Chapter 651 Seizing the Opportunity, A Complex Expression

Hiding deep within the nearby bushes, Xia Nan had witnessed almost the entire exchange between Allirella and the hunter Old Sonny. He also roughly understood the events that had led to the banshee attacking him in the Goblin Lair.

Now, seeing Allirella lose control once again to mindlessly attack her husband, Xia Nan naturally couldn't just stand by and watch. He stepped in to provide support.

The short-range, straight-line explosive power of [Fang Hunt] far exceeded what his current Class Level should possess. From the hunter Old Sonny's perspective, one second he had been frozen in place, paralyzed by the sight of his wife lunging at him from just a short distance away—the unfamiliar, ferocious expression on her familiar face and the chilling negative energy radiating from her body making it impossible for him to move.

The next second, a high-pitched wolf howl closed the distance in the blink of an eye. A tremendous force violently slammed into his side, and he instinctively squeezed his eyes shut as a fierce wind howled past.

When he opened them again, he had been moved entirely away from where he stood.

Xia Nan had dissipated most of the excess force, but the remaining inertia from the high-speed movement still caused Old Sonny to stumble back a few steps and fall hard on his rear.

A short distance ahead, his wife, now transformed into a banshee, lunged at the empty air where he had just been standing. Beside Old Sonny now stood the young adventurer with messy black hair—a man of peaceful temperament yet formidable strength.

The sudden arrival of two adventurers who should have been resting in the village, coupled with his wife's unprovoked loss of control, left Old Sonny's mind reeling. He completely lost the ability to process the situation. Even now, he remained collapsed in a wretched and distressed posture, repeatedly muttering pleas like "It's not like this" and "My lord, please don't kill her."

"It's not like this!" he begged. "My lord, please don't kill her!"

Glancing at him, Xia Nan saw the state Old Sonny was in and didn't bother replying. He simply moved the man into the woods nearby, safely away from the battlefield.

"Xia Nan!?"

The half-elf Treebrook clearly hadn't expected this temporary teammate, whose strength far exceeded the norm, to be here right now. The rogue sounded pleasantly surprised.

"Quick! Come help!" Treebrook yelled. "The two of us can hold this banshee off for a bit. Uriah and the others definitely saw the signal, so they'll be here any second!"

Saying so, the rogue took the initiative and charged straight at the banshee.

Taking advantage of the banshee's momentary stiffness after her missed pounce, two poison-coated daggers descended in alternation, slashing through her translucent body.

The poison was completely immunized. All that remained was physical damage that had been heavily mitigated by her resistance. As the dagger blades sliced through, they stirred up only a negligible ripple within the banshee's form.

Without the bard's radiant damage buff, Treebrook alone possessed no effective means to break through the banshee's defenses. Fortunately, having taken the [Rogue] class, the half-elf's movements were quite nimble. Retracting the strike and dodging in a flash, Treebrook evaded the banshee's retaliatory claw swipe, which was wreathed in negative energy. Boom!

Wrapped in a long, haunting wolf howl, blazing flames erupted right beside the banshee.

In a mere breath's time, Xia Nan, boasting outstanding mobility, had instantly arrived on the battlefield.

There might be some hidden story behind all this, but it was an indisputable fact that the banshee had attacked them first.

If Xia Nan and the others hadn't made preparations in advance, and if their luck had been just a bit worse, they likely would have been completely wiped out by the shriek of the banshee's [Withering Wail].

Now, facing this banshee—who was formerly an elf named Allirella but had lost her mind and devolved into a bloodthirsty monster—Xia Nan naturally wouldn't put on an act of holding back just to show off some lofty moral conscience. He simply focused on the battle.

[Spinning Slash] + [Heavy Tide]. The blazing sword blade distorted the air as it carved a perfect arc through the sky.

The sunflare damage from the wooden sword, [Azure Pine], could practically be called the natural enemy of undead creatures. Even before it fully struck, just the slight proximity of the fiery blade caused curling smoke to rise from the corresponding parts of the banshee's body, as if she were about to ignite.

Sizzle—

The fiery red arc vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Xia Nan only felt a faint sense of resistance transmitted through the hand gripping the hilt.

In front of him, the banshee whose body had been slashed by the blade wasn't cleaved in two like an ordinary monster.

However, a glaringly conspicuous charred mark had appeared, stretching all the way from her left shoulder down to the right side of her abdomen, standing out starkly against her translucent, pale body.

"Eee-yaaah!!!"

A mournful, agonizing shriek erupted across the clearing, piercing eardrums and churning the mist into materialized sonic waves.

Standing right next to her, Xia Nan frowned slightly at the sharp, ear-splitting screech, but his hands didn't stop moving.

