Chapter 486 - The Mysterious Hunter
Xiao Lou stared intently at the green vines outside the invincible circle.
The compa.s.s’ invincibility time was only 10 minutes but the opponent was attacking them with cards. Most of the cards’ skill duration wouldn’t be so long, let alone cards with such a large range of action and strong lethality.
In theory, the green vines should disappear soon.
After all, the ‘invincibility’ of the compa.s.s could only be used once per day for 10 minutes. For attack cards, the skill cooldown wasn’t so long and relatively speaking, the effect time shouldn’t be that long either.
Yet the end of 10 minutes was approaching and these green vines showed no signs of disappearing.
Xiao Lou looked at the green vines dancing in a sharp manner around him and couldn’t help feeling confused. Wasn’t the strength of this card beyond the standard? They would’ve long been bundled up by the green vines without the protection of the invincible circle. There were so many vines and they were difficult to deal with. Even if Yu Hanjiang continued to slash at them, the speed at which he cut the vines wouldn’t be as fast as the vines surrounding everyone.
What should they do with these green vines?
Xiao Lou was racking his brains to think about it when Liu Qiao suddenly said, “Strange. What about those crows who were frozen just now? How come even their bodies are gone?”
The light in the alley was dim and everyone relied on the Night Pearl to see. It was just that Liu Qiao’s eyesight was excellent and the direction she was facing was exactly the direction the crows had flown from. She clearly remembered that she froze those crows with Elsa’s Snow and Ice Fall. All the crows were turned into ice statues. Then after the ice and snow melted, the crows should be frozen to death and fall to the ground.
Then what about the corpses?
Even though the crows were card summons, the only difference between the summons and real animals was that the summons obeyed their master’s commands. Animals that had been summoned couldn’t be directly recovered after being frozen and could only be used after the card skill had refreshed. For some limited cards, it could only be used in the next secret room. Just before the ice and snow melted, she obviously saw that there were crow-shaped ice statues everywhere in the air. How could they all disappear in an instant?
Liu Qiao was puzzled. Xiao Lou heard her question and thought about it carefully. A thought flashed in his mind and he couldn’t help blurting out, “Everything in this alley might be an illusion!”
How could there be green vines that constantly attacked everyone for such a long time? Could a long range attack skill last so long?
The crows were obviously frozen into ice statues. Why weren’t there any traces like crow feathers on the ground after they melted?
All of these abnormalities could only be explained by an illusion.
In the dark alley, this was very eerie.
Liu Qiao looked around and agreed. “I also think that an illusion is more likely. A hunter shouldn’t have so many strange attack cards, right?”
Xiao Lou nodded and whispered to Yu Hanjiang, “This person locked us up in the alley and used illusions to confuse us. This way, we can’t distinguish between real and false. This person is sinister enough to find an opportunity to strike.”
Yu Hanjiang added, “They want to use the illusions to drain the skills of our cards.”
Yes, this was the key.
The moment she saw the group of crows just now, Liu Qiao was helpless and released Elsa’s skill, Snow and Ice Fall. Then when he saw the green vines besieging his teammates, Xiao Lou released the invincible circle of the compa.s.s. This was a knee-jerk reaction. No one would think the attack was just an illusion.
They might have many cards in their hands but their life saving skills were very precious. They had now wasted two big moves.
1V6 meant it was very difficult for the hunter to destroy them. Therefore, the hunter used this method to consume their key skills before seizing the opportunity to act.
The biggest headache for Xiao Lou and the others was that the illusions were too real. They couldn’t tell the difference between the fake and the real. Should they have stood still and not acted when besieged by the crows and vines? Xiao Lou didn’t dare to gamble with their lives.
Every time an illusion appeared, they had to find a way to deal with it. Otherwise, what if one of them was real?
Over time, their cards would continue to be consumed and they would remain at a disadvantage.
What to do?
Yu Hanjiang took a deep breath, pressed his lips to Xiao Lou’s ear and said, “If this continues, we will be very pa.s.sive.”
Xiao Lou understood and immediately opened Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings with Yu Hanjiang.
