Chapter 798: Act 148 – The Unexpected Change
When the battle first began, the black-robed knights around Anlek spread out to occupy the two long bridges on either side. Therefore, if Brendel wanted to sneak up on him, he would have to cross one of the defensive lines. Fortunately, this wasn’t much trouble for Brendel, who had a cloak of concealment; he directly flew over the crowd, supported by the cloak. This sneaky maneuver was both thrilling and exciting for the young female dragon, who curiously asked, “I didn’t know this tattered cloak was so much fun before; otherwise, I would have asked that guy William for it earlier. Brendel, can I borrow it for a couple of days?”
“Not a chance,” Brendel declined, always wary of such one-sided trades.
“Stingy.” Her reasonable request met with outright refusal—of course, Aloorze thought it was quite reasonable—she immediately showed her fierce side, revealing her small white sharp teeth. When she glanced and found that Brendel was still holding her wrist, the young female dragon bit down hard without a second thought.
“Ugh—” Brendel sharply inhaled due to the pain. Even though his skin was as tough as steel, dragon teeth were a different matter. He turned back angrily, only to find Aloorze sprawled on his back, taking a bite at his neck. At this point, Brendel’s veins were popping; he reflexively grabbed Aloorze’s wrist and pulled her closer, ready to scold her, but then he noticed her golden eyes staring back at him, pouting as if she were about to cry.
Brendel paused for a moment, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. He remembered that while Aloorze usually behaved like a little demon, she was still just a little girl. In terms of dragon age, she was roughly equivalent to a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl in human terms. A cold sweat broke out on Brendel’s forehead; he realized that he had gripped her arm too tightly out of excitement, unintentionally making her cry. After all, they were on a battlefield! He quickly focused on the young female dragon, thinking that she mustn’t cry. The cloak of the King of Bud could conceal them, but it wasn’t incredible enough to make them invisible to the audience.
“You hurt me,” Aloorze said softly, pulling back her arm.
Brendel never imagined he would see this side of the young female dragon, even in his deepest nightmares. He thought for a moment and realized he didn’t have a talent for comforting girls. It would have been easier if it were Freya, as he could reason with her, but he was at a loss when faced with Aloorze, who didn’t play by the rules. He struggled for about a second before finally muttering, “I’m sorry.”
“No one has ever been this mean to me!” Aloorze looked at him with teary eyes.
Brendel finally understood at this moment; this was definitely a form of pampering. This was a little girl’s killer move! But what could he do? They had already crossed the last long bridge, and they were less than twenty meters away from Anlek. On either side of him stood rows of black-robed knight guards. Normally, he should be considering how to strike while the old man was unprepared, instead of coaxing a little girl.
This was truly the most perilous situation ever, Brendel thought. He could bet that if he didn’t settle Aloorze down, she would definitely cause a scene soon. Forget about ambushing Anlek—surviving this battle intact would already be a miracle.
Brendel looked at Aloorze. He clearly knew what the young female dragon wanted—he just had to look at her red eyes fixed on the cloak of the King of Bud in his hands. He gritted his teeth internally but still spoke in a gentle tone, “Okay, don’t cry. I’ll let you borrow the cloak to play with for a couple of days. Is that okay?”
“What do you mean, is that okay?” Aloorze still looked tearful but frowned disdainfully and wrinkled her nose. “You can’t even comfort a girl properly? Can’t you be a bit more gentle? You seem so dismissive—do it again.”
Do it again? Brendel almost exploded with rage. He shot a glance at Anlek’s direction and barely stopped himself from reacting immediately. “You better be satisfied, or else I’ll have to take you down with me.”
Aloorze let out a small snort. She fiddled with her golden curls, her long lashes half-lowered, casting her light gold eyes at him, indicating, ‘I’m not scared if you want to go down together.’ She nitpicked, “Hmph, you’re so rude and not a gentleman at all. I don’t know why Antinna even likes you. Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve done with Anlek—always bullying women.”
Brendel widened his eyes, “What have I done?”
“Like kissing that human princess against her will.”
“And—”
“Stop!” Brendel quickly begged for mercy. He finally realized that this little female dragon’s spying habits were not just a recent development; he used to think she started spying during that incident in Ampere Seale, but it seemed she had been hiding on the sidelines for quite a while. However, what she said this time struck his weakness. The impulsive act from that night was something he least wanted to remember, and even now, Princess Antinna sometimes looked at him with icy eyes, making it evident how impactful his actions had been. In fact, thinking back on it sometimes made him want to find a crack in the ground to hide in. He hurriedly begged, “Stop talking about it; I was wrong. I’m sorry, okay?”
“Hehe, looks like you care a lot about this matter,” Aloorze finally smiled through her tears. She promised, “Don’t worry; just let me borrow the cloak to play with for a couple of days, and I’ll return it. Plus, I’ll give that Anlek a good beating for you.” She even stood on her tiptoes, symbolically patting Brendel’s shoulder.
