Chapter 14: The Enraged Yellow Weasel!

Scrape!

A dagger slashed across Lin Tianhao's Thunderstrike Bow, sending a shower of sparks flying.

"You again!"

Lin Tianhao frowned. This was the same assassin player who had tried to steal his boss earlier.

The player's nickname was hidden, but appearances weren't so easy to disguise.

The assassin said nothing. He spun his dagger a hundred and eighty degrees and lunged at Lin Tianhao again.

Lin Tianhao leaned back and quickly equipped the Iron-Grade Treant Set.

The moment the Treant Set was on, both his resistances and his HP received a significant boost.

At the same time, Lin Tianhao rolled sideways, dodging the assassin's strike.

But the moment he evaded the attack, a flicker of unease ran through him.

The assassin had vanished.

Not into stealth.

Lin Tianhao could sense the assassin was right behind him.

He spun around without hesitation.

And yet — nothing.

Had there been an observer, they would have noticed that the assassin was always positioned directly behind Lin Tianhao — in his blind spot, to be precise — no matter which way Lin Tianhao turned.

"Shadow Step?"

Lin Tianhao's expression darkened slightly.

Shadow Step wasn't a skill — it was a technique. The method was to use footwork to stay within the opponent's blind spot at all times, as if hiding within the enemy's own shadow.

Hence the name: Shadow Step.

Hearing Lin Tianhao name the technique he was using, the assassin was momentarily caught off guard.

But in that very instant, Lin Tianhao had already made his move.

Whoosh!

An arrow tore through the air. This time, Lin Tianhao didn't turn around — instead, he used his leg to draw the bow and fired a shot backwards.

The assassin had his combat techniques, but Lin Tianhao, as a reborn player, had his own unique tricks.

The move was utterly bizarre, and combined with the assassin's momentary surprise, the man failed to react in time — and was struck clean by the arrow.

-1352.

The assassin was one-shot. Unfortunately, no equipment dropped from him this time.

"So this assassin has set his sights on me."

Lin Tianhao muttered to himself. He had assumed their earlier clash was just a minor scuffle.

He hadn't expected the assassin to come back and ambush him without a word.

* * *

Back in the novice village, at the Resurrection Altar.

The assassin — his name was Shadow Slayer — wore a grim expression. "Fast reflexes, high damage, solid combat technique, and he even knows Shadow Step..."

"Snow Emperor, whoever you are — you've killed me twice. One day, I'll return the favor."

If Lin Tianhao had heard that, he'd have fired right back.

Fuck — the first time, it was Shadow Slayer who tried to steal his boss. Lin Tianhao only struck him down in response.

This time, Shadow Slayer had attacked first as well.

But Lin Tianhao didn't know any of that now.

He had already found the Bard in the novice village.

The NPC was neatly dressed, though he sported a pencil mustache that gave him a rather comical look.

Bard: Level 15.

HP: ???

Attack: ???

Skills: ???

Note: This is a Bard who wanders near the novice village. You may find unexpected benefits from interacting with him.

That note had led many players to assume the Bard had a quest attached, or was selling something valuable.

Neither was true.

He was simply a humanoid boss with a mind of his own — not particularly high-ranked, just Iron-Grade. But his skill set was extraordinarily peculiar.

Back in the day, taking him down had required thousands of players from the novice village working together.

Lin Tianhao had come here now to use him — to revisit some of the techniques he had mastered in his previous life.

As he had told Futu Dunshan before: kite-walking was merely the most basic technique for an Archer.

Earlier, when Lin Tianhao used the Thunderstrike Bow to parry the assassin's ambush in close quarters — that too was a technique.

Lin Tianhao ducked behind a large tree and drew his bow.

Once the energy arrow had formed, the hand gripping the bowstring began to rotate, twisting the string into a tight spiral.

And the direction Lin Tianhao was aiming — it wasn't toward the Bard at all. It was to the left.

Whoosh!!

The arrow cut through the air.

Not far away, Shadow Slayer — still in stealth — furrowed his brow. He had guessed that Lin Tianhao was hunting the Bard, but the arrow's trajectory was completely off.

What happened next left him utterly dumbfounded.

The arrow Lin Tianhao had fired curved mid-flight — and struck the Bard standing in the distance with pinpoint precision.

-925.

A massive damage number appeared. The Bard, caught completely off guard, was bewildered — Lin Tianhao had been hidden behind the tree the entire time, never exposing himself.

This was one of the Archer's shooting techniques: the Twisted String Shot!

By rotating the bowstring, the arrow is sent spinning through the air.

With precise control over force and angle, the arrow can be made to curve.

Not only that — because the arrow spins at high speed in flight, it carries tremendous penetrating force upon impact, dealing significantly increased damage.

Whoosh!

Another arrow.

"Found you."

The Bard saw Lin Tianhao attack again. Though he couldn't see where Lin Tianhao was hiding, he could track the direction the arrows were coming from.

He leaped into the air and charged toward Lin Tianhao.

Whoosh!

But before he even landed, an arrow struck him mid-air.

The tremendous impact of the Twisted String Shot sent the Bard's body flying back over a meter while still airborne.

Then came the second arrow. The third arrow...

Arrow after arrow arrived in rapid succession, each carrying devastating force.

What Shadow Slayer witnessed next left him completely speechless.

The Bard was being juggled in the air by Lin Tianhao — unable to fall back to the ground.

Every time the Bard began to drop, Lin Tianhao would fire another arrow, shattering any hope of landing and launching him back up again.

And the arrow placement was surgical — each shot not only knocked the Bard back, but angled him slightly higher into the air.

"This..."

Shadow Slayer was an exceptionally cold-blooded killer, but watching Lin Tianhao's performance, even he was struck speechless.

Still, his seasoned combat instincts told him: what Lin Tianhao was doing was incredibly difficult — extraordinarily, almost impossibly difficult.

Because from the moment the first arrow landed, you had to already be calculating where the third arrow needed to hit.

Otherwise, a sustained aerial juggle like this was simply impossible.

Moreover, in Ragnarok, enemies launched into the air would take combo damage.

Normally, it was warrior-class jobs that had skills to launch enemies airborne, then chain other abilities for combo damage.

But Lin Tianhao — an Archer — had somehow pulled off this absurd aerial combo.

Roar!!

The Bard let out a furious cry. His body expanded at tremendous speed — transforming from the neatly dressed Bard into a creature standing over three meters tall, covered in brown fur.

A Yellow Weasel!

At the same time, the Bard's stat panel changed.

Enraged Yellow Weasel (Iron-Grade): Level 15.

HP: 1,012,500 / 1,253,000.

Attack: 813.

Skills: Yellow Mountain Illusion, Phantom Shift, Iron Body, Berserk, Soul Harvest, Soul Domination.