Chapter 189: Act 123 – Sorry, I’m Not a Knight (Fourth Update)
Whether in his previous life or this one, Brendel always considered himself an ordinary person. The difference was, upon discovering he had certain abilities, his ambitions and desires naturally grew larger. Despite this desire being to change Erluin’s historical trajectory, preventing the regrettable outcomes he experienced, he did not believe this made him noble. Like any ordinary person, his wishes stemmed from his own needs and feelings. He was sure of this, just as he adhered to the principle of “returning benefit for benefit and revenge for grievance,” never thinking he had the obligation to restrain himself like a saint. However, he also understood the principle of reciprocity, so when Aike moved, Brendel reacted.
“Lady Martha, I haven’t offended you, have I—”
He grumbled inwardly at the presence above while dispelling the silence spell, then shouted at Aike, “Don’t run that way, come back!”
The young man paused briefly, but the Earth Guardian had already ‘swished’ into their midst. The enormous monster glanced at Aike, but its gaze returned to Brendel. Though not very bright, instinctively, it recognized who was its long-time target.
“I say, it’s quite rude to draw my monster away without a word,” Brendel remarked to the myriad of compound eyes of the Earth Guardian, internally feeling his insides twist in frustration but still attempting to maintain his composure. Truth be told, he wanted to curse the young man facing him, yet Aike’s actions also made him feel some affection, leaving him in a contradictory state.
After much internal conflict, he could only disparagingly remark, “Thank you…”
But Aike merely looked at him and smiled gratefully. In fact, he understood that had Brendel not acted, he would have been torn to shreds in mere seconds. The gap between the power of one at the upper threshold of Silver and a level 65 Boss was not something ordinary logic could measure.
Yet, this incident was still his fault. As a mercenary, he obviously knew what the opponent had. From Brendel’s earlier gesture in dismissing the spell, he’d recognized it as a silence spell, often used in ambushes and infiltrations in mercenary battles. However, upon seeing the silence spell, he realized the grave mistake he had made.
Essentially, he had dragged Brendel into danger. Still, despite being injured, the young man took action.
He exhaled lightly, having already concluded that the other was undoubtedly an upright knight. Since childhood, he had been enamored with knight novels, dreaming of being a chivalrous knight—though being a mercenary seemed a long way from that ideal, his conviction had never waned. It was precisely because of this that he was so well-liked in the Gray Wolf Mercenaries.
“Mr. Knight, let’s defeat this monster together!” Aike breathed in slightly, excited.
He realized that even combined, they probably weren’t a match for one of the monster’s fingers, yet if they were to die, they should die bravely. Dying while fighting alongside a truly virtuous knight felt like a not wholly unfortunate circumstance, but a blessing from Martha on his ideals.
However, Brendel clearly could not understand this thought. He stared blankly, “What?”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he saw the terrifying monster’s numerous compound eyes flash red—a sign it was about to attack. Brendel instinctively tightened his body. He had already reached the threshold to activate his charge skill, yet the next moment, he did not receive the expected attack. Just as Aike turned around, he saw the young man seize the opportunity and slash forward with his sword—
“Are you mad?”
At that moment, Brendel wished he could cover his eyes. It was truly horrifying; a young man with merely Bronze upper-tier strength, barely exceeding level 30, was unhesitatingly attacking a level 65 Boss. He could almost envision the ensuing events. Sure enough, as Aike’s sword barely reached a meter from the Earth Guardian’s body, a layer of suddenly materializing rock shield intercepted his attack, preventing him from advancing.
That layer of rock shield was composed of small hexagonal slabs, one of the Earth Guardian’s strongest passive skills—‘Rock Shield.’ These rocks were made of the most solid granite, stacked in three layers, each over six centimeters thick. The moment any physical strike entered within a meter of Aike, this layer of shield would automatically trigger. Thus, ordinary physical attacks would inflict no damage on this monster.
Yet Aike clearly did not know this. Upon finding his sword blocked, he immediately sensed danger. However, it was already too late to retreat.
The Earth Guardian swung its rocky limb, creating a sharp wind blade, and then countless rock fragments whirled by in a second strike. At that moment, Aike thought he was doomed, but just when he felt a tremendous force collide with him, both were thrown sideways. The young man landed on the ground with a muffled grunt, surprised to open his eyes and see the Earth Guardian’s strike had missed.
