Appearance of Water Monitors

"Your Highness..." A group of archers ran back, looking disheveled.

Their clamorous voices successfully caught Roland's attention. Roland curiously poked his head out of the blacksmith shop and was instantly stunned by the Bannaria Archers before him. Some of the archers, who had been wearing fine chainmail, now had tattered armor, some had scraped arms, and others were completely drenched, like drowned rats.

"What happened?" Roland narrowed his eyes. Had they encountered an orc attack?

"My lord, a colossal octopus monster appeared in the Swift River. It looked like an Advanced Beast at the very least!" one of the archers organized his thoughts and explained the whole situation to Roland.

It turned out the archers had gone out fishing. The Swift River was still abundant in resources even in winter, and they had already caught over a dozen large baskets of fish. Just as they were hauling in the net together again, several thick tentacles suddenly emerged from the water, tearing through the fishing net in a flash. Immediately after, a huge mouth lined with sharp teeth appeared and swallowed the fish in the net. The archers, reacting quickly, shot arrows at the octopus-like creature. Unexpectedly, this only provoked its ferocity. Its massive tentacles swung wildly, smashing five galleons surrounding it, causing chaos. Fortunately, the Bannaria Archers possessed exceptional agility and dodged the wildly sweeping tentacles, though they couldn't avoid falling into the water. With the rescue of the remaining five galleons, although there were no fatalities, many were injured. Facing a monster whose tough hide ordinary arrows couldn't penetrate, the Bannaria Archers could only shoot and retreat. They finally had their ships beach themselves and quickly fled inland, thus halting the monster's attack.

"What the heck? Are any creatures daring to cause trouble now?" Roland was furious. Flowing City, lacking food and clothing this winter, relied on the aquatic products of the Swift River to survive. Even Roland could only eat black bread with grilled fish or black bread with fish soup now. How could they live without these aquatic products!

"The Holy Radiance Knight Order will remain here. Reno, you are responsible for protecting Flowing City. Lagrange City Guards and Bannaria Archers, you will come with me. Pastor Ivy and Lord Ladyl, I'm counting on you." Roland began assigning tasks. It was a shame Caslo wasn't here; otherwise, his wyvern would have been a great asset.

"Let's go! Let's go meet it," Roland gritted his teeth.

Looking at the now calmer Swift River, Roland turned to Ladyl. "Lord Ladyl, I'm counting on you!"

"It is my duty, Your Highness," Ladyl bowed. The next moment, a vast amount of mental power was released through the staff in Ladyl's hand. Judging by the staff's amplification effect on Ladyl, it was no ordinary item. Under Ladyl's control, the mental power continuously explored both sides of the river, radiating from Ladyl as the center...

"Found it!" Ladyl suddenly opened his eyes.

"Mind Blast!" Ladyl unleashed a high-level mental magic spell. It wasn't a problem for an earth-elemental War Mage to use a high-level mental spell, as spellcasters construct their spells with mental power and magic power. The higher the caster's level, the mental power would definitely not be lower than magic power.

"Thump!" A muffled sound came from underwater. Following the sound, a massive white water sphere emerged from the surface and exploded. A monster with dozens of tentacles was washed ashore by the current.

"What the heck? A Water Monitor?" Roland looked at the familiar barbed tentacles and its ugly appearance. This was the exact same creature as the one that appeared in Mirror Lake outside the west gate of Moria! Roland was a bit surprised, but then he understood. Mirror Lake was originally a closed lake connected by only one river. Since ancient creatures like the Water Monitor could enter that cramped body of water, why couldn't it enter this wide Swift River?

"Fire arrows!" Roland commanded his soldiers to attack. Compared to the Holy Radiance Knight Order's knights' crude archery skills, the Lagrange City Guards' crossbows were far more accurate. They couldn't hit exactly where aimed, but they could definitely hit with a high probability. The skills of the Bannaria Archers were even more outstanding!

