What the Hell? An Oriole Lurking Behind?

Gan Ming did not have time to wipe his face. He reached out and stored the severed tail on the ground in his ring.

Venomous Tail Sting and Scorpion Tail Multi-Sting had been disabled.

Two of its six skills had been scrapped outright.

The Giant Scorpion woke from its stun and let out a heart-rending screech, its six legs stomping wildly in every direction.

Thoroughly enraged by Gan Ming, it dragged its leaking severed tail around and crashed into everything in sight.

Bang! Bang!

Two low walls were smashed apart, sending bricks and rubble flying everywhere.

But it did not have many usable skills left.

Gan Ming gripped his sword tightly, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

His arms were beginning to ache from the continuous slashing, but adrenaline kept him going.

"Damn it, come on!"

The battle entered a long, grinding phase.

Without its tail, the Elite Giant Scorpion

only had its pincers and Armor-Shattering Pincer Strike left as offensive methods.

But its health pool was still absurdly thick.

After running through a full cycle of Swift Dash and Ambush, Gan Ming felt like he had only chipped away a tiny sliver of its health.

He was not in a hurry, nor did he greedily push for extra attacks.

He used Swift Dash to circle around its side, slashed it two or three times, then retreated.

Once the cooldowns ended, he repeated the process.

His 33 mana points rose and fell constantly.

Swift Dash cost 8 points, Ambush cost 10, and he used the two skills in alternation.

The gaps were filled by his natural mana regeneration of 2.2 per second.

Whenever the cooldowns of both skills overlapped and his mana bottomed out,

he simply relied on Swift Dash to circle the scorpion until his mana recovered.

During that time, the Giant Scorpion's Armor-Shattering Pincer Strike nearly caught him twice.

The first time, he used the impact from Ambush to knock himself backward and barely avoided it.

The second time, he was not so lucky.

A pincer swept past his left thigh.

-45!

Bark Armor absorbed some of the damage, but the damage from a specialized skill was no joke.

Gan Ming's entire leg immediately went numb. He staggered two steps away before regaining his balance.

He raised his left hand, and green light surged forth.

Healing!

Buzz!

More than half of his mana was drained in an instant.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled a Basic Mana Recovery Potion from his ring, twisted off the cap, and gulped it down.

The blue liquid slid down his throat, and his mana slowly began to climb.

At the same time, the Potential Stimulation +6 effect kicked in, restoring 14 health every five seconds.

Continue!

Ten minutes later.

The Giant Scorpion's shell was covered in crisscrossing sword marks.

There were three or four deep gashes on each side of its abdomen, exposing flesh beneath. Insect fluid had spilled all over the ground.

Its movement speed had clearly slowed, and two of its six legs were trembling.

Its shell regeneration could no longer keep up with Gan Ming's damage.

Almost there.

Another thirty or forty rounds should finish it off.

Gan Ming calculated silently.

But just then.

[Beast Scent +6] allowed him to catch several faint scents.

They drifted over from the northwest, growing stronger.

They carried the warmth unique to living humans!

Gan Ming halted.

He drew in a deep sniff toward the northwest.

Three.

No, four!

Four distinct human scents, around seventy meters away and rapidly approaching.

Gan Ming lowered his head and glanced at the ground beneath his feet.

Everywhere were traces left behind by his battle with the Giant Scorpion.

The shattered stones had been tossed into a mess, while the stench of insect fluid spread across a wide area.

Ten-odd minutes of fighting had caused quite a commotion.

Those four Awakened had most likely been drawn over by the noise.

It took no thought to guess that the recovered materials from one elite monster would definitely be worth more than those from twenty or thirty ordinary monsters.

Any Awakened with a brain would come over to take a look after hearing the sounds of a battle against an elite monster.

But the question was,

what would they do after arriving?

Help him?

Or wait until he finished the fight, then rob him outright?

Or...

while he was tangled up with the elite and his mana was depleted, would they take the opportunity to finish him off too?

In the Fallen Zone,

Awakened killing Awakened

was not against the law.

Gan Ming looked at the battered Red-armored Elite Giant Scorpion before him, which was already close to collapsing.

Then he glanced toward the northwest again.

Sixty meters.

Fifty-five meters.

These four were very cautious.

They did not reveal themselves rashly.

Instead, they slowly approached,

clearly intending to scout the battle first before deciding whether to act.

Gan Ming's expression immediately darkened.

He retreated several steps, opening up the distance between himself and the Elite Giant Scorpion.

His original plan had been to drag this half-dead Elite Giant Scorpion deeper inside.

