*THWIP*

*DING*

...

*THWIP*

*DING*

...

*THWIP*

*DING*

Yin let loose arrow after arrow. Every release of the bowstring was quickly followed by her menu notifying her of the death of another Iron Ant Drone.

'I really should have had more faith in them,' she thought as she lined up another shot. At the start of the battle, Yin had been concerned about the Drones getting through the seemingly thin defensive lines, focusing more on the speed of her shots more than her accuracy. Now that she realized the melee players were more than capable of doing their assigned jobs, she allowed herself to take more time when aiming and was now racking up kills with ease.

Of course, those earlier mistakes have consequences, which she realized as she reached for another Iron Arrow and found her inventory empty. Iron arrowheads had been one of the lower priorities for the Workshop, so their supply was somewhat limited with each archer only having maybe two dozen each. She technically still had dozens of Stone Arrows, but the carapace armor of the Iron Ants reduced their damage almost to the point of uselessness.

'So be it,' she thought as she readied a Stone Arrow. 'Back to quantity over quality, I suppose.'

Yin's shots became even faster than before, barely even aiming as her only concern was not hitting any of her allies. Her arrows shattered against the hard shells of the Drones, just barely cracking their armor once the bonuses from [DAMAGE BURST] started kicking in.

Yin's body fell into the familiar and comfortable repetition of firing arrow after arrow. As her hands began moving on autopilot, her mind turned to other things. She opened her menu, pushing it to the side of her vision so that she could still see what she was aiming at.

[NAME]: Yin

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 26

[EXP]: 40335/5100

[STATUS]

{HP}: 150/150

{SP}: 450/450

{MP}: 50/50

[END]: 30

[STR]: 20

[AGI]: 30

[DEX]: 40

[PER]: 30

[INT]: 5

[SPT]: 5

[REMAINING ABILITY POINTS]: 5

[SKILLS]

[ANALYSE] Lv.10

[ARCHER] Lv.10

[ARROW NOCKING TECNIQUE] Lv.10

[ARROW SUMMONING TECHNIQUE] Lv.10

[CRITICAL STRIKE] Lv.10

[DAMAGE BURST] Lv.10

[FAR SIGHT] Lv.10

[HUNTER] Lv.10

[INCREASED ACCURACY] Lv.10

[SIXTH SENSE] Lv.10

[SKILL A] Lv.10

[SP BOOSTER] Lv.10

[SPRINT] Lv.10

[SNEAK] Lv. 10

[TOGGLE WEAPON] Lv.10

'Hm, considering I've only killed about fifteen so far, the rewards live up to the expectations.'

It wasn't much when compared to Yang having returned from her trip with nearly 150,000 EXP, but Yin felt no reason to complain knowing that all of them would likely be in a similar position after the siege in a few more days.

No, right now Yin's thoughts were focused on whether or not she should be spending her stockpile sooner rather than later.

At first, Yin had planned to do what Yang recommended, continue saving so that she didn't reach a Level that prevented her from earning more EXP. However, now that they knew the Iron Ants were expanding their territory, she was wondering if she should try to strengthen herself sooner rather than later. Her new Skills were powerful, but couldn't make up for her lackluster equipment.

'If it's simply a matter of numbers, perhaps increasing my Dexterity would strengthen my arrows enough to pierce their shells? Or maybe I should become more Agile so that can go an retrieve my iron arrows instead?'

The first option was theoretically possible. Using [CRITICAL STRIKE] was enough for her to pierce their armor with a stone arrow, she just didn't have the SP necessary to use the Skill so frequently. If her stats were better, it was possible that she could kill them with her normal shots, it was only a question of how much Dexterity was needed to reach that level of damage. She certainly didn't think she had enough EXP to double her damage output like [CRITICAL STRIKE] could.

The second option was more likely to succeed. Or it would be if she thought she could pull it off.

The problem was that Yin was no gymnast. Leaping between tree branches and avoiding a few wolves was a relatively simple feat with her moderate athleticism and enhanced stats, but making her way through the horde of Iron Ant Drones? Dodging attacks from every direction while probably having to balance on their backs? All while searching for tiny arrows which may have already been broken in all the chaos? Just the thought made Yin nervous.

She recalled hearing about Bates doing something similar when fighting the Mountain Goat, and sure enough when she glanced to the side she could see him doing exactly what she knew she would fail at. His head whipped back and forth almost frantically, spotting arrows amidst the chaos as if they were lit up in neon lights. His movements were not overly fast, but they lacked even a moment of hesitation. When his feet landed on the back or head of a Drone they were gone a split second later. Sometimes he stepped so quickly and so carefully that the insect barely moved from the impact, and failed to even notice they had been used as a stepping stone.

Out of curiosity, Yin used [ANALYSE] on Bates.

[NAME]: Bates

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 25

[STATUS]

{HP}: 100/100

{SP}: 300/300

[END]: 20

[STR]: 17

[AGI]: 27

[DEX]: 42

[PER]: 40

[INT]: 5

[SPT]: 5

His stats were almost the same as hers, so it wasn't a question of physical limitations. And yet, when she looked out at the countless Drones in front of her, she knew she could not be as resolute as he was. She would second guess herself, and that brief moment of hesitation would get her killed. As much as Bates was criticized for his jealousy and overconfidence, he did show legitimate skill whenever he was focused. Ever since his disastrous attempt at capturing a Mountain Goat he has reigned himself in quite well and allowed him to put that skill on full display, his confidence finally being warranted.

