Ye Tianxie’s defense had been pitiful to begin with, and under Frenzied Battle Intent it fell lower still — and given his health, two hits from an ordinary Little Raccoon would have been enough to finish him. Against this mini-BOSS, stronger than an ordinary raccoon, he could very well be killed outright in a single blow.
Having cleared the raccoons around him, Ye Tianxie made no move to restore his health. Instead he charged straight at the Little Raccoon Chieftain barreling toward him, and before it could close, the Hour of Eternal Fate was already swinging — its two-meter reach catching the chieftain right across the belly, drawing up a red -242.
The strike landed, and Ye Tianxie was already withdrawing as the chieftain launched its own attack, retreating clear of its range. A raccoon’s attacks came chiefly from its forepaws — but those paws, unfortunately, weren’t long, nothing at all beside his near-two-meter reach. Larger though the chieftain was, its attack range was scarcely better than its underlings’. Its claw swept through empty air, and it charged him with a roar… but its movement speed was little better than an ordinary raccoon’s, and inferior to a Ye Tianxie 30% faster than usual.
Ye Tianxie governed the distance between them, retreating and attacking at once, holding the chieftain in precisely the band where the Hour of Eternal Fate could reach it and its forepaws could not reach him, whittling its health away one comfortable stroke at a time.
This was, in essence, kiting of a peculiar sort. A more technically demanding sort than the usual… and a more contemptible one.
In virtual gaming, movement speed was without question a crucial attribute, and its importance lay not merely in how long a journey took, but in how profoundly it shaped tactics and outcomes. Against a powerful enemy, “crucial” became “absolutely decisive.” High movement speed vastly improved one’s ability to hold an enemy in check, and allowed clean escape from foes too strong to face. Among all classes, the Assassin possessed the greatest movement speed; their mobility perfectly offset their low defense and low health, making ambush, hit-and-run, harassment, and flight all equally viable.
And Ye Tianxie’s reflexes and awareness far exceeded an ordinary Assassin’s, and he could exploit a speed differential to perfection — so the Little Raccoon Chieftain, having met him, was doomed from the start.
-241, -244, -236…
He attacked and retreated, keeping the gap precisely calibrated. The chieftain very likely needed only a single hit to kill a Ye Tianxie sitting below 20% health — yet however desperately it attacked, however furiously it ran and roared, it could not touch him. And the Hour of Eternal Fate raked mercilessly across its belly, again and again.
Perhaps Ye Tianxie himself hadn’t noticed: under his extraordinarily high Focus, his recovery after each strike was markedly faster than an ordinary player’s, the stall each attack imposed on his body minimal — leaving the chieftain no opening at all.
-250, -237, -470!
With a long, mournful whimper, the Little Raccoon Chieftain’s health finally emptied under a style of fighting that could fairly be called shameless, contemptible, and utterly without honor, and it toppled mid-charge.
In the novice village’s Abyss trial he had weathered twelve one-star BOSSes, twelve two-star BOSSes, and twelve three-star BOSSes in succession, capped by a hair-raising duel with a Level 20 Lord BOSS. Against that, this Level 15 two-star elite — which would currently send nearly every player in the game running — was plainly beneath notice, offering neither challenge nor thrill. That capability rested not on his gear or his stats, but on his own ability: those inhuman reflexes, and a staggering judgment that let him settle on a counter-strategy in an instant, based on his opponent’s traits and the terrain around him.
Two silver, a few potions, and a piece of equipment glowing dull bronze burst from the chieftain’s body and fell to the ground.
Resilient Pauldrons — Level 15 Bronze. Use Requirement: Level 15 melee class. Defense +20, Strength +6, Constitution +5. Pauldrons that feel very hard to the touch; they ought to offer decent defense.
Resignedly, he stowed the Level 15 Bronze piece in his backpack. With his Luck of 12, and having single-handedly annihilated whole packs of elites and BOSSes in the Abyss trial, he was confident he currently owned the largest and finest hoard of top-grade equipment in the entire Huaxia battle zone. But — and this was a grievance he couldn’t suppress — apart from those few pieces with no class restriction, no amount of powerful gear could do anything but lie quietly in his backpack, unequippable.
He needed a class, urgently. Even the most ordinary class, if he could advance right now, would do. With a class, his attributes would rise accordingly — and being able to wear gear was secondary. What mattered more was that he could possess class-exclusive skills, and with them more ways to attack, more ways to control an enemy, and far more strategic options against powerful foes. At present, apart from Frenzied Battle Intent from the skill scroll, his only means of attack was a plain swing.
Put simply: without skills, a great deal of the pleasure of slaughter was missing.
Crouching down, Ye Tianxie cast Gathering on the chieftain’s fat body as usual.
“Ding… You have gathered one raccoon pelt.”
Raccoon Pelt — Pelt from a Little Raccoon Chieftain. Tougher than that of an ordinary Little Raccoon; can be used to craft light armor.
“Ding… There are no further items to gather.”
He stood, exhaled slowly, and opened the Level Rankings.
Fifth Place: Xietian. Level 11. Class: None.
One afternoon, three hours, and his ranking had rocketed from outside the top hundred to fifth. While other players formed party after party to swarm Level 10 monsters, Ye Tianxie was carrying less than 100 HP and hunting Level 15 monsters by the pack in a near-berserk state. Per unit of time, the experience he gained was many times an ordinary leveling player’s.
“In any game world where I exist, first place will never belong to another.”
This was no boast of arrogance, but a statement backed by absolute strength and absolute confidence.
To Ye Tianxie such a pace was entirely unremarkable, but to the players watching the Level Rankings, the speed of his ascent left no telling how many slack-jawed, over and over. Xietian — the name that had rung across the whole of Huaxia in a single day, the mysterious figure who had single-handedly cleared an Abyss trial no one else has cleared to this day, the man now fixed in the sights of countless powerhouses and great factions. His terrifying leveling speed showed every player in Huaxia his strength once again, with their own eyes.
And then he resumed his hunt for Little Raccoons. (Little Raccoons: Damn you, human! What did we ever do to you?!)
(End of Chapter 88)