Reign of the Hunters

Chapter 198 A Fight to the Death

Even if Ye Ci knew a lot about Fate in her past life, a long amount of time passed after she reincarnated from her last life into her current self. There were things she had forgotten about the game. One of them was the Abandoned Altar mentioned by the mayor of Dark Clay City. Ye Ci knew that something was wrong with the altar, but she could no longer remember the details of the quest.

However she wasted no time, immediately travelling to the altar. Since I’ve accepted the quest, I might as well get to the place and improvise if I run into trouble. If she had to be meticulous when playing the game, wouldn’t it ruin the fun? Wouldn’t it be like writing a computer game? The game would cease to be fun and interactive. Weren’t sudden events and being unpredictable the best part of video games?

Something that even she as a reincarnated person was unable to foresee was very thrilling. You could never know what happens next. Will you return with huge amounts of rewards? Or will you die in an attempt to gain those rewards?

Ye Ci could barely contain her excitement. She was increasingly bored with her repetitive life. The sudden turn of events was a good change for her.

She headed to the north eastern corner of the Swamp of Sorrows. The population of players began to thin down, as she headed further north. Even before she reached her destination, she could no longer spot any players in the vicinity. Ye Ci stopped and surveyed her surroundings on Ol’ Four’s back.

The plants in the area were denser than the other parts of the Swamp of Sorrows. While the Swamp of Sorrows was normally covered by low growing shrubs and moss, the place was filled with tall, lush trees. Not even a shred of sunlight was able to penetrate the dense leaves. The air was filled with the smell of decay, silently screaming out warnings of danger towards Ye Ci.

“Ol’ Four, what’s in there?” asked Ye Ci as she caressed the thick skin on Ol’ Four’s neck.

The beast was very quiet. It stood silently under Ye Ci like a tame cat. Ye Ci’s voice was soft, even she was not sure if the question was meant for herself or was it for Ol’ Four.

Ye Ci’s surroundings were quiet. It was just too quiet. She narrowed her eyes and looked around, there was nothing but fog. It was the only way to get to the Abandoned Altar.

Ye Ci was not afraid. However, she was also reluctant to risk her life. After all, it would be very inconvenient to retrieve anything that she might drop in this place upon her death.

After surveying the dense forest, Ye Ci decided to continue her advance. Instead of galloping ahead in full speed, Ye Ci advanced slowly and cautiously towards the Abandoned Altar deep within the forest.

Even Ol’ Four took light and careful steps without any commands from Ye Ci. As a T-rex that lived in the jungle since its infancy, vigilance and ferocity were traits that were ingrained deep in its bones.

A gust of wind suddenly passed by, and Ol’ Four’s pupils contracted as it stooped down. Ye Ci noticed something wrong with the wind as well. Noticing that the wind came from her left to the rear, she jumped into the air and grabbed hold of one of the thick vines. Turning around, Ye Ci fired her crossbow at the direction of the wind.

Her actions were fluid and confident. It was as if she was part of the jungle, and could adapt to any situation in the wild. As the bolts left her crossbow, Ye Ci finally caught sight of her assailant.

It was a snek.

It was a gigantic snake with a body as thick as her thigh. The snake’s dark green scales gave off a dangerous aura, and its triangular head an indicator that it was poisonous. The snake was thrashing on the ground. Although her shots did not hit anything vital, one of Ye Ci’s bolts has buried itself between the snake’s upper and lower mandible, piercing the soft flesh in the snake’s oral cavity and causing great pain.

As an opportunist, Ol’ Four immediately pounced on the snake, determined to tear it into pieces. Despite its fierce appearance, the snake was a lvl 40 monster, which meant that it had a lower level than Ol’ Four, placing it at a grave disadvantage. Before long, Ol’ Four tore the snake into shreds.

The experience points Ye Ci received by killing the snake was even higher than that of the Ogres in the Mausoleum of Blades. Despite that, the snakes were well concealed in the forest. It was very hard to spot them unless they chose to attack. It would otherwise make the forest a good leveling spot.

