Chapter 129: Breakout
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
"Bang!" A loud and crispy sound of metals colliding with each other was heard. It was from Wyon’s heavy sword fiercely hacking Tod’s metalized face when the latter stopped attacking him and turned around in order to help his lord Verdi.
A deep, horrible wound appeared in the center of Tod’s face, starting from his forehead all the way to his chin, and even his nose was split into two. However, instead of blood, it was liquid metal that was slowly coming out of the wound. At the same time, the liquid metal was trying to heal the scary wound.
Although Tod was seriously injured, the sword in his hand did not stop, and it went directly to the princess, whose blade was a few centimeters away from Verdi. Although Natasha swiftly leaned to the side, Tod’s sword left a terrible cut on Natasha’s back, from which her spine and internal organs were almost visible.
The already badly damaged armor could not protect her very well anymore. With a m.u.f.fled moan, Natasha bit her lips to bear the great pain and, without pause, wielded her Thunder toward Verdi again!
She knew that she could not lose her momentum at this time, or it would be the end of all of them, and her knights and squires would die for nothing.
Beside Silvia’s hacked body, Verdi thought he got a chance to use his magic item again and thus escape away from Natasha. However, a powerful lightning struck him directly from the sky.
As an extraordinary magic sword, Natasha’s Thunder had a certain chance to summon real lightning.
Verdi’s broken, dark purple armor was instantly burned black. Although luckily part of the remaining power of his Blessing saved his life from the lightning, the powerful strike fully paralyzed his body again.
He was angry and desperate. Verdi could not understand why everything turned out to be so bitter, when he thought a great success was definitely upon his hands. However, he would not easily reconcile himself to the situation!
At that moment, Natasha’s sharp blade was coming directly toward Verdi’s neck, but he sommoned forth all his remaining willpower to overcome the paralyzing feeling in his right arm. With it, he suddenly tried to block Thunder with his bare right hand. Lots of small rays of lightning instantly covered his hand and his forearm, snapping part of his right arm right off. However, the sacrifice of his right arm also reduced Thunder’s speed and, by the time the blade reached his neck, a piece of the s.h.i.+eld of Truth was formed around it. At the same time, his feet pushed against the ground and his body rolled backwards.
Natasha hacked her sword at Verdi’s neck with all her anger, pain and hatred. Although the small piece of s.h.i.+eld did not fully stop her attack, when the s.h.i.+eld broke into pieces, her momentum had been weakened enough. Thunder cut a deep wound in Verdi’s neck, but the blade did not really touch his carotid arteries. Verdi pa.s.sed out, but he was not dead, yet.
When Natasha was about to lift her sword again to end her cousin’s sinful life, a few of Verdi’s grand knights arrived and blocked her path to their lord, who had completely lost his consciousness.
Natasha quickly made an estimation of their power and instantly decided to leave. She was already seriously injured, and the extra power her Blessing created due to her injuries would not last much longer. She knew that this was not the right time for her to be a hero.
"Let’s go!" shouted Natasha to her people, and then she spurred Agatha and rushed out of the encirclement.
Verdi’s knights were occupied with saving their lord, and more importantly, they also felt intimidated when they saw their lord lying on the ground like a torn sack.
Therefore, it was not hard for Lucien, Cacharel and Wyon to break the siege and follow Natasha. Unfortunately, facing too many knights on his own, Daniel did not make it.
"You f**king idiots! What are you f**king waiting for?!" When Tod approached Verdi, he yelled at the rest of the knights with great anger, "Go and get them, or we will all die!"
Leaving some knight squires to take care of Verdi, Tod spurred his horse and led the rest of the knights to chase the princess.
The four Dragon Scale horses were very fast, and soon they were close to the edge of the black forest. At that time, Natasha suddenly turned around and threw her black lance, Slayer, toward Tod, with all her strength and power.
Flying with great speed in the air, the lance stirred the air flow and created a loud and unique noise.
