Nie Yan leaped forward and plunged his dagger into Soaring Angel’s chest.
Shocked reactions sounded out all around. Practically everyone was caught off-guard by Nie Yan’s appearance.
Finding out Nie Yan had snuck through them completely unnoticed, these 60 players from Angel Corps felt their scalps go numb. A Thief this skilled was far more terrifying than even the strongest warrior; they could end your life, and you wouldn’t even know what killed you!
They felt a sense of helplessness, fear rising up from the bottom of their hearts. If Nie Yan so wished to, he could simply kill them and snatch away their hard-earned equipment. And there would be nothing they could do about it!
The moment his dagger pierced through Soaring Angel’s chest, Nie Yan sensed something off. Though he couldn’t tell what, something felt inherently wrong. Perhaps his ploy played out too smoothly.
In the next instant, Soaring Angel’s body shattered like a glass statue and crumbled to the ground.
A dark energy locked onto Nie Yan. He glanced over at his status bar. It was Shackles of Darkness!
Shackles of Darkness was different from Shackles of Strife. Apart from preventing the target from teleporting away, it also stopped them from using any escape skills. This was the most vexing aspect!
Shit! A trap! Nie Yan thought.
“Don’t let him run!”
“Kill him!”
The dozen or so players in the immediate vicinity roared orders as they raised their weapons. They reacted pretty quickly.
“Die!” Stone Splitter brandished his sword and unleashed a crescent-shaped slash.
BOOOM! The ground split apart as a shockwave swept out toward Nie Yan.
Nie Yan moved to dodge, several vines wrapping towards him from the ground underneath.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Three arrows, camouflaged by the vines, flew straight toward Nie Yan.
Nie Yan spotted Soaring Angel about 60 meters away from the corner of his eye. The arrows came from his bow!
Soaring Angel was truly wily. As the guild leader of Angel Corps and a legend in the previous timeline, he wasn’t an opponent to be taken lightly.
The start of a true battle!
With countless attacks about to hit him, Nie Yan leaped high into the air with the Leaper skill. Three arrows whistled past his cheeks.
“The boss locked him down with Shackles of Darkness! Don’t let him escape!” Stone Splitter shouted. Turning back towards Nie Yan, locking onto the opponent soon to fall under his blade… A silhouette appeared behind him. A dark shadow perfectly resembling Nie Yan.
Stone Splitter sensed the danger, but it was already too late. A sharp dagger stabbed into the back of his head, stunning him.
After incapacitating Stone Splitter, the shadow clone followed up with Cut Throat.
PSFHT! Blood sprayed into the air.
Stone Splitter’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he collapsed to the ground. He’d completely forgotten about Nie Yan’s terrifying shadow clone skill.
The shadow clone had only stepped out of stealth for a brief moment before disappearing again. The surrounding players looked at Stone Splitter’s corpse in shock.
Soaring Angel used Sorens’ Revealer to lock onto the second Nie Yan, but the shadow clone was already out of range. Its movements were too quick. There was nothing he could do.
「Boss, which one is real!?」a player asked. If the one they’d been targeting all this time was the shadow clone, they would have wasted their resources and cooldowns. Especially against an opponent like Nie Yan, even the slightest mistake could lead to their whole team wiping.
Two Thieves. One was out in the open. The other was hidden in the shadows. No one knew which was real or which was fake.
Soaring Angel was also at a loss. He believed he’d baited Nie Yan out, but he had no idea if that was just the clone. Given how crafty Nie Yan was, that was entirely possible!
Nie Yan used this moment of hesitation to switch out the Bloody Dagger for Zennarde’s Sword. All who saw its raging flames gawked in awe.
Nie Yan cleaved down with his blade.
Annihilation Slash!
10 enormous swords cleaved down from the sky, merging into one. BOOOOM! The 20 or so players in the path of the skill were sent flying. Only the Masters managed to dodge in time and avoided taking any damage, though they still broke out in a cold sweat.
What a frightening skill!
They retreated in alarm, scrambling to prepare for the second round of attacks, only to hear a blood-curdling scream behind them. A Magister was killed by the shadow clone.
It almost felt to them like they were surrounded, by one player. A cold sweat drip ran down their necks. Nevertheless, they braced themselves and continued fighting!
The battle scene turned chaotic. Angel Corps’ players had Nie Yan completely surrounded. However, he was as slippery as a loach, and they still didn’t know if they were even fighting the real one!