Empowered by the [Layered Waves] Feat, another sword strike—visibly faster and more powerful than the last—was already on its way down.

Surprisingly, perhaps due to the lingering influence of Allirella's consciousness, this banshee—while still highly aggressive—was noticeably more rational compared to the sheer, frantic brutality she had displayed during their first encounter in the Goblin Lair.

Amid the burning agony of the sunflare damage, she sensed an intense threat radiating from the blade of Xia Nan's wooden sword.

After letting out a sharp shriek, she actually took the initiative to dodge backward, causing the descending fiery straight sword to only clip a few pieces of her spectral garments.

Then, utilizing her ability to hover in mid-air, she flew straight out of Xia Nan's attack range.

Screeching, she turned around and flew away from the battlefield.

Naturally, Xia Nan wasn't going to just watch her leave. Using [Fang Hunt], he quickly chased after her.

The rogue Treebrook followed closely behind, and they both vanished into the dense, misty woods.

For a moment, only the hunter Old Sonny was left in the clearing.

Leaning on a nearby tree trunk, he stood up with some difficulty.

His weathered face was already covered in sweat. His cloudy eyes stared in the direction the two adventurers had disappeared. Without a hint of hesitation in his expression, he staggered forward and followed them as well.

It had to be said, although Xia Nan's combat capabilities now far exceeded the norm and he possessed considerable resistance to certain crowd-control effects, if one were to strictly call him a "hexagon warrior"—someone perfectly balanced in all aspects—he still fell a little bit short.

Especially when it came to his methods of combat.

His defense went without saying; he only had a small Snake-Scale Arm Shield to serve as temporary protective gear. This was precisely why Xia Nan had been somewhat obsessed with defensive types when developing his own combat techniques earlier.

Furthermore, when it came to ranged attacks, Xia Nan was completely out of his element.

Truth be told, with his current physical fitness and perfect control over his own body, if he were placed back in his past life, he could easily become a world champion in shooting sports with just a little training.

If someone shoved a longbow or a hand crossbow into his hands right now, Xia Nan could use it decently well, and his accuracy definitely wouldn't be low. But that was only in casual, everyday situations.

Once the scenario shifted to the battles of Class Grade adventurers, his ranged attacks appeared somewhat clumsy compared to his other abilities.

Therefore, in the vast majority of previous battles, when facing ranged marksmen or spellcasters in the enemy camp, Xia Nan's choice was often to utilize his gap-closing abilities to execute a decapitation strike, rather than grabbing a teammate's ranged weapon to shoot back across the distance.

Only on extremely rare occasions would he utilize the property of his [Gravity Etching], which allowed its attached force field energy to detach briefly before detonating, to achieve a ranged strike.

With that as the premise, Xia Nan found himself in a rather awkward position given the current situation.

On one hand, the sunflare damage from [Azure Pine] and the force field energy of [Gravity Etching] completely bypassed the banshee's resistances. Xia Nan was confident that as long as he seized the right opportunity, he could utterly defeat her and neutralize her combat ability within three or four exchanges. But on the other hand, the banshee possessed a flying ability that was practically unsolvable for low-level adventurers.

Unable to close the distance, the close-quarters combat techniques Xia Nan had mastered were entirely useless.

Fortunately, [Fang Hunt] remained effective, allowing him to rely on his explosive speed to closely tail the banshee, ensuring he didn't lose her even with the dense trees obstructing his path.

Xia Nan also tried using his [Gravity Control] to forcibly drag her down from mid-air, and he even attempted to use the sprinting momentum of [Fang Hunt] to launch himself off tree branches for an aerial ambush.

As for the former, although he had already leveled his [Gravity Control] up to Level 2, trying to forcefully yank a Challenge Rating Lv4 flying monster out of the sky was still a bit too much to ask. His mental energy reserves simply couldn't support such an act.

As for the latter, it was far too dangerous. With both feet off the ground, Xia Nan—no matter how strong his core strength was—ultimately had nothing to push off against in mid-air. His momentum would stall, whereas the banshee could move freely through the sky and shift her position at will.

Having tried it once, not only did his mid-air slash miss its mark, but he also narrowly avoided taking a direct hit from her [Corrupting Touch]. After that, Xia Nan quickly dropped the idea.

Maintaining his high-speed pursuit on the ground while watching the pale banshee drifting gracefully overhead, Xia Nan's brain spun rapidly, pondering a countermeasure. In the distance, the faint clamor of a crowd echoed from deep within the night.

He instinctively glanced over and could faintly see the lights of Ice Tree Village.

A flash of resolve crossed Xia Nan's mind.

'I can't let this go on any longer!'

