It's a Combat Artificer, Run!

The battlefield shifted while Fang Heng was momentarily distracted.

The tall Trainee suddenly charged forward without a word, scrambling down the rocks and grabbing the unconscious Paparal Crossbowman lying on the ground. As Elephant-nose Beetles swarmed in from all directions, he dodged their attacks with incredible agility, miraculously dragging the Crossbowman back.

"Thank you so much, you saved Parker's life!" the Elven girl said gratefully, glancing at the Trainee.

The round-faced, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl also shrieked and hugged their hero before answering for him, "You're welcome, Miss Etila. We'll still be relying on your help. What do we do next?"

Fang Heng couldn't help but steal another look at the Trainee. The young man was incredibly shy, keeping his head down and remaining silent.

He was different—

If it were him and the Dawnstar Adventuring Group here, he would have been boasting in front of everyone by now, with the others laughing heartily. Of course, Miss Scarpe would inevitably scold him.

Fang Heng shook his head, still deeply impressed by the Trainee's bravery and decisiveness.

The Tourist state restricted his level and experience gain, and he lacked Magic Adaptability. That young man was even worse off than he had been back then. A single misstep would have meant being torn to shreds by the Elephant-nose Beetles.

Furthermore, Tourists didn't have Starlight.

Fang Heng knew that the Trainee assessment had over ten items, but surely "dying prematurely" wasn't one of them.

He didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. He quietly retreated from the bushes, having made up his mind to help. He stealthily moved towards the direction where he had seen the Jefflitte Redcoats.

"Tata, is that really Crushed Red Crystal?" Fang Heng asked softly.

Tata nodded.

While he had been distracted earlier, Tata had told him that there was a Summoner among the Jefflitte Redcoats. The Summoner's contracted creature was a rare Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetle. He had fed his beetle Crushed Red Crystal and then used its sharp chirping to summon its companions.

Under the influence of the Crushed Red Crystal, these Elephant-nose Beetles had gone mad.

Fang Heng asked the Sprite how she knew this.

Tata explained concisely—she could understand the sounds of the Elephant-nose Beetles.

"You can understand insects' language?" Fang Heng was surprised. Was Dragon Soul that powerful?

"It's sounds, not language, Sir Knight," Tata corrected, her small hands releasing his hair and clumsily smoothing it. "They communicate using pheromones, movements, and vibrations. In nature, there are thirteen million different frequencies of vibrations, and I can only understand a little more than half of them."

"Only...?"

Fang Heng realized his Dragon Soul might indeed be very powerful.

"But that guy was really generous..." Fang Heng muttered. Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles were rare because insect creatures had very low intelligence, making them difficult to contract. Of course, they were also quite powerful, excelling among creatures of the same level. Sometimes they could even challenge opponents one or two levels higher and were immune to most negative mental states.

And a tamed Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetle was very expensive on the market.

Whenever Fang Heng thought of the words "on the market" now, he immediately thought of selling for money and Airships, which then led him to his own financial situation, making him weary and disheartened.

He actually had many questions.

Even if the Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles had gone mad, they shouldn't have attacked the Trainees as if by agreement. They should have attacked everyone, not even sparing the Jefflitte Redcoats.

Secondly, the people from Jefflit were too insane.

The Super Competition League encouraged Chosen to help Trainees complete their three-month pilgrimage. Chosen who helped Trainees received a good credit record and points within the league. Since this affected a Chosen's reputation in the league, most people would help as a matter of course.

Even if they didn't help, at the very least, they shouldn't cause trouble, let alone attack or even kill Trainees.

The Jefflitte Redcoats were practically defying heaven—compared to this, their act of misleading mercenaries into the Zone of Silence to die was like gentle care. If this were exposed, it would be a scandal that would shake the industry.

Fang Heng certainly had no intention of keeping their secret.

So he activated the system's recording function—

He didn't know if the Jefflitte people were crazy or had something to rely on, but either way, he was happy to see it unfold.