He would run while slashing at it.

He would lure it somewhere deserted, draw it farther away, then finish it off.

But the Giant Scorpion refused to cooperate.

Insect fluid was still seeping from its severed tail, while four of its six legs trembled.

It spread its two pincers in front of itself,

turning all its uninjured shell outward while hiding the stump of its tail behind its body.

It adopted a defensive stance.

Its meaning was clear.

I'm not running anymore. Attack if you want.

"Damn it!"

Gan Ming cursed inwardly.

As expected of an Elite Monster—it actually had a brain.

It knew it could not escape, and it also knew that taking the initiative would expose its vulnerable back now that it no longer had its tail.

So it simply lowered its posture, faced him with its thickest frontal shell, and waited for Shell Regeneration to slowly restore its health.

But that was not even the most troublesome part.

More troublesome was the fact that the four people had already quietly approached the area.

They were probably less than thirty meters away now.

It would take the other side one or two seconds at most to rush over.

Did he want to kill the elite scorpion in front of them, Soul Snatch it, and collect the corpse?

There was simply not enough time.

To complete the kill, he would need at least another two or three minutes.

And then he still had to Soul Snatch it and collect the corpse.

Sure enough, the next second,

four figures emerged from behind a collapsed floor slab to his front left.

The leader was a lean man with two daggers hanging from his waist. Their black sheaths were wrapped in thick cloth to prevent glare.

He first glanced at the battered Red-armored Elite Giant Scorpion lying amid the rubble,

then looked at Gan Ming, who stood motionless several meters away.

After sizing him up for two seconds, he whistled.

"Whoa, brother, you're impressive." The dagger-wielding man grinned. "You managed to beat a level 15 Elite Giant Scorpion into this state all by yourself? Damn. Seriously damn impressive."

He tilted his head and gestured toward the Giant Scorpion with his chin.

"Why aren't you continuing?"

Gan Ming said nothing.

He raised his head and looked at the dagger-wielding man.

At the same time, the Soul-Stealing Panel appeared.

[Soul Snatch Target: Awakened]

[Tier: First Tier]

[Level: 16]

[Innate Talent (1): Shadowmeld]

[Specialized Skills (2): Dagger Mastery, Shadowstep]

[Skills: Backstab, Sprint, Physical Enhancement, Weakness Perception, Wound Treatment, Danger Sense (6 total)]

Level 16.

Shadowmeld talent.

Two specializations.

An assassin-type build.

No wonder he had not heard any footsteps earlier.

The man must have quietly approached, assessed the situation, then relayed it to the other three.

Gan Ming ignored him and looked at the remaining three instead.

The second one.

A woman wearing a black half-mask held a crossbow, its body glowing with a faint blue light.

That was the distinctive essence glow of fine-quality equipment.

[Soul Snatch Target: Awakened]

[Tier: First Tier]

[Level: 16]

[Innate Talent (1): Lock-On]

[Specialized Skills (2): Crossbow Mastery, Tracking Shot]

[Skills: Steady Shot, Eagle-Eye Vision, Danger Sense, Physical Enhancement, Wound Treatment, Ammunition Enhancement (6 total)]

Two specializations again?

Her innate talent was Lock-On.

That crossbow in her hands had to be worth several hundred contribution points.

The third one.

A powerfully built man had two short swords strapped diagonally across his back.

[Soul Snatch Target: Awakened]

[Tier: First Tier]

[Level: 16]

[Innate Talent (1): Double Blades]

[Specialized Skills (2): Dual-Wield Mastery, Chain Blade Slash]

[Skills: Heavy Strike, Block, Physical Enhancement, War Cry, Shield Art, Danger Sense (6 total)]

A dual-wielding melee fighter with both offense and defense.

The fourth.

Standing at the very back was a man in his early thirties, gripping a waist-high wooden staff in his right hand.

Compared to the first three, his position was clearly farther back.

[Soul Snatch Target: Awakened]

[Tier: First Tier]

[Level: 17]

[Innate Talent (1): Vital Renewal]

[Specialized Skills (3): Healing Enhancement, Mass Restoration, Status Purification]

[Skills: Healing, Shield Art, Physical Enhancement, Radiance Art, Weakness Perception, Battlefield First Aid, Danger Sense (7 total)]

This guy was even more outrageous.

He had three specializations.

He only had one offensive skill, [Radiance Art]; all the rest were support skills.

He was the team's healer.

All four wore the same emblem on their left arms: an iron-gray gear encircled by three arcs.

They belonged to the same guild.