Chapter 596: Act 341 – Glory V
“Do you think she can stop me?” Williams asked coldly.
Brendel chuckled to himself, realizing that Williams used the feminine pronoun in Cruzian ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ and thought to himself that this guy was truly androgynous. He leisurely raised his head to look at Williams and replied, “You’re welcome to try.”
As he said this, Brendel gently raised his hand. A Life Codex disappeared from the battlefield.
The Life Codex moved outside the field.
It shuffled all the cards in the graveyard back into the deck.
At the same time, Brendel cast Lightning Storm once more. The Nightmare Furnace Construct immediately released a wave of black lightning toward Williams, but it seemed Williams had anticipated this move. He snorted coldly, “Trivial skills!” and dodged to the left, avoiding the Lightning Storm while appearing at Brendel’s left side, striking at Brendel’s neck with his sword.
“Brendel, be careful, Flash Sword!” Otales suddenly warned.
Brendel’s heart sank slightly because that sword was incredibly fast. By the time Otales’ voice fell, he could almost feel the coldness of the sword’s edge.
Too fast.
To dodge and strike seemed like two actions for Williams, but to the average person, these two actions were entirely outside normal perception. Everyone present, including Princess Grifian behind Brendel, seemed only to witness the moment when Williams drew his sword.
It was as if he had been standing there all along, and that sword was destined to sever Brendel’s neck, as if it were a matter of course, flawless.
“Ah!” Princess Grifian’s face turned pale.
But unfortunately, the severed head that Williams envisioned did not exist. Instead, he only saw Brendel’s shadow gradually fading in front of him. The next moment, Brendel suddenly appeared behind him, striking down with the Sword of Earth toward his shoulder.
Clang!
Williams didn’t even look back, but somehow seemed to know Brendel was right behind him. He rested his longsword behind him, not turning his head, precisely blocking Brendel’s descending blade.
The two swords collided, sending sparks flying.
“This… Queen Wind Jiuyou!” While the block was done effortlessly, the expression on Williams’ face completely changed. He was slightly taken aback and shouted, “How could you—!”
But before he could finish his words, a rumble of thunder suddenly echoed up from below the ground. Williams’ face changed, instinctively sensing danger, and leaped upward just in time. He saw a sharp stone spear suddenly burst from the earth beneath him, the several-meter-long stone blade creating a forest of rocks below this elevated vice commander of the Knight Templar. Had he not reacted in time, he would have been pierced through.
“The Sword of Earth!”
This time, no one needed Williams to remind them. Overwell, Princess, and the officer students from the Royal Knight Academy, many of whom came from noble families, had long heard tales of the Sword of Earth.
The holy sword is connected to the earth; as long as one is on the ground, it can unleash the earth’s endless power—
This is the Sword of Earth.
Williams’ heart was also chilling. Previously, he only knew that Brendel was a descendant of the sword saint Darus, but he never expected this guy held so many secrets. He had allied with Naga and Druid, possessed formidable strength, held the identity of a summoner, and now even brought forth the dragon bloodline and the Sword of Earth.
He increasingly felt that Brendel was a troublesome foe, and his resolve to eliminate him solidified.
However, just as this thought flashed through his mind, he saw Brendel swiftly scoop up Princess Erluin and retreat quickly, not forgetting to raise his head to flash a smile at him.
This… is sarcasm?
Not good!
A sense of foreboding surged in Williams’ heart as he looked down and saw something shimmering on the tip of the stone spear—exactly a crystal.
Boom!
A loud explosion shook the forest, and even the ground trembled. A blinding light shot up from the canopy of the black pine forest, then a powerful shockwave instantly snapped the upright pine trees, as if in the blink of an eye, a massive pit formed amidst the fallen pines on the foothills of Mount Anker.
Smoke wafted from the center of the pit, and while Williams stood at the bottom, he was not immediately blown to bits. However, his once pristine armor was now charred, and his golden-red cloak was torn to shreds, making him look like a beggar.
“You…” Williams immediately understood what had happened. His opponent had clearly anticipated he would come for him and had thrown an explosive crystal at his feet—though he had never seen a destructive crystal, he could roughly guess what it was given everything that had happened previously.
What puzzled him was how his opponent had guessed that he would attack from that side.
This was also Otales’ confusion.
The wind elf senior sister couldn’t help but say in Brendel’s mind: “That play you just pulled was impressive. Back in the day when I faced off against that guy Gilt with the help of Queen Wind, I often used Queen Wind Jiuyou to dodge his Flash Sword. But how did you know he would attack from your left?”
“Because he’s left-handed,” Brendel replied. Others may not be familiar with Williams, but he was, having fought this guy countless times to avenge the princess.
“You… you’re truly cunning, Brendel.”
“That’s because you taught well, Teacher.”
“I never taught you these things.”
“There’s an ancient saying among Jiufeng, ‘The master leads you to the door, but the cultivation depends on the individual.’” Brendel smiled slightly.
“……” Otales was entirely at a loss for words.
While Brendel was bantering with Otales, it did not mean he took Williams lightly. In fact, as soon as the explosion occurred, he immediately put the princess down and quickly pulled back.
“Sir Brendel!” Princess Grifian called out, and saw Brendel and Williams swiftly distance themselves from the crowd. The vice commander of the Knight Templar soon followed closely behind Brendel, but this time, Medephis blocked the way.
At the same time, Brendel placed down a third Ascent card once more.
