Chapter 811: Act 160 – Xi in Danger
Barbane felt that Xi in front of him suddenly vanished. He quickly realized that she hadn’t disappeared; rather, the mountain girl had darted past him, maneuvering to his rear, but her speed was astounding. His eyes widened slightly in shock as he turned his head, catching only a glimpse of a flash of fiery red at the corner of his eye—the ends of her long ponytail.
Behind Viscount Barbane, the Crusian noble who had been inciting the crowd all along watched the scene with more clarity. To him, the mountain girl had just been negotiating with Barbane a moment ago, but in an instant, she had already positioned herself away from him. She lightly stepped on the ground, tilting her whole body to the same side, with the blade of her long spear gleaming coldly, as she raised her head to fix her gaze on him. Her eyes burned with a golden flame that seemed to ignite from within, and her crimson ponytail danced as if it were a fluttering scarf.
In the blink of an eye, the fire dragon was upon him—
Not good!
This Crusian noble’s hairs stood on end, and instinctively, he raised his longsword.
Clang—
A spark flew past as he staggered backward, the force transmitted from the spear was astonishing. He barely managed to block it with both hands gripping his longsword, but the same action left him no chance to counterattack. The noble felt a chill wash over him, his mind spiraling with a single thought: so fast! He never imagined that this seemingly frail and somewhat introverted girl would make her move without a word, and that she wouldn’t be targeting Barbane but him. How could she see through that? Trembling, he glanced at his sword, which now bore a deep gash.
The Crusian noble’s hands shook.
Having failed her initial strike, Xi immediately withdrew. She frowned slightly, realizing that she intended to take out the leader unexpectedly, but she hadn’t anticipated such a swift reaction. Indeed, the Crusian soldiers were no joke.
“Stop her!” someone finally reacted.
Those who survived the earlier fall beneath the ice layers possessed at least the strength of gold class fighters, with the leading noble and Viscount Barbane himself having the abilities to manifest their elemental powers, as they had initially felt no threat from the situation—a woman, after all, against seven or eight men didn’t seem dangerous at all.
However, they had never expected that Xi was no longer merely human; in fact, her bloodline had long surpassed that of the black-iron generation.
The Crusian nobles roared in unison and charged from all directions, their longswords flashing cold light as they surrounded Xi, sealing off her escape routes. It was only then that it dawned on them: they were not just excellent swordsmen, but well-trained soldiers. Sadly for them, their opponent was Xi—this mountain girl possessed arguably the finest and most unique swordsmanship in this world, trained by Brendel to counter the swordsman styles of Crusian, Erluin, Faenzan, and even the undead of Madara, along with the wind elves of Saint Ausoor, all of which represented the most mainstream sword techniques of this age.
Moreover, he had ample ways to deal with every one of those techniques.
As soon as the Crusian soldiers moved, Xi already reacted. In her rapid retreat, she gently touched down on the ground with her back foot, pivoting on it. The spear in her hand traced an arc, forcing back the Crusian soldier approaching from the right side. Meanwhile, she sank her center of gravity, another foot grounding, and suddenly burst forth like a sharp arrow aimed forward.
She chose to head toward the weakly surrounded left flank, where only three swordsmen stood, one of whom was merely at the initial golden rank.
Her target was precisely this person.
That man was already paralyzed with fear; the mountain girl’s speed had surpassed the expectations of everyone present, at least three times faster than the peak golden rank! Each time she landed, she left behind a long electric arc, appearing to outsiders like a lightning bolt leaping rapidly across the ground. The bright electrical arcs twisted and turned, seeming to part the darkness as she reached the Crusian noble in an instant.
In his line of sight, only the bright golden flames in the girl’s eyes remained.
The spear pierced through his chest before he could even scream; the agonized cry was caught in his throat as blood surged from his lungs, producing a gurgling sound, followed by a mouthful of blood. Xi pushed with one hand against his chest, tossing his lifeless body away like a rag doll.
“She’s hiding her strength!”
The leading noble’s mind buzzed.
“No, no, that is definitely not the power of element manifestation. That’s two levels of existence; this girl’s strength is still within the golden realm, but why is there such a difference…”
He couldn’t fathom it, and he completely neglected to think of dragons. If Xi were a dragon, she certainly wouldn’t serve as a maid to humans, nor would she waste her time playing cat and mouse with them. Unfortunately, no one could guess that Xi’s current plight was due to a conspiracy and an unexpected farce.
Xi had breached the front line but was still in jeopardy. She glanced back at the approaching Crusian nobles, with two soldiers she had thrown behind on one side and the leader closing in from the other. Without hesitation, she raised her left hand, fingers gently curling, making a choking gesture—everyone could see that Xi’s left arm momentarily seemed to morph into pure energy, transforming into a blazing platinum color, arcs of electricity swirling around her arm. Then, suddenly, “Zizz!” it shot out towards the three men, “Elemental Manifestation!”