Yu Hanjiang’s voice rang in his mind. “This hunter has a domain card that has trapped us in the alley. We can’t leave for a while and maybe they can hear us. The hunter also has a card that creates illusions. They are constantly hara.s.sing us with various illusions and making us tired, depleting our strength. They know we aren’t easy to deal with so they will definitely act when we are weakest in order to achieve their goal of killing us in one blow and cleaning up all six of us.”
Xiao Lou understood. “Are you looking for an opportunity to deliberately show weakness?”
Yu Hanjiang said, “This person is very cautious. They definitely won’t rush in unless they are completely sure about killing us. We can only pretend to be inferior and use up most of our card skills to lure them out. In any case, you have Su Shi and can refresh the skills of all the character cards. You don’t have to worry too much about using up one round of skills.”
Xiao Lou thought about it and agreed. “Yes, I will cooperate with you.”
By the time the two of them agreed on a countermeasure in their minds, the invincibility period of the compa.s.s ended. The vines had disappeared but a dense group of small spider-like objects moved toward them.
Xiao Lou said in a solemn voice, “It is the bugs.”
Yu Hanjiang simply took out the alcohol and poured it forward. Xiao Lou immediately summoned Bai Juyi to set a fire. It instantly turned into a wall of fire, blocking the progress of the bugs. The harsh squeaks of the bugs were heard around them and the group felt numb.
Long Sen couldn’t help complaining. “Is it an illusion again? Is this hunter so sneaky and relentless?”
Yu Hanjiang said coldly, “Play with the hunter until the end. I would like to see how long they can hold on.”
After the bugs, there were poisonous snakes. After the snakes, there were vampire bats…
Wave after wave of illusions were created. The illusions couldn’t directly hurt people but no one could be sure if they were illusions or real summons. Everyone was pa.s.sively defending and gradually became tired.
Yu Hanjiang asked in a low voice, “Old Mo, what about your lazy sofa?”
Old Mo took out the lazy sofa. “Everyone is tired. Let’s take turns sitting.”
In fact, Yu Hanjiang wasn’t tired. He was just pretending to be tired. He rubbed his temples and sat on the sofa to refresh himself. His other teammates were a bit tired. After all, they were in a state of high tension for over an hour. They were constantly besieged by crows, vines, spiders, bats and other strange animals and plants. Normal people would feel tired.
They took turns sitting on the sofa to recover their energy but the lazy sofa could only last a limited amount of time. Enemies kept appearing in the alley to attack them and the team dealt with wave after wave. This made them physically and mentally exhausted.
They wouldn’t feel that much fear if the hunter came out directly to fight them. However, the hunter hid in the shadows and repeatedly tormented everyone with animals, plants, demons or ghosts. This really made the team have the tired feeling of ‘punching cotton’.
It wasn’t known how many waves of attacks pa.s.sed but eventually, even Liu Qiao became agitated. She couldn’t help saying, “Is this hunter a tortoise? They don’t dare to come out and meet people?”
Old Mo immediately agreed. “The illusions can’t hurt us but I’ll be tired if this continues!”
The restless emotions of the team members continued to ferment.
They started to use aggressive methods, which showed they were impatient.
Yu Hanjiang sensed that the timing was almost right. He glanced around and said sharply, “If you want to kill us, you must find a way to get close to us. Why? You don’t intend to do so yet?”
In the empty alley, Yu Hanjiang’s voice produced a clear echo after hitting the wall but the other party didn’t answer. Xiao Lou couldn’t help admiring this person’s patience and caution.
Suddenly, a female ghost appeared in the alley. It was the ghost with long hair and white clothes that Yu Hanjiang had seen just now. Since this person was a hunter, it was easy to think of her as the master of the domain they were caught in.
Liu Qiao, Long Sen, Qu Wanyue and Old Mo quickly retreated as she approached. Meanwhile, Yu Hanjiang raised his saber and rushed forward, simply slashing at her head.
To everyone’s surprise, the female ghost didn’t hide. After her head was cut off, it rolled to the ground and landed at Yu Hanjiang’s feet. However, her face suddenly changed to look like Liu Qiao’s face and it smiled at everyone.
Liu Qiao was startled and exclaimed coldly, “Crazy! Can you scare us by pretending to be a ghost? You are underestimating us too much!”
