AWB Chapter 109 : Harpy
Chapter 109 : Harpy
HarpyThe woman's smile was stiff and strange. With her extraordinary eyesight, Cecilia quickly noticed that the woman had neither hair nor eyebrows. Instead, what grew from the top of her head were a few messy, withered gray feathers.
As for her body, it was hidden behind a protrusion at the top of the reef. From Cecilia's current position, she could only see the head deliberately exposed, unable to make out the full appearance of her body.
However, even this much was enough. Judging from the fact that the woman had feathers instead of hair growing out of her head, Cecilia instantly knew she couldn't be human. The body hidden behind the reef must surely be birdlike or perhaps fishlike.
A merfolk monster from the depths of the ocean, disguised as a beautiful and delicate human girl, singing atop the reef to lure sailors passing by. When they completely let down their guard, she would then reveal her true form and devour them mercilessly.
Although she had long lived under the influence of an agricultural civilization, Cecilia had already heard such sailing tales in real life more than once.
Even if she was also confused as to why such a monster would appear in shallow seas, since she didn't know the level or rank of this monster, Cecilia kept a cautious attitude and decided to stay put for the time being, sticking to a safe distance and observing.
Gradually, the Darkwing Demon Bat beside her grew agitated as well. Its pair of scarlet blood-red eyes, as big as bronze bells, stared fixedly at the woman's head behind the reef. It occasionally let out a low growl, exposing two rows of sharp teeth in a clearly threatening pose.
Worried that the Darkwing Demon Bat wouldn't be able to restrain its wild desire for battle and would fly off to fight the unknown monster, Cecilia again reached out her right hand and gripped the bat's tough, broad wing membrane tightly.
After about ten seconds, seeing that Cecilia was not lured by her song, the woman hiding behind the reef finally lost patience. Her face twisted instantly, and she opened a mouth full of sharp teeth. What came out was no longer that sorrowful, melodious song but an extremely piercing screech—as if a steel needle was stabbing straight through the listeners' eardrums.
The next second, a pair of gray wings suddenly unfolded behind her. Cecilia stepped back two paces and was finally able to see the woman's true form behind the reef.
Strictly speaking, it would be better to call them wings than arms. The woman had no arms; instead, what extended from her sides were two broad, sparsely feathered wings. Her body wasn't human either, shifting closer to the shape of a large bird from any normal person's perspective—only a human face was set where the bird's head should have been.
With the woman's true form revealed, a powerful battle theme finally erupted by Cecilia's ears. Yet this time, the background music was different from that of previous boss fights; the drumbeats were urgent and tense, easily evoking the vision of gales, storms, and huge waves at sea.
A line of blood-red letters slowly floated above the woman's head.
【D-rank world boss, harpy, lV.30】
Until this point, Cecilia never expected that just a casual outing to search for the Main City territory on the Japanese server would lead her to discover an entirely new D-rank world boss.
Moreover, this boss's level actually surpassed the Sawtooth Demon King Crocodile from the previous Mutant Jungle by two whole levels.
Cecilia's first reaction was not fear, but an intense excitement. In her eyes, the Harpy several hundred meters away had already turned into a massive pile of glittering equipment and rewards.
Forcing down her excitement, Cecilia gently exhaled and, from behind her, drew a gleaming table knife. With her right knee slightly bent, she took up a battle stance.
Because of the distance, Cecilia couldn't examine [Harpy]'s panel for stats, nor did she know what innate skills it possessed.
However, based on her own experience, Cecilia could easily deduce from its appearance that this boss would likely fight similarly to the Darkwing Demon Bat—a boss with weak defense and health, but high attack power and agility who relied on mobility to win.
Hence, regardless of how high the boss's level was, as long as its defense wasn't as monstrous as that of the Sawtooth Demon King Crocodile, Cecilia was fully confident she could knock it out of the sky in one slash.
Of course, all of this was predicated on it leaving the island reef and coming into her attack range first.
Five seconds passed.
Ten seconds passed.
Half a minute passed.
The battle music continued in her ears. The distant monster still watched her covetously. Cecilia's legs were beginning to go numb from standing, yet the Harpy stubbornly stayed atop the reef, refusing to fly over and engage her.
"Is it because the distance is too great and the monster's aggro can't be triggered?"
Cecilia finally lost patience. She put away her folding knife, lifted the left side of her skirt, and pulled out the flintlock pistol strapped to her thigh. Waiting for [Blood-Infused Silver Bullet] to finish loading, she raised the gun and aimed steadily at the distant black reef.
Because she had chosen to install a bayonet instead of strengthening the barrel when upgrading, the flintlock pistol didn't have great range. Its maximum effective distance was only about 200 meters.
Cecilia quickly estimated that the reef where the Harpy perched was roughly 250 meters from her current position—clearly already outside the pistol's maximum range.
Besides, this was just an ordinary short musket, not a specialized sniper rifle. As the distance increased, the bullet's accuracy would inevitably be affected by gravity and wind.
Nonetheless, having thought through all this, Cecilia still pulled the trigger and fired her first shot.
Bang—
With the gunshot, the silence at the shore shattered in an instant. As the silver bullet left the barrel, Cecilia felt the whole world slow down.
Everything entered slow motion. She could clearly see the shining muzzle lifted slightly from recoil, the dark silver spherical bullet spinning rapidly along the rifling in the barrel, then slicing through the air in a transparent straight line, flying furiously toward the distant Harpy!
A second later, the reef two meters from the Harpy suddenly blossomed with a small, dark red splash of blood, a few black fragments of stone scattering into the sea without making a single splash.
So close—a shame...
Cecilia wasn't discouraged by her first missed shot.
Though she hadn't hit her target perfectly, it proved one thing: even beyond its maximum effective range, at 250 meters, the flintlock pistol could still deal effective dmg.
Closing her eyes, replaying the trajectory of the last bullet in her mind, and waiting for the next blood-infused silver bullet to be loaded, Cecilia made a slight adjustment to her aim and fired the second shot at the distant Harpy.