He cautiously crept closer. Although he couldn't see the rank on their insignia, their attire indicated they were at least official members. Official members of the Redcoats wore the red uniform of the Firearm Squad, while unofficial members wore brown tunics and had no white feather ornaments on their hats.

Those feather ornaments weren't just decorative; they were alchemical products that could be used as a one-time smoke bomb.

Among the official members of the Redcoats were Tier 2 and Tier 3 professionals. Of course, Tier 2 professionals were at least level 5-15. As for the higher-level Tier 3 professionals, they were almost as powerful as Scarpe.

Fang Heng had seen how terrifying professions like the scout-focused Ranger could be. Scarpe could detect subtle signs under bushes from dozens of meters away. He knew it wasn't intuition or eyesight, but rather that once perception attributes and reconnaissance-related abilities reached a certain level, the Chosen system would automatically highlight the outlines of foreign objects it detected.

It felt like having a built-in thermal imager.

He stopped far away.

This position was basically directly behind them. Only here could Fang Heng feel some sense of security, because in this direction, the Jefflitte people's reconnaissance skills would be ineffective unless they actively looked.

While reconnaissance included sight, hearing, smell, vibrations, and even intuition.

For example, the system would create an audio file of captured sound sources, marking their direction and notifying the Chosen. However, the system's automatic reconnaissance was based solely on character attributes and lacked the subjective guidance of the Chosen, making its efficiency questionable.

To have the system automatically detect enemies at this distance, it might be more suitable to find a real Ranger.

Fang Heng waited for a few seconds, then released his Walker.

The Walker's articulated legs clicked open, and it slowly stood up, gliding into the bushes. Fang Heng also leaned out slightly. Without a visual link, this was the only clumsy method he had.

Fortunately, several members of the Jefflitte Redcoats were still completely unaware.

About halfway there, Fang Heng activated his Agile Swiftness IV ability. The agility components buzzed. He thought they should be able to detect movement behind them by now—but to his great surprise, the five of them were crammed together, completely still.

"Have these guys gotten too addicted to watching a show..." Fang Heng couldn't help but mutter.

As if to confirm his guess.

The Sword Plover-model walker was almost within attack range before someone finally heard the commotion and turned around.

But by then, the agile construct had already bared its fangs. Fang Heng gestured with his hand—its first target wasn't the person who had turned, but the sole swordsman among the five. The swordsman's weapon was a rapier with a basket hilt.

Scarpe had told him that characters wielding rapiers were generally built with high Agility and secondary Strength, acting as precision fighters, and posed the greatest threat to his walker. Another significant threat among these individuals was a gunslinger, but naturally, gunslingers were slow to act and very weak in close-quarters combat.

So, his first target was the swordsman—

"Careful...!"

Fang Heng heard the person who turned shout something. It seemed to be a name, but it was too far away to hear clearly. He figured it must be the swordsman's name.

The swordsman's reaction was indeed astonishing, worthy of an Agility-focused class. Hearing the wind rush from behind, she immediately pressed a clasp at her waist, drew out the basket-hilted rapier, and spun around to block.

Only then did Fang Heng see that it was a woman.

A rather pretty woman, with long, fiery red hair. Her movements were concise, and her rapier perfectly intercepted the two gleaming blades of the walker.

The walker pressed down on her rapier, causing it to deform like a spring, bending towards the wielder before snapping back.

The woman and the walker separated. The exchange was completed in the blink of an eye, so fast that the others hadn't even registered it.

Fang Heng saw a gray number float up from a distance. He didn't pay attention to how large it was, but since the sneak attack was successful, it couldn't be small—that was block damage. Swordsmen, with their Agility-primary, Strength-secondary build, had less evasion than rogues and less blocking than warriors; their advantage lay in balance.

If a Chosen could actively seek a dynamic balance between blocking and evasion, they could keep the other stat in a state of recharge. Generally, the higher a Chosen's own potential, the better their performance in this class.

This was a class that demanded extremely high innate talent, a choice for the confident.

This woman must have been very confident. Unfortunately, this surprise attack from behind was somewhat beyond her expectations. Her hasty action almost certainly cost her a significant amount of balance. While balance itself didn't affect the magnitude of evasion or block values, it did impact the Chosen's initiative.

