Chapter 99 - 98: Backstab, A Dying Counterattack!

Sure enough, on the morning of the second day after the vice captain led his team away, Rick Kaye finally saw the Seven Star Grass mature.

Gazing at the leaves, which sparkled like a starry night sky and exuded a rich Vitality, he immediately rushed out, opening with his ultimate strike—Thunder Prison Cage! This was his signature Skill. Compared to Thunder Net Sky Net, the large-scale binding Skill he had used back in District Nine, this one was a single-target confinement. Even a large, terrifyingly strong beast like the Sixth Tier Two-headed Lizard would struggle to break free from it in a short amount of time.

The four of them had discussed their strategy beforehand: Rick would take the lead in binding the Two-headed Lizard, while Lana Florian would seize the opportunity to blind it with her Aurora Ice Arrow.

Lana had fought alongside him for many years, so their coordination was naturally seamless. The very moment he confined the beast, her Ice Arrow was already airborne, whistling straight toward its eyes. Unfortunately, the Two-headed Lizard reacted quickly, squeezing its eyes shut just as she released the shot. Its skin boasted formidable defenses. Although Lana’s Aurora Ice Arrow was enhanced by her hidden Light Attribute, she was ultimately only at the Fifth Tier. The Ice Arrow merely punctured the lizard’s eyelids without causing any substantial damage to its eyes. Instead, it thoroughly enraged the beast!

While the thunder net restrained its body, it couldn’t seal its Abilities. Its left head opened its maw wide, spewing flames that completely engulfed its body, while its right mouth spat out countless Ice Blades.

Fortunately, the thunder net weakened the power of some of the Ice Blades. Furthermore, Flynn Jenkins quickly erected an Earth Wall in front of Lana. When the Ice Blades destroyed the wall, they shattered and melted into mung-bean-sized ice beads, scattering across the ground without harming a single hair on her head. Flynn, however, suffered an Ability backlash and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Following Lana’s failed attack, Scarlett Thorne executed her ultimate Skill—Water Vortex. The water swirled around the Two-headed Lizard and fused with Rick’s thunder, amplifying the force of his attack. Even so, the battle had only reached a stalemate; the Two-headed Lizard wasn’t losing ground in the slightest.

Rick pulled out the concentrated venom Sev Steele had prepared for him and sprayed it wildly over the beast. Having just dodged Lana’s Aurora Ice Arrow, the Two-headed Lizard opened its eyes and glared down at its feet.

Rick had originally wanted to conserve some strength, but seeing that their side lacked the upper hand, he grew anxious. Since the Two-headed Lizard’s endurance far exceeded theirs, he could only grit his teeth and unleash his second Skill—Thunder Shred.

Thunder Shred was exactly as its name implied. Anyone struck by this Skill would be pulverized into ashes by immense thunder, leaving absolutely no remains. It was exceptionally powerful, but it would drain over eighty percent of Rick’s Ability.

Sure enough, the Two-headed Lizard convulsed from the electrocution and collapsed to the ground.

Because he had expended so much Ability, Rick’s perception had dropped significantly. By the time he sensed the fierce gust of wind striking from behind, it was too late to dodge. He managed to twist his body slightly, causing the sharp blade meant for his heart to stab into his shoulder blade instead.

The moment the blade entered his flesh, a bone-piercing chill seeped through the wound. In the blink of an eye, the cold froze his entire shoulder and back, stiffening his right arm so completely that he couldn’t move it an inch.

He didn’t look back, but he already knew exactly who had backstabbed him.

It was the Tiger Thorn. He had spent more than half his life savings to buy the SS Level Alloy for it. Then, he had risked life and limb to hunt down a Sixth Tier mutated Snow Fox with an Ice Attribute. Finally, he had promised a massive favor to get Weapon Master Foster Hawke to forge the weapon personally for her.

He had always thought that, as a girl, she would be at a physical disadvantage when fighting large beasts, inevitably getting hurt if they closed the distance. With this SS Level Tiger Thorn, coupled with her Ice Attribute enhancing its lethality, a close-range sneak attack would boast an almost guaranteed success rate.

