Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 176 A Comparison

This woman… She really wasn’t giving her opponent the chance to catch a breath.

Fleeting Time pressed himself close to the ground, rolling sideways as he chugged down a health potion. In that short moment, Ye Ci’s arrows quickly covered the carpet. Had Fleeting Time been any slower, he would’ve had arrows sticking out of his back like a porcupine.

The only way to turn the tables around was to be faster than Gongzi You. Fleeting Time drank an Agility Potion, boosting his Agility by 15% for 10 minutes. The 15% increase was trivial in a battle between experts, but even that miniscule improvement was enough to affect the flow of the battle.

He used a potion! Ye Ci was quick to realize Fleeting Time’s increase in speed. His movements were quicker and he was suddenly able to dish out higher damage. She thought of consuming an Agility Potion too, but then realized she was out of stock. What a stroke of bad luck. Yet Ye Ci felt that it would not place her at a disadvantage.

Her calculations were correct. Taking in a deep breath, Ye Ci hastened her movements. She must continue to control the tempo of the battle, and continue to press her attacks in ways that Fleeting Time couldn’t predict, forcing him to show an opening.

Fighting in one’s home turf often gives a lot of advantages. As Ye Ci and Fleeting Time battled against each other, the Archbishop—who’d remained seated throughout the entire ordeal—slowly stood up and applauded.

“This might be a battle between the Good and the Evil, but I have to thank the both of you for such a wonderful performance,” said the archbishop with a slight smile, his demeanor entirely different from before.

Despite being slightly distracted by the Archbishop’s sudden movement, the duo did not stop. They were in the heat of the battle, and had no time to spend on an NPC. Ye Ci and Fleeting Time fought on in the Archbishop’s chamber, adding more chaos to a place already in ruins.

Even though the two combatants were studiously ignoring him, the Archbishop droned on, seemingly unaffected by the fact that his words fell on deaf ears.

“My dear child… Look at you… You’ve worked so hard to protect me… I shall bless you in the name of God…” the Archbishop continued to speak, and began to chant a spell in an unknown language.

Ye Ci could feel a sudden surge of Strength and an increase in Agility. After her initial shock, she realized that she’d received an additional buff.

Blessing of God: A blessing from God to His devout believer. Effect: Increase all stats by 20% for a duration of 30 minutes.”

As expected of an Archbishop’s buff. It’s really awesome! thought Ye Ci as she examined the buff. If players could acquire such a buff when they explored dungeons, that would be awesome! Her guild would at least be able to clear the Castle Ruins without being bogged down by the 4th BOSS. They always had issues with their tanks, the healing capabilities of their healers and the lack of damage dealt by the DPS players. It was just so frustrating!

In this situation, however, if Ye Ci could still fail to defeat Fleeting Time with such an awesome buff, she would smash her face against a wall.

Ye Ci’s attacks intensified, not giving Fleeting Time the opportunity to catch his breath. She seized on every single mistake he made with a flurry of attacks, disrupting his attempts at counterattacking.

One was always at an advantage when fighting in one’s home turf—they even had a cheerleader that would give out BUFFs. Fleeting Time watched as the Archbishop casted a long spell on Ye Ci, raising her speed and attack exponentially. He immediately understood that the BUFF was an overpowered one. How else could Ye Ci suddenly become so much more fearsome?

The battle was about to come to an end.

That was what Fleeting Time told himself despite his reluctance to admit such a fact. His consumables were depleted, and his buff was almost ending, and the most important thing was that…he was running out of arrows.

What difference was there between a Hunter without arrows and a Warrior without his sword?

There was none. Despite his unwillingness to lose a battle, Fleeting Time could only try his best to survive. He didn’t have even a shred of an advantage in this battle. The only thing he could hope for was to preserve a modicum of dignity when he was defeated.

Ye Ci, on the other hand, was getting desperate as well. Just how strong is Fleeting Time? Why am I still not beating him with such a buff? He’d always been able to survive the attacks that Ye Ci deemed would be fatal, only to then launch a counterattack of his own. This was a very infuriating experience for Ye Ci.

Without warning, Fleeting Time sprang into the air, as if defying gravity itself, and launched a flurry of attacks on Ye Ci, who immediately tried to evade the blows. Due to his height and position, as well as his ability to predict Ye Ci’s reaction, almost all of Fleeting Time’s attacks landed on Ye Ci, who would’ve died had she not gulped down a health potion.

After the attack, Ye Ci dodged behind a pillar, circling around it in an “8” shape movement. She then dashed out from behind the pillar and launched her own counterattack on Fleeting Time.

