Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
As the group heard the gruesome roars, the scenery outside the Order barrier twisted and turned like the wild, spiraling gales. Lize and Marlene quickly took cover behind Anne. If this happened in the Light Mainland, they would have cast their defensive spells already. However, in the Land of Chaos, even the formidable Marlene had to give up putting up a fight. They knew that as spell casters, the consequences would be devastating if they couldn’t grasp their magical powers.
Randolf raised his bow and aimed forward while Marfa and Sol in front of him with their raised shield and sword. On the other hand, Joey anxiously fiddled with the dagger in his hand. Sovann sighed and clutched his staff. At the rear, the scorching flames around Gillian blazed. Although the Chaos had affected the spell casters to a certain extent, it didn’t pose a problem to an elemental lord like Gillian. On the contrary, John was at a complete loss. He unsheathed his sword and scanned the surrounding vigilantly.
At this moment, the three Order Refugees backed into their Order barrier while scanning the surrounding solemnly with their weapons. In an instant, the atmosphere became intense. Anne clutched her shield and watched the Chaos fog excitedly as though she was anticipating a magician to pull a rabbit out of his hat.
Shortly after, several creatures growled and barged into the Order barrier.
“Oh my goodness…”
“W-What are those monsters?!”
Everyone widened their eyes in fear. The strange-looking creatures seemed like they were merged from several animals. There was an enormous bear with four spider limbs, a long, tough crocodile tail, and a pair of antlers on its head!
“Wow, so cool!”
Anne exclaimed.
“Be careful.”
Rhode commanded. He knew that these Chaos Creatures were much stronger than they looked.
“These Chaos Creatures are different creatures merged together from the shattered Order. They are completely non-existent in this world and no one knows what strength they possess. Remember. Don’t retreat!”
“Grrrr—!”
Suddenly, a tiger-like Chaos Creature with a griffin’s head and bat wings let out a sharp screech. Then, it leapt and flapped its wings, pouncing on Rhode. Rhode narrowed his eyes and extended his right arm. Shortly after, the shimmering white sword in his hand instantly vanished and was replaced by a pitch-black chain sword. Then, he triggered its mechanism.
Kacha.
He unlocked the restrictions on the chain sword and it transformed into countless shadow whips that struck the Chaos Creature. This sudden ambush caught the Chaos Creature by surprise. It flinched, but before it retaliated, the shadow whips had struck its body heavily. It rolled on the ground uncontrollably before finally stabilizing its footing. However, its reaction was rather quick. After standing firmly on its feet, it quickly leaped to dodge Rhode’s follow-up attack, where the pitch-black sharp blade missed and struck the ground. Then, the Chaos Creature pounced on him once again.
You’re asking for death!
A cold glint flashed in Rhode’s eyes. All players hated the Chaos Creatures because these annoying creatures would pounce on any beings of Order despite the difference in their levels. In the land of Order, Chaos Creatures would still observe their prey before attacking, where if the level difference was more than 10, they usually wouldn’t stir up trouble with the players. However, in this place, even if one was at the peak level 85, the Chaos Creatures between level 20 and 30 would still swarm toward one endlessly. Just how annoying was that! At this moment, this Chaos Creature standing before Rhode was only level 40. It was asking for death by messing with him!
“Hmph!”
Rhode let out a cold snort. Then, shadow clones emerged from him, slashing countless dark blade rays onto his prey. In the blink of an eye, the Chaos Creature was shredded into bits. However, blood didn’t splash into the air. Instead, the creature instantly crumbled like a pile of sand and vanished into thin air. Shortly after, a huge net of blade rays faded away and Rhode reemerged, gazing coldly at the empty spot before him. The three Order Refugees gawked at the black-haired young man. They didn’t expect him to be this powerful, where perhaps their elder might not even match up to him.
After dealing with the trouble, Rhode casually observed his men at work. The strange bear-looking creature was currently in a hassle with Marfa and the others. On the other hand, John and Sovann were attacking the shark-like creature with eagle wings. Lize and Marlene continued to hide behind Anne while Anne brandished the shield at the crab with boar legs, smashing it flat to the ground…
Strictly speaking, these Chaos Creatures weren’t too strong because they had barged into the Order barrier and were weakened. The strongest Chaos Creature at the moment was only at level 45, so it was possible if Marfa and the rest worked together to eliminate it. The main problem was that the appearance of these enemies were simply too strange, where mercenaries didn’t know where exactly they should strike.
Argh!
Marfa flew off upon impact despite slashing his sword on the creature’s antlers. The bear-like creature widened its jaw and revealed its razor-sharp teeth. Then, it dashed toward the mercenaries.
Swish!
Randolf released an arrow that streaked across the air and punctured its eye, leaving it howling furiously from the immense pain. At this moment, no one noticed that Joey had already sneaked up to it.
Shing!
Joey brandished the dagger and sliced its legs off, where dark green blood spurted and the putrid scent disgusted everyone. Joey dodged its brandishing crocodile tail and watched it collapse powerlessly. Then, Sol seized the chance and hacked his blazing sword into its skull, devouring its entirety.
“You people should relax a little.”
Gillian chuckled as she strolled at the back. She shook her tail and twitched her ears proudly while swinging her right arm like an orchestra conductor. Along with her movements, flares burned in midair and swallowed the strange shadows pouncing from above, turning them into ashes.
“These Chaos Creatures aren’t hard to deal with. Alright, you stupid, stop charging ahead. Unless you want to merge with that lion-fish!”
