An "Open and aboveboard" Ambush

Lumian first carefully wrapped his left hand with layers of white bandages, then took "Fallen Mercury," Iron-Black Axe, Gray Ambergris Perfume, biscuits, cheese, bloody lamb chops, rope for making traps, and a bag of cooled boiled water, slung his Hunting Rifle over his shoulder, and left his semi-underground building.

In the pervasive, thin Gray Fog, he traversed a desolate Wilderness devoid of grass and riddled with cracks, entering the Dream Ruins and heading straight for the clearing where the Flame Monster were most active.

Hearing sounds coming from afar, Lumian turned onto the route the other party always took and arrived at a natural trap he had prepared in advance.

It was a deep pit located by the roadside, with collapsed walls directly in front and to the left, some stones piled up to the right, and a house that had mostly collapsed behind it.

It would be difficult to spot such a natural trap simply by passing by; Lumian had to explore several times before he finally discovered it.

He crouched behind the pit, threw in a few sharpened pieces of wood, then covered it with the rope net he had woven earlier, and filled it with some loose soil.

A simple trap was thus completed; the final step was to place the bait.

Lumian carefully placed the two pieces of lamb chops, still dripping with blood, on the edge of the rope net, one half supported by the ground and the other half suspended above the deep pit.

Standing up, Lumian glanced at the fragile balance, took a few steps back, entered the mostly collapsed house, climbed to the top of the remaining outer wall, and squatted there.

He adjusted his position so that he could clearly observe the trap without being directly seen by Monster passing by.

Immediately afterwards, Lumian took out the Gray Ambergris Perfume and sprayed a little on the wall.

A delicate and sweet fragrance wafted away, leaving only a few traces as the wind occasionally swept through the Dream Ruins.

Some of them attached themselves to the top of the wall and to Lumian's body.

Lumian didn't linger and jumped backward.

After landing, he carried a faint scent of perfume and circled around for a while before returning to the path the Flame Monster always took. However, compared to the trap, he was now closer to the area where the monster Hunting flesh and blood to replenish its energy.

Lumian changed direction again, crossing the road and entering the Ruins of the building opposite.

After arriving at the back of the dilapidated house, he stopped, leaned against the wall, and waited.

Just like with the strategy used against the Shotgun Monster, Lumian never expected that his previous setup would fool the Flame Monster and cause it serious damage.

This is more of a decoy and "alarm" placed to target a target's exceptional Sense of Smell, observation skills, and behavioral style.

Only a "Hunter" knows how to use another "Hunter's" strengths to deal with it!

Of course, all of this is based on the premise that the target mainly acts on instinct, with any remaining intelligence limited to combat.

With his back against the wall, Lumian used his left hand, which was wrapped in white bandages, to pull out "Fallen Mercury" and tear off the Pitch-Black cloth covering its surface.

He wasn't sure how long it would take for the Flame Monster to arrive; all he could do was be patient.

This was a strength he developed during his time as a wanderer.

Time ticked by, and out of Lumian's sight, a charred Monster engulfed in crimson Flames entered the path.

After walking forward for about ten or twenty meters, it suddenly twitched its nose.

It smelled a faint scent of blood.

The Monster did not turn around immediately, but continued to walk forward while glancing out of the corner of its eye at the source of the smell.

As it passed the collapsed wall blocking its path, two pieces of lamb chops, still dripping with blood, came into view.

This was good food, but the Flame Monster didn't follow its instincts and Past straight for it and devoured it.

It continued forward, only at a slower pace.

Soon, it detected a slightly different scent in the air than usual.

It instantly realized that the two pieces of flesh were a trap, and that a "Hunting" was lying in ambush nearby.

This Hunting seemed different from the one that had previously "Invisibility" and observed it; it lacked sufficient knowledge of the "Hunter" and hadn't properly dealt with its own scent beforehand.

After taking a few more steps, the Flame Monster used the scent and the faint footprints it found to confirm that the enemy was hiding on the outer wall of the building behind the trap.

It pretended not to notice anything and increased the distance by another seven or eight meters.

Suddenly, it turned around, and the crimson Flames erupting from its body rapidly condensed into Fireball with a hint of Blazing White.

Boom!

As the Flame Monster extended its right palm, the Fireball shot towards Lumian's original "ambush" position, blasting the outer wall to collapse on the spot and making the house teeter on the brink of collapse.

Upon hearing the explosion from a great distance, Lumian immediately left the building behind him and began to dance wildly and Distortion in the not-so-spacious open space.

The explosion he had just heard was a signal flare, reminding him to prepare to activate the second stage of the trap!

The idea of letting the prey fire its own signal flare was a solution that Lumian and Aurora came up with after much discussion and brainstorming.