They carefully picked their way towards the innermost depths of the forest. Although nothing really dangerous happened en route, there was a never ending stream of minor incidents. They ran into countless monsters during their journey. Although the monsters were easy to deal with, a bad feeling gnawed at Ye Ci’s heart.

The monsters were tough opponents that would give any player who was not of the Hunter class trouble even if they were at the same level as Ye Ci. The monsters however, did not move in packs. What troubled Ye Ci the most, was the fact that all the enemies she fought were poison type enemies.

Scorpions, centipedes and various soft bodied insects stood in their way. Their poison was not strong, but the effects of the poison could be stacked. With potion making as her Life Skill, Ye Ci would always have a lot of antidotes with her. Ol’ Four almost died when it was beset with 7 stacks of poison, losing 2,000 hit points every 3 seconds. Had Ye Ci not given the Antidote to Ol’ Four, his first death would happen in this forest.

With such encounters, Ye Ci could almost be certain that the Abandoned Altar had a formidable guardian that was very good with poison attacks.

Was there a poison-type BOSS in the Swamp of Sorrows? Ye Ci’s memory was fuzzy. There seemed to be such a BOSS, but his name was lost to her. She had only set foot in this map once in her last life, and did not stay for long. She did not have a very lasting memory of this map.

I guess I’ll just have to improvise.

A BOSS with poison damage was not as easy to deal with as a physical damage BOSS, but it was not impossible to defeat.

After traversing through the darkest part of the forest, the light ahead became clearer. Although the scenery was still as dim as the rest of the Swamp of Sorrows, it was leagues better than the forest behind her. The place was more spacious, and the trees were thinner. Ye Ci could spot the wooden altar from afar.

The air was filled with an unpleasant smell. It was the stench Ye Ci had noticed before entering the forest. As opposed to the faint smell from before, the odor in this place was vomit inducing. A black column of smoke rose from behind an undergrowth. It seemed to be the source of the unpleasant odor.

Ye Ci jumped down from Ol’ Four and dismissed her pet. She then slowly crept towards the source of the black smoke in stealth. It was way too quiet. With the exception of the black smoke, an indicator of the presence of an unknown life form, there was nothing else in the vicinity.

Ye Ci was on alert. After all, your opponent would always deal a fatal blow when you are relaxed. This would place you in a grave advantage.

However, danger would still find its way to you even if you were careful. Such misfortune happened to Ye Ci. Despite paying close attention to the terrain while in stealth, even after being careful and constantly changing her course, she still found herself immobilized.

Lowering her head, Ye Ci noticed that her feet were bound by thorns, forcing her out of stealth. A debuff appeared in her status bar: Entangled, duration: 10 seconds.

Thorny Entanglement was a skill unique to Druids. As there was no system message notifying Ye Ci that she has been attacked by a player, the only other explanation was that she was under attack by an NPC Druid. After identifying the class of her assailant, Ye Ci lowered herself and drew her crossbow. She surveyed her surroundings, and a Werebeast in robes, holding a staff appeared from behind a tree. “Foolish Elf! You’ve fallen into my trap!” sneered the Werebeast.

As he spoke, the Werebeast began channeling a spell, “I’ll be sure to wipe out your inferior race this time! You Elves do not deserve to be in this world!”

In Fate, Elves and Werebeasts were races that were born in the forest. They share some similarities in general, but were very different as well. These 2 races were not on friendly terms. As forest-dwelling races, both the Elves and the Werebeasts were always competing against each other. Even after peace had been established between both races, there still existed members of the two races that could not let go of their past resentment.

The Werebeast Druid who was standing in front of Ye Ci was a fine example. He despised the Elves.

His characteristic finally reminded Ye Ci of his identity.

Werebeast Shaman Buru.

