“Wow, amazing!?”
Ji Xue, hiding behind a giant mushroom, watched the entire battle nervously, her heart in her throat.
From her perspective as a martial artist, she could tell at a glance that this lord was a formidable Warrior before it fell into monstrosity.
Its way of wielding the giant axe was incredibly smooth, as if suppressing something, yet it was already so strong! Every move was full of power, and even the tank in their team, Lanifi, probably couldn’t withstand a few hits! If it were Ji Xue, she could escape with her agility, but she wouldn’t be foolish enough to engage it directly!
So, when she saw Milora actually holding her own against Grelou for so long, she couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of admiration for her.
This was a battle with zero margin for error; every attack from Grelou and every dodge from Milora was a life-and-death confrontation, truly dancing on the edge of a knife, where any mistake could lead to instant death.
Yet Milora persisted.
It was as if she could predict Grelou’s moves the moment they were made, preemptively dodging, rolling, or throwing items, always responding perfectly, as if she had foresight! Of course, even so, the danger level didn’t decrease at all.
Grelou could attack countless times, and Milora only needed to make one mistake to be doomed!
Grelou was clearly getting impatient.
Its wide, sweeping attacks weren’t suited for the slippery Milora, so—
“▇▇▇▇!”
Grelou roared something in an unknown language, then suddenly slammed its giant axe into the ground.
A large amount of glowing mycelium embedded into the surface, and a mysterious light emanated from underground—
Boom!!!!!!
It stomped the ground with legs as thick as elm trunks, causing the entire hollow ground to shake twice, sending countless rocks flying! Milora jumped just in time to avoid the shockwave, barely deflecting the flying debris—but it wasn’t over yet.
With a force like uprooting a mountain, it pulled up the giant axe, causing a straight-line explosion! Guided by the system, Milora rolled to the side as soon as she landed to avoid the direct impact, but was still blown away by the aftershock!
“Milora!”
Ji Xue was anxious, but Milora hadn’t whistled to signal, so she held back her urge to intervene! Milora rolled several times on the ground, her bones creaking, feeling like her insides were shaking! But she was still alive, not directly hit! And now Grelou had been lured to the center of the underground hollow!
“Now! Adjust your position! Hold on a bit longer!”
“Got it!”
Milora struggled to stand up, in pain, but still within her tolerance! She used Grelou’s brief recovery time to throw a firebomb to obscure its vision with flames, then adjusted her position.
Grelou blew away the flames with its axe and immediately charged at her! At this moment, Grelou was facing Milora, with its back to Ji Xue’s direction.
The moment of destiny.
Milora’s heart raced, forcing herself to stay calm, constantly dodging under the system’s guidance.
Don’t rush, don’t rush, don’t rush! She had to ensure the impatient lord focused all its attention on her, exposing the biggest flaw in its back!
Ji Xue felt it too.
She crouched like a leopard, gripping her sword tightly, ready to strike at Milora’s signal to attack Grelou’s scar on its back! The scar was located below its left shoulder blade, a hideous, twisted wound.
If she could thrust her sword into it with all her might… maybe the two of them could really take down the lord!
“Milora! Are you ready? This is very important! You must listen to me! I’m only doing this for your good!”
“Tell me! What should I do? Should I whistle now to let Ji Xue act?”
“Not only whistle, but also throw a smoke bomb to obscure the lord’s vision, increasing the success rate of the sneak attack!”
“Smoke bomb? Got it! There’s only one left!”
“The key is timing! The moment you hear my command, you must whistle and throw the smoke bomb simultaneously! Not a second too soon or too late!”
“Okay—”
Milora agreed immediately.
But she vaguely felt something was off.
In that instant, that brief moment, Milora remembered Torina’s words:
“In battle, it’s important to do less, don’t do unnecessary things, short and quick is the right way.”
—That’s what Torina said.
Don’t do unnecessary things.
And the system was telling her to throw a smoke bomb.
Smoke bomb? Was there really a need to throw a smoke bomb? At this moment, all of Grelou’s attention was on her, and it was already impatient, not noticing anything other than Milora.
It would be better to let Ji Xue attack directly.
If she threw a smoke bomb… would it complicate things? It might disrupt the rhythm, the smoke could interfere with Ji Xue’s vision, and might even alert Grelou to an enemy behind… wasn’t this completely unnecessary?
“Are you ready?” the system asked.
“…Yeah!”
But she didn’t think further, her mind’s balance tipping towards the system, ignoring Torina’s advice, just as she had listened to the system’s suggestion to switch back to old equipment before this battle to prevent any tricks with her gear.
Forget the sanctimonious Torina.
The system was the only thing she could fully trust now—
“Now! Let her act! Throw the smoke bomb under the lord’s legs at the same time!!”
Why throw the smoke bomb at the ground between its legs—she didn’t ask, nor did she have any doubts.
She did as instructed when Grelou swung its axe down again!
“Whistle~~~~!!!”
She blew a sharp whistle and threw the smoke bomb at the same time! At that moment, Ji Xue acted! She darted out from behind the mushroom, moving so fast she was just a blur, closing the distance with the lord like shrinking the ground, and unleashed her strongest thrust skill “White Rainbow Shocking the Sky”—
—It hit!
The sword blade indeed pierced into the old wound on Grelou’s back! But the monster’s muscles were so developed, as hard as armor, that even attacking the weak point was difficult to fully penetrate! So in this tense moment where time seemed to stop, Ji Xue used all her strength to grip the sword, trying to push it deeper, to empty the lord’s health bar—
Boom!!
At that moment, the smoke bomb Milora had thrown exploded.
The smoke bomb landed on the ground at Grelou’s feet, bounced up, and exploded—filling Ji Xue’s face with acrid smoke.
“Huh—?”
The sudden thick smoke made her pause for a moment, slowing her actions by less than half a second.
It was this brief gap— that allowed Grelou to launch a fierce counterattack! It spun like a tornado, the sword still stuck in its back, but the violent rotation made Ji Xue lose her grip, briefly airborne—then the giant axe hit Ji Xue in mid-air, and she barely managed to draw another sword from her waist to block!
Clang!!!!!!!
The intense metallic clash was almost deafening, the massive impact sending Ji Xue flying! She screamed as she landed, her left hand, which had blocked the axe with a secondary weapon, twisted in a strange direction.
She had done her best to deflect the force, but her wrist and radius were still broken! But she had no time to catch her breath, the failed sneak attack had drawn all the aggro to her! Grelou ignored the sword still in its back, swinging its axe at her broken form, forcing her to dodge clumsily!
“Ji Xue!?”
Everything had happened in just a few seconds, Milora was first stunned, then immediately rushed to help like a madwoman! They could have won, Ji Xue could have ended the lord, but—that smoke bomb! It was that smoke bomb that interfered with Ji Xue’s attack! It even caused her to be seriously injured!!!!
“Wait!”
The pain in her hand made her stop, it was the ring! The ring where the system resided suddenly tightened, forcing her to stop with pain that almost broke her finger!
“What are you doing!? I need to save Ji Xue!”
“Don’t go!”
“Your instructions were wrong!!!”
“My instructions weren’t wrong!”
“Not wrong—!?”
“You don’t want a teammate to compete with you for the loot, do you? You don’t want anyone to know you defeated the lord, right? Then don’t save her! Everything is as I calculated, both it and she are now low on health, just prepare to reap the benefits!”
