Spear of Forward Movement

We hurried to the high ground and found not only lush green saplings and vines, but also obvious signs of a battle!

Not far ahead, I saw the place where I had buried my silver armor and spear; this was the battlefield where we fought Kalista!

What happened? Why did we defeat Hecarim and now we're back in our original positions?

At this point, Nasus said, "Yorick and Kalista both use some kind of magic, it seems Hecarim is no exception."

Djis refused to believe it, after all, he had personally killed Hecarim: "But we didn't find anything unusual. If there were Magic Circle there, we should have been able to detect it!"

"Perhaps that maple leaf plain is the magic array, but the terrain is open, and we were careless."

Renekton nonchalantly said, "Who cares? We'll just go back and check again. Let's be careful this time!"

By this time, Camille's second team had arrived. After days of fighting the undead, even these experts were exhausted and looked weary.

Although the Death Qi in our victorious area was much weaker and the Black Mist had dissipated, precisely because of this, the remaining undead were all fighting desperately. The second team's companions, without the support of Life Rune, were greatly exhausted.

I told everyone to rest here for a few more days. Anyway, we haven't defeated Hecarim yet, so there's no rush to get going.

Gangplank also sent over some fresh oranges, saying that eating more oranges would be good for your health in this environment, and I ate a few as a token gesture.

Wukong looked at the oranges with a worried expression. "We eat oranges every day, are there any peaches?"

Djis laughed at him, "You're lucky to have oranges, little monkey! You want peaches? But we can plant some peach trees, use magic to speed up the growth, and maybe we'll have some to eat next year, hahaha!"

"Hmph, I'm not coming next year!"

Everyone's tense mood eased a little because of Wukong's words. I also gave a briefing on the current progress and reminded everyone again to be careful of the dangerous river.

Overall, things are going relatively smoothly so far, with no casualties. However, the road to cleanup is long and arduous, and we cannot afford to relax our efforts.

We rested with everyone for a day, and set off again at dawn, bypassing the river and re-entering Hecarim's territory.

This place wasn't purified after all; we were teleported away earlier!

Upon returning to Maple Plains, Hecarim was already waiting for us. Strangely, when I used my Spiritual Power to probe, I found no trace of a magic circle, and Nasus's probe yielded the same result.

Before we could analyze it closely, Hecarim had already launched an attack, and the result was exactly the same as before:

Djis pierced his heart again, and as a precaution, Varus bombarded him with arrows imbued with Life Rune, nearly blasting him to pieces!

After killing Hecarim, the surrounding Black Mist dissipated again, but frustratingly, we were back where Kalista had died!

The second team hadn't set off yet, and they were startled to see us suddenly appear. After learning what had happened, they started brainstorming solutions together.

Various hypotheses were proposed regarding this situation, mainly revolving around magic circles and illusions. After we rejected these, someone suggested that Hecarim himself might possess teleportation magic.

Fiora also gave me a Nullifying Weapon, telling us to try it out when we meet him.

I took up my weapon and set off again. After a fierce battle, I killed Hecarim once more. I even used Nullifying Weapon to cut off his head, but it was still no use. As long as he was dead, we would return.

At this point, everyone was at a loss. No one could figure out how Hecarim had teleported them back, let alone come up with a solution.

I carefully reviewed the events of the three battles and found nothing wrong. The area was a plain, with no strange buildings like castles, and I didn't see Hecarim using any unusual items.

Past experience tells me that if I can't identify the problem in this situation, I should take a step back and think things through to avoid falling into a trap and getting deeper into it.

Since nothing unusual was found during the battle, let's look for clues outside of it.

Why do we return to the location of the ancient castle instead of being teleported elsewhere after killing Hecarim?

Now that we know this is Hecarim's homeland, Ironhold, where he was once a subordinate of Kalista, what is the connection between these two places?

Thinking about this, I went through the whole process of meeting Kalista again: the undead animals, the castle, the wedding in the illusion, the sealing array, and Kalista's death.

There don't seem to be any clues...

No! I asked Hecarim about his weakness before Kalista disappeared, but she didn't have time to tell me; she just told me to plunge the spear into his heart.

At first, I thought it was her personal grudge, so I didn't pay attention. Could that spear be the tool to restrain Hecarim?

Ignoring everyone's astonishment, I excitedly ran out of the tent, found the spot where I had buried the silver armor and spear, and dug them out.

The spear gleamed in the moonlight; it was unclear what material it was forged from.

At this moment, many people ran over with me, including Huo Su, who was from People of Furnace Village and was well-versed in forging, but even after looking at it for a long time, she couldn't recognize the material of the spear.

I shared my thoughts with everyone and decided to give it another try. If I remember correctly, this spear is called the "Spear of Forward Movement," and I hope it can help us move forward!

I called Varus and the others, and we set off that very night. We returned to Maple Plains at dawn. This was our fourth attempt to challenge Hecarim. Regardless of the outcome, we should all get a good rest afterward.

"All lives will perish, so let me crush you all this time!"

Hecarim's momentum was different from before; his impact and speed had increased significantly. It seemed he knew we were exhausted and wanted to defeat us in one fell swoop.

His cavalry, already poised for battle, charged forward upon receiving the order, outnumbering all his previous cavalrymen!

We lined up in a row, directly dividing the enemy formation vertically. Djis and I continued to deal with Hecarim, while the others took care of the remaining soldiers.

Varus was fully focused in the air. I had already handed him the spear and told him to seize the opportunity to shoot it into Hecarim's heart. It had to be a fatal blow, otherwise he would become wary of the spear!

The fierce battle lasted for a long time before the undead soldiers were finally cleared out, and I finally seized the opportunity to knock Hecarim to the ground.

We haven't dared to make a move all day, fearing we'd be teleported back again. Now we finally have the chance, Varus has made his move!