From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 42: Shadow Escape, Ignoring Physical Collisions

The Abyss Fire Stealer had indeed maxed out its escape capabilities.

Lu Heng chased unabatedly, reaching a pursuit speed of 30 meters per second and occasionally sprinting up to 32 meters per second, only to barely maintain the distance between them.

He chased the target out of the steel mill and into the mountains.

Lu Heng drew his Glock G17, aiming below the scouting eagle to see if he could hit it.

As he aimed the pistol, the scouting eagle ahead abruptly darted back and forth, its path completely unpredictable.

Lu Heng immediately realized that the Abyss Fire Stealer was intentionally dodging the shooting angle, and there was a delay between the scouting eagle's position and that of the Abyss Fire Stealer.

After all, after Su Muyu spotted the Abyss Fire Stealer's position, controlling the scouting eagle to adjust took time, and they couldn't sync perfectly.

With the Abyss Fire Stealer's speed of 30 meters per second, even with just a 0.1-second delay, the maximum error could reach 3 meters.

With a 3-meter margin of error, not even a rocket launcher could reliably hit the target, let alone a pistol.

Still, Lu Heng wanted to give it a shot and tried to predict based on the scouting eagle's movements before pulling the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet shot out, hitting a distant tree, missing the target.

Lu Heng adjusted his aim and fired another shot.

This time the bullet disappeared into the target's location as if it had hit, but like a stone sinking into the ocean, it stirred up no splash.

The speed of the Abyss Fire Stealer didn't decrease either.

Realizing this, Lu Heng immediately understood that the Abyss Fire Stealer had defense skills, in addition to its invisibility and acceleration skills.

Invisibility, acceleration, and now defense skills—the creature had become incredibly slippery.

Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on ƒгeewёbnovel.com.

Seeing this, he knew that to catch it, he had to wait until its invisibility duration expired.

After chasing for a full five minutes, Lu Heng started to breathe heavily. He continuously used a breathing technique to regulate his blood oxygen to keep going.

Five minutes later, an initially empty space in front of him slowly revealed a transparent shadow.

The shadow went from fully transparent to semi-transparent, and finally, the figure of the Abyss Fire Stealer appeared.

Its invisibility had run out.

A sharp gleam flashed in Lu Heng's eyes as he leaped onto the rocky wall, running up it, and soared forward.

He drew the Aurora Blade from thin air and executed a "Chasing Moon Style" thrust, aiming directly at the back of the Abyss Fire Stealer.

With a micro-level body technique coupled with in-depth swordsmanship, his strike was swift and accurate.

The Abyss Fire Stealer sensed the impending danger and panicked.

Its talent tree was completely filled with skills for evasion and concealment, so its direct combat capabilities were low.

Moreover, the strike was too fast; it had no room to dodge.

Just as the blade was about to pierce its back, a dark purple energy burst from its body, and its form suddenly phased into the shadows.

The Aurora Blade stabbed into its back, but the blade tip hit nothing solid.

The body of the Abyss Fire Stealer escaped into the shadows, continuing to flee.

Seeing this did not discourage Lu Heng; his eyes shone even more intensely.

For this escape into the shadows ability was the Shadow Walker's essence ability, the Abyss Fire Stealer's trump card.

After escaping into the shadows, the Abyss Fire Stealer's body became immune to all physical impacts, turning into a semi-transparent wraith and kept running.

Lu Heng continued the chase, sword in hand, staying within striking distance.

As a second Transition profession had claimed, once the effect of the Shadow Escape ended, its invisibility skill would soon be ready again, with just a three-second gap.

That meant,

If he couldn't finish the fight within those three seconds, the Abyss Fire Stealer would enter another five-minute invisibility phase.

Lu Heng had been chasing for so long, maintaining top speed, and his stamina was nearly spent.

Even if he could keep going, his speed would continue to decrease.

Moreover, having chased for so long, Su Muyu was likely also reaching her limit.

If he allowed it to become invisible again, they wouldn't last until it reappeared.

That is to say, there was only one chance to capture the Abyss Fire Stealer, during that three-second window.

This was the challenge of this hidden mission, and also the Abyss Fire Stealer's only weakness.

It just needed to survive those three seconds to slip back into invisibility, then nobody could catch it.

To delineate the prerequisites for completing this hidden mission, one can appreciate its difficulty.

Firstly, the ability to detect invisibility was essential, or one couldn't even see the Abyss Fire Stealer.

Secondly, one needed to run at 30 meters per second, three times the speed of world record sprinters.

Moreover, one must maintain this speed for more than five minutes, not just a ten-second dash.

To maintain that speed for five minutes demanded extraordinary stamina as well as a micro-level body technique.

One key feature of a micro-level body technique was utilizing minimal energy for maximum maneuverability.

It also provided the ability to run up walls and traverse mountains to pursue the target, otherwise, he would've long been outpaced.

Besides, within those crucial three seconds, one needed the capability to eliminate the Abyss Fire Stealer.

All factors considered, capturing the Abyss Fire Stealer required strong detection of invisibility, incredible speed and body skills, plus the combat power to kill mid-tier demons on the spot.

And normally, these abilities would not coincide in the same person.

At least in the early stages of the Abyss invasion, no one possessed all these abilities at once, not even Lu Heng.

For the ability to detect invisibility was provided by Su Muyu.

