The trap was less than two hundred meters away now. If Fang Senyan had chosen to flee with full force while the Hill Giant was still busy hacking at trees, escaping behind the snare wouldn't have been difficult without incident. But that wasn't part of his plan, and abandoning the confrontation might mean losing the chance to lure the creature into striking range.

If he wasn't hit by the Hill Giant even once, he wouldn't gain any first-hand intelligence on its capabilities; its precise attack power and lethality could not be accurately gauged. More importantly, if he returned completely unharmed, it would undoubtedly draw the immediate attention of the Symbiosis Society members and Darth—a result Fang Senyan absolutely wished to avoid.

Therefore, he had to take one direct hit from the Hill Giant to resolve all these issues cleanly!

With this thought crystalized, Fang Senyan took a deep breath, intentionally yelped, and deliberately stumbled face-first to the ground! With a loud splat, he fell messily, scattering mud and water everywhere. The fall looked so severe that it took Fang Senyan a good two or three seconds before he managed to push himself up. Witnessing this, the Hill Giant became even more ecstatic, roaring and charging forward with foam flying from its mouth. Fang Senyan quickly scrambled up and bolted forward, but it seemed his psychological limit had broken; the constant, nervous glances over his shoulder actually slowed his running speed further.

"Crowbar," hiding nearby, had initially been delighted to see Fang Senyan. However, he quickly adopted a deep sense of vigilance. He honestly felt he wouldn't have been confident enough to lure the Hill Giant to this exact spot himself. Thus, the only explanation was that Fang Senyan had hidden his true strength. Yet, seeing Fang Senyan's current performance, Crowbar felt he might have worried unnecessarily. He even began anxiously hoping this man called "Sailor" would hold out a bit longer—at least until the Hill Giant was caught in the trap!

But harsh reality often refuses to bend to human will. After Fang Senyan strained to run another twenty meters, he was less than fifty meters from the trap. The hidden contractors could almost hear his ragged gasps; clearly, his stamina was nearing exhaustion. At this moment, the Hill Giant had closed the gap to within five meters behind him. Its face contorted hideously, it raised the massive club, still clinging with leaves and branches, and brought it down with crushing force.

Fang Senyan abruptly leaped sideways. The enormous weapon slammed down less than a meter from him. The ground trembled slightly, and mud and water erupted sideways like a waterfall, drenching Fang Senyan head to toe and making his entire appearance even more wretched. Though not struck directly by the club, he suffered injury from the residual shockwave.

Fang Senyan rolled through the muck, spat out the muddy water that had filled his mouth, shook his head, and continued his desperate flight like a mud-caked monkey. The Hill Giant roared in frustrated anger, dragging its weapon as it plunged forward in pursuit. However, just as Fang Senyan was barely ten meters from the trap, the Hill Giant suddenly emitted a sound like muffled thunder. Its grayish-blue belly visibly swelled, and from its mouth radiated an invisible ripple of shockwaves. Even the raindrops falling from the sky were violently scattered by this wave. This invisible shockwave instantly swept over Fang Senyan ahead of it. Fang Senyan’s body jolted, leaving him momentarily stunned, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and movement suddenly becoming agonizingly slow!

Hill Giant Special Ability: Heart-Rending Shriek! In addition to inflicting damage, it causes a 70% movement speed reduction!

Looking at how close Fang Senyan was to the trap, his feet felt as if glued to the ground; he couldn't lift them. No one noticed that although Fang Senyan had been hit by the Heart-Rending Shriek, his speed only began to drop after a full second delay, and his eyes remained calm, betraying no panic! The Hill Giant’s warm, foul breath engulfed him, and cruel excitement began to glitter in its savage eyes.

Fang Senyan was less than three meters from the trap!

Could these three meters be an insurmountable gulf?

With a muffled thud, the club made of thick tree trunk hammered down heavily. Fang Senyan's eyes filled with panic and terror; he could only leap sideways again. But while he was mid-air, he suddenly felt an explosive rebound force beneath him. If he had exerted his full strength, he could have suppressed this impulse. But at that moment, a thought struck him. He took a deep breath, brought his arms up to shield his chest, and allowed that explosive rebound force to propel him upward.

This must be the Hill Giant's ??? ability!

To outside observers, these few seconds unfolded as follows:

The Hill Giant released its special ability. Fang Senyan was slowed. The Hill Giant grinned and brought its club down. Fang Senyan strained to evade. The club struck the ground. Fang Senyan was suddenly catapulted upward, as if his feet had landed on one end of a seesaw, and the club striking the high end flung him skyward.

