Chapter 217 - [Bonus ] Screwed

Although he wasn't as fast as he was moving forward, Crow was pretty fast while moving to the sides. Zaos's projectiles didn't get even close to hitting him, and that was pretty insane since they were only twenty meters apart from each other.

In the end, Zaos used all his ammo and didn't cause even a scratch. Meanwhile, the enemy decided to use the same tactic. Crow pulled his crossbow and his poisoned bolts to hit Zaos from a safe distance. Zaos also began to run to the side and to gain some distance from the enemy while he blocked the bolts. But Crow followed him at the same speed and Rhythm… as expected; he had the experience in his favor.

Zaos's limbs were getting heavier, and his reactions were getting slower faster than he had anticipated… Perhaps just using Cleanse a single time to nullify the poison of the previous attack hadn't been enough. Eventually, even Crow ran out of ammo, but the son of a bitch just took out another ammo box from under his cape and then loaded it on the crossbow. Zaos couldn't even remember the last time he got so annoyed in a fight, but he was pretty sure the Crow took the first place in the list of most annoyed enemies he had faced thus far.

In the end, Zaos just accepted the unavoidable. His choices made him change the flow of the entire battle by himself, but he had to pay the price for it. He used too much mana and was exhausted after fighting so many enemies, and now he was facing Ferdinand's trump card alone. He had planned to defeat the enemy with half of his mana, and then use the other half to get rid of the poison, but it looked like he will have to use all his mana to defeat Crow. Zaos wasn't the type to make a suicide attack, so he made the right preparations to survive… he wrote the symbols of the Cleanse spell on the ground with his leg while he was blocking the torrent of poisoned bolts fired by Crow. Still, Zaos could only hope that the rain wouldn't erase the symbols on the ground.

"Let's end this, asshole," Zaos said. "I have better things to do than waste time with you."

"Why so soon?" Crow asked. "Things are just getting interesting."

"Maybe it is for you, but not for me," Zaos said. "Fighting assassins are boring, and you are the most pathetic assassin among the group that I have faced until now. You can't even kill an exhausted soldier, and you make me laugh."

At Zaos's words, Crow couldn't help but break his poker face and then smile a little bit. It seemed that he had some pride as an assassin… no wonder his lackeys were small fries on Zaos's vision. Their leader was also a half-assed assassin who still cared about things such as pride. If you went all the way to become a low-life who defeats others by using poison, you should have thrown away pride a long time ago.

Zaos messed with Crow's head a little bit, but not enough to make him charge at him like a mad bull. It was a pity, but it didn't matter. Zaos obtained some satisfaction from that.

After taking a deep breath while Crow was reloading the crossbow, Zaos focused his senses one last time because that was his last chance, and he couldn't mess up. Crow realized that something big was coming, so he decided to put a sword in each hand instead of relying on the crossbow.

Zaos never tried to enhance both his legs with wind and earth magic before, but it was the only thing he could think of at the moment that could help him defeat Crow. Before the enemy could notice what he did, Zaos charged forward and felt both spells strengthening his legs and exponentially increasing his speed and strength. 

From Crow's perspective, that only happened in the blink of an eye. At one moment, Zaos was there, and at the other, he wasn't. The enemy had disappeared from his eyesight, and he couldn't reach it fast enough. However, Crow saw the last moment Zaos did before disappearing. He pivoted his right leg and inclined his body forward. He went for a direct attack… and with that in mind, Crow instinctively moved both swords slightly to the side… he opened his guard, but in the end, things went just as he had imagined for a split of a second.

Zaos appeared in front of him, and then his big sword pierced Crow's chest right in the middle. However, even without putting any strength behind his curved swords, they also pierced Zaos's arms and chests. He would have avoided the lethal attack if he had some armor on, but he didn't. After seeing that, Crow smiled, but then the darkness covered his eyesight.

In the end, Zaos succeeded, but he didn't feel like celebrating. He didn't consider that the enemy would open his guard at the last moment in order to both sides of his chest. Zaos noticed that the wound on his chest was a bit higher than usual, probably because he wasn't as tall as most enemies Crow had faced… that being said, the wounds on his body were large, and the swords had pierced deep while coated in poison. Zaos coughed, but then a mouthful of blood escaped from him… that wasn't good. That wasn't really good…

Strength quickly left Zaos's body, and he felt the world turning upside down. For some reason, the whole battlefield fell silent, but that was just a minor detail. In the end, Zaos used all his remaining strength to fall on his right shoulder on the ground instead of falling forward and then letting the swords pierce his body even more. That prevented some damage, but not all of it… a wave of pain passed through his body, but Zaos couldn't even muster the strength to scream. His eyes also began to slowly be taken by the darkness, and Zaos realized that he was screwed… Cleanse wouldn't be enough to save his life, and this time, all the mana that Drannor and Ameria could use wouldn't save him.

Your Poison Resistance has reached level 06.

Your Poison Resistance has reached level 07.

Your Poison Resistance has reached level 08.

Your Poison Resistance has reached level 09.