Chapter 141: Gravity Core

Hum—

Airflow whistled into his ear canals, causing his eardrums to vibrate and hum.

The air under high-speed movement felt as viscous and sluggish as a quagmire; his black, chopped hair, dampened by the rain, clung to his forehead, and he felt the faint, stinging prick of raindrops striking his skin.

The woods, the meadows, and the distant, cloud-covered sky retreated rapidly to either side, stretching into blurred bands of green, gray, and black in his vision.

This was the exaggerated speed granted by the 【Tooth Hunt】 buff—a speed that, to the eyes of an ordinary person, was like teleportation, vanishing from the spot in the blink of an eye.

He was long since accustomed to it.

Countless hours of practice had raised his proficiency to Lv3.

It had allowed Xia Nan to gradually adapt to this state, where it felt as if the entire world had come to a standstill.

His highly focused attention, combined with his Agility, which had now reached "7" points, allowed him to unconsciously ignore irrelevant surroundings and concentrate his entire mind on his enemy.

Even though everything else in his vision had become nothing but chaotic, meaningless blocks of color due to his high-speed movement, and his ears were filled with the roaring noise of rushing air.

The Bugbear's hulking, sturdy figure—even the expansion and writhing of the muscles beneath its skin, and the swaying of the crimson mane on its back—was seen clearly by Xia Nan.

It was even clearer and more distinct precisely because the influence of other things had been stripped away.

Closing in.

The foul, fishy stench of a creature that had long dwelled in a cave flooded into his nostrils with every breath.

In an instant, he gauged the distance, slowed his speed slightly, and twisted his wrist; the decapitation longsword, which had been pointing diagonally backward with his body's movement, now carved an iron-gray arc through the air.

"Screech!"

Blood sprayed.

A deep, flesh-gaping wound appeared on the Bugbear's back, which was covered in dense mane.

Unlike the previous probing strikes where he would retreat immediately, this wound was deep enough to make Hong Zong let out a roar of pain.

Its body turned, and it prepared to smash down with a fist capable of shattering rock.

But it had only just twisted its waist and abdomen; it hadn't even managed to lift its arm.

The black-haired figure, wrapped in the sound of a wolf's howl, had already sped away, exiting the attack range.

Had it been a moment ago, Hong Zong might have ignored everything and pursued him directly.

Its formidable physical constitution granted it a margin of error far exceeding Xia Nan's.

It could be slashed countless times, but as long as the opponent was careless for a single moment and got hit by one of its punches, they would never be able to dodge and weave as annoyingly as they were now.

But right now, the sound of air being torn from the side as it half-turned its body forced Hong Zong to stay in place and raise its left arm to block.

"Bang."

The single-handed hammer, shimmering with a metallic luster, struck the back of the Bugbear's hand with a harassing, light blow, emitting a dull thud.

Adeline's armor was still stained with the blood she had coughed up earlier, but she had now regained her ability to move and had joined the battle.

Compared to Xia Nan, who possessed 【Tooth Hunt】 and could displace himself multiple times in a short period, she lacked any gap-closing combat techniques.

However, her naturally excellent constitution allowed her to stay close to the Bugbear, engage in melee combat, draw aggro for her teammate, and hold out for a few rounds.

And if, as was the case now, she was being forced back step by step by the Bugbear's rain-like, fierce offensive and looked as if she couldn't hold on any longer—

The familiar, long howl of a wolf would once again sound from Hong Zong's blind spot.

"ROAR!!!"

The tacit, alternating entanglement between Xia Nan and Adeline seemed to make the Bugbear feel incomparably enraged.

The roar's sound waves rippled through the rain, and its two thick arms swung in a circle like whips, forcing the two back.

Adeline had already retreated a few steps under Xia Nan's cover, easily dodging the opponent's attack;

And Xia Nan himself simply slammed on the brakes, simultaneously casting 【Tooth Hunt】 once more to retreat.

In the span of a breath, one round had ended.

With his gaze fixed on the Bugbear not far ahead, Xia Nan panted, taking the opportunity to recover his stamina.

Frequently using combat techniques during high-intensity combat had placed a certain burden on his legs and waist, and a sensation of soreness and numbness was permeating deep within his muscles.

