Grey paused around the outskirts of the witch’s ruin. The region had a wider radius than most, and it was also the one place Joaquin had managed to track him to before. So instead of stepping right in, Grey decided to go with a bit of caution for once.
He didn’t find anything immediately wrong with the region. It looked mostly undisturbed.
However, he could see signs that others had been here.
Most of what his granddad had taught him about survival was useless in this damned game, but there were certain things that did carry over. He knew how to spot the signs.
The distress in the grass, broken foot trails and branches—not to mention the fact that things weren’t exactly how he’d left them. He was pretty sure he had closed the door to the cabin after he left with Sabrina, but now it was open.
After the Great Udon hyped everybody up, it wasn’t too much of a surprise that they’d go out of their way to travel this far out, though. So it was hard to say if they had come out here for him again.
Unfortunately, the moon was still high in the sky, so it was hard for Grey to make out much of anything else.
’Where else would you hide a treasure here? I pulled up only half the floorboards, so could the treasure be somewhere in the other half?’
A bad feeling welled up in Grey’s chest. He hadn’t fixed the floorboards after he left, so all the signs were still there. If the treasure really was hidden under there with the tome, then if other people passed by here, it wasn’t too large of a leap for them to be curious enough to check to see why a person would go out of their way to do that.
That was certainly something Grey himself might have done.
’I guess there’s nothing to it but to che—.’
Grey was about to step forward when his eyes flashed. A man stepped out from the cabin, holding something in his hand that radiated a golden light.
’Son of a bitch.’
Grey didn’t even take a moment to check what was happening. He instantly shot forward, pulling the dagger out from his waist and hurtling it forward with all of his strength.
Goblin Warlord Spirit might not allow him to use long-ranged weapons, but it had helped his throwing from Level 1. Now that he had raised it to Level 5, it was at a whole other standard of being.
The dagger cut through the night, and the dark-skinned man who had been so focused on the object in his hand almost didn’t react in time.
But just when his throat was about to be split in two, a magnetic pulse came from him, expanding outward.
DENG.
The dagger was deflected, spiraling off into the darkness and thrusting itself into a patch of nearby grass.
His gaze spun and landed on Grey, his eyes widening. Making a quick decision, the man tossed whatever was radiating the golden light to the side and raised a palm while using his now free hand to pull a weapon from his back.
Grey was still sprinting all out, having significantly closed the distance. There couldn’t have been more than five meters separating himself and the man now.
’Shit, I should have just tried to ambush him.’
Grey had been too confident in his dagger throwing. But another part of him had just turned off to the idea of lurking in the dark like all these cowards had been.
He was no coward. And the things that were his would be his.
However, just as he was about to swing his Curved Rusted Saw at the dark-skinned man’s head, a pulse of the same electromagnetic wave slammed into him.
It almost felt like slamming into a steel wall with a bit of give. He was yanked right off his feet, his back slamming into the ground.
The dark-skinned man rushed forward, pulling out a spear and thrusting at Grey’s head as he tried to stand.
Every hair on Grey’s body stood on end. He was all too aware that he had no loops right now. His Energy Reserve was at near zero, and given how fast this man had just crossed the distance between them, his stats were well over 30, probably over 40.
Time felt like it slowed, and Grey’s eyes glowed a deathly crimson.
His free hand moved like lightning, reaching toward his back and yanking on the Skrill Chainsaw.
The rumble of an engine tore through the quiet forest, and the teeth of the blades ripped into the earth.
Chi.
The dark-skinned man’s spear hit nothing but air as the Chainsaw of the Skrill activated Revving Burst from the ground. Grey didn’t even pull it from his back—it worked just the same.
Using the momentum, Grey flipped back up to his feet, the deathly chill in his eyes deepening even as the wariness in the dark-skinned man’s eyes grew more prominent.
The latter had been convinced the battle was over. He had no idea how Grey got out of that. Even if you knew you could do such a thing, not many could think of it on the edge of life and death.
Against an opponent like this, he needed the initiative.
He stomped a foot.
But Grey mirrored him. It seemed they both had the same idea.
The echo of a roaring chainsaw blade was barely dulled by the clanging of their weapons.
Grey’s wrist immediately twisted on impact, shifting the contact point from the outside curve of the rusted blade to the inside curve. With a savage glint in his eyes, he peeled the curved blade down the length of the spear, using its teeth to eat into the metal and aim right for the dark-skinned man’s hands.
Panic filled the man’s eyes and he roared.
Grey found himself being flung back once again, the pulse feeling impossible to resist.
This time, however, it didn’t end there, as a rain of metallic needles appeared before his forehead.