One Strike Away, A Helpless Retreat

Chapter 27: One Strike Away, A Forced Retreat

Li Wei possessed a deep understanding of the magic within Heroes of Might and Magic. Generally speaking, the best way to suppress high-level units like Dread Knights was the Fire-type spell, "Blindness."

Therefore, on the journey to Dawn City, he had intentionally trained the Dread Knight. As long as he issued the command, the Dread Knight would act accordingly, ensuring that even if it were afflicted by a negative spell like Blindness, it would not be rendered unable to attack.

Now, that preparation had truly paid off.

The Dread Knight's charge, combined with a Critical Strike, slammed fiercely into Sand's back. The necromancer let out a shrill cry, flew several meters through the air, and then crashed to the ground.

-500

The damage figure popped up. The Dread Knight's attack power was terrifyingly high; Sand's health was now reduced to half. This meant that with just a few more strikes, the Dread Knight could slay this necromancer and complete the mission.

"Five meters ahead, Charge Slash!"

Li Wei felt no pity for the severely wounded Sand. At the same time, he struck at Sand with his Cloud Piercing Palm. Whenever the enemy attempted to cast a spell, he would quickly retreat. After several exchanges, Sand had failed to inflict any damage on Li Wei at all.

A dignified necromancer was being beaten into a state of total helplessness by Li Wei and his companion. In truth, necromancers were not suited for independent combat; they were masters of manipulating the dead. However, because Sand had been chasing Li Wei, his Vampire Honor Guards had failed to keep up, leading to this one-sided situation.

Yet, Li Wei knew clearly that in just a few more minutes, Sand's undead honor guards would arrive, and then he would be the one in trouble.

Thus, he and the Dread Knight continued their relentless assault.

-150

-36

The continuous damage brought the necromancer's health down to a heart-pounding level. Sand, now low on mana, was at the end of his rope, and the Dread Knight's fierce attacks left him too exhausted to mount a counter-offensive.

Both Li Wei and the Dread Knight, Mordel, knew that victory was within reach. Under Li Wei's Eye of Perception, Sand's health—after being struck by his palm—was down to less than 100 points. One more strike from the Dread Knight, and this B3-rated necromancer would die right here.

And Li Wei would be able to complete his mission and return to Shadow Street!

But things often take a sudden turn at the most critical moment. A massive iron axe came spinning through the air from behind Li Wei, the sound of the air being torn apart by its immense force echoing throughout Dawn City.

"Master, look out!" Mordel, the strongest among them, spotted the flying axe before Li Wei. He abandoned his attack on Sand and flashed in front of Li Wei to block it. With a loud clang of metal on metal, Mordel deflected the axe. Li Wei was startled, and by the time the two of them reacted, the necromancer Sand had already fled a great distance away.

"Damn it!" Li Wei pulled out his UPS Pistol, intending to fire, but he knew the single bullet remaining in the chamber—the "Wailing Scorching Impact Bullet"—only dealt 50-76 damage. It was nowhere near enough to finish off Sand, who still had 100 health points remaining.

The Dread Knight, lacking any ranged attack capabilities, was also powerless against the fleeing Sand.

Just one strike away from completing the mission, yet it was now impossible!

Li Wei turned around to see the culprit behind all this: a 1.90-meter-tall, muscular man who had been reduced to an undead state.

"This is our second time meeting, isn't it? Where are the others?" Guo Jian looked at Li Wei with some surprise. He never imagined that someone with such a high serial number could have nearly killed Sand. It must have been because of that tall Dread Knight.

It had to be!

At this moment, the healthy skin tone of Guo Jian's muscles had completely vanished, replaced by a grey-purple hue, though they were now much harder—one of the abilities gained after becoming an undead creature.

Staring at this man, countless thoughts flashed through Li Wei's mind, and finally, a clear answer began to emerge.

