Chapter 309: Piercing the Chest, Falling Powerlessly

For adventurers of the strength level of Xia Nan, Margaret, and Suoerding, perhaps they were still far from those "Transcendental" and "Legendary" powerhouses who had completed their job transfer and promotion.

But compared to ordinary people, even rookie professionals who had just completed their promotion, they were all completely enough to be called monsters.

To put it exaggeratedly, if you threw the Dwarf directly into a Goblin nest, without any resistance, just using defensive combat techniques, and let those green-skinned little guys use wooden sticks and rotten teeth to perform on him, it was estimated that they wouldn't be able to break his defense for a while;

Facing Xia Nan's speed and explosive power, ordinary adventurers would probably only feel a gust of wind blow by, and wouldn't even realize what happened before their heads were already flying in the sky.

Combat techniques, specializations, and the most important physical fitness—the all-around strengthening constructed their crushing of weak enemies.

The rate of action far exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

To tell the truth, from the three-way convergence, Abi deciding to sign the contract under Saloyang's bewitchment, the appearance of the magic circle, to the few people stepping forward to stop it, it didn't take long in total.

Later, they were blocked by 【Fear】 and 【Stinking Cloud】, the few people struggled to break free, Xia Nan completed the immunity first but was grazed by 【Lightning Bolt】, recovered after using 【Tears of Spring Breath】, used 【Tooth Hunting】 to rush forward again, until finally Abi pressed his thumb on the contract.

This whole process looked as if everyone had experienced a lot, an incomparably long time.

In fact, it was just Abi waiting slightly for the magic circle to take shape, and then walking with his legs from outside the magic circle to inside, biting his finger, and raising his hand to press it.

The same was true for the back.

The casting of 【Slow】 and the shock of the air wave were almost at the same time, and the Rogue Shajin's surprise attack and death followed closely.

No matter how fast Xia Nan reacted, the moment Shajin appeared from the shadows and jumped high to swing his dagger at the Devil, he used 【Tooth Hunting】 to rush close to support.

When the Rogue's corpse, scorched by evil flames, fell into the magic circle and the Gate of Lianyu was opened, he had just barely rushed to the front.

Aiming at the Devil's neck and head, the 【Spinning Slash】 that had already completed accumulation and preparation had not yet had time to be fully swung out, and the incomparably thick sulfurous stench was withdrawn along with a long-handled machete that slashed out from the side, with powerful force, as if it were going to split his body in two.

He held his longsword diagonally to block the side, blocking this strike.

At the same time, the whole person was also knocked back by the strong force carried by the machete, stepping back all the way, leaving a long string of cracked footprints on the ground, before barely offsetting the remaining force and regaining his body's center of gravity.

And at this time, the Devil minions who came to the Material Plane from the teleportation array with the opponent had already rushed to the other side of the field at the Blackwood squad.

Two Spined Devils flanked Suoerding, three Imps besieged Margaret, and the last one flapped its wings and rushed toward the Mage Yueshuya in the back.

And just as that nearly two-and-a-half-meter-tall, dark-purple-skinned, grotesque Devil roared and swung a second strike at Xia Nan, it cackled shrilly and plunged its steel fork into the mage's chest.

If possible, Xia Nan would naturally not sit idly by and watch this strange adventurer squad lose members; after all, they were all temporary allies.

But no matter how "over-modeled" he was, he was only a level 2 professional after all; how could he cross the spatial barrier in such a short time and stop the sharp steel fork that had already left the hand and was falling in the air in his field of vision?

This was even beyond the range of his 【Gravity Control】.

The shrill screams that stopped abruptly echoed in his ears along with the sharp and ear-piercing whistling of the Devils.

The originally cold air of the open nest had long been filled with the scorching heat from Hell.

Ignoring the nasal cavity and throat pipe that ached faintly when breathing, Xia Nan concentrated his attention to the extreme, focusing all his attention on the enemy in front of him.

This was an exotic demon with a complete human form, blending elegance and madness.

It possessed the iconic upturned pointed ears and three-dimensional facial features of the Elf race, but the pale fangs protruding from its lower lip and the iron-like knotted muscle lines were like an Orc from some barbarian tribe;

The most eye-catching, and the source of its "Spined Devil" title, was the strange beard growing on its chin, dense and thick like thorns;

Not hair in the traditional sense, these beards with thorns at the ends were like a group of black-brown poisonous snakes with their own lives, rubbing and entangling with each other, making a "shasha" sound that made one's teeth ache.

Compared to the other side of the field, those Spined Devils and Imps who also came from Hell but performed like beasts.

