Chapter Forty-One: At the End of the Road (Thanks to Alliance Leader Tomorrow, md for your support!)

Facing the fleeing Riel, Fang Senyan, covered in blood, pulled his gun with his backhand, aiming the muzzle directly at the escapee! He activated the Song of Rum and pulled the trigger instantly!

But at that very moment, a thin barrier materialized around Riel’s body. It resembled the mental shield used by mages, yet its color was a faint, almost dusky black. This was a Legendary item Riel had previously acquired, called the Scroll of Blessed Protection. When cast upon oneself, it generated a bidirectional shield capable of absorbing damage.

A bidirectional shield meant that while Riel was protected within it, any attack he launched against an enemy would also cause the shield to absorb some of that damage. Therefore, this scroll was only viable during retreat. However, the truly monstrous aspect of this shield was that after absorbing the damage from the Song of Rum, it also granted Riel immunity to the subsequent stun effect! Fang Senyan was taken aback, encountering this situation for the first time, but by then, Riel had already fled thirty meters away.

Without hesitation, Fang Senyan raised his right hand, and the light of the Barbarian Pupil flashed! In the next second, Fang Senyan charged towards Riel like a maddened bull. He closed the distance in mere seconds and brought a heavy punch down from above.

This punch drove the Blessed Protection Shield inward, causing a deep indentation, yet it still refused to shatter. The momentum of Fang Senyan’s fist, diverted and squeezed by the shield, was thrown off course, smashing heavily into a colossal fern plant beside them. With a crack, green sap sprayed everywhere; the plant, as thick as a water bucket, snapped at its base, letting out a piercing, mournful sound as it crashed down, kicking up a cloud of leaves and dust.

But Riel was still running! He was about to gain a full body-length advantage when, suddenly, a dense cloud of poisonous mist billowed out from seemingly nowhere! This was Fang Senyan having tossed a vial of Curse Potion. Although the shockwave from the potion landing was once again negated by the Blessed Protection Shield, the continuous 20% deceleration effect persisted.

Because of that 20% slowdown, Fang Senyan lunged again, his body nearly parallel to the ground, delivering a crushing blow towards Riel!

This time, the thin black shield that had been steadfastly protecting Riel was pierced directly by the fist. Then, it finally burst with a pop, like a soap bubble collapsing. This punch sent Riel reeling, his vision blurring as he slammed into a large tree ahead.

Riel saw stars and bled profusely from the nose. His feet caught on a root, sending him sprawling onto the ground, but he shrieked wildly, kicking his legs frantically against the earth. Moss, grass, and soil rained backwards like flung projectiles from his desperate movements...

Fang Senyan certainly would not miss such a golden opportunity. He scrambled up, stumbled a few steps forward, and launched himself through the air with ruthless finality, hooking his right elbow back and smashing it down viciously! It landed squarely on Riel’s right calf.

Riel, already at his absolute limit, let out a piercing scream as his right calf snapped cleanly, setting at an unnatural, twisted angle.

Yet, Riel’s tenacity for survival was astonishing. He roared:

“How can I die here! How dare I die here? Jim is waiting for me at home, Vanessa is waiting for my resurrection! I will live, I will survive!”

Driven by this obstinate belief, Riel planted a foot squarely into Fang Senyan’s face, instantly smearing mud and moss mixed with blood across Fang Senyan’s visage. Riel then scrabbled forward desperately, using his bare hands to grip the dirt and vegetation, heedless of the skin being torn from under his fingernails.

When Fang Senyan wiped the grime from his face and looked up, he saw a boomerang, emanating a chilling cold, spinning directly towards him. His eyes narrowed. He could only raise his remaining right hand to block. The boomerang’s damage was minimal; with his Toughness reduction, it amounted to barely a few points of life, a mere token hit, but... the lethal deceleration effect had reapplied itself to his body. He could clearly feel an icy numbness spreading through his legs.

Which was faster: him, now slowed by 40%, or Riel, whose legs were practically crippled?

In just five seconds, Fang Senyan reached a grim conclusion: Riel was faster! However, Ambition, the weapon with ranged capability, still had a forty-one-second cooldown. And the Frenzy of the Horns, which granted him rapid closure, was on an even longer cooldown.... In forty-one seconds, Riel could easily be a hundred meters ahead!