Brendel directly ignored the first part of her statement. Last time, when she borrowed Xi’s Azure Lance to play, it resulted in Bud sending out William, Roger, and Agani—the three wizard leaders, as well as Turiman, the former wizard leader, to reclaim it. In that mess, countless humiliating treaties filled with blood and tears had to be signed. Lending something to a dragon was something only someone as naïve as Xi would come up with. For that, she faced Bud’s reprimands for a long time.
As for beating Anlek, Brendel thought, what does Anlek have to do with him anymore? Their feud was settled after the battle in Ampere Seale. This time, it was merely a matter of kicking a dog when it was down. The real victim here was the Crusian people, and he himself was just following orders. Since the victims hadn’t demanded retribution, why should he go out of his way to be the villain? He found Aloorze’s reasoning simply incomprehensible.
But Aloorze’s next statement immediately left him disoriented.
“I know you really like that hybrid princess, right? That old man actually dared to vie for her hand with you; even I couldn’t stand it. Giving him a beating is justified,” Aloorze said, licking her lips and shining her little tongue, her eyes sparkling with violence.
Brendel almost spat out blood at this. What was this all about? He quickly tried to stop the young female dragon from continuing; otherwise, who knew what she would bring up next? Moreover, they had already delayed long enough; continuing to procrastinate would affect the situation. In fact, he could already see Veronika surveying the surroundings from halfway up in the hall. Clearly, she was looking for him and Aloorze, wondering why they hadn’t appeared yet.
Brendel raised a finger to signal Aloorze to be quiet. By this time, they had already flown above Anlek’s head. The black-robed knights defending the duke were extremely vigilant, looking left and right; it seemed their only chance was from behind. However, standing behind Anlek was a figure in black robes, not quite the attire of a knight or a cult’s priest. Brendel hesitated to confirm the person’s depth. However, Anlek’s trust in this person’s ability to guard his back suggested that they were at least strong enough to possess elemental awakening.
“Can you see through that guy’s depth?” Brendel, having looked for a while and still unsure, turned back to seek the young female dragon’s assessment as the duration of the cloak of concealment had dwindled to the last ten seconds.
“Strange.”
“Strange?”
“I smell our scent on that guy,” Aloorze said, sniffing the air lightly, then frowned.
“You mean there’s a dragon?” Brendel exclaimed, startled and relieved that he hadn’t acted rashly.
“What? I didn’t say that,” the young female dragon shot him a glare. “I said he smells like us, but this scent is unfamiliar to me. I haven’t smelled it before. As for the dragons living in Vaunte, there’s none I don’t recognize. If he truly is a dragon, then he must be from another continent.” She pondered for a moment, then added disdainfully, “Of course, it’s not only dragons that bear dragon blood; we have some inferior distant relatives. It’s also possible that these things exist. Anyway, you need to verify it yourself.”
“You might as well not say that,” Brendel saw Aloorze show her sharp teeth again and quickly interrupted, “No, you can bite him as much as you want later, but not now. When it’s time for me to deal with Anlek, you focus on that strange guy.”
“Not a chance! What if he is a dragon? I don’t want to attack my own kind!” Aloorze shook her head fervently.
“Okay, then you deal with Anlek, and I’ll handle that strange guy.” Brendel thought for a moment and felt this was a more viable plan. Although the young female dragon was not dependable, her strength was far superior to his. After all, she was still a dragon. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Aloorze looked as if she had a scheme up her sleeve, and he didn’t know what she was plotting.
The cloak’s duration only had three seconds left.
Brendel dared not linger any longer and quickly pulled the young female dragon down from above Anlek to the space between him and the hooded figure. This was where the power of the cloak of the King of Bud shone. Normally, any invisibility spell would not fully mask all of a person’s presence. Lower-level invisibility spells could conceal visible light but not sound or scent. More advanced spells could block scent but never sound, and the spell to mute sound only came at the tenth ring of the atmosphere circle. Yet no invisibility spell could let you actually go invisible right under the nose of an opponent with elemental awakening. Once someone entered an elemental awakening domain, the lines of law would naturally surround their body, and no matter what, your very existence would influence those laws—this could not be concealed.
But clutching the cloak of concealment, Brendel stood merely three feet from that black-robed figure and just about as close behind Anlek—neither seemed to have noticed him at all.
Brendel made a gesture, and he and the young female dragon immediately stood back-to-back. The cloak was down to its last second, and Brendel had a quick look at the hooded figure. Unfortunately, the person’s face was entirely hidden beneath their hood, making it impossible to see clearly, except for a pair of glimmering golden eyes eerily similar to Aloorze’s.
Could it really be a dragon? He couldn’t help but feel a shock.