But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that one day, this Tiger Thorn would be used to stab him in the back.

At this moment, the chill in his heart was far colder than his frozen body. It even birthed a kind of apocalyptic grief and indignation.

Rick hadn’t broken through to the Seventh Tier on talent and luck alone—it was mostly due to his decisive ruthlessness. In just a few short seconds, he suppressed his useless emotions and unleashed his hidden ultimate Skill—Dawn—which symbolized shattering the dark cage to welcome the morning light.

He channeled every last drop of his remaining Ability, which was less than twenty percent, and condensed it into nine little birds. This was the absolute limit of what he could muster right now.

If Sev Steele were here, she would have recognized that the little birds were unmutated hummingbirds. They possessed sharp, needle-like beaks and flew as fast as lightning.

This was a Skill Rick had accidentally awakened back at the Third Tier, when a Fourth Tier Earth Ability User trapped him in an Earth Prison while he was covering Lana’s escape. The humiliation of being trapped made the intensely prideful young man too embarrassed to admit how he had comprehended it. Because of this, Lana had never known about his hidden Skill.

Once the Thunder Hummingbirds took shape, they would lock onto their designated target, biting down relentlessly and pecking like mad. When one dissipated, the next would take its place, repeating the cycle until they drilled straight through their prey.

Only after releasing the Thunder Hummingbirds did Rick slowly turn around, casting a dead, frigid gaze over the three people present. Given their Levels, none of them could withstand three of his little birds.

When Lana and the other two saw the Thunder Birds rushing toward them, they didn’t yet realize how terrifying they were. However, Flynn habitually summoned an Earth Wall to shield Lana, while Scarlett habitually cowered behind her.

As a Water Element Ability user who hadn’t comprehended any combat-oriented Skills, Scarlett was weak in both offense and defense. Because of this, she had always trailed behind Lana as a lapdog, enjoying her protection and riding her coattails. Lana’s sudden sneak attack on Rick had nearly scared her to death just now, but she hadn’t hesitated for a single second to take Lana’s side.

After all, she was Lana’s die-hard companion. Even if she claimed she hadn’t known about the betrayal beforehand, Rick wouldn’t possibly believe her. Furthermore, Rick’s Ability was already largely depleted, and he had just suffered Lana’s backstab. If the three of them teamed up to besiege him, he was dead for sure.

Flynn, of course, shared her reasoning. What’s more, he harbored a secret affection for Lana, guaranteeing he would stand by her.

But he hadn’t expected Rick to still be capable of casting a Skill despite his nearly empty Ability reserves and Lana’s heavy blow. To Flynn, however, this was nothing more than a dying struggle.

That was until the Earth Wall he erected was swiftly drilled through by the three little birds and collapsed with a crash. The resulting Ability backlash made him spit out fresh blood, finally making him realize that Rick’s attack was far more than a dying struggle. A Skill of this intensity might even drag all three of them down with him into mutual destruction.

Earth Ability Users excelled at defense, and Flynn was exceptionally cautious by nature. He immediately yelled, "Run!"

Lana and Scarlett dismissed him, assuming he was making a fuss over nothing. Lana even fired off dozens of Ice Arrows again, intending to finish Rick off completely and destroy his corpse in the process.

After all, as a Seventh Tier Thunder Ability User, his bones might have undergone the Thunder Quenching Body process, turning them light purple. If a passerby happened to find his skeleton, they might deduce his identity. She was going to pierce his bones into a honeycomb, freeze them solid, and then smash them to pieces. That way, she could eradicate all traces of his body.

As for his Space Button, she had no intention of taking it. His Space Button was bound to a biological chip—no one but him could open it. Besides, Rick couldn’t possibly afford a special Space Button like Arvin Stone’s. He funneled seventy percent of his earnings into supporting Lana, leaving the remaining thirty percent barely enough to buy resources for his own Ability progression.

At the exact moment she released the Ice Arrows, Lana suddenly felt a sharp, piercing pain in her chest. She looked down and nearly screamed in terror.