Tactics

Magical beasts were a vast population spread throughout Reizel. With countless species and billions of years of evolution behind them, every magical beast that had survived possessed its own reason for existing and its own unique traits!

The Azure Wolf might not possess an innate spell model like the Wraith and might lack spellcasting abilities, but the Azure Wolf had its own unique advantages!

Their fur was naturally attuned to the Plane of Wind, allowing them to ignore most air resistance while running. Their slender bodies and powerful limbs provided them with the terrifying speed he saw before him!

Though they had split into three groups and had initially been gazing at one another from distant dunes, in a mere instant they had already formed a three-sided encirclement!

Even with the boost from Strength Blessing, Xuan Ye's current maximum effective shooting range was only around a hundred meters. To break through even a One-Star Azure Wolf's defenses and pose a threat, he needed to close the distance to at least fifty meters!

Though the Azure Wolf was unlike the Wraith, with its incorporeal shadow physique, and was not too difficult to lock onto with the naked eye, its speed was still something the Wraith could never match!

Forget fifty meters—even a hundred meters would be crossed in the blink of an eye!

The pressure this placed on Xuan Ye was unprecedented. If he had not gained some battle experience from his earlier fight with the Wraith, which had slightly strengthened his state of mind, the fear and pressure alone would have cut his combat power in half.

People naturally feared the unknown. All kinds of problems and complications arose when facing many "first times," but once they had tried something once, they often discovered that many things were actually simpler than they had imagined.

Xuan Ye currently maintained a barely acceptable Ranger mindset. He stood quietly in place, aiming at the pack on the right flank, completely ignoring the other two groups. Even while watching his target, he directly disregarded the leading Wolf Guard and continuously searched for opportunities and weaknesses among the three Subordinate Wolves behind it!

People were forged under pressure. Under the harsh conditions before him, with Xuan Ye's strength almost at the bottom, he had neither the thought nor the ability to consider the overall situation or take care of the other two groups. He could only focus wholeheartedly on one point.

Although he could be a little foolish at times, he knew his own limits. His strength was already insufficient, and if he failed to concentrate as well, he would be throwing away his remaining chance to survive.

At the same level and within the same time frame, the Ranger had the longest range and the highest reaction efficiency of all classes. Archery required no incantation, and its range was farther than that of many instant-cast and enhancement spells!

While Dean was still chanting that profound incantation, six gemstones had already formed a formation model amid the flames of the scroll before him. He was continuously using his hands and incantations to complete the model when Xuan Ye's target finally entered the range of his predicted attack!

Though the Azure Wolf had not yet entered his optimal range, there was no doubt that once it truly entered range, it would already be too late to act.

He had to account for the Azure Wolf's extraordinary speed. Only by borrowing its own momentum could Xuan Ye break through its defenses and maximize the damage!

He had only an instant to seize the opportunity. Once he missed it, he would have no chance to attack against such speed!

The various parameters calculated through ordinary dynamic vision left him no time to analyze and process them.

He made the decision without hesitation!

All his Spiritual Power concentrated in his eyes!

Eyes of Lawbreaking~

Activate!

His pitch-black pupils instantly turned blood-red, while complicated runes flashed and revolved at their cores!

They were deep and uncanny, as if they could suck even the soul into their depths!

His entire field of vision was modeled into a world of data and symbols, filled with all kinds of basic parameters!

Wolf Guard peak speed: 107.4 meters per second. Minimum speed: 60.1 meters per second. Angular deviation: 30.3 degrees. Kinetic energy required for a hit under optimal conditions... Pressure prediction... Probability of breaking through defenses: 17.41%...

Subordinate Wolf...

All kinds of basic parameters converged. Under the influence of the Soul Database within his body, various possibilities and outcomes were calculated in an instant. Its efficiency was so high that compared to Xuan Ye's normal speed of reading and analyzing parameters, it was like an abacus compared to a supercomputer!

The slightest changes in the air's movement from millimeter to millimeter, every muscle exertion throughout the Azure Wolf's body as it ran—all of it was broken down into various vectors!

The Wolf Guard's probability of having its defenses broken was too low. Exclude!

Target: Subordinate Wolf. Locked!

