Chapter 80 – Falling into the trap
Translated by Sunyancai
Promptly, Shao Xuan ran back with the stone box, which contained the body of the Green Thief. Earlier, he planned to flee the battlefield as far as possible, because he knew in his heart that he would be a heavy liability even if he stayed at where he was due to his limited ability. However, he did not run far before he had a sudden sense of danger. Using his special view, he saw some light green creature approaching him fast from beneath the ground, and it was in the same shape as the Fire Lance that they had encountered already.
Since he woke up this morning, Shao Xuan realized that almost all the plants were in the color of green in his special view. But most of them were pale green, sometimes even crystal-like. However, the color of the Fire Lance was deeper to light green.
His path of escape was blocked. Shao Xuan intended to change his direction, only to find that this approaching Fire Lance seemed to be focusing on him. So was the earlier Fire Lance. He was their sole target.
Was that for the Green Thief?
Or perhaps they were only after Shao Xuan himself?
No matter whether their target was the Green Thief, or Shao Xuan himself, he couldn’t handle their attack anyway. His only option was to retreat to seek help.
Shao Xuan sped up his pace as he touched the animal skin bag he had on his waist.
Ta had the confidence to put down one Fire Lance. Even if he didn’t managed to kill it, he could totally drive it away. However, now there was another one. The situation became quite tricky, for both of the Fire Lances were extremely aggressive.
Ta chopped down a piece of vine. There was no time for him to wipe away the “blood” on his face, he yelled at the other few warriors, “You guys go and deal with the other one!”
However, Ta only had about twenty warriors, and in a short period of time, they could not handle both of the two Fire Lances at the same time. In the meantime, people were worried about if there would be a third or a fourth one. If that happened, they would have no other option but to give up this place.
Their hearts were unwilling. Although their hands did not slow down, there was still a faint impatience.
What was the most important thing for a plant?
The roots!
However, those plants that could run freely all knew very well about how to protect their roots. Some of them would even bury their roots deep down under the ground so that others would have a rare chance to attack it. Especially when it came to tough plants as fierce as the ferocious beasts, one would only end up dead if you tried to attack its weak point, yet didn’t manage to make a fatal strike. Unfortunately, no one had the confidence. Even Ta and the others, who were quite experienced in fighting with the Fire Lance, would run away and engage in a real combat only when they were forced to.
As Ta and the others were trying to figure out how to drive those two Fire Lances away quickly, an amplified picture of a snare was formed in Shao Xuan’s mind. There were not enough threads, so Shao Xuan could only try to make an incomplete one.
Now he should not rely on Ta and the others completely. Shao Xuan wanted to make his own contributions, for they were a team after all. They shared the honor and defeat. According to the success rate that Shao Xuan calculated in his mind, the incomplete snare was worth trying.
He had never attempted to set such a large-scaled snare, so he was not sure about the effect as well. After all, the reality might not agree with his expectation. But no matter how effective it might be, it was worth trying. Even the slightest help counts under such circumstances. What’s more, in such a place like this one, quick combat was always considered the best strategy.
Shao Xuan carried the stone box with one arm, while his other hand promptly took out a spearhead dart with a the white thread.
Although he was using only one hand, he was quite skilled in making a knot. With twisted fingers moving up and down, the white thread got tightly entwined at the end of the dart.
Whoosh!
Shao Xuan dodged the whipping vine, and tossed out the dart hard. He was not aiming at the vine, but some point on the ground.
The dart pierced deep underground.
The first point was set, and the second one needed to be set quickly.
Ta and the others were attacking the Fire Lances and had their hands full as they tried to contain them, so that Shao Xuan could easily cope with the situation.
The way that Shao Xuan dodged was artful. He jumped high and landed low, his moves seemed to have no regular pattern, but every single move was made after precise calculation, even if they were only meaningless actions in the eyes of others. All of them were done in a short moment.
Midst the thundering sounds, the whipping vines were dancing in the air wildly. Numerous dirt chunks and stones were swept away by the vines. There were sounds of broken trees, flying dirt chunks and cracked branches, along with the sounds of chopped down vines. So, the sound of spearheads drilling into the trunk, the ground and the vines seemed to be too weak to be heard. Shao Xuan was really fast, no one would know what he was doing without close observation.
