Chapter 181: Act 115 – Final Battle (3)
Brendel turned around the moment he noticed the situation, but the first to act was the Silver Elf Princess, who had detected the enemies earlier. She was circling back from a distance of one hundred fifty feet, having just disrupted a squad of gathered lizardmen crossbowmen, when many lizardman warriors followed behind, attempting to surround the young girl. Upon noticing the situation, Medisa immediately alerted the two and made her unicorn companion rear up, raising her spear high and thrusting it forward with downward momentum—
“Spirit Spear!”
The girl shouted, and the wind pressure before the spearhead instantly spread out to the sides—lizardmen close to her were immediately vaporized, and those a bit farther away were swept aside by the overwhelming force like fallen leaves. The Silver Elf Princess raised her spear high, and an invisible path was instantly cleared in front of her; leaves fluttered, and the wind swept through, causing the trees in front of her to explode apart. The figure that had aimed at Brendel also flashed back in an instant.
The knife-like wind pressure sliced through between the two with a swift sound.
Brendel saw the deep scratch on the ground and couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. He thought to himself, my lady, can you be a bit gentler—after all, this is just a civilized elemental opponent ambushing him; he was confident he could block one hit. However, taking a direct hit from the Spirit Spear would likely leave him heavily injured if not dead. After feeling a chill of fear in his back, he finally had time to gauge his opponent—though he didn’t need to; he already knew what kind of monster lay before him.
The colossal creature, standing three times the height of an adult, had indeed sustained wounds; it gripped its right arm with a long left hand, with blood seeping continuously from the injury beneath. The creature resembled a humanoid insect with its head, chest, and abdomen divided into three segments, each covered in a completed gray-yellow shell, which from appearance alone suggested it was not merely decorative—Brendel even suspected they were at least three to four centimeters thick, and the keratin layer tempered by the essence of divine blood was undoubtedly stronger than steel.
A rough estimation would yield this thing an A+ for protection; if calculated by the opponent’s level, this A+ grade of protection would at least rank at 15+, the equivalent of a main battle tank level of defense.
Brendel groaned painfully—
Its main limbs, like those of an insect, had claws that resembled human hands, while its abdomen bore a pair of secondary appendages ending in glimmering sickles. Below were its ‘Z’-shaped thighs, covered in spiky keratin; there was no doubt that any ordinary person would be left with exposed bones after a mere brush from them. It also had an insect-like head equipped with antennae and pincers resembling scythes, with a pair of large compound eyes indicating this creature likely possessed terrifying low-light vision and accurate capture abilities.
Fortunately, it hadn’t discovered hard wings or soft wings, which at least meant it couldn’t fly; this was perhaps the only piece of good news Brendel had upon seeing it.
He looked at the monster and knew that this was likely the second true BOSS-level creature he encountered in this world since the Golden Magic Tree—Earth God Envoy Aibodun. However, compared to the weak 30-level BOSS of the Golden Magic Tree, even though the Earth God Envoy before him was in an immature form (the final form of the Envoy must be humanoid), the gap between a level 55 BOSS and a level 30 BOSS was not a simple matter of 20 levels’ worth of growth value, but rather a differentiation between civilized and uncivilized elements.
Brendel took a deep breath, understanding that the next encounter would likely be the first real battle he faced since arriving in this world. If it weren’t for the help of Xi and Medisa by his side, he would have undoubtedly fled as far as possible.
But at that moment, a loud bang reverberated through the air. He turned to see Xi colliding with a stranger, a young man; she lifted the Thunder Spear to fend off the incoming attack—the young man grasped her spear with sharply pointed black steel gloves, electricity immediately countering the resistance, but the flickering arcs of lightning were ruthlessly deflected as they neared him, causing no harm at all.
The young man grinned and sneered, “Isn’t this our lovely Xi? Have you betrayed the organization so quickly to seek new affection? That guy’s so-called divine blood is indeed unreliable. But it’s fine; I can kill your companions and still arrange for you to meet them—”
The red-haired girl ground her teeth, glaring fiercely at him with her flame-red eyes, wanting nothing more than to pierce him through with her spear. The young man stepped back, and sure enough, she chased after him immediately, but impulse was never the path to victory. The red-haired girl felt her feet sink beneath her—startled, she looked down to find her feet ensnared by a layer of dark mist, rendering her completely unable to move.
“Magic!” Xi felt a chill in her heart; this guy was a magic swordsman.
At that moment, she realized she was already a step behind—Conrad had used words to provoke her precisely to wait for this moment. He wouldn’t miss this opportunity, his right claw extending toward her heart. The Envoy had a resilient life force, but only the heart was the core where divine blood resided; once the heart was injured, even if the Envoy didn’t die immediately, its strength would plummet. Conrad understood that it would be hard for him to protect himself sandwiched between two golden-level figures, so he used all his power from the start. He had a clear target in mind: although Xi had gained golden-level strength, she lacked sufficient combat experience compared to Brendel. While her power wasn’t the weakest among the three, in the eyes of the paper card mercenary group’s leader, she was the easiest prey.
