Sylas' gaze was sharp as he ran. He had taken in quite a lot about the environment on his way here.

The system wasn't allowing him to summon the Dire Wolf right now. He assumed that he would be in a perpetual combat state until the Quicktime Event came to an end, though once again, he felt that it was unfair.

Still, crying about it wasn't going to change anything.

His Luck had mostly been useless in this situation, but had he not listened to it, he would have been several times closer to the portal than he was now. At the very least, this time, there was at least a kilometer between himself and them.

What he needed was a place that he could take advantage of to secure a quick victory.

In the past, it used to take him an hour to walk from the university home. If he ran that distance instead, doing it in about 16 to 17 minutes wasn't an issue. With the stats of people now, taking less than 10 minutes was practically a given. In fact, if they used mounts as well, he could expect that within five minutes, he would be surrounded from all sides.

His best chance was to take down the Arctic Emperor Cobra as quickly as possible, but there were several issues.

First, and most obviously, it was surrounded by 50 others. He had had to be cautious when fighting against just a single Level 7 Cobra, but who knew how many Level 7s there were in that army of 50. In fact, Level 7 might just be a minimum requirement to even join their emperor in this crusade.

Second, the Arctic Emperor Cobra was powerful in its own right. Even with his Beast Totem, he wasn't sure if he could defeat it, and he had yet to even test out if his Beast Totem was effective against more than one target at once.

He was too far from the cobra to get an exact reading on its stats, so he had no choice but to plan for the absolute worst, and that was the possibility that this Arctic Emperor Cobra might very well be a Level 20 in its own right.

'There.'

Keeping a cool head, Sylas knew that what he needed was a method that could both end this battle quickly and save him from being surrounded from all sides.

He burst into the region of the cottages once again.

It was a small community of expensive cottages, some of which were built right into the hillside. The cottages surrounded the lake and river, and there were trees and forests galore.

The cottages were constructed so that their backyards faced the water, while their front faces looked into dense forestry.

Sylas had already decided that this would be his battleground. It had the best combination of open and dense that he needed. Depending on the situation, he could adapt if necessary. At the same time, a Rolodex of the Arctic King Cobra abilities filled his mind and he was already prepared to make contingencies for them all.

But first, he rushed up the side of a cottage. As he passed by, he kicked the small yacht's anchor up, sending it gliding into the waters.

After finding a relatively flat surface, he set up a ballista, then moved on to another house and repeated.

By the time he set up his third ballista, he could already feel the temperature plummeting.

The Arctic King Cobras moved as though they were a Domain in their own right.

Sylas slipped down the backside of a cottage and rushed forward.

The beacon above his head whirred and it seemed that as those targeting him came closer, he would become easier to spot.

However, it was a double-edged sword. That was because Sylas realized that he could sense them as well, and with his visualization, he didn't just feel a vague location, but rather felt an exact whereabouts, to the point that he could see their faces and expressions reflected in his mind.

Ultimately, army or not, the Arctic King Cobras didn't have discipline. They slithered through the forest with menacing hisses, and there was no order to their formation at all. They were clearly out for blood and blood alone.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that Sylas had been right before. Even the weakest of them was Level 7, and amongst them, there were actually five Level 10s.

In that case, just what Level was the Arctic Emperor Cobra?

And that was when it entered the range of Sylas' senses as well.

Sylas had already known it was big. He had personally seen it back then, but he was so shocked by the sudden Quicktime Event that he didn't get a good look at it.

But now it was practically searing its image into his mind.

The Arctic Emperor Cobra had a body that was at least 25 meters in length. When it rose up, it towered at over 10 meters, and its open hood seemed like it could blot out the sun in the sky.

It was still an impossibly gorgeous creature, even in comparison to the others of its kind that Sylas had seen. Every one of its scales was a polished white, but unlike its son, it looked as though there were hidden worlds of fluttering blue Runes dancing within as though each scale was its own snow globe.

On its head, hovering like a halo, there was a dull light that was hard to spot properly, but it was enough to make its aura all the more imposing.

It seemed to be the slowest of the cobras around it, but Sylas knew that that was nothing more than an illusion. It was being restricted by the system in all likelihood. Sylas could see the Runes wrapping around it, slowing its progress down.

However, once those training wheels fell… Sylas would be in for the danger of a lifetime.

Even though that danger had yet to come, he could already feel it.

[Arctic Emperor Cobra ( — )]

[Level: 12]

Even with his Madness on full blast, even with his new scouting Skill, this was all he could see.

His heart shuddered.

Something told him that those dashes in place of its Grade were very, very different from Azrael's question marks.

This creature could slap the mammoth he ran away from to death with a single swipe.