The noble on the left was horrified and rolled aside just in time to barely escape the attack.
But his companion wasn’t so lucky, struck directly in the chest by the electric arrow. He spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying into the crowd. The others hurried to help him up, only to discover a large hole melted through his chest armor, the soft tissue behind it completely carbonized, and his eyes wide open with no focus, clearly having already been taken away to meet Martha.
The leading noble, both astonished and furious, slashed through the lightning with his sword, the orange-red lines of magic energy wrapping around his blade as he tore through the lightning like ripping cotton, dispersing it into countless electric arcs.
At that moment, Xi no longer held back, her entire body surrounded by electric arcs, as though half of her had transformed into blazing white lightning. Her speed in this state surged to a level the Crusian nobles had never imagined, moving like a beam of light traveling through darkness, unstoppable. The nobles gaped at this scene; they had seen similar techniques before, but those were special skills for lightning and atmospheric elements, how could such a phenomenon occur in a human? Even if it was manipulation of lightning elemental rules, it only allowed humans to control lightning, how could it manifest physically as lightning? Everything before their eyes shattered their understanding of the rules.
The dazzling lightning traced a beautiful arc in the darkness.
In fact, semi-elementalization was a skill Xi had inadvertently mastered after entering element manifestation. According to Brendel, this ability was something highly sought after and usually existed only among races closely tied to elements, very few humans could attain it. He suspected that the dragon lineage in Xi’s blood gave her an extraordinary tolerance for magical power, further catalyzing the power of the blood of the Thunder God, granting her some part of the elemental heritage. Unfortunately, Xi lacked a corresponding attribute panel like his, or else it would have been immediately clear under the racial talent category.
However, regrettably, semi-elementalization required a gradual buildup; otherwise, she could have used it from the start to break the encirclement.
“How is she coming back?” the leading noble exclaimed, staring at the long arc in the darkness.
“She still wants to fight us!”
“Damn it, Barbane, you’ve provoked her, she’s going to kill us!” The Crusian noble soldiers instantly panicked, previously assuming they were merely up against a little girl; they never thought she would suddenly transform into a great wolf with sharp teeth, and they became little red riding hoods—the disparity in status was too great for them to accept.
“Shut up!” Barbane was also sweating profusely. He had a fondness for Xi, and her overwhelming strength both surprised and delighted him; he was shocked at how the battle today would conclude, but pleased that he was finding himself more and more satisfied with this mountain girl. Yet still, he couldn’t quite understand what he had said to provoke her. While his comments had a hint of threat, they weren’t entirely unacceptable.
Could a maid have such a bad temper? How could that nobleman tolerate it?
However, Barbane was at least right about one thing: Xi had indeed fallen into a complete fury. Propelled by lightning, she rushed towards the crowd—her sharp little face had completely transformed into a form resembling a divine ‘Kehua’, her hair and eyebrows becoming strands of platinum lightning, fluttering in the fierce wind, especially her long ponytail, which looked stunningly beautiful—Xi’s brow furrowed deeply, and her golden eyes blazed with immense rage. At this moment, she held onto a single thought: to kill these annoying guys!
Since the disbandment of the Grey Wolf Mercenaries, Xi had invested all her heart into protecting her remaining companions. Most of them had joined and become part of Brendel’s private army, so she chose to silently follow that somewhat unfamiliar young noble. The mountain girl who was once a member of the Grey Wolf Mercenary group had, at that moment, essentially passed away, no longer existing in this world. She had grown increasingly silent, dedicating her days to honing her combat skills or staring blankly into space, and no one knew what she was thinking.
Because even she herself didn’t understand what she was contemplating.
Perhaps she was considering those strange words spoken by the somewhat odd lord, who didn’t always seem like a noble, yet was at times more noble than all the nobles combined.
Mastering one’s own fate—how does one go about doing that? Day after day, she forced herself to grow cold, to become more adept at battle, to become less trusting of others, as if she were a machine, yet inwardly her fragility deepened. Sometimes she even felt she walked alone in a wasteland, isolated and alone. Looking around, it seemed the world she once knew had long since collapsed.
More than once, Xi cried alone in the darkness, softly sobbing; everything she had endured over the past decade felt like a prolonged nightmare from which there was no escape.
But until that day, when that strange lord placed the Golden Apple in her hands and assured her he would never abandon her no matter what happened, a warm light seemed to spill into her dark nightmare. It was something that even Lord Makarolo, Lord Livwz, and even those who betrayed the Grey Wolf Mercenaries all desired, yet the lord simply handed it over to her lightly due to a promise.