Buru was once the high priest of the Werebeasts. His reputation and fame reached the apex amongst his kind. However, he was an extremist. Since young, Buru believed that the Werebeast race was the superior forest-dwelling race, and viewed Elves as the inferior race. He even thought that Elves should not be part of this world, and always massacred any Elves that had the misfortune of crossing paths with him.

It was an act that was originally not frowned upon by the masses, as both races were locked in a fight for superiority. When the Dark Lord Naga conspired to conquer the entire Jiama Continent, every race on the continent cast aside their differences and united against the Dark Lord. The Werebeasts and the Elves signed a peace treaty, ending the war between Werebeasts and Elves that lasted for hundreds of years. Werebeasts and Elves alike were forced to lay down their arms and joined forces in the fight against Dark Lord Naga.

Despite that, many members of both races were opposed to the peace treaty. Buru was one of the Werebeasts who strongly opposed the notion. Even after the peace treaty was signed between the 10 races of the Jiama Continent, Buru resumed his conflict with the Elves, and had even butchered Elves as a form of protest to the peace treaty.

In the face of the threat by Dark Lord Naga, Buru and others like him were sinners who threatened the unity of the races. Despite the protests by Elves and Werebeasts alike, Buru and his followers as well as Elves who acted just like them were banished by the council of the 10 races.

Buru was enraged by the decision. However, he was powerless against the decision of the majority.

This course of action was crucial for the survival of the 10 races. For Buru and his followers however, it was a cruel decision. He was robbed of his position as the High Priest, and lost his pride as Werebeast. This served only to fuel his already burning hatred towards the Elves.

Because of his story, Buru was very well-known in Fate. He was known for slaughtering any and all players that have the misfortune of running into him, as well as his tendency to torture any Elven players to death in unimaginable ways.

Ye Ci remembered that she had a battle against this BOSS in her past life. At that time however, she was a lvl120 player, and she was able to defeat the lvl50 BOSS easily before it could even cast any of its abilities. Because of that, Ye Ci was very unfamiliar with Buru’s abilities. She could faintly remember a discussion between players: Buru was not only good with poison attacks. He could summon pets that would aid him in battle. He was a very formidable BOSS.

If she knew the strategies of taking down the BOSS, it would pose no challenge to her. But without prior knowledge about the BOSS, taking it down would be hard.

The lvl120 Ye Ci was able to kill the BOSS with one strike, but the lvl42 Ye Ci was in a pinch. Ye Ci was not afraid of trouble. After all, it was a game. A game without difficulties would be meaningless.

Ye Ci had no confidence of taking down a lvl50 BOSS with a lvl42 character. But, even with the slightest glimmer of hope, Ye Ci would fight to the end.

Translator’s note:

?? literally means “Beastman” but then I remembered they call em “Werebeast” in No Game No Life and well... “Werebeast” sure as hell sounds 50,000 times better than “Beastman” so I’ve decided to use the term “Werebeast” for Buru’s race.

Hiya minna-san! Here’s another awesom chapter of this awesomesauce novel translated by an awesomtacular translator! Woooohhh!!!

How’s everybody doing? Jimmi is doing fine thanks for asking ahahahaha..... What am I talking about lmao... *looks at the chapter number* Oh golly gosh! We’re at Chapter 198 already? Damn! 198... 199... 200... OH 200!!! We’re nearing that 200 Chapters milestone soon people! WooohooOOOOO!!!

And uhh.. Calling to all the artistic souls out there, you know what Jimmy wants the most from you... FAN ART! FAN ART! FAN ART! FAN ART! *chanting continues* Aherm aherm... So uhhh if you wish to submit any fan arts, feel free to send them to me via email to !

If you have the monies to spare.... You can uhh... Donate to Reign of the Hunters! XD This will help Jimmi out a lot... Like... A LOT! GIB ME MONIES FOR FOOD!!! (shameless af)

Don’t forget that we have teasers next page! First in the comments type: FIRST BLOOD!

Desu Vult.

