Chapter 188: Act 122 – Final Battle (10) (Third Update)
In fact, Yuhjiker had just escaped from the battlefield not long ago when he learned from another set of his subordinates that Conrad had already fled. Furious, he couldn’t help but curse, but despite his anger, he felt a sense of glee. Originally, if he had been the first to retreat and left Conrad behind, he would have inevitably faced a reprimand, and perhaps even punishment would not have been out of the question.
If it weren’t for the secret of the Elven King’s tomb that he held in his hands, he wouldn’t have dared to simply abandon his subordinates and run. Otherwise, he could end up in a dire situation. But now, since Conrad had left before him, the nature of the situation was completely different. Conrad became the scapegoat, while he became the example of resistance. If it weren’t for the fact that these Silver Elves were actually provoked by him, he could have used this leverage to make that guy he had always disliked suffer a heavy loss.
However, even so, Yuhjiker felt quite pleased. After all, he had other cards to play, didn’t he?
“That damned group of elves.”
As he thought of this, he couldn’t help but feel his previously uplifted mood dampen once again, and he muttered under his breath. After all, the wealth he had looted over the years was all stored in the ceremonial hall of the Barlogan Temple. Just handing it over so easily made him feel quite frustrated. Just when he was grumbling internally, he accidentally collided with his deputy who was clearing the way ahead.
Yuhjiker, filled with rage and searching for an outlet, found the perfect one: “You brainless idiot! What are you doing—”
At that moment, the lizardman chief suddenly realized something was off. He jerked his head up, and through his diamond-shaped pupils, he saw a tall figure. No, to be precise, it should be a knight riding a large, snow-white unicorn. He was clad in heavy silver chain mail and wore a pointed golden helmet with a double-winged visor, with a bundle of white mane cascading down to his shoulders from the top of the helmet.
Looking behind him, rows of identical knights stood in formation, their tall elven cavalry appearing as if they had been cast from the same mold, with little difference in height among them.
They stood silently in the forest, where the trees were eerily quiet—
Yet the knight looked down at this lizardman bandit chief with cold silver eyes that carried a faint expression, making one feel a shiver. Then he spoke in a gentle and deep voice, “If I am not mistaken, you are Yuhjiker Lizeer, Mr. Yuhjiker, correct?”
Yuhjiker opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to deny it, but he found that under the pressure of the other’s imposing presence, he couldn’t utter a single word.
“Very good,” the knight nodded. “In fact, my comrades and I have been looking for you for quite some time.”
Yuhjiker felt his vision darken.
In this world, there was only one army that would refer to its comrades as “companions.”
They were the Silver Elves, the Song Knights—
…
Ten minutes.
Brendel threw away the dimmed card in his hand, and the fate card adorned with the image of a platinum steed instantly ignited in the soil, leaving nothing behind. The graveyard had one more card, which left him a bit displeased; the graveyard not only didn’t diminish but instead seemed to grow larger. Considering the thinness of his deck, it was truly a case of adding insult to injury.
He glanced into the forest, which lay silent and still. The sound senses of Eckmen were poor, but its hearing and vision were extremely sharp. It had auditory organs on all six limbs, capable of capturing over seven hundred thousand different sounds in nature and distinguishing a frequency range at least three times broader than that of humans. However, from four to five miles away, if he didn’t make some noise, it would be hard for the opponent to find him.
Brendel thought for a moment; he wanted to wait a bit longer, but he feared that if the other side became impatient and turned back to find Xi, it could lead to serious trouble—if nothing else, that red-haired girl was probably not even capable of defeating an ordinary person at this point.
Thus, he immediately raised his right hand and, using the Queen Wind ring, unleashed a sound toward the forest in that direction.
After all, for a civilized elemental monster, this thing had almost zero effect; using it to create a huge noise to bait the opponent was a practical use. Sure enough, as soon as Brendel stopped waving his arm, he heard a tremendous crash of trees falling in the forest, and the earth elemental quickly reacted, almost immediately charging this way.
However, Brendel was not nervous. He took a deep breath and pulled a red gem from his clothes. He clenched the gem tightly in his hand and silently counted in his mind—
Ten, nine, eight…
The crashing sounds of the broken trees were rapidly approaching, almost like an illusion that lingered in his auditory perception a moment ago, yet shortly after, it became real.
Five, four, three…
Here they come. Brendel pressed the gem between his index finger and thumb, placing it in the center of the area referred to by witches as the “magic triangle,” then silently recited the activation words in his mind. The gem flashed with red light, and instantly, the surroundings within several meters became absolutely silent— the sound of the wind, the rustling of leaves, and even the beating of his heart and breath, all sounds vanished.
Brendel saw a light green number appear on his retina: 6/10.
