Chapter 685 Severed!

Consuming so much mental energy so quickly made Xia Nan's brain throb. The distance was vast; even though he had raised [Gravity Control] to Lv. 2, affecting an arrow moving with such speed and force from so far away still required him to activate [Heart-Guided Vision].

Fortunately, he had managed to pull off his intended maneuver, successfully breaking the siege on Fanny.

He had promised Forgan he would take good care of the young wolf, and Xia Nan naturally wouldn't break his word when it was within his power.

At the same time, the serpent-man's performance over those brief few seconds had once again proven his speculation correct.

It looked like an ordinary draw and release, but with Xia Nan's sharp Perception and accumulated adventuring experience, he could see the exquisite technique hidden within.

Its physical force went without saying. The monster's powerful physique, far surpassing a human's, allowed the serpent-man to push the longbow's power to a full one hundred percent—something even its original owner, the Half-Drow Yexi, had rarely achieved. Furthermore, because the creature didn't care about weapon durability, it forced the bow into an overloaded state to push its power even higher.

Even more critically, that single shot showcased the serpent-man's decisiveness, its exquisite grasp of timing, and its lock-on accuracy.

Even veteran hunters who had spent their entire lives in the woods would need the perfect alignment of timing, terrain, and conditions—plus a faint but crucial stroke of luck—to pull off a "shot of a lifetime" like that.

Without a doubt, just like the proficiency it had shown with the shield and daggers when facing Xia Nan earlier...

This six-armed serpent-man's mastery over ranged shooting had also reached the level of a veteran Class Holder.

Backed by its own physical constitution, it wielded dual daggers and a greataxe for melee attacks, a heavy shield for defense, and a longbow for ranged strikes.

Only spell-like abilities had yet to be displayed, but even so, the serpent-man was an absolute all-rounder in combat.

'How do I deal with this?'

His dark eyes swept across the battlefield. Thoughts flashing through his mind, Xia Nan rapidly formulated a plan.

The current situation was clear.

Facing this powerful enemy, out of their temporary eight-member squad—Fanny included—only two still retained any combat capability.

Xia Nan himself was one. The Winter Wolf Fanny counted as 0.75, and the remaining 0.25 was the guard Ake, who had lost his equipment and weapons and was now physically crippled.

As for the others—

The gnome Rogue had died at the very start of the battle. The remaining two from the Shadow Crows were still paralyzed by panic and fear. Winsor and Zanfrey were too weak; simply not getting in the way was the greatest contribution the two young men could make.

Under these circumstances, the heavy burden of fighting the serpent-man rested entirely on Xia Nan's shoulders.

There wasn't even time to think.

Sensing its arrow's unexpected deviation, the serpent-man instantly realized the role the black-haired Adventurer behind it had played.

Rotating its upper torso one hundred and eighty degrees, its empty arm reached back with incomparable skill, drew another arrow from the quiver, and nocked it.

Aim. Fire.

"Swish!"

Driven by terrifying force, the arrow tore through the air, transforming into a blurry phantom as it shot straight toward Xia Nan.

Possessing ample confidence in his own reflexes, Xia Nan didn't dodge or hide. He even charged forward on his own initiative to close the distance between them.

Pitch-black astral wind swirled around him as a wolf's howl rang out.

Guarding his front with his left arm, he slightly angled the serpent scale Arm Shield, displaying his combat intuition to its fullest.

Instead of taking the arrow's full force head-on, the Arm Shield's deflected angle allowed the projectile to barely scrape past his side.

This way, while mitigating the bulk of the impact, he also redirected the arrow's trajectory, successfully defending against it.

Unlike the cramped, narrow tunnels in parts of the Underdark, the open temple allowed Xia Nan to unleash his strength without reservation, pushing the mobility and explosive power granted by [Fang Hunt] to their absolute limits.

The distance between them was crossed in an instant.

Looking back on Xia Nan's career since his transmigration, enemies who specialized in ranged attacks usually found it hard to cope with his exaggerated dashes and mobility skills.

Even if they managed to keep him at bay occasionally, once he closed in, they would gradually fall into a disadvantage under his overwhelming strikes, ultimately ending up decapitated by a single sword slash.

But against Xia Nan's sudden charge, the serpent-man showed absolutely no signs of panic.

It didn't even need to hurriedly stow its longbow and pull out other melee weapons like an ordinary Adventurer.

