Volume 1: Awakening Chapter 8 I'm Going to Kill You
"The guy up there, listen to me, close your eyes and don't look down!" At the awkward moment when Xian Ge Yayi was trapped on the tree and unable to move, I suddenly thought of an idea and shouted at him, "Aim your bow and arrow downwards, don't look at anything, and follow my command!"
Xian Ge Yayi did as he was told. He closed his eyes, and the acrophobic elf's complexion really improved a lot. He no longer had to cling to the tree trunk like a sloth. He skillfully put the arrow on the bowstring, listened to my instructions, and kept shifting left and right to adjust his movements.
"... A little to the left, Ranger..." Through the gaps between the branches, I watched the Elf Ranger's movements, gradually adjusting the bow and arrow in his hand to the direction I wanted. The evening sun occasionally shone through the leaves, stinging my eyes a little.
"…too much, move a little bit to the right, just a little bit. Okay, listen to my commands, when I say 'release', you release the arrow immediately, the faster the better. When I say 'stop', you stop releasing the arrow and keep this action, do you understand?" I ordered loudly.
"I...I understand..." Xian Ge Yayi, who was standing on the tree top, tilted her ear, looking like a blind person identifying the direction where the sound came from.
Seeing that he was ready, I said to Niu Baiwan, "It seems that I have to take a risk. Give me a few more bottles of potion, and you... just wait here."
Niu Baiwan should have understood my intention. After hearing my arrangement, he unexpectedly blushed and loudly objected as if he was humiliated:
"No, I have to go with you!"
"What did you say?" I really thought I had heard wrongly. This strange and cowardly minotaur actually planned to go on an adventure with me? Based on his usual performance in battle, I always thought that if we hadn't insisted, he would probably spend his whole life killing hens at the foot of the city wall. Maybe he really had a chance to become the first legendary figure to reach level ninety-nine by killing hens - level ninety-nine is the highest limit that ordinary creatures in this world can reach. Only a very small number of powerful creatures standing at the peak of strength can break through this limit, and their names have become powerful legends on the Falvi continent without exception.
"You'd better stay here," I said.
"Why!" he protested unconvinced.
"This is just a hypothesis. It may not succeed. What if these wild dogs are lured here and cannot be shaken off? I still have a chance to escape alone, but if you are included..." I looked him up and down with my sidelong eyes, not hiding my doubts about his fighting ability at all.
"Hey, you look down on me too much. I'm not that bad." After hearing my explanation, Niu Baiwan's cheeks turned red and his voice immediately became much lower, but he still insisted.
“……” What answered him was my questioning look.
"I did make some contributions. For example, I attracted many monsters just now..."
“……” I used my eyes to remind him of some things that he had overlooked.
He shook his head, pouted his lips and added unwillingly: "...It's just that he attracted a little too much. Xian Ge Yayi was not dead at that time. He still had fifteen drops of blood left..."
"And I can also push the monsters away and attract their attacks..."
"..." I signaled him with my eyes to tell the whole story.
"...I know I didn't hold on, but it's not all my fault. My armor has such low defense, and my pain index is so high... In the end, didn't you hold on too..."
"And my damage is not low either. I can kill a wild dog by a quarter of its health in one blow... It's just that my hit rate is a little low. I can always hit it once or twice out of ten..."
“……” I had nothing to say and could only look at him with great sympathy.
"Alright, alright..." His pitiful self-esteem finally collapsed under my gaze, "...I admit that I am a terrible player. I am timid, my operation is poor, my hit rate is low, and my damage is small. Basically, I am just mixing experience with you..."
I don’t know who first came up with this idea, but all space travelers call the soul power they gain “experience”. However, this term is indeed very vivid. When fighting with the two of them, I gradually became familiar with these simple and strange names.
"But..." he continued with a bit of grievance, "...Since we have formed a team, I also hope that I can help you. It feels terrible to be a parasite! Watching you fight to the death while I stand by and share the experience, do you think I can be so at ease? Who do you think I am?"
