Chương 73: Ambush (2)

Reacting to the sound of the crossbows firing, Rowan brought his half-finished shield up, stumbling back. The two bolts hit his mana construct a moment apart. The first struck dead on, damaging his shield. The second hit the edge, glancing off the barrier and grazing his left arm. Rowan gritted his teeth against the pain as the projectile tore the top layer of his flesh, but continued feeding more mana into his defense, expanding and repairing the shield.

As his opponents spread out, trying to encircle him, he began forming a half-dozen mana darts. But as he was still creating them, the woman he'd been keeping an eye on the whole time raised her gun. Letting out a curse, Rowan threw himself to the ground a split-second before two bullets ripped through the air above him. He stumbled to his feet and finished forming the mana projectiles. Then, not wasting a second, he fired half of them toward the gunner.

The projectiles struck the woman just as she pulled the trigger, ripping into her arms and pulling her aim off course. As she cried out in pain, Rowan fired the other three projectiles toward the two crossbowmen. Then, not waiting to see the result of his attacks, he pushed backward off of the ground, blasting himself away from his attackers and creating a haze of dust as the dirt exploded from the force of his movement.

And yet, even with the clouded air between him and the group, Rowan felt a jolt of primal fear shoot through his body as a bullet whizzed past his head, missing him by mere inches. Not waiting to see if any more shots were coming his way, he leaped to the side, hiding himself behind the trunk of one of the larger trees in the area. Taking deep breaths as he tried to calm himself, Rowan cursed. The gun-wielding woman was terrifying.

She'd nearly hit him, not just through the dirt obstructing her view, but also just after being injured by his projectiles. A second later, he refocussed and risked a peek around the trunk he was hiding behind. A split-second later, he withdrew his head, not letting them get a shot on him. They were about two dozen meters from him, slowly advancing and spreading out even further to encircle his hiding spot. As he tried to think of a way out of his predicament, Rowan smiled.

Then, pushing off the ground, he shot into the air. Once his upward momentum was coming to an end, he grabbed onto one of the branches of the tree, clambering onto it. After steadying himself, he moved a few branches to the side, finding a thicker, more stable limb with a view of his pursuers. As he watched them, he thought about what he was going to do.

His current plan was to wait for them to get near the tree before jumping onto them and taking out as many of them—preferably those armed with ranged weaponry—as possible before they could react. Of course, he would have to time it perfectly, or he might be struck by their projectiles before he could take them down. Still watching the figures below him move about, Rowan tilted his head. Could he dodge crossbow bolts? Or even bullets? He didn't think so, at least not in his current state.

Doing something like that would require high dexterity and, well, the stat wasn't exactly his strength. Even if he'd had enough dexterity, he didn't think his mind would be able to react quickly enough. As he'd leveled up, his reaction time and mental capabilities had been improving as well, but he just didn't think he was there yet. This didn't mean that it wasn't achievable for him, though.

Rowan thought that with some more levels and enough practice moving with his strength instead of dexterity that it became natural, he would be able to dodge bullets. Until then, though, he would have to be careful. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. So he waited, letting them come closer and closer to the tree. As he sat in the branches, Rowan began to hear their conversation, thanks to his improved senses.

"... be careful, Nat, he's a classer." One of the men said to the woman next to him. Both were armed with blades, the man a machete and the woman a longsword that was nearly as tall as she was.

"No shit, Sherlock. We're targeting him because Victoria he's a classer; they always have good stuff. Plus, most of us are coming up on level 10, too. He's not that powerful. Couldn't even deal with Jessica and the boys."

"Well…they have crossbows and a gun; how was he supposed to fight that? If he could get into close range with us—""Jesus, Nate. Why do you always have to be so pessimistic? You said he only had to retreat because of the crossbows and gun. Well, guess what? Jess and them are still back there, and they still have their weapons. Nothing's changed! We'll be fine, alright? We'll get through this." The woman shook her head.

"We have him trapped. Now we'll just go and kill him, okay? Not that big of a deal." As he listened to them, Rowan prepared himself, channeling mana. Before him, mana constructs began to form, ten in total. Six of them were the mana darts he'd usually used, while the other four were orbs of the semi-stable mana, slowly destabilizing. Before continuing, he paused for a moment, taking time to reshape the orbs until they all had a point on them. They were still mostly orb-like, but they did also resemble triangles.

This way, even if his explosives struck the gorund and didn't instantly detonate, they—hopefully—wouldn't bounce too far away from the target and would instead get stuck in the Earth. Once the projectiles were ready, he continued working on the shield. It had been damaged by the crossbow bolts, but not enough to break it. Still, he would have to make it far more durable than before if he wanted it to withstand bullets.

He was planning on taking out the gunner before she could get any shots off, but in case something went wrong, he wanted to be prepared. As he fed mana into the construct, it grew denser and wider, until it was 18 inches across and dense enough that he couldn't see through it. Then, he drew his sword. It wouldn't be much longer before it was time. A few seconds later, he heard a man's voice.

"He's not here! Fuck! He must've run!"

"It's fine, he left the boxes he was carrying behind, anyway." Rowan smiled; they thought he'd run off. He could exploit the fact and wait until their guard was down before attacking. But as he continued listening to the conversations of the people below him, he froze. For far beneath him, the gun-wielding woman stood. She was standing back from the rest of the group, along with the two crossbowmen. And she was looking straight at him.

As she raised her gun with still-bleeding arms, Rowan took a split-second to think. He had two options. First, he could back away and move to a branch that she couldn't hit with her gun. But this would cause him to lose the element of surprise and let them all target him. And so, with a breath, he took the second option and pushed off the tree, shooting straight towards the woman who'd spotted him.

He didn't use his full strength to push off like he might've done on the ground, since he was going to be moving downward, but he was still going fast. The branch he'd been crouched on snapped from the force and released a resounding crack through the forest. At the same time, he hurled the unstable mana constructs he'd created at the bandits. He didn't have time to properly aim, but they went in the right general direction. Barreling through the air with his shield held out before him, Rowan smiled slightly.

The sound of the branch would bring everyone's attention toward the tree, which would lead them to notice him shooting through the air. But they would probably notice him in a second anyway, so he thought the breaking branch might actually prove to be a distraction, drawing the group's attention away from him and the mana orbs. Rowan's thoughts were cut short as, a mere moment after a gunshot sounded out, an impact slammed into his shield.

He gritted his teeth from the jolt that went up his arm, but the mana construct held, protecting him from the bullet. He had bigger concerns, though. After all, he was shooting toward the ground, and had less than a second before he struck the earth beneath him. Thankfully, the woman he was aiming for hadn't been standing directly below him, but farther away, meaning that he'd pushed off the branch at something akin to a 45-degree angle rather than straight down.

If she had been directly below him and he'd tried to leap at her at the speed he was going, he would've barely had time to think, even with his levels and stats increasing his mental capabilities. In the end, his toughness was his highest stat, more than six times what it had been when he was first transported to the Tutorial. So, bearing that in mind, Rowan put his trust into his body and swung his sword, going all out on offense.

He couldn't make out her whole body with the mana shield held out before him, but he could see the woman's legs and feet beneath the construct. And, even with the sheer speed he was moving at, she stepped away from his swing. Still, Rowan felt his blade make contact, if only briefly, and draw a pain cry. The next moment, he crashed to the ground.