Translator: AtlasStudios Editor: AtlasStudios
Rhode leaned back comfortably and admired the scenery outside the moving chariot. The three young ladies who were in deep sleep sat before him in a row. Gillian sat opposite him and her fluffy, large tail spread across them like a warm blanket. On her other end, Anne was drooling with her mouth wide open. Natasha sat between them and the exhausted young lady was in an oddly deep sleep right now after being on the run for two nights. However, even so, she held the wooden box in her arms tightly with no intentions of letting go.
Grendy sat beside Rhode with his head lowered awkwardly. Without a doubt, the unfamiliarity of this young man in such a situation was written all over his face. Although the clothes of the all young ladies were worn appropriately while they were sleeping, it seemed too thrilling for this young man to be confined in a narrow space with three young, beautiful women.
He must be a virgin…
Rhode secretly sneered after noticing how uncomfortable Grendy was. Grendy noticed Rhode’s glance and he lifted his head immediately. He turned towards Rhode and back at the three young ladies before asking softly.
“Erm… dear Mr… Rhode… Can I know why are you heading to Eagle City?
“Why are you asking me this question?”
Rhode puckered his brows and asked. Grendy was a little hesitant, but he summoned up his courage and continued.
“… You see, just like you’ve said, Eagle City is in the territory of the Purple Lily Guild. You, as a guild leader of Paphield, wouldn’t make a trip there just for sightseeing, right? This… Regardless, I’m still the son of the Safety Officer of Eagle City. If there’s anything that I can help…”
More like you’re afraid that we’ll cause trouble.
Although Grendy was careful with his words, Rhode figured his true thoughts quickly. This young man was a responsible and serious person, who was fast in his thoughts. Indeed, it was rare for any guild leader to cross over to territories that did not belong to them. If it was the southern guilds like the Liberty Wings, they must definitely be up to no good. Although in terms of the law, the conflicts between guilds wouldn’t involve other problems, it would be a troublesome issue if they affected the civilians’ daily lives.
“We are heading to Eagle City in search of a clue regarding a 5 Star guild mission.”
In this aspect, Rhode had no intentions of hiding. After all, there were no disbenefits of a guild mission to a city. Besides, if Grendy really was the son of the Safety Officer, he might even provide them with protection and convenience within the city. Grendy nodded in acknowledgment and at this moment, a scream was heard.
“Waa!”
The smooth-sailing chariot started rocking violently which shook the three young ladies awake in shock.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong? What happened?”
Anne was astounded as she scanned the surroundings while Natasha screamed and hugged the wooden box even tighter. Gillian frowned and grabbed onto the wooden plank.
In an instant, the rocking chariot stopped moving as the horses neighed. Rhode transformed into a shadow and darted through the chariot door. As soon as he exited, he was greeted by a pair of beaming red eyes and a brandished sword. Rhode dodged his shoulder to the left calmly and the sharp blade passed his sleeve by a wide margin. Rhode unsheathed his sword swiftly.
A crimson radiance drew a straight line across the dark sky. The whizzing air flow from the sword pierced through the enemy’s body, tossing him in the air before crashing on the ground. Until this moment, Rhode finally recognized this enemy as a fully-armored soldier— an Undead Soldier.
The Undead Legion?
Rhode’s heart sank as he scanned the surroundings quickly. To his horror, he was surrounded by undead creatures. From the Undead Soldiers’ appearances, they were definitely not scouts, but infantries, cavalrymen, archers and… Rhode lifted his head to the sky and two silhouettes were hovering under the illuminating moonlight.
Even the Bone Griffins were here. This was almost the deployment of an entire legion!
However, Rhode was fortunate that the number of Undead Soldiers didn’t exactly make up the size of a regular legion as there were only 100 to 200 of them. But it was surprising that they would be here. Damn it. This isn’t the Country of Darkness, so where did these Undead Soldiers come from? Are the patrols of the border area sick and tired of doing their job already?
“Tch, troublesome indeed.”
Rhode gritted his teeth. Although he figured that Natasha must have discovered a secret which had triggered the enemies to kill her, it seemed that this secret was much more important than that. An undead army hidden within the borders of the Munn Kingdom? Although their scale was only one-tenth of a regular legion, the standard configurations of this continent should definitely not allow them to appear in the Country of Light. Even though the relationship between Her Royal Highness Lydia and the Country of Darkness wasn’t strained, she would definitely disallow foreign armies from step into her own soil.
So then, what was this bunch of undead army doing here?
Rhode gazed at the chariot and the elderly chariot driver seated at the front. His body had been pierced by bone spears and he had no chance of survival.
Suddenly, along with the clip-clop from horseshoes, an Undead Knight in black armor emerged from the masses. He lifted his chin and his glistening red eyes shot straight towards Rhode from his thick helmet. Rhode twitched his brows slightly as he sensed the malice from his gaze. This was normal behavior as no human being would fancy the gaze of an undead creature. Rhode noticed the weapon hanging on the Undead Knight’s waist: a crescent moon-shaped scimitar exuding a pale radiance.
Him?
“Handover the box and I will spare your lives.”
The Undead Knight stretched out his left arm towards Rhode. Meanwhile, Gillian and the rest had exited the chariot. Upon witnessing the army of undead creatures, Natasha shrieked in terror and fell on her bum instantly. Anne was fast to display her qualities as a Shield Warrior as she lifted her steel shield and expanded it after a few clicks of mechanical sounds to guard herself and Natasha. Grendy swiftly readied his sword and observed nervously. On the contrary, Gillian was as calm as water. After letting out a sigh, this Fire Elemental Lord leaned on the chariot and positioned herself for a good show.
