Chapter 127 - Snatching Food From The Tiger’s Mouth
Chapter 127: Snatching Food From The Tiger’s Mouth
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The distance between Soran and the Hunters got smaller and smaller.
The night was the best cover for Rogues. Soran did not leave any tracks in the moonlight. Even when he moved, he had only left very indistinct footprints. To have perfect stealth, you needed the combination of spells and spell-like abilities in addition to a high-level Sneak. You also required the combination of Greater Lighten Object and Greater Haste. Soran did not meet those conditions yet, but he was still not easily found by the enemy.
It was almost dawn now, and the vigilant hunters were a little lax.
Two hundred meters, one hundred and fifty meters, one hundred meters.
When Soran moved closer, to about eighty ninety meters, he stopped and began to disappear. He was not hiding in the shadows, but had activated Shadow Jump and crossed directly and temporarily into the Shadow Plane. The surrounding in the realm was still black and white. Even at night, the moonlight was gray. The Shadow Plane seemed to be static and silent, you would never forget it.
In the next moment, the shadow of the high-grade Gnoll began to twist. The dancing fire created a shadow of a demon with claws and teeth. Then the shadow turned into a hazy and unclear figure. At the same time, a curved sword pierced through the Gnolls back. The snowy-white fish scaled sword reflected the golden light of the flames. Right as the sword pierced the heart of the high-grade Gnoll, it startled the other hunters.
A row of data appeared in front Soran:
“Activated Dark vision!”
“Activated Shadow Jump!”
“Activated Shadowstrike!”
“Shadow Jump successful!…activated plane crossing ability Shadow Jump!…Shadowstrike successful!… You received 9 Shadow Damage buff!…Activated Backstab!…You have dealt 154 Piercing Damage to the target!”
Everything happened in instant.
The hunters awakened by the light of the sword rushed over. When the high-grade Gnoll opened his eyes, a sword had already come out from his chest and pierced his heart directly. But it did not die at once. Instead, a reddish glow appeared in its pupils. With the furious roar, all the muscles of its body swelled up at once, and its hand waved at Soran’s throat. The metal blade on its claw cut Soran’s face, but only left a very shallow cut. After he had struck the Gnoll, he had also swiftly withdrawn his sword.
In an instant, the curved sword was pulled out!
Fresh blood gushed out like a fountain. The figure of the high-grade Gnoll stiffened for a moment, then rushed toward Soran with a roar. The Gnoll did not care about anything and only wanted to kill Soran. Soran did not stop at all. Even if he couldn’t kill the enemy with one blow, he quickly escaped into the shadows and launched the ability [Evade Sight].
Soran was once again in a stealth status.
The high-grade Gnoll seemed to have gone crazy. He attacked everything in front of him indiscriminately. A mixed-blood Orc’s belly was burst opened as it was too close to the claws.
It was a mess near the campfire. The other hunters watched the Gnoll helplessly bleed out from its chest. No one dared to get too close to it. It was obviously insane. Its claws cut the nearby bushes and trees. The blood-red pupils searched for its target.
Just a second ago.
When Soran had stabbed the Gnoll with the sword, there was no instant kill message appearing in front of him, so he gave up the idea of striking it again and retreated quickly.
“Great Fortitude? Or Legendary Fortitude?”
Soran felt some pain on his face and knew he had been scratched by the enemy’s sharp claws. After a distance of about ten meters, he immediately activated Evade Vision and hid in the shadows. As a veteran adventurer, Soran was sure that he had stabbed his opponent in the heart. However, because the Gnoll did not die instantly, then there could only be one reason!
The opponent must have possessed the ability [Great Fortitude] or even [Legendary Fortitude].
The Gnoll was a pure-bred close quarters combat profession of level 18, whose physical abilities were borderline supernatural.
Soran was now fifty meters away from them.
All the hunters had woken up and looked around with vigilant and uneasy eyes. The high-grade Gnoll still stood in place, its desperate and bloodthirsty eyes still trying to find Soran’s tracks. A lot of blood had come out from its chest. Someone had tried to get close to it and heal it, but without the powers of a high-grade Priest, it was impossible to recover from such a serious injury. More and more blood was pouring out, and blood was everywhere around the high-grade Gnoll. Its eyes looked frenzied but weak at the same time.
Finally.
After being punctured in the heart, it still stood for five or six minutes before it bled too much blood and fell to the ground in a growl full of unwillingness.
