Chapter 253 Ambush, Silver Needle, and the Fall

Lawson did not witness the fire dragon's descent in its entirety.

The [Bestow Curse] magic scroll from the Morton family's Knight Commander, "Trevelyan," had slashed his physical attributes by thirty percent across the board.

He might have been able to compensate with his combat experience and technique, but against Trevelyan—whose strength was only slightly inferior to his own to begin with—such a severe debuff was enough to tip the scales of victory completely in his opponent's favor.

Driven into a corner and battered by his disastrous experiences over the past few days, his fiercely extreme nature pushed him to seek mutual destruction in a near-suicidal gamble.

His chosen method was a "Signal Crystal" enchanted by a Spellcaster.

The crystal itself possessed no destructive power; its sole function was to fire a dazzling crimson beam into the sky, visible for over a dozen kilometers around.

Under normal circumstances, no one would know what the beam meant; even if they saw it, they would at most be slightly puzzled, unaware of its true significance.

But Lawson clearly knew that when he crushed the crystal in this inescapable situation and the crimson beam illuminated the heavens...

Flames would bring destruction to both himself and his enemy.

A few days ago, when the Hound Fang Squad lured the red dragon "Kraugbari" out of its lair so Bogu could safely sneak inside, the light emitted by this "Signal Crystal" had been its signature marker.

Lawson was ten thousand percent certain that when that self-proclaimed noble and extremely volatile four-legged lizard saw the signal beam again, it would absolutely be unable to resist flying over to investigate—even at the cost of its Dragon Lair being robbed a second time.

Of course, whether by ordering minions to stand guard or laying new magical traps with scrolls, it would surely take stricter precautions before leaving this time.

Trevelyan, however, clearly did not want to die here.

It made sense. For such a young Knight Commander, even if he simply progressed at a slow, steady pace in the future, the "Transcendent Tier" was not beyond his reach.

He naturally had no desire to agree to mutual destruction here.

The very second the signal beam shot out, realizing what it meant, Trevelyan didn't waste a single movement, decisively abandoning his offensive against the weakened Lawson.

"Lunatic!" he cursed.

Then he threw himself backward, attempting to flee the area before the red dragon spotted him.

The situation instantly reversed.

And the "lunatic," of course, was not about to just let him escape.

Thanks to his [Blood-Seeking Veteran] class abilities, even though his physical stats were drastically weakened, Lawson stayed right on the other's heels, even making noise on purpose.

In such an open environment, as long as it flew over, the red dragon couldn't possibly miss them.

Yet bizarrely, while the red dragon "Kraugbari" was indeed drawn over by the signal beam, its massive, terrifying form unleashed its dragon breath and then—as if spotting something—dropped directly behind a distant hillside.

What could make an enraged red dragon, fresh from having its hoard robbed, suddenly abandon the likely trail of the thieves?

Lawson had a faint guess, but he didn't dare confirm it.

Instead, he feigned exhaustion, letting the fleeing Trevelyan slip away.

Then he activated the stealth mode of his [Blood-Seeking Veteran] class and crept toward the other side of the hill.

His entire net worth, the teammates he had bled with for years—everything had been poured into this plan.

He had nothing left to lose.

As long as there was even a one percent chance... everything would be worth it.

And it was exactly this bold, borderline insane decision that led him to see, after cresting the hill, that vaguely familiar squad, the scorched scars of dragon breath on the ground, the inexplicable absence of the red dragon itself, and—that very item that haunted his dreams. The treasure he had poured two years of blood and sweat into stealing from the Red Dragon Lair, only to lose it immediately. The Morton family heirloom: the Silver-White Metal Block, its surface flickering with unfamiliar characters.

His pupils shrank. His breathing grew more ragged than on the night of his coming-of-age ceremony.

Even weakened by thirty percent, his lean, hardened body—still vastly superior to that of an ordinary Class Holder—exploded with absurd speed.

Maintaining the stealth state of the [Blood-Seeking Veteran], he covered a greater distance and reached the dropped Silver-White Metal Block faster than the dragonborn who had dashed out from the squad.

Without an ounce of mercy, he drove his stinger-like rapier into the neck of this reckless mongrel who dared compete with him for his prize. The strike was blindingly fast and flawlessly precise.

Ending her life.

"Thud."

The tall figure, clad in metal armor and covered in mottled yellow-brown scales, crashed heavily to the ground.

