Ambush

"Ah! Help!"

Having just brushed past the gates of death, the leather-clad female archer was jolted back to her senses by the shock. She scrambled backward in utter disregard for dignity, rolling and crawling as she fled, shouting for help while running toward the main road.

But the cunning hunter lurking in the shadows did not strike again. Yet Xuan Ye, hidden elsewhere, dared not let his guard down in the slightest—who knew if the creature had truly left?

He quickly concealed himself, moving away from the spot where his arrow had given him away. After a few rolls, he circled around to another tree trunk not far off, pressing his back against its sturdy girth and raising his vigilance to the utmost limit!

Though Xuan Ye had combat experience against magic beasts and humans, this was his first real encounter with a non-human race!

Even gnolls, a relatively weak non-human race, were ancient beings capable of condensing a core and breaking into the Professional Rank without external aid! The premise for humans bullying gnolls rested on deep accumulation and superior martial force!

At the Professional Rank, because humans relied on external forces to condense their cores, they actually fared worse than non-humans of the same rank—even against gnolls!

Compared to the myriad and varied bloodline powers of humans, most other races possessed only a few types, but they awakened them far more easily. They often naturally possessed one or two common talents at birth or upon reaching adulthood, and could hold multiple talents simultaneously!

Before facing one, Xuan Ye's understanding of this had only come from books. But now, facing it for real, his forehead beaded with fine sweat from sheer tension.

He couldn't sense it!

He couldn't sense where the enemy was at all!

And he had inscribed five 'Bright Eyes' inscriptions onto his Perception Core!

From his own arrow's interception, he could judge that the opponent was only slightly stronger than him—at most one-star mid to late stage! Both were at the one-star Professional Rank! Yet at the same rank, it could evade his perception. Was the gnoll's 'Lurk' talent really this practical?

'Lurk' was a talent many races possessed innately; gnolls were merely passable users, with many races far superior. Even so, this seemingly unremarkable talent put Xuan Ye at a severe disadvantage in the current environment.

In the jungle, with both being ranged specialists, whoever revealed themselves first would eat a shot. Xuan Ye was confident that with a sneak attack, he could kill a three-star expert. But if he were ambushed by someone of the same rank, he'd be in even worse shape!

"There's still a chance. I have five inscriptions stabilizing my core, and I deliberately suppressed my aura so even Roland didn't notice I'm a ranger. It can't find me either."

Forcing himself to calm his nerves, Xuan Ye seemed to reassure himself. Luo Luoji's words echoed in his mind: a ranger must always keep a cool head. With his lack of experience and ingrained habits, he couldn't achieve that instantly, but he could barely manage through self-adjustment.

"A professional-rank gnoll has infiltrated the oasis. Its top priority is to hide and avoid drawing the attention of Stanrose's experts. In this situation, it definitely won't leave any survivors—just like how it shot the sword and shield warrior through the throat with one arrow. It must have been afraid he'd get too close and sense something. So it was probably near that area from the start.

After failing to finish off the surviving woman, letting her go means it's not confident about dealing with me while I'm hidden, fearing I'd ambush it and expose its position. Now, either it's retreated quietly, worried the woman will bring stronger fighters, or it's set its sights on me, trying to take me out quickly before chasing her down..."

Though Xuan Ye could be a bit dense at times, he'd gained plenty of experience along the way. Drawing on his database, he quickly narrowed it down to two possibilities.

If it was the former, Xuan Ye had no interest in doing Stanrose's dirty work—each to their own. But if it was the latter, it meant the creature was confident it could find and eliminate him quickly!

In the jungle...

Not good!

The thought flashed through his mind, and Xuan Ye instinctively leaped from his spot, using the elasticity of the branch beneath his feet to spring away without a second thought.

The moment he left, a silent black shadow descended from above onto the treetop he'd just occupied, its claws easily snapping the thick branch in two!

Caught off guard, Xuan Ye hit the ground and rolled to absorb the momentum, regaining his balance in a mess of fallen leaves. Half-kneeling, he gripped his bow tightly and stared at the shadow that had nearly ambushed him. It was a creature strikingly similar to an Earth hyena—hideous and ferocious.

Sharp fangs dripped saliva incessantly, and its claws scraped the ground as if ready to pounce.

A predator-rank hyena!

What the hell! That thing had brought a pet! That was cheating, wasn't it!

No wonder it had decisively chosen to target him first. With the predator-rank hyena's sense of smell, it could track him through the jungle. His initial arrow had given away his general position, and even after moving, he couldn't stray too far.

Good thing he'd sensed something was off. If he'd taken that hit from its stealthy ambush, he'd be done for.

"It didn't press the attack after the ambush failed, just postured without advancing. Did it outrun its master? If so, I'll take you out first!"

With a brief pause, Xuan Ye made a quick decision. Without hesitation, he flipped over, drew his bow, and began weaving through the jungle, firing arrows at the hyena while staying on the move!

His direction of movement was away from where he estimated the gnoll's position to be! He had to delay their reunion!

One after another, tricky arrows slipped through gaps in the foliage, angling sharply toward the hyena.

Though the hyena wasn't a high-agility, high-dexterity magic beast like the azure wolf, it easily found cover in this jungle terrain. Its master was a gnoll hunter, skilled with a bow and well-versed in dodging arrows!

Most of Xuan Ye's shots were dodged or blocked by cover. Only twice, when cornered, did the hyena use its claws and teeth to deflect them. Each time it blocked, it would cunningly retreat into hiding or ride the arrow's momentum backward.

In this terrain, Xuan Ye really couldn't outmaneuver it with arrows alone.

But...

"φωτι? τε? χo?" (Elvish: Wall of Fire)

After chanting the two-syllable incantation, the ring on his finger, which his spiritual power had been channeling for three seconds, burst into dazzling light. A wall of liquid-like crimson flame surged upward, engulfing a 2x5-meter area!

The hyena, which had been dodging Xuan Ye's arrows while trying to close in and slow him down, was precisely driven into that zone by a well-placed arrow!

It was swallowed without a chance by the intensely concentrated, liquid-like fire wall!

After two brief seconds, the fire wall vanished, leaving only a patch of vitrified, scorched earth!

All vegetation within the area was annihilated, and the hyena had been reduced to ash!

The tightly compressed power didn't even spark a forest fire after the spell faded, because all combustible material in the range had been instantly consumed!

Dean's chain fireball had been a sustained, wide-area bombardment spell of the rank. But this wall of fire, though small in range, was terrifyingly powerful.

For an ordinary mage, a fire wall was usually used to block enemies or melt incoming arrows. But in the hands of Xuan Ye, a half-baked ranger, his unique talent had turned a defensive skill into a devastating attack, one-shotting a magic beast of the same rank!

Shocked by the fire wall's sheer power, Xuan Ye realized that even he would be dead if hit—the bones had been melted to ash!

But then, a 'crack' came from the ring's surface. Watching the magic ruby shatter into pieces, the frugal Xuan Ye's heart bled with pain.

An apprentice-level mage really could only rely on money to cast spells—the price of a single magic ruby exceeded a hundred gold coins, and there weren't many left in the Spatial Bag Dean had left behind. To make matters worse, it had completely melted the hyena, leaving not even a scrap of material for himself.

Fortunately, Xuan Ye knew what mattered most. If he lost his life, no amount of money would be of any use, and now was not the time to fret. Because he could already hear the enraged howls coming from the direction the hyena had been chasing—the Gnoll hunter was not far behind.

If he hadn't made the snap decision to take one out first, he might not have gotten another chance later...

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