She was astonished when Fleeting Time made no attempt to dodge her attacks, and didn’t even try to counterattack. He stood his ground and smiled at Ye Ci, who furrowed her brow. Something’s wrong, thought Ye Ci, as she changed course, placing herself behind Fleeting Time before firing off another shot.

Despite that, Fleeting Time remained unmoving, as if he was experiencing a lag. However, in such an age with such advancements in technology, would he even be lagging?

Before Ye Ci could finish analyzing the situation, her attack landed on Fleeting Time with a critical hit, and he fell to the ground.

“Kill Glory +2”

Golden words floated in front of Ye Ci’s vision, signifying the death of her opponent.

What? He died?

Ye Ci was dumbfounded. You must be kidding me, I killed Fleeting Time? Ye Ci stared at the corpse lying on the floor, feeling dazed. She snapped out of her astonishment when Ol’ Four walked up to her and demanded to be fed. After feeding strips of roasted meat to Ol’ Four, Ye Ci walked slowly towards Fleeting Time’s corpse.

He’s dead? You’ve gotta be kidding me? Fleeting Time, who definitely could have countered Ye Ci’s attack, had stood still, as if he’d intentionally allowed himself to be killed.

Was Fleeting Time someone who would let himself be trampled upon? No; the answer would definitely be “no”. In her previous fights against Fleeting Time, she knew that he was a person who would fight back as long as he was still alive. He was the kind of person who would try to turn the tables on his opponent even at the last remaining second of a fight. Even if he was unable to win, he would make sure that his opponent was mutually destroyed in the process. Why would he stand still and allow himself to be killed by Ye Ci?

No no no… This must be a dream.

Ye Ci walked up to Fleeting Time’s corpse. In Fate, if a player did not attempt to respawn upon his or her death, the player would still be able to communicate via text with any nearby player. His vision, however, would be in a shade of black and white, signifying the desolation of death.

Fleeting Time stared at Gongzi You, who was openly staring at his corpse, her already pale face appeared even whiter, and her amber eyes were a shade of grey. Even the dark green color of her equipment appeared dark. The thing that intrigued Fleeting Time the most however, was the expression on Ye Ci’s face. She was staring at his corpse as if she had seen a ghost. As if she was expecting him to be using Feigned Death.

At that moment, Fleeting Time felt good despite his loss. It was all worth it just to see such an interesting expression from a Huntress who had always worn an icy expression.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Are you worried that I’m faking my death?” Fleeting Time couldn’t hold back his laughter. Ye Ci, however, could not hear his laughter, and could only see the line of words floating just above Fleeting Time’s corpse.

Ye Ci came to the sudden realization that she was making a fuss out of nothing. After all, it was just a game. It was entirely normal for a player to die, no matter how good a player might be. That, however, did not stop Ye Ci from stepping on Fleeting Time’s chest and nudging his corpse, “Feigned Death?”

This was probably the first real conversation between Ye Ci and Fleeting Time.

Fleeting Time’s laughter redoubled after listening to Ye Ci’s words. It was such a shame that Ye Ci couldn’t hear him or catch his current expression, “Didn’t you receive a Kill Glory?”

“Yup, 2 points.”

“Then that settles it. Why would you ask if I’m faking my death if you received the Kill Glory points for killing me?”

Ye Ci narrowed her eyes and spoke, disdain clear in her voice, “The points were too few, which is why I asked.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have only received 2 points for all my efforts in killing you. If I counted the time it took to sneak out and throw a bomb into the crowd of Western Continent players outside, I would’ve obtained at least 500 points. This is just not worth it.” Ye Ci clicked her tongue. She studied Fleeting Time’s corpse with disgruntlement. “The reward for killing you was just too low.”

If voice chat could be enabled for corpses in Fate, Ye Ci would definitely have heard the hearty laughter let out by Fleeting Time. The Huntress named Gongzi You was not as cold and unyielding as she seemed. She was entirely different from the Huntress who the forums declared as ruthless and hard to deal with. At the very least… Fleeting Time enjoyed conversing with Gongzi You.

Of course, if Ye Ci could hear Fleeting Time’s thoughts, she definitely wouldn’t hesitate to mutilate his corpse.

Hiya minna-san! How’s everybody doing? Genki-deska? (*cough cough* Jimmi’s been watching too much anime.. but then again… Are you still a weeb if you’re an Asian? hmmm… *intensive thinking*)

Anyways… Hope y’all enjoy this chapter, where the battle between Ye Ci and Fleeting Time draws to a conclusion!!

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Link here: https://hlj.com/product/KBYPP-687/Fig

ACHTUNG!:

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