Initiative wasn't a stat within the system; it represented the Chosen's own reaction, judgment, and senses. For top-tier Chosen, it could even represent all possibilities.

Not to mention that in a state of lost balance, evasion and block values would not recharge.

Offensive and defensive actions would inevitably cause some loss of balance, but the attacker clearly had the advantage, especially since Fang Heng had the initiative. His status page showed that the walker lost balance much slower than it recovered, while the female swordsman was in a much worse state—the opposite, in fact.

'Sword Plover' continued its assault—

The swordsman blocked again with her sword.

The walker's upper body twisted, bringing the other blade into play, each strike faster than the last.

A look of horror began to dawn in the female swordsman's eyes—she was indeed quite confident, and of course, she recognized this as a Combat Artificer's agile construct, but she had held some reservations.

She believed her rapier skills were well-suited to counter the clumsy constructs of a Combat Artificer, being fast and precise—she could even take down a Clockwork Sprite, let alone a cumbersome walker.

But she soon realized she had made a mistake.

That was why the Combat Artificer's constructs were called 'agile' constructs—

The female swordsman repeatedly changed the direction of her blade but couldn't escape the disadvantage of being on the defensive. As their swords clashed, the construct moved with the agility of a real person.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes. She retreated while blocking, her heart filled with anxiety. On the fourth strike, her guard was finally wide open. Fang Heng saw the gray number break—her block value was zero. He instinctively took a step forward, clasped his right hand, and swept it from left to right.

'Sword Plover' shot out like an arrow.

In the nick of time, the female swordsman rolled backward, narrowly dodging the attack.

But this evasion wasn't intentional; it was merely because she still had evasion points. This passive evasion, driven by the system and lacking any active input, meant the attack's damage was almost entirely undiminished.

A three-digit blue evasion damage number appeared in Fang Heng's field of vision.

The female swordsman, due to this unintentional dodge, fell to the ground, completely losing her balance for the first time.

Block value at zero, evasion significantly depleted, balance completely lost.

The exchange between the woman and the walker was lightning-fast. In a flash, the female swordsman met her end, while the others had only just begun to react.

"Combat Artificer!"

A surprised shout came from the direction of the forest.

Fang Heng recognized it as the foreign girl's voice. It seemed the people over there had noticed him too. Judging by her robust voice, the battle on their side didn't seem to be going too badly.

He let out a sigh of relief.

The walker's twin blades crossed, slicing through the female swordsman's throat like lightning, a striking streak of red shooting out.

Fang Heng didn't bother to ascertain if she was truly dead and immediately maneuvered the walker to the next target—his objective was the summoner in the center of the group. The gunslinger was still struggling to reload. As long as the summoner was dealt with first, there was hope of winning the battle.

At this moment, he felt no sense of triumph from the successful sneak attack.

If the previous encounter was just an appetizer, the main course had only just begun. His gaze slowly swept across the entire battlefield. Four members of the Redcoats remained, four official members, each likely at a higher level than anyone present.

His only chance of victory lay in losing control of the Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetle and stirring up chaos on the battlefield.

Other than that, there was virtually no other possibility of winning this fight.

But just as Fang Heng was calculating the battlefield's possibilities, another unexpected scene unfolded. The few remaining Redcoat members suddenly displayed breathtaking execution. Seeing the female swordsman fall, they didn't charge forward in a rage.

Instead, they shouted in unison:

"Big Sister is dead!"

"It's a Combat Artificer, run!"

Before the words even finished, these individuals, with practiced skill and at a speed faster than any Western reporter, vanished into the undergrowth.

Fang Heng was left staring at the scene, dumbfounded.

What was going on? Was a Combat Artificer really that terrifying?

Continuing to ask for recommendations and favorites, and also recommending a friend's book, Chronicles of El, available on Qidian. You can search for it directly. The author of this book has a refined writing style, and the overall tone might be more measured; some people might not like this style, but those who do might like it very much.