There was no way Buru’s skill would take 10 seconds to channel. Ye Ci readied herself, with a Large Health Potion in hand, ready to gulp it down the moment she was hit by Buru’s skill. That was, of course, if the attack did not kill her right away.

However, Buru enjoyed toying with Elves before taking their lives. There was no way he would allow an Elf to die easily without pain, and Gongzi You was a member of the Elven race. Buru’s attack did not kill Ye Ci. Instead, it took away 10% of her hitpoints, and added a Poisoned debuff to her status.

Buru’s poison was way more potent than the poison of the monsters that Ye Ci encountered before. Even at 1 stack, it dealt more than 1000 damage every 3 seconds. As a DPS class, Ye Ci had only a little over 10,000 HP at lvl 42. Buru’s attack dealt a total of half of Ye C’s hitpoints.

“Can you feel the pain, Elf? Does it feel like you’ve been consumed by a raging flame?” Buru laughed out loud, showing his snow white fangs, “This is the pain that your kind has inflicted upon me! I will make you pay! Ah, you’re almost dead. Do you think I’ll allow you to die so easily?”

As if he was able to see Ye Ci’s hitpoints, Buru cast Heal on Ye Ci when she had only 30% of her hitpoints left. As expected of a lvl 50 BOSS, he was able to heal Ye Ci back to full health. But, would Buru be so kind hearted? Of course not! Even his healing on Ye Ci came with poison. He inflicted yet another stack of poison damage on Ye Ci, dealing 1500 points of damage to her every 3 seconds.

Ye Ci drank a bottle of potion that has a healing over time effect, and waited patiently for the thorns to disappear. There was only 2 seconds left.

Buru let out a maniacal laugh, and began channeling another spell. Before he could cast the spell, the thorns binding Ye Ci disappeared. She tumbled to a side and entered stealth, backing a few yards away from her original spot.

“What? She disappeared! That damned Elf disappeared!” Buru was momentarily stunned as Ye Ci vanished from sight. He then bellowed in rage, “After so long, you Elves are still despicable as ever! You’re even more wretched than before! I would throw up whenever I smell the stench of your lowly race! You don’t deserve to be in this world! Die! Just die!” Buru raised his hands and began chanting, “O’ Earthly Mother, your humble servant calls to thee, grant me thy strength, and I shall use this Elf as a sacrifice to thee!”

Ye Ci remained in stealth as she continued observing Buru’s actions. He knelt on the ground with hands raised, appearing to be praying. The skill that Buru was casting had a long channeling time. Seizing this opportunity, Ye Ci circled around Buru and approached his back. She then stabbed her short sword into his heart.

“You have poisoned your enemy.” the poison effect on Ye Ci’s short sword was nothing compared to Buru’s poison. However, every ounce of damage counts. In a situation like this, Ye Ci could only grind the hitpoints of her opponent down bit by bit

As a Werebeast NPC, Buru was a humanoid creature. This meant that his heart was his weakness. Ye Ci’s attacked dealt a critical blow to the NPC, taking away 5% of his life. She was also able to disrupt Buru’s channeling. He clutched at his chest and fell onto the ground.

Ye Ci immediately backed away from the BOSS and summoned Ol’ Four. She drew her crossbow as she gave the order to her pet to go after Buru, and began firing her weapon at the BOSS.

Ye Ci’s critical blow was able to stun Buru for a few seconds. Within the precious window, Ye Ci was able to land several critical hits on the BOSS while Ol’ Four used all of its offensive abilities on Buru as well. Despite being a lvl 50 NPC, Buru lost 10% of his health under the onslaught. Ye Ci was troubled. With Buru having an 8-level advantage over her, quite a number of her attacks missed. This would badly affect the outcome of the battle.

At that moment, Ye Ci remembered a certain ring that was sitting in her inventory. It was the ring dropped by Fleeting Time. Despite her reluctance, Ye Ci was in a really dire situation. She had to use the ring.

