Oliver twisted away from the lunge at the last moment.
The tendrils of the String Puppet grazed his shoulder and tore through his shirt, leaving a deep gash as he stumbled, but he quickly regained his footing with economical movement.
His eyes narrowed in shock.
'An ambush? Things are starting to get interesting now, aren't they?' Oliver thought, a deep frown forming on his face.
He assessed his situation within a single breath, noting that the powerful wind, which had been a constant nuisance since his arrival, worked against him by forcing greater exertion into every movement and disrupting his usual precision, yet it also hindered the String Puppet, whose erratic lunges became even more unpredictable and less accurate.
'Rook is still in my pocket, so I cannot afford a single heavy fall or a crushing blow.'
The young man adjusted his approach instantly.
Just as he was about to advance, Oliver caught sight of another String Puppet rushing in from his left.
'Two damn String Puppets. What is this!?'
Abandoning his initial plan, he quickly devised a new one on the spot, intending to use the wind to his advantage by positioning himself so that the first Puppet, still recovering from its failed lunge, would obstruct the second Puppet approaching from the side.
It was a maneuver that demanded precise awareness of both opponents while conserving his energy.
He targeted the first Puppet's known weak point, the gap where its jaw met its cranium, and after delivering two swift follow-up strikes without wasted motion to stagger it, he drove his blade forward in a decisive thrust into the exposed gap.
The steel sank in before he pulled it free.
[String Puppet (Rank 1) destroyed.]
[10 Fragments absorbed.]
Fragments: [50]
The first Puppet collapsed.
The second Puppet, having finally forced its way through the relentless wind, charged at him, and Oliver immediately recognized that he could not win this encounter if he continued fighting under such disadvantageous conditions.
With the wind intensifying further and his position nearing the light, which weakened the natural effect of his Shadow Hue and granted the Puppet a clearer view of him, there was a high likelihood he would sustain serious injuries if he engaged it as he had the previous one.
Especially not with Rook, his greatest liability at the moment, still unevolved and incapable of independent movement.
He genuinely wished the system provided a space to store the newborn safely, but that was not an option.
For now, he needed a different approach.
He resolved to retreat, but he required a precise method to misdirect the String Puppet's vision, which tracked movement with unnerving efficiency.
Oliver dropped low and swept his boot across the stone surface, kicking up a spray of loose gravel and fine dust.
The wind caught the cloud and scattered it almost instantly, but for a brief moment, the Puppet's attention followed the swirling debris rather than Oliver himself, a fleeting lapse in its perception that he exploited to dash away.
He weaved through the towering stone rings that jutted from the ground like fractured fangs, his breath growing heavier, until he spotted a narrow gap where two rings had collapsed together, forming a cleft barely wide enough for his body.
Without hesitation, he forced himself through, scraping against his wounded side, and behind him, the Puppet pursued, only to become lodged within the tight opening.
Its carapace grated harshly against the stone as it struggled to free itself.
Oliver should have kept running, that would have been the most rational decision, but instead, he turned back, stepped toward the trapped creature, and swiftly ended it with two precise strikes to the exposed gap at its jaw before departing.
The system notified him of his success, bringing his Fragments to a total of sixty, which was sufficient to initiate Rook's first evolution.
A faint smile spread across his face.
"I am honestly not sorry, but I cannot just let you live after that pathetic ambush you and your companion attempted…"
He pressed forward against the wind, one hand clutching his bleeding wound while the other rested over the pocket where Rook stirred faintly.
At last, he emerged from the Tomb of Stones and found himself standing before a narrow tunnel that led toward the open field beyond. If he continued along that path and avoided any unforeseen complications, he would reach the first Flesh Fruit Tree sooner than expected.
The tunnel was short, yet shrouded in near-total darkness.
However, due to his Shadow Hue, he was able to navigate through the obscurity, guided by his enhanced perception and hearing without difficulty.
Oliver exhaled slowly, fatigue weighing on him.
He proceeded through the tunnel, maintaining his vigilance in case of any imminent danger.
A few minutes later, he stepped out from the other end.
Suddenly, a rapid tapping sound assaulted his ears, like two metal rods striking together in close proximity, the noise piercing and overwhelming.
Sensing a sudden presence beside him, Oliver turned to retaliate without hesitation, but he never saw what struck him next.
A heavy iron rod crashed against his skull with enough force to render him unconscious instantly. His Imperial sword slipped from his grasp, his expression clouded with confusion as his body went limp.
'…What? I was hit… but by what? How? Who? It was too fast. What is happening…?'
The surrounding sounds dulled. He could faintly hear two voices conversing, but even those quickly faded, and his vision darkened as his body collapsed onto the ground, Rook slipping out at the last moment.
At the brink of consciousness, a memory surfaced within his mind.
His eyes slowly shut.
"Oh… right. How could I forget this detail… Oliver was captured by wanderers from the settlement and forced into slavery for their hunting operations. It was barely described in the novel, but… this must be where Teresa and Kaden encounter him again after being taken in by that twisted settlement. I already hate this life…"
As Oliver fell completely unconscious, a strange man who had been standing beside him bent down and checked his pulse, then clicked his tongue.
"Yes. He's still alive, lady."
Another figure, a woman draped in a black cloak that rendered her almost indistinguishable from a shadow, dashed out from the darkness with astonishing speed and stepped into the light, pulling back her hood to reveal her face.
"I told you my Speed Hue was not entirely useless."
"Uh? Who cares? Let's tie him up and add him to the others. Quickly."