Chapter 100: The Strange Two-Stage Archery Technique!

The Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc, upon realizing that it could not simply kill the two of them outright, ceased trying to sweep them aside with its wings.

Instead, it drove both talons deep into the ground and beat its wings, attempting to tear the iron chains apart.

This too had been part of the Wind Hunt. If the roc had begun by wrenching at the chains at once, the newly driven iron stakes would not have been able to bear the strain and would surely have been ripped free.

But the Wind Hunt clansmen knew the creature well. They understood that this proud beast would first lash out at the noisy little wretches before it, and so they had devised their tactics accordingly.

Wang Chen and his companions were in a slightly different situation. Those who had originally been assigned to beat drums and cymbals before the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc, drawing its attention, had all perished in the swarm of poisonous locusts.

At first this would have left them dangerously short-handed, but Wang Chen’s Veil of a Single Leaf made up for it. The roc had not initially realized it was bound by chains; it only thought arrows had lodged in its wings.

By the time it understood and began straining with all its might to break free, Wang Chen and the others had already linked every chain to the iron stakes.

Dozens of iron stakes were driven deep into the earth, binding the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc fast. Even with its immense frame, it could not wrench free by brute force.

“From here on out, it’s your time to shine,” Wang Chen said, looking to Su.

Su nodded and, together with Wang Chen, circled around to the front of the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc, then took the bow from his back.

From the quiver behind him he drew a specially made arrow, its head forged from coldstar obsidian and glimmering with a frigid sheen.

Su nocked the coldstar arrow and drew the bow to a full moon, yet no lofty arc was needed; the great draw weight of the Wind Hunt bow was enough to send the shaft straight into the roc’s body.

He held his breath, narrowed his eyes to aim, and when his last breath was nearly spent, released the string.

A whistle split the air, followed by a dull detonation.

The arrow shot out at first with a piercing scream of displaced air, and just as it was about to strike the roc, the shaft suddenly accelerated again, as though an invisible bow somewhere in the sky had loosed it a second time.

That second burst of speed caused the arrow to crack through the air with a sound like a sonic boom, and at a speed too fast for the eye to follow, it bored into the roc’s breast.

The Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc let out a shrill, miserable cry at once. Blood blossomed upon its chest.

Watching from the side, Wang Chen felt a chill of alarm. This could no longer be explained by mere marksmanship. For an arrow to accelerate a second time in midair—what kind of principle was this?

Unable to make sense of it, he could only look toward the roc’s chest.

At the sight, he frowned. There was no arrow left hanging from the breast of the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc, only a tiny blood hole, steadily pouring out crimson.

After pondering for a moment, he suddenly understood. In that violent acceleration, the arrow shaft must have been shredded by the raging, high-pressure air currents, leaving only the coldstar obsidian arrowhead to pierce the roc’s chest like a bullet.

“So he clearly fires bullets, yet insists on calling himself an archer,” Wang Chen muttered to himself after grasping the secret.

While Wang Chen was still thinking, Su had already notched a second coldstar arrow and was drawing the bow again, once more holding his breath and pulling it to a full moon before releasing it in an instant.

A whistle split the air, followed by a dull detonation.

The arrow completed its second acceleration in midair, and the coldstar tip plunged into the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc’s breast.

The roc cried out again, and the struggle of its wings grew even more violent.

Watching closely, Wang Chen discovered that the breast of the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc still showed only that one blood hole.

What was going on? Had he missed? But the roc’s reaction was unmistakably that of being struck, so that could not be it.

Confused, Wang Chen wanted to ask Su about it.

But when he turned his head, he saw Su’s face already slick with bead-sized drops of sweat, his tightly pressed lips gone pale.

Wang Chen was startled. He had only fired a second arrow, so why did he look so exhausted already?

At once he understood that this miraculous second-stage arrow technique also demanded a price fitting its uncanny nature.

When using arrows to pin and bind the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc before, Su had loosed dozens in one breath without so much as a tremor in his hands. Yet now, after merely a second shot with the two-stage arrow, he was already in this state.

So powerful was the two-stage arrow.

Wang Chen did not dare disturb Su rashly. He knew this was a crucial moment for him.

At present, Wang Chen’s own role looked rather awkward. Everything he could do to help Su had already been done. The only thing left might have been to grant him some kind of enhancement, but he was not sure whether that would disrupt Su’s complete focus.

If the Wind Hunt clan’s archery truly required such a state, or if their trial demanded that Su personally and decisively kill the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc with the two-stage arrow, then his intervention might do more harm than good.

Yet he also did not dare leave carelessly, fearing some unforeseen change.

Otherwise he would have gone to question Dargo already, instead of standing here idle.

So he could only serve as a spectator at the side, while observing this miraculous archery.

Su loosed another arrow. After the sonic burst, the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc let out another anguished cry.

And Wang Chen still could see only a single blood hole. This time, no matter what, it could not have missed; that meant leaving only one blood hole was normal.

After thinking for a while, Wang Chen’s heart suddenly jolted and he understood at last.

So all three coldstar arrowheads had drilled into the very same blood hole!

He recalled that birds of prey, needing to beat their wings constantly in flight, often possessed exceptionally developed chest muscles.

Let alone a beast as large as a small house, the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc’s chest muscles were surely thick beyond measure.

To pierce its heart, the Wind Hunt clan had devised this method: stacking one coldstar arrowhead upon another in successive shots, the later arrowhead striking the tail of the one before it, pushing the first arrowhead onward until it drove into the heart.

It was like a surgical blade made of many sections, slowly being pressed into the heart.

Only then did Wang Chen fully understand the sorrow and despair hidden within the roc’s cry.

This was no different from waiting for death to arrive by inches.

Merely imagining it sent a chill through him.

What he did not understand, however, was why they did not simply shoot the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc in the head with a coldstar arrow instead. That seemed as though it would be less effort.

He thought it over and over, but still could not make sense of it, and could only ask Su later.

By now Su had already fired his fifth arrow. The leather tunic he wore was completely soaked through with sweat.

His face had also lost all color, looking weak to the point of fragility.

But this twelve-year-old boy had finally begun to show some of the Wind Hunt clansmen’s tenacity; there was still stubborn fire burning in his eyes as he clenched his teeth and drew out the next arrow.

Watching from the side, Wang Chen felt a surge of emotion. It seemed that after this Wind Hunt operation ended, the child ought to undergo a transformation.

No—perhaps he was already transforming.

As Su loosed his tenth arrow, another coldstar tip drove into the Dragon-Swallowing Vajra Roc’s breast.

Its struggling had already become feeble, as though it could sense death drawing near.

Su bit his lip until blood welled there, using the pain to wring a little more strength from himself, and nocked a coldstar arrow upon his bow.