The Fishman Priest, who initially wore a shocked expression seeing the "Fear Skill" instantly immunized, seemed as though struck by some invisible thunder.

The entire body suddenly froze, and its already lifeless black fish eyes completely lost focus, becoming dazed and vacant.

The four limbs held the horn with muscle memory, yet the body stood motionless on the ground.

"Now’s the time!"

Knowing the chance to end it all lay before him, Xia Nan didn’t hesitate for a moment. He forcefully pushed off from the ground, making the wolf howl that already surrounded him grow deeper, and the powerful qi swirling around him became sharper.

The terrifying burst of speed left the Fishman Guards, commanded by the priest to intercept him, incapable of stopping him.

Many times, the fish spears had only just been raised when the Black Wolf’s shadow vanished from sight, leaving only a series of knife-like wounds on their bodies.

The gray-black Wolf Teeth condensed a reddish glow on its surface, still going all out without holding back, delivering a single unabated strike.

The pitch-black Winter Wolf, hunting in the night, finally lunged at its prey.

Buzz—

Under the drive of the Vortex Slash, the reddish force field energy stretched into a perfect arc of light.

"Rip."

It was the grating sound of flesh being torn apart.

The phosphorescent blue blood spewed upward from the neck’s severed edge like a fountain.

The Fishman Priest’s head, still wearing a look of astonishment, spun at high speed through the air, momentarily aligning with the full moon, before gravity brought it back down to earth.

It rolled with a "gurgle," coming to rest beside a patch of shrubbery.

"Garr!"

"Gurr!!!"

The sound of the priest’s body crashing to the ground was accompanied by the shrill cries of the Sha Hua Fishmen.

The death of the Fishman Priest, the group leader, drove the remaining Fishmen into a frenzy.

They lunatically launched an assault on Xia Nan and the other members of the Iron Rock Shield Team.

Nimbly shifting his steps to dodge a fish spear thrust from the rear side, Xia Nan then took off the top half of a Sha Hua Fishman’s skull with a single arm-slicing sword strike.

Xia Nan’s focus was razor-sharp.

The death of the Fishman Priest didn’t mean the battle was over; it only slightly tipped the scales of victory in his favor.

Many enemies remained to be dealt with, including several Elite Fishman Guards with Challenge Levels above "1," and the upper-echelon professionals of the Ebbtide Gang.

Not to mention "Carrion Vulture" Gerry, who existed as the Pirate Leader.

In fact, Xia Nan had assumed the opponent would seize the opportunity of his assault on the Fishman Priest to attack him from behind.

He was even prepared to use the Deflection Shield of [Dead Line] for defense, and even planned to exchange injury for death using the 4th Ring Healing Technique of [Tear of Spring Breath].

Surprisingly, Gerry did not take advantage of this brief gap to attack Xia Nan.

Instead, after being knocked into the air and landing, Gerry directly charged toward the Iron Rock Shield Team on the other side of the field.

From "Carrion Vulture" Gerry’s perspective, it was actually quite understandable.

The brief exchanges with Xia Nan made this gang leader realize that the young adventurer with the nickname "Haiya" was far more challenging than expected.

Not only was Xia Nan physically strong, but his battle style, honed through a combination of battle skills, effectively countered Gerry. Even his prized corrosive poison attacks were useless against the strange Dark Arm Shield.

Under such circumstances, when Gerry personally witnessed Xia Nan becoming immune to the Fishman Priest’s spiritual control magic and decapitating him with a single slash.

He decisively changed his original battle strategy.

Since handling Xia Nan alone might be problematic, Gerry decided to leverage their numerical advantage on this side to besiege Xia Nan.

Given the numerous Elite Fishman Guards and the gang’s professionals, could they not handle just one of him?

Thus, making up his mind, Gerry shifted his target, attacking the Iron Rock Shield Team.

He needed to reduce the number of Haiya’s teammates in the shortest possible time, to ensure their side’s viable forces, and to free up personnel for the siege on Xia Nan.

Gerry’s first chosen target was the sole unfortunate being hit by the Fireball Technique on the field.