Yu Hanjiang’s face was gloomy and his hands holding the saber trembling slightly as he pretended to be angry. Xiao Lou walked up to him, grabbed his arm gently and asked, “Are you okay?”
Yu Hanjiang frowned. “It is still an illusion.”
Xiao Lou wondered, “How many illusions can they create? Is it one card or are there many phantom cards?”
Yu Hanjiang put away his saber wearily. “I don’t know. This hunter is the strongest one we’ve encountered so far and they haven’t shown up until now. Every illusion might be the hunter.”
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and whispered in Yu Hanjiang’s ear, “Hanjiang, I don’t have many cards left and most of my skills are on cooldown. I don’t know when the enemy will appear.”
Yu Hanjiang also leaned toward his ear. “Hold on. The remaining time of the domain shouldn’t be too long.”
The moment he finished speaking, he saw several young girls appear in the distance.
The girls looked exactly the same. They were all holding red oil paper umbrellas. They wore white and black clothes and red embroidered shoes. They walked slowly toward the group as if they were strolling.
Was it an illusion again?
Xiao Lou quickly took out the compa.s.s and started to draw circles. Most of his card skills were on cooldown and only the compa.s.s could be used. His sentence was actually true but it wasn’t said to Yu Hanjiang. It was deliberately said to the hunter.
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Lou drew more than a dozen rings.
The young girls walked slowly at first. Then suddenly, the dozen or so people teleported in front of the group and surrounded them.
One second, the girls were more than 50 meters away. The next second, they were suddenly close at hand, so close that their long and thick eyelashes could be clearly seen.
The crowd was startled.
All the girls had heavy makeup on their faces. Their faces were as pale as paper and there were strange red cheeks painted on that were like ghost dolls. Their eyes were dark, they had neat bangs, they wore red embroidered shoes and held red umbrellas…
In the darkness of the night, they were surrounded by more than a dozen female ghosts, causing them to get the chills.
Yu Hanjiang told them, “Everyone, be careful. It is likely to be an illusion again!”
The moment he finished speaking, the girls suddenly started to attack them with the oil paper umbrellas.
The beautiful umbrella opened violently and each umbrella bone was like a sharp spike. It flashed with an icy l.u.s.ter and was enough to pierce their hearts in an instant!
The young girls were extremely agile and stabbed at everyone.
At this time, most of everyone’s card skills were on cooldown. They didn’t know if this was an illusion but if it wasn’t an illusion, wouldn’t it be the end when they were stabbed by the sharp umbrella bone?
The group could only dodge with all their might.
Liu Qiao flew around with the light footwork card but the young girls were like shadows. She couldn’t shake them off at all. Old Mo simply lifted the marble bricks and blocked the attacks of the umbrellas.
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue’s Chameleon cards seemed useless. Even if they integrated with the environment, the young girls could still sense where they were. The two people didn’t dare to touch the wall and had to a.s.similate with the ground.
Xiao Lou barely relied on the compa.s.s rings to block the young girls attacking him. He was in a hurry for a while.
Just then, Yu Hanjiang suddenly said, “This time, it isn’t an illusion. I have found you, Hunter.”
Xiao Lou looked back and saw that the face of a young girl in the crowd had changed slightly. Compared to the expressionless girls around her, the subtle change in expression on the girl’s face was clearly reflected in Yu Hanjiang’s eyes.
The corners of Yu Hanjiang’s lips curved up. He flew toward the young girl in an instant and slashed at her neck.
The girl dodged quickly but Yu Hanjiang was faster than her.
He was lightning fast.
It all happened in just three seconds.
Before she could respond, Yu Hanjiang had said, “I found you.” Then he moved behind her body and attacked her. She might’ve avoided the fatal blow but the hand holding the umbrella was cut off by Yu Hanjiang!
A pool of bright red blood appeared on the ground.
The girl’s face changed dramatically. She immediately dropped the umbrella and disappeared.
The moment she disappeared, the other girls around her disappeared without a trace.
Then the alley disappeared.
The devouring walls, the slate bricks beneath their feet and the sky that was as black as ink were rapidly peeled away from the surroundings.
The domain world disappeared and the normal world finally appeared in their vision.
Soft moonlight sprinkled on the town and everyone saw the familiar Drunken Moon Lake in the middle of Qingfeng Town.