"Now you are going to lure the monsters. After all, I am one level higher than you, and I still have 'War Stomp' to save my life. Maybe I can help you. At worst, if something really goes wrong, I can attract the firepower and save your life. It can be considered as my contribution to everyone..."
Although he was smiling and didn't seem to be serious when he spoke, his words did touch me. When you are going to take a risk and try something dangerous, if someone tells you that he is willing to risk his life to help you and support you, I think everyone will have this feeling.
Even if he is of no benefit to you.
Even if he is just an unrelated stranger...
I suddenly felt warm in my heart. A strange and warm feeling surrounded me, as if a ray of light shot into my heart, illuminating the shadow of "loneliness" in my heart without a trace - this was a feeling I had never had when I was a guard at the city gate.
"What are you doing? You didn't send any signal for so long, I almost fell asleep... Hey, you guys have run away, right?" On the top of the tree, Xian Ge Yayi, with his eyes closed and bow drawn, shouted anxiously.
Niu Baiwan and I looked at each other and smiled.
"Don't worry, we'll be there soon!" Niu Baiwan shouted at him, then turned to me and said heroically, "Let's go and save that coward who is afraid of heights!"
"When you call others cowards, your legs should not tremble so obviously..." I said as I walked.
"I'm not scared. It's just a dozen wild dogs..."
"oh?"
"I'm just relaxing my muscles and preparing to run away..."
“…”
As we talked, we slowly approached the pack of wild dogs that surrounded Xian Ge Ya Yi. They could see us, but they didn't show much interest in us. Based on past experience, we knew that this was only a temporary calm. If we got close enough and made them feel threatened, they would chase us with all their might.
Sure enough, when we were about ten steps away from them, the wild dog closest to us suddenly pricked up its ears and barked loudly. Its voice startled the other wild dogs. In an instant, all the wild dogs left the tree hole and chased us at full speed.
Niu Baiwan and I were prepared. As soon as we saw them move, we turned around and ran. When we ran about 20 steps away, I turned around and estimated the distance and angle. I was sure that the group of wild dogs had just entered the shooting range of Xiange Yayi, so I immediately shouted, "Shoot!"
A sharp arrow fell from the sky, like a bolt of lightning, and hit a wild dog accurately, making it scream in pain. The arrow was so accurate and fierce that it lost almost half of its life.
Xian Ge Yayi on the tree probably didn't know that his first shot hit the target. After shooting an arrow, he kept drawing his bow and arrows, continuously pouring more arrows down. Some of these arrows passed by the wild dogs, leaving some skin injuries; some did not hit the target at all, and stuck straight into the soil; but there were also two arrows that hit the target, achieving a result not inferior to the first arrow, and seriously injured the two wild dogs.
According to my observation, when these beasts are hunting, if they are attacked, they will immediately abandon the prey and seek revenge on the enemy who killed them. If they are attacked by multiple parties at the same time, the enemy who caused them the most harm will become the first target they fight.
Facts have proved that my guess was correct. Once attacked by the rain of arrows, the pack of wild dogs immediately turned around and ran back to the big tree where Xian Ge Yayi was, shouting at the tree in anger and indignation, wishing to tear the insidious attacker into pieces immediately. As for the two of us "outsiders", they didn't even bother to take a second look.
Things went unexpectedly smoothly, which made Niu Baiwan and I overjoyed.
Completely losing his sight, Xian Ge Ya Yi was able to temporarily overcome his fear of heights. Under my command, he transformed from a free and flexible ranger into a directional arrow tower, exerting a powerful attack power.
For anyone else, this would be a waste of effort. With enough patience, even an ordinary ranger could shoot the wild dogs one by one from a branch. However, this tactic worked wonders for our elf companion. For this ranger who used his eyes as decorations, the wild dogs under the tree were too scattered. It would be more reliable to expect the wild dogs to starve to death than to rely on his archery to eliminate them. Our role was to attract the wild dogs, gather them together, and lure them into the shooting range of Xian Ge Ya Yi. Others aimed at the target and shot arrows, but this time we dragged a huge target to find the ranger's crosshairs, which greatly improved the hit rate of this crappy ranger.
