Goblin Heavy Dependence

Chapter 477 Severe Injury
The situation on the field has now reached its worst point.

The scales of victory, which had been tipping slightly toward the Blade of Vengeance team just minutes before, have now tilted almost entirely to the other side.

Xia Nan could even hear the heavy, bellows-like breathing of the barbarian Akenna coming from the distant ruins, and the involuntary moans of pain emanating from Sasha, the spotted cat-man, beneath the nearby stone wall as he lay unconscious.

The rapid and continuous losses have completely eliminated the possibility for the entire squad to use their numerical advantage to gradually wear down the enemy's health and stamina, as they had done before.

Putting aside the fact that the Shark Beast, now in a berserk state, is a level stronger than before, after losing Aken and Sasha, the remaining two and a half melee fighters are simply not capable of constantly diverting the opponent's attention.

Rashly approaching and attacking will only expose weaknesses under the intense pressure of the shark beast's attacks, turning an already dire situation into an irreversible one.

What should I do?
Xia Nan stood there, staring at the enormous, blood-soaked creature on the field, his mind racing.

Is there any possibility of retreat?

The thought flashed through Xia Nan's mind almost instantly, but he rejected it immediately.

He believes that, at least for now, he is not the type of person who would abandon teammates with whom he has a good relationship and who have fought side by side and run away alone.

Besides, where could he possibly run off to?
They are currently trapped in Twin Valleys, and being able to fight this aquatic shark beast on land is the most advantageous situation for the group.

Once they go into the water, even by boat, changing the battle environment to the sea shark beast's home ground, they are essentially handing their lives over to the enemy.

Unless the other side decides to back down, a battle is unavoidable.

Given this premise, it must be clear that although the current battle situation is precarious, he himself is far from being exhausted.

He also has two cards that have yet to be revealed.

The fourth-circle healing spell "Spring Pulse Healing" enchanted with 【Tears of Spring Breath】 can greatly improve Xia Nan's margin for error. Basically, as long as it is not a serious injury such as a limb being cut off or even consciousness being instantly shattered, he can recover safely.
Needless to say, [Echoes of the Ashes] is his trump card, the core of his current comeback.

but……

Xia Nan's face showed no obvious emotional fluctuations, but he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

The effect of [Echoes of Ember] is incredibly powerful. Not only can it quickly heal injuries in a very short time, but the 33% increase in all five attributes also doubles his actual combat power.

Furthermore, the "Endurance Overload", "Tenacity Enhancement", and "25% Ember Damage Bonus" that come with the Ember state mean that Xia Nan can unleash his firepower on the enemy without any worries.

He was confident that activating [Echoes] would allow him to turn the tide of the game.

The only limitation is time.

Once activated, the Ember state lasts for only sixty seconds, after which it will enter a cooldown period of up to one month.

Could he really turn the tide and kill the shark beast in front of him in this brief minute?

Xia Nan was unsure about this.

Especially considering that the Shark Beast appears to be seriously injured, but in reality, apart from the head on its chest that was shattered by [Gravity Etching], the rest of its wounds are ordinary wounds that do not affect its actual activities and are healing rapidly.

The music that had started playing again quietly faded away. Knowing that the team was in dire need of close combat strength after losing members, Alton consciously tied his lute back to his back, grabbed two daggers and quickly moved closer to provide support for Xia Nan and the others.
Hein has also returned to her human form from the albatross form she had transformed into to avoid the shark beast's attacks. At this moment, she is standing on the top of an alien building ruin a little distance away, her hands tightly gripping her staff, her eyelids slightly lowered, her lips moving, and magical particles swirling around her.

Meanwhile, as the only remaining melee fighter besides Xia Nan on the field, Lorraine naturally felt the suffocating pressure brought by the shark beast.

As the team leader, and with the bonds she had built with her members over the years, she witnessed her teammates, with whom she had spent every day, suffer a terrible fate, their lives hanging in the balance.

Only Lorraine knows how she feels right now.

Lorraine was unaware that the expressionless, black-haired youth beside her had a final trump card up his sleeve, nor did she know that the short man next to her, whose height was even shorter than the shark's arm, was the chosen one of Lady Luck.

What she saw was that her team had suffered heavy losses due to the sudden outburst of the shark beast, and two teammates had been completely eliminated. "Blade of Vengeance" seemed to be on the verge of extinction.

Despite facing such a desperate situation, Lorraine did not give up.

The worries about seriously injured teammates, the anxieties about the team's future, and even the inevitable fear of death...

All negative emotions were suppressed in the heart of this captain who had sailed the seas for many years.

In those brownish-red eyes, only the burning flame of fighting spirit remained.

She suddenly turned her head and glanced in the direction of the black-haired youth beside her.

Without saying a word, Xia Nan understood what the other person meant—to act according to the situation.

"boom!"

