“When you see the breath you exhale all of a sudden, be warned that it’s the Silent Lady’s ritual, ‘Summoning the Soul Eater.’”
Annan noticed that Lin Yiyi and Delicious Wind Goose were streaming, so he played a perfect role as an NPC in charge of narration.
With a solemn expression, Annan said solemnly to the camera, “The Soul Eater’s ability is equivalent to a ‘soul-hunter’ at the peak of Silver Rank without a curse vessel. It also has the ability usually possessed by Silver Rank’s Hunters and Lurkers. In addition, it can freely use many of the Silver Rank Energy Falteration School’s wizard spells.”
“Don Juan!” Salvatore was probably concerned that they were wide open on the street, so he shouted out Annan’s pseudonym. “Watch out for your blindspot. The Soul Eater is proficient in sneaking.”
Unfortunately, this warning wasn’t much of a help.
Before Salvatore finished speaking, the thick white fog permeated the entire street.
The damp and cold breath made it difficult for movement. Some had a layer of frost on their hair. The overflowing stench in the fog was enough to confuse those with sensitive olfactory functionality.
Salvatore’s expression grew a little strange.
This smell…
It’s like the repulsive frozen fish smell that has been stored for a long time.
After Annan completed his role as a dungeon instance NPC, he immediately stood still and shut his eyes. With that, he activated the “creator’s perspective.”
That was one of Annan’s backend interface’s abilities.
Unfortunately, Annan hadn’t faced an opponent proficient in sneaking. He was inexperienced in putting this ability to good use.
Annan’s vision soared to the sky, giving him a bird’s eye view immediately. His awareness of what happened on the ground was unobstructed.
Immediately after, Annan noticed that the coverage of this “Ritual: Roaring Heart” wasn’t too broad. It only covered the entire Roseburg and plunged the place into absolute silence.
That is to say.
The Rotten Man Church would be concerned with civilians’ casualties and the exposure of the Transcended to the mortal world.
Annan found this setting a little ridiculous for a moment.
Did they already treat the Noah Kingdom as their home base?
The Rotten Man Church is even considerate of the king. Everything is well prepared in advance to eliminate the potential negative influence.
However, their arrangement had also benefited Annan.
At least Annan didn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting civilians spectating the event.
He couldn’t control the civilians from joining in out of excitement.
Also, Annan was convinced that if the civilians weren’t held in the dream, there would inevitably be someone coming over to watch.
As Annan zoomed in on the “creator’s perspective,” he finally found a monster moving forward slowly.
The monster looked a bit like a lizard, about half a human’s height tall, and his body surface was shiny black that seemed metallic.
It was just that its head was a sharp triangular head, and the snout was sharp and hard, like a drill. At a glance, one could identify that this monster had a solid armor-piercing capability.
It also had a long, sharp, flat tail shaped like a bladed spine. Looking down from directly above, the monster occurred to be dragging a powder-coated machete.
Amidst the white mist, the silent and murderous machete lurked.
Aren’t you just a duplicate of Zabuza Momochi [1]?
The monster was wrapped in an intense frost air. It silently and gradually approached Lin Yiyi, who appeared to be the weakest.
Annan probably knew what rules it used to select its prey.
The “Soul Eater” was quite intelligent who preferred to bully the weak and fear the strong.
It possessed the peak strength of the Silver Rank.
Although the four people present were all Bronze Rank Transcended, the gap between Transcended was put into consideration.
Annan and Salvatore were fully armed, and they looked battle-ready. Delicious Wind Goose wasn’t young with an intimidating bald head, making him appear robust. Furthermore, Old Goose had his weapons out of the sheath and was equipped in his hands.
Among all the people present, only Yiyi was a female.
Although she was a youth, booming with vitality. Unfortunately, she left the sword at her waist unsheathed, with only a wooden staff held in her hand.
In other words, the Soul Eater believed that she was the best choice in his plan to reduce the enemy count before starting the battle.
Of course, that seemed like an undeniable fact to the monster.
This was why the less tanky party member was usually surrounded by his group members in a game’s adventure or dungeon run.
