Chapter 159: The Hunt

After finishing off Xiao San, I kept my guard up, scooped up the equipment he had dropped, and quietly retreated twenty-four meters.

A burst of footsteps followed, and the voices of the Dark Legion members quickly rang out:

"Xiao San is dead!"

"Damn it! That brat is too cunning! Xiao San said that brat had anticipated our move beforehand, he didn't even get a chance to counterattack..."

"Leopard Man, why don't you send a voice transmission to have the boss dispatch 'Dark Radiance'? The other thieves aren't as cautious as Xiao San; if they run into Scavenger Qilin, it might end even worse."

Hearing this, I—hidden within the deep darkness—frowned slightly: The members of the Dark Legion were even more cautious than I had imagined, so quickly turning me from prey back into a hunter...

If they had been a bit more careless, a bit more "confident," I might have had the chance to expand my victories, using tonight's wanted status to bleed the Dark Legion heavily and let them know that I was not someone easily pushed around.

However, if the enemy had grown sufficiently vigilant and cautious, dispatching even more formidable individuals to deal with me—such as that archer outside the ravine with exceptionally sharp perception, or a thief over level 35—my situation would likely become far less comfortable.

With this thought, my mind raced. I quickly activated Sprint, making a wide detour around the source of the voices, and moved in behind them...

...

Compared to other classes, mages had always possessed the slowest movement speed while simultaneously having the lowest defense! Especially in the dead of night like this, without the aid of magic torches, their field of vision was extremely limited.

Consequently, mages were also in the most dangerous position under such circumstances!

Their safest form of self-preservation was to keep themselves embedded within the protection of their team, surrounded by archers and warriors guarding their flanks...

Yet tonight, not only had the archers and warriors grown careless, even the dozen or so mages trailing within the formation had let down their guard!

The very instant the thief Xiao San let out his miserable cry, almost all the archers simultaneously activated Sprint, dashing at top speed toward the sound, and the other classes were no exception.

Unfortunately, except for the wind-element mages who possessed speed-enhancing spells, the rest of the mages were quickly left far behind.

However, because the source of the sound was quite far away, and so many people were rushing straight toward it, these mages weren't particularly panicked... Yet it was precisely this mindset that spelled crisis for the non-wind mages among them.

Just as they were about to catch up with the main force, the sound of a bowstring twanged from behind...

Before the mages could even react, the three mages walking at the very rear felt a piercing, agonizing pain strike them from out of nowhere. Immediately afterward, their vision went black, and a system notification chimed in their ears:

"You have died..." One-shot! The physical defense and HP of mages were truly pitifully low.

The simultaneous demise of the three mages left the remaining mages who turned back staring at one another in pale-faced terror. Only then did they realize that Scavenger Qilin had somehow appeared right behind them, prompting them to shriek in alarm and bolt for their lives.

Because visibility was too poor to see very far, they had no way of pinning down Scavenger Qilin's exact location, making it impossible to use magic for self-defense or counterattacks.

At that moment, the only thought in their minds was: Run, run as fast as possible, and absolutely do not die! If they dropped dead here, all their hard work over the past few days would go down the drain.

Yet the movement speed of mages was painfully slow. The magic robes they wore possessed even less defense than a thief's gear, utterly incapable of effectively withstanding nearly 80 to 90 points of physical damage...

I chuckled softly, rapidly drawing my bow, and loosed a long-range shot at maximum effect. Without even bothering to check the results, I closed in by five meters amidst a familiar shriek of agony, and decisively drew my bow again!

Long-range shot triggered once more!

By the time Leopard Man and his gang came flying back in furious roars, that twenty-meter distance was just enough for me to unleash another round of long-range shots (though the three-bow fusion required a one-second condensation time, time did not permit it).

Having instantly eliminated six mages in succession, I ignored the nearly breaking glares of rage from Leopard Man, the archers, and the warriors, quickly activated Sprint, and vanished into the darkness.

Seeing this retreat, Leopard Man's group halted their pursuit without a second word:

"Everyone, from now on, communicate only in the party channel!"

"Archers and warriors, protect the mages!"

"Fall back to Maple Leaf Grove!"