Its bow-wielding arm merely pulled back, and the heavy metal shield on its other side was already thrust forward by another arm, instantly transitioning from an offensive to a defensive stance.

Although it most likely hadn't mastered the relevant shield-bearing techniques of the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family, even a simple forward guard was incredibly frustrating for an assault-oriented Adventurer like Xia Nan. After struggling so hard to close the distance, finding such a massive shield shoved right in his face was deeply demoralizing.

Of course, Xia Nan, whose mentality had always been outstanding and who had already poured his full attention into the battle, naturally wouldn't let this minor setback cause any emotional fluctuations.

Knowing the heavy shield possessed exceptional defense and that a weapon with [Azure Pine]'s level of sharpness wasn't enough to break through, Xia Nan didn't stop. He merely slowed down slightly, shifting his center of gravity outward while changing his footwork.

Swiftly and without a hint of haste, he transitioned from a direct frontal assault to flanking it from the side.

Since his front was blocked, Xia Nan naturally leveraged his mobility advantage, bypassing the defense to launch an attack from the flank.

The good news was that while the serpent-man's physical constitution was absurd, it was still only using a single arm to brace the heavy tower shield. It might have raised the shield quickly, but adroitly maneuvering it to change defense directions was another matter altogether; it was slightly clumsy and couldn't keep up with Xia Nan's speed at all.

The bad news was that although the shield's weight limited the serpent-man's movements, its six arms—backed by its innate reflexes—granted it an exaggerated margin for error.

Just as he had planned, Xia Nan bypassed the heavy shield blocking the serpent-man's front.

But barely half a body length past it, before his flame-wreathed wooden sword could even fall, the double-edged greataxe belonging to the human Warrior Benni came howling toward him in a vicious sweep.

His body was in a slight state of stiffness after rapidly changing directions at high speed. Given his current physical attributes, pulling off a second turn in such a short timeframe was impossible.

Xia Nan had no choice but to pull back his strength and bring his sword in front of him to parry the enemy's slash.

"Bang!"

The metal axe blade clashed against the wooden sword, emitting a muffled thud.

Leaving a trail of orange-red fiery light in the air, Xia Nan was sent flying by the violent impact.

Under the effects of [Tidal Stabilization], he once again landed lightly on his feet.

His expression didn't change, but the webbing between his thumb and forefinger, as well as the wrist of his sword arm, went slightly numb from the violent shock of the serpent-man's strength.

He shot a pained look at his wooden sword, [Azure Pine], which he had been forced to use to parry because it had been too difficult to maneuver his left Arm Shield in time.

Although it was sturdier than ordinary metal weapons, [Azure Pine]'s inherent durability was ultimately quite lacking compared to its "Rare (Blue)" quality.

Furthermore, due to its origins as a foreign weapon and its unique material, Xia Nan wouldn't even know where to go to repair it if it sustained real damage. He was overly cautious even with its daily maintenance.

Thus, this wooden sword was usually only drawn when facing specific types of enemies, or when [Ember Fall] was too difficult to utilize.

Such a hard weapon collision inevitably made Xia Nan, who had always cherished his weapons, feel a sting of heartache.

Fortunately, Benni's greataxe wasn't high-quality enchanted gear either. The clash only left a faint, shallow scratch on the surface of [Azure Pine], prompting Xia Nan to breathe an inward sigh of relief.

'I can't let this beast keep doing whatever it wants!'

A flash of resolve passed through Xia Nan's eyes.

His combat philosophy had always been simple and efficient.

To sum it up, it was to use his own strengths to break through the enemy's weaknesses.

Yet right now, Xia Nan's exceptional mobility and explosive power were being restricted by the multitude of weapons the enemy wielded, making it difficult for him to utilize his most outstanding offensive methods.

Perhaps—he should temporarily change his line of thought.

Shift his target from the highly difficult vital spots on the enemy, and instead aim for the equipment and weapons providing it with such an enormous margin for error?

Shifting his footing, his figure flickered within the swirling pitch-black astral wind, dodging another arrow shot from the front.

In his forward line of sight, a pristine white phantom suddenly flashed past.

Had it been any other Adventurer experiencing that thrilling brush with danger, even if they hadn't lost their will to fight entirely, they would have at least needed a moment to adjust before continuing the battle.

