Chapter 33: Against an army (2)
Behind Jake was a dense wall of roots with only one opening to the wolf zone.
It'd be stupid to expose that break, so Jake understood he couldn't turn around and run in this direction.
And before he ranked an army of monkeys whose little hands were already clenching stones. It was only a matter of time before they would hurl them at him.
[Archer Lv. 7 HP: 237/280 MP: 280/280]
'We killed a few monkeys, and I still haven't sustained that many health points losses,' Jake thought, 'I will use this as a chance to practice my perception skill. If I die, I die.'
Crumbling into his Master Form, Jake deeply inhaled and stared ahead. He was a common archer now, so striking down this army in a short time was clearly a dream.
In the Master Form, however, he could move his torso close to ninety degrees to either side and behind, which meant he could dodge many more stones in this stance.
In the first place, it was dangerous for an archer to fight this many enemies at once. Nonetheless, Jake wanted his archery to harness every aspect of the fantasy world, including his going against armies alone.
Today, he'd take the first step toward that goal!
'Focus!' Jake screamed while breathing in through his meditation method.
Locking his eyes on one of the monkeys, Jake focused on his archery and perception.
His focus deepened so much that everything else other than stones and the monkey he chose as his target vanished. The trajectory line toward his foe extended like an invisible arrow.
At the same time, various stones were only short seconds before hitting him. Those pebbles, however, were already in Jake's perception bubble, meaning he could sense some of them.
A few ominous spots dotted him.
Jake understood those were the monkeys' attacks about to hit him. He turned his upper body to the side to have those attacks hit the toughest part of his wolf armor.
Once he properly defended himself against them, more perilous marks dawned on him. Many more stones had him perfectly, crushing his armor and extracting its precious durability points.
Jake was quite lucky that none of these had hit his eyes.
Still, he defended himself well while building up his attack. He took time because Jake understood he couldn't waste too much time and arrows on one monkey.
What he needed was a single and clear, decisive arrow.
One for one!
Jake was also aware that those monkeys could be killed with one arrow. He could take one-third of their health points with a single arrow, so he could achieve his goal if he upped his game and style.
That was when Jake repeated the miracle from the first day.
In his highly focused state, he took hold of his perception and Richard's Survival Three Kit and added it to his trajectory line. It had given him a feeling that he could read the monkey's movement or even control him like a puppeteer. It was like he knew everything about his opponent, not to just extract valuable resources but even to kill.
The monkey's small head became Jake's target.
For a second, Jake had a crosshair on the monkey's forehead.
The next second, his bowstring slid on the thumb, shooting forth the arrow.
Its whistle dwarfed the monkey army's screeches and the stones barreling into the archer. It was such a powerful whistle that a few monkeys couldn't have stopped themselves from turning around and finding out what it was.
Was it even the arrow?
It indeed was.
The arrow flew past everyone and lodged deeply in the monkey's forehead. Its arrowhead protruded from the other side, but that still wasn't what shocked and silenced the scene.
The little monkey's head had been yanked off his neck and forcefully separated. It rolled on the ground while the headless body still dangled for a few precious seconds on the tree's branch, only to lifelessly thud onto the forest's floor.
[You have done a severe critical strike.]
[-330 HP!]
[You have learned a new skill by taking the Perception Skill and Richard's Survival Three Kit, adding them to your archery offense!]
[Name it, or the game system will do it in your stead...]
"Death's Lock," Jake whispered.
[Death's Lock(Common)(Active)(50 MP)—Utilize your two passive skills(Perception Skill and Richard's Survival Three Kit) and turn them into a trajectory arrow toward the selected entity to increase chances of hitting and delivering severe damage to them through your archery. The more familiar you are with the entity's kind, the higher the damage.
On a successful kill, restore Death's Lock skill's mana cost.]
Jake blew out the cold air, his eyes shining bright in the dark forest.
He checked his stats.
[Archer Lv. 7 HP: 171/280 MP: 280/280]
'It's doable,' Jake thought. This time, he was more confident in achieving his goal and was sure he didn't jinx himself.
In the monkey's eyes, he suddenly turned into a predator. They would have understood that if he were a swordsman and had done a clean sweep with a steel sword on their kind, but he was an archer with a wooden bow and arrows!
No normal archer should have this much power!
Their fear turned into an agitation, driving them crazy.
All monkeys screeched at Jake, with the bravest ones flanking him. The rest tightened their hands on the stones in their grasps and threw them at him with their strongest force!
Jake, however, only inhaled in and activated his newest skill by glancing at the icon at the bottom of his vision. Combining that with his meditation method, Jake drowned himself in the immense focus and power, his eyes shining like the soul eyes of the Grim Reaper.
He drew the bowstring and soon let the arrow go.
BANG!
Another one fell.
A second later, another monkey dropped flat on its chest.
One by one, the left flank of brave monkeys fell dead at the archer's hands.
Standing up and getting into his Soldier Form, Jake faced the right flank while the deluge of stones still crushed onto him…
He was now like a lone soldier, yet anyone who peeked into his eyes wouldn't write him off…
Author's note: Hello! I've been told that the story is slow again, so I'd like to ask everyone for their opinion as the beauty of webnovel is that I can ask you at any time! If the story is really that slow, you can also share your ideas how to fix that! Thank you for reading!
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