Chapter 1659: Crossbows

Sam used his energy vision to scan the surroundings a bit and after confirming that there is nothing else around except this snake, he sat down a bit and started examining it.

There are a few things, that he was surprised about.

The first one is that he wasn't able to sense the presence of this snake when it tried to attack him.

The second one is that this snake has more sanity than even some people on the first floor. It didn't just rashly attack without any consequences. It was sure that Sam would die after injecting that lethal dose of poison.

This is why, it caught him by surprise, before making that move.

Of course, then there is that tough leather skin that couldn't be pierced with normal spikes. And this time, even crushing didn't work, because this thing is pretty flexible. It managed to survive somehow.

The only silver lining is that it doesn't have much direct attack power, particularly after it bit him. The poison might just be the most lethal and even the only attack the snake has, so it kind of lost all of its attacking power.

Sam did some toughness tests and flexibility tests on the snake as he waited to see if its poison comes back.

And it didn't take long for that to happen. Within the next twenty minutes, the snake regained its poison and got ready to bite Sam again.

But of course, this time it didn't have that chance. 

Now for the final test, Sam wanted to test the lethality of the dose of this poison. He looked into the sky and saw the pigeons are still hovering in that certain spot. He took off on harbinger to attract the flock.

The first pigeon that saw him, didn't even hesitate to just dash toward him. Sam aimed the snake straight at the pigeon and let it take the bite.

The pigeon that was full of vigor and strength, suddenly turned black before it fell crashing down on the ground.

It only took a fraction of a second for the poison to work and it worked perfectly.

The pigeon that needed Sam's special bullets to die, was dead with just one snake bite. Of course, these snake bites are not going to be a steady long-term weapon.

It is also not fast enough. But he can use this to farm some lethal poison that he could use. After all, when he consumes the poison, his hydra bloodline can enhance it. It would be a waste not to use this to a full extent.

Sam took out his gun and shot a bunch of pigeons before he hovered down. He doesn't have any plan to deal with these birds for now at least, and the same goes for the bees.

He would rather focus on the land for now and then move to the air.

Luckily, he also has a small area, where he could stay a bit less vigilant. He doesn't know why this space was empty without any other creatures apart from the snake, but that works for him.

Now, he started mapping the area.

When he was on top of the cliff, Sam has a vague understanding of how big the whole forest is, so he divided it into different sections which he would explore one by one.

The first section is the one straight ahead.

An area that could be his base when he finished off everything in there and is connected to the three remaining areas.

This would make things really easier for him in many ways.

Now, he activated shadow fusion as he went deeper into the forest.

Even though he already expected it, the massive trees made him feel tiny here. Some trees are so big that the roots are as tall as him. He felt so insignificant in front of it for some reason.

But not all of them are that huge. As he went deeper, he saw quite a few relatively smaller trees.

As he explored the area bit by bit, Sam stopped in his tracks.

*SWOOSH*

A crossbow bolt went past him and hit a tree behind.

The bolt right went to through the tree by splitting it into two vertical halves, before it hit another tree behind it.

Even before the tree crashed, Sam disappeared from the spot with a puff of black smoke. He reappeared right behind a tree but disappeared within the next second.

A crossbow bolt split that tree apart and destroyed another tree behind it. Sam reappeared on the same spot this time and looked at the damage caused by the bolts.

His energy vision is at the highest intensity as he looked around. But he wasn't able to find anyone. No one is hiding behind the trees, no one is hiding within the branches. Everything appeared clean. In fact, way too clean. There is not single trace of energy fluctuations around.

Even though the bolts are coming in constantly.

Sam took out his reaper sword and slashed the crossbow bolt.

He was stunned when he was unable to cut it in half. He was barely able to deflect it and a small shard of that bolt was the only thing he was able to cut off.

The bolt lodged into the ground and there are some cracks on the surrounding earth.

Sam didn't have time to inspect what happened. He barely dodged another bolt and hid behind a rock this time.

They are even able to catch up with harbinger's speed as well as his movements with shadow fusion. They are using crossbow bolts and they are extremely good at hiding themselves.

Sam could think of a few people that fall under that category.

A group actually. A group he has slaughtered during his training period within the organization.

This brought some really cruel memories back to Sam.

The imprints this group left in his mind are special. Because they left an impression when Sam is way weaker than him as well as an impression when Sam is way too stronger than him.

Both of these impressions are unique in their own right.

As he was thinking back to these memories, he heard some loud crashing sound.

*BAM*

*BAM*

*BAM*

The rock he was hiding behind is vibrating as one bolt after another lodged into it from the other side.

He moved away from the rock.

*CRASH*

The rock crumbled into small pieces before it crashed into the ground because of all the repeated hitting.

Sam who moved to the side, was greeted with another crossbow bolt. But this time, he confidently blocked it with the sword. The sword strike sent the bolt to the side.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

There is a constant clashing noise as the sword met each and every one of those bolts that came at him.

He just hovered there and focused on just defending. He even undid his shadow elemental fusion and met them with his normal speed.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Two attacks.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Four attacks.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Ten attacks.

*BANG*

*BANG*

Twenty attacks.

They kept on coming without any break. But Sam didn't panic. There is a method that he used do defeat these people before and he is very sure that it is going to work again.

Even with all the enhancements, they must have gotten with the way they died, Sam is very sure that he would be able to defeat them just like how he did the first time.

As the number of bolts increased, soon the trajectory of the bolts became constant.

The shooters are not moving much. They stuck to the same place and started shooting rapidly instead of using any other tricks.

Since Sam is not moving away, they decided to focus on speed and quantity instead of tricks shots that will just put more stress on their minds.

Sam smiled as he noticed this.

He slightly channeled wind energy to his energy vision to take a look at the bolts that are coming at him. The bolts are very stealthy. The energy fluctuations are undetectable for some reason.

But the wind around it is definitely moving and Sam decided to focus on that instead of the bolts themselves. As he noticed the ripples of the winds, he got a faint idea of the probable location of the shooters.

Now that he knew where they are, things are going to be a lot easier.

Spatial energy surrounded Sam as the smile turned into a grin.

He disappeared from the spot and a bunch of bolts hit the trees and rocks behind him.

The next moment, the bolts stopped coming.

Sam reappeared on a tree branch far away. He swung the reaper sword to his right.

The sword slashed through the tree trunk.

*SLASH*

Blood splashed out as an arm and a chunk of some other flesh came off along with the tree trunk.

He jumped off from the branch the next moment. A crossbow bolt went past the spot Sam was standing in and hit the tree trunk through the slash Sam made.

The bolt lodged into the chest of a person who was hiding there.

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