Within the highly rhythmic and mysterious dance, Lumian sensed the transparent and blurry figures of the Mouthpart Monster, the Shotgun Monster, and the Skinless Monster.

At this moment, the Flame Monster had already rushed to the collapsed wall, searching for traces of the enemy.

Lumian danced for another ten or twenty seconds, and as the dance became more intense, he pulled out Ritual Silver Dagger with his right hand and made a small cut on his left wrist.

A drop of blood seeped out and congealed into a tiny Orb.

Lumian stepped forward, turned around, picked up the drop of blood, and aimed it at the Mouthpart Monster.

"I!"

He lowered his voice and shouted in Ancient Hermetic.

At this moment, the Flame Monster had already discovered the tiny footprints he left behind and smelled the faint fragrance, and began to track him.

After quickly issuing the next command, Lumian watched as the Mouthpart Monster swallowed the blood droplet from the tip of the Ritual Silver Dagger and entered its own body.

A surge of madness, bloodlust, cruelty, and intense hunger swept over him in an instant.

Lumian forcibly suppressed her discomfort and quickly bandaged the tiny, almost negligible wound with the white bandage she had brought.

Immediately afterwards, he put a piece of cheese in his mouth, chewed and swallowed it, and made sure that the remaining Gray Ambergris Perfume on his body could mask the other smells.

During this process, Lumian ran wildly to the edge of the road and stopped where he could not be seen from the other side.

Then, he shut his mouth tightly, turned around, and, following his own footprints, retreated step by step along the route he had taken to get there.

With the keen observation skills of Hunter and the exaggerated flexibility of a "Dancer," Lumian precisely placed each of his tiny footprints, leaving no unnecessary traces.

Before long, he retreated to the middle of the road and stopped there.

He simply stopped on the road, remaining completely Invisibility.

Lumian once again began to wait, using a series of shallow Meditation and pauses to control the various thoughts flashing through his mind, preventing himself from thinking about attacking the Flame Monster next.

This is a very superficial way of interfering with the other party's Danger Premonition.

The inspiration comes from the Hunter's clear self-awareness.

The method of retreating and returning to the center of the road to ambush others, by stepping on one's own footprints, was something Aurora once wrote about in a novel.

After about seven or eight seconds, the Flame Monster's completely Pitch-Black appearance appeared in Lumian's eyes—he used his terrifying flexibility to keep his body half-twisted, observing the area where the target was about to catch up.

The Flame Monster followed the enemy's faint footprints and scent, and because it was not outside its "Territory," it did not stop halfway as it had done before.

After returning to the main road, it sniffed the air and, unsurprisingly, smelled a faint fragrance.

It instinctively lowered its head and successfully found the less conspicuous footprints.

At the same time, it found no trace of traps in this area.

Without further hesitation, the Flame Monster followed the footprints and ran towards the other side of the road.

Its charred face and eyes that were about to fall out of place grew larger and clearer in Lumian's vision.

Lumian held his breath, ceasing the cycle of Meditation and interruption, and simply tried to empty his mind.

Five meters, three meters, one meter... He lunged at his target, raised the "Fallen Mercury" in his left hand, and swung it forward!

He did not wait for the two to get any closer, fearing that doing so would trigger the prey's Danger Premonition and cause it to take evasive action prematurely.

The Flame Monster instantly felt a strong sense of crisis.

Without a second thought, it lunged to the side.

At the same time, it caught sight of Lumian, seeing his left hand, Entanglement white Bandage, gripping a silver-black Dagger and slashing it towards itself.

The two were so close that although the Flame Monster reacted, it was unable to dodge and was directly hit by Lumian.

With a sizzling sound, the sharp blade of "Fallen Mercury" pierced the right chest of the Flame Monster.

The Destiny stripped from the "Noodle Man" then seeped into the target's body in the form of illusory Mercury beads.

At the same time, the river composed of countless Mercury-Colored Complex Symbols Gloom, with a few Destiny rapidly shrinking towards the silver-black blade.

Lumian didn't bother to choose the Destiny he wanted to exchange, letting the "Fallen Mercury" do as it pleased.

Boom!

The Flames on the Monster's body exploded in response.

The powerful Impact pushed Lumian and his "Fallen Mercury" away, and bursts of crimson Flames ignited his clothes and scorched the skin on his face.

Lumian endured the burning pain, twisted his waist in mid-air, and changed direction at the extreme.

As soon as he landed, he stood up and ran away.

However, with the Flames on his body still burning, he couldn't enter "Invisibility" mode again.

Boom!

Even though Lumian ran in an S-shape, he was still thrown over by the aftershock of the Fireball, and his back was so painful that it went Paralysis.

He stubbornly stood up, scrambled away from the road, and turned into the Ruins where he had just been hiding.

The Flame Monster relentlessly pursued him, even though he couldn't "Invisibility".