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Despite all the other Skeleton Warriors dutifully attacking the man-eating flower, its HP dropped at an agonizingly slow pace. After they finally managed to shave off 10% of its health, it digested another Skeleton Warrior and instantly recovered back to full HP.

“What a pity…” a female voice murmured with a shake of her head.

She was tall and slender, with fiery crimson hair flowing all the way to her heels. Two long, elegantly curved horns protruded from her forehead. A skin-tight black bodysuit perfectly accentuated the generous curves of her upper body and hugged her figure down to the tops of her thighs. Several leather straps wrapped around her shapely legs, and from this distance, her expression remained hidden beneath her curtain of red hair.

Seeing that there weren’t many people around her, Zane naturally walked over.

“Miss, can I ask you something? Which round is this?”

She seemed slightly surprised as she slowly turned around. “Little one… were you talking to me?”

L-Little one? Zane felt that his dignity had been gravely insulted. Keeping a straight face, he corrected, “Big one.”

“…” Windblossom’s pretty face immediately flushed red. She quietly turned away, pretending she didn’t know him.

Meanwhile, Inkseason’s eyes widened as he gave him a thumbs-up, wearing an expression that clearly said you’re the real legend here.

“Hehehe~” His response amused the woman enough to make her laugh. “You’re quite funny.”

She then added, “This is the fourth round. That little Necromancer up there deliberately picked a weaker opponent at the start and dragged out the fight, using the time to fill the arena with his summoned forces.”

‘You could do that!?’

“However…” She gestured toward the arena. “As you can see, he’s put himself in quite the dilemma now.”

On the stage, the Necromancer’s body swayed weakly in the breeze. He had already reached the brink of exhaustion. Finally, with only five minutes left on the countdown, he struggled to leap off the platform, only to be swallowed whole by the man-eating flower in a single bite.

“…” Come to think of it, this arena was truly merciless toward its challengers. One careless mistake could easily cost someone their life.

“Little one, are you scared?”

“Not a chance. If I went up there, I’d wipe the floor with everything.” Zane answered without the slightest change in expression.

“…” The woman froze for a moment, clearly not expecting him to be so shamelessly thick-skinned. “Then… what are you waiting for?”

Intimidated by the man-eating flower’s overwhelming display, no one dared step onto the arena for the time being. After all, Unique monsters were exceedingly rare. Most of the participants were merely at the Epic tier, or even only Rare.

“No rush. I’ll watch a little longer first.”
“I see…”

While casually chatting with the NPC, Zane had already begun discussing strategy through the party channel.

“Windblossom, are you confident against that man-eating flower?” Starry asked. They were too far away to inspect its stats, but judging conservatively, it was at least an Epic Boss.

Windblossom remained silent for a moment. After lowering her head in thought, she nodded. “No problem. If those are all the attack patterns it has, I can handle it.”

“Okay. Then you go first.”

“Mm.”

…

On the arena, the man-eating flower leisurely chewed the remains in its mouth. Thick green fluid dripped from between its teeth from time to time, making for a horrifying sight.

**Tap… Tap… Thud!**

Taking several stone steps in succession, Windblossom steadily crossed over the crowd and landed on the arena platform. The man-eating flower immediately noticed her, its enormous maw opening wide as a foul stench poured out.

Windblossom casually inspected the monster’s attributes and shared the information with the party. Incidentally, Inkseason had also been invited into the party.

Windblossom was only Level 30, a full ten levels below the Greatblade Flower, so its skills could no longer be identified.

Although it was merely an Epic Boss, the attributes of a Level 40 monster were already comparable to those of lower-tier Unique monsters. More importantly, monsters of this type possessed an almost unfair skill: Consume.

Once swallowed into its stomach, the victim was essentially subjected to permanent status effects while continuously suffering Corrode. Unless someone outside managed to immobilize the monster, escaping was virtually impossible.

In a one-on-one battle, however, everything depended solely on oneself. Windblossom’s class was Twilight Ranger. In a place like this, some of her skills couldn’t be used, as doing so would easily expose her identity. This battle was destined to be a difficult one.

“This is going to be troublesome… She should’ve waited for the next opponent,” Inkseason frowned, clearly aware of the Greatblade Flower’s abilities.
“We can only trust her now. Once you’re on that stage, there’s no turning back.”
“That’s true… Windblossom, you’ve got this!!”

…

The man-eating flower couldn’t speak. It could only let out threatening clacking sounds as it extended the sickle-like branches on either side of its body. Under the sunlight, the razor-sharp limbs gleamed brilliantly, looking no different from real blades.

No wonder it was called the Greatblade Flower.

Remaining calm, Windblossom drew her longbow and loosed a probing shot. The arrow sliced through the air, but…

“Omph!” The man-eating flower swallowed it whole in a single gulp without even making a sound.

‘Is it immune to ranged attacks? No. An Epic Boss shouldn’t possess such a freakish ability.’ She drew her crimson bow once more, but this time, she aimed directly at the Greatblade Flower’s eye.

Black light flickered around the arrowhead as she loosed a Guardbreak Arrow!

The vine’s defensive reaction was astonishingly fast. With a single slash, it cleanly cut the Guardbreak Arrow in half before it could reach its target. Not only that, limb-like appendages suddenly sprouted beneath the man-eating flower, lifting its massive body off the ground. Then, visible to the naked eye, it began advancing toward Windblossom.

“Is that thing a moving tank!?” Zane exclaimed.
“If it gets any closer, there won’t be anywhere left to dodge!” Inkseason said anxiously.

The person in question, however, remained remarkably composed, continuing to fire arrows at its eye. Meanwhile, the distance between them steadily shrank.

**Pierce!**

A blue weak point damage number burst from the Greatblade Flower’s pupil.

That strike seemed to become the final straw. Wracked with pain, the man-eating flower began wildly swinging its sickle-like branches, while the gigantic maw beneath them flew open. Its movement speed suddenly surged!

Without the slightest hint of panic, Windblossom slung her longbow over her back. Her right hand swept to her waist, drawing a slender emerald-green rapier as she charged straight toward the monster.

“Wind Dance!”

A gentle green breeze spiraled around her, accelerating her with every step as she rapidly closed the distance.

‘What is she planning?’ Zane wondered. If it were him, he would definitely keep his distance and continuously wear the monster down with ranged attacks. After all, the man-eating flower didn’t appear to possess any long-range attacks.

The creature’s enormous shadow swallowed Windblossom’s petite figure. It looked as though she had willingly thrown herself straight into its jaws! Even the NPC spectators unconsciously held their breath.

‘Is she trying to get herself killed?’

However, the horrifying scene everyone expected never came to pass.

Windblossom lightly tapped the ground several times with the tips of her feet, gliding past the monster along an exquisite diagonal arc. At the same time, her rapier carved a bloody gash across the edge of its enormous mouth.

Carried forward by its own momentum, the man-eating flower crashed heavily into the arena railing. Meanwhile, Windblossom sprinted all the way to the opposite end of the arena before finally coming to a stop.

She sheathed her rapier and drew her crimson longbow once again. The bow and arrow resonated with one another, erupting with a dazzling crimson radiance. Pulling the bowstring to its absolute limit, she released Meteor Arrow!!!