Unas darted back and forth between several trees to dodge Gordon's charges. Gordon, on horseback, had no room to maneuver among them, and with his mind addled, Unas ran circles around him.
Not far from where they fought, the Dreadguard hid in a thick, leafy tree, its green-glowing demonic eyes fixed on the two men. It was still waiting for its chance.
Nightmares were a very weak kind of evil spirit. They possessed sleeping people, sucked out their vital energy, and gave them nightmares. Anyone reasonably strong could ignore them, but combined with the Ring of Panic the Dreadguard had cast in advance, they became a devastating weapon capable of digging out people's deepest fears.
The Dreadguard had originally saved the spell for the humans pursuing it, eagerly anticipating a bout of mutual slaughter. But for some reason, only four people had come. More frightening still, two of them had completely ignored the spell, making it afraid to show itself rashly.
In truth, the spell's effect depended entirely on its target. For someone as burdened by suffering and hatred as Gordon, it had immediately driven him out of his mind.
But for a fine young man like Unas, who had grown up in peaceful times and developed in all respects—moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and practical—being late for the math portion of the college entrance exam was his greatest fear. Though he had graduated from high school years ago, Unas had woken from that nightmare in a cold sweat countless times in the middle of the night.
Being late wasn't much of a threat, and with the protection of the great system, Unas awoke from the nightmare almost instantly.
The other person who had completely resisted the spell was Whitemane. As a high-ranking priest specializing in Discipline, she was immune to many kinds of mental magic attacks, but she wasn't in good shape at the moment either.
The recruit Darian had naturally fallen into an illusion. He dreamed that his older brother Renault had killed their father because their father favored Darian and intended to pass both the title of Highlord and the Ashbringer on to him. Jealousy of his younger brother had driven Renault mad, and he had attacked their father from behind during a battle.
Having witnessed it all, Darian charged desperately at the deranged Renault—or rather, his beloved elder sister Whitemane.
Caught off guard, Whitemane was knocked from her horse by the blow. She heard a crack, and piercing pain shot through her thigh. She knew her thighbone had broken.
She could of course heal the injury immediately, but without a professional physician to set the bone, it might heal crooked, something she couldn't tolerate. She cast Pain Suppression on herself to stabilize the injury, then swiftly unleashed a Mind Blast at the charging Darian.
Mind Blast was a mental attack that dealt several times more damage to incorporeal monsters. The nightmare possessing Darian was killed instantly.
Darian slowly came to a halt and stood there in a daze, clarity gradually returning to his eyes. He looked around in alarm, his heart still clenched tight. The nightmare had been a fear buried deep in his heart, one he didn't even dare think about. Even after escaping the dream, he was still trembling.
"Darian! Stop standing there!" Whitemane was practically screaming. "Help me onto my horse and get us up ahead!"
The demon had to be lurking in the shadows, watching for an opportunity. They needed to join up with those two as quickly as possible. Their earlier squabbles would have to be noted down for later; faced with a common enemy, the silver-haired priest was still clearheaded.
Whitemane's scream alerted the Dreadguard as well, letting it know that if it waited any longer, its chance would be gone. There was no telling how long the two humans before it would keep chasing and fleeing.
Then, with a sharp clang, the greatsword in the hands of the human under its spell was broken. The human who had once wounded it was no longer of use, and the Dreadguard had nothing more to hold it back.
After tremendous effort, nearly running himself dizzy in the process, Unas finally achieved his goal. Verigan's Fist struck the crack in Gordon's sword one last time, breaking the greatsword in half. Without letting the silver hammer stop, he carried the swing upward and smashed it into Gordon's abdomen.
Metal struck metal with a dull thud, leaving a deep, square dent in Gordon's abdominal armor. Gordon doubled over and spat out a mouthful of blood, swaying unsteadily in the saddle.
"Look out!" Darian's alarmed cry suddenly rang out behind him. Unas felt a wave of heat coming from behind and hurriedly turned to see a basketball-sized green fireball hurtling toward him. The Dreadguard that had launched it had also revealed itself in the woods.
"Bind!" Whitemane called out in a ringing voice as she caught up. A white ring of light suddenly appeared around the fireball, binding it like a rope. The fireball stopped in front of Unas, and its intense heat made him squint.
"Disperse!" Whitemane raised her staff high and shouted again.
At her word of power, the ring spun rapidly with the fireball, quickly turning it into a shower of sparks that dissipated into the air.
Darian wasn't idle either. The moment Whitemane cast her spell, he fired three arrows in succession at the Dreadguard. Without waiting to see whether they hit, he charged the demon.
The Dreadguard retreated swiftly. It had planned all along to flee far away if its first attack missed. Now that an arrow had struck its shoulder, it had no intention of facing the enemy head-on again. With that human priest present, many of its spells were useless.
Unas stared blankly at the fireworks. He had nearly activated Invincible to save his life. This was the second time the kid Darian had called out and saved him, wasn't it? Of course, this time his beautiful, stubborn sister deserved credit too.
"Blast!" The silver-haired priest called out a word of power for the third time, pointing her staff behind Unas. He turned around and saw no flash or other effect, but Gordon grunted and fell from his horse. Unas hurriedly reached out and caught him.
Gordon's eyes were tightly shut. He had suffered some trauma, both physical and mental, and seemed to have fallen unconscious.
"Thank you," Unas called to Whitemane in the distance. He hurriedly lifted Gordon down from the horse and laid him flat on the grass.
"I'll take care of him," Whitemane said, urging her horse forward. The horse's movement jolted her broken thighbone, and intense pain flared in her leg again. "Hurry and help Darian!"
Only then did Unas notice that her dark red priest's robe had ridden up, revealing her bandaged right thigh, with traces of blood seeping through. She was injured too.
There was no time to admire her pale, broken thigh. Darian had already disappeared into the woods, and Unas didn't want anything to happen to the kid either. He picked up his warhammer, quickly mounted Black Wind, and rode after Darian.
In fact, only about a minute had passed since the Dreadguard appeared. Darian hadn't gotten far, and Unas soon caught up with him.
"Darian, where's that monster?" he shouted to Darian ahead.
"I hit it!" Darian turned his head, his voice full of excitement.
"Awesome!" Unas cracked his whip several times and sped up to Darian's side. "Where did it run off to?"
"I could still see it a moment ago, but then it suddenly disappeared right in front of me," Darian replied. "But it doesn't matter. Can you smell the sulfur? I heard that's what demon blood smells like. As long as we follow the smell, we're sure to catch it."
Unas sniffed a few times. There was indeed a faint smell of gunpowder in the air, but it would be difficult for a human to track an enemy by that scent alone. Fortunately, horses were much better at it than humans.