A row of data appeared in front of Soran:
“Target killed!”
“Extracting soul energy from target…Received 5200 Slaughter Experience Points!”
Soran, once again, hid in the shadows.
He moved around the hunters while eyeing the high-grade Gnoll who had just fallen.
How powerful they are.
There were only some very abnormal creatures who could take a hit to the heart and still fight back, except for the Fighters in the legendary realm, of course. Since the high-grade Gnoll who Soran listed as his first target did not receive an Instant Death, then there probably were not many weak points on its body. If you wanted to kill it instantly, you would have to either destroy its brain or behead it!
High-grade melee professions could develop both extremely strong and resilient expertise. Soran had seen legendary melee professions with both legendary and absolute resilience who could fight for nearly 10 minutes after having their hearts pulled out from their chest.
They relied on the strength of their terminal lucidity to kill a large number of enemies at the last moments of their life. If a high-grade Priest had performed a level 9 [Greater Restoration] on them during this period, then the heart that had been taken out would be restored by divine powers.
The high-grade Gnoll had a Profession Level close to 18 so its HP would be roughly 300.
Soran’s hit did not activate the Instant Death. It could only cause about 150 damage to it. Although he could not kill it on the spot, the subsequent blood loss and organ injuries were still continuously reducing its HP. Even with the high vitality of high-grade Fighters, they still could not sustain such severe blood loss and visceral injuries for too long. Since the God of Hunting had held back its divine powers to the Gnoll and there was no Priest with a Profession Level of 15 or above, it had no chance of survival. Even if the Gnoll received treatment for its serious injuries, it would still only live for a few seconds more.
Its life force left its body and it finally died.
Although Soran killed the most dangerous high-grade Gnoll among the hunters, he was still not excited. That was because the strength of the enemy had exceeded his expectations, and he did not have the capability to kill them all. After only one attack, these enemies had become alert. They shortened the distance between each other and had expanded their area of inspection. They had basically cut off any chance for Soran to perform a sneak attack. Since Shadow Jump had been activated, Soran couldn’t cross planes. It would be very difficult for him to sneak in and try to backstab them.
If he tried to kill one enemy, then the others would undoubtedly surround him!
However, Soran did not leave because of that.
He was a patient Rogue and was determined enough to kill the enemies in front of him. He lurked around again and waited silently for new opportunities.
If the hunters continue their hunt, then a new opportunity would arise.
For Soran, who had passed grade 3, he only needed one chance to kill one enemy.
Dawn slowly crept up.
The hunters couldn’t act rashly. They would only expose themselves to danger if they acted rashly against such a proficient Rogue
They were waiting for daylight. By then, it would be easier to find the tracks of a Rogue.
The mixed-blood Orc swore angrily. He was going to cut Soran up after they had found him. But since it was still dark, the angry hunters didn’t stay apart from each other for more than fifteen steps. There were too many shadows around them. If they went beyond this distance, they might be attacked by the high-grade Rogue.
The sky got brighter and brighter.
Soran increased the distance between them to more than 200 meters, because his ability to Sneak was weakened as the day came, and because the hunters could now disperse into smaller groups to find his tracks.
A Rogue could never go head on against three opponents who were of the same Profession Level as him.
Suddenly.
Just as Soran was about to get further away from them, the hunters gave a roar of excitement then they rushed to the foot of the mountain. The vines which were once strong were beginning to wilt in large patches. The power contained in them seems to have been exhausted and were dying fast.
Out of nowhere, there was a clear call of an eagle.
The hunters slowed down they charge. Soran looked up into the sky and saw the figure of a Druid.
Sobs of Joy came from the foot of the mountain. After three days of battle, the Druids had finally found the Elves. The mixed-blood Orcs roared, then without hesitation, the hunter rushed toward the vines, trying to kill the target before the Druid approached them.
Woosh!
The mixed-blood Orc in front was shot by an arrow. Following which an athletic figure jumped down to the ground from hundreds of meters high.
It was a beautiful, tall female Elf with a crescent moon emblem on her exquisite armor. The emblem caused everyone’s expression to change. Even Soran stopped and hesitated a little. He then took a deep breath, and suddenly burst into the area inside the vines under Sneak.
A shadowy figure swiftly flew by!
Soran quickly used the handle of his sword to knock out the Elven Nobleman then started to search him.