“Khuaaa! Huaaah! Haa… Ha…”
When Quinn’s fist connected, Lucas felt air gushing out of his lungs. Everything momentarily blacked out before he was sent flying back a few good meters.
His body fiddled on the ground like a flat stone on the water’s surface before finally coming to a halt.
He soon came to his senses, however, and violently coughed up a mouthful of blood before gathering the strength in his body and getting up on his feet.
“Fucking hell,” Lucas cursed, wiping the blood from the side of his lips.
He held the in his hand tighter and looked at Quinn, who had a haughty smirk on his face.
Despite realizing the stark difference in power between himself and Quinn, which would typically cause fear or despair in any normal person, Lucas inexplicably felt irked upon seeing him smirk.
Honestly, he just wanted to beat the shit out of his face.
Clicking his tongue, Lucas raised his bow and took an arrow while simultaneously imbuing it in mana, before nocking it quickly on the bowstring.
Quinn responded by enforcing his legs with mana. The ground beneath his legs cracked when he took off, dashing toward Lucas at breakneck speed.
The archer took aim and drew back the string before locking and releasing it.
Swoosk–!!
The arrow whistled through the air and shot at the black-haired boy, but he destroyed it with a slash of his dagger.
Dhak–!
‘His dagger art is troublesome,’ Lucas thought in his mind, standing still.
Tak–!
Right then, Quinn, who was rushing forward with his daggers out for blood, felt his leg breaking a thread.
“Tripwire!” Quinn exclaimed, realizing almost instantly what he had done.
He had activated a tripwire! That means his opponent has set up traps in this area beforehand!
Swook–!
As if waiting for that cue, an arrow from the window of one of the nearby ruined buildings shot out at Quinn.
Quinn widened his eyes in surprise, but he reacted quickly and hopped a few steps back.
Tak–!
The arrow landed on the ground where he stood before, making Quinn think that he was safe, but right at that moment…
Swook–!
Pierce–!
An arrow pierced Quinn’s left leg from behind– his blind spot.
“Arghh,” Quinn grunted.
He realized that the first arrow was a fake. The real trap was this arrow. Lucas predicted that he would jump back to avoid the first arrow.
Although this left a sour taste in Quinn’s mouth, getting outsmarted by a mere brat who has never even experienced war and bloodshed, what could one arrow even do against him?
It stung to get hit, but that’s all.
Gritting his teeth, Quinn was about to raise his leg to get the arrow out of his calf when suddenly a wave of drowsiness washed over him and he fell to his knees.
“Arghh,” grunting again, he couldn’t help but wonder what was happening. “…What the fuck?”𝑵𝑶𝓋𝐞𝗅𝗇𝖾xt.𝗰𝑶𝓂
“Good right?” Lucas said while setting an arrow on his bow. “I got two crossbows while choosing our secondary weapons. Here, I used them to set up a tripwire trap.”
As he explained that, he shot another arrow at the Necromancer.
Swook–!
But right when the arrow was just an inch away from Quinn, he caught it with his bare hands and broke it.
He then looked down to his left leg, the area that was pierced by that trap arrow earlier and what he saw shook him.
Instead of a normal arrowhead, the arrow that pierced his left calf had a syringe attached to it.
In a fury, he looked in front to see Lucas and roared, “You coward, what have you injected me with?!”
“Oh, that?” Lucas pointed at his leg playfully. “That’s just some watered sedatives like diazepam, doxepin, ramelteon, and other stuff like that.”
“Y-You fucker!” Quinn cursed while getting up.
Lucas chuckled, seemingly proud of his actions. “I’ve actually been secretly adding all these crushed sedatives to your food since last night. That’s why you’ve been feeling tired and sluggish.”
At that revelation, Quinn was left flabbergasted.
Just as Lucas mentioned, he had been feeling drowsy all this time, but he didn’t think much of it and blamed it on exhaustion.
Of course, he kept circulating mana in his body to keep himself functioning.
But now, since a huge load of sedatives was directly injected into him, Quinn could actually feel his mind shutting down.
“Haaaa! Haaaa!”
Breathing became difficult for him and his heart rate slowed down dangerously. Not long after, his head started spinning and he felt wave after wave of drowsiness washing over him.
Swook–!
To cease this chance, Lucas shot an arrow but Quinn, even in this state, deflected it using his dagger.
“Wow,” Lucas spoke, impressed. “That right there, what you’re experiencing now, is called Respiratory Depression. But even in this state, you’re able to react to my arrows!”
“You fool,” Quin spoke, regaining some of his strength and breathing properly. “You think these cheap tricks will work on me?!”
No, Lucas didn’t think that. He knew few sedatives, especially those meant for human usage, wouldn’t be enough to put down Quinn.
But still, when Kent went out to the shopping district, Lucas asked him to look for a pharmacy and bring any drug he could find.
Why did he do that?
“Don’t worry,” Lucas said. “I know better than to hope this would be enough for you.”
“Then why did you even bother with this?” asked Quinn while standing up, his condition seemingly getting better than before.
Thankfully, since Quinn’s mana core is only at [Bronze 3] at this point in time, he still has to actively circulate mana in his body to suppress any harmful toxins.
Unlike those with a [Silver ranked] mana core, his body can’t get rid of those toxins on its own.
“Why, you ask?” Lucas repeated with a mocking smirk and nocked an arrow on his bow. “Because now you’ll have to use mana to even keep standing properly while simultaneously fighting me.”
For the sake of simplicity, it was a handicap.
Quinn will have to actively use his mana for casting spells, enforcing his body for close combat, and suppressing the effects of sedatives.
Not only will this put a strain on his mana core but it will also tire out his mind.
It might seem like a cowardly tactic from Lucas but in reality it was a perfect plan to fight a much stronger opponent than himself like Quinn Darkstar.