Just as Yin was certain that she could fire an arrow right past a player's head without hitting them, Bates was certain that he could navigate this chaotic battlefield with the speed and precision to not be caught.

*ROOAAAR!!!*

Before Yin could give the situation another thought, a deafening roar rolled across the battlefield. With [SIXTH SENSE] she could see that all of the Drones had been given the [FEAR] debuff. However, Yin didn't give this much notice as she felt a chill run down her spine. Her hands started to tremble and wouldn't stop without conscious effort. She knew that it was her sister that was using the Skill now, but her roar of [BURNING RAGE] was still too reminiscent of The Monster Yin to be comfortable with.

'How childish of me to be more traumatized by a mere video game than by my near death at the hands of a truck,' Yin thought with a bitter smile.

As she tried to still the shaking in her hands, the melee fighters in front of her became emboldened by the sudden debuff and several of them charged forward to press the advantage.

[BURNING RAGE] was indeed an incredibly powerful Skill, and [FEAR] was equally debilitating, however, the Skill was not as powerful as they had hoped, as the players farthest from Yang were now discovering.

Yang had tried to be thorough when testing her new Skill, but between helping other players hunt for Drones and ensuring that she herself was prepared for the coming raid, there was limited time to experiment. One specific scenario that she hadn't been able to test was what happened when a target affected by [FEAR] was unable to see her and was faced with other threats.

The ants could tell that she was nearby, but without a clear line of sight, the effect was greatly weakened. The Drones were clearly hesitating, but they weren't being prevented from moving forward, and the emboldened players were learning this the hard way.

"What!?"

"How are they still moving!?"

"M-my hand!?"

Several melee fighters were injured in quick succession. Their stats and armor were enough to prevent them from dismemberment, but the players on the first line of defense around Yin were all incapacitated with broken bones.

"Retreat to the healers!" she shouted out as she willed her hands still. She fired an arrow at a Drone that was leaping for one of the injured players. The insect was knocked back and had a small crack in its head where she hit it, but it wasn't dead.

'Damn it!' she thought, cursing her current uselessness.

Her eyes widened as she saw another player struggling to get a Drone off of his leg. His armor was starting to crack from the growing pressure, and she knew that if it broke he would lose his leg.

Yin activated [CRITICAL STRIKE] and fired at the Drone. The arrow struck the ant perfectly and pierced its tough shell, killing it instantly.

The player thanked Yin as he limped past, but while she was glad to have helped it didn't resolve the new problem. Without the first line of melee fighters, even more ants would be getting through. The others were already giving their all, it was up to the ranged players to pick up the slack until the others could be healed.

'...I don't have the time to be hesitant.'

Without a second thought, Yin raised her Level to 32 and poured all of her Ability Points into Dexterity, raising it to 75 to maximize her damage. Hoping that the increase in damage would be enough to overcome their armor, she drew another stone arrow and fired at the closest Drone.

With her new stat bonuses, the arrow pierced the ant's shell. It missed the insect's vitals and didn't kill it, but Yin quickly followed up with another arrow and finished it off.

With her gamble having paid off, Yin steadied herself and began firing arrow after arrow. With fewer players in her way, she focused even more on speed, receiving greater bonuses from [DAMAGE BURST]. The Drones could still deflect her arrows if they were hit at the wrong angle, but as long as they struck properly her arrows were able to pierce their armor like it was plastic.

With the other nearby archers following her lead, dozens of ants died in as many seconds. Most had arrows piercing their vitals, killed by injury-based debuffs, while a few had simply been hit so many times that their HP had been reduced to 0.

They were using up their arrows quickly, with many switching to stone arrows like Yin, but their damage output increased immensely. A few of the bolder and faster archers chose to take advantage of the rapidly dying ants to move forward and retrieve as many arrows as they could.

Yin began tuning out the world around her, her accuracy improving without losing speed as her focus was sharpened to a razor's edge. She felt like she was filled with a strange feeling of determination- no, a feeling of desperation to keep firing until everything was dead.

*THWIP*

*DING*

*THWIP*

*DING*

*THWIP*

*DING*

Multiple arrows flew from her bow every second, each of them landing a lethal blow against another Drone.

A group of three ants managed to break past the melee players. Without a moment's hesitation, Yin activated [ARROW SUMMONING TECHNIQUE] and fired six arrows at once. The extra arrows were less accurate, but miraculously they all struck at least one of the ants and dealt some significant damage. A split second later more arrows came from the others and the group was dead.

Yin felt a soreness coming from her fingers as she kept firing, but she ignored it as she kept firing arrows into the crowd of Drones. At some point her shots started missing with alarming frequency, but Yin could only grit her teeth and focus harder. She could vaguely hear someone calling her name, but she ignored that too, her eyes flickering back and forth as she searched for her next target.

"Yin!"

It was only when someone grabbed her arm that she was able to properly notice her surroundings again. Yang was here, looking at her with deep concern in her eyes while holding her arm. The fingers she thought was simply sore were actually bleeding. All around them were dead ants.

The battle was over. Yin felt her legs give out, and Yang caught her.