The only problem was that Yiyi wasn’t the least tanky one among the group. On the contrary, she was the only tank among the four.
Annan thought for a moment and decided to stay silent.
He wanted to test out the players’ offensive capability.
Annan could probably guess that if he reminded Yiyi out loud, the Soul Eater would prioritize him next.
I’m just an innocent NPC who wanders into a dungeon instance. Players, you have to protect me first. Only then can I put my mind into considering how to kill the boss in this part of the plot.
Annan didn’t want to yell “Why are you running?” at the players and drew the Soul Eater’s aggro.
He silently sent an immediate mission to the four players and enabled the permission for them to resurrect.
[Immediate Mission: Immortal Protector]
[Mission requirements: Before the end of the “Limited-time Main Mission: Protector,” there is no penalty for resurrection, and the daily resurrection count limit is ignored.]
[Special requirement: The final reward is based on “Annan·Austere-Winter’s” satisfaction.]
Having suddenly received the main mission prompt, the four players were slightly surprised.
But, as they became excited, Lin Yiyi was distracted after seeing the main mission.
From the creator’s perspective, Annan saw that in the Soul Eater’s dark gray vertical pupils, one layer among the triple eyelids closed.
Then, the monster turned around and bit its tail.
Like a rotating and flying wheel, it slashed past Lin Yiyi and fell back into the gray mists in a flash.
Lin Yiyi only had time to let out a scream.
She was cut in half by this unpredictable backstab!
In her severed corpse, the crimson red flesh quickly turned dark red as if becoming a rotting fish. Before the upper half of the flying corpse fell to the ground, all signs of vigor had dissipated.
Then, she turned into black dust and respawned.
The lower half of her body stood up intact.
Even the clothes were undamaged.
The Soul Eater: ?
The ruthless hunter—black matte lizard, obviously had never encountered something like this before.
It tilted its head blankly, shrinking into the shadows and thinking about the situation in front of it.
“Are you okay?!”
At this moment, Annan immediately shouted anxiously, “Are you injured?”
Hearing this, the other three players were taken aback.
Only Salvatore’s shadow reacted at the first moment, “Idiot Salvatore, he is trying to deceive the Soul Eater to make it think that this resurrection is accidental.
“As you saw before… As long as Annan is not dead, all of his entourage can be resurrected at will.
“Listen to me, Salvatore. You start preparing the spell first and immediately attack her when you hear her voice!”
The shadow’s deep and hoarse voice rang in Salvatore’s heart.
“How could I?” Salvatore hesitated to speak but stopped.
How can I attack my ally?!
He still wasn’t sure whether this resurrection had any price to pay!
Worse still, he couldn’t control his firepower at all.
“Idiot!” The shadow denounced Salvatore’s hesitation, “This is the most efficient way to fight!
“What if it turns to attack Annan? He doesn’t have the ability to resurrect himself! Or do you think Annan can stop the Soul Eater’s attack?”
“But I don’t have the ability to resurrect someone either?” Salvatore thought hesitantly.
“I admit that this is a gamble,” the shadow whispered. “But even if you didn’t kill it, Annan can save you.
“But what if Annan made a move but didn’t kill it? Can you save Annan?
“This is all because you’re weak, Salvatore! You’re weaker than Annan, so you have to make a move before him!”
What you said makes sense. Salvatore hesitated.
His hand subconsciously touched the Sage’s Stone behind his shoulder.
But I can stop being weak!
Salvatore quickly stopped hesitating, took the brass bottle containing Sage’s Stone, and held it in his hand. He triggered the mechanism to protrude the needle and put it near his chest.
He didn’t intend to stimulate the Soul Eater with the smell of blood and make the monster hide. After all, Salvatore wasn’t sure if he could find the startled Soul Eater within a few minutes after using Sage’s Stone.
At the moment the Soul Eater launched its second attack, Salvatore struck Sage’s Stone directly into his heart!
“Miss Yiyi!” Salvatore made up his mind, cooperating with Annan’s strategy, and shouted, “Please be careful! Be sure to hold the enemy, but be careful not to get hurt again!
“Your curse’s power is limited!”
Hearing this, Annan was taken aback.
Senior, when did you become smart?