Chapter 183: Invincible and Selfless.

Fortunately, the prerequisite that everything must conform to the technology of this era appeared in every corner of the Trial World. The Matchlock in Sophie’s hand could not surpass this era. She still needed to clear the chamber first, pour in the propellant and the projectile, and finally use a ramrod to press the projectile down. No matter how skilled Sophie was, this process could not be accomplished in one step like with metallic cartridge firearms. The entire process required at least about 15 seconds.

However, Xiao Fen did not blindly rush up because of this. He could clearly feel that Sophie’s movements could have been faster originally. But now, Sophie was not letting her reloading speed become faster. Instead, this female Traitor seemed to be deliberately slowing down her speed. Her slow movements looked more like a lure.

Xiao Fen’s thoughts flashed like lightning, and he had already made multiple judgments.

First, although Sophie had attempted a close-quarters assassination at noon, fundamentally speaking, Sophie still feared close combat.

Secondly, Sophie definitely had another set of attack methods in her hand, but this attack method could only be used at a relatively close distance from Xiao Fen. It was just that Sophie was not used to close combat. When Xiao Fen pounced just now, Sophie had some fear in her heart and subconsciously used the hidden gun in her hand to fire and widen the distance.

However, such a distance was meaningless to Sophie, so she deliberately set up this trap, wanting to use this flaw to trick Xiao Fen.

As for this effective damage distance, it was about 10 meters.

Xiao Fen thought of this and felt a slight shock in his heart. That distance seemed to be just about the same as the effective range of his Qigong. In other words, if he could not enter Sophie’s effective attack range, he could not cause effective damage to Sophie either.

This was not good news. Xiao Fen’s brain spun frantically. Before Sophie finished loading the new projectile, he had already made a new battle plan. He suddenly crouched down and took a large lunge towards Sophie.

Sophie kept staring at Xiao Fen’s reaction. Seeing Xiao Fen charging over like this, she felt happy in her heart. The Matchlock in her hand had disappeared without a trace at some point. At the same time, a longsword suddenly appeared in her hand. Under the illumination of the lanterns in the courtyard, the blade kept flashing. In the next second, this female Traitor had already charged towards Xiao Fen.

Xiao Fen counted silently in his heart. Seeing that the distance was about to reach ten meters, his body suddenly stood up, and he threw a stone ruthlessly at Sophie. Being so close, the speed of the stone was incredibly fast. Before Sophie realized something was wrong, she was suddenly hit in the chest by this sharp-edged stone. Her entire body was suddenly pushed back a few steps, and the sword in her hand involuntarily fell to the ground.

Xiao Fen was just about to rush forward when his heart suddenly tightened. He stopped his steps. In front of his feet, an arc of light suddenly flashed across the ground. Looking carefully, a Magic Array had appeared beside Sophie at some point, looming faintly. The radius was about 10 meters, which was exactly the optimal distance Xiao Fen had calculated earlier where Sophie could deal effective damage.

Xiao Fen looked at this Magic Array and froze for a moment. He did not continue forward but instead leaped backward rapidly, first jumping out of the most effective kill zone of the Matchlock’s lead pellet. He looked coldly at Sophie and frowned, “You didn’t lose your Skills?”

Sophie knelt on one knee on the ground, coughed twice lowly, wiped her chin behind her mask with her hand, and answered, “Guess.”

Xiao Fen’s eyebrows raised, but his heart calmed down somewhat. Although Sophie’s Skills were somewhat reserved, at least it could be determined that Sophie did not have too many ranged attack Skills and could only function within a range of 10 meters.

It was a pity that the connection with the World Tree was now completely obscured, so it was impossible to see how much damage that stone had caused Sophie just now, but Xiao Fen did not care about this.

He touched two pieces of bluestone fragments again from the dark ground. It seemed that something had happened where this palace was located. In the previously flat field, many green bricks were actually already cracked. With Xiao Fen’s strength, it was easy to use these cracks to pry out some stones.

“Battles occurring time and again, appearing almost every day, would turn these green bricks into this state.”

Xiao Fen judged so and subconsciously turned his head to glance in Wei Zhongxian’s direction, but this great eunuch was standing in the shadows behind the lanterns, and his appearance could not be seen clearly at all.

Exhaling a long breath, Xiao Fen lowered his body again, held two green bricks in his hands, and rushed out towards Sophie once more.

Sophie looked coldly at Xiao Fen. The radiance of the Magic Array beside her no longer concealed itself and suddenly became brighter. In the center of that Magic Array, lines composed of countless rays of light were moving restlessly like greedy venomous snakes. Every time the light spots flashed, it could make these lines suddenly produce huge fluctuations.

Xiao Fen felt a slight movement in his heart, but there was no hesitation in his hand. When there was still a considerable distance from Sophie, he suddenly threw the bluestone in his hand.

Not expecting Xiao Fen to actually engage in this kind of long-distance combat with her, Sophie was a bit unable to adapt for a moment. Seeing two stones thrown over, Sophie subconsciously raised her hand to use a Skill. However, in the next second, the light bursting from the Magic Array suddenly popped up. With a bang, it smashed the two stones in the air to pieces.

