Chapter 114: Round Up
Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
It was another ordinary morning when a long trade caravan in a mighty formation, the end of which could hardly be seen, appeared on the avenue and moved toward the south gate.
It slowed down and finally stopped when it was nearly one hundred meters away from the outpost. Justin looked out from the second carriage but was stunned when he failed to spot Moxinke.
“Hey…” Suddenly a voice came. Moxinke stepped out from the same small bar, still with a giant sword on his back. However, this time he was not alone, but was followed by Han Jin, Ronning, and ten more knights.
“Lor… Lord Moxinke?” Justin’s face changed dramatically. He had recognized Ronning.
The carriage’s curtain was lifted up. Berger stepped out, only to be greeted by several malicious smiles. Even if he was too stupid to see through their expressions, he should have realized what was going on after seeing the uninvited guests.
After a shrill whistle, a well-armed team of knights appeared outside the town and blocked their way out. From the alleys at the roadside also came groups of soldiers. Berger’s face turned ghastly pale. He stared at Moxinke, gnashed his teeth in anger, and shouted, “Moxinke! How dare you betray me!!”
“Betray you? You overestimated yourself.” Moxinke laughed wickedly. “Take it easy. We just want to have a detailed inspection of your goods. If there is nothing unusual, we will let you go.”
“Humph…” Berger’s eyes turned sharp and full of deep hatred. Then he spat out three words, “Go to h.e.l.l!”
A staf which was decorated with a large blue magic crystal at the topf appeared in his hand.. As he was spitting out those three words, the blue magic crystal shattered and turned into countless splas.h.i.+ng dots of light. At the same time, an enormous and sharp icicle shot toward Moxinke.
The spell was cast too fast. Even faster was the icicle which was shooting forward. Icicle Drill was a ninth grade spell, and even an archimage should not be able to cast it in an instant! Maybe Berger’s power had far surpa.s.sed anyone’s expectations, or maybe because he had been a.s.sisted by the staff in his hand, but how he did it was not the important part; the result was!
The gloating expression on Moxinke’s face faded. As soon as he tried to raise his giant sword, the icicle had already pierced through his body. He was abruptly cut into two, with his upper body soaring into the air and splas.h.i.+ng blood. Ronning was lucky to be standing outside of the ice piton’s attack range. However, two of the knights behind him were not as lucky. There were also killed in the attack.
The icicle pierced through several more men in a row, but its power was still overwhelming. It directly hit the wall of a bar behind them and shot into it, leaving a hole of nearly two meters in diameter on the wall. Then, a loud sound of an explosion mixed with the panicked screams of men and women came from inside.
Berger’s face turned even more pale. Without delay, he cast Levitation, a seventh-grade spell, and floated up into the air.
But just when his feet were leaving the carriage, a wooden giant appeared out of nowhere and hugged him in a very warm and dubious posture. It jerked forward and instantly tackled Berger down onto the ground.
No matter how impressive Berger’s magic prowess was, he was still only a magician, which meant that now that he was being tightly hugged by the wooden giant, he could not physically get rid of it no matter how hard he tried. To make the situation worse, he had just successively cast two powerful spells and had no strength left to release the third one.
“No…” Berger struggled. “Help me!”
More and more figures jumped out from the carriages behind. Some rushed to the soldiers, and some to Berger.
But they were too far away from Berger. Han Jin appeared in front of Berger first and slammed his fists down. With a loud cras.h.i.+ng noise, Berger’s upper right arm was broken and twisted in a strange angle. With another punch, his left arm met the same fate.
“Agghhhh…” He uttered a heartrending cry. Somehow, he managed to find enough strength to free one of his legs and kick at Han Jin.
But a magician trying to physically fight with someone could achieve nothing but bringing himself more suffering. Han Jin reached out with one hand and easily grabbed the incoming kick, while his foot stomped down heavily on Berger’s knee. “Crack!” With a crisp sound, Berger’s head slumped down as he fell unconscious.
“Get away from him!” A guard pounced on Han Jin with his eyes red due to rage and swung down his sword.
Han Jin snorted. Instead of dodging, he reached out his left hand and agiley pushed the sword aside with two of his fingers. At the same time, his right fist punched out and squarely struck the guard’s chest. Blood squirted out from the guard’s mouth, and his body also went flying in the air.
After casting Spirit Possession Art, Han Jin’s body become extremely physically tenacious; both his speed and strength were greatly improved. As the saying goes, “A man with strength can beat down ten with skill.” With such a huge gap in strength between Han Jin and the guard, any sword form was futile. Combined with the fact that the guards were not very powerful to begin with, Han Jin dove into the oncoming group of guards like a tiger diving into a herd of sheep. With every movement of his hand, a guard would go flying, and even though everyone knew exactly what Han Jin was going to do, they simply could not resist his sheer strength.
