Chapter 220 Micro-Adjusting the Center of Gravity and Force Field Energy

From Xia Nan's perspective, he naturally knew nothing of the complicated history behind all this.

His entire understanding of Mint amounted to little more than viewing her as a somewhat suspicious Spellcaster teammate.

Before this, he hadn't even known she was a Lycanthrope.

Under these circumstances, as for the details of the young girl's past, her mental journey after contracting Lycanthropy, her encounter with the Cleric Renee, and her bitter grudge against Cash and Veris—

he knew absolutely nothing.

Based on the scene unfolding before him, Xia Nan could only conclude that Mint was the main culprit behind the beast unrest in the forest, as well as the target of the Association's Lycanthrope investigation mission.

Harboring some unknown motive, she had likely used her excellent disguise to infiltrate the Sea Thorn Squad as a Spellcaster, continuously causing trouble for them along the way.

Thinking back on it now, she was most likely the one who had lured in the Temple Nightwalker Wolf Pack they encountered earlier, as well as the Owlbear from just moments ago.

After faking her death to escape, she had used some sort of substitution ability to lure the remaining three squad members deeper into the woods. Finally, using that earring—suspected to be a magical item—she had manipulated Cash and Veris into backstabbing him.

Oh. Looking at it that way, the target those two had mentioned must have been this magical accessory.

And now, only after both Cash and Veris were dead had she finally revealed her true form.

Xia Nan couldn't parse the detailed meaning hidden within her vague words, and his current information wasn't enough to determine Mint's specific goal.

But none of that mattered.

He only needed to know that Mint had attacked him. That was enough.

"Want to kill me? Then I'll kill you first."

Hum—an iron-gray sword light mirrored the silver moon overhead, carving a sharp, flawless arc through the air.

[Spinning Slash]!

Sap splattered!

Empowered by exquisite technique and Strength far exceeding an ordinary person's, the sturdy metal blade unleashed terrifying destructive power in an instant.

The thorny vines that surged from the soil toward Xia Nan like a tide, scattering flecks of mud, were instantly severed.

The distinct earthy stench of plant sap mixed with the scent of blood in the air, flooding his nostrils with every breath.

His legs suddenly exploded with force, seizing the momentary gap he had just carved out—[Fang Hunt]!

Howl—a long, high-pitched wolf's cry seemed to drown out the roars of the other beasts on the battlefield, as a spectral Wolf Head formed from grass clippings, mist, and severed thorns suddenly materialized.

It carried Xia Nan forward, effortlessly slipping through the encirclement of thorns and beasts to charge straight at the gradually expanding and twisting figure in the center of the clearing.

Xia Nan might not have been particularly skilled at deduction.

But his exceptional combat talent and sharp Perception still helped him analyze the battlefield with terrifying efficiency, allowing him to make the optimal judgments.

First of all, retreating was not a good choice in this situation.

Just as Mint had said earlier, the Misty Forest at night was blanketed in thick fog, resulting in extremely low visibility. This made the already obstructive, dense woods even more troublesome to navigate.

Relying on [Fang Hunt] to move quickly through it for an extended period would be incredibly difficult.

Not to mention he would also have to deal with the pursuing beast pack and thorny vines.

Exposing his back to the enemy might actually be far more dangerous than staying on the battlefield.

Therefore, he had to discard any thoughts of retreat and face the battle head-on.

Once he determined that a fight was unavoidable, his instincts naturally began searching for the key to breaking the deadlock.

The good news was that the clearing ahead was somewhat open, allowing him to use [Fang Hunt] freely without restricting his highly mobile combat style.

The bad news was that Mint wasn't the only enemy he had to face. He also had to simultaneously deal with those annoying vines bursting from the ground, as well as the frenzied, ferocious beasts surrounding him.

Fortunately, the Owlbear wasn't on the battlefield; otherwise, no matter how dangerous it was, he would have no choice but to turn and attempt an escape.

Xia Nan had an abundance of experience with group battles—or rather, fighting against multiple opponents.

Having cleared out countless Goblin Lairs on the outskirts of the forest, leaving behind the corpses of numerous Goblins, Bugbears, and Hobgoblins, he was quite familiar with this combat model.

Barring special circumstances, trying to clear out the lackeys first before engaging the strongest elite monster in a one-on-one frontal clash was extremely dangerous and impractical.

After all, the opponent was an independent creature with its own will and intense malice toward you; they wouldn't just stand there and watch while you cleared out the lesser mobs.

