Chapter 233 Surrounded
It was an unwritten rule in the mercenary world that in the event of a surprise attack, the first priority of a physical melee professional was to protect the spellcaster first.
This was an ironclad rule, one that the mercenary world had taken hundreds, thousands of years to learn, a lesson paid for in blood.
Physical professions only had two functions: kill or protect. But spellcasters were different; as long as they were prepared, they could not only do the first two, but also heal, alter terrain, alter climate, control enemies, or summon creatures as reinforcements.
Even if you were surrounded and in danger, as long as the spellcaster was still alive and able to cast spells, there was a possibility of turning the tables. On the other hand, if your own spellcaster was dead, or if you had no spellcaster but the other side did, it was just as dangerous as long if you didn’t have tremendous advantage in numbers.
Because you would have no idea what strange things the spellcaster could do next.
Andonara had worked as a mercenary for a few months before she became the queen, so she was aware of this unwritten rule, and… she was standing in front of Roland, though not just because of the rules.
Nineteen of them!
There were nineteen black-robed a.s.sa.s.sins that were forced into the open by the glare. In just the blink of an eye, everyone on Roland’s side counted the number of enemies—none of them were weak, after all.
The number of shadow a.s.sa.s.sins was twelve more than the number of people on Roland’s side, which was the reason why they dared to launch a sneak attack.
There was always some advantage in numbers.
Looking at the nineteen a.s.sa.s.sins who were as ferocious and quick as ghosts, Roland was the one who had the slowest reaction. The others had already set up and were preparing for the onslaught of the enemy, especially Raffel, who, being a s.h.i.+eld warrior, had taken out his huge tower s.h.i.+eld from his Backpack and taken up a defensive stance.
But then, someone made a move.
It was Roland.
Although Roland’s reaction was the slowest, it was only relative.
He allocated full intellect and concurrently high resistance growth. His coordination, the attribute in charge of reaction speed, softness, and sensitivity of the body, was only the most basic at 5 points.
He was surely a little slower than the others, roughly about 0.05 seconds slower, but as he leveled up, his reaction speed would grow even further apart from that of the other physical professions, unless he used reaction speed enhancement spells.
The others would have taken at least half a second to draw out their weapons and take their stance.
Roland’s spells, however, were all instantaneous.
In just this short span of less than half a second, the a.s.sa.s.sins had rushed forward almost nine meters and were now almost less than ten meters in front of them.
Then Roland snapped his fingers.
Hypnosis!
Instantly, four charging a.s.sa.s.sins fell asleep. Like hungry dogs s.n.a.t.c.hing food, they directly dove toward the ground, sliding on the stone ground for four or five meters. The other three were deeply dizzy, feeling weak all over, yawning repeatedly, and they stopped after running a few steps and smacked their heads hard.
Although they didn’t fall asleep, they lost their fighting strength.
With this one spell, Roland made the enemies lose almost half of their momentum.
This was something that Roland had discovered when he had clashed with the Shadow a.s.sa.s.sins Guild before. It seemed that many a.s.sa.s.sins had very poor mental resistance, and a single Group Hypnosis could hit about a third of their targets.
“Well done.”
Raffel shouted a commendation at the sight and directly launched a s.h.i.+eld charge.
The city wall was less than twenty meters wide. When Raffel charged over, the relative speed of both sides was too fast. There were two a.s.sa.s.sins that couldn’t dodge in time and were knocked back on the spot, blood spurting wildly from their mouths.
The moment Raffel knocked them off their feet, to his left, the sound of a bowstring rang three times in quick succession.
A black-robed a.s.sa.s.sin waved his dagger wildly as he dashed, parrying two arrows, but then with a gus.h.i.+ng sound, an arrow pierced his throat, and half a second later, he fell to his knees, gagging. Eventually he fell face-up, looking at the sky.
Brazil, on the other hand, jumped five meters back and drew his bow again.
Now, there were only nine Shadow a.s.sa.s.sins before them.
