yourself.

And if there really existed some ruthless figure capable of suppressing their bodily survival instincts with pure willpower, forcefully breaking the Taunt's bindings in such an exaggerated manner... someone with that level of mental resilience likely wouldn't have fallen for the skill in the first place.

His thoughts raced, countless ideas flashing through his mind. Yet in the real world, only a few fleeting seconds had passed since Xia Nan stopped in his tracks.

"Pitter, patter—"

The pattering raindrops fell without end.

The rain showed no signs of intensifying, but the dark, leaden clouds overhead stubbornly refused to part.

This cold drizzle would clearly last for quite some time.

Knowing escape was impossible and battle was inevitable, Xia Nan strode forward and took his place beside Adeline.

Compared to the few who had intended to flee, Adeline—who had been prepared to stand her ground and face the enemy from the start—was largely unaffected by the Bugbear's taunting spell.

The approaching footsteps prompted her to turn her head and cast a glance backward.

Her tense face, blazing with Rage, twitched slightly. She seemed surprised that Xia Nan had managed to adjust himself so quickly.

With a formidable foe before them, she didn't waste breath on idle chatter. Keeping her eyes locked on the distant Bugbear, she explained her battle plan to the teammate beside her—a man whose strength was at least equal to her own, if not far greater.

"In a moment, I will do my best to hold off that Bugbear, but I can't guarantee how long I'll last," Adeline said. "It's much stronger than its ordinary kin! You have high speed and strong explosive power. If I can't hold on, I might need you to step in and give me a chance to catch my breath."

In their current four-person party, Abi was just a rookie. Rashly throwing himself into a battle of this caliber would be a death sentence; he was better off staying with the villagers, where he could actually be of some use.

Berg—positioned at the very rear of the battlefield—had also partially resisted the "Taunt," leaving him in a rather awkward predicament.

He hadn't been inflamed with battle lust like Abi and the villagers, yet he couldn't follow through with his previous plan to retreat either. Rooted to the spot, he gripped his longbow, but his expression was unsettled and his face pale. His eyes darted around as he secretly strained his muscles, seemingly fighting to break the control and flee.

For the time being, he definitely couldn't be counted on.

On the entire battlefield, Adeline and Xia Nan were the only ones capable of fighting the Bugbear head-on.

Xia Nan naturally had no objections to Adeline's arrangement.

He nodded in agreement, but frowned slightly, picking up on the hidden implication in her words. "We can handle the Bugbear, but under the influence of the Taunt, Abi and the villagers won't just stand by and watch. If—"

Before he could finish, a familiar, piercing shriek suddenly sliced through the air.

He looked up, gazing into the distance at the dense woods behind the Bugbear.

The branches and leaves shook violently. Scrawny, hunched figures poured out like an expanding carpet of purulent green fungus, surging toward the village like a tidal wave at a speed visible to the naked eye, bringing with them a nauseating stench of blood and filth.

There were already well over a hundred of them, their numbers reaching a terrifying critical mass.

It was a massive horde of Green-Skinned Goblins from the Deep Forest of the Misty Forest!