Alone and Infinite

Just a few dozen meters away, the tip of Smaug's tail brushed past a figure that was running backward at high speed.

Blood splattered everywhere; the figure's legs disappeared after being merely grazed by the spikes.

The black arrow that was blocking their way spun out and flew far away.

The shockwave from the tail sent the figure flying a great distance before it crashed heavily to the ground.

Aaron Gur could hardly believe his eyes; his mind was in complete chaos.

Bard?

How could it be Bard?

Li Xia stared blankly at Bard lying in front of her.

Blood was gushing from the mouth of the tall, dark-haired man. Both his legs had been severed cleanly at the knees, revealing bloody, mangled wounds.

His arm, having blocked the black arrow, was torn into a grotesque shape.

Bard twisted his head with difficulty, his lifeless eyes looking at Li Xia, his lips flaring slightly.

"Xia...it's you."

His eyes pleaded: "Xia, please help me."

A complex emotion welled up in Li Xia's heart, and he nodded.

The jet-black spear slowly appeared in Li Xia's palm. He held the spear with both hands, holding it upright in front of him, the gleaming spear tip aimed at Bard's chest.

"Thank you," Bard forced a smile and calmly closed his eyes.

For a proud archer and royal descendant, living a wretched life without limbs is worse than dying.

Li Xia took a deep breath, exerted force with both hands, and thrust the spear into his chest. Bard groaned, but the pain on his face slowly disappeared.

Numerous notifications appeared in rapid succession.

Li Xia retrieved the treasure chest that Bard had dropped and looked at Smaug not far away.

As Smaug crashed to the ground, he let out a roar. Despite the hard wooden floor, a large number of vines sprouted from the ground, binding his legs and wings like a spider web.

Smaug struggled desperately, the vines creaking under the terrifying force, yet they still held on with remarkable resilience.

Suddenly, several beams of light flew toward Smaug from the long-silent town of Lake-town. These were the remaining Apostles who had been lying in wait. They had finally gotten their chance and brought out their most treasured items!

Several bloody wounds immediately appeared on Smaug's soft belly, and the dragon struggled furiously in pain.

Temporarily turn off the notification that the Hall of Light is refreshing rapidly.

Li Xia slowly straightened up, looked directly at Smaug in front of him, and opened his mouth.

"hiss----------"

A huge amount of air rushed into my lungs with each inhale, and my heart pounded.

My blood was flowing faster, and I could almost hear a rushing sound in my ears.

Concentrated Breathing - Speed ​​Enhancement!

"Oh!"

The muscles in his legs swelled up instantly, and tremendous force was transmitted from his feet to the ground.

He dashed toward the bound Smaug like a bolt of lightning.

The surrounding flames, carried by the airflow that rushed past Li Xia, all surged toward him at this moment, as if paying homage to a king in the flames.

This scene was also noticed by Smaug.

The dragon stopped struggling, its serpentine, vertical pupils coldly staring at the reptile that dared to charge at it.

Its slender neck began to turn bright red, and tiny sparks danced on its fine scales as a raging inferno gathered in the air.

"Beep beep beep, high heat reaction detected, calculated trajectory as follows!"

A phantom of flame appeared in the monocle. Li Xia paused, then forcefully changed direction and lunged forward.

A scorching column of fire brushed past him, igniting the hem of his clothes, but he continued his charge.

Smaug never imagined anyone could escape its spray; it roared angrily and spewed flames once more.

"Drip drip"

At that moment, all the apostles stood up, staring in disbelief at a figure engulfed in flames who dodged Smaug's continuous dragonfire by changing direction.

Sparks flew everywhere it passed, like a shooting star!

Li Xia stared directly at Smaug, his deep brown pupils reflecting the approaching, ferocious dragon and its outstretched hands.

A long, black arrow appeared.

The nearly two-meter-long black arrow resembled a special spear, leaping high alongside Li Xia's figure.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Exhale and make a sound. Twist your waist and thrust your hips forward, then thrust the gun out!

Like a muffled thunderclap in the darkness, the black arrow pierced Smaug's left chest without hesitation, disappearing completely.

Smaug let out an unprecedentedly painful scream, and the ferocious dragon stretched out its neck and breathed its last breath of dragonfire into the sky.

His eyes gradually lost their luster, and he crashed heavily to the ground.

Amidst hundreds of extremely complex gazes, Li Xia slowly retrieved the treasure chest that Smaug had dropped and leaped directly into the water.

The apostle, as if waking from a dream, then remembered something and opened the contribution ranking.

[Rankings of the Five Armies Battle]

1. Xia (contribution 79%)

The cool lake water soothed my stinging body a little.

Numbers 1-6 are rowing their boats to get there.

Li Xia opened the panel, and prompts from the Hall of Light appeared rapidly.

[You have killed Bard, the captain of the Longlake Archer Guard!]