Grendy pointed his sword at the Undead Knight furiously after he was infuriated by his words.
“This isn’t a place for you undead creatures to commit atrocities. This is a place under the protection of the Light Dragon, so what rights do you undead from the dark side have to kill us? Are you not afraid of starting a war? You damned undeads.”
“Hmph!”
The Undead Knight’s red pupil shrunk and Grendy felt a shapeless strength snatch his sword like a giant invisible hand. The young man was flabbergasted and he subconsciously gripped his sword tighter. However, he couldn’t resist the force no matter how hard he tried. After a few moments, Grendy released his hands as he couldn’t hold on any longer. The sword flew out of his hands like a bolt of lightning and went straight into the hands of the Undead Knight.
As the sword flew in mid-air, a bright red dot exploded suddenly and wrapped around the sword. Then, the steel-made sword disintegrated into several parts and fell to the ground.
“Eh?”
The Undead Knight was astonished and he shifted his attention to Rhode who was standing before him. However, there was something different this time. The Crimson Blade was no longer pointing to the ground. Instead, it was resting on Rhode’s shoulder sloppily like a sling.
“You’re already a dead man, yet you have such a fiery temper. But, I’m curious—instead of managing your nest in the Brook of Despair, what is Sir Vulture doing in our Munn Kingdom?”
“You know who I am?”
Vulture wasn’t expecting anyone from his place to recognize him. After Vulture scanned Rhode from his head to toes cautiously, he confirmed that he had never met this man before… But why was he so familiar with himself?
As a matter of fact, Rhode wasn’t familiar with Vulture. It was the scimitar hanging by Vulture’s waist that was named the ‘Cyan Moonlight’ that he was familiar with. This equipment was an amazing weapon for Warriors. In the early stages of the Dragon Soul Continent, this weapon was extremely rare due to its low drop rate, even for the players in the Country of Darkness. During those times, a Cyan Moonlight brought a sense of pride and strong reputation to the warrior-class players. Moreover, this scimitar possessed powerful negative energy and its deadly attacks could reach a long, wide range. This was why Rhode could recognize this weapon. As the owner of this scimitar, Vulture was the only NPC that had this weapon. He was also one of the rare Knights in the Undead Legion who used a scimitar for battle. Its sharp blade was a considerable threat for most players.
As an Undead Knight, Vulture wasn’t in charge of leading large scale armies for battle as a commander in the Country of Darkness. Instead, his responsibilities involved the secret operations of the elite troops. For him to be here meant bad news for Rhode. But according to Rhode’s understanding on Vulture, this Undead Knight was at most level 55. Rhode was confident that if they were to battle with swords alone, he would definitely beat him.
As an undead creature, Vulture wasn’t packed with emotions. Although he was curious about how Rhode knew his identity, he had decided to massacre all of them due to this reason. This operation was supposed to be a secret. Now that this young man had discovered their presence and recognized him, he definitely had to die!
At this thought, Vulture drew out the scimitar from his waist without hesitation and punched the air.
“Attack!”
“Anne, protect those two. Gillian, I will leave the rest to you. Let me deal with that Vulture.”
As Vulture commanded, Rhode gave his instructions to his men. Then, he transformed into a shadow, blended into the ground and darted towards the Undead Knight in an unstoppable red flash with his sword.
So fast!
In a blink of an eye, the tip of the sword arrived in his face. Vulture was dumbfounded as this young man phased through the defense formation of a dozen Undead Soldiers like a spirit as though they were nonexistent.
Even so, the Undead Knight didn’t panic at all. He howled and brandished his scimitar. Pale flames erupted on its blade instantly. At this moment, Rhode changed his darting direction and flew at an impossible straight angle to dodge the counterattack. His Crimson Blade had no signs of stopping as it continued to strike.
“Hmph!”
Vulture reacted instantly after his attack failed to land. He leaped backwards to dodge Rhode’s blade. At the same time, the Undead Knight extended his arm and tapped on the Bone Warhorse below him. Sensing a powerful strength from the Undead Knight, the Bone Warhorse neighed and lifted its upper body upwards. In an instant, this movement created the best shield for Vulture.
Rhode’s blade struck the Bone Warhorse and was deflected.
However, he didn’t give up. He lowered his body and rolled underneath the Bone Warhorse. Then, the aura coalesced on his Crimson Blade erupted into a meteor-like radiance which scattered towards the Undead Knight.
At this moment, the Undead Soldiers had wrapped closer and were brandishing their weapons to suppress Rhode entirely. However, as they charged forward to eliminate this stupid and reckless human, a beam of bright radiance halted them in their tracks.
Along with a crisp berate, Celia waved her sword that was burning with silver-whitish sacred flames as she fluttered in the radiance with her graceful wings.
The sacred flames forced the Undead Soldiers back as they shrieked painfully. Even though they weren’t afraid of death, a sacred energy like this was what they feared the most. Vulture revealed a look of surprise and horror.
Angel? What is a Battle Angel doing here?!
However, before Vulture got his answer, he heard a trifling breeze from the side. The Undead Knight turned around and lifted his scimitar to block this assault instantly. Then, a dark, long thorn whip twined tightly on his scimitar.
“You need me to personally deal with these lowly undead creatures? Really?”
Celestina walked out of the darkness at an elegant pace.