Even if... Even if that ring used to be owned by Fleeting Time, but... Ye Ci had no time to spare. She immediately equipped the ring, and her accuracy soared. Her MISS was reduced by at least 70%, significantly increasing her damage output.

“Damn you Elf! You’ll pay!” recovering from being stunned, Buru let out a roar and cast spells at Ye Ci. Without the ability to disrupt spell casting, Ye Ci could only try to predict the type of spell that would be released by Buru based on the channeling time.

If the spell was an AOE one, Ye Ci would jump away in advance, dodging the high amount of damage of the large area spell. If it was a single target spell, it would all depend on Ye Ci’s luck. She might be able to avoid the spell, or duck the cover of a rock or a tree.

As a Huntress instead of a Sorceress, Ye Ci was agile and fast. Coupled with the positioning she had acquired in her past life as a spell caster, Ye Ci had an edge in her battle against Buru. She was able to avoid most of Buru’s attacks. On the other hand, Buru was slow as a druid, and many of his skills require a long channeling time. This placed him in a disadvantage.

How could Buru not be enraged? As a noble Werebeast, he was being toyed around by an Elf and an annoying dinosaur. He let out a roar, “Come out, my pets!”

A huge number of poisonous monsters appeared around Ye Ci, who immediately entered stealth. The monsters began swarming at Ol’ Four, which was focusing its attention on Buru. The beast was enraged. It let out a mighty roar and cast Tremor on its assailants, dealing tremendous amounts of damage.

Ye Ci seized the opportunity to put a distance between herself and her foes. Buru, who was unwilling to let Ye Ci escape, gave chase. However, as he took a step forward, he unwittingly walked into Ye Ci’s Frost Trap, and was frozen solid.

The effect of the Frost Trap would only last for 10 seconds. However, a large number of tasks could be accomplished in such a short window. Ye Ci was able to heal Ol’ Four up and took out all of Buru’s summoned monsters. As the monsters died, Ye Ci noticed that Buru’s health was also affected by the health of his pets as his hitpoints dropped by 10%.

Could it be...

Could it be that lives of Buru’s summoned monsters were linked to his hitpoints? Would he receive damage when his pets died? Ye Ci was unable to confirm her theory. However, she hastened up her attacks, forcing Buru to once again summon his pets. Ye Ci began dealing with Buru following the same set of strategy. She would pretend to escape and set Buru up to be frozen by her Frost Trap, and then eliminate all of Buru’s pets.

As expected, Buru would lose 10% of his hitpoints each time his pets were eliminated. Ye Ci had also discovered that if the monsters were not defeated within a minute, the damage that they dealt would act as a lifesteal for Buru. How peculiar! If Ye Ci did not have a high DPS, and was unable to control the tempo of the battle, she would be in a pinch.

With a way to defeat Buru, Ye Ci was no longer at a loss. She slowly seized the tempo of the battle, placing Buru in a disadvantage.

Even with his level advantage, once Ye Ci took control of the tempo, Buru was just a slightly tougher bone that would eventually be devoured by her. With enough patience and effort, taking down Buru would be an easy task.

Buru would of course not allow himself to be killed by Ye Ci easily. Even after grasping the tempo of the battle, Ye Ci would receive a lot of trouble from Buru. The BOSS would often use Feign Death, heal himself, and increase its defence. These skills were not used often, but they were very troublesome for Ye Ci. After being in combat for such a long time, Ol’ Four’s mood and stamina was rapidly deteriorating. Even food was unable to improve Ol Four’s mood.

The mood of a pet like Ol’ Four would not affect the tempo of the battle, but his attack speed and damage was significantly decreased. For Ye Ci, it was the worst case scenario. Judging by the rapidly dimming sky, she had already been locked in combat with Buru for almost 4 hours. Ol’ Four was not the only one with dwindling stamina. Ye Ci herself was also at her limits.