Nie Yan’s lips curved into a cold smile. He still had many killing moves left to play, including summoning the Doom Sentinels. He could hold his own against these players.
While Nie Yan was tangling with the players from Angel Corps, the shadow clone snuck up behind Soaring Angel.
With the help of Sorens’ Revealer, Soaring Angel could clearly sense the shadow clone’s approach. 15 meters, 13 meters, 10 meters… He suddenly drew his bow and shot three arrows at it.
Nie Yan’s heart trembled. Soaring Angel could somehow detect players through stealth! No wonder his initial ambush failed!
Just as Soaring Angel’s arrows were about to hit, Nie Yan had the shadow clone dodge out of the way. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The arrows suddenly detonated with loud explosions. There was no time to react. It was sent flying away.
The shadow clone was in a sorry state. Several nearby Magisters targeted it with a barrage of magic. It scrambled to its feet and activated Gale Step to escape.
Nie Yan leaped up into the air, soaring more than 10 meters before landing on the side of a building like a spider. He’d jumped this far with only a single move.
Nie Yan and the shadow clone split up and ran in two different directions. Soaring Angel hesitated for a moment before locking onto the one on the side of the building. “I’ll catch that one. You guys go after the other!”
It was time to show off his true ability. Soaring Angel let out a low grunt, chanting an incantation. A pair of black wings sprouted from his back. They were three meters long. With a flap of his wings, he shot forward like a cannonball.
Nie Yan bolted away, only to hear a gust of wind coming from behind him. He turned his head around and discovered Soaring Angel fast approaching him.
Seeing the wings protruding from Soaring Angel’s back, Nie Yan’s heart sank. Shit! He actually obtained the Wings of Sorens!
In Conviction’s history, Sorens was a member of the winged tribe, who was born with black wings. He was a conqueror who led his people to glory before ultimately founding his own nation. After his death, the nation went into decline before eventually vanishing into the river of time. There were still many traces of them left throughout the continent, ranging from dungeons to quests and equipment. These wings were perhaps the most famous of what remained, since they were a direct link to Sorens. They dropped from the Black Hellion King of the Forest of Darkness.
In the entire game, there were only six types of wings. It was rumoured the drop rate of the Wings of Sorens was 1 in 500,000, but Soaring Angel had actually obtained it!
Wings were different from flying mounts. They provided much more freedom in aerial combat and were more suited for ranged classes—the treasures of Demon Hunters. A pair of wings could increase the battle prowess of a Demon Hunter by severalfold! Nie Yan had originally discarded the Wings of Sorens as a rumour. After all, who’d ever heard of a drop rate as ridiculous as 1 in 500,000? However, he was proven wrong. He was curious who got it. It was likely that Soaring Angel had simply bought it. As the guild leader of Angel Corps, he definitely had this kind of power!
Nie Yan thought of the wings he was looking for. They would definitely be better than the Wings of Sorens. However, he had no time to do that quest right now. Either way, since Soaring Angel had wings now, it’d be far more difficult to deal with him.
A flying archer!
“You can’t teleport away or use any escape skills! Let’s see how you get out of this one!” Soaring Angel sneered. He was 80% confident the one he was chasing was the real Nie Yan.
Soaring Angel fired three more arrows toward Nie Yan. Whoosh whoosh whoosh! They went streaking forward like bolts of lightning.
Nie Yan sensed the arrows whizzing towards him. Based on the sound coming from them, he could roughly guess their direction and speed. Their heads were covered in crackling lightning. He had no idea what kind of arrows these were, but recalling the loss his shadow clone had eaten just before, he didn’t dare to be careless. He shot out a web line and swung away.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Three explosions rocked the ground behind him, sending rubble flying everywhere. Some pieces struck Nie Yan at an extremely high velocity.
Nie Yan avoided the brunt of the attack. He turned around and dove into a small alley.
Soaring Angel wasn’t about to let Nie Yan escape so easily. He followed closely behind, skillfully flying between the two buildings. He pulled out another three arrows and drew his bowstring.
Nie Yan kept fleeing, occasionally glancing back to confirm Soaring Angel’s position. If it were anyone else, once they encountered a Demon Hunter with the Wings of Sorens, they only had two paths before them. One was to run, and the other was death. However, at this moment, he was extremely calm. It was simply a pair of wings. He wasn’t the least bit afraid!