It was still within a tolerable range.

To a certain extent, he was having a much easier time now than before.

The addition of Adeline's help was far more than just "1+1=2."

In a battle at their level, the pressure of "one-on-one" versus "one-on-two" was almost worlds apart.

Having a teammate to share the aggro meant Xia Nan no longer needed to concentrate all his attention on dodging; his attacks could also be slightly more aggressive in pursuit of dealing more damage.

The two looked out for each other; even if one fell into a predicament, the other could provide timely support.

He subconsciously swept his gaze toward Adeline and, seeing that her condition was still fairly good, felt his heart ease slightly.

Unexpectedly, Adeline, having been fed an entire bottle of Healing Potion with Abi's help, had not only healed physically and recovered most of her combat strength—

Even her mental state seemed to have been treated; the state that had looked exceptionally desperate had actually calmed down, and she had once again become the most reliable captain in the squad, just as she had been when facing the Goblins earlier.

She didn't act recklessly, focusing mainly on harassment and support, helping Xia Nan leave wound after wound on the Bugbear.

The scales of victory seemed to be subtly tilting in their favor.

Yet, Xia Nan had no intention of relaxing his vigilance in the slightest.

Having seen with his own eyes this Bugbear shatter their defensive line single-handedly, heavily wound Adeline—whose strength was close to that of a professional—in an instant, and easily slaughter Berg.

He naturally knew that achieving victory was far from as simple as it looked right now.

Only when Hong Zong realized that its stamina was being whittled away by the two, and that there was even a risk of defeat, would this battle reach its most dangerous moment.

Just as he was pondering this, the Bugbear, which had just forced Xia Nan and his companion back, suddenly made another move.

It wasn't an attack, nor was it launching a pursuit against either of them.

The sharp, angry roar that had been vibrating his eardrums came to an abrupt halt.

Stunned, surprised, terrified, worried...

On that furry face, which had been filled with rage and hatred, a human-like, complex expression suddenly appeared.

Then, ignoring the two people confronting it on the field, Hong Zong suddenly turned its head and body, its gaze looking far into the depths of the forest, the direction from which it had come.

Xia Nan didn't know exactly what had happened.

But seeing the Bugbear's stunned expression—as if it had gone out to fight a team battle only to have its base stolen—if the opponent was no longer willing to continue fighting and instead chose to retreat directly to support its home,

He would gladly accept it.

A battle of this intensity, against an enemy of this strength level, was not something he, who hadn't even obtained a professional level yet, should be facing.

It was just that the "Group Taunt" the opponent had cast on everyone earlier seemed to have some kind of side effect, making it so that no matter how anxious Hong Zong appeared, it still didn't choose to cast aside the two people it was fighting and retreat alone.

Instead, with an attitude of "hurry up and end the battle," it charged straight toward Adeline in front of it.

It had to be said that Hong Zong had chosen the most correct target in its haste.

With slightly inferior flexibility and far less muscular strength, Adeline's body, though stronger than an average adult male, was undoubtedly at a disadvantage before Hong Zong.

It was almost a total crushing.

Without teammate support, if Adeline had to face the Bugbear at full firepower alone, she would likely only be able to barely hold out for a few rounds based on her rich experience before being defeated.

If it wanted to end the battle in a short time, she would be the breakthrough point for Hong Zong to break the current balance.

Xia Nan naturally couldn't stand by and watch his teammate suffer another heavy blow.

Almost the moment the Bugbear turned around and exposed its back to him, he cast 【Tooth Hunt】 and charged out amidst the howl of the Winter Wolf.

Accompanied by the suddenly stagnant, compressed air, the distance between the two was quickly erased.

The hulking, long-haired figure in his pupils rapidly enlarged; as he bent his arm to store power, the decapitation longsword was already prepared for a swing.

He was just waiting for the moment the opponent launched an attack on Adeline and had no time to look behind it, to slash out that sharp, biting sword strike.

And it was at this very moment that the Bugbear, caught between Xia Nan and his companion, suddenly paused its sturdy body.