She wasn’t good with words and didn’t know how to repay him; she simply wanted to follow that person quietly. Her dedication made her even more silent, and until today, as these annoying Crusian nobles threatened to destroy her only remaining hope, her rage overran all her reasoning.
These people must die.
With two cries of despair, one Crusian soldier’s head fell to the ground, while another screamed, clutching his arm, where beneath his wrist, everything was charred black. The brittle bones could no longer bear the weight of the longsword, which broke upon falling, crumbling to black powder that scattered to the ground.
The leading noble was drenched in sweat, turning back to shout at Barbane: “Barbane, if you don’t make a move, today will end in chaos!”
Barbane cursed inwardly, thinking that this situation was also due to this guy. He regretted that these people’s conspiracy had nothing to do with him, but he truly hoped to ‘invite’ this mountain girl to the Crusian Empire as a ‘guest’. He really felt he had fallen in love at first sight and wanted her to become his woman, yet he never dreamed things would develop to this extent.
With a sigh, he took a folding hand crossbow from his sleeve; at this point, it was all he could rely on.
He readied the bolt and lifted the crossbow.
At that moment, Xi transformed into lightning, darting across the crowd of Crusian nobles. Barbane quickly turned, aiming in that direction. He didn’t need to aim precisely; after all, aiming accurately at Xi’s current speed was pointless. The viscount muttered under his breath, and he noticed the patterns on the crossbow light up one after another. In the Amber Sword, a magic weapon capable of activation must be of ancient-grade silver or higher, but this crossbow was more than that; it had a significant background, and if Brendel were here, he would surely recognize this crossbow’s identity and also identify Barbane. Unfortunately, Xi wasn’t Brendel, and the girl remained completely oblivious.
A silver light pierced through the darkness.
Xi suddenly felt an overwhelming force hit her from behind. An intense pain shattered her semi-elementalized state in an instant, and the lightning surrounding her exploded into dazzling sparks. The mountain girl fell forward like a kite with its string cut, crashing heavily onto the ice surface. Although she quickly gritted her teeth and got back up, everyone saw the bolt embedded in her waist. Xi bit her lip, one hand clutching the area, and the other bracing herself with her spear, trembling so much she could barely stand.
The noble soldiers let out a collective cheer.
Xi’s vision went dark; she certainly heard the cheering, although it felt as if those voices came from the horizon. What chilled her even further was that the noble soldiers had already closed in from both sides. She exhaled softly, tasting the blood and salt in her mouth, but instinctively tightened her jaw, gripping her spear tightly.
…
“Those tubes should be for transferring magical power to Kehua… Sister Kehua. We must find a way to help the Earl and the others cut off those tubes.” Miss Shi Do crouched by the edge of the ice wall, her gaze fixed on the battle below. However, while saying this, she was somewhat concerned about the expression of their companion Kehua nearby, who smiled slightly at her, indicating everything was fine. Gaining her approval, Shi Do was relieved and asked, “Your Highness, do you have a plan?”
Rainwright nodded. He glanced below, his expression still as impassive as usual. “The combat level down there is not something we can interfere with. If we were to go down, we would just be a burden to the teacher and Duke Toniger. Fortunately, we don’t need to engage in battle; I have my bow, and Shi Do, you can use spells; while that woman isn’t aware of us, we can take action.”
As he said this, the prince briefly looked at Brendel below. There was a hint of envy in his gaze; he was slightly older than Brendel, but the latter’s strength was not something to provoke jealousy over.
A twenty-year-old knight of the temple—what a shocking revelation that would be if it got out! Fortunately, only a few core figures among the higher-ups of both countries knew this, and the Temple of Fire should be well aware of what this information entailed; they wouldn’t spread it carelessly. They were, after all, not Crusian. Yet this also brought about regret; he was starting to understand Veronika’s intentions a bit.
But thankfully, Duke Toniger had a fairly good relationship with them. He was nominally Veronika’s student and politically supported by the Palucy family, and since Brendel was close to Veronika, he could be counted as a friend of this faction.
“What about me?” Haruze asked.
“You stay here and help us keep an eye on any movement around,” Rainwright replied.
“Huh?”
The young prince’s mouth fell open, and he shook his head vigorously. “Teacher is still fighting down there; how could I just stand by and do nothing?”
“That’s not standing by; the prince has a point, young prince. You need to be vigilant and ensure those Everything Returns Society members don’t stir up trouble from behind,” a voice suddenly called out from behind the ice cavern, “Do you think we are the only ones who have come down here?”
Prince Haruze’s eyes lit up slightly, and he turned around in surprise, calling out, “Mr. Charles!”
Then he paused for a second and added, “Sister Himelam!”
Emerging from the back of the ice cavern were two of the summoned mages from Brendel’s forces.