Blazing flames suddenly erupted from its body surface, and waves of heat surged and rolled.

The sudden temperature difference caused the air around her to hiss and swirl with water vapor, blurring and subtly distorting.

[The Scorching Temperature Zone]!
The combat technique that Lorraine had used against the Shahua fish tribe before was unleashed once again.

Xia Nan had seen the opponent use this move before and knew it was an area-of-effect skill targeting groups of enemies.

Fearing that they would be affected, they tried to move away after feeling the surging heat.

But just a second later, the scorching flames that were spreading outwards seemed to be under some invisible control and were suddenly compressed inwards.

It was as if a gas shield was enveloping Lorraine, firmly restraining the high temperature and flames that should have spread outwards, keeping them tightly pressed inwards against her body.

From the outside, it looked as if a semi-transparent orange-red light layer had been applied to her entire body, containing all the heat and scorching heat within her.

—【Body of Flames】, the accompanying feat of the 【Oath of Flames Helmsman】 profession.

Its function is not particularly powerful. It is just that when the user uses fire-type combat skills, he or she can passively absorb some of the heat energy to replenish his or her stamina and slightly improve his or her physical attributes. It is a support-type feat.

However, for a seasoned adventurer like Lorraine, who has extensive combat experience and a deep understanding of her profession after many years of work, she can always maximize the potential of seemingly ordinary abilities through years of continuous development of her combat system.

Using her exceptional proficiency in combat techniques, she controlled the [Scorching Temperature Domain] to stop expanding outwards and instead contract inwards to restrain the surface of her body.

She uses the high-temperature flames that should have been burning enemies to stimulate herself, thereby maximizing the activation of her "Body of Flames" to enhance her physical attributes and combat abilities in a short period of time. This specialty, which should have been a support skill, has become a kind of hidden status-based combat technique.

However, it is not a proper combat skill that can improve one's professional level. Such use of fire will put a great burden on Lorraine's body and will also have considerable side effects on her after use.

It is a move that is absolutely the last one to play.

Changes on the field can happen in an instant.

That enormous, ferocious shark beast, already in a state of rage, would not give Xia Nan and his companions any chance to catch their breath.

Almost at the same moment the flames rose, it dragged its massive, mountain-like body and charged straight at an astonishing speed.

Buzzing and rumbling——

The heatwave was intense.

Her fiery red hair swayed violently due to the surging air around her, as if every strand of hair was enveloped in condensed flames.

Despite the rage surging within her heart as expressed through the [Scalefire Curved Blade] in her hand, Lorraine forced herself to remain calm amidst the flames.

With his knees slightly bent and trailing flames behind him, he shot towards the shark beast. Knowing that he had reached the most crucial moment of this battle, a jet-black aura emerged from his body, and Xia Nan transformed into a black wolf phantom, standing shoulder to shoulder with it amidst the wolf's howl.

Then, just as they were about to collide head-on with the shark beast, two phantoms, one red and one black, separated in perfect unison and launched an attack on the shark beast at an exaggerated speed that was impossible for ordinary people to perceive with the naked eye.

The straight sword [Emberfall] and the curved sword [Scalefire] clashed and fell, leaving deep or charred wounds on the thick sharkskin; the pitch black and fiery red echoed each other, blending together in the afterimages created by their high-speed movement.

From a distance, they looked like two shooting stars orbiting the shark beast at extremely high speed.

The two sides attacked so quickly that even Alton, the halfling who had originally planned to rejoin the melee ranks, couldn't find an opportunity to join in. He could only stand far to the side and play his lute once again.

However, the shark beast dealt with the black and red phantoms that were constantly leaving wounds on its body surface with far more composure than expected.

After all, there were only two of them, Xia Nan and Luo Lin. Even though the latter had gained enhanced combat power in a short period of time, it still couldn't match the attack frequency when the five of them attacked together before.

With a single punch, the shark beast could force one of them back, while its teammates on the other side had no time or space to launch a powerful attack.

"Not enough, not enough!"

The panting coming from the flames grew more rapid, and he knew that Lorraine wouldn't last much longer.

Xia Nan knew that if the situation continued to develop like this, his teammate beside him would also be completely exhausted.

Whether he uses [Echoes of Ember] or any other method, he must find a breakthrough as soon as possible.

And it was at this moment...

"Boo! Hah! Hah!"

Three crossbow bolts suddenly shot out from the air, their arrowheads pointing directly at the shark beast's face.

At the entrance to the canyon, the elder of the twin warriors, Raine, was standing on the roof of a dilapidated house that had sunk halfway into the ground, his hands gripping a repeating crossbow with a trembling bowstring.

Originally responsible for guarding the ships at the dock, he heard the commotion coming from the canyon and felt inexplicably worried. He asked his younger brother to guard the dock while he rushed over alone to provide support.

And finally arrived at this critical moment, providing valuable assistance to the players on the field.

