Seize the Moment

In the darkness, arrows made absolutely no sound.

As long as one had not prepared in advance.

Unless they possessed a warrior's combat instinct that could foresee danger ahead of time, there was no way to defend against it.

Yet the Mutated One who had been stepping forward.

Stopped abruptly at that very moment.

His Source Material Skill formed a twisted life-will that now permeated the entire cave.

So even though Linsey himself had yet to enter his attack range.

Through the interference of that power and will, he sensed some foreign object rapidly approaching.

"Hmm?"

The Mutated One turned his gaze. A streak of black light was shooting straight toward him.

"Someone else was hiding?"

Once it was spotted.

To a high-level Awakened, an arrow's speed was not particularly fast.

The Mutated One did not even control his flesh tentacles. He simply reached out with his right hand and caught the arrow in midair.

Boom—

The next second, flames erupted violently from the arrow, throwing the Mutated One's body backward.

Under the searing heat.

The skin across his entire upper body burned black and peeled away, exposing the twisted, writhing flesh within. Purple-black buds squirmed rapidly over his nearly inhuman body, filling his skin back in.

The twisted life-will filling the cave was also interrupted by the sudden attack.

"..."

The Mutated One straightened his body again.

The smug expression from before had vanished from his face.

Linsey, who had hurried over from the other side of the cave, also stepped onto the battlefield.

He ignored the Mutated One and first looked toward the humans. Only after confirming that these elite subordinates were unharmed did Linsey breathe a sigh of relief.

In fact, at Linsey's original travel speed.

Even if he had brought the insect swarm here, he would