Chapter 384: Act 141 – The Rock Bridge (Second Update)
Earl Ouding pierced the throat of a tall, leapingly gray-hued limping creature with his sword, then flung the monster’s corpse far away. He did not look to see whether the creature would be devoured by its companions, as rumored, when it fell into the tide of wolves outside.
Behind him, Count Lobolen’s pudgy hand had already grabbed his shoulder, shouting loudly, “Look over there! They’ve gone mad!”
Ouding was taken aback, turning back in confusion, but what he saw was this scene—
The centaur elder guard commander was raising his war spear high. He stood proudly with his front hooves elevated in the center of the battlefield, turning while shouting with all his might to his subordinates:
“Form up, divide!”
It was like a thunderclap.
The silver centaur elder guards were momentarily stunned, then the formation suddenly oscillated, the crescent formation almost instantly splitting apart.
At the same time, the tree spirit leader Quinelle extended her longbow forward, calling to the tree spirit archers on the side within the crescent formation: “Thor Asr!”
Emerald cloaks shot out in sequence, dispersing to both sides, revealing the central path.
Standing at the back, Carglis said nothing; the young man only extended his hand to the right, and each squad leader immediately separated the youths left and right.
In the next moment, a clear path appeared before Brendel. However, as the centaurs and tree spirits retreated, the encircling black wolves surged forward like a flood into the storm circle—
The earth rumbled.
Ouding watched in astonishment. He could not understand why that young man would do this—wasn’t it courting death? Or were they planning a siege?
But the endless black wolves seemed to render any dead fallen useless, only increasing the unpredictability.
“They’ve gone mad!” Lobolen shouted, tugging at his shoulder from behind, “Do they want to die and drag us down with them?”
Ouding did not reply; he merely gazed over there, suddenly having a premonition—he felt that things might not be so simple.
Because indeed, it was not that simple—
The torrent of black wolves was barreling through the passage between the centaurs and tree spirits, almost directly charging towards Brendel. The mighty wolf commanding them clearly understood that this young man was the highest commander of this group.
It aimed to take down Brendel in one blow.
But Brendel had the same intention.
“Ready?” Brendel stared at the black torrent, asking.
“Mm.” Xi’s voice.
Quinelle retracted her longbow, nodding.
The young lord retracted his left hand, clenched both hands around the Earth Sword, then pointed at the black tide rushing towards him,
Ten meters.
The front line of black wolves had already crouched low, ready to pounce, baring their snow-white teeth while rumbling roars rolled out from deep within their throats.
Brendel could almost see the unmasked madness and thirst for slaughter in those blood-red eyes; he exhaled.
He raised his sword.
Power erupted, a frontal breakthrough, ghost crystal augmentation—
Then came the White Crow sword technique.
In an instant, a terrible vortex erupted from the sword, the gale rose skyward, scattering like blades, causing Kuran, Carglis, and Antinna nearby to immediately retreat.
The black wolves were even worse off. Though they were already prepared to attack, they nonetheless had to retreat, and even then, the pressing wind force lifted them from the ground, flinging them far away.
Then Brendel swung down with this tornado.
This sword strike was akin to the one he used to take down the Toquinin Lionman.
But at that time, he hadn’t used the White Crow sword technique.
Thus, he wouldn’t enjoy a 17+2 level military swordsmanship bonus because of it.
Therefore, this blow could be described as a culmination of all the power Brendel had mastered over the past year, the enormous wind pressure causing the Earth Sword to gleam, radiating blinding white light.
Everyone couldn’t help but squint, their mouths agape at this terrible blow—no, it should be looking at the gradually tilting whirlwind in Brendel’s hand, inching downwards towards the ground.
A flash of light.
Everyone’s eyes closed instinctively.
Then they barely saw within the winds that exploded outward, the black wolves at the forefront of the vortex were shredded to pieces, and those a bit farther were at least lifted upwards, their fur and bones separating, showering a rain of blood in midair.
The wind pressure surged forward, and that encroaching black tide was swept away by this sword strike like an overturned river.
The wind blades swept through a range of over a hundred meters in an instant, decapitating the black wolves within, while the aftershock continued forward, knocking down a throng of black wolves for hundreds of meters, even the shockwave directly crossing half the battlefield.
It made the fog howler in the center of the battlefield feel a chill run down its spine.
Instinctively, it raised its head to see what kind of danger stirred its unease.
But it immediately witnessed the most shocking scene of its life.
…
After Brendel struck down, a sword mark nearly several meters wide formed within a range of close to a hundred meters ahead. He was almost completely drained, his stamina engulfed in exhaustion.
For a normal person, at this moment, strength and agility would have dropped below half.
But Brendel saw the green glow flickering on his retina, weaving a message:
“Unyielding talent activated, strength and agility remain at peak state.”