The Echronian Weaver and Nightmare Furnace Construct reset once again, and with the filtering of the Lightning Storm and Ascent spells, he drew two Dawn cards. What delighted him even more was—
He had drawn back the Saint Ring of Anrodus that had been shuffled back into the deck.
Here it comes.
Brendel raised his head.
Williams had already sent Medephis flying with a sweep of his sword. The vampire transvestite slammed into the forest like a shooting star, kicking up a cloud of dust. At the Peak of Law, the disparity in truth was still too great.
Williams withdrew his sword and looked at Brendel, with no one left between them.
At that same moment, Andrigraphis in mid-air finally succumbed to the assault of ten Knight Templars. Three sharp swords stabbed into the chest of this vampire princess almost simultaneously. However, simultaneously, Andrigraphis, with her last ounce of strength, thrust her hand knife into the neck of an unprepared female Knight Templar, all under the astonished eyes of everyone present.
A torrent of blood fell.
Some from Andrigraphis, and some from that Knight Templar, began to drift slowly down from the heavens.
“The second one,” the vampire princess replied calmly, and the flame of soul fire in Andrigraphis’ eyes seemed to suddenly fade as she closed her eyes.
Her skin was snow-white like frost, quiet as a true princess.
The nine Knight Templars passed over her falling body.
Above, the fleet of the Temple of Fire was engaged in a fierce battle with the Black Tower Wizards.
Arrows, explosions, and spells intertwined between the enormous black square tower and three warships, with layers of magical shields surrounding the tower and warships erupting with the most dazzling light, with countless attacks exploding upon impact at every moment.
The flying dragoons of the Southern Army rejoined the fight.
Nordstar gripped the dragon lance tightly mounted on his saddle, rain and wind accompanying him, while beside him, more flying dragoons soared high above. Each dragon’s back bore a blurred visage, and he only vaguely remembered that they belonged to someone from the Southern Wind Army, unnamed yet inscribing history.
The fleet of Crusians immediately adjusted their course again, bright flames exploding among the flying dragoons, as several great beasts fell from the sky.
Yet more flying dragoons broke through the dense barrage. Nordstar shouted commands for the flying dragoons to ascend. The Crusian forces had to deploy their blue magical shields to allow the flying dragoons to sweep above them. The first wave of attacking flying dragoons immediately dropped fist-sized destructive crystals.
Fabulous brilliance burst into a pure white halo in the air, the protective shield of the escort ship “Tayler” flickered ten times before shattering like glass; a firework erupted at its side, causing the airship to tilt sideways, soon producing an electric arc in its magic turbine and exploding due to overload, followed by a munitions room chain reaction. The entire vessel belched a massive fireball, beginning to capsize and slowly lose altitude before ultimately crashing into the ranks of the Northern Coalition.
Another escort ship, “Jigou”, fared slightly better, yet flames still erupted from it.
Only the empire’s flagship, the “Palan”, stood firm against the wind and rain, its flagship-level magical shield almost unyielding under the impact of the destructive crystals. However, it too was in a precarious state under the siege of the Black Tower Wizards.
But at that moment—
A booming sound suddenly echoed from the clouds, as though a giant beast was traversing above the clouds. Beneath the Black Tower, the commander of the Highland Knights, Bud, slightly changed expression and looked up in that direction.
Then he saw a red dot.
Following that, more red dots appeared in the sky. One, two, three—over twenty red circles unfolded simultaneously beneath the dark clouds, revealing the golden-red massive outlines of a fleet gradually transforming into reality.
A huge fleet was entering the battlefield.
Finally, after the vanguard fleet of the Temple of Fire, their main fleet had arrived at last.
All the wizards atop the Black Tower could not help but halt their magical actions at that moment. In the air, the squadron of flying dragoons from the Southern Army was also thrown into chaos, scrambling to return.
The Second Fleet of Crusader Empire Connolly’s forces had entered the battlefield.
……
Brendel had not yet noticed the chaos above him as nine Knight Templars descended around him. Directly in front of him, Williams, vice commander of the Knight Templar, crossed his longsword, and the golden threads of the law extended from behind him once more, as he advanced, leaving a trail of flames in his wake.
“Descendant of Darus, do you have anything to say before your death?”
“Williams,” Brendel suddenly said seriously, “If the Templars could adhere to their words, perhaps the outcome would not be this way. But if you were given a chance to do it over, I wonder if you would still choose this?”
“It’s too late to plead for mercy now,” the vice commander of the Templars replied coldly.
“No,” Brendel smiled slightly. “I just want to say, good luck.”
What does that mean?
Williams was slightly taken aback.
At that moment—
Brendel placed down two more Dawn cards.
Light Element Pool: 33/50
Dark Element Pool: 43/60
For the fourth time, he replicated the Nightmare Furnace Construct, and at the same time, the counter on the Despair Wooden Horse finally reached forty.
Brendel tilted the Despair Wooden Horse horizontally, and the ability of the Despair Wooden Horse activated: “When placed horizontally and meeting the requirements, it will remove cards from the battle and put them into play.”
The cards Brendel had removed from the battle included: Radiant Martyr, Vampire Baron, two Doom Guards, and—
The Life Codex.
A beam of golden sword light slashed toward him, but the glow of Anrodus’ Saint Ring lit up once more. “Cycle achieved,” Brendel smiled again under the pure white light shield. “Good luck, Williams.”
His accelerated thoughts were activated, and he began the next round of card draws.
……
(PS: Two updates seeking votes! Rolling for votes! Aaaah, also continuing to recommend Chi Bei’s Golden Throne!) (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