They would join the fray, launching a coordinated siege against you alongside every other enemy on the field.

Therefore, to catch the bandits, first catch their king.

As long as he could eliminate Mint first, the thorny vines and beast pack on the field would lose their source of power and influence, naturally rendering them no threat.

High-speed movement.

The air grew thick and sluggish from the drag as stinging currents of wind squeezed past his body, sending his short black hair whipping wildly.

Gripping the Decapitating Longsword tightly, Xia Nan locked his gaze on the deep shadows ahead, rapidly closing the distance amidst the howling of the wolf, only to hear a low, terrifying growl—as if something was forcibly holding back an immense urge.

Mint stood rooted in place.

Her originally petite, frail frame as a Spellcaster was no longer visible.

The dense, knotty muscles of a bear tore through her plain robes, leaving them looking like a tattered napkin draped around her neck. With a light tug of her sharp claws, the fabric turned to rags and fell to the ground.

Thick saliva dripped from her elongated, open maw. A pair of semi-circular animal ears sprouted from the back of her head, and the whites of her eyes were gone, replaced by a deep, lightless, pitch-black void that struck fear into anyone who looked at them.

She was unlike Buck, who had contracted Lycanthropy and turned into a complete beast upon transforming.

Mint still maintained a bipedal stance.

The culmination of her revenge, the Rage, and the thorns seemed to have allowed her to complete some sort of ritual originating from the source of her bloodline.

An invisible force surged through her increasingly burly physique.

She looked like a grotesque monster born from the fusion of a human and a bear.

Those rock-hard muscles and thick, dark bristles didn't make her appear clumsy or bloated. Instead, contrasted against her elongated hind legs and upright posture, they gave off an agile impression brimming with explosive power.

If not for the teardrop-shaped pendant dangling from her short left ear, who would have ever connected this terrifying humanoid bear—bulkier than the strongest Barbarian in the tavern—with that frail, diminutive girl?

"Roar!!!"

The eardrum-shattering roar seemed to announce the loss of her humanity and the complete takeover of her body by her bestial nature.

A beast's instinctive sense of danger, combined with blistering reflexes and the split-second reaction speed granted by her enhanced physical attributes, allowed her two elongated legs to instantly explode with enough force to crater the ground. This pulled Mint's body backward just as the spectral Wolf Head closed in, right before the iron-gray fangs could sink in.

She evaded the crescent sword light slashing directly toward the vital spot on her neck.

'Such fast reflexes?'

Xia Nan felt a twinge of surprise, but his footwork didn't stop for a second.

In the split second he realized his [Spinning Slash] had missed, the faint Wolf Head illusion surrounding his body, which had slightly dispersed from the swing, instantly solidified once more.

[Fang Hunt] activated again, and his body vanished from the spot amidst a booming wolf howl.

The very next second.

Sharp claws reached out from the side, suddenly cleaving through the empty air where he had just stood.

The exaggerated Strength contained within the strike left only a blur in its wake, stirring up a gale that whipped fallen leaves and grass seeds into the air.

His legs barely touching the ground, Xia Nan retreated at high speed.

At the same time, two Fire Oil Bombs had already appeared in his hands.

Without a moment's hesitation, he hurled them fiercely at the dark figure ahead.

Grease and powder erupted in a burst of fire, transforming into a raging torrent of flames that swallowed Mint's body.

This was unlike their usual immediate effectiveness.

The flames completely failed to cause her any harm. She didn't even let out a cry of pain before the fire was quickly smothered and extinguished by the thick fog permeating the air.

The only proof they had ever existed was the scorch marks left on a few patches of the bristles covering Mint's body.

"Tsk."

Xia Nan planted his feet, keeping his distance, and clicked his tongue.

In the blink of an eye, one exchange was already over.

Neither side had made any real progress.

Those dead, lightless black eyes made it impossible for Xia Nan to guess what Mint was thinking at this moment, or whether she had a plan.

However, after that brief skirmish, he had formed a rough estimate of the bear-woman's combat strength. While she wasn't quite at the exaggerated level of the Owlbear, she was still vastly superior to Buck in his fully beastified state. Furthermore, her physical speed and agility—thanks to a body that looked subtly sleek and elongated—far exceeded that of ordinary Lycanthropes.

She was somewhat like an all-around upgraded version of a Bugbear.

She even possessed some spell-like abilities.