"Number 348, your mission has changed... It must be to protect Sand, or perhaps to kill all the other Reincarnators besides yourself, right?" Li Wei's words caused Guo Jian's expression to shift instantly. Although he quickly masked it, the reaction was not lost on Li Wei.

"I didn't expect it to actually be like this!" After saying this cryptic remark, Li Wei shook his head and let out a sneer. "You want to know where the others are? Sorry, I won't tell you!"

Li Wei did not intend to continue the conversation. He knew the assassination plan had failed. Not far away, many undead were already rushing toward them.

Guo Jian's killing intent flared. He began to shed his contempt for Li Wei; the analytical and deductive power displayed by this Reincarnator with a much higher serial number now filled him with a hint of fear. Such a person had to be eliminated.

Taking a deep breath, Guo Jian's muscles emitted a dull sound, like the twisting of cowhide. He practiced the "Primordial Origin Skill," the most easily obtained internal martial art on Shadow Street. Having reached the second level, his base attributes were already quite high, and his special technique, the "Rakshasa Three Forms," focused primarily on ferocity.

He covered the distance of several dozen meters in just three steps. Without a word of nonsense, he swung his massive fist toward Li Wei. His 35 points of Strength generated a powerful wind pressure as he struck.

Li Wei countered with the "Cloud Piercing Palm," meeting the fist head-on.

Boom!

Guo Jian took two steps back, while Li Wei had to retreat five or six steps to steady himself. Although the Cloud Piercing Palm was superior to the Rakshasa Three Forms in terms of technique, the massive gap in Strength attributes still left Li Wei at a significant disadvantage.

In this brief window, the Dread Knight had already engaged the arriving vampires. Seeing more and more enemies, Li Wei cursed his luck.

Seeing Li Wei trying to escape, Guo Jian hurriedly blocked one of the retreat paths. The other directions were swarming with undead; in such a situation, even if Li Wei could fly, he wouldn't be able to escape alive.

But what happened next made Guo Jian grind his teeth in hatred. Li Wei and the Dread Knight both jumped into a massive, withered well and vanished from sight.

Damn it, there's a secret passage!

By the time he reacted and chased them down to investigate, the two were nowhere to be found.

Emerging from the underground tunnel, Li Wei sat down on the ground, his heart filled with frustration. He had been just one step away from completing the mission to assassinate Sand. Who would have thought that a Number 348 Reincarnator would appear at the last second and cause the failure?

He had miscalculated. Li Wei had originally assumed that the man would die in Dawn City, so he hadn't factored him into the plan. Now it seemed that this single oversight had cost him a perfect opportunity.

However, the mission had not yet failed. Only two days of the seven-day time limit had passed; there was still a chance!

Regaining his confidence, Li Wei rested for a moment before entering the forest. He had to run, as that was the only way to evade the undead pursuers.

Meanwhile, the Knight Training Ground under the night sky was also having a sleepless night.

Zheng Yutong tiredly took off her armor and entered her tent. For the entire day, she had been conquering surrounding resource points and recruitment centers. Although there were some losses, the gains were even greater. Clearly, Li Wei's "Limit Expansion" plan was highly effective.

"What is that guy doing?" Thinking of Li Wei, Zheng Yutong's mood did not improve.

Out of boredom, she took out the letter Bai Jie had brought back. It was written by Li Wei himself, containing detailed expansion plans and even involving the usage of certain units. Without this letter, Zheng Yutong would never have been able to expand so quickly.

Now, she possessed 100 knights, 300 archers, and halberdiers. Her wild unit forces included Withered Wood Guardians, High Elves, and others, totaling over 500 mixed troops. She held over 20 various resource points. Relying on these alone was enough to fight the undead of Dawn City.

Everything was moving in an ideal direction. Zheng Yutong leaned against the soft sheepskin, feeling drowsy. Glancing sideways at the letter, she suddenly noticed a string of tiny English letters written on the corner of the back.

neve

What was this?

Sitting up from her chair, Zheng Yutong looked at the English letters, her eyes becoming quite intrigued!