Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation (Volume 6)

Vol 6/ Chapter 14: Another Selene

"The first way is impossible with our current abilities, so you mean we must use a sneak attack?"

Adrian nodded in agreement, remembering how the Gray Bishop had only attacked after they rushed into the control room.

But the problem was, even though the bishop wasn't chasing them now, he must be on guard. When the power gap wasn't too big, sneak attacks were hard to succeed without some special trick.

But now Nicola knew the truth about Adrian's ability. With his smarts, she believed he probably already had a plan.

"These are 'Swift' and 'Quick'. With these two arrows, I can increase my speed by three or even four times!" Adrian said, holding two arrows he just made with Battle Qi.

Since Battle Qi only worked on living things, he decided to go in himself again.

His idea was simple - if he could move fast enough that the Gray Bishop couldn't react in time, it wouldn't matter how careful the bishop was.

"That much faster? It could work in theory! But this way only your speed increases - won't your reaction time and other abilities stay the same? Could there be accidents... like your body not being able to handle it?" Nicola frowned.

After all, what if his reactions couldn't keep up? What if he went too far, or couldn't really kill the target? Everything would be wasted! She suggested he try using the word "Strong".

Actually, in her eyes, Adrian's ability might somehow touch at rule level. Too bad he was human, so there must be many limits. But maybe they could find some loophole.

But Adrian said he'd already tried! His ability could only give targets precise meanings. "Strong" was vague - it wasn't clear if it meant stronger body strength or stronger in other ways, so it wouldn't work at all!

Simply put, without finding better words, greatly increasing speed was the best way to deal with Psionic Energy users right now.

Soon, they snuck back near the control room entrance. They didn't dare peek out to look at the enemy, but they could hear the Gray Bishop questioning Karl again about Lantine Oasis and the underground space.

Time was running out - Karl's voice sounded like he couldn't hold on much longer. Adrian checked around while pulling out his dagger and tried to comfort Nicola:

"Don't worry too much. I've actually tried 'Swift' and 'Quick' once or twice before. With some practice and experience, even with both arrows working at once, hitting the target ... should be possible!"

"Should be? Possible?"

Nicola's mouth twitched, but before she could react, Adrian had already stabbed both arrows into himself and rushed out at an incredible speed.

"Coming?"

As expected, the Gray Bishop had been watching the passage entrance. As soon as he noticed someone appear, he gathered a huge amount of Psionic Energy and sent it sweeping toward the target.

But what he saw next was a shadow dodging to the side, easily avoiding the Psionic Energy attack, then using the wall to bounce back and aim at his position with lightning speed.

"Ah—"

When the cold flash reached his eyes, the Gray Bishop had no time to react. He only felt a chill on his left arm as his painful scream rang out.

Unfortunately, Adrian missed! He had aimed for the neck, but the high speed made him lose accuracy. The bishop was pushed several meters away. Adrian had to slow down, and the dagger was stuck too deep to pull out quickly.