Chapter 611: A Road Stolen

Rumi leaped lightly onto a flat ledge overlooking the rapids, her four amber wings fluttering to stabilize her descent.

Rumi lowered one wing to shield her eyes from the spray and picked out the first landing marker beyond the rapids.

She touched three distinct landing markers along the rocky bluff with her fingertips, feeling the spatial resonance hum beneath her skin.

Her Four-Winged ability, Many Roads, required her to physically touch her path anchors before shifting her mass between them.

She crouched on the boulder, her sharp lynx ears swiveling to track the steady roar of the churning river rapids below.

The gorge was narrow and treacherous, cut deep into limestone bedrock where mist rose like smoke from the roaring flumes.

Along the opposite riverbank, a cable ferry rocked gently against the shore where frightened civilian boatmen huddled.

A narrow shortcut wound through a cleft in the limestone cliff, seemingly offering a direct route to the ferry landing.

However, as Rumi leaned forward to inspect the cleft, she noticed an unnatural scuff mark reflected from two separate angles.

’A looped spatial snare... someone duplicated the path reflection to pull runners straight into an ambush!’

She dropped into a low crouch, unsheathing her curved daggers with a quiet rasp against the leather sheaths.

A tall figure stepped out from the shadow of the cliff cleft, holding a long bladed polearm with practiced poise.

"Sharp eyes for a beastkin scout," the route hunter sneered, spinning his polearm with deceptive ease.

"I am Tesk, pathfinder for the Choral Incarnation... and you just stepped into my private slaughter corridor!"

"Your corridor is crooked and smells like wet mold," the lynx girl retorted, baring her sharp fangs in a teasing grin.

"Who taught you how to lay spatial anchors... an apprentice who failed his very first exam?"

"Die upon the rocks!" Tesk snarled, lunging forward with blinding speed while driving his polearm straight toward her throat.

The bladed point tore through the empty air where she stood, passing harmlessly through a fading afterimage.

Rumi shifted her physical mass to her second prepared anchor on the upper ledge, appearing ten paces above his right shoulder.

Tesk spun around with unnatural reflexes, channeling corrupt purple mana through his feet to leap up the cliff face.

He thrust his polearm upward, attempting to pin her against the rock wall before she could reset her footing.

The steel tip gouged a deep fissure into the cliff, spraying powdery gray dust across the bedrock.

Instead of retreating backward, Rumi initiated a rapid lateral jump toward her third marked stone near the edge of the rapids.

Tesk committed his full momentum to defending the upper ledge, striking the boulder with an impact that shattered stone shrapnel.

At that exact instant, Rumi cancelled her weight on the upper ledge, driving all her physical mass down onto the third anchor.

She materialized directly behind the hunter’s exposed stance, her twin daggers flashing in a blinding crescent arc.

"Wrong road, hunter!" she shouted, bringing her blades down upon the exposed anchor crystal strapped to his left gauntlet.

The crystal shattered with an ear-splitting crack, rupturing the looped spatial shortcut into useless wisps of purple smoke.

Tesk gasped in horror as his spatial tether snapped, leaving him off-balance on the slippery cliff verge.

"Withdraw or surrender your weapons!" the lynx girl demanded, holding her dagger tip an inch from his jugular.

"The Choir never yields to northern trash!" he shrieked, swinging a concealed dagger in a desperate blind counter-slash.

Rumi did not hesitate, pivoting smoothly on her left heel and slicing her blade cleanly across his throat.

The corrupt pathfinder collapsed backward off the ledge, tumbling into the frothing river rapids where the churning water swallowed his body.

System interface notifications flashed across her vision, recording the decisive victory and banking the pending rewards.

[ Route hunter tesk slain ]

[ Pending shared host kill receipt: +1,000,000 EXP ]

[ Pending scout vanguard kill receipt: +1,000,000 EXP ]

Rumi sheathed her daggers, sprinting down the rocky trail toward the riverbank where the civilian ferrymen waited in trembling fear.

"Cast off the mooring lines and push the barge across!" she called out, waving her arms to direct the frightened workers.

"The crossing is clear, but you need to reach the eastern bank before hostile reinforcements arrive!"

The ferrymen scrambled to obey, untying the thick hemp cables and poling the ferry barge into the steady current.

"Thank you, brave scout!" the lead ferryman shouted over the roaring rapids, waving his wool cap with tears in his eyes.

"We thought that monster was going to feed us to the river fish!"

She stood guard on the rocky landing until the last civilian boat reached the opposite shore safely, exhaling a proud sigh.

She retrieved a blood-stained parchment map from the hunter’s dropped pouch, unfolding it to examine the marked routes.

A series of synchronized timestamps ran along the southern margin, showing that the river relay expected a coordinated command tomorrow.

Hajin arrived at the riverbank accompanied by Nari and Loccy, their mounts kicking up red gravel along the turnpike.

"Road is open, Master!" the elder twin announced proudly, holding up the captured route schedule with a bright grin.

"Tesk tried to trap me in a loop, but I switched my mass and broke his anchor in one clean strike!"

"That was magnificent pathfinding, Rumi," the summoner praised warmly, dismounting to inspect the captured map.

"This schedule reveals that their central command will transmit an activation wave at dawn tomorrow."

"They have a counting house positioned at the confluence," Nari observed, tracing the inked lines with her sharp claw.

"The keeper there holds a mechanical timing wheel that synchronizes the entire western sector."

"He locks the building from the inside whenever courier teams depart, relying on spatial wards to bar ordinary entry."

"Then we strike that counting house before the dawn signal transmits," the summoner decided with an approving nod.

"Nari will take point on sealing their internal escape routes, while the rest of us secure the perimeter."

Loccy trotted over from the horses, pulling a pouch of dried apricots and sweetened sunflower seeds from her saddlebag.

"Here, Rumi... you burned through plenty of calories leaping across all those river boulders!" the rabbit maiden said, tossing the snack pouch.

"Apricots!" the elder lynx sister cheered, catching the bag in her mouth before tearing it open with her claws.

Earth viewers argued over the counting house’s hidden exits while Rumi and Nari compared the keeper’s routes beside the river.

[ Seoul_Tactician: "Rumi outplaying a spatial route hunter with pure mechanics, absolute peak agility!" ]

[ StarlightScholar: "Both twins are such incredible top-tier scouts, their synergy with Lord Hajin is unmatched!" ]

[ IronVanguard: "A million host EXP is pending. Please let that count when the fighting stops!" ] ℯ

Rumi and Nari bounded forward, curling their arms affectionately around Hajin’s shoulders while purring in sweet synchronized warmth.

Their soft spotted tails wrapped happily around his wrists, and their lynx ears twitched with playful satisfaction.

"We held the crossing, Master," the younger sister purred softly against his cheek, nuzzling his collar.

"The counting house keeper locks the front," Nari said, studying the route marks Rumi scratched into the dirt.

"So I take the inner exits while you draw his eyes to the river," she added.

Rumi pushed an apricot into her sister’s palm, and they agreed to retreat together if the wards reached the civilian water line.

"And tomorrow," the elder twin grinned, chewing a sweet apricot, "we go break their counting house into kindling!"