Pale, he turned his head to see Brendel getting up from the other side, instantly realizing what had happened. After a moment of shock, he urgently responded, “Thank you…”
“Good grief!”
Brendel inwardly cursed again; he had wasted one of his charge skills. While this young man was certainly better-hearted than the likes of Makarolo and Bud, he was still quite the dim-witted greenhorn. He wondered how Makarolo had trained this son of Duke Luun; it could only be said that, as a noble offspring, he was completely failing in education.
However, the young man was evidently unaware of Brendel’s thoughts. He saw the latter’s silence and assumed he was contemplating how to deal with the monster. Determined, he braced himself, thinking that if Brendel hadn’t saved him earlier, he would have been dead by now, and boldly declared, “Um, Mr. Knight, I’ll hold him off; you attack from behind—”
Brendel fought back tears but thought, can’t you see that attacking from any direction is utterly meaningless? Can’t you think, classmate? But in order to silence this guy, he snapped back, “Shut up! Now’s not the time for nonsense!”
“Sorry…”
“Forget it; just pretend I didn’t say anything.” Brendel turned back around, only to see the three-meter tall monster charging towards them like a heavy tank. Facing a level 65 Boss’s charge, he couldn’t afford to slack off and quickly darted to the left, planning for a “frontal breakthrough” from the creature’s less accessible side, hoping to see if a penetrating attack could affect the ‘Rock Shield.’
However, he was surprised at how smoothly he dodged. Logically, even if Aike turned slowly, he shouldn’t abandon the protection of his flank. Brendel was mentally prepared to take a hit, but to his astonishment, he escaped the monster’s attack range without incident. But then another possibility struck him, causing him to break out in a cold sweat as he turned back and saw Aike standing there, sword held horizontally before him, facing the Earth Guardian head-on.
“Is it really necessary?!”
In an instant, Brendel abandoned the initial action of the ‘frontal breakthrough’ skill and raised his right hand to cast a wind bullet. The Queen Wind Ring had no more than ten minutes of charge time, yielding almost no power, but the gust still disrupted Aike’s targeting; what was meant to be a strike to the young man’s chest ended up grazing his left shoulder instead—Aike screamed and was propelled backward into the surrounding bushes, falling with a thud, after which he fell silent.
Brendel quickly took a step back, facing the slowly turning monster and internally cursed, realizing he had no other options left. He could only pray that Naminez would find him sooner. Yet it seemed that hope was unrealistic, or perhaps Martha hadn’t heard his prayer.
The forest fell deathly silent, as if only he and the Guardian remained there, quietly confronting each other.
But at that moment, Brendel heard a soft chuckle.
The laugh struck him as oddly out of place—
…
For Antinna, the battle became simpler after Romaine joined. Of course, the Merchant Miss was not so willing to reveal how many Disruption Crystals she had—initially, she supplied three crystals, and then the mercenaries used explosions to drive the lizardmen off the platform. Although the forest’s savages appeared somewhat unrefined, they at least knew how to protect themselves. Under the command of their lizardman lieutenant, these green-skinned reptiles quickly spread out in a lines to charge again.
This time, Romaine contributed five Disruption Crystals before shaking his head to declare he had nothing left.
Antinna possessed a certain natural shrewdness, as she had by now heard the distant sound of Naminez’s long horn resounding over the battlefield, signaling an agreed signal. This indicated that the fighting up ahead had concluded; although there were still no reinforcements, they could at least retreat.
However, for Antinna, the result was not what she desired.
Thus, her command was simple: “Flour, go steal that pack from her—”
The elven girl acted upon the order, resulting in Romaine looking at Antinna with tears in her eyes, as the latter held up five crystals pulled from her bag of oddities and asked with displeasure, “Why did you hide so many? This stuff is dangerous; haven’t I told you that?”
“I took good care of them,” the Merchant Miss replied, feeling wronged.
“That’s not the issue. Never mind, we’ll discuss it later…” The noblewoman sighed, “Flour, go distribute these crystals. We’re preparing for a counterattack.”
The elven girl nodded and executed the order.
Clearly, the outcome of the battle was now predictable. (To Be Continued. If you want to know how it unfolds, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support legal reading!)