As Tod subconsciously rolled down from his horse and fell on the ground, Slayer pierced right through another level four knight’s chest, who was behind Tod and did not even have time to raise his s.h.i.+eld to defend. When Slayer flew right through the knight’s chest, it immediately turned the body into something brittle, that shattered into thousands of s.h.i.+ning pieces in the next second.
When Tod stood up again, the princess and her people had already disappeared in the forest.
Natasha’s final burst of power shocked everyone present.
After a short period of time, Tod said to the rest of the knights in a cold voice, "We have to find and kill them tonight, and we have no second choice. If the princess survives, we will all die, and our families will die with us."
The other knights nodded and followed Tod into the deep woods.
...
As the big and tall trees grew in the number the deeper they went into the woods, the horses were not suitable for moving forward anymore. Thus, Wyon suggested that they should leave the horses and go on foot.
When Natasha was about to get off from her horse, she fell to the ground.
Both Lucien and Wyon rushed toward her, and found that the princess was already in a coma. Her face was abnormally flushed, and her body was covered with gashes, especially the terrible hole on her abdomen and the deep cut in her back.
"The princess has reached her limit," Wyon was trying to stop some of the wounds from bleeding, "but Her Grace should be fine. After all, the self-healing power of a grand knight should be able to let her recover relatively fast."
Lucien carefully touched Natasha’s forehead and the tip of her nose. He found that there were small particles swelling underneath her burning hot skin, and, thankfully, she was still breathing relatively smoothly.
As the least injured among them all, Lucien carried Natasha on his back and took her sword with him. At the same time, Wyon put Cacharel on his back, since he was already too weak to stand still.
Then, they resumed their escape through the forest.
"Baron Wyon," Lucien paused a bit and said to him seriously, "you’re the strongest and the most powerful one among us all. I think you should take the princess back to Aalto, and I can cover you."
"Impressive, Lucien. I heard your name before and I never expected that a musician could be brave and powerful like you are." A bitter smile appeared on Wyon’s face, "I appreciate your suggestion, but I don’t think I should be the one to take the princess out of here, since Tod knows me pretty well, and honestly speaking, I don’t think I can get rid of them that easily… I’m badly injured already. Right now, even the running is pretty much a stretch for me…"
"Baron Wyon…" Lucien did not know what to say.
"Listen to me, Lucien." Wyon nodded, "As you said, I’m the strongest among us all, and I bet Tod would believe that I would be the one with the princess. So you should be the one sending the princess back to Aalto, and Cacharel and I will cover you."
"I agree…" Cacharel nodded and said to Lucien in a weak voice.
"Even if you meet them on your way, they won’t be Verdi’s main force. And besides, you have the princess’ sword," Wyon added.
"I see." Lucien nodded. There was no time for him to try to act like a great hero.
"Take off the princess’s armor and give it to us." Wyon stopped running and said to Lucien. "The grand knights can smell the scent blood in the air."
After Lucien handed Natasha’s damaged Dragon Blood to them, both Wyon and Cacharel tied some pieces to their own armors.
"All our hope is on you now, Lucien." Cacharel smiled peacefully, "If we die, remember to bring some flowers to our graves."
Lucien nodded, and then Wyon and Cacharel left toward the other side of the forest.
...
Lucien was still running. He had no idea how long he had been fleeing. He was gasping loudly, and his own gasping was the only thing that he could hear in the deep forest.
Honestly speaking, the idea of just leaving Natasha somewhere in the forest and running for his own life did cross Lucien’s mind. After all, he still had his dreams that hadn’t been fulfilled yet.
However, Lucien just couldn’t do that. Leaving a friend here just like that, in great danger, would destroy the rest of his life.
After recovering a bit, Lucien activated his Star s.h.i.+eld again, covering both Natasha and himself, just in case.
"Lucien… you really got some good stuff in the magic lock…" At this time, Natasha’s voice came from behind him. Lucien had no idea when she came back to consciousness.
"Am I that heavy?" Natasha was still joking, and after a few seconds, she murmured, "You’re my only friend now, Lucien."
Lucien was not sure if she was sobbing.
...
Deep in the sewers in Aalto, countless rats surged forward out of nowhere, like a black tide, and all of them had terrifying red eyes.