...

According to the guide's data, the Abyss Fire Stealer's time to escape into the shadows was only seven seconds.

Although it was a short time, these seven seconds were crucial.

Just then, the Abyss Fire Stealer suddenly turned and crashed into the rock wall, his form flashed as he burrowed directly into the rock wall, disappearing from sight.

Even though Lu Heng was mentally prepared, he was still slightly surprised when he saw this scene.

This was precisely the effect of escaping into the shadows, ignoring physical collisions.

Without physical collisions, it meant it could pass through any physical barriers, including the rock wall in front of it.

"Keep your eyes on the rock wall, it can only hide for seven seconds; once the time is up, it must come out."

Lu Heng shouted into his Bluetooth headset, telling Su Muyu to monitor the rock wall and track the position of the Abyss Fire Stealer.

As the Abyss Fire Stealer burrowed into the rock wall, the chase entered its final stage.

"I can't find its position behind the rock wall, but I will monitor the surroundings of the rock wall; the moment it comes out, I will lock onto its position immediately," replied Su Muyu in his fastest speech.

Since the Abyss Fire Stealer had burrowed into the rock, even the scouting falcon could not find its position; it felt as though it was blind.

However, this state was mutual.

The Abyss Fire Stealer hiding inside the rock wall couldn't see the situation outside the rock wall either.

It did not know Lu Heng's position.

With the speed of the Abyss Fire Stealer, seven seconds was enough to cover a distance of 210 meters.

In other words, it could emerge from any position within 210 meters around the rock wall.

The next seven seconds would be a psychological battle.

Lu Heng stood still, betting that the Abyss Fire Stealer would stay in place.

However, to be safe, Lu Heng sent out a Shadow Clone to chase towards the east.

Time passed second by second, marked by breathing sounds; Lu Heng breathed deeply, regulating the oxygen in his blood as he silently counted the seconds.

One second... four seconds, five seconds...

By the fifth second,

a rat head poked out from inside the rock wall; it was the Abyss Fire Stealer.

Lu Heng had won his bet by waiting in place for it.

The Abyss Fire Stealer peeked out, saw Lu Heng waiting there, and instantly withdrew in shock.

Two seconds later, it emerged again from a position 50 meters to the east of the rock wall, only 10 meters away from the Shadow Clone.

The Shadow Clone was the first to attack, rushing towards the Abyss Fire Stealer.

Once the effect of the Abyss Fire Stealer's escape into the shadows ended, unable to hide inside the rock wall, it had no choice but to activate its acceleration skill and dash out, running hectically.

The Shadow Clone kicked out, sweeping at the lower body of the Abyss Fire Stealer.

The Abyss Fire Stealer leapt up to dodge the attack and continued its sprint forward.

Immediately following, the scouting falcon dove down, aiming for the eyes of the Abyss Fire Stealer.

The Abyss Fire Stealer, in rage, raised its hand and clawed the scouting falcon apart.

With the interception of the Shadow Clone and the scouting falcon, the escape of the Abyss Fire Stealer stalled for a moment.

Lu Heng seized the opportunity and closed the distance to within 10 meters.

And two seconds had passed, leaving just the last second of the brief interval.

The Abyss Fire Stealer ran at full speed, closely watching the cooldown time of its invisibility skill.

Holding out until the last second ended, it immediately lifted its palm, gathered a ball of Demon Energy, and, with a "bang," smashed it onto the ground.

Demon Energy exploded on the ground, spreading a fog of mist.

Its form gradually faded and disappeared into the fog.

Just as it raised its hand to release the skill, Lu Heng activated the second effect of "Gale Step·Stab," launching a straight-line thrust, the speed doubling instantly.

Lu Heng burst forth with a speed that surpassed the limit, like a streak of lightning shooting out, with Aurora Blade in hand, he thrust the "Cloud Piercing Style" into the mist.

Puff!

Ah!

The Abyss Fire Stealer had just released its Invisibility Fog Skill and hadn't managed to escape when it was pierced through the chest by the sword, emitting a piercing wail.

Following closely, a circle of thunder and lightning exploded from the Aurora Blade, searing its body, giving it no chance to struggle.

"Hunted the Abyss Fire Stealer, absorbed 100 points of Demon Energy."

After the Abyss Fire Stealer died, it split into two crystals.

Lu Heng picked them up to inspect; the first one was a Skill Crystal Core "Mist Escape."

"Mist Escape: Consumes Source Energy to release a layer of mist, achieving a 10-minute invisibility effect, while also masking scent and infrared detection. Skill Consumption: 30 Source Energy. Skill Level: D."

The disadvantage of this skill was that the invisibility duration had a limit, unlike the "Invisibility Veil" which could maintain invisibility as long as there was Source Energy.

However, this skill also had advantages, such as masking scent and infrared sensing.

That meant, both olfactory and thermal imaging detectors could not detect this skill's invisibility effect.

If this skill had been used earlier to approach the Abyss Fire Stealer, it would not have detected the scent from 20 meters away, causing it to become alert.

As Lu Heng saw this superpower, a hint of a smile appeared in his eyes.

"Divine Evolution" not only upgraded skills with unlocked skill effects but also allowed for skill fusion.

Then, Lu Heng shifted his attention to the second crystal.

This flat crystal was today's actual target— "Shadow Walker Essence."