Gillian waved her finger across the air, and a fire whip struck the ground before John. This frightened the young man who was darting ahead with his sword into falling to the ground on his bum. Shortly after, the fire whip bounced off the ground and erupted in a blinding radiance that exploded the Chaos Creatures into bits.
“Heyah!”
On the other side, the leader of the two Order Refugees slashed the heavy, enormous bronze hatchet into the Chaos Creature’s skull. He watched in silence as the creature shattered into bits and vanished into thin air. Then, he lifted his head and wiped the sweat beads off his head before turning to the outsiders.
That’s right. Those are truly newbies.
The leader had to admit that when he heard this suggestion from the overlord, he thought that this black-haired young man was insane or perhaps an idiot who was blinded by greed. Of course, he was clear of the reason why the overlord wished to enter the Land of Chaos. It was due to the legend… Wrong. That legend could be considered a story that all Order Refugee parents told their children—Order shall return while the days of Chaos will come to an end one day. The legendary knights shall raise their flags and step into Chaos once again to rescue them from this endless torture.
But that was just a legend, after all.
As time passed, the story remained a story. However, the tone used in telling the story changed. The initial tone that was filled with hope had turned into despair. Currently, almost everyone used the tone of mockery whenever they told this story to their children—the savior doesn’t exist. That’s right. This is the Land of Chaos. No one will be rescuing them, not even themselves. It is foolish to rely on outsiders.
From the start, the leader didn’t think that these outsiders could adapt to the Chaos. But, it seemed like he was wrong.
Indeed. Most of these behaved and outsiders performed like idiots. However, he was clear that this wasn’t their true strength because even the descendants of the Order Refugees who were born in the Land of Chaos couldn’t perform any better than them after leaving the refuge and being surrounded by the Chaos Creatures. On the contrary, he was surprised by the black-haired young man.
After entering the Land of Chaos, he had been observing the young man and his subordinates. It was apparent that this young man held experience with regards to this place. Not only that, but some of his subordinates also performed well, especially the young lady holding the huge shield and the fox-eared young lady swaying her fluffy tail about. They performed perfectly and much more impressive than most of the people who lived here could. Besides, that young man…
The leader quietly scanned the young man who vanished into thin air during his assault on the Chaos Creature. Then, he suddenly emerged behind and shattered it into bits. He had never seen anyone with such mysterious moves and formidable strength in the refuge. They had been battling the Chaos Creatures for all their lives and yet, they couldn’t even match up with this young man?
The leader became somewhat fearful of Rhode.
Perhaps his decision was a bad one. Or maybe he shouldn’t have convinced the elder to accept the young man’s request for the sake of food and water. Back then, he was indeed too arrogant because he thought that the young man was certainly another one of those people who were blinded by greed. But, now it seemed like this decision was absolutely wrong. Perhaps this might bring an unprecedented disaster to the entire refuge!
The leader became anxious at this thought. He thought about leaving this group of outsiders here and letting them die on their own. But, for some unknown reason, he instinctively sensed a sharp, ice-cold aura locking him down to the spot as though one had held a blade against his throat. He had no doubt that if he escaped now, he would be dead instantly. Moreover, he was somehow also certain that this young man would still be able to find the location of their refuge even if he ditched them.
Rhode put away his sword and instantly sensed the gaze from behind. However, he wasn’t surprised and was well aware of the Order Refugees’ mentality. In a place like the Land of Chaos, one couldn’t count on the Order Refugees who had worked hard to survive to agree on fairness, goodwill, or other sorts. Although Chaos failed to completely shatter the Order barrier over their refuge, it still slowly infiltrated and affected their mentality. Therefore, most players completely annihilated the Order Refugees as soon as they attained their territories. If not, they wouldn’t be surprised to find a group of bandits emerging in their territory if they kept them alive—there was no cure for the mentality and souls that were corroded by Chaos.
I can only hope that the people in the refuge still have some sense in their heads.
Rhode turned around and gazed at the leader who had turned away and fought against a Chaos Creature. It would be a pity if their intellect was fully corroded by Chaos because Rhode would then need to turn the refuge into a large graveyard after gaining the coordinates of the tinder. After all, he didn’t wish for them to turn into bandits in this future territory of his.
However, it would still be a tough task for him. Fortunately, Gillian was around to help, so there shouldn’t be any issues.
After perhaps several minutes or hours, the Chaos Creatures that kept pouncing on them were nowhere to be seen. Many panted in exhaustion as they sat on the ground. Although the Chaos Creatures weren’t too powerful, they were still difficult to handle. In fact, if it weren’t due to the fact that Rhode’s men were elites of the elites, perhaps some would have died here.
But everything was fine now. Apart from some injuries on Joey and the others, there wasn’t anything worrying. Moreover, this Order barrier kept them immune from the negative effects of Chaos, so they didn’t need to be concerned about being poisoned. However, what made Rhode glad was that even though almost everyone was panicky when they first met the Chaos Creatures, they still managed to easily adapt and eliminate them, where even John, who improved the slowest, slaughtered a snake with a wolf head.
“Alright, let’s get going.”
After a while of rest, Rhode said.
“The weakened Chaos Creatures can’t enter the Order barrier now, so we must use this opportunity to get moving. If not, everything will repeat itself after the Chaos Creatures recover their strength.”
Almost everyone sighed in fatigue. However, they stood up hurriedly and gathered in their formation.
Rhode nodded in satisfaction. Then, he turned around and gestured to the three Order Refugees.
“Alright, we’re ready. Time is not waiting for anyone, right?”
“Of course.”
The leader said with a sulk. Then, he turned around, lifted the Order torch, and led the outsiders.
It was due to this that he didn’t notice the smirk on Rhode’s face.
