Published: July 4, 2025
The day after successfully launching the icicle lance, Ryo went hunting in the Eastern Forest as usual.
He had now gained the ability to launch the icicle lance.
To be honest, he thought he could achieve a complete victory even against a greater boa.
He felt confident.
He felt bolder than ever before.
However, Ryo was not attacked by a greater boa.
Instead, he was struck by invisible wind attribute attack magic, air slash, coming from both the front and back.
"One is already troublesome! [Ice Wall All Directions]!"
Ice walls, one meter thick and two meters tall, surrounded Ryo on all sides, blocking the direct hit from the air slash.
In Ryo's right hand, he held the front part of a bamboo spear with a knife attached, which was broken halfway.
The back half, up to the stone tip, had already been sent flying somewhere.
The ice wall was transparent, allowing him to see through it.
In front of the ice wall, a single assassin hawk was flying.
The assassin hawk with one eye closed.
Yes, that very assassin hawk that had once made Ryo contemplate death.
Moreover, behind Ryo, another assassin hawk was flying.
Both were attacking him with air slashes while maintaining their distance.
And annoyingly, one of them always maneuvered to attack from Ryo's blind spot.
In most cases, the role distribution was that the one-eyed assassin hawk faced Ryo directly, while the rookie assassin hawk took the blind spot.
After receiving the third air slash, the front ice wall shattered.
At that moment, countless lines of water shot from Ryo's left hand toward the one-eyed hawk.
([Water Jet 32])
Yet, with some kind of aerodynamic property, it evaded the attack and moved outside the effective range with a swift sideways movement.
Then… the ice wall that was protecting Ryo's back also shattered from the third air slash coming from behind.
To be honest, Ryo was still out of breath.
He had been dodging the air slashes from both the front and back while running around to counterattack.
However, while he could evade the enemy's attacks, his own attacks were, as usual, being completely evaded.
The bamboo spear had become a sacrifice to fend off an air slash he nearly missed, and he had sheltered himself behind the ice wall like a turtle, trying to catch his breath, but the ice wall was broken by three air slashes.
Every time the ice wall shattered, he would counterattack once and then regenerate the ice wall.
"I want to run away… but being sandwiched front and back means there’s no escape route..."
The rookie had accurately maneuvered right behind Ryo, thus entering his blind spot and cutting off his escape route.
Ryo honestly didn’t know how long his magical power would last.
At the current pace, he felt he might manage to sustain ice walls and water jets for about 24 hours… but fatigue was accumulating.
"Fatigue leads to mistakes."
He was battling against unavoidable fatigue.
And if he made a mistake, he would die.
That only added to his fatigue.
"Now, what to do?"
He once again generated an ice wall and took stock of the situation.
So far, Ryo had shown only two tactics: ice walls and water jets from his hands.
And he knew that even 32 water jets fired simultaneously could be dodged.
This time, the victory condition was not to defeat the enemy, but to escape into the barrier.
To achieve that, it might be best to deal damage like before, even if it wasn't fatal, to force them to retreat.
"Shall I lure them?"
The moment Ryo muttered that, both the front and back ice walls shattered simultaneously.
Without hesitation, Ryo fired [Water Jet 16] at the one-eyed hawk.
Then he dashed forward.
Naturally, the one-eyed assassin hawk dodged the water jet.
As Ryo ran, he thrust his left hand forward, attempting to cast a magic spell.
But at that moment, he tripped.
The rookie assassin hawk charged toward the fallen Ryo.
It seemed frustrated from only exchanging ice walls and air slashes for too long.
"Gotcha!" It charged in as if to say.
But this was exactly what Ryo had intended.
After falling, he rolled to the left, dodging the rookie's charge from behind.