From this point of view, this Magic Array was more like a precise automatic defense system. As long as anything entered the defense circle of this Magic Array, no matter what it was, it would be destroyed by these rays of light. If Xiao Fen had not been alert enough just now and eager to rush to Sophie’s side to fight her in close combat, he would mostly have ended up the same as those two shattered bluestones.

Seeing the fate of those two bluestones, Xiao Fen was also secretly shocked, but he quickly threw those distracting thoughts to the side. He rolled on the ground, turned his hand to pry out a few more pieces of bluestone, and threw them out at Sophie one after another like splashing water.

The light of the Magic Array flashed repeatedly. Those bluestones would be shattered by these rays of light as soon as they reached the range of 10 meters beside Sophie. It looked somewhat like that huge Web of Lux.

Xiao Fen did not dare to stop his steps. He suddenly squatted on the ground, wanting to pry out more bluestones. Unexpectedly, at this moment, Sophie suddenly spoke in a low voice, “What is the point of throwing these things?”

As soon as her voice fell, Sophie’s body suddenly lowered, and she charged towards Xiao Fen at high speed. In her hand, she had somehow taken out her Matchlock again. Beneath her feet, that Magic Array, which was constantly flashing with intense light, was closely following not far behind her.

Although it was not completely synchronized, Xiao Fen believed that if he was entangled by Sophie at close range, that Magic Array would mostly catch up in a few seconds and launch an attack on Xiao Fen.

Xiao Fen retreated rapidly, throwing two more bluestones he had just picked up in his hand. However, this kind of throwing posed no threat at all to a former Trialist like Sophie who was originally skilled in ranged attacks. Plus, Xiao Fen was throwing stones while retreating, so the strength was completely incomparable to the full-strength throw just now. Sophie, during the charging process, only needed to lightly change her body posture to dodge the stones Xiao Fen threw.

Although Xiao Fen’s speed was fast, Sophie was, after all, one level higher than him, having many more Attribute Points. Therefore, the speed of the two was actually similar. More importantly, Sophie was in a charging posture, while Xiao Fen was in a retreating posture.

Therefore, between one charge and one retreat, Sophie was actually faster than Xiao Fen.

The gap of about twenty meters was almost wiped out in a few seconds.

At this time, Sophie had already rushed into a distance of less than 10 meters from Xiao Fen. The Matchlock in her hand had already been raised. If it were not for the severe shaking of her arms caused by the intense running, Sophie would have already opened fire.

Xiao Fen looked at the bright Magic Array that was gradually being distanced by Sophie, knowing that this was the best opportunity to launch close combat. But he had to ensure that this time was extremely short and could not be delayed for too long.

However, the Matchlock in Sophie’s hand was the biggest threat to the current assault.

To launch an assault, one had to stop retreating and then turn to charge forward, or slow down and wait for Sophie to rush up. But Sophie would fire at the first moment. At such a close distance, coupled with Sophie’s Shooting Talent and Firearms Mastery, with multiple factors added together, Xiao Fen would definitely be hit by the bullet.

Regardless of whether the lethality of the Matchlock was high or not, or whether it could be fatal, Xiao Fen did not want to use his own body to test this attack.

However, this courtyard was just this size. Seeing that there was no space behind Xiao Fen, if the pursuit continued, Xiao Fen might be forced into a corner, which would be equally troublesome.

He could not turn around because he did not know what action the former Trialist would take once he turned his back on her. Retreating backward was too slow, and it looked like Sophie was about to catch up.

Without needing much calculation, Xiao Fen knew that Sophie was approaching the “absolute kill distance” mentioned in the Trialist books.

Once Sophie got close to within 5 meters and entered the absolute kill distance, Sophie would stop her steps and fire immediately. At this distance, unless Xiao Fen’s level attributes greatly exceeded Sophie’s, no matter how Xiao Fen dodged or turned to escape, he would be hit by the Matchlock.

Xiao Fen could not imagine what chain reactions would be brought about by his body being hit by a Matchlock at such a close distance, but in any case, he had to do something before Sophie reached the dangerous distance of 5 meters to avoid something even worse later.

Seeing that Sophie was already less than 6 meters away from him, Xiao Fen suddenly raised the Staff in his hand and launched a ranged attack at Sophie.

Seeing Xiao Fen reveal his trump card, Sophie was slightly stunned. Her body turned sideways, wanting to dodge this ranged attack. Unexpectedly, the first Skill stored in this Staff was an Armor Corrosive Poison Agent, which originally belonged to the splashing type. If it missed, it would immediately scatter in the air. Although it did not splash Sophie head-on, a part of it still sprinkled onto Sophie’s back.

“A Staff that changes attack methods? I didn’t expect you to have such a good thing.”

Although Sophie said this, her speed slowed down. She did not continue to pursue the absolute kill distance but raised her gun and fired a shot at Xiao Fen.