Chapter 179: Act 113 – The Final Battle (1) (Third Update, Thank you all for your support)
Xi, Naminez, Husher, and Sanford stood quietly behind him.
Brendel held a rough stone tablet in his hand, looking through the layers of broken walls in the elven ruins toward the direction of the valley—the lizardmen appeared one after another from that direction, their short figures flashing between the gaps in the forest. Those underdeveloped reptiles occasionally appeared and then vanished, and Brendel took a glance, estimating that their numbers were at least more than two squads, no less than three hundred, possibly more behind them. It seemed Yuhjiker and Conrad had already merged, being quite vigilant; the young man confirmed this.
He lifted his head; it was another clear day, and the sky was a shade of blue that had a hint of purple. The sunlight flowed quietly from the forest in the afternoon, causing the tree canopies near and far to emit a piercing green.
He squinted slightly.
A faint smell of blood lingered in the air. Although the battlefield had been cleaned, it was inevitably still stained with the scent of the previous slaughter. The tablet in his hand was the philosopher’s stone, about the size of a fist, with a rune engraved on its front. The rune sounded like “Eaam,” which in the ancient cuneiform script meant the earth—bearing life and wisdom.
With the stone tablet in hand, it meant that at least half of his original goal for coming here had been achieved. The rest was how to obtain Medisa’s necklace—from that lizardman.
However, just as he thought of this, he suddenly heard rustling sounds behind him. Brendel turned around just in time to see Princess Medisa tying her silver long hair back, dressed in a saintly white armor, leading her unicorn toward him—the royal armor of the Silver Elf was so magnificent that Brendel nearly mistook it for a princess dress adorned with silver plates. Medisa glanced at him with her glass-like transparent eyes and smiled slightly, saying in her heart, “Thank you, my lord—”
“This is our agreement,” Brendel replied with difficulty as he shifted his gaze away from her.
Medisa’s face turned slightly red as his words reminded her of everything that had happened that day. She had never been so scared, to the point of crying in front of so many people, completely disregarding royal etiquette.
She couldn’t help but glance toward the side—seeing that red-haired girl named Xi standing a little farther away, in the shadow beneath the treetops, her eyes in the dimness glimmering like amber in flames. Leaning against her slender Thunder Spear, she looked outside; her whole demeanor seemed a bit still. Brendel had already told her everything that had happened before, the blood of the gods, the dissolution of the Grey Wolf Mercenary Corps, and ever since then, she had remained this way.
Neither sad nor angry.
“What will happen to that sister?” Medisa turned back and softly asked.
“The blood of the gods is rooted in her body, and the corruption cannot be eradicated. It can only be suppressed by willpower; if one cannot control it, they will eventually become a divine messenger. But to call it a divine messenger is merely a beautiful title; it is better to say that it is a monster,” Brendel replied, but he had another method. That was, after obtaining Xi’s consent, to seal her as a card, as the connection by rules had already been established, and all that was left was a contract. But to seal a living being into a card—this seemed a bit too harsh for a free person, so Brendel was determined not to mention this method until the very last moment.
Hearing his words, the silver elf girl couldn’t help but furrow her brow in distress. However, the inherent calmness of her race prevented her from saying much.
Brendel also remained silent, his gaze lingering on the mercenaries not far away. These mercenaries hid among the ruins composed of the masterpieces of ancient silver elf architects, their crossbows aimed at the approaching lizardmen, ensuring that these fellows wouldn’t immediately abandon their weapons and flee. In fact, Brendel had attacked and leveled the lizardman bandit’s lair several hours earlier, assisted by the combat strength of Xi and Medisa—the remaining twenty silver elf royal guards that were around silver tier strength meant the mere two hundred lizardmen left behind had ultimately become Brendel’s experience.
As for the rest, they were all in front, acting as a smokescreen for Brendel.
“Brendel.”
Hearing that familiar voice laced with a hint of pride, Brendel knew without looking back who was calling him. So he simply didn’t bother to turn around, extending his hand back over his shoulder and asking, “So soon?”
Romaine approached with Antinna. She leisurely placed three thumb-sized, grayish-white translucent crystals into his palm, replying, “Of course, Lord Romaine is very efficient. This is for you, Brendel; everyone and the elves distributed a portion according to your instructions, so all preparations are complete, waiting for your orders.”
“Unfortunately, the materials have run out,” Antinna said, although appearing exhausted, she managed a smile, “Otherwise, we could have made more. I’ve used up all the base materials I had from before, and the samples of the magical conduction devices have been dismantled as per your instructions, including the raw stones.”
Brendel nodded, carefully attaching the fragmented crystals to his belt. Then he took the longsword from Husher’s hands—pointing outside, he said, “The enemy is very vigilant; we cannot deceive them for long. Once we get close enough, I will attract their attention. Medisa and Xi, you will follow me; our goal is to entangle Conrad and the Earth God among the lizardmen army, while the rest will be handled by Naminez and his men, which should be no problem.”
The silver elf commander glanced over at them and nodded.
“Don’t just nod, Commander,” Brendel, however, was not going to let him off the hook, “Don’t forget your promise.”
Naminez gave a slight smile, “Let’s wait and see.”
Medisa looked at the two of them and couldn’t help but smile lightly as well.
“Xi, do you have any questions?” Brendel asked again.
“I understand,” the red-haired girl nodded gently in response.
“Husher, your task is to follow behind the silver elf allies and provide cover,” the young man also added in his heart, “Be sure to protect the Grey Wolf Mercenaries; they are not like you and can revive.” Seeing Husher nod, he turned to Sanford and said, “You too, be sure to protect yourselves; only by surviving will you enjoy victory—”
“Of course, my lord,” the young man respectfully nodded.
