With that shot fired, Fang Senyan immediately used the recoil to roll backward, then yanked the spear from his wound, tossing it aside. Blood dripped steadily from the gash in his abdomen. Fang Senyan tore off his shirt with a reverse grip, binding the injury. -=Hand-typed by members=*

Even as his own health points dwindled from poison and bleeding, Fang Senyan seized the moment while Hrzrul.Bloodmark shrieked in agony. He coolly pulled out a gleaming stainless steel flask, took a deep swig to restore 25 Health Points, ensuring that once his immediate injuries were stabilized, he still retained over 60 HP. Combined with his high Defense stat of 15, his sheer durability matched that of an ordinary Contractor at full strength.

In stark contrast, Hrzrul.Bloodmark was in a far more wretched state. Not only was its left foreleg shattered, but poisoned lead slugs were embedded deep within its body. It was also disarmed of its favored weaponry, meaning the tables had turned instantly. Yet, its nature remained savage and defiant. Recovering from the searing pain, it remained sprawled on the ground, but its arms still flailed like the wind, roaring curses and bellowing in rage. Occasionally, it even snatched stones from the earth to hurl as attacks. However, this level of ranged assault posed little threat to a ranged specialist like Jess, and for Fang Senyan, bolstered by the "Tenacity" Talent, these attacks were little more than a mandatory 1 HP loss—utterly ineffective.

Having secured a decisive advantage, Fang Senyan let out a long breath. The reason he had risked grievous injury to use "Ambition" was simple: pitifully, he hadn't mastered even basic Ranged Combat LV1. His shooting accuracy was thus predictable, and he possessed zero natural talent for marksmanship. For a weapon like "Ambition," which required a full minute to reload, a single missed shot guaranteed the target would be on guard. More critically, he wasted the 50% critical hit bonus granted by the firelock weapon feature: Charge-up!

Given the prerequisite that he had to hit a specific part of the enemy, Fang Senyan was forced into melee combat—even seeking trades of injury for injury—just to create an opportunity to press the muzzle directly against the enemy before firing!

In truth, Fang Senyan desperately wished he could simply eliminate the enemy with one distant shot, then coolly blow the smoke from the muzzle, dramatically throw on his jacket, and saunter off to collect the loot. The brutal reality was that while gaining the formidable "Tenacity" Talent, Fang Senyan had forfeited the ability for sustained ranged attacks. Thus, he could only use "Ambition" as a close-quarters weapon... A side note: if Das had possessed the terrifying weapon "Ambition," the power unleashed would have been at least double what Fang Senyan achieved!

A pearl cast before swine; a lament for love lost too soon...

Facing Hrzrul.Bloodmark, whose mobility was nearly 80% gone, Fang Senyan’s follow-up attacks became far simpler. He adhered strictly to the manual’s advice, maintaining position on the flank of the massive centaur. Whenever the creature struggled to turn, he’d land an axe blow, then wait for the long one-minute reload time of "Ambition" to deliver a round. Though the charge-up bonus was gone, the staggering 140 damage per shot was still formidable.

Three minutes later, Hrzrul.Bloodmark, the formidable centaur, finally collapsed into a pool of blood, dying in frustration. It made a final desperate attempt to use Black Magic Blood Siphon, but Fang Senyan, prepared for this, rushed forward the moment the chant began, burying his axe directly into the creature’s mouth, scoring a critical hit for striking a vital spot. Though Fang Senyan was violently kicked flying by a powerful rear hoof, likely breaking two ribs, he could still endure a few more such impacts, while Hrzrul.Bloodmark’s last hope of survival was utterly extinguished...

After slaying the powerful equine-man, Fang Senyan received bad news via the Nightmare Mark:

“Your reputation among all Centaurs has decreased by 300 points!” “The aggression priority of all Centaurs toward you has increased by +2 points.” Note: Aggression Priority means that if Jess and Fang Senyan stand together, and Jess shoots a centaur that would normally pursue him, if Fang Senyan’s Aggression Priority is higher, the centaur will immediately switch targets to hunt Fang Senyan, completely ignoring Jess who might be shooting or stabbing from behind.

Picking up the key dropped by Hrzrul.Bloodmark, Fang Senyan shrugged helplessly. The creature had only dropped a deep-blue key, a slight disappointment compared to the black key he had anticipated. This wasn't truly Hrzrul.Bloodmark being stingy; rather, Fang Senyan’s expectations had been too high. For a minor 'B' rank like this, there was a chance of dropping a black key, or even a minuscule chance of dropping low-tier silver plot items/equipment. However, these were probabilities, not guarantees, and Fang Senyan couldn't expect his luck to perpetually skew toward the most extreme positive outcome.