In an instant, the earth elemental Eckmen halted. This insect-like giant monster couldn’t help but look around in confusion, but soon became despondent as it realized it had completely lost track of that faint heartbeat sound. Just as its simple brain was hesitating over whether to turn back, a graceful white deer suddenly appeared in its field of vision.
What the hell, this creature dared to stroll leisurely in front of it, an outright provocation for the Eckmen, who was in a state of rage. It let out a deep roar and immediately charged in that direction. Unfortunately, the soul deer controlled by Brendel was nothing but an illusion; from an optical perspective, it could move as fast and be as agile as it wanted, causing the earth elemental to be led in circles with no way to catch up.
Brendel hid behind an old tree, playing with the soul deer statuette as if it were a game, tormenting the once fearsome enemy. When he leaned out and saw this scene, he couldn’t help but let out a soundless chuckle— after all, each cast of the silence spell lasted for five minutes, so with the remaining six casts, he could be assured for half an hour. Coupled with the ten minutes gained from the platinum steed, he had left Naminez a total of forty minutes.
Moreover, even if the silence spells were depleted, he could use the five minutes of undying time provided by his unyielding talent to cut off his heartbeat and breath, then quickly bandage himself for another five minutes. In theory, that was fifty minutes, and Brendel believed that the Silver Elves would certainly arrive even if they had to crawl.
He certainly wouldn’t joke with his own life; without sufficient certainty, Brendel wouldn’t easily stake his life as a wager.
Time ticked away—
However, just as Brendel was preparing to cast the silence spell for the fourth time, he suddenly felt a slight thump in his heart. At that moment, he alertly noticed that Eckmen had suddenly stopped, its attention no longer focused on the white stag that had been provoking it. The monster emitted a series of deep rumbling sounds from its throat—Brendel recognized that sound.
It was a warning.
Someone was coming.
Who was it?
Was it Naminez and the others?
A myriad of chaotic thoughts flashed through Brendel’s mind, but he didn’t dare to be negligent and immediately cast the fourth silence spell. The remaining counts on the gem instantly turned into three. But soon he sensed that something was off because the monster’s gaze was not directed to the north; instead, it was firmly fixed in his direction.
The young man’s heart tightened, “What’s going on?” he couldn’t help but ask himself. But it shouldn’t be; everything should be fine, he recalled his actions over and over in his mind but found no omissions.
Yet it was at this moment—
With a rustle, Brendel suddenly saw the dense thicket directly in front of him parting as a familiar face emerged. It was a young man, no, to be precise, he was the same young man Brendel had encountered in Shubli Town. However, he was also the central figure that had sparked this series of events.
Brendel certainly remembered his name, Aike. Aike? Lantonrand? Ophelia, even his identity was crystal clear to him: the only son of the Grand Duke of Luun and the future heir of the Lantonrand Duchy.
But none of that mattered now.
What mattered was that Aike’s sudden appearance turned the scene in the forest bizarre. In fact, at that moment, Aike stood directly opposite Brendel—he could clearly see Brendel hiding behind the tree, as well as the terrifying monster on the other side of the old tree. Simultaneously, while Brendel could see Aike, he couldn’t deduce what kind of reaction the earth elemental Eckmen behind him was displaying, but he could roughly guess.
Because just as he suspected, the earth elemental had turned to face this unexpected guest, its one hundred forty thousand compound eyes fixated on him, unaware that another target still existed behind the tree.
Faced with such a scene, the young man named Aike was slightly taken aback. His gaze first fell upon the rocky armor encircling Eckmen and its already petrified pair of forelimbs, clearly exhibiting elemental characteristics—a demonstration of elemental awakening—and the young man’s face immediately went pale. However, his gaze then landed on Brendel’s face and saw his complex expression.
In fact, at that moment, Brendel even felt the urge to strangle him; as they say, man’s plans are inferior to those of nature. He never expected that a random encounter in this desolate wilderness would result in a surprise appearance by someone like Aike.
Aike hesitated for a moment, then shifted his attention back to the giant monster. He placed one hand on his sword and loudly declared, “Hey, big guy over there, what’s the matter? Do you want to fight with me?” After saying this, he immediately drew his sword and shot off in another direction—
What was going on?
Brendel watched in disbelief as the youthful-looking young man veered away from his direction. With his rich experience, he quickly realized that Aike clearly intended to divert the monster’s attention. And this whole scenario was solely to protect a stranger whom he had only met once (or perhaps twice) before. In that moment, Brendel felt a rush of myriad emotions that he simply couldn’t articulate, as if a thousand thoughts condensed into one sentence in his heart:
“Damn! This kid is a living hero!” (To be continued. If you wish to know the next events, please log in for more chapters and support the author, support legitimate reading!)