The dragonborn Sava. The "big shot" who would one day perform legendary deeds for the Alliance, only to ultimately defect—causing a massive human city to fall and become a dead city of wailing souls, stirring up storms across Cloudclimb Province.

Right at this critical juncture before her rise to power, she died at the hands of a deranged outlaw in a fleeting, absurd, and entirely abrupt manner.

There was no tragic defeat after thousands of grueling rounds of combat, nor was there any thrilling saga worth passing down.

It was just a simple, singular thrust.

And with it, she lost every possibility her future held, dying completely.

"Enemy attack!!!"

A panicked shout rang out from ahead.

Lawson didn't care in the slightest, acting as if he hadn't heard a thing.

At this moment, his entire focus was anchored on the silver-white metal resting in the muddy water.

His weathered face was pale from the [Bestow Curse], yet a feverish red flush bloomed beneath his cheekbones.

His eyes were glazed, his lips trembling as he muttered something unintelligible.

With trembling hands, he scooped the elliptical metal block from the mud. His extreme care made it look as though he were cradling the most precious treasure in the world.

"Swish!"

The sudden screech of something tearing through the air shattered his fanatic, almost pious trance.

Physical instincts honed through years of adventuring forced him to subconsciously snap his head to the side.

An instant later, a high-speed, spinning wooden arrow with white fletching shrieked past, missing the tip of his nose by a hairsbreadth.

His hands clamped tightly around his treasure. Lawson whipped his head around, his murderous gaze locking onto the rear of the squad ahead, where the silver-haired half-elf Hai'an still held his bow at full draw.

His crazed fervor instantly cooled, replaced by the crushing pressure naturally exuded by a veteran Class Holder facing an enemy vastly inferior in strength.

"Shameless, filthy thieves, fit only to be chopped into mincemeat to feed the dogs, your souls dragged to hell as devil rations. You... damn you all!"

Boom! The air compressed, a fiery roar tearing through their eardrums as an object moved at breakneck speed.

The vicious figure that had just been standing there vanished in an instant, as if turning invisible.

With the squad's two frontliners already dead, Xia Nan, who was standing at the very front, felt a sudden, inexplicable premonition of danger surge in his heart.

The Decapitating Longsword in his hands, held in an offensive stance, suddenly jerked up as he instinctively blocked across his chest.

"Clang!"

Sparks flew.

Xia Nan felt a tremendous force transmit through the hilt. His feet gouged deep tracks into the mud as he was forced backward.

He barely managed to keep his balance. In front of him, the bizarre rapier that had slammed into his iron-gray blade revealed itself, dragging the nearly transparent, blurry figure wielding it into view.

Lawson's physical attributes had been slashed across the board by thirty percent by the [Bestow Curse], but his foundation was still that of a Level 6 Class Holder. He had mastered six Mastery-tier combat techniques, held multiple Feats, and had undergone physical enhancements from his techniques at least six times.

Even though Xia Nan's various encounters had granted him combat prowess far exceeding others of his Class Level, he still found facing an enemy of this caliber incredibly strenuous.

Forget about close-quarters grappling—just blocking this single strike left his forearms numb and aching, nearly knocking his weapon right out of his grip.

Fortunately, he had held the line.

Buying his teammates the opening they needed to counterattack.

"Snikt, snikt!"

An inconspicuous shadow flickered in the corner of his eye.

Holding nothing back, two Short Daggers shrieked through the air in a crossed slash. Wood, having flanked from the side, unleashed the "Mastery" tier Rogue combat technique [Gutting Heavy Strike], pouring a cross-shaped wave of razor-sharp silver light toward the enemy.

Though his Class Level was higher than both of theirs combined, Lawson clearly wasn't strong enough to tank an attack like this with his flesh alone.

His arm and wrist suddenly bulged with power, violently repelling Xia Nan and his longsword. Bounding off the mud, Lawson leaped backward with preternatural grace, completely evading the cross-shaped slash.

At the same time, his transparent body, which had faintly revealed its outline during the clash, seemed to melt into the air, vanishing from their sight once more.

His mind raced, but Xia Nan didn't even bother to think.

Instead, he adhered to his combat instincts. The very second the enemy disappeared from view—[Heart-Guided Vision]!

Gray light flashed in his pitch-black pupils.

The already gloomy environment beneath the torrential rain instantly transformed into a pure realm of black and white, woven from countless rippling threads of gravity.

To minimize the drain, Xia Nan maintained [Heart-Guided Vision] for only a fraction of a second.