Time was critical; he couldn't check the key's attributes yet. He wasn't certain if other centaurs had detected the commotion. The priority was restoring his health ASAP. Looking at Hrzrul.Bloodmark's face, still contorted in rage even in death, an idea struck Fang Senyan. He summoned the house-elf, Raji, and ordered it to dip its feet in the blood and run off quickly, creating the illusion that the killer had fled the scene.

Simultaneously, Fang Senyan surveyed the surroundings, dragging Hrzrul.Bloodmark's corpse beneath a large tree with a dense canopy. In a few quick movements, Fang Senyan scrambled up into the branches. Only then did he carefully start bandaging his wounds, performing rudimentary cleaning and suturing. Although this wouldn't yield the instant results of spatial medicine, it temporarily increased his health regeneration speed by 10%. Next, Fang Senyan consumed a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Luckily, he avoided the foul flavors like earwax, restoring 15% of his health.

After waiting about five or six minutes, Fang Senyan's health had climbed above 150 HP. Suddenly, there was a rustling in the distant undergrowth, and another centaur burst forth. Upon seeing Hrzrul.Bloodmark's mangled corpse, it instantly cried out in alarm and charged, black light flickering around its hands—it was clearly preparing to cast a healing Black Charm.

Fang Senyan observed the creature below, first using an Insight ability. He discovered this centaur was a common, decidedly impoverished version of Hrzrul.Bloodmark, lacking any special abilities, with only around 800 HP. Reassured, he boldly dropped straight down from the air, landing directly on the unlucky creature's back, and began savagely hacking with his Butcher’s Cleaver.

This common centaur lacked the powerful Spear Slaughter technique of Hrzrul.Bloodmark. Caught completely by surprise, its most proficient archery skills were unusable, and its speed advantage was negated. It bucked and screamed in terror, trying to throw Fang Senyan off. But Fang Senyan gripped its neck with one hand, then brutally pressed "Ambition" against the creature's head and pulled the trigger!

While the charge-up effect couldn't be triggered this time, targeting the head, a vital area, still granted an extra critical chance! Especially with Fang Senyan’s dishonorable method of using "Ambition" like a melee weapon pressed against the skull before firing, a hit was almost guaranteed to be a critical blow, sending the crit rate soaring. One shot blew the centaur’s head open! While not an instantaneous kill as it might be in a truly realistic world, it clearly forced the creature into a state of critical health loss! Screaming horribly, it whipped its head around in dizzying circles. Fang Senyan took the chance to viciously attack its legs. In less than three minutes, this unlucky centaur again fell victim to Fang Senyan’s ruthlessness.

After collecting the key dropped by this centaur, Fang Senyan repeated his shameless tactic, hiding in the trees and ambushing a total of five successive centaurs that arrived one by one. It was fortunate that most centaur cries were deep-pitched and the screams didn't carry far, and that the house-elf Raji managed to mask the scent of blood, allowing this slow, steady harvesting to occur.

However, apart from the initial Hrzrul.Bloodmark, the rest of the centaurs were common stock—not particularly strong and offering no significant spoils. Furthermore, he had completely depleted the supply of consumables like the Bertie Bott's Beans he had purchased. While he still held Martian Chocolate Bars and Chocolate Frogs, he couldn't burn through all his trump cards here.

While ambushing the other centaurs, Fang Senyan did encounter one close call. When he was whittling down the health of one centaur, which was down to less than half, another reinforcement centaur rushed in from the nearby bushes. If he hadn't saved the Rum Song ability of "Ambition," he could have instantly killed the injured centaur with a single shot. Otherwise, facing two at once would have been incredibly perilous. Even so, his health plummeted to just 30 points, and too severely wounded to linger, he fled immediately.

Although Fang Senyan made the killing of the centaurs look easy, it was a feat entirely non-replicable by others. Since centaurs could fight both at range and in melee, and possessed respectable HP, defeating them individually required meeting two conditions: First, possessing sufficient resilience to absorb damage. Squishier Contractors like Gunners or Wizards would be half-dead from the centaurs' javelins and arrows before they could even land a blow, forcing them to be soloed by the centaurs. Second, possessing enough burst damage to prevent the centaur from escaping and to end the fight quickly, thus avoiding the awkward situation of fighting 1 vs 2.

These two conditions, while seemingly simple, were insurmountable obstacles for other Contractors! In an environment where the Space encouraged teamwork, a freak like Fang Senyan was practically impossible to find.