CHAPTER 154: VOLLEY

[Daily Quest Progress:]

• Sprint for 3 kilometers – (Complete)

• Scale a steep hill or tall tree – (Complete)

• Carry 25–40kg of rocks or logs for 10 minutes – (Complete)

• Evade 20 thrown projectiles – 5/20 (Incomplete)

Zwip!

Zwip!

Zwip!

Three arrows hissed past me in quick succession, the air splitting around my ears as I twisted and weaved, my body moving on instinct alone.

My agility kept me alive, but Zarah wasn’t letting up.

Another volley came.

And this time I had no choice but to draw Gravefang across my body, swatting two of the shafts from the air, their wood splintering as they ricocheted away.

But then the first arrow — the one I had avoided earlier — returned.

It curved unnaturally, homing in on me like a predator that had never missed its mark.

I swerved hard to the side, ducking behind the broad trunk of a tree.

For a split second, I thought I’d bought myself a reprieve, but then an arrow punched clean through the bark, quivering inches from my shoulder.

The other two curved around the tree, bending their path as though the laws of nature didn’t apply to them.

I snapped my blade up again, steel flashing as I cracked them from the air, shards of wood scattering around me.

That was when the hair on the back of my neck rose.

Danger. From behind.

I swerved hard to the opposite side, and less than a heartbeat later the tree behind me exploded in a shower of bark and splinters. An arrow had torn through it, the impact so violent it nearly blew the trunk apart.

My eyes flicked to the shaft still quivering in the wood, and I grimaced. The force behind that shot was nothing like her usual ones. It carried weight, power, a lethal edge that could have skewered me clean through if I’d been a fraction slower.

Then came more arrows. One after another, hissing through the air with merciless precision.

I let out a sigh, my grip tightening around Gravefang. Sure, with warp, I could slip past them effortlessly, fold space, and reappear elsewhere before they ever reached me. But that wasn’t the point.

Easy wouldn’t clear the task.

If I wanted the daily quest to register, I had to work for it. I had to evade, dodge, and move, not rely on my shortcut.

And Zarah... Zarah was making me work, alright.

Every shot forced me to twist, duck, leap, or parry, my muscles burning as the count inched higher.

I couldn’t blame her.

No, this was exactly what I had asked for.

But damn it, why did I ask for this?

Next time, I was definitely going to find someone else to shoot at me.

I risked a glance at Zarah between dodges, her form steady, her bow drawn with frightening ease. Yeah... someone less threatening.

TWIP!

I dropped low, crouching as two arrows sliced the air above me, close enough that I could feel the sting of their passage against my scalp.

I clenched my jaw. I had to focus. Lean on my senses — anticipate the danger before it reaches me and move in perfect rhythm with it. No hesitation.

But then the air shifted.

The arrows I had just dodged curved back around, their path bending unnaturally as they sought me again.

I let out a weary sigh.

Of course.

She was doing it again.

Using [Homing arrow], which made evasion far more complicated.

Two arrows hissed toward me, and I twisted my body, letting them whip past. A third I met head-on, Gravefang slicing through the shaft with a sharp crack.

For a moment, I thought I had cleared them — but the two I had dodged curved back around, relentless.

I gritted my teeth, pivoted, and slipped past one before snapping my blade up to shatter the other. The fragments spun into the dirt at my feet.

Then, as if refusing to relent, the last arrow wheeled back for another pass. I let it come, deliberately dodging just to test it. To my relief, it didn’t return again.

Three times, then. That seems to be the limit.

A heavy thud echoed from above. I looked up, and there she was — Zarah had closed the distance, her bow raised, eyes locked on me like a hawk on prey.

She didn’t waste a second. The moment her boots touched down, more arrows came screaming my way, loosed with the kind of speed that left no room for hesitation.

I reminded myself of the task. Dodging — not deflecting. So I twisted aside, let the first arrow slip past, then ducked under the second, my body moving low to the ground.

But Zarah wasn’t slowing.

