Chapter 23: Shoot to Kill

Snap!

Potts did not understand why his actions were so secretive, yet they were still known by Dean who stood before him; his heart filled with shock, and as the arrow arrived in front of him, he merely defended by instinctively swinging his sword.

Being able to slash down an arrow shot from a Crossbow, an arrow shot from a Longbow was naturally not a problem for Potts; with the swing of his Longsword, that arrow was chopped down, but the Snow Bear behind Potts raised its bear paw.

Roar!

The bear paw swung out; even Dean, who was in the tree, seemed to feel the wind pressure and slightly lowered his body; needless to say, this was even more so for Potts who faced such an attack head-on!

Although he rolled on the ground at the first moment, Potts’ Armor caused his movement to slow down—unlike the leather armor of other Knight Order members, as the Knight Order Regiment Commander, Potts, who possessed the true strength of a Knight, wore Half-Body Armor, forged from steel, which was not only solid and sturdy but also looked majestic.

However, at this moment, that majestic Half-Body Armor became Potts’ greatest burden.

Bang!

Mixed with the teeth-grating sound of metal twisting, Potts, who had activated the Knight’s unique power [Power Burst], was merely grazed on the edge by the bear paw, yet his body flew away in response; after drawing an arc in the air, he tumbled repeatedly in the snow, dragging out a long, glaring red trail, and finally lay prone in the snow, motionless.

Whoosh!

Almost at the moment when the Ferrchelen Knight Order Regiment Commander was swatted away by the Snow Bear, Ye Qi’s arrow arrived; however, the target was not Potts, who lay in the snow, but the Snow Bear that he had lured over—that’s right, when Ye Qi built this ‘stage’, he had no intention of letting any of the ‘actors’ participating in the performance go.

Neither the members of the Ferrchelen Knight Order nor the Snow Bear before him.

If the former were evil and deserved death, the latter was not much different—in the memories of his previous life, about a month and a half later, this Snow Bear would have madly rushed into a village under the jurisdiction of the Tier Territory, slaughtering over half of the village before walking away arrogantly.

This was not the first time the other party had done such a thing.

According to the recollections of the locals in the Tier Territory, the other party had done this four times in ten years.

Clearly, the salty taste of human flesh made the other party unable to stop; otherwise, Dean’s lure would not have been so smooth.

Snap!

The arrow on the Longbow accurately hit the Snow Bear, but the thick fur and fat made such an attack insignificant; only the arrow tip pierced in, while most of the arrow remained outside, and with the movement of the Snow Bear, this arrow ‘hanging’ on the other party’s body quickly fell off.

However, this was enough to attract the attention of this bloodthirsty Snow Bear—

Roar!

With a roar, the Snow Bear twisted its huge body and charged towards the big tree where Dean was located.

Bang!

In the collision between the huge body and the tree trunk, the sufficiently thick tree fell with a ‘creak’, smashing heavily into the snow, kicking up countless snowflakes and making the surroundings a vast expanse of white; then, there was another loud roar, and that Snow Bear was undoubtedly announcing its status as the overlord of this jungle.

And what greeted it was Dean’s arrow—

Different from the arrow of the Longbow before, Dean, who had scrambled to another big tree using a rope before the Snow Bear hit the tree, raised the Crossbow that had just been strung, and then pulled the trigger.

Whoosh!

Carrying several times the force of a Longbow, the Crossbow arrow sank about a quarter of its length into the neck of the Snow Bear.

Roar!

There was another loud roar, but compared to before, this one contained pain, and… anger!

Bang, bang, bang…

Anger made this Snow Bear completely enter a crazed state, madly ramming the big tree where Dean was; one big tree after another fell under such impacts, while Dean used the power of the rope to dodge this Snow Bear’s attacks again and again.

Until that Snow Bear went from the excitement of rage to panting with exhaustion.

Of course, the poison on the Crossbow arrow also took effect with the passage of time.

And Dean, who had been dodging in the trees relying on the rope, also stopped his flight; the Longbow on his back appeared in his hand once more.