Your reputation in Longlake Town is about to plummet!

[The Hall of Fame determined that there were no witnesses from the human faction.]

You have been exempted from this reputation penalty.

[With Bard's death, a major shift has occurred in the fate of this world! You have suffered the backlash of fate!]

[Talent Ability: A Blessing in Disaster (Fate-Level) has been triggered]

The fate of Middle-earth was settled by an unknown force!

[You have gained a 36% chance of transcendence!] (There is also a small line of text indicating that the Transcendence Hall has drawn 36%)

You have slain the tyrant Smaug!

[You have obtained a 42% chance of transcendence] (There is also a small line of text indicating that the Transcendence Hall has drawn 42%)

[You have earned the title: Dragon Slayer!]

[The Hall of Light is currently determining its status.]

[It has been determined that the Mayor of Laketown (human faction) is dead, and Bard, the Captain of the Laketown Archer Guard (human faction), is dead.]

[Apostle No. 27149 has been determined to be the sole surviving member of the human faction's Longlake Town Archer Guard!]

[Reputation level determined for #27149: Exalted!]

【Important Notice!】

[Apostle No. 27149, you have been designated by the Hall as the leader of the human faction!]

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Chapter 51 The Treasure Chest of Destiny!

Leader of the human faction?

Looking through the water at Changhu Town, where flames still burned, Li Xia recalled the old, weak, sick, and disabled people who were left with only a little over a hundred people in the original story.

I had no choice but to put aside this prestigious title for now and start thinking about the rest of the hints in the hall.

Just as I expected, the Hall of Fame wasn't a rigid game system. Normally, killing Bard would have immediately kicked me out of the human faction, and my reputation would have dropped to Blood Feud.

But firstly, Bard wanted to die, and secondly, no one witnessed the kill.

Ultimately, they avoided reputation penalties, partly because the human faction was inherently weak and unable to track down the culprit.

This approach won't work with well-organized and technologically advanced forces, because they will investigate.

However, this introduced a factor that Li Xia was unaware of.

That is, killing Bard, an important figure in Middle-earth, would cause a huge shock to the timeline of destiny, although it would also create a lot of opportunities for transcendence.

But the killer will also suffer the consequences of fate, and what those consequences will be is unknown.

The talent skill [A stroke of luck amidst misfortune], which Li Xia once considered useless, suddenly activated and offset the backlash.

Li Xia sighed somewhat; in a sense, it was truly a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

Now it's time to take stock of what we've accomplished.

First, there's the opportunity for transcendence; the two kills generated a massive amount of opportunities for transcendence, totaling 78%.

This isn't very useful to me personally; it's mainly used for calculating merit points.

Next came the loot from the kills. Since this was a battlefield trial world, a portion of the rewards were converted into battlefield contribution points for settlement, so all that ended up in Li Xia's hands were treasure chests.

Two treasure chests in the personal space emitted a soft glow.

Unlike the treasure chests I've seen before, these two treasure chests have a particularly unique design.

One of the boxes was perfectly square and very regular, with the symbol [∞] on it.

【The Box of Destiny - Bard】: The one who carries destiny, this is destiny's feedback to you.

This box gave Li Xia a strange feeling. After thinking for a while, he decided to wait until he returned to his space after this trial was over before dealing with it.

We need to at least figure out what the Treasure Chest of Destiny is.

Then came another box.

The box's exterior was covered in fine, dark red scales, and upon closer inspection, it looked remarkably similar to Smaug.

The lid of the treasure chest has a closed eye on it, and its four corners have menacing barbs sticking out.

Perhaps noticing someone staring at him, the eyes on the treasure chest lid suddenly opened, revealing vertical pupils just like Smaug's.

His eyes were filled with endless resentment and anger as he looked around.

Why don't we go back and open this one too?

The main concern is that the treasure chest might bite.

Finally, there's the title "Dragon Slayer".

I opened the title's detailed attributes in the panel.

Dragon Slayer

Wearing effect:

1. Dragon Slayer: Extremely vulnerable to the hostility of dragons, dealing approximately 10% more damage to dragons (the Temple of Light provides additional damage bonus).

2. Prestige: If you use identity swapping when entering the world, your initial identity will be increased by one level (provided by the Hall of Light).

Title Advancement:

[Dragon Slayer] — [Dragon Hunter] — [Enemy of the Ancient Dragon] — [? ? ?] — [? ? ?]

Li Xia's eyes lit up. This title was quite useful. Although it had a debuff that made one susceptible to hostility from dragons, the value of the second effect, Prestige, far exceeded what a single debuff could offset.

What's more, there's also a 10% increase in damage dealt to dragons? What's even more interesting is that this bonus is provided by the Temple of Light.

For example, if you strike a dragon, the Temple of Light will calculate the approximate damage based on that strike, and then add to the damage itself.