"Andrea!" Camilla shouted.

"I, I know—" Andrea quickly gripped the gun stock, closed her eyes, and banished all distracting thoughts from her mind. *Don't perceive, don't perceive, don't perceive...* After chanting silently several times, she abruptly opened her eyes!

In an instant, her vision distorted dramatically, and everything before her seemed to have countless overlapping afterimages. They stretched, overlapped, and extended endlessly into the distance—this was precisely the surge of the Magic Eye's perception into her brain. As the layers of tree shadows and the earth that should have been blocked materialized one by one, the confined world became open and free in an instant.

Simultaneously connected was Sylvie's consciousness.

When the afterimages of the eye completely coalesced, her gaze had already followed the other's thoughts, directed towards a spot several kilometers away—the familiar figure clad in jet-black armor was reflected vividly in her eyes. Even more intense than the visual image was the surging magic power of the Demon Hunt, which radiated from its body, so dense it was almost tangible.

But whether it was the suddenness of the skeletal monster's retreat or the devastating blow of the fall of Tarachi, the Demon Hunt was simply flying straight in the sky, without any guards around it.

"What's the situation?" Ash asked in a deep voice.

"Demon Hunt... it hasn't noticed us!" Andrea replied excitedly. "It's flying towards the supply line—although its position is slightly east, it's still within the firing range of the gun! Load it up, there won't be a better opportunity than this!"

Ash nodded, inserted the enormous God's Punishment bullet into the chamber, and then slammed the bolt back into place with a click.

At about nine kilometers away, with a northeast wind and no other demons interfering, this was already the most ideal situation imaginable. Andrea concentrated all her attention on the target, held her breath, and activated her ability.

Countless line segments swarmed out, converging on the Demon Hunt's body. Some twisted and turned intricately, others undulated up and down. It was hard to imagine a bullet tracing such a bizarre wake—but soon, most of the line segments dimmed, leaving only a silver curve that grew brighter and shone with increasing brilliance.

She had found the coin that was destined to head there.

At the same time, the magic power within her body was rapidly declining. She didn't have much time to hesitate; she only had this one chance!

Andrea gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger.

Accompanied by a deafening roar, she felt as if her shoulder had been struck hard by a heavy object, and her whole body fell backward. Ash, who had been prepared, pulled her into his arms with one hand.

"I really didn't want to be held by you like this," Andrea twitched the corner of her mouth, but her body relaxed—at this moment, her shoulder was almost numb, as if she had lost all sensation. Even without looking, she knew that the skin beneath her clothes must be swollen and red. Without Nana Wawa's healing, it would probably take several days to recover.

This was the burden of a large caliber weapon. Even with various buffering methods, including a muzzle brake, the remaining impact was not negligible. She had noticed during weapons testing that even if she produced more God's Punishment bullets, there would be no second chance to fire—whether it was magic power capacity, physical condition, or the Ark's load capacity, all limited her performance.

But a one-shot kill was her proudest ability.

Fighting back and forth with enemies, covered in blood, was something only barbarians loved to do.

Like the guy holding her now.

"If it weren't for the consideration that Sylvie is feeling everything you're feeling right now, I wouldn't want to bother with you," Ash rolled his eyes. "What's the result? The Demon Hunt, did it—"

"Wait a moment," Andrea made a shushing gesture. "The bullet is still on its way."

The silver line in her vision was rapidly shrinking. Its end was no longer connected to the Demon Hunt's body, but instead crossed in front of it, forming a subtle angle. From her perspective, it seemed as if the bullet and the demon were racing against each other, heading towards the same goal, and would eventually converge at a single point by chance.

Once the trigger was pulled, the result was already determined. The God's Punishment warhead would fly the entire course along the predetermined trajectory. The only variable was the target—if the Demon Hunt suddenly changed direction, then nothing would happen. Twenty-five seconds or so was neither long

nor short. All she could do was pray silently, hoping that it would continue to maintain its current posture.

The westerly wind was constantly pushing the bullet, keeping it flying at high speed and continuously approaching the demon—in the final seconds, Andrea held her breath, and even voiced the prayer in her heart—

*Don't move, don't move, don't move...*

At this moment, the Demon Hunt suddenly turned its head and locked eyes with her!

Andrea suddenly felt as if all the blood in her body had congealed.

However, in the next moment, the warhead falling from the sky struck its back without deviation.

The enormous impact shattered the Godstone into pieces, transforming it from a black mass into countless small fragments, but what was shattered even more thoroughly was the Demon Hunt's body.

If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would have found it hard to imagine that a stone two fingers wide would unleash such amazing destructive power. The thick armor was torn open like rags. After the bullet penetrated its body, it directly blew a large hole in its chest, spewing out flesh and organs like a murky fountain.

Probably because the hole was too big, the Demon Hunt somersaulted twice and then broke in two, plummeting towards the earth with the remaining speed of its flight.

Andrea then recovered from the shock. She swallowed hard. "Target... dead."

"We succeeded?" Maggie said happily.

"That's right," Sylvie breathed a sigh of relief. "Split in two by a bullet, even if Nana Wawa was present, she wouldn't be able to save it."

"Well done." Ash patted Andrea on the shoulder, then took out the Listening Amulet. "Lightning, call the Seagull to come and rendezvous. Mission accomplished, we can go back."

"Understood," Lightning quickly replied from the other end.

The jujiqiang was soon disassembled and packed into component parts, waiting for another team to return from the eastern line so that everyone could set off. The thought of being able to immediately embark on the return journey made everyone's expressions lighten.

Only Andrea was an exception.

The entire ambush process was normal, just as planned, except for the last glance the Demon Hunt gave her—

Even now, she could still feel the lingering chill down her spine.

Did it realize she was watching it?

But how was that possible? At a distance of nine kilometers, separated by a forest, finding them in that situation was like searching for a needle in the ocean. Moreover, it hadn't made any "searching" movements before, but suddenly focused its gaze on her, as if it had known she was here all along.

Besides, Sylvie should have seen this scene as well, so why didn't she feel anything unusual? Or was she simply thinking that it was just a coincidence and not worth dwelling on?

Maybe so, after all, the Demon Hunt was already dead... A dead demon, no matter what its intentions were at that moment, was no longer necessary to investigate.

Andrea rubbed her forehead, her fingers suddenly stopping.

She remembered that Ash's face had been injured—left when he fought the Demon Hunt to protect Leaf.

"By the way, how long does it take for light injuries like scratches to heal, relying on your own recovery ability?" Andrea looked at the Transcendent.

Ash shrugged. "About one to two hours, why are you asking this?"

"So, in just ten minutes, there will be signs of the wound starting to heal, right?" She stared at his face and asked, "Do you feel it getting better right now?"

The latter was slightly stunned, reached out and touched his cheek. "Strange... it still hurts a little."

Sylvie was the first to react. Her expression changed drastically. She braced herself against the fatigue caused by the excessive consumption of her magic power and reopened the Magic Eye. Then she looked at the people behind them with a look of horror. "Be—be careful!"

Ash drew his sword and turned around with lightning speed, and threw his hand and sword with all his power!

There was only a soft sound, and a black shadow brushed past the blade and plunged straight into Maggie's body.

The force was so great that it sent her flying out.

Before the others could check on her condition, a tall, ethereal blue humanoid demon had slowly appeared before them.

"Found... you."

That bone-chilling coldness enveloped Andrea once again.

She found it hard to believe that the demon in front of her was as calm as a lake. From the moment it attacked to its appearance, she hadn't felt any fluctuation of magic power at all.

Her heart sank to the bottom.