They had been thoroughly terrified by Scavenger Qilin's ghostly speed. Under such a completely passive and adverse situation, they no longer dared to linger—the sacrifice of over fifteen men had caused their internal party channel to explode with unprecedented fury. Numerous high-ranking mercenaries were stepping up to demand answers, and even the Dark Lord had issued an order for them to return to Maple Leaf Grove immediately, forbidding any further action until "Dark Radiance" and "Star Sovereign" arrived.

However, having slipped back into the shadows, I didn't pull back too far. The moment I saw that the Dark Legion wasn't pursuing, I instantly realized they were planning to flee.

Shifting my direction with Sprint, I gave chase immediately!

Yet as soon as I drew close, I was spotted by the Dark Legion archers in the rear. With a shout, several warriors and archers charged at me simultaneously...

Charge! Sprint.

I frowned, spun around, and bolted—the terrifying effect of the warriors' Charge still lingered in my mind, and I absolutely could not let them close to within ten meters. If I was going to kill them, I had to lure them far away first and exhaust their MP.

The moment I turned, however, the enemy turned with me.

After several failed attempts to lure anyone out, I began harassing them with various tricks, but they marched on relentlessly, dispatching only archers and warriors in rotations to maintain an airtight defense.

Realizing I couldn't get through, I instantly dismissed the idea of continuing to entangle myself with them—only a fool would keep following. If I ran straight into the level-35-plus thief "Dark Radiance" they kept talking about, I wouldn't even know how I died.

I immediately fired off a message to Falcon, telling him my current coordinates and direction, and then sprinted toward the Forgotten Castle.

...

In less than a minute, Falcon arrived in person, and his voice transmission arrived right alongside him:

"Haha, guess what good fortune I just ran into?" Falcon's mix of excitement and thrill left me momentarily dazed, and I hesitated before guessing:

"Good fortune? You picked up some equipment, didn't you?"

"Uh! How did you know?" Falcon stared at me with an expression of utter astonishment!

I rolled my eyes: "A guess!"

"A guess? You can guess that accurately?" Falcon refused to believe it. How could he know that I had simply made a random remark? Even though I hadn't taken any gear other than the thief's drops, I hadn't realized that the Dark Legion members had been too terrified to stop and retrieve their fallen items.

Consequently, Falcon had reaped a windfall, picking up a full six pieces of mage equipment along the way...

Moreover, they were all Tier 3 Silver-grade gear. No matter how poor the stats were, selling each piece for two or three hundred gold coins would be effortless. This unexpected wealth overjoyed him; even if he were to die and drop equipment now, these items were more than enough to cover his losses.

After listening to Falcon's account, I smiled and suddenly asked, "By the way, you weren't noticed by the Dark Legion when you came over, were you?"

"No... Oh, right! If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have completely forgotten! You have no idea how miserable the Dark Legion folks looked when they got back to Maple Leaf Grove. Over fifty people went out chasing, but only thirty-some came back. A few of them, terrified that others wouldn't know about their humiliation, kept shouting about gathering more people to exact revenge on you, nearly making the folks in Maple Leaf Grove split their sides laughing!"

Falcon was currently too elated to remember the original purpose of this trip!

If his earlier battle with the Black Swamp Lizard was thanks to Scavenger Qilin's speed, the 5% upper limit advantage in attributes, Doctor Ye's choice of environment and boss, and his own assistance...

Then tonight, being able to achieve such results while fighting dozens of members from a large mercenary group like the Dark Legion... made him thoroughly and utterly submit to Scavenger Qilin.

"It's all thanks to the Black Bog Magic Bow. Without that extra 10-point attack boost, I couldn't have pulled it off so cleanly. Of course, those guys weren't even experts within the Dark Legion; at best, they were just a bunch of small fries... Otherwise, I wouldn't have won so easily. Alright, let's drop the small talk! We need to hurry to the Forgotten Castle and check out the situation. If we waste any more time, their reinforcements will arrive!"

"Right!"

With that settled, the two of them simultaneously slung their bows onto their backs, drew their one-handed weapons from their waists, and plunged into the increasing swarms of skeleton mages and skeletons at the Forgotten Castle...