Unfortunately, without Brendel, his plans would have played out successfully. If her heart was pierced, no matter how strong her self-healing ability was, death would be her only fate. But just then, a sword appeared out of nowhere, blocking Conrad’s claw.
Brendel unhesitatingly threw his sword.
Of course, it was just a piece of junk, he thought.
From the start of the battle, the young man had seen clearer than Xi; Conrad’s actions could indeed be described as magic, but more accurately, they should be termed a magical trap. It came as a surprise that the leader of the paper card mercenary group was a wizard hunter; this was indeed a rarity, and Brendel hadn’t seen any NPC of that profession at a golden-level before. Yet, this profession was quite powerful, one that was exceedingly difficult to level up, but excelled in pure PVP battles against various strong opponents.
Moreover, Conrad’s speed in setting traps was astonishingly fast, such that even Brendel nearly missed it. To deceive his eyes was no feat for an ordinary person, nor was it something that could merely be compensated by skill—this guy had talent; it seemed he had the gift of nimble fingers. He must have also trained in the ‘Mental Chanting’ skill, allowing him to skip the casting time for magical traps—only, it was unknown what other types of traps he had invested in with this passive ability aside from illusionary traps.
“This is a bit tricky.”
This thought flashed in Brendel’s mind, but his body reacted much faster than his thoughts. It had already formed a conditioned reflex; in fact, as soon as Xi realized her body had stiffened, the young man had already grabbed her arm and yanked her back, barely avoiding Conrad’s steel claws from scratching across her chest.
“Thanks…”
“Don’t waste time; fortunately, you’re a rare-value flat-chested soft girl,” Brendel thought for a moment, but when he looked up, he immediately saw a gloomy expression on the opposite face—Conrad had launched another attack; this guy noticed that Brendel not only saw through his trick from the start but also recognized his traps. In fact, the illusionary trap was a form of mental suggestion, making one subconsciously resist their actions as if they were under a certain kind of effect. However, as with most illusions, while others could see the effect of the trap, they would not be affected by it. But this was a secret of the wizard hunter; he hadn’t expected that Brendel would also be aware of this point.
Brendel indeed understood, but what to him was a common-sense issue was entirely different to Conrad. On Erluin and even on Vaunte, the number of wizard hunters had always been scarce; Conrad had obtained a higher hunter’s certification based on his status and had further advanced to golden strength. After reaching this tier, he gradually discovered the advantages of this profession, as few were familiar with wizard hunters, and even fewer had an understanding of their combat styles. This provided a massive advantage in actual combat; he had previously faced many opponents stronger than himself and won through a variety of ingenious attacks, but today was different.
He had finally met his match.
This guy must die! Conrad thought coldly as he swiped his claw forward, causing Brendel to instantly activate his charge skill to retreat. No way! Although he had already reached level 26 in the previous battle, even with that, his strength in a burst could only be around 50 units; compared to the explosive power of golden-level warriors that easily exceeded a hundred, he didn’t want to take a free flight. Moreover, even though Conrad was merely a magic and martial dual-trained wizard hunter, his strength was conservatively estimated to be between eighty to ninety, far from something he could contend with.
With a speed burst of ten times, Brendel possessed 132 units of agility; let alone Conrad, even the fastest lightning elemental in the golden initial stage couldn’t catch up with him. As he retreated, the paper card mercenary leader’s claw came down, striking the ground with a deafening bang, instantaneously turning the withered leaves within a ten-meter radius to ash and creating a massive deep pit in the ground. But as Conrad looked up, he already saw Brendel far over thirty meters away.
What incredible speed!
“Who is this guy?” The leader of the paper card mercenary group was momentarily stunned, forgetting to give chase. This young man was simply beyond his comprehension. Although he had attained silver-level strength at a young age, Conrad was a genius himself, so he wouldn’t look at Brendel too highly for that. Moreover, his target, Duke Luun’s only heir Aike, was said to also be a genius; in comparison, Brendel, merely based on strength, was not anything special.
Even so, it seemed like this silver-level guy’s combat prowess was breaking the charts, right?
Conrad was secretly shocked; having experienced extraordinary events and learned various combat skills, he was confident that he could fight against golden upper-tier enemies and took pride in this. Unexpectedly, in only a few exchanges with a silver-level kid, every move resulted in a draw. Plus, given Brendel’s earlier retreating speed, he had seen enough in the past to suspect the Solar Knights.
Is this guy a Solar Knight?
…
(PS: Biting the bullet to type out the second update; please subscribe and recommend.)(To be continued; if you wish to know what happens next, please log in for more chapters and support the author through genuine reading!)