"As expected!" Roland stared solemnly at the Water Monitor, which was enraged in the water due to the pain. Its thick skin, while not comparable to dragon hide, meant that the remaining ordinary arrows in Roland's hands still couldn't inflict fatal damage on it with these low-tier PROFESSIONALS.

"Light Orb!" Ivy condensed a ball of light and shot it at the monster. Unexpectedly, the Water Monitor reacted extremely violently. The light burned its skin, making it feel like it was dying and living at the same time.

"It's a creature of the dark faction! It fears light, fire, and holy attacks!" Ladyl stated at a glance. Fighting it in the water made the earth-elemental Elder Ladyl very uncomfortable. Besides using mental power attacks, he could only cast a few remote spells like falling rocks. This made the old man furious. He had the strength of a War Mage but couldn't utilize it at all, doing less damage than a third-tier Priest! Elder Ladyl felt the humiliation from the water-elemental monster.

"Holy Sword Judgment!" Roland raised the Dragon-slaying Sword and thrust it fiercely into the ground. A giant golden hexagram appeared with the Dragon-slaying Sword at its center. Simultaneously, an identical hexagram materialized above the Water Monitor's head. The next second, a Dragon-slaying Sword constructed from holy power shot down from the hexagram formation, directly targeting the Water Monitor below.

"Screeeech~" The piercing sound tormented everyone's eardrums. A wound a meter deep and half a palm wide appeared on the Water Monitor's head. Dark blood continuously flowed from the wound.

"Thank you, Lord Ladyl!" Roland couldn't help but give the old man a thumbs-up. Although the old man no longer had powerful earth-elemental magic output, he still used his vast mental power to restrict the Water Monitor's movements, preventing it from diving into the water. It could only obediently take a hit from Roland, the Great Knight. Although Roland's move just now was incredibly powerful, it actually had significant flaws. Firstly, he couldn't use it while moving like Reno, and there was a few-second casting animation, which could be fatal on the battlefield. From this, it could be seen that Roland usually relied too much on his subordinates and hadn't properly developed his own strength. Despite having the rank of Knight Captain, in actual combat, he found it difficult to even fight a veteran knight. It was no wonder Caslo had stopped Roland from charging towards Ravenhill to confront Azog. In this world, Azog's strength would be at least a fifth-tier professional, or even a sixth-tier Overlord, Hero, or Brave. Even Thorin, the Berserker, without the enhancement of the Seven Rings of the Dwarves, would probably only take a few normal attacks. As for a counter-kill like in the movies... don't even dream about it.

"Holy Sword Judgment!" With the skill cooldown finished, Roland used the Paladin's ultimate move again.

"It should be dead now, right..." Roland sighed, holding his waist after casting the 47th Holy Sword Judgment.

"..." Ivy looked at Roland, who had exhausted his Battle Qi, and then at the Water Monitor, which was almost pierced through by Holy Sword Judgment... a few black lines hung from her forehead.

"Your Highness, that's enough! That's enough! You've already run it through..." Seeing the Water Monitor in a truly miserable state, Ladyl quickly stopped Roland, who was still trying to force out skills. Earlier, Ladyl had been controlling the struggling Water Monitor, but later, the Water Monitor was just floating on the water like a dead fish, allowing Roland to attack it at will...

"Alright, let's continue fishing... As for that thing, just dig out the magic crystals and set them aside," Roland looked at the Water Monitor's corpse, thought of its dark blood, and immediately stopped himself from dragging it back to eat.

"What a shame about my galleons..." Roland lamented the destruction of the five ships. The daily fish catch would be much smaller now...

"It seems I'll have to assign city guards to accompany the archers when fishing from now on. I didn't consider the factor of river monsters before... This isn't Middle-earth from Tolkien's books!" Roland sighed, almost forgetting that this world was full of monsters.

"I'm going back to tinker with my blacksmith shop..." Roland was now focused on the blacksmith shop, as his subordinates' equipment urgently needed repair.

Second update, requesting recommendation tickets from fellow book lovers.