To make matters worse, Ye Ci’s ammunition was almost depleted. A system notification constantly rang in her ears, “You have only one set of arrows left in your quiver, please replenish your ammunition.”

Ye Ci was equipped with a 24-slot quiver. It has 6 more slots than a normal quiver, and has a passive ability that allows it to recycle used normal arrows. Despite that, the fight with Buru had almost depleted Ye Cis arrows. If she was unable to defeat Buru, she would end up like Fleeting Time, and taste defeat when she was so close in achieving victory.

5% of Buru’s hitpoints remained while Ye Ci had 244 arrows left. She began formulating plans in her mind, drawing up the best strategy to take buru out with her remaining arrows.

Ye Ci did not panic even as the situation grew dire. She was calm. Ye Ci felt that she had grown. In her past life, such unfavorable situation would cause her to go into panic. However, she was able to remain calm. Perhaps it was because her attitude has changed, and she had begun enjoying the game for real, or perhaps she no longer place benefits above all else, things have changed for her.

No matter the reason, Ye Ci was able to remain focussed. The calmer she was, the more she was able to analyze the battle. She lurked just beyond Buru’s casting range, healing Ol’ Four and feeding it food while dealing damage with her skills. From an outsider’s point of view however, the Gongzi You in this moment was no different from the Gongzi You at the start of the battle.

Despite her agility and the ferocity of her attacks, only Ye Ci knew that she was at her limit. Her hands were numb and her body felt as if it was being torn apart. Even her organs were protesting. The system was flooding her with notifications, stating that her stamina was at its limit. If she did not take a rest, there would be a 24-hours fatigue penalty for her.

She was aware of what it meant. However, she was also aware of another thing: she must not give up, because she had not done her best. As long as her body could move, as long as she could still control her body, as long as she was conscious, she must continue the fight.

She was a Huntress, she was a DPS player, she was born for battle.

And she will fight to her death.

“Elf, I know you can’t endure any longer! You can barely move, can you? Give up now! You cannot resist me! You cannot defeat me!” Buru had only 3% of his hitpoints left. With his eyes red with rage, the BOSS began casting a spell not far away from Ye Ci.

Buru was a BOSS with high intelligence. A BOSS like Buru was able to analyze the situation and adapt to its outcome. Buru knew that he was at the end of his life, and he also knew that the Elf was at its limits. Only one of the two would survive this battle, and Buru’s pride as a Werebeast refused to allow the Elf to be the survivor. It was a fight to the death.

I have 171 arrows left, I might be able to defeat him. Ye Ci’s throat was on fire. She could not even speak, and every breath she took brought scorching pain. As she took a look at Ol’ Four, she noted that her pet was truly at its limit. Without hesitation, Ye Ci dismissed Ol’ Four and summoned Ol’ Three.

Despite being 2 levels below Ol’ Four, Ol’ Three and a mere Elite Monster, Ol’ Three was freshly summoned and was full of energy. His damage output was way better than the exhausted Ol’ Four.

The fight dragged on.

When Buru had only 1.8% of his hitpoints left, Ye Ci’s high damage skills were on cooldown. She ran around the BOSS, using Rapid Fire and Viper Stinger to buy her some time.

“Die, Elf!” Ye Ci’s body was really at its limit. She eventually showed an opening, which was exploited by Buru. He immobilized Ye Ci with Thorny Entanglement. Scooping Ye Ci up from the ground, he clamped down hard on her throat.

Buru glared at Ye Ci, and tightened his grip on her throat.“Puny insect! How dare you stand against me! You’ll suffer for even daring to challenge my might!”

Ye Ci was out of breath, and she could almost hear the snapping of her bones. If the situation continues, she would have the life choked out of her. Her limbs were too short to reach Buru, and her strength was rapidly waning. She did not even have the strength to draw out her short sword.

Am I going to die just like this?

Ye Ci’s bones and windpipe began making a crunching sound. She was unwilling to accept her defeat, but...

It seems this is the end.