Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1399 - 185 Turnaround

"Lady Nellie’s defensive abilities are far stronger than her offensive capabilities. She’s the only one who doesn’t have to worry too much about the backlash from attacks. With her as the core, launching concentrated attacks from the front while others support her from the sides, we were gradually wearing down the opponent’s power while trying to draw their attention. At the same time, Dillie, as the hidden main attacker, could launch relentless attacks. This was truly the method to influence Danacus. Under Dillie’s assault, Danacus even had to step back three times. This was an unprecedented result. In my mind at that time, this confirmed my suspicion that our attacks, although they backfired, still had some effect," Pannis continued the previous story, clearly drawing out the battlefield sketch from that time on the table, detailing each teammate’s position and their movement trajectories without a hint of hesitation. Catherine glanced at Pannis’s face and sighed quietly to herself. Over a hundred years had passed and for human memory, it was normal to forget such details over such a lengthy period. For Pannis to remember it so vividly, there was only one possible reason, he had been continuously reinforcing this memory—put more bluntly, he was reliving this most painful memory in his mind every day. Only by doing so could he ensure that even after more than a hundred years, his memory remained crystal clear.

Recalling those first two years when they had just met, how Pannis woke up every night from nightmares, trembling and filled with fear, Catherine no longer found it strange. Anyone who knew the outcome in advance yet was helpless to change it, forced to witness this ultimately desperate and painful experience repeatedly in dreams, would probably react the same way as he did. Moreover, at the very end of despair and pain, there lay an even more painful outcome, forever unchangeable. Thinking of this, the knight girl reached out again, her hand crossing the table to grasp Pannis’s hand tightly, transferring the warmth of her palm to his ice-cold hands.

"After the strategy centering on Lady Nellie began, I subtly let Mina and Flare withdraw, making it look like a usual rotation," sighed Pannis. "After that, everything continued as if before the change in strategy, seemingly a bit easier, but not for Lady Nellie."

"Yes, Lady Nellie must have had the hardest time," Catherine said, biting her lip. "Her attacks were the most frequent, so the Death Penalties that were triggered were also more frequent. It was simply..."

"Yes, everyone else had a chance to breathe because Lady Nellie took up everyone else’s burden," Pannis hummed softly in agreement and nodded. "She had anticipated this outcome, but when changing tactics, she didn’t hesitate at all. I can’t imagine how painful it must have been for her to endure the process of death so frequently. I barely handled half as many occurrences before I was nearly mentally broken, yet she seemed completely unaffected. The difference made me feel too guilty to even think about it."

"You also had no choice but to make that arrangement," Catherine consoled. "Lady Nellie surely understands you very well, which is why she kept persevering despite the pain."

"No choice? Having no choice is in itself a form of incompetence," Pannis said with a self-deprecating laugh. "But at that time, there indeed was no better solution, and I could only go with that tactic. My idea was actually very simple: everyone was to trigger the counterattack from their attacks as much as possible to deplete the opponent’s power, while Dillie would directly attack his soul body, letting him slowly suffer the damage. When the timing was right, Mina, with the secret arts of the Guardians, would use all her strength for one attack to severely strike at Danacus. At the same time, it would also cover Flare’s actions. Flare would then shoot the Hunting Arrow, hoping to either kill or severely injure Danacus. We only had one Hunting Arrow, and thus only one chance, so I had to let Flare shoot the arrow at the most secure moment."

"Did Danacus know about the existence of the Hunting Arrow?" Catherine couldn’t help but ask as Pannis narrated. "Would he have been on guard?"

"I don’t know, not that he didn’t know, but I don’t know," Pannis shook his head. "Even now, I don’t know if he was aware of the Hunting Arrow back then. Theoretically, he shouldn’t have known because the Hunting Arrow was made by the goddess Artemis, long after Danacus had been in slumber for many, many years. Danacus doesn’t possess the abilities of the wisdom god Weston, whose eyes can see through the past, present, and future, so he really shouldn’t have known. However, we were in Danacus’s Divine Kingdom. You understand what it means for a deity to be in their Divine Kingdom, right?"

"Hmm," Catherine nodded gently, "Regarding everything in one’s own Divine Kingdom, a Deity is omniscient and omnipotent."

"Yes, so if we brought a Divine Artifact into his Divine Kingdom, he couldn’t possibly be unaware," Pannis hesitated, "So, I’m more inclined to believe he knew we were carrying some kind of artifact, but as for what the artifact specifically was, he couldn’t distinguish because he didn’t know the existence of the Hunting Arrow. But now I believe, he must have sensed that this artifact poses a threat to him, um, theoretically."

"Why are you so sure?" Lina interjected curiously, "There must be a reason."

Pannis didn’t answer, just smiled faintly and continued, "Everyone is acting according to my orders, even a glance from me is promptly and effectively followed, and they still have faith in me. But they don’t know the reality that we are almost helpless against Danacus and the faint hope has nearly cost me my composure. A few times, I came very close to signaling Flare to shoot the Hunting Arrow, but luckily I restrained myself each time, otherwise, ha, otherwise there actually wouldn’t have been any change."

"It’s always good not to act impulsively," Catherine consoled, "After all, your plan is to engage in a long-term battle to find a vulnerability in your opponent, as long as we are more patient than our foe, we have hope of victory."

"Ha, perhaps," Pannis shook his head noncommittally, softly saying, "This War of Attrition has continued for a long time, each of us has died many times, so many that even we don’t remember, dozens of times? Even hundreds? Who still has the mind to count them."

"Denia," Lina inhaled sharply, exclaiming, "Such frequent deaths, it’s essentially a nightmare."

"It’s okay," Pannis shrugged, "At least at that time my heart was excited, because, it seemed that I had finally seen a turning point."