In the few moments since the One-eyed Owl’s appearance, the central region of the Iron Forest had already become an Asura Death Realm. Demon Beast corpses fell alongside the "Arrow Rain," and one Middle Level Non-commissioned Officer after another was skewered and pinned to the ground.

PANG PANG PANG...

A dense barrage of Iron Feathers hammered against Senior Non-commissioned Officer Hu Tianlin’s Armor, ringing out with the crisp, forceful sound of hail on an iron wok.

The front of his stern, hard helmet revealed only a horizontal slit, from which two large, bloodshot eyes seethed with a potent killing intent.

His Qi Blood Bow was drawn taut. Blood from his right thumb slid down the bowstring toward the Red Pearl at its nocking point, adding a threefold intensity to its baleful aura.

A total of six people on this mission had a chance of killing the One-eyed Owl. But the other four Senior Non-commissioned Officers had Mastered Bow Skills that lacked piercing power, and the last was Yang Yu, a student from the Prodigy Project.

’The burden of crippling the One-eyed Owl has fallen to me. I have to shoot it down, even if it drains every last drop of my Qi Blood!’

[Vortex Arrow]!

TWANG—BOOM—

A torrent of reversed Qi Blood condensed into a Storm Arrow, blasting up from the ground and shredding five or six meters of Iron Trees in its path.

At that moment, it was as if all the surviving Non-commissioned Officers were witnessing a red dawn, their eyes flashing with light.

BANG!

A loud CRACK, like a steel drill hitting a concrete drum. The One-eyed Owl, diving a few hundred meters above the ground, blocked the shot with its wings. It shuddered, the arrowhead barely piercing its purple feathers.

"SCREEE—"

The One-eyed Owl’s flight path dropped by dozens of meters as it rampaged through the Iron Forest like an airplane shearing through dead trees. As more and more Middle Level Non-commissioned Officers were exposed, they were mercilessly cut down by its purple wings.

’How are this One-eyed Owl’s armor plates so damn hard?!’

Hu Tianlin gritted his teeth and fired another arrow, but it too only managed to barely embed itself in the One-eyed Owl’s wing.

In comparison, when the others’ arrows struck the One-eyed Owl, it was like trying to poke through a security door with chopsticks. They couldn’t even begin to break its defenses!

Just then—

An indigo meteor shot up from the ground not far away, radiating a piercing chill like that of Polaris.

It was Yang Yu’s [North Star Piercing the Sky]!

A skill she had self-realized from the Mastered Bow Skill [Breaking Kill Arrow]. It was designed for the most Extreme armor-piercing force, sacrificing accuracy and warmth to condense all of her Qi Blood into the singular purpose of the kill!

RIIIP—

The indigo meteor instantly annihilated all Flying Demon Beasts within a ten-meter radius of its trajectory, carving a gray-and-blue path through the swarms of black beasts that filled the sky.

BOOM—

With a boom that rattled the chest, the arrow pierced the wing of the One-eyed Owl—which had just climbed to an altitude of a thousand meters—shattering two or three of its armor plates.

The sheer force knocked its massive body—with a wingspan of over twenty meters—back two or three meters, causing it to stall and plummet a hundred meters!

"SCREEE—"

A murderous shriek, like an apocalyptic sound pressing down on everyone, caused even the Iron Feather Birds and Cyan Feathered Birds in the sky to freeze. Their barrage of attacks faltered.

’Not good!’

Hu Tianlin’s eyes flew open. He broke into a frantic sprint, hurtling past one shattered Iron Tree stump after another. The Qi Blood Bow in his hands vanished as he funneled all his remaining Qi Blood into his legs!

High above, the One-eyed Owl moved in the same direction, streaking overhead in a dive!

In his vision, a slender figure in indigo Armor was sprinting frantically through a distant, still-intact section of the Iron Forest. The One-eyed Owl was like a hawk diving for a chick, its sharp, purplish-black beak already open!

’Yang Yu is the candidate from the Prodigy Project most likely to become an Optimizer. Nothing can be allowed to happen to her!’

Hu Tianlin’s heart hammered like an engine running on fumes. Thousands of Iron Trees blurred past his vision like phantoms, but the reflection of the One-eyed Owl in his eyes was streaking from the top of the sky straight toward the center!

’Why is this One-eyed Owl so fast!’

’This thing is damn near a Top Tier Demon Beast!’

’Ah—why?!’

’Why is this Advanced Armor so heavy? Why am I burning through my Qi Blood so quickly?!’

A furious roar exploded in Hu Tianlin’s mind. His outstretched hand couldn’t possibly reach Yang Yu hundreds of meters away, and a chill seeped into his back, penetrating even his thickest armor.