The commotion from the Flare Bomb that Treebrook set off earlier had been too massive. It was likely that every single villager in Ice Tree Village had already been roused from their sleep.

Unable to relay effective information, they could only rely on Uriah and the other adventurers in the village realizing that danger might have appeared nearby. Based on how the villagers usually handled threats, it was highly probable that the village chief had already secured the elderly, weak, women, and children, and was currently leading a large group of adult men to assemble a defensive line.

In this situation, if the banshee entered the village, those ordinary people would have absolutely no way to counter her. They would likely suffer massive casualties on the spot. And even if Xia Nan wanted to rescue them, being surrounded by frail, ordinary civilians would severely restrict his movements.

He had to completely neutralize her combat ability before she entered the village perimeter!

Xia Nan had already made his decision.

"Oooom..."

Right at that moment, a familiar and melodious flute note suddenly echoed through the woods.

Hum!

The surface of the flame-wreathed wooden sword was suddenly coated in another layer of bright yellow radiant light.

"Swish!"

A sharp whistling sound pierced through the depths of the night.

An arrow, its surface similarly wrapped in radiant energy, shot out from somewhere in the woods below, hurtling straight toward the banshee in mid-air. Reacting swiftly, the banshee, with her unfettered flight, sensed the danger from beneath. She flexibly twisted her body, allowing the arrow to whistle past, barely grazing her side.

'Now!'

Thanks to his outstanding Perception attribute, Xia Nan acutely sensed the arrival of the critical moment and firmly seized it.

His left hand brushed over his belt pouch in a flash, and in the blink of an eye, an ordinary copper coin appeared in his palm.

His pitch-black eyes locked onto the translucent figure in the night sky, whose speed had momentarily dropped and whose balance was compromised from dodging the arrow.

His mental energy consumption instantly spiked.

[Gravity Control]!

In an instant, the banshee hovering in mid-air felt the air around her body become as thick and stagnant as a swamp. It was as if invisible chains were winding tightly around her limbs and torso.

"Buzz-shhh!"

Unlike the arrow, a shrill whistling sound—carrying the distinct hum of raw energy—tore upward from below.

A flash of crimson light caught the corner of her eye.

Boom!

Accompanied by the shattering of the copper coin, a small, brilliant firework made of force field energy blossomed gorgeously across the pitch-black sky.

The banshee, previously hovering in mid-air, now resembled a torn gauze dress set alight. Trailing smoke, she plummeted slowly toward the ground under the moonlight. Xia Nan retracted his temporarily exhausted gravity manipulation, his head spinning and throbbing from the sudden, excessive drain on his mental energy.

Confirming the trajectory of her fall, Xia Nan commanded the black wolf phantom cloaking his body and vanished into the woods amidst a wolf's howl.

The banshee's landing spot was right at the edge of the village.

By the time Xia Nan rushed over, the villagers led by the village chief, along with Uriah and Tal who had hurried over after seeing the Flare Bomb, had already arrived at the scene.

"A-woo!"

The winter wolf Fanny trotted over, wagging her tail. Xia Nan casually rubbed her fluffy head.

Carrying the wooden sword wreathed in red flames in one hand, Xia Nan looked forward. Faintly sensing the rather delicate atmosphere in the air, he couldn't help but furrow his brows.

"Mr. Xia Nan, we rushed straight here as soon as we saw the signal. Are you alright?"

Xia Nan nodded in greeting to Tal, the bald ranger waving at him from a distance, and to the bard Uriah standing beside him.

His gaze then swept past the two of them, looking toward the center of the clearing.

The banshee, who had once borne the name Allirella, was sprawled on the ground, wailing in agony.

The force field damage from [Gravity Etching] had, with just a single strike, left a massive, gruesome charred wound on her abdomen, severely injuring her. Behind the banshee—at the opposite end of the clearing facing the adventurers—stood the elderly village chief of Ice Tree Village and a crowd of clueless villagers, gripping various makeshift weapons like pitchforks and hoes.

Having lived in the Rime Hills for so many years, even if they weren't as experienced as veteran adventurers, they certainly weren't lacking in vigilance.

Faced with a dangerous monster like a banshee—something even these elite adventurers had to treat with caution—the villagers should have retreated as quickly as possible the moment they recognized it. Even though it was already heavily wounded, they needed to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of the adventurers battling a monster in its desperate death throes.

Yet right now, the villagers standing on the opposite side showed absolutely no intention of fleeing.

It was clear to see that, even when facing a banshee capable of killing him effortlessly, there was not a single trace of fear on the wrinkled, weathered face of the village chief standing at the forefront of the crowd.

Instead, it was replaced by a far more complex expression.