Using [Fang Hunt] to reposition again, he dodged the pounces of two beasts and shredded a few thorny vines protruding from the soil.

The only thing worth celebrating was that his opponent had no weapons or equipment to aid her. She could only fight bare-handed, relying purely on her flesh, fangs, and claws.

'How do I win?'

His brain worked rapidly as Xia Nan pondered the situation.

His advantage lay in the extreme mobility granted by [Fang Hunt].

Their reaction speeds were roughly on par. Under the effects of his Perception, he could accurately and meticulously detect her every move, but the bear-woman's physical attributes were enough to erase that gap.

He held a slight edge in speed, but in terms of defense, it was hard to say whether his armor or her thick, tough pelt was superior.

During his month and a half with the Sea Thorn Squad, he hadn't exposed too much of his true strength.

Even though she had already seen [Fang Hunt] and [Spinning Slash], he had never once revealed [Gravity Control] or [Gravity Etching] in front of the group.

These should serve as the crucial factors to tip the scales of victory.

However, he had to keep in mind that while [Gravity Control] had absurd potential and could reach an unimaginably terrifying ceiling in the future, it was a super high-level combat technique far beyond what his current power tier could truly master.

His proficiency was limited; it was still only Level 1.

It was highly effective against small creatures or those of his own size, but if the enemy was heavier and larger, the strain became quite apparent.

When using it, he had to adapt to the situation, applying clever tricks like he did during his fight with Cash to draw out its effectiveness.

He could no longer crudely manipulate gravity to impose his will on the enemy as he had against the Goblins.

[Gravity Etching] possessed outstanding lethal power. The fact that its force field damage ignored defenses allowed it to easily inflict massive harm on an enemy.

But he had to be mindful of its strict limit of "3" uses. With a six-hour recharge time, the earliest it would refresh was at dawn.

Therefore, he had to carefully weigh the timing of this combat technique, ideally ending the battle before exhausting its uses.

Finally, there was the absolute ultimate trump card on Xia Nan's person:

The [Fate Coin], which still had two uses remaining.

To be honest, unless he was truly pushed into a desperate corner, he had no intention of wasting its precious uses here.

But if it really came down to life and death, he certainly wouldn't take the coin to his grave either.

With a casual swipe of his sword, he lopped off the head of a wild wolf ambushing him from the brush at his feet.

Xia Nan suddenly looked up, locking his gaze on the bear-woman ahead.

His expression remained relatively impassive, but the fiercely burning fighting spirit in his heart had practically solidified into physical form.

He couldn't afford to delay!

The forest at night was her home turf. If this dragged on for another few dozen minutes, it wouldn't just be the exhaustion from dealing with the field of thorns and beasts depleting his stamina. If another monster like an Owlbear was drawn in, the situation would spiral into an even deadlier state.

He had to end this quickly!

With his mind made up, Xia Nan channeled Strength into his arm and half-turned his body, sending an iron-gray sword light bursting outward to cleave through nearly a full semicircle around him.

It instantly cleared out the encroaching thorns and beasts.

[Gravity Control] silently took effect, and his legs immediately felt weightless as they touched down on the ground.

[Fang Hunt] activated abruptly. Thanks to the massive speed boost from the reduced gravity, Xia Nan practically became a blur in the air, as if a ruthless Winter Wolf were truly pouncing from the dense forest onto its prey.

Mint's reaction was as swift as ever. The moment Xia Nan's feet left the ground, she acutely sensed his instantaneously condensed killing intent.

Bending her knees, she gathered power while leaning slightly backward. In the very next second, she would be able to use her powerful leg muscles to propel her body out of the path of the incoming attack.

But right at that moment, incredibly bizarrely—almost like a hallucination—she felt her body's center of gravity shift by a few inches.

It was as if some invisible gravitational force was yanking down on her back.

Feeling like she was about to fall, the legs that had been firmly planted on the ground ready to spring suddenly faltered for a split second.

This strange, almost hallucinatory experience was fleeting, and she immediately used her solid core strength to readjust her center of gravity.

But that brief instant of delay meant she could no longer dodge the fierce slash coming from the front.

She only had time to raise her left arm to guard her chest.

The next moment, accompanied by a sharp shriek, the blade—coalescing with red light like flowing runes across its surface—struck Mint's body.

Blood spurted as her severed arm flew high into the air.

"Hum!"

Piercing red light abruptly exploded like a miniature firework. Ignoring all defenses, the crimson force field energy swallowed the bear-woman's severed stump and chest.