Sensing the danger, the village guard was startled and decisively abandoned his arrow shot. He grabbed one side of the bow and swung it out like a wooden sword.

Yet the attacker, at that moment, directly faced the village guard’s swing and charged forward.

The village guard’s strength was not weak. Even though he only held a bow, he instantly tore the other’s clothing apart.

At that moment the “person” split.

The upper body leaped high, rolling through the air, a dagger in hand plunging downward aiming to pierce the village guard’s skull.

The lower body crouched low, a head protruding up, its somewhat slender hands holding daggers in both grips, stabbing toward the village guard’s feet.

“Half-bodied people?” The attacker turned out to be a pair of half-bodied people.

Half-bodied people are a human subspecies.

Such subspecies, along with races like elves and dwarves, used to be not uncommon.

But after the era of the Floating Whale began, the Floating Whales rarely communicated with humans anymore.

So, under normal circumstances, these “non-human” intelligent beings were rarely seen.

Unexpectedly, the oddly robed man they had seen daily was actually a pair of half-bodied people stacked front and back.

They were agile and cultivated breathing techniques, which further enhanced their nimbleness. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novel(ꜰ)ire.net

Facing the pair of half-bodied attackers, the village guard took a deep breath;

black patches had already appeared on his body.

But unlike the previous dotted black spots, these had already transformed into patterns.

Naimes had made certain adjustments to his Whale Transformation Disease;

although the village guard had not acquired the Giant trait, he had gained the other Tough Skin trait.

The half-bodied people’s dagger strikes on that tough skin only created some gashes.

Those gashes would recover within a few breaths.

The village guard, having initiated his whale transformation, tightened his grip on the short knife and ignored the flea-like half-bodied people, swinging the blade directly toward Aro who charged again with a dagger.

Blades met, and Aro was clearly at a disadvantage.

However, the moment Aro sensed the force, he twisted his wrist, using the edge to guide the village guard’s force change.

He then turned close, the blade’s edge shifting, the tip hooking into the village guard’s hand tendon.

The slight cut didn’t make the village guard bleed, but his hand went numb, and he loosened his grip on the short knife, allowing Aro to flip it up.

“Staying in a small village and fighting nest beasts, your technique is poor…” Though he had only one arm and his numerical values like strength and defense were disadvantaged, Aro did not fear the whale-transformed village guard;

that confidence came from technique.

As an ordinary race who couldn’t raise his numerical values further, he could only fight repeatedly, practicing his swordsmanship over and over.

“A person who doesn’t understand technique is merely a clumsy beast!” Aro swung again, chopping at the short knife that had been flipped up and was now falling.

The short knife shot forward straight at the village guard’s eye.

At the same time Aro advanced, twisting his body to thrust into the village guard’s slightly open mouth.

The two half-bodied people coordinated as well.

One leapt from the ground, dagger aimed at the village guard’s back entrance;

the other grabbed the village guard’s head with one hand, fingers clawing toward his nostrils, while the dagger’s pommel bluntedly struck the neck’s blood vessels, attempting to make the guard dizzy and disrupt his movements.

“I’m not a beast, and your swordsmanship is not as strong as you claim.” The village guard let the other attacks come at him, bit down on Aro’s blade through grit teeth, and then, voice low, spoke through his throat.

In his mind appeared not his daughter but Naimes’ terrifying oppressive presence.

Having witnessed beings with even stronger oppression, the pressure before him did not throw him into panic.

Because he had known greater evils, he could contain this evil;

thus he could remain calm.

On the village guard’s other side were three more people: two were shooting villagers, and one stood not far from Op, protecting Op as he cast spells.

Around them were some weaker caravan fellows, bows in hand, encircling the area and shooting villagers who attempted to flee.

They were a bit surprised at the sight;

Aro hadn’t managed to take down the village guard outright?

Aro was the strongest among them, with a numerical value of eight, and his technique could amplify that eight considerably.

Many experts with the same numerical value were hard-pressed to match him.

Especially in combat will—Aro feared no death;

that inner disregard for his own and others’ lives always let him seize victory in life-or-death brawls.

Although the two half-bodied people were weaker in strength, their agility was genuine.

With their coordination, they could precisely sense the enemy’s movements and interrupt them.

The battle did not stop for that reason;

the three once again coordinated an attack.

The village guard detected the incoming danger. Though Tough Skin granted him extremely strong defense, it did not make him invincible;

areas not protected by skin remained his weak points.

These attackers had rich combat experience;

after the initial probing assaults failed to achieve enough on Tough Skin, they immediately turned to the body’s various vulnerabilities.

He suddenly twisted his body to dodge Aro’s strike while kicking toward the nearby half-bodied person.

That body-twist, however, was sensed instantly by the half-bodied person attached to him.

The small body was pressed against the village guard;

he could detect the slightest muscle changes the moment they occurred.

Then…

His body twisted, he bit onto a dagger with his mouth, grabbed the village guard’s neck like a swing, used the village guard’s rotational force to fling himself, then released his hands and catapulted outward.

The foot the village guard was about to kick was struck by this human-shaped projectile.

A sudden weight landed on his foot, shifting his center of gravity and forcibly interrupting his kick.

The half-bodied brother coordinated perfectly, pouncing forward;

both hands, daggers aimed at the village guard’s groin.

The two half-bodied people’s tacit cooperation and nimble moves could toy with most people—even those in full heavy armor—constantly interrupting actions and then dispatching them through weak-point strikes.

What made things worse was that Op’s spell was about to succeed.

“Slither along the path, circulate through the empty feathers, like rivers in the past, soaring and turning in undulation!”

As Op finished the incantation, several translucent entities fell through the air.

Their bodies were nearly transparent but of a different medium, causing the light to change subtly.

A summoning spell: Feather-Air Snake Summon!

The near-transparent feather-air snakes exuded a strong sense of lethality the instant they appeared.

It was at that moment that a sharp arrow shot through the air.

Op’s ring on his finger warmed slightly.

Instinctively, Op turned and called the feather-air snakes over to protect him.