The homing arrows multiplied, their unnatural arcs closing in from different angles, and I was forced to shift tactics.

My blade snapped through the air, Gravefang splitting shafts mid-flight as they closed too tightly for me to weave through. Splinters scattered around me, sharp reminders of how close I was to being skewered.

Then one arrow came faster, truer, carrying with it a weight that prickled at the back of my neck. A different aura clung to it, sharper, deadlier, like it was meant to end me outright.

My instincts screamed. I tilted my head sharply to the side.

THUNK!

The arrow brushed past my cheek, so close I felt its wind burn my skin, before burying itself deep into the trunk of the tree behind me.

The shaft quivered violently, humming with the force of its impact.

I turned my head toward the arrow, still quivering in the trunk, and noticed the faint greenish aura swirling around its shaft. It pulsed like a heartbeat, sickly and alive, the glow seeping into the bark it had pierced.

Zarah’s voice rang out from across the clearing, calm but edged with a hint of pride. "That arrow was fired using [Venom Shot]. The venom causes the target to bleed from every opening."

I froze, my breath catching in my throat. Just as I’d suspected, it was tied to poison — but hearing her spell it out sent a chill through me all the same.

But still... at me? At my head of all places?

Zarah... are you trying to kill me?

As if in response, arrows whistled through the air, loosed the very moment she finished her explanation.

Three arrows streaked straight for my head, viciously precise, but I was already moving, sprinting sideways with my head shaking in disbelief.

How merciless...

Zarah showed no hesitation. She didn’t pause, didn’t give me a chance to breathe, only kept firing arrow after arrow with relentless rhythm. And I kept weaving, twisting, blocking with Gravefang when there was no space to slip through, each dodge pulling more frustration onto her face.

I swear I heard her curse under her breath when another shot missed. That startled me almost as much as the arrows themselves. She wasn’t just training me — she truly seemed intent on hurting me.

What did I do to deserve this?

I let out a sigh, half-exasperation, half-resignation. And then, cutting through the chaos, a sharp mechanical chime rang in my head.

Ding!

[Daily Quest Completed]

The moment the notification appeared, I slowed to a stop, relief flooding me.

The quest was complete, and now all I wanted was to get Zarah to quit her little murder attempt before she actually skewered me.

But then the ground beneath my feet lit up, glowing faintly with a sinister shimmer. My stomach sank.

She was using a new skill.

Was this [Mark of Ruin]? Or... [Valkyrie’s Descent]?

Before I could decide, Zarah dropped gracefully into the clearing, landing directly in front of me. Her movements were fluid, deliberate, and in her hands she already held an arrow nocked to the string.

But this was no ordinary shot. The arrow glowed, its shaft wrapped in a strange, ethereal energy that pulsed like living fire. She raised her bow upward, and the aura swelled, intensifying with every second.

At the same time, the glowing mark beneath my feet brightened, lines of light spiderwebbing outward, as if the earth itself were responding to her intent.

I stepped hard to the side, feet digging into the soil, but the glowing mark shifted with me, clinging beneath my feet like a curse. No matter where I moved, it followed. There was no escaping it.

I raised a hand toward Zarah, my voice breaking out almost on instinct.

"Wait!"

But even as the word left my mouth, I knew it lacked conviction.

Half of me wanted her to stop before this went too far.

The other half burned with curiosity, desperate to see what she was about to unleash.

Then Zarah drew a deep breath, her voice sharp as steel as she shouted:

"VALKRYRIE’S CRY!"

The arrow snapped free.

It didn’t come for me immediately.

Instead, it shot skyward, trailing its strange ethereal aura behind it.

My head tilted back, eyes following its climb as it soared higher, higher, until it was swallowed by the canopy above.

The forest grew unnervingly quiet, as though the world itself was holding its breath.

And then it hit me in full force — Danger.

Not the faint prickle of warning I’d grown used to, but a tidal wave that crashed over me, every nerve in my body screaming at once.

The sky split open with light, and dozens — no, hundreds — of...