The two sides then skirmished, with Husseret scaring off three Shadow a.s.sa.s.sins with a smoke grenade, while Betta and Li Lin each held back an opponent. Betta, because of his talent, was apt in defense but lacked in offense, and for the time being, he was locked in a battle with the a.s.sa.s.sin.
Li Lin, on the other hand, was a Berserker and moved slightly slower, but every time he swung his greatsword, a strange whirring sound would emit, and the a.s.sa.s.sin he was fighting would turn around in fear upon hearing it.
Li Lin stomped his feet on the spot. “Why did you run away? Come and fight me for three hundred rounds!”
The a.s.sa.s.sin ran even faster.
The bowstring rang out again, and Brazil killed another a.s.sa.s.sin, a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
The most spectacular was Queen Andonara, who appeared directly behind the three a.s.sa.s.sins with a Z-charge. The top halves of the three rose up into the sky: they had actually been bisected at the waist in an instant.
The postman who was in charge of cheering off to the side saw this and couldn’t help but whistle.
This strength… is kind of impressive.
It had been less than five seconds, and in the blink of an eye, there were only four a.s.sa.s.sins on the field, with three more just coming out of their stupor.
When they saw the situation, they immediately turned around and ran.
They came quickly and left quickly.
All except for one a.s.sa.s.sin who had fallen behind, who suddenly fell to the ground. He looked back, so terrified that his eyes were almost bulging out.
A blue Hand of Magic grabbed him by his left ankle and dragged him backward.
This a.s.sa.s.sin had grief in his eyes, and with the flash of a chilling glare, he directly slashed his left leg with his dagger.
Blood splattered everywhere; he had been too hard on himself. Roland and the others were dumbfounded.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the a.s.sa.s.sin jumped to the edge of the battlements on one leg and then tumbled down.
Roland and the others ran over and saw that because the bright light was gone, the a.s.sa.s.sin had turned into a serpentine shadow in midair and slithered against the surface of the city wall, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
They looked at the far side of the city wall and noticed that the huge ball of light Roland had just created had attracted the attention of the other patrols, and people could be vaguely seen running over.
Husseret said, “The Shadow Guild must have received a mission from the royal family. This group should be their elites, they shouldn’t be able to threaten us for the time being. We should just leave straight away from the city walls.”
The rope was thrown to the other side of the wall this time, and several of them climbed it and went down quickly.
Roland, on the other hand, didn’t need to go to that much trouble: he just used Teleportation and waited for them below.
Once a few of them were down, two patrol squads also ran to where they had just been, and a torch was lit on the wall, but unfortunately, the torches didn’t illuminate a wide area, and these soldiers only saw a few indistinct shadows leaving.
Because the postman had been livestreaming, the livestream was now in a commotion once again.
“Oh sh**, is this the strength of a top-tier guild? It’s outrageous. Half a dozen or so Shadow a.s.sa.s.sins were instantly put down, while the rest were scared off?”
“Not a top-tier guild, it’s the only guild on the entire server for now.”
“Roland snapped his fingers and four fell, three more lost the ability to fight. Mages are too strong, we should nerf Irelia[1].”
“‘The queen is also awesome. Z-charge, it’s said to be a high-level specialty, how did she learn it?”
“Oh d***, it’s good to be strong, even such a powerful queen could be picked up.”
The discussion in the chat room continued, showing no signs of subsiding for now.
Meanwhile, Roland and the others encountered some minor trouble in the groves outside the capital.
“Why wasn’t the quest completed?” The postman was a little surprised.
The quest was to escort the queen to safety, but the quest status still hadn’t changed.
In other words… it still wasn’t safe here?
The intelligence of everyone present was not bad, and they immediately were on guard.
It was then that they suddenly realized the woods were a little too quiet.
After some thought, Roland instantly sent four giant b.a.l.l.s of light into the air, illuminating a radius of about 150 meters.
Husseret looked around the woods, narrowed his eyes, and said, “We’re surrounded.”
[1] LoL champion, nerfed frequently