Although this Spined Devil in front of him was also shirtless, it wore a thick piece of coarse cloth around its waist, and even wore arm guards and leg guards that looked quite sophisticated on its arms and calves.

Even the weapon in its hand was a long-handled machete with obvious non-ordinary forging craftsmanship and patterns engraved on the surface.

It neither made any excited whistling, nor did it wantonly vent the desires accumulated in its body.

It just stood quietly in place, looking at Xia Nan in front of it.

Pressure soared!

Xia Nan could feel the huge pressure coming from this Devil in front of him.

As mentioned earlier, monsters of the same challenge level, because of their different fighting styles and special abilities, pose different threats to adventurers in actual combat.

For example, the Shihua Xiyi that mainly relies on "Petrifying Gaze" to hunt, and the Owl Bear that purely relies on physical numerical values.

The challenge level of the Spined Devil is the same "3" as these two.

Its physical attributes are slightly weaker than the Owl Bear, but it is significantly higher in intelligence.

This gives the Spined Devil the learning ability of a wise creature, which can truly accumulate experience from battle after battle, and even learn skills such as weapon use and combat techniques because of its own humanoid structure.

For the Devil in front of him... to be honest, before the real close-range confrontation, Xia Nan was not sure if he was the opponent's match.

And what made him feel even more pressure was the infernal Devil who had completed the contract signing, controlled Abi's body, and was covered in dark flames at this moment.

The arrangement and activation of the teleportation array seemed to have consumed part of the opponent's power, making the flames around it slightly dim.

But he couldn't detect the slightest sense of weakness, just standing in the center of the field in the posture of a controller, manipulating and commanding those incomparably excited Devils.

What should Xia Nan do?

In a situation where the overly narrow environment in the tunnel made running away almost a dead end, he now had three choices.

One, bypass the Spined Devil in front, support the Dwarf and female swordsman on the other side of the field, help them clear the weak Devils with larger numbers first, and then concentrate power to deal with more powerful enemies;

Two, also avoid the Spined Devil in front, implement a decapitation plan, and launch an attack on the Devil controlling Abi's body; this might solve it once and for all, and losing the power it provided, those Devils summoned to the Material Plane would become rootless duckweed;

Three, face the Spined Devil's attack directly, solve it at the fastest speed, and then judge whether to support the female swordsman and others or attack the Devil leader based on the situation on the field.

His brain thought rapidly.

The hasty time and the excessive variables on the field made Xia Nan unable to find the optimal solution in a short time.

Reality is not a strategy game; he might be able to rely on the speed provided by 【Tooth Hunting】 to briefly bypass the Spined Devil's pursuit...

And then?

After being bypassed by him, the opponent wouldn't stand stupidly in place and do nothing, nor could it lose the hate target just by getting a little further away like in a game.

It would likely catch up and continue to launch attacks on him.

With this as a premise, if Xia Nan chose the first or second plan, it would mean that he needed to face the siege from the front and back simultaneously, worsening the current short-term 1v1 situation into 1v2 or even more.

And the continuous release of several spells earlier made the so-called "decapitation tactic" a castle in the air.

He didn't think at all that with his current level of strength, he possessed the ability to solve this powerful Devil in a short time; if he approached, and another 【Slow】 came, how should he deal with it then?

Calm, steady.

But the situation on the field had already exceeded Xia Nan's response range, and more than a year of adventurer experience was not enough for him to find the key point to break the situation.

In this situation, what should he do?

His pitch-black eyes swept across the directions of the Spined Devil, "Abi," and the adventurer squad.

"Hoo..."

Xia Nan breathed out a long breath.

It was not giving up thinking, nor was it losing fighting spirit.

When the fog shrouded, the crisis was hidden, and the road ahead was confused.

What he could believe in was only his own body, and the combat instinct condensed from the fusion of his soul.

Ding—

Sparks splashed!

The fine longsword from the Iron Hammer Shop collided violently with the sharp long machete forged in the depths of Hell.

The strength attribute that was clearly higher by more than a notch, the knotted muscles between the Spined Devil's arms, and the larger and more robust body size made this knife of it almost cover Xia Nan's entire body underneath.

Holding the sword with both hands, teeth clenched, the strong force transmitted through the sword body to the whole body, and cracks appeared on the ground under his feet.

Knowing where his advantages lay, Xia Nan naturally couldn't take his weaknesses to touch the opponent's strengths.

Both hands exerted force suddenly, propping the longsword upward violently!

At the same time, he exerted force under his feet.

Accompanied by a long wolf howl, the pitch-black giant wolf with swaying mane had turned into a gale, bypassing to the side and back of the Spined Devil. ===== CHAPTER 310 =====