The readied arrow was aimed at the eyes of the Snow Bear, whose movements had slowed by more than half due to exhaustion and the onset of the poison…

The bowstring, mixed from ox tendons and deer tendons and soaked in potion more than ten times, was slowly pulled open under Dean’s exertion; coordinated with rhythmic breathing, the bowstring with the arrow formed a full moon shape—

Whoosh!

Dean released the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of his right hand the next moment; the arrow shot out instantly like a meteor, as if it had been practiced thousands of times, and pierced into the Snow Bear’s eye without the slightest deviation.

Roar!

The Snow Bear, which had already begun to tire, once again let out a sky-shaking roar, and then madly launched another attack at Dean—the reason Snow Bears became an existence that made even Knights turn pale at the mention of them was precisely because of this berserk state once they were injured!

If a Snow Bear in normal circumstances was only a little stronger than Knights, then once it entered a berserk state, it was far beyond—dealing with a berserk Snow Bear required the combined Strength of three to five Knights; otherwise, there was absolutely no chance of winning.

Of course, these three to five Knights joining forces would not be a head-on clash; instead, like Dean at this moment, they would use skillful tactics to skirmish with the Snow Bear until the very last of the other party’s Stamina was completely drained!

Undoubtedly, Dean, who was fully prepared, did very well—those ropes played a key role at this moment; every swing allowed Dean to open a safe distance from the berserk Snow Bear, and the gap between the tree and the ground made this safe distance even more reliable.

And the poison on the arrow gave the victory its final ownership.

Regarding the use of poison, Dean, who was once an Assassin and killer, felt no shame whatsoever; what he needed was to complete his mission more quickly and safely, not to observe so-called ‘Knight honor’, even if he was once a Knight; after all, the destruction of the Emerald Kingdom back then and eleven years of life on the run were enough to change anyone.

Dean was naturally no exception.

Although he had now returned to his youth, Dean did not intend to change anything; what he needed was redemption, not so-called change—

Whoosh!

Another arrow dripping with poison shot down from the tree, and the Snow Bear, which had entered an exhausted state again, tried hard to dodge, but its huge, clumsy body found it difficult to truly dodge under the condition of reduced Stamina; with a slight deviation, Dean’s arrow shot into it from the corner of the Snow Bear’s eye.

This time, the Snow Bear let out that roar again, but it did not enter the berserk state again.

After all, even for a creature like a Snow Bear, Stamina was limited; no matter how angry it was mentally, without enough Stamina to support it, it was just a bluff.

Thump!

Finally, the Snow Bear’s body swayed a few times before falling into the snow, kicking up patches of snowflakes.

[Ranged Weapon (Bow/Crossbow) +1]

A line of new information appeared in the data that only Dean could see—clearly, facing powerful opponents made Skill proficiency easier to obtain.

Of course, more XP could also be obtained—

[XP+40]

A white light ball the size of a pigeon’s egg flew straight into Dean’s body—instantly, all the XP previously invested returned.

And forty points of XP was not much different from Dean’s expectation.

If the Strength were equal, facing a Snow Bear would yield about thirty to thirty-five points of XP; now that he was far weaker than his opponent, even though he became the final winner through various setups and tools, receiving one-quarter to one-third more XP was still a normal level.

However, this was obviously not Dean’s final harvest—

His bow and arrow were aimed at Potts, who was lying prone in the snow.

The Regiment Commander of the Ferrchelen Knight Order was clearly very good at disguising; not only did he restrain his breathing, but he also relied on the ice and snow to prevent his Blood from flowing out too much, in order to delay time and prepare to find an opportunity to deal him a fatal counterattack.

Such a plan could not be called ingenious, nor could it be called crude; it was just an instinctive reaction.

However, it was precisely because of such an instinctive reaction that everything became complicated; because people who follow instinctive reactions do not consider the so-called consequences.

Simply put, even if they die, they will drag someone down with them!

When your Longsword pierces the enemy’s chest, you will suddenly discover that there is an extra Dagger in your abdomen; Dean had seen too many examples of such a dying blow taking away the other party’s life—during the time he acted as an Assassin and killer, the vast majority of people he met were such existences.

Therefore, Dean would never believe a person who looked like they were dying on the surface; unless… corresponding XP floated out from their body.