Boom—

The dark red flame that had allowed it to smash through their defensive line and collapse houses suddenly erupted from the surface of Hong Zong's body.

And in a way he had never seen before, it exploded like a bomb.

Airwaves surged; Xia Nan only felt a dangerous dark red radiance flash before his eyes, and he subconsciously raised his arm shield to block in front of his chest.

The next second, a massive force was transmitted from the arm shield.

The wolf-head phantom enveloping his entire body was instantly dispersed, and he tumbled through the air several times before finally controlling his center of gravity and landing on his feet in a rather disheveled manner.

With his knees bent and his left hand gripping the ground to stabilize himself, the intense pain from his chest and abdomen made him subconsciously lower his head to look.

What met his eyes were the chainmail iron rings, wreathed in red light and twisted out of shape.

Judging by the degree of damage and his physical sensation, it was foreseeable that not only the chainmail, but even the leather armor underneath had suffered a certain degree of damage.

The high price of nearly one hundred gold for the two pieces of armor combined flashed through his mind.

There was no time to feel the heartache.

Xia Nan looked forward, his expression sinking involuntarily.

The good news was that Adeline had already been in a dodging state, her defense was in place, and thus she hadn't suffered too much damage from the energy impact and was in good condition.

But the bad news was...

Taking advantage of the brief moment when the energy explosion forced the two of them back, the Bugbear had already rushed to the other side of the battlefield and retrieved its weapon.

—That pale bone club with hollow carvings on its surface.

"Hum..."

It was the noise made when the dark red flame surged and boiled.

Xia Nan felt a sense of foreboding in his heart.

"Careful!"

He shouted a warning, and his body was already activated once again amidst the howl of the wolf.

Responding to him was the Bugbear's suddenly increased speed under the buff of the flame, and the eerie sound like a baby's mournful cry emitted as air squeezed through the holes of the bone club as it whistled.

Extremely bizarrely, that sound, which had originally only been slightly uncomfortable to hear, now actually fused with Hong Zong's low growl and the distant humming of the rising flame.

It penetrated his ear canals, echoing continuously within his skull.

His consciousness blurred instantly.

"Something's wrong!"

Realizing that the bone club's eerie sound effect seemed to have some kind of mind-confusing effect, Xia Nan took advantage of the fact that his will hadn't yet fallen, and his left hand immediately reached toward his waist pouch.

With a pinch of his five fingers, he had already prepared all three fire oil bombs he was carrying and threw them toward Hong Zong.

Rumble—

Turbid dust and pitch-black grease suddenly burst with sparks, and the surging flames instantly swallowed the Bugbear's body.

His blurred and twisted consciousness suddenly cleared, and Adeline's eyes regained their luster.

Facing the pale bone club smashing down toward her chest, she crossed her iron hammers in front of her chest to block.

"CLANG!!!"

The crisp sound of metal colliding rang out on the field.

Blinding blood sprayed uncontrollably from Adeline's mouth, her chest caved in, and she flew backward like a broken rag doll, rolling onto the ground amidst splashing mud.

"Damn it!"

Cursing inwardly, Xia Nan didn't slow down in the slightest, rushing rapidly toward Hong Zong.

The Bugbear's physical strength was, after all, too formidable, and under the buff of the dark red flame, it had gained explosive power far exceeding that of ordinary adventurers.

Even under the interference of his three fire oil bombs, Adeline had regained her sanity at the critical moment and made a defensive move.

But in the end, she had still been hit head-on by the bone club and had been forced out of the fight with heavy injuries.

And at this time, it had only been a few minutes since she had drunk that bottle of Healing Potion.

Xia Nan still had stock, but in this tense moment where every second decided life or death, there was simply no opportunity to feed it to the other party who had lost consciousness.

Now, all he could rely on was the cold iron sword in his hand.

More fur means more vulnerable to fire.

The Bugbear in his vision was roaring and struggling under the burning flames, its two thick arms, like young trees, waving wildly and stirring up gusts of air.

Falling from the sky, the continuous curtain of rain, along with the dark red energy on the surface of its body, was causing the flames wreathed around it to extinguish at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At this moment, only one thought remained in Xia Nan's heart.