The Hill Giant pulled back its lips, revealing a cruel expression, complete with yellowish, jagged teeth and dripping, viscous saliva. It then spun its bulky body at an impossibly astonishing high speed, adopting the standard stance of a batter in baseball, and swung the giant club, forcefully connecting with the airborne Fang Senyan. After delivering this blow, perhaps due to overexertion, the Hill Giant could not stop its momentum or regain its balance, staggering forward.

Hill Giant Special Ability: Primal Home Run!

In that instant, every hidden person felt the sound of bones cracking under the immense force of the collision. No one noticed that as he was flung, Fang Senyan's hands had produced a black, one-handed axe. He gripped the handle with his right hand and supported the back of the axe-head with his left, bracing it against the sweeping giant log. He was then unceremoniously sent flying, spewing a streak of blood as he smashed into the pitch-black dense forest, ripping through a trail of broken branches with his back before seeming to dissolve silently into the darkness.

Simultaneously, Crowbar watched with delight as the staggering Hill Giant’s left foot landed squarely onto the trap. With a spray of soil, its entire massive body tilted forward and tumbled down into the snare!

No one noticed that at the precise moment he was struck and hurled away, Fang Senyan’s expression, though twisted in apparent agony, was decidedly not that of a dead man. His body had even instinctively performed protective maneuvers. But now, everyone’s attention was fixed on the Hill Giant; who would notice such a minor detail?

The instant he was hit and sent flying, a ringing noise exploded in Fang Senyan’s head, and his mind went blank, as if all five senses had vanished. His vision was utterly black. It took him a long moment after landing before he could pry his eyes open, only to find the world around him wavering and unreal, like reflections on water. Both the webbing between his thumb and forefinger on his left and right hands were torn open with deep gashes, vivid red flesh curling outward, blood flowing freely. His chest felt oppressively tight, and two streams of blood, like crimson snakes, dripped from his nostrils onto the muddy ground.

“Damn it…” Fang Senyan clutched his mouth and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. “I still underestimated this monster.”

He then pulled up the combat log, receiving a prompt from the Nightmare Mark:

“This world is a Free World. You cannot access combat information from other Contractors, only information related to your own combat. Do you wish to continue? Yes/No?”

Fang Senyan already knew this regulation and selected "Yes." A series of prompts then appeared:

“You were hit by the attack technique: Mud Spatter, from the Novice Legendary Creature Hill Giant. After deducting the defense coefficient reduction, you suffered [XXXX] Earth-elemental damage.”

“You were hit by the attack technique: Mud Spatter, from the Novice Legendary Creature Hill Giant. After deducting the defense coefficient reduction, you suffered the abnormal status: Float.”

“You were struck by the combat technique: Sweeping Attack, from the Novice Legendary Creature Hill Giant.”

“Power assessment initiated. Enemy Power Value is [XXXX] points. Your Power Value is 13 points. The enemy’s Power Value is 268 times yours.”

“Assessment initiated. Enemy Power Value exceeds your value by more than twofold. Even if this damage did not trigger a critical hit, it will inflict additional Crush Damage upon you.”

“Crush Damage is considered an additional attack on top of the base damage and ignores your defense rating and any damage reduction effects. This attack effect holds high priority when conflicting with other effects.”

“Data conflict detected, prioritizing levels…”

“Prioritizing assessment…”

“Your hidden talent, Toughness, has a higher priority than Crush Damage. It will still apply to the Crush Damage.”

“The theoretical damage from this Sweeping Attack was calculated as 240 points + 100 additional points (Crush).”

“Your weapon passive ability: Parry was activated. The enemy’s weapon category is ‘Ultra-Heavy Blunt Weapon,’ and the parrying weapon is a ‘One-Handed Medium Weapon.’ Therefore, it can only reduce a portion of the damage from this attack. After parry reduction, the actual damage you received is 213 points.”

“After deducting defense reduction, the actual damage sustained is: 135 points.”

“Your Talent: Toughness (Passive) activated. The actual damage you sustained is: 135 - 25 - 110 points.”

“You will also receive 100 - 25 - 75 points of Crush Damage.”

“You were struck by the combat technique: Sweeping Attack, from the Novice Legendary Creature Hill Giant. The actual damage sustained is 110 - 75 - 185 points.”

“You will enter a Concussed state for the next five seconds, reducing movement speed by 50%.”

Looking at the meager 65 health points remaining, Fang Senyan gave a wry smile. Although he started with a full complement of life points, the residual shockwave from the Hill Giant's first strike had injured him, and combined with the damage from Mud Spatter, the slight injuries sustained from falling while trying to make his dash look convincing, his health had already dipped below 240 points before he was hit by that 'Home Run.'

P.S. Please send recommendation votes! I’m about to be caught! Summon a vote bombardment, or it will be too late when the female Hill Giant arrives!