Because he didn't need to aim, Xian Ge Ya Yi could focus on the simplest archery actions of taking arrows, drawing the bow, and shooting. Because the time for the wild dogs to pass through his shooting range was limited, he had to shoot as many arrows as possible in the shortest time to have a chance to cause greater damage.
At first, our elf friend was obviously not used to this high-frequency shooting. His accuracy was undoubtedly much worse, but his movements were very standard. But for some reason, every time I saw him taking arrows and shooting continuously, I always felt that his body and arm movements were not coordinated and looked a little stiff. Although he tried very hard to improve his hand speed, he could only shoot seven or eight arrows at most each time.
But, gradually, his movements underwent some subtle changes. I couldn't describe in detail how his movements were different from before, but I was very sure that some changes had occurred in him. Each time, his movements were softer and smoother than the last, and the muscles in his arms were like streams of joyful mountain springs, full of energy and strength flowing without any stagnation. His movements gave me an inexplicable feeling, just like... just like...
It was like a gentle breeze blowing.
Yes, wind is a very wonderful thing. When it brushes your cheek, making you feel cool and comfortable, you don't feel its speed. But when you really want to reach out to touch it or hold it back, you find that it has quietly disappeared from your side without knowing when . No matter how fast you try to catch it, you are doomed to miss it, because this seemingly gentle breeze is always faster than you.
Xian Ge Ya Yi's movements were exactly like this. He was not very fast, and it was even like a slow dance, so that you could see every detail clearly. But undoubtedly, he was shooting arrows faster and faster. The bowstring tightly held between his fingers made a series of quick and pleasant small sounds, as if it was plucking the evening breeze in the forest.
After a long time, when I recalled the situation at that time, I finally understood what was wrong with the movements of Xian Ge Ya Yi. In fact, when we do anything, each of us will have deviations and make many unnecessary movements. These movements are so subtle that we always ignore their existence. But in fact, these unnecessary movements will make us unconsciously become slower than we think.
Xian Ge Yayi realized this while shooting non-stop. In order to pursue a higher speed, he instinctively eliminated these unnecessary movements, making his movements cleaner, more direct, and more effective. This is why his movements did not seem very fast, but in fact they had been greatly improved.
When he shot fifteen arrows in a row, we suddenly heard him cheer "Ah". An unusual light green halo rose from under his feet and disappeared in a flash - I still remember the last time I saw this halo was when Niu Baiwan first cast the "Powerful Cyclone".
"You are so lucky. You have learned a new skill!" Niu Baiwan stood far away and said with envy, "Look, what skill is it?"
"Continuous shooting, shoot fifteen arrows in a short time, consume fifty points of fighting spirit, and need five minutes of cooling time!" Xiange Yayi answered loudly. When he comprehended the new skill, he was so happy that he forgot where he was and was busy opening his eyes to check. Now , he put on the posture of an old bear hugging a tree, his little face was red and white, and I am afraid that even he himself did not know whether he should be happy or scared.
Xian Ge Yayi, who had mastered the skill of continuous shooting, performed more and more bravely. In the following several traps, he shot and killed more than half of the wild dogs. Thanks to him, I also reached level 5. However, as the number of wild dogs decreased, his chances of hitting the target became less and less, from about one-third each time, gradually reduced to one-quarter, one-fifth, until it was difficult to hit even one arrow, and the place he aimed at was already densely pierced by sharp arrows, like a field of weeds.
No ranger could withstand such a consumption. When the wild dog leader, Crazy Dog Kaplan, had less than a third of his life left, and there were three other wild dogs with varying degrees of injuries, Xian Ge Yayi's arrows finally ran out.
"What should we do now?" Niu Baiwan asked me. In fact, his excited eyes had already revealed the answer in his heart.
"Needless to say?" I smiled at him, holding my sword in my hand. Then, we both looked at the few remaining injured dogs and shouted in unison:
"Kill these sons of bitches!"