Six seconds later, Riel realized this too. Having escaped the range of Ambition, he suddenly turned back, a distinct, savage cruelty entering his eyes. The man continued to roll and scramble across the ground, grinning grotesquely, and chuckled in a strange, singsong voice:

“Goodbye, Sailor. I admit you are strong; I can’t beat you... but can you catch me?”

Fang Senyan stopped dead in his tracks, appearing to have given up. A strange, faint green luminescence flickered around his fist. He spoke with an emotionless face:

“I... cannot....”

Riel stuck out his tongue and licked his cracked lips, still coated with sand and dried, dark-brown blood. Then, in a slow, deliberate tone laced with vengeful satisfaction, he enunciated every word:

“You broke my legs, and you still can’t catch me! Want to kill me? Wait for the next life!! Makji (Harlin) is a genuine Colonizer; even in death, the Gold cannot possibly break the flesh-and-blood vine binding him through his own power! So, while I cannot harm Reef, you... you just wait to collect the corpse of your teammate, Gold! Hahaha, quite the surprise, isn't it?”

Riel had now retreated forty meters, but Fang Senyan remained stationary. His expression was complex—a mixture of mockery and irony.

“I also have something to tell you. While I cannot catch you, they can!!!”

As Fang Senyan finished speaking, the soil beside him began to bulge unnervingly, forming three soft mounds of earth. These mounds grew rapidly, giving the impression that something heavy was about to burrow up from beneath.

Dirt trickled away as each mound expanded to a diameter of about one meter. Through the gaps in the soil, one could discern a layer of incredibly tough, thick, ash-black membrane. The membrane appeared taut and fleshy, glowing faintly as if pressurized with a large amount of fluid within.

With a shrill screech, the membrane on each mound ruptured, spraying copious amounts of murky liquid that carried a pungent, foul amniotic smell, soaking the surrounding earth.

Two dark shapes leaped out from each mound. These shadows were roughly the size of wolfhounds. Their foreclaws were highly developed, and their bodies seemed entirely devoid of skin, presenting a raw, flesh-red hue where muscle striations and contours were clearly visible. Spines sprouted near their heads and along their spines, and their claws were razor-sharp. Their heads bore a resemblance to pangolins, and their musculature displayed distinct black markings...

Yes, these were the Raptor Eggs Fang Senyan had brought back from the Starship Troopers world. He had used three, summoning six raptors of the Black-Spine Tribe!

Because Fang Senyan had purchased the eggs after the Black-Spine Tribe had completed the entire technology tree for their Insectoid II bases, the raptors summoned inherited these enhanced attributes.

Under Fang Senyan’s command, these six speed-enhanced raptors tore madly through the forest, dispersing to pounce on the distant Riel!

In that instant, Riel finally fell into despair. He had believed his array of trump cards and survival methods was sufficient, never anticipating that Sailor, the seemingly powerful support character, would possess even more hidden methods and deadlier means of execution!

Already critically injured, the reserve contractor Riel could still manage to kill the six raptors, but the time consumed in doing so would be enough for Fang Senyan to catch up to him ten times over... If he continued to flee without dealing with the raptors, one must not forget he lacked the Toughness talent. Even if each raptor attack only cost him 3–4 points of health, the cumulative damage of 20 hit points would be absolutely unbearable for the current Riel!

Fifteen seconds later, Riel, deep in critical condition, was blasted away, crashing heavily against a tree behind him before collapsing to the ground. All six raptors lay dead at his feet. But under the force of Fang Senyan’s subsequent punch, Riel could not escape—a milky-white shield materialized around him, which was the signature team skill of the Banks Gang: Life Shield. Fang Senyan walked slowly toward him and raised his fist without mercy.

“Wait!” Riel’s eyes shone with madness and despair: “How much health do you have left?!”

Fang Senyan brought a punch down, and the Life Shield violently undulated:

“Eight hundred points. However, I drank the Honor Potion when I still had three hundred health remaining. I did that specifically to give you the illusion that I was cornered, pushed to the absolute brink. Otherwise, how could you have stayed to fight me to the bitter end, giving me the perfect opportunity to kill you?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Senyan slammed another punch down! His motion was mechanical, stark, yet it possessed the unstoppable, undeniable force of lightning streaking across the sky. The Life Shield trembled again, its glow weakening to the point of near invisibility.

Watching Fang Senyan retract his fist, gather momentum, and bring it down with full force! Riel shrieked:

“No!!! I’ll trade all my equipment for my life!”