Chapter 38: Petrification

The real world is not a video game.

Before a boss makes its grand entrance, it does not grant you a sudden cinematic cutscene, nor does it utilize a sprawling, wide-open arena and high-pitched, stirring background music to set the stage for the impending bitter struggle.

The onset of battle, much like its conclusion, is abrupt and fleeting.

Most of the time, it is like a wild rabbit beneath a falcon’s talons, or a mosquito in a tree frog’s mouth. Facing the far more powerful predators of the natural world, adventurers often turn into corpses before they even comprehend what kind of danger they are up against.

First was Larry, who was closest.

Clad in tight armor with sweat still pouring down his face, he was halfway turned around, showing off the exquisite statue he had discovered to Doris behind him. But immediately after, a sudden loss of sensation creeping from his spine, paired with the horrified look in the blonde girl’s eyes, made him realize something was wrong.

There was no time to look back.

Larry instinctively reached out as far as he could, seemingly trying to expend every ounce of his remaining strength to push Doris out of harm’s way.

Yet, in a startling twist, the slender blonde girl—who looked fragile enough to be blown over by a gust of wind—displayed a courage entirely different from her usual self at this critical moment. Instead of turning to flee, she took a proactive step forward. Her face was pale yet resolute as she tightly gripped Larry’s hands with both of hers.

Leaning her body violently backward, her thin arms trembled with exerted force as she tried to pull him out of danger.

The two, who had been constantly at odds since the beginning of the mission, finally found absolute clarity regarding their relationship under the catalyst of a life-or-death crisis.

But it ended there.

No matter how deeply moving or heartbreaking a love might be, when confronted with a terrifying, tier-breaking power, it would ultimately scatter like ashes in the wind.

A lifeless, pale, deathly grey spread from Larry’s back at a speed visible to the naked eye, devouring both vitality and color along its path.

The spine, the chest, the stomach, the arms…

It took only the span of a single breath.

Larry and Doris remained frozen in their posture of locking eyes and pulling at one another. One could even clearly see the stray strands of hair whipping across the girl’s cheek, and the veins bulging violently along Larry’s neck.

Yet the two of them had now become just like the sculptures of snakes and scorpions on the ground.

They were turned into two perfectly motionless, deathly silent, pale stone statues.

Second were Haian, the half-elf, and his guard, Wood.

Even though they were further away, they still failed to evade the onslaught of that unknown power. Almost at the exact moment the shout to keep watch rang out, a crisp sound echoed.

A fragile item on the half-elf’s person suddenly shattered.

Immediately following, a brilliant emerald-green light, as vibrant as a fresh sprout after rainfall, abruptly erupted from Haian’s waist, enveloping his entire body in an instant. The air in front of him warped and distorted, as if an invisible force was being forcibly obstructed by the green light radiating from the half-elf.

It lasted only a split second.

A look of sheer ignorance still lingered on Haian’s face. It wasn’t until the next second that he realized they had suffered an ambush, and the magical item meant to save his life had been consumed to do so.

Wood was the only professional in the entire squad. Even if he wasn’t considered a particularly prominent existence among them and was far from reaching the boundary known as the Extraordinary, the ultra-high agility granted to him by the Rogue class still allowed him to react instantly.

His figure blurred in an instant, the dark shadow beneath him trailing alongside his footsteps.

He did not dodge, nor did he parry. Instead, he withdrew his entire mind and concentrated every ounce of his attention within that fraction of a second. Like a bitter ascetic welcoming the crashing waves on a coastline, his teeth clenched and his entire body tensed as he faced the invisible force surging through the air like a tide.

The air hummed.

His body stiffened violently, then suddenly relaxed. The outstanding physical attributes brought by being a professional allowed him to forcibly endure the erosion of this invisible force.

There was absolutely no time to celebrate his survival.

This usually calm and collected Rogue displayed an incredibly disheveled state at this moment. He lunged around abruptly, throwing himself toward the half-elf he was protecting.

“Run!”

Finally, there was Xia Nan, located on the other side of the courtyard.

Having already decided to pack up and head home with the intent of returning to explore these ruins in the future, he hadn’t harbored any desire to bring back souvenirs. He hadn’t cared much for Larry’s excited shouting, and as a result, he had lagged at the very rear of the group.

And it was precisely because of this that whether it was the pulling and petrification of Larry and Doris, or the green light that erupted from the half-elf later on, he witnessed almost everything that transpired on the field.

But much like the ripples raised by a dewdrop falling upon a water surface, or the subtle arc carved by a flying bird flapping its wings, those images that appeared incomparably clear and detailed in your eyes were, in reality, the most hurried split seconds in time.

Xia Nan felt he had achieved the absolute limit of what he could manage.

Larry turned his head—Xia Nan halted his advancing steps.

Wood called out a warning—Xia Nan instinctively reached back to grip his sword hilt.

The green light flashed on Haian—the iron-grey Beheading Longsword was drawn from his back.

Yet, by the time the Rogue’s shout to run reached his ears, was converted into comprehensible information by his brain, issued a command, transmitted through his nerves, and prompted his muscles to drive his bones into taking his very first step, that invisible force—which seemed to have already filled the air like a mist—arrived before him.

A heavy roar echoed in his mind.

The world seemed to have been placed on mute, and the vibrant, bright colors before his eyes gradually faded away.

It was difficult to describe Xia Nan’s current sensation in words. It was like winter swimming in temperatures over twenty degrees below zero. First came a fleeting coldness and stinging pain across the surface of his skin, as though the bitter chill within a river was trying to seep through his pores into his muscles and bones. Then came numbness, as the sensations in the areas eroded by the freezing air gradually vanished as if frozen solid.

But immediately following, his body—sensing a crisis—instinctively constricted its blood vessels. The resulting accelerated blood circulation caused surges of warm currents to emerge from all over his body, resisting the intrusion from the outside world.

The two precious attribute points granted to Xia Nan by his Expert tier Sweeping Slash, combined with his resilient willpower forged across two lifetimes, allowed his body and mind to form a defensive wall at this moment, stopping the petrification power from eroding further into his internal systems.

He had passed the test that decided life or death.

His consciousness blurred for a brief moment, and then the colors before him surged back into existence. His fingertips, knees, and even the toes of the leather boots beneath his feet had already been coated in a layer of pale, deathly grey.

Within his line of sight, Haian was being tucked under Wood’s arm as they dashed toward the dense forest outside the courtyard. The half-elf’s face was filled with terror, his bloodless lips opening and closing as he shouted two words toward Xia Nan:

“Run fast!”

It was only at this moment that the culprit behind the near-total annihilation of the entire squad within a single breath finally dragged its bloated, massive body forward. Taking the leisurely, unhurried steps characteristic of a predator, it slowly crawled out from the mist-shrouded dense forest behind the courtyard.

(End of Chapter)