"This is it."

This was his only chance.

Without the restraint of his teammate, his battle with Hong Zong would return to the state of being exhausted from dodging and unable to deal effective damage.

It would even be more dangerous and desperate, making it harder to turn the tables, due to his own gradually declining stamina and the Bugbear's suddenly erupted berserk state.

If he wanted to turn defeat into victory and reverse the situation.

If he wanted to survive.

Right now, this was Xia Nan's last chance.

Without the slightest hesitation.

He revealed his final trump card.

—A fantasy creation from a Halfling's divine gift, the only "Epic (Pink)" item in Xia Nan's possession, named 【Fate Coin】, was tightly pinched between his fingertips.

"Jingle."

{The brass-colored coin was suddenly tossed up by him during high-speed movement, passing through the curtain of rain; the metal surface rubbed against the cold air, emitting a faint yet extremely clear crisp sound. }

The wolf-head phantom composed of rain debris and broken leaves whistled past; all his focus, all his strength, were gathered together in an instant, soaring to the limit.

{Splashing raindrops collided and shattered into crystalline water splashes; the copper coin flipped and rose, the blurred portrait of a long-haired woman and the cloak fluttering in the wind alternated on the two sides. }

His figure stopped abruptly, his mud-covered leather boots leaving deep indentations in the muddy ground; his knees bent, and his muscles and bones creaked as they collided.

He transformed the impact inertia granted by 【Tooth Hunt】 into a powerful force driving the twist of his arm.

【Spinning Slash】!

{The coin ascended to its highest point, hovering briefly.

Under the pull of gravity, it laid out a downward trajectory.

Raindrops refracting the iron-gray sword light drifted down leisurely, landing right on the portrait on the obverse of the copper coin.

A silver light flickered slightly.

The long-haired woman's originally blurred face became clear in an instant.

The Goddess of Luck, sitting high in the God Kingdom, narrowed her eyes and lowered her gaze, casting a bright and curious look.

The strings of fate plucked and vibrated, and the near-zero probability was infinitely magnified.

"Miracle," thus triggered. }

The iron-gray, sharp arc was pulled into a curved line.

Yet, a second before it was about to tear through the fur and slash into the flesh.

It paused for an instant.

Space twisted as if in a vortex.

A silver-white elliptical sphere, like a dolphin surfacing from the river of time to breathe, appeared out of thin air.

His highly concentrated attention allowed Xia Nan to capture some information in the brief blink of an eye:

【"Titan Umbilical Cord" Type II - Gravity Core】

Type: Item

Level: /

Introduction:

By dynamically adjusting curvature parameters through a superconducting ring, it is the hub device for an artificial gravity field generation system.

Note:

"Warning! Curvature anchor point is shifting, spacetime continuity coefficient has collapsed to 0.3... (Noise and mechanical screeching)... Restarting harmonic singularity failed!"

"Damn it, what kind of hellhole is this!?"

There was no time to digest the information he had seen, and even less possibility of holding back his strength.

The next second, the "Gravity Core," which had been plucked from the spacetime debris flow by the invisible hand of fate, had already shrunk back into the twisted spatial wonder-hole.

And Xia Nan's blade, at the very moment before the silver-white device was about to disappear,

Landed on its metallic surface, which was emitting a faint blue glow and covered in strange patterns.

Thud—

Spacetime solidified at this moment.

An invisible gravity turbulence erupted and surged.

The rain suddenly hung suspended in mid-air, then suddenly rushed straight toward the sky in the opposite direction; gravity seemed to reverse in an instant.

The falling raindrops and the upward-rushing water droplets collided, splashing countless tiny, crystalline rain flowers in the air; the entire mid-air of the venue was suddenly left with nothing but a silver-white expanse.

{The brass coin flipped and fell, landing lightly in the mud. }

The hulking, sturdy body slowly collapsed, revealing the black-haired figure behind it, holding a longsword with a dazed expression.

Xia Nan stood on the spot, and waves of abundant power from an unknown source washed wantonly throughout his body.

Flashing before his eyes were a large number of translucent characters, the likes of which he had never seen since he crossed over to this world.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 142 =====