Assimilate All Talents

Though Kirgar formulated a plan in case the humans headed to that cave, he didn’t stop attacking. After all, he would much prefer not to interact with what was inside, so he would rather kill the humans before they got there.

As he controlled the snow giant to climb the mountain the squad landed on, he saw them halfway up Orna’s Reach. Soon they would arrive at the cave, and if that was indeed their destination, he had to act fast.

The snow giant perched itself on the mountain and began to morph. It shrank and compacted, taking on a new form. It became a ballista with three channels that could hold massive bolts.

Just as he was about to begin making the massive bolts, he stopped himself and frowned.

‘I can’t use my main attack. It will destroy the mountain.’

Fearing whatever was inside, the ballista morphed once more into a square shape. The square had hundreds of bores spread across its front. It was a hwacha.

With his command, the ice arrows filled the bores, and he launched them without any delay.

Hundreds of ice arrows streaked through the air, aiming straight for the humans.

Though confident they wouldn’t survive if they were hit by these arrows, after seeing how relentless they were in escaping, he refilled the hwacha and shot another volley.

...

Sol and his squad continued to climb the mountain. They were going as fast as they could, using any means. They completely ignored the well-maintained path of the mountain and climbed directly up the vertical walls with stone steps created with [Terra Manipulation]. They also used all the movement skills they could, but no matter how fast Sol, Lapis, Rex, and Aron could go, they had to match Duncan’s pace.

Other people would have considered dropping the weakest link, but no one in this squad even entertained the thought. Not even Lapis, who was more of a lone wolf, considered it.

Rex, who had kept an ever-vigilant eye on his surroundings, was the first to point out what the Champion orc was doing.

“He made a ballista out of snow! Wait, now it's some weird box!”

Duncan looked back and immediately knew what it was. “It's a hwacha! It can shoot hundreds of arrows instantly!”

Just as he informed them, they saw hundreds of ice blue arrows launch from the snow hwacha, covering what felt like the entire sky. It also didn’t stop with just one volley. Volley after volley was continuously launched.

“Watch out!”

Everyone used their movement skills to dodge the arrows. Everywhere they landed, they created small craters from their sheer power.

‘There has to be a way we survive this! I saw us reach that cave in the vision! It has to happen!’

Sol wracked his brain hard on how they could survive dodging them, but no matter what, he realized it wasn’t feasible. Soon their movement skills would run out, and they would find it much harder to continuously dodge.

‘Wait. What if we don’t have to dodge?’

Sol glanced at the craters left by the arrows. While frightening in power, it wasn’t like the previous massive ice spears that destroyed mountains.

As he realized this discovery, he saw Duncan slow down, his skill [Full Metal Stride] ended, and there was an arrow heading right towards him.

Sol brandished his Lipon and released the fire elemental sword. He used [Ground Shrink] towards Duncan and followed up with [Counter].

The flaming sword collided with the arrow, creating a sizzling sound before the arrow was knocked away.

Though the arrow was still powerful, it was possible for him to block it if he put his all into it. He judged each arrow had the power of a full strike from a peak B-Ranker, which was insane given the countless arrows raining down upon them. Luckily, they didn’t need to block all the arrows.

“The arrows are only as strong as a full strike from a peak B-Ranker!”

Sol yelled and didn’t elaborate further because he didn't need to; they understood what he meant and acted accordingly.

Rex continued dodging, but when there was no way to do so, he would use his sword to parry them. Though the arrow was strong enough to push him back, he would sometimes use the knockback to his advantage to move to a more ideal location.

Lapis, who was still carrying Nataly, didn't change much from her previous actions. She was able to perfectly evade all the arrows thanks to her high agility, [Enhanced Reflexes], and her talent skill [Serpentine Steps]. Even with Nataly weighing her down, she was able to slither past all the attacks without much issue.

Duncan was the least fearful of the arrows now that he knew their limits. He held his shield above his head as he endured the rain of arrows directly. He found this much easier than trying to dodge, as it was not his specialty.

Aron… hid under Duncan's massive shield and shamelessly took cover. His few movement skills were on cooldown, and his only way to parry the ice arrows was with his fist, which he didn’t believe would come out unscathed after one attack.

The squad continued climbing but at a much slower pace. Having to dodge and block the ice arrows hampered their progress, but on the bright side, Kirgar hadn’t moved from where he was launching the attack.

...

Kirgar mumbled to himself as he watched the squad continue to climb, “So these humans aren’t only good at running.”

Initially, he believed the human invaders had unusual skills for infiltrating and escaping, but it appeared they were also strong enough to withstand his diluted attacks. Even though the ice arrows weren't as strong as his main attacks, it was still similar to releasing hundreds of peak B-Rank attacks.

“This will be my last volley. I’ll continue chasing if this one doesn’t kill them.”

Ice arrows were formed inside the hwacha once more, but he didn’t release them yet. An evil grin rose on his face as he thought of a devious plan. He turned his attention to one of the arrows loaded onto the hwacha and concentrated much more energy onto it, packing it full of deadly freezing energy.

“Let's see how they block this one.”

The last volley was launched at the squad. Kirgar didn’t wait to see the results and began to chase after them.