Half-orc Howl hadn’t died on the spot; despite the burning damage from the Fireball Technique leaving him severely injured, the Constitution Attribute bonus bestowed by the [warrior] profession and the powerful physique from his orc bloodline allowed him to endure.

With the aid of the healing potion thrown by Seli, he quickly recuperated.

The gradually rising life energy finally allowed the half-orc to stop his previously shrill, rooster-like howls. Saliva dripped down as he panted heavily, his round eyes still dazed from the earlier pain.

Slowly, he crawled up from the ground, his light green skin covered with black scorch marks, emitting a foul odor.

But perhaps due to the orcish bloodline, even though he had just started to recover, the moment the fishmen’s screeches approached, he instinctively entered some sort of frenzied battle state.

Ignoring the calls from his two companions some distance away, he charged at the enemies with a roar, wielding his hand axe.

After all, being a professional of Level 3, even an ordinary beast explodes with unimaginable strength and ferocity when on the brink of death, let alone a seasoned professional warrior.

Howl wielded two hand axes, transforming them into wild, fierce illusions, focusing solely on slashing at a fishman, chopping the opponent into minced flesh.

The excessively savage scene instilled fear in the surrounding Ebbtide Gang thugs and fishmen soldiers, who momentarily merely encircled him without daring to attack.

That’s exactly the effect Howl wanted!

"Roar!!!"

Standing there, stepping on the fishman corpse beneath him, he bellowed towards the sky, venting his inner anger and discontent.

Seemingly trying to make those around forget the embarrassing scene of him rolling on the ground howling in pain.

But... After all, he was a half-orc.

Perhaps the racial gift from his bloodline granted him the unique ability to retain combat power even while severely injured, but his mixed-race disadvantage left Howl without the keen perception of those prairie beastmen.

His roar was interrupted by a shadowy deep green blade.

"Carrion Vulture" Gerry at that moment seemed genuinely like a vulture circling in the sky, eyeing the injured prey.

Swooping out from the crowd, the edge of the sharp scimitar in his hand shimmered with a sweetly sickening poison, much like the sharp talons of a vulture.

With a gentle twist at the half-orc’s waist, it gouged out a palm-sized piece of flesh.

Separated in an instant.

When the half-orc, hampered by his impaired reactions due to his injured state, realized his iron axe had fallen, Gerry had already retreated back into the crowd.

The poison spread.

The flesh around the wound sizzled with corrosion, as streams of deep green poison spread into the wound and quickly reached the entire body.

After being exhausted from the Fireball Technique, his physique was brought to the brink, experiencing such an ordeal, the fury-concealed pain and weakness surged like a tidal wave, engulfing Howl’s consciousness.

All he felt was his vision darkening, his body growing weaker, even holding onto the two iron axes became a tremendous effort.

The bold roar turned into a painful whimper.

His legs buckled, causing him to stagger a step backward.

And that single step seemed to trigger a key fuse.

The thugs and fishmen, originally intimidated by his fierce presence, suddenly recognized the half-orc’s weakness and closed in, charging.

"Slash!"

His hand axe swung on instinct, but contrary to his expectations, it didn’t cut the Sha Hua Fishman in half but instead got stuck in its shoulder bone.

Howl instinctively tried to pull the axe out of the flesh, but the brief moment of sticking left his body completely exposed to countless fish spears and blades around him.

"Pierce!"

"Slash!"

"Crack!!"

Three fish spears stabbed from different directions, slanting upwards through the side and piercing the chest and ribs; another stabbing through the thigh from above; the third pierced through the heart from behind forward.

Two scimitars hacked down from left and right, one deeply embedding in the half-orc’s neck, caught by muscle and bone; the other slicing off his right arm.

The fatal injury came from behind, from a scimitar with a deep green edge.

Descending from above, splitting his neck from the skull’s vertex to the chin, cleaving the half-orc’s head in half.

Blood mixed with thick white fluid dripped down.

The roar from the half-orc vanished entirely from the field.

Howl, death.