Brendel looked around at the few people present before finally feeling relieved. Apart from Naminez, they were almost his entire crew present. Of course, there might still be some strength with Retao, but that group of mercenaries was indeed different from these people; he understood very well—as far as that group of mercenaries were concerned, Retao’s status and prestige might even be higher than his. But the people in front of him were all familiar faces. Husher, Medisa were needless to say, while Antinna and the Grey Wolf Mercenaries were his only reliance other than himself, so there would naturally be no extra thoughts.
Of course, he thought this not because he did not trust Retao, but because a journey reveals a horse’s strength, and time reveals a person’s heart; Brendel would not easily divulge his innermost secrets. He had seen plenty of betrayal, and those who today treat you as brothers can often stab you in the back, even in a game, not to mention in reality.
After arranging everyone’s tasks, he turned back to continue observing the movements of the lizardmen in the forest—Conrad and Yuhjiker didn’t seem to have noticed the anomaly on this side yet, but Brendel didn’t expect to hide it from them for long; just one round of initiative would be enough.
The nearest lizardmen had already arrived two miles away, and shadows began to appear in the forest. The lizardmen didn’t seem to have split their advance troops as they would in the wild for the Dragoon Knights, which was excellent news for Brendel—his opponent was quite relaxed, meaning that the first strike delivered to them would be even greater.
Seven hundred meters.
Brendel read this value from the distance plugin;
The large number of lizardmen warriors passing through the forest seemed to make the entire valley emit a rustling sound, like water flowing through the woods or countless ants running across the ground. In fact, Brendel could already see the mercenaries lying in ambush on the front line placing their hands on their belts. There were the fragmented crystals given to them by Antinna; although small in size, the energy they released upon detonating could reach around 15 ‘Oz’, enough killing power to match that of a black iron elemental mage’s magical arrow.
Five hundred meters.
A large number of lizardmen figures had already appeared in the forest, and characters with perception levels high like Brendel, Naminez, Medisa, and Xi could almost see the expressions on the lizardmen’s faces. These soldiers who had rushed all night looked very fatigued, and they seemed to be completely unaware that they would be attacked right at their doorstep.
The red-haired girl crouched down, biting a piece of grass from the ground, then frowned as she searched for that familiar figure in the forest—Conrad, gripping her Thunder Spear tightly.
The lizardmen continued to advance; in fact, at this moment, they had already begun to notice that the ruins were a bit too quiet. But an inertial drive pushed this army forward. However, soon, Brendel saw more than a dozen Dragoon Knights weaving through the crowd, and as they passed, the lizardmen immediately began halting. They had been discovered! Brendel realized this instantly, feeling a bit frustrated that Conrad and the lizardman leader Yuhjiker had never appeared; their vigilance exceeded his expectations.
But there was no time to worry about that; he raised his arm—his red gemstone ring’s finger lined up with the direction of the forest, and then a red light flashed, as if the sun’s brilliance had dimmed for a moment. A massive fireball rose from the forest, accompanied by countless leaves flying into the air, then everyone heard a loud explosion, the heat wave sweeping over the forest like a shockwave, causing the hair of the mercenaries, elves, and Brendel to blow up.
The hot wind rushed at them.
From the data on his retina, Brendel learned that this strike had killed at least twenty lizardmen, which was an unexpected gain, indicating their formation was tightly packed. But this was merely a signal for the attack. Immediately, the mercenaries began throwing the fragmented crystals in their hands toward the area targeted by the fireball—three hundred meters was not far for those with black iron strength. The thumb-sized crystals flickered brightly as they arced through the air, then rained down into the forest like a shower.
A moment of silence.
But this was merely the calm before the storm; a beam of white light, then a second beam, with white lights flashing successively in the forest. Subsequently, the sounds of explosions rang continuously, the sound waves seeming to lift the ground for a layer, and almost everyone felt the earth tremble for at least a minute—those who squinted from the immense noise discovered that the terrain of the forest had permanently changed upon regaining their senses.
The explosions had almost created a vacuum zone in the middle of the forest, with tall trees uprooted or leaning at odd angles. But what felt more tragic were those lizardmen covered by the explosions—there had previously been at least over a hundred lizardmen from an entire squad. But at this moment, they had become incomplete corpses, blood mixing with the soil, saturating the red entrails hanging from branches everywhere—that scene was reminiscent of hell.
Even Brendel couldn’t help but retch slightly, but he forced down that nauseating feeling and began to recalculate the enemy versus his strength.
In fact, the lizardmen warriors that Yuhjiker had taken out yesterday were the most, over four hundred at least. Brendel suspected that if it weren’t for the search demands, this arrogant lizardman wouldn’t be willing to split any of his subordinates with Conrad and the dark priest, as their own subordinates had black fire believers or dark mercenaries, making self-preservation fully sufficient—of course, the premise was that they believed he only had a little over a dozen silver-tier guards by his side.
So adding in Conrad’s portion and the dark mercenaries, they would be facing an enemy total of at least over seven hundred, which was certainly not a small number. Even if this strike had already taken out a little more than ten percent, the remaining ones wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
A second attack was necessary.
Thus he understood, it was time for him to make his appearance. He immediately gestured to Medisa and Xi to prepare to charge out with him.
…
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Rogen Marsh
(Bone IV)
[Basic Land—Marsh]
Produces 1 point of dark element into the mana pool each week.
Tap: Construct Marsh terrain (produces 1 point of dark element into the mana pool).
“Rotting, stinking, decaying; this is a barren land—”
Rochale Market
(City-States Alliance XX)
[Special Land—City]
Produces 2 points of wealth daily; produces 1 point of earth element into the mana pool each week.
Tap, pay 2 prestige: Gain 6 points of wealth.
“From trade, reputation, wealth, and power—the Rochale people obtained everything they wanted.” (To be continued; to find out what happens next, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