At that moment, Aloorze had already made her move against Anlek. Holding a staff in one hand and cradling the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ in the other, Anlek was completely unaware that an enemy had already gotten so close. The young female dragon directly tore off the invisibility cloak without any elaborate maneuvers, using her claws to snag Anlek backward, seizing the star-shaped stone from his hands with her right hand.
Anlek was momentarily dumbfounded as he realized his hands were empty; the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ had already landed in someone else’s possession. He gazed in shock at the little girl who had suddenly appeared before him and asked incredulously, “Who are you?” Then he recognized Aloorze’s distinctly golden eyes and exclaimed, “Dragon kin?”
But Aloorze had no intention of explaining herself; she charged forward and threw a punch at him. The physical prowess of dragon kind was exceedingly powerful. Brendel later learned that the young female dragon herself possessed only elemental awakening strength, but the force she demonstrated was already nearing the peak of the laws, perhaps even surpassing it. Dragons were born as golden descendants; after surpassing the elemental stage, they would naturally become golden beings, and this potential manifested fully in battle at that moment. Poor Duke Anlek, although he had made significant progress since the battle in Ampere Seale, found that this improvement was primarily in casting abilities. His hand-to-hand combat skills remained at the stage of the former leading duke. He might be able to single-handedly face ten ordinary soldiers, but in front of Aloorze, he appeared no more competent than a clumsy child.
The instinct honed over decades of military experience compelled Anlek to instinctively draw ‘his sword’ to block against Aloorze’s straight punch. Of course, he was currently holding his staff, and this block, from a human standpoint, appeared clever, but unfortunately for him, the young female dragon did not care for reasoning; she smashed her fist down onto his staff, splintering it in mid-air, and then her fist continued forward, crashing mercilessly into his face. Anlek let out a miserable cry as blood poured from his nose, and he fell backward.
“Brendel, I’ve avenged you!” Aloorze cheerfully shouted, as if knowing she had helped Brendel feel better brought her genuine joy.
But unfortunately, at that moment, Brendel couldn’t feel any happiness whatsoever.
Because in the instant Aloorze tore off the cloak, he hadn’t had time to act before the cloaked figure in front of him had already reacted. The figure pulled up their robe, revealing a bright-patterned lizard head beneath the hood.
“Oh no!” Brendel realized immediately, “It’s him!”
Vaunte had many lizard-men, with some living in the forests while most resided in swamps. However, there were also some variants, such as desert lizards and sea lizards. The desert lizards were notably characterized by their crimson skin, while the sea lizards bore bright patterns that symbolized toxicity, with long fin-like appendages on their arms and thighs. Yet, among the countless sea lizard-men in Vaunte, there was only one legendary sword saint—the revered red-ringed lizard-man sword saint, Hu.
Upon seeing this individual, Brendel understood the reason for his appearance. The red-ringed lizard-men were the most famous branch of sea lizards; they had once been servants to the Deep-scaled Naga and later became subjects. While this wasn’t the concern, the key issue was that the Deep-scaled Naga was precisely one of the archrivals of Queen Wind. Evidently, these damned lizardmen had heard of the Grayfinned Naga’s actions in Ampere Seale and, it was easy to infer they had become aware of the alliance with humans, and now they seemed to have found another land ally—Brendel’s sworn enemy.
It went without saying that this was not going to be a peaceful encounter.
As Hu’s sword lunged toward him, the situation instantly reversed. Brendel had never expected to face a sword saint. There were at most only seventeen or eighteen sword saints in an era in Vaunte, scattered across various empires; it was unimaginable for them to converge here in Erluin since it wasn’t a fabled treasure land. Yet, just when Brendel thought he could never encounter such a sword saint, this most improbable figure was standing right before him. This wasn’t someone like Williams who was merely an intermediate threat; Hu himself already possessed peak mastery over the laws, and his history as a sword saint predated even Veronica’s. As the sword was thrust at him, Brendel found himself on the backfoot.
He saw the brilliant blade’s tip approaching, a multitude of thoughts racing through his mind, yet not a single thought to inform him on how to evade it.
Wind Queen’s Nine Stars?
Don’t be ridiculous, it wasn’t anywhere near quick enough. Activating Wind Queen’s Nine Stars required time, and the sword’s tip was already almost touching him as if he was left with but a fleeting thought—life or death. Even Indomitable wouldn’t save him; he certainly couldn’t rely on that talent not considering the head as a critical area.
But just as Brendel felt the blood freeze in his veins, the ground of the hall suddenly shook violently, producing creaking sounds as it tilted downward. This unexpected turn of events left even the lizard-man sword saint completely unprepared, causing him to watch helplessly as the sword’s tip grazed by Brendel’s hair.
Brendel gaped at this dramatic scene, with only one thought in his mind—Martha help me; who saved my life this time?