Brendel’s body swayed slightly; he took nearly 3 to 4 seconds to regain his breath—but he couldn’t help but silently mourn in his heart after this strike. Exhausting all his strength made him feel as if his hands hardly existed, a lingering aching sensation remaining even several seconds later.
However, when he opened his eyes, he saw a clear path between himself and the mighty wolf hidden among the wolf pack.
The only issue was that this path shrank by half in the moment—
The black wolves seemed utterly indifferent to how many of their kin died under the previous sword strike; they immediately began to refill the space that Brendel’s sword had swept through in the pack.
“Make haste—” Ouding took a deep breath, finally understanding what Brendel and the others were trying to do.
But to him, this strike seemed unsuccessful, as almost in the few seconds Brendel spent catching his breath, the wolf pack had already reclaimed that passage.
“Just a beat too slow!” Ouding couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
Yet Brendel’s attack was not over.
He breathed deeply, then raised his left hand, lowly growling, “Earth, grant me your blade!”
Though exhausted, his voice was still barely audible.
However, the effect caused the mighty wolf in the distance, the fog howler, to nearly turn tail and flee. With a loud boom, the ground before Brendel shattered thunderously, collapsing inward, the sides raising high, widening to dozens of meters—
The black wolves that had just surged into this area were caught unprepared and pulled towards the center by the immense force. Though they tried to escape to both sides almost immediately, the power of nature was something mere magical beasts could not resist.
A series of crashing sounds continued; the earth sank deep, countless black wolves were buried in the soil. The fractured earth extended forward, finally stopping just under ten meters from the fog howler.
But this cunning mighty wolf had not yet reacted, when Brendel clenched his opened fingers.
A rock tooth over twenty meters high suddenly erupted from the deeply sunken ground in front of Brendel, then instantly came a second, a third, and countless sharp teeth surged forth in succession, as if an artificial bridge had been constructed between Brendel and the mighty wolf in just a moment.
The entire process seemed to stretch as if it had taken a long time to come to fruition, but in reality, it was a mere flash of lightning. The fog howler, almost staggeringly, reacted to what the human was about to do.
It looked up at this towering bridge that had emerged from the battlefield, slightly taken aback, then reacted wanting to dodge, but unfortunately, that split second was enough for it to lose its opportunity to withdraw.
At the moment the Earth Sword unleashed its might, Brendel finally caught his breath, immediately shouting, “Get close to me!”
Quinelle and Xi quickly understood, moving to his left and right. Their weights posed no pressure to Brendel given his current strength; he grabbed both of them, and the charge skill instantly activated.
With 900 agility levels, a black zigzag line stretched out forward on the rock tooth bridge, undulating back and forth as it crossed several hundred meters in the blink of an eye. Then Brendel and the two of them came to a stop in midair—
They appeared above the fog howler.
The fog howler looked up, seeing the small human standing in its blood-red sight.
Simultaneously, Brendel, Quinelle, and Xi also saw the massive wolf covered in gray fur, almost the same size as the five-headed snake lizard they had killed half a month ago.
It had only one eye.
According to lore, the fog howler had lost one eye forever while battling another wolf named the Horned One. The game designers had vividly recreated all of this—just as the massive wolf now presented before Brendel’s eyes.
However, Brendel had little time to admire this terrifying monster.
They had to settle this quickly, before the other black wolves could respond, and before this rocky bridge collapsed—which meant they had less than a minute to resolve the trouble.
“Xi, hold it down.” Brendel commanded, “Mr. Quinelle, cover me!”
As he said this, he had already lunged like a shooting star towards the mighty wolf, the fog howler let out a long howl; it did not enjoy joining the fray personally, but if humans dared challenge its authority, it could certainly tear their bodies apart itself.
It watched Brendel’s slow-moving figure in its eyes, swatting down with a paw.
Brendel certainly knew his strike could not succeed; the mighty wolf, being a refined elemental beast, was at least seven times more agile, and to the wolf, he barely seemed faster than a snail.
As soon as he saw the fog howler’s shoulder move, he knew the other would strike preemptively. However, he had anticipated this; his right hand stretched forward, and the Wind Ring on his index finger immediately activated.
A wind bullet shot out with a roar; though it seemed like a sharp gust to the mighty wolf, it felt no different than a soft breeze. However, the resultant force was enough to push Brendel backward, narrowly avoiding the claw of the mighty wolf.
But the wolf, having failed its strike, immediately pounced on Brendel again; the two swift motions of claw and pounce were completed in the moment Brendel landed, so fast it almost left only a blur of white.
While Brendel was mid-air, the Wind Ring was still in cooldown, leaving him unable to dodge.
It seemed as if he was about to meet his end at the wolf’s jaws.
… (To be continued; if you wish to know what happens next, please visit the site for more chapters and support the author for legitimate reading!)