Ronning roared and joined the fight as fiercely as a wild tiger. He could not accept the fact that Moxinke, a good friend of Reg and the one who had accompanied him deep into enemy territory, had just been killed. Neither could he bring himself to face Reg for failing to protect his friend!
The soldiers rushed toward them like a swarm of hornets and fought the guards of the caravan. Despite the chaos, one party was prepared, while the other was caught off guard. Soon, it was clear how the battle would end.
Suddenly, Han Jin saw a ray of black light shooting toward him. It was too fast to be perceived by naked eyes. If he had not strengthened his physical strength, even if he could see it, he would have had no time to react to it! Han Jin hurriedly stretched out his right arm without thinking and blocked off the black light. An arrow whirled into the air.
A deep gash appeared on his right arm, from which blood poured out. He felt that his right arm was sore, in pain, and almost completely crippled.
He looked up, only to find a pair of murderous eyes staring at him. A jade-green arrow merged into the ground, and countless vines emerged from the ground around Han Jin, rus.h.i.+ng towards him.
Han Jin let out a roar and leaped into the sky by using the Art of Vertical Lift. He kept his eyes on his opponent’s face. Just when his feet left the ground, he saw a hint of cold and sarcastic light in his enemy’s eyes. She knocked another arrow.
Han Jin felt a chill throughout his body. The elf looked calm and confident, as if she had already sentenced her enemy to death. Clearly, she was quite confident about this shot. Meanwhile, Han Jin had was trapped in midair and couldn’t exert any force, nor could he use the Earthmeld Charm to escape. Now, he was just like a floating target.
Horrible trade… Han Jin moaned in his heart. This was the second life-saving charm he had lost today. Charm of Faked Earth Corpse was the sole protection that he relied on to fight with all kinds of enemies. “How could he operate in this chaotic world without such protection?” he thought to himself. At least, within the next half a month, he would need to lie low.
But even though he saw the flash of black light, the scene Han Jin was waiting for didn’t happen.The elf had pulled the longbow in her hand into the shape of a full moon, but the arrow could not be released. An arrow had shot into her left and stuck out from her right, piercing her brain.
Han Jin finally noticed Sunnier’s figure. He couldn’t describe the joy he felt to be regaining something he was sure he had just lost. If he were as bold and noisy as Moxinke, he probably would have shouted ‘Sunier I love you!’
“Fight!” Ronning roared in rage. His heart finally calmed down a bit after seeing that the attempt to snipe out Han Jin had failed. Moxinke had just met his end, and if anything happened to Han Jin as well, Ronning would feel so much shame that he might as well kill himself!
“Fight…” the soldiers shouted all around him. There were only two high grade professionals in the trade caravan, who were now either injured or killed. The remaining were just a flock of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
Ronning spared no effort to swing his war pike, and guards in front of him went flying in droves. He was so angry that he spent too much force, and even his own body was leaning forward. But suddenly, he froze there, his motivation to fight disappearing in an instant. Only one person could shock him like that: Moxinke! If he was still alive, why should he be fighting so angrily?
In the corner, Moxinke was still standing there, sword still in his hand. He looked awestruck as if he had been isolated from this world and hadn’t realized what had just happened.
“How…” Ronning could not believe his own eyes. Within such a short distance, no professional under the eighth-grade could escape an instantly released Icicle Drill – not even a thief! And he had seen with his own eyes that Moxinke had been killed; there was no doubt about it!
The resistance of the guards enraged the soldiers. They showed no mercy anymore and would even stab those who had already fallen down to make sure none of their enemies could escape. If the horses of the trade caravan ran due to panic, they would kill the horses too!
The street was filled with splashes of blood, shouting, and cries. Ninth Town was a large ancient town, and none of the residents in it had seen such a b.l.o.o.d.y scene before. They all hid in their houses, and no one dared to open neither window nor door to look outside.
The resistance of the trade caravan turned weaker and weaker, and finally, only several guards were curled at the corners of the carriages, fighting to their last breaths. Now, they had no energy to think about whether it was worthwhile to resist or not. All they wanted was survival.
The soldiers became roudier and roudier. They overturned the carriages and randomly thrust their swords into them. One carriage carried several women, but the soldiers gave them no time to explain and cut them down as well.
In a battle, all actions were not made individually. It was a life and death fight between two groups: allies or enemies. Riptide Regiment had very strict disciplines. The soldiers would not think about anything else except killing all of their enemies!