The One-eyed Owl was diving at full speed for the kill. On this battlefield, no one could dodge it, and no one could block it!

’Yang Yu is going to die!’

The instant the thought formed, his heart sank like a stone in a mire. Hu Tianlin’s breath caught in his throat. Suddenly, a wave of killing intent surged over them from a kilometer away.

ROAR—

Accompanied by a Dragon’s Roar that pierced the clouds with its baleful aura, what looked like a Black Flood Dragon shot in from another direction. In an instant, like a shark tearing through a school of sardines, it ripped a huge hole in the formation of several thousand Flying Demon Beasts, revealing a patch of open sky.

The phantom Black Flood Dragon’s momentum didn’t slow in the slightest as it shot straight for the diving One-eyed Owl, its draconic maw seeming to open wide!

CHOMP!

RIIIP—

The arrow pierced the One-eyed Owl’s left wing, blasting a gaping, bloody hole clean through it. The violent torrent of air rushing through the wound was like a tidal wave in reverse!

"SCREEE—"

Its most wretched shriek yet tore through the sky, making the very mountains tremble in resonance.

Having lost its balance, the One-eyed Owl’s downward momentum was unabated. It crashed to the ground like a downed airplane, grinding dozens of meters of the Iron Forest into splinters and gouging a three-foot-deep crater in the earth!

In that instant, every Non-commissioned Officer’s eyes went wide. High above, the Iron Feather Birds that had paused their assault now scattered like locusts. Their rhythm of attack was completely broken as they all climbed higher, trying to evade the falling projectiles.

Thump... thump... thump...

The indigo figure in his sights managed to sidestep the One-eyed Owl’s crashing body. Hu Tianlin abruptly slowed his pace, his head instinctively turning to look in the direction from which that arrow had come.

’To cross a distance of at least two thousand meters and hit the center of gravity of its left wing while the One-eyed Owl was in a full-speed dive... and to punch a hole at least a meter in diameter!’

’What an incredibly powerful Mastered Bow Skill... and what astonishing arm strength!’

"Scree..."

The fallen One-eyed Owl thrashed its right wing, kicking up clouds of dust and splintered Iron Tree fragments. But like a flightless bird, it couldn’t get off the ground. It tilted its head to the sky and let out a long, hoarse, whimpering cry.

BOOM—

Suddenly, another sound of something tearing through the air at extreme speed came from the same direction. This time, the Middle Level Non-commissioned Officers who had missed the first spectacular shot all stared, their eyes wide. Even the prodigies from the Inner City, who were watching from the distant perimeter, fixed their gaze on it, their hearts pounding.

Dawn had not yet arrived, and the full moon still hung in the sky. A Conical Arrow shot straight from the other edge of the Iron Forest, like a roaring Black Flood Dragon surging through the deep sea. For ten meters on either side of its path, the Iron Trees were simply pulverized into dust by the sheer Strength behind the shot.

A Middle Level Non-commissioned Officer fifty or sixty meters away felt a sudden gust of wind hit his face and blinked instinctively. By the time he opened his eyes, the arrow had already crossed several hundred meters and was slamming into the One-eyed Owl’s back!

SQUELCH—

Armor plates shattered and its heart burst. The arrowhead dragged its viscera with it as it plunged into the earth. With a soft thud, the One-eyed Owl’s head drooped, its single, scarlet eye staring blankly as its right wing collapsed to the ground.

The Iron Feather Birds and Cyan Feathered Birds circling overhead scattered like frightened curs. The sky, once obscured, began to open up, and daylight spilled down upon the scattered Non-commissioned Officers and prodigies.

The wind rustled the broken branches hanging from the Iron Trees. The young woman standing silently before the One-eyed Owl’s corpse, bow in hand, let her arms fall to her sides. Her Armor was riddled with dents and occasional breaches.

Her helmet framed a blood-stained cheek, and reflected in the center of her Ice Soul-like eyes was the One-eyed Owl’s single, watermelon-sized eye.

’It’s dead.’

’The Demon Beast with the highest kill weight is dead.’

’And I’m not the one who killed it.’

A torrent of complex emotions washed over Yang Yu like cool water, seeping into her very bones. Her Great Bow vanished, and in the lines of her now-empty left palm, a faint shimmer of moisture gleamed.

BA-DUM, BA-DUM, BA-DUM...

Her heart gradually registered that the aura of death had dissipated.

She bit her lower lip, a mixture of relief, gratitude, regret, and self-derision coalescing into a single breath that escaped as a whisper. "Who killed it?"