Close Combat Mage

Chapter 340 - The Reappearance of the Enemy Traces Part 1

Nicole hadn’t made any mental preparations for the sudden sneak attack. She’d thought that if the opponent was clever, he’d choose his target to be Roger or Xiang Yun, the people that were temporarily unable to fight anymore, or the mage that was pretty much useless in close combat. She hadn’t imagined that the target would ever be her instead!

As she stared at that familiar glow, the reason suddenly dawned on Nicole. That’s right…although Nicole knew that Xiang Yun, Roger, and Suo Jia were all extremely powerful, this was something that only she was aware of. The opponent didn’t know of this.

From her opponent’s point of view, since Xiang Yun and Roger couldn’t fight anymore, it would be an easy victory after getting rid of Nicole. As for Suo Jia, he wasn’t even considered…thieves never worried about mages.

Entering the stealth state was definitely the safest. Without a warrior’s protection, a mage was just trash before a thief; they could harass the mage however they pleased. Since Xiang Yun and Roger were momentarily out of the picture, dealing with Nicole was the easiest path to victory for the opposite party.

After realizing all this, Nicole couldn’t help but bite down on her lip. Nicole’s attacks were currently exhausted, leaving her in a difficult position before her energy was replenished. However, even though she was attacked first, there was still a three meters distance between them. Before the opponent covered this distance, Nicole could still do some things.

Nicole took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. Although…she was no longer able to dodge the incoming attack…she could still slightly shift her body down. At the same time, she could also get into a proper stance.

Instant Kill was a thief’s strongest battle skill. Once activated, it would charge at the target with full force. If one couldn’t kill their opponent, they would be killed instead. This perfectly described Nicole’s current situation.

Thus, the instant the enemy thief activated Instant Kill, the situation became irreversible. Instant Kill was a state in which one’s entire mind was focused on an all-out effort to burst out with the fastest attack. The moment Instant Kill was used, it couldn’t be stopped.

At the sight of the flashing glow, Nicole used the 0.01s moment to utilize her familiarity with the Instant Kill, and lightly twisted her body a few degrees in that extremely critical moment. At the same time, she slightly retracted the dagger in her hand.

“Che…” There was a sharp whizzing sound as a silver light swept past Nicole’s throat. A sinister flash of blood suddenly leapt out from Nicole’s throat region. Under the shocked gazes of Suo Jia, Xiang Yun, and Roger, Nicole’s hands rose limply like a doll, and the dagger in her hand flew spinning outwards off into the distance.

“Plop…” Finally, Nicole’s body heavily crashed onto the ground. Captivatingly scarlet blood instantly soaked the ground beneath her, and quickly spread outwards.

On the other side, the opposite thief had finally stopped moving after finishing this attack, and stood there unmoving with his back facing Suo Jia’s group. The only thing moving were the drops of blood dripping down from his dagger!

“Nicole!” After falling into silence for a moment, Suo Jia finally shouted out in shock and quickly charged over towards Nicole, lifting her up without caring about anything else around him…

“Mm…” A tired murmur could be heard as Nicole weakly said, “Quiet down a bit, I’m really tired right now…”

“Yah!” Suo Jia looked at Nicole in excitement after suddenly realizing that Nicole hadn’t actually died. Although there was a long wound cut across her throat, it clearly hadn’t slashed her arteries. With her experience in Instant Kill, Nicole had managed to shift a millimeter in that extremely critical moment, and avoided getting struck on her neck arteries, narrowly escaping death.

Suo Jia swiftly stretched his hand out and immediately activated a Moisture Technique on Nicole’s neck wound. At the same time, he raised his head to glare at that thief. F***…he’d nearly killed Nicole. This guy definitely couldn’t be excused!

“Hm?” Having decided on his next action, Suo Jia stared in confusion at the thief still blankly standing in his place not too far away, in the same position as before. Suo Jia didn’t understand, since the thief had already attacked, why hadn’t he re-entered the concealed state yet?

As Suo Jia was wondering this, Nicole seemed to have guessed Suo Jia’s train of thought and weakly said, “Don’t bother looking anymore. Just now, his focus had been entirely drawn to the dagger in my hand, and he didn’t notice the loaded arrow concealed in my other hand!”