Under normal circumstances, three crossbow bolts would be no threat to the Shark Beast's physical strength.

Even if the target is a weak point in their face, with just a slight reaction, whether it's raising their hand to block or turning their head to take the hit with their back, they can easily defend themselves without even sustaining a minor injury.

However, unlike lone wolves, adventurer parties are called "party" precisely because of the tacit cooperation among teammates.

Just as the crossbow bolts were fired and tore through the air, two players in the back row on the other side of the field simultaneously launched their attacks on the shark beast's main body.

The first thing to hit the shark beast was a sound wave that seemed to solidify into a tangible form.

Under the influence of magical power, it seemed to possess a unique spirituality, nimbly bypassing several teammates, and gently landing on the shark beast's body amidst the distorted air like waves.

It did not cause any substantial damage.

However, its body, which was originally moving, suddenly stopped, and the outline of its muscles under its skin could be seen to stiffen instantly.

The shrill, unpleasant noise emanating from Alton, so sharp it even made one's consciousness dazed, instantly filled the shark beast's head.

Then came the turquoise magical glow from Druid Hein.

Unlike her previous [Entanglement] and [Thorns] spells, the spell she is currently casting is the same as Alton's sonic waves, and it also has no substantial external manifestation.

But once that emerald light merged into the enemy's body, the shark beast's body, which had been trembling violently in resistance to the sharp piano music as if it might break free of control at any moment, suddenly became still, its massive body standing motionless.

——Ring 1·Bewilderment System·Beasts Become Friends.

Lacking sufficient class level and without mastering the powerful [Monster Immobilization] spell, Hein, with his limited Druid spellcasting, had no choice but to resort to this tactic to control his opponent.

Under normal circumstances, the "Beast Becomes Friend" ability is often used on wild beasts to charm them and make them no longer your enemy.

Now, facing the powerful shark beast, Hein certainly didn't think that a single first-level spell would be enough to completely eliminate its hostility.

What she really wanted was for the shark beast to momentarily lose focus while resisting this bewitching spell, creating an opportunity for her teammates to deliver the final blow.

And as it turned out, Hein's strategy was very successful.

Just as the shark beast's massive body froze in place under the control of the dual spell effects.

A crossbow bolt from the side, along with two weapons each wreathed in light, fell together.

Of the three crossbow bolts, two were stuck in the shark's thick skin, but one of them took the opportunity to pierce straight into its eye hole. The sharp arrowhead pierced through its eyeball tissue and penetrated deep into the eye socket, leaving only the tail feathers at the end trembling violently.
The jet-black straight sword, imbued with condensed ochre-red energy, drew a perfect arc through the air, slicing into the shark beast's neck from the side. Then, it exploded like fireworks, creating a bloody hole almost instantly on the side of its neck.
Unfortunately, the shark beast's unique body structure made its neck almost as thick as its waist and abdomen. A sword strike that would be fatal to most creatures in the world only blew open a third of its neck, severely damaging its tenacious vitality but not killing it.

The opportunity was fleeting; there was no time to adjust one's position or angle. The blazing scimitar, wreathed in flames and shimmering with golden-red patterns, was cleaved vertically downwards by its user with all his might.
The fire amplification unleashed the full sharpness of the blue-quality weapon, pushing its edge to its limit. Combined with the combined power of a level 7 professional unleashed in an instant, the incredibly thick, tough hide, muscle, and bone were slicing through with silky smoothness amidst the scorching heat.

As the scimitar pierced through flesh and bone, it struck the ground with its remaining force, and the shark beast's thick right arm also fell to the ground in a spray of blood.

"Roar!!!"

A roar filled with pain and anger exploded across the field.

The intense pain emanating from his right arm and neck, coupled with the increasingly intense aura of death, drove the shark beast, which had broken free from the mind control effect amidst the pain, into a state of complete madness.

A torrent of water surged forth from the cracks in the ground.

Because of the stunned state after the close-range attack, Xia Nan and Luo Lin had no time to dodge and were hit squarely by the water flowing from their feet.

Suddenly, his body floated into the air.

Boom—

A thick arm, strong enough to crush steel, lashed out from the side like a whip.

"There's no escaping it!"

Feeling the chilling, powerful sound of air being torn apart from his side, a thought flashed through Xia Nan's mind.

He had no choice but to subconsciously tense his muscles, adjust his body shape urgently in mid-air, extend his arm shield forward, and cross his arms to protect his chest.

next second.

"boom!"

A tremendous force emanated from the arm shield.

My consciousness momentarily wavered.

Amidst the cracking sound of the plate chain composite armor shattering, the dark figure was struck head-on by the shark beast's arm, violently colliding in mid-air with Lorraine, who was also briefly suspended in the air by the surging water.

One in black and one in red, the two figures were like billiard balls that had collided violently with each other, rolling in opposite directions.

　I will finish writing about this battle tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)