But clearly, the icy wolf beast from the frost plains of the Northlands possessed a psychological fortitude as calm and resilient as the waters beneath a frozen lake.

Sharing a perfect, tacit understanding with Xia Nan, their minds were linked.

Without a shred of communication, right as Xia Nan made his move, she noticed the subtle shifts in his actions and grasped his change of objective.

And at the most opportune moment, she delivered an assist.

"Hum—"

Accompanied by the condensation of magical particles, the temperature in the air plummeted.

Possessing a combat intelligence far beyond that of ordinary beast-type monsters, the brief clash had made Fanny realize that the enemy's fighting prowess exceeded what she could handle. Furthermore, if she rashly approached, those daggers, that greataxe, and that iron shield were highly likely to inflict extremely severe injuries on her.

Therefore, Fanny chose to maintain a set distance from the serpent-man—a range where she could react and dodge its attacks in time.

Aiming at the enemy from afar, she opened her Wolf's Maw.

The soft crackling of forming ice crystals echoed through the spacious temple as a swath of cold, brilliant white light rapidly condensed at the back of the Winter Wolf's throat.

It finally transformed into an icy white beam brimming with a freezing aura, blasting straight toward the serpent-man.

"Freezing Breath!"

Thanks to its body being rendered almost mollusk-like under the fungal corruption, the serpent-man felt the chill coming from behind and completed another one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn almost instantly. At the same time, it firmly propped up the heavy shield to block the beam of ice.

Crackle! The icy white beam scoured against the heavy shield hailing from the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family, condensing layer upon layer of ice crystals across its surface.

The frost spread rapidly!

Within the span of a breath, it covered the entire heavy shield, following the curves and grooves of its surface to instantly extend to its back.

It froze the serpent-man's fungal arm holding the shield, locking arm and shield together as if they were a single ice sculpture.

How could Xia Nan possibly waste this precious opportunity his teammate had won for him?

Amidst a howling wolf cry, he pushed his speed to its absolute maximum.

Raising the flame-wreathed straight sword high, he aimed it at the serpent-man's head, looking as though it would strike down in the very next second.

Sensing the searing danger, the serpent-man diverted two of its long arms gripping Short Daggers, raising them to parry and protect its vitals.

Simultaneously, in a twisted posture completely impossible for a normal creature, it swung the greataxe down, chopping at Xia Nan who had already closed the distance.

'Now!'

With Fanny's help, the frost had tightly encased the heavy shield along with the arm behind it, making it difficult for the creature to free itself for a short while.

Two Short Daggers were occupied with defensive parrying, and the double-edged greataxe had been swung out with massive force to force him back. In close-quarters combat, there was even less room for the bow and arrow to be effective.

Borrowing a special technique developed from his self-created combat techniques, his flaming wooden sword—already infused with power and on the verge of falling in a strike that seemed past the point of no return, having even swung downward by a few inches—suddenly stalled as if frozen in time. It pulled back and completely reset!

From an outside perspective, it gave off a bizarre, stuttering sensation, as if time itself had flowed backward.

At the same time, Xia Nan's legs abruptly exerted force. Combined with his Perception, his body twisted, letting the greataxe graze almost directly against the armor on his chest, barely completing the dodge.

At the cost of a gash left squarely on the front of his breastplate, he circled around to the serpent-man's flank.

[Spinning Slash] + [Heavy Tide] + [Gravity Etching]!

"Vooom-boom!"

Combined with the physical momentum added by [Fang Hunt], a full four combat techniques were stacked onto a single sword strike.

Tangerine flames intertwined with ocher forcefield energy. Framed by the distorting air around it, the power transformed into a flawless, alternating orange-and-red crescent of sword light that swept down toward the enemy before him.

However, the creature ultimately possessed immense physical strength, and Fanny's "Freezing Breath" could only restrain it so much.

Sensing the danger, the serpent-man suddenly erupted with power. Even though it was too late to adjust its shield, it still managed to shift its stance the very instant the sword light burst forth.

It twisted its main torso and vital spots, moving them just outside the sword light's reach.

Shhk—

The sword light flashed.

Dark purple blood sprayed.

Two mycelial arms bearing traces of frost and scorch marks, along with a large chunk of scale-covered flesh, flew high into the air.

"Hiss!!!"

Inside the vast, empty temple, a sudden hiss filled with agony and fury echoed out.