Draw the bow!

Fire!

'Whoosh~'

An arrow flew out. He had neither the leisure to look at the results nor the slightest hesitation, and a second arrow immediately left the bowstring!

The arrow tore through the air, spinning and producing a sharp buzzing sound. Even in the nighttime environment, it easily drew the Azure Wolves' attention and allowed them to determine the arrow's position and approximate lethality.

The leading Two-Star Wolf Guard showed no reaction. It remained at the forefront, completely ignoring an attack that could hardly threaten it. Nor did it believe that an arrow of this level could have much impact on the Subordinate Wolves behind it.

Its power and speed were only passable. At this distance, a hit might pose some threat, but the speed the Azure Wolves prided themselves on allowed them to dodge with ease.

However, as the Wolf Guard ran forward, it failed to notice that the three Subordinate Wolves behind it had all developed an unnatural stiffness one after another.

The arrow flying through the air had perfectly seized the moment when they were all changing their breathing!

For the Azure Wolves to reach top speed, they had to maintain a bounding gait with both paws touching the ground in turn. At that moment, however, the three wolves happened to be either about to land or had just landed, causing their emergency evasion ability to drop to its lowest point!

'Swish~'

The Azure Wolf locked onto by the arrow could only forcibly extend its claws after its forepaws touched the ground, digging them into the sand. It plunged most of its forelegs into the sand and used the resistance to force itself to slow down, while rapidly raising its head. The arrow tore through the air, skimming its throat and dragging a white wave through its neck fur as it narrowly missed!

That Azure Wolf had just dodged the arrow when another companion at its side was exposed to the lethal force of the shot. It forcibly twisted its waist, letting the arrow pass beneath its abdomen and bury itself in the sand. The two wolves displayed the Azure Wolf's agility to the fullest!

Yet just as the attack that had startled the two wolves missed, another arrow arrived before the first Subordinate Wolf's head. It was colder, faster, and more powerful, but made no spinning buzz.

Because the second arrow was faster, the two arrows arrived almost simultaneously despite the gap between their shots. Hidden by the first buzzing arrow, the second silent arrow revealed a killing intent that left no room for failure!

If the attack had been fired by a genuine professional Ranger, this Azure Wolf would have been killed without suspense. However, the archer's strength was ultimately limited. Though he had pushed his potential to the limit and received the boost of Blessing, he could only approach an ordinary attack from a true Ranger.

He was still short by the slightest margin of speed needed to crush his enemy. The Azure Wolf, its forepaws already buried in the sand, rapidly kicked off with its hind legs, hauling its front half free with a trace of panic and fear.

Under normal circumstances, this arrow would still have only grazed past it, at most slicing through some fur.

Yet at that moment, the third Azure Wolf seemed to rush forward and press itself against the attack, leaping into the arrow's path of its own accord. The arrow plunged straight into its eye and pierced through its skull, killing it in a single strike without the slightest suspense!

The powerful impact of the collision dragged the Azure Wolf's corpse several meters across the sand. Blood sprayed through the air and fell in scattered droplets!

A replay made the reason clear: after the first arrow restricted the first Azure Wolf, its sudden stop and evasive maneuver blocked most of the third Azure Wolf's path forward. Running at full speed, the third Azure Wolf instinctively chose the gap its companion had left open and charged through, unable to stop.

Then the second Azure Wolf twisted its waist in front of it to dodge the attack, its hind leg striking the third wolf's body. This made the balance of the third wolf, which had already been forced to change direction, even worse.

If that had been all, the Azure Wolf's agility was no joke. As long as its paws could touch the ground, it could immediately adjust its center of gravity and regain its balance.

However, the second arrow had already arrived. As the first Azure Wolf that had blocked it once dodged, it happened to sweep into the third wolf's foreleg just as it was about to land. Tripped by its own forepaw, it had not even realized what was happening before its vision went black.

It already carried tremendous speed, and with a slight angle, it collided head-on with the speeding arrow. The point of impact was its eye, and nearly the entire arrow pierced straight through!

The powerful shock of the arrow churned its brain into slurry like a blender. Naturally, it died instantly without the slightest suspense!