But that fleeting glance was all it took. Amidst the dizzying, overly complex web of lines, he spotted a jarring silhouette weaving through them.

It was rapidly closing in on Hai'an at the back of the squad!

"There!" he shouted.

Without a moment's hesitation, a soaring wolf howl erupted from the depths of the downpour. The rain churned up mud and grass trimmings, morphing into a ferocious Wolf Head with a rippling mane.

Roaring as it tore across the distance, it lunged toward its prey with an explosive, terrifying speed.

"Clang!"

The iron-gray fangs seemed to bite into something hard.

Sparks flared once more through the curtain of rain.

But unlike before, the one knocked back wasn't Xia Nan. It was Lawson, whose attempt to bypass them and ambush the backline had been forcefully halted. The sheer impact of the strike completely shattered his near-perfect camouflage.

Xia Nan could even see the abrupt shock and bewilderment surfacing in the man's murderous, dark green eyes.

Clearly, the high-level veteran Adventurer hadn't expected this young, black-haired man to possess such speed and Perception.

He hadn't just seen through the stealth; he had accurately predicted Lawson's path and intercepted him from the flank.

"Fuck, where did you come from!?"

His dark eyes freezing over, Xia Nan's expression remained perfectly still, the iron-gray gleam of his sword casting a phantom shadow across his cheek.

Only then did his thoughts—a step slower than his physical reactions—finally flash through his mind.

'I can take him!'

The middle-aged man in front of him named Lawson, whom he had briefly seen at the "Resting Dragon Lair" inn, was undoubtedly a formidable Class Holder.

Yet right now, he appeared to be suffering from some unseen injury. During their brief exchange, Xia Nan could distinctly feel the man's glaring weakness.

The gap in strength between them had narrowed significantly.

Furthermore, the combat style of stealth and skirmishing that Lawson excelled in was hard-countered by Xia Nan's outstanding Perception, bolstered by [Heart-Guided Vision] and [Fang Hunt].

By utilizing the highly concealed [Gravity Control] to create an opening for a sword strike, the [Gravity Etching] imbued on the blade should be able to deal massive damage.

Completing his windup as these thoughts flickered past, Xia Nan prepared to seize the moment and launch a furious assault.

Suddenly, under the effect of his Perception, which had reached a full "10" points, a fatal, agonizingly dangerous premonition erupted in his heart.

He jerked violently as if struck by lightning, his body instinctively shifting to the left.

The next second—

"Shhhk."

A slender silver needle, pure white and rippling like liquid metal, pierced straight into his back toward his heart.

His Plate-Chain Composite Armor—forged from high-quality Iris Patterned Steel and purchased from the "Rockhammer" smithy for 365 gold coins—was torn through as easily as thin paper.

Gambeson, skin, muscle, diaphragm—

Punching through his back and erupting out his chest.

The long, slender silver needle had skewered Xia Nan entirely.

Fortunately, he had reacted in time, shifting his body to the left by a hairsbreadth.

This caused the needle, which should have pierced directly through his heart, to miss delivering a fatal blow.

Blood sprayed violently from the wound, rapidly soaking his undershirt beneath the punctured composite armor.

Drops of blood slid from the hem of his clothes. Before they could hit the ground, another wolf howl echoed through the rain, sweeping the blood upward to merge into the illusory Wolf Head as Xia Nan rapidly retreated.

Turning around as he fell back, his eyes locked onto the spot where the silver needle had shot from.

There, standing at the crest of the nearby hill, was a handsome, blond man wielding a massive broadsword and clad in standardized, Fine-grade heavy armor.

His left hand was pointed perfectly straight, still holding its firing posture.

At the tip of his index finger, a bit of silver-white metal—thinned out after being expended—rippled like liquid as it slowly seeped back into his skin.

"Trevelyan!?"

The shocked scream of Hai'an the half-elf echoed in his ears.

Having suffered this sudden ambush, Xia Nan—still using [Fang Hunt] to retreat—felt the blinding pain in his chest intensifying by the second, dragging his entire body into extreme weakness.

He blindly wiped a hand across his chest and looked down. The blood coating his palm from the wound carried a bizarre, eerie tint of silver-white.

'Fuck!' he cursed inwardly, and the phantom Wolf Head encircling him managed to pull him back just a bit further before it could no longer be sustained, shattering into grass trimmings and mud in the rain.

His legs lost all strength to move, only managing a few more clumsy, staggering steps backward.

His body swayed heavily.

His vision plunged into blackness, and he collapsed to the ground.