“Loaded arrow?” Suo Jia looked back at Nicole in confusion.

Feebly sitting up and softly leaning against Suo Jia’s chest, Nicole raised her left hand and rolled up the sleeve slightly to reveal an elaborate device. She said tiredly, “It’s this thing. Didn’t you also get something similar to this in Dawn City?”

“Oh!” Suo Jia suddenly realized as he stared at the device firmly secured to Nicole’s small, left arm. This was actually a loaded arrow like the ones on those crossbows. However, why was this arrow green?

Seeing Suo Jia’s expression, and having a decent grasp of Suo Jia’s thoughts, Nicole patiently explained, “This is an Epic-ranked equipment passed down my family, a part of the Invisible equipment set: Poisonous Dragon Arrow! You must’ve heard of this before, right?”

“Poison! Poisonous Dragon Arrow?” Suo Jia couldn’t help but stare at Nicole in stupefaction.

The Poisonous Dragon Arrow wasn’t just a type of arrow, but a loaded arrow meant to be concealed in a sleeve. This kind of arrow was made from the fur on the corner of the green Poisonous Dragon King’s mouth. Although the green Poisonous Dragon King was extremely large, at a height of 20-30 meters…this fur at the corners of its mouth was even finer than a human’s strand of hair.

The Poisonous Dragon, which was also called the Green Dragon, relied on the powerfully corrosive acid it spat out from its mouth to attack the enemy. Even the magic-immune Black Dragon King wouldn’t be able to negate this poisonous attack. Only the Diamond Dragon could ignore any kind of physical attack like this.

These furs grew on the corners of the Poisonous Dragon’s mouth all year round, and were constantly seeped in a poisonous air, soaked in a poisonous liquid. As time passed, this became an incomparably powerful poison. Once it entered the body, it would paralyze the heart and clog all blood pathways. Even if there was an effective antidote, one wouldn’t be able to take it quickly enough. Besides…the Poisonous Dragon’s poison seemed to be impossible to cure.

Because the fur was extremely fine…even if a Poisonous Dragon’s arrow was released, the typical person definitely wouldn’t be able to notice it, let alone block or dodge it. Thus…the Poisonous Dragon Arrow was classified as one of the top ten concealed weapons.

Suo Jia soon thought of another problem. In confusion, he asked Nicole, “Just now, you said that your family seems to pass down the Invisible equipment set?”

Not understanding, Nicole replied, “Yes, don’t tell me that you didn’t know? Invisible refers to my ancestor from the fourth generation family. He’s the world’s first thief to be called invisible!”

“Damn…” Suo Jia clapped a hand on his forehead. This whole time, Suo Jia had only ever heard of the term ‘invisible’, and he’d even carried the Concealment ring [that had invisibility capabilities]*, but he’d never known it was directly related with Nicole’s family.

[*Note: This was very vague, so I put the added details in brackets to clarify for those that don’t remember the Concealment Ring]

Suo Jia suddenly looked down and lifted his left hand. “What parts does that Invisible equipment set have? Look here, I have a Concealment ring. Is this part of your Invisible set?”

Without even glancing at Suo Jia’s ring, Nicole bitterly laughed and replied, “Do you really not know, or are you just pretending to not know? If it wasn’t part of the Invisible set, how could it be called the Concealment ring? That’s definitely my ancestor’s ring!”

“Ah!” Suo Jia shot a puzzled look at Nicole and asked, “In that case, why didn’t ask me for it? Don’t tell me that you didn’t know that every piece of an Epic-ranked equipment set emits some energy?”

“That’s…” Nicole hesitantly looked back at Suo Jia and cautiously responded, “I knew that the ring was in your hands, but…the Epic-ranked equipment set is incomparably valuable, and I knew you really needed that ring, so I…”

“Ai…” Suo Jia helplessly sighed and gave a wry smile, “So you thought that I knew you clearly needed the Invisible equipment set, yet because it was too precious, you thought I couldn’t bear to gift it to you. Is that right?”

Nicole lowered her head. Although she didn’t reply, it was clear to see that she had indeed believed that. The Concealment ring was an extremely useful magic item that any elemental user could utilize. Nobody would ever give it away to someone else.