Shao Xuan twisted his fingers pretty fast, and he was also quick on the feet. Every time when he reached some place to bury a spearhead, he finished the knot in the blink of an eye. All the knotting and connecting must be done at the same moment due to the limited time and space. The muscles all over his body were in full function, and the totem power inside him was used to its limit, as it was running through all his meridians.
If you looked closely, you would find that there was a layer of surging airflow around his arm, which he used for setting the snares.
Shao Xuan ran back and forth near those two Fire Lances with the stone box in his arm.
Quick, quick, quick!
Setting a trap must be done quickly, especially when you set it at a hunting scene. Even a small action might cause unpredictable changes.
It was only for a few seconds, and Shao Xuan had finished with the peripheral settings. There was still one middle step that needed to be done.
Shao Xuan stamped on the vine with all his strength, and leapt away before the hair-like extrusions could tangle his feet.
“What are you doing, Ah-Xuan?!”
“Hey! Mind your steps and do not run around!”
Seeing that Shao Xuan was running on the peripheral zone, Tuo and the others got quite confused. Shouldn’t he be fleeing away?
“It wants the Green Thief!!” Shao Xuan shouted.
It wanted the Green Thief? The Fire Lances also targeted the Green Thief?!
Before anyone could say anything, they heard Shao Xuan shout out again, “I just set a trap. Everybody needs to move away later!”
He rushed towards the middle of the two Fire Lances, as he shouted.
“Stop it, Ah-Xuan! What are you doing?!” Ta shouted out angrily.
The battle in between the two Fire Lances was not strong. Obviously these two plants had no intention of fighting each other. That was also the reason why Shao Xuan dared to run through them. Also, Shao Xuan was quite fast in his running. Although he could not fight against the Fire Lance, he had the ability to avoid their attacks.
Shao Xuan stepped on the vines and jumped high.
His moves were too fast to be seen, while the spearhead darts flew through quite a few points. When there was a need for knotting, he would do it in a second.
It’s finished!!
But Shao Xuan did not stop running.
Shao Xuan with the stone box in his arms became a perfect bait. No matter where he ran to, the two Fire Lances would be chasing after him, attacking. Just because of that, Ta and the others were following Shao Xuan, to resist most of the vines.
A vine shot up from a sharp angle from below. Shao Xuan did not try to avoid it, instead, he took out the stone sword to resist.
Bang!
There was a crashing sound like two stones hitting each other.
Tuo and the others saw that Shao Xuan was flying in the air because of the recoil.
Keke was the closest one to Shao Xuan, and he planned to rescue him by catching him there. He would be falling directly onto the ground if no one helped him.
However, Keke found out in shock that the boy stopped in the middle of the air. He was supposed to be flying down in a parabola.
Yes, he stopped mid-air.
Steady and still.
In the meantime, people heard something. It was like when wood got strangled tight.
Not only Keke, even Ta and the others were surprisingly shocked with their eyes wide open. But at a second look, they found that Shao Xuan was not standing in the air. He was standing on a white thread.
When did the white thread exist there?
All the warriors were confused, but they thought about Shao Xuan’s earlier claim of “setting a trap”. It might work, seeing such circumstances.
“Everybody retreat! Tuo, Keke, Suo! You go back a little more!” Shao Xuan asked the ones in the circle of the trap to step down. He wanted to be safe, even if they weren’t in danger in the first place.
Standing on a white thread, the snare in Shao Xuan’s mind became clearer than ever.
Some vines were shooting towards him. And at least one of them fell into the trap.
Although there were two separated individual Fire Lances, half of their vines were strangled in the snare that Shao Xuan set. Any single vine falling into the trap would trigger a series of reactions on the snare. It was a chain trap.
Shao Xuan felt that everything was moving slower than usual, and time seemed to have been frozen. All he could see now were the few vines shooting at him, along with some threads, which might not be so clear in other people’s eyes. They became more and more clear in Shao Xuan’s vision. Besides that, everything else merged into the vague background.
It’s near!
Nearer!
One of the vine twisted, and it flew through the thread in Shao Xuan’s vision.
It fell into the trap!