Killing 2

Just as he was about to turn back, Anglie suddenly heard an extremely faint murmur of voices drifting from the woods to his right.

"Unknown targets detected. Two individuals," the Biochip prompted.

His expression hardened. He lightened his steps, bent low, and slowly moved toward the right.

Carried on the breeze, the voices gradually became clearer. It seemed two people were discussing something, though their words came in broken fragments.

"...Four days already, from here... too late..." a deep voice said.

"It's fine... when the silver mine returns, just in time... him. We only need to wait a little longer... then..." another, somewhat shrill female voice said.

Anglie hid behind a large tree, crouching down and quietly listening to the conversation.

However, the two seemed to be merely passing through the upwind side of this area. Their voices soon faded, swiftly vanishing into the forest.

Anglie suddenly recalled what the baron had mentioned earlier about the fugitives. When the baron had spoken with Knight Audis, he seemed to have said there was something strange about these fugitives, that they had been drawn here by some matter. Their combat strength was formidable, and they resembled regular soldiers.

When Anglie had returned to the castle wounded, the baron had said he was taking men to surround and suppress the fugitives. Yet afterward, he had heard no news of the result. If they had won, there should have been a celebration. If they had lost, there should have been compensation for the fallen soldiers. But there had been no unusual developments at all. Clearly, the most likely possibility was that the baron and his men had come up empty-handed.

Ever since his battle with Dis, Anglie no longer feared combat. In its place was a faint thrill of excitement. He possessed the Biochip, had mastered powerful and precise Basic Swordsmanship, and his physical qualities had been strengthened to a level barely below Knight Level. Coupled with his incomparably accurate archery, he now desperately needed another chance to test his strength in practice.

After all, in his battle against Dis, he had relied heavily on the advantage of the poisoned sword.

After thinking briefly, Anglie decided to follow the two people.

Bent at the waist, he carefully followed the direction in which the voices had faded, rapidly advancing under the Biochip's guidance.

After walking for over ten minutes, he discovered relatively fresh footprints beginning to appear on the forest floor, which was carpeted with fallen leaves. Leo Territory was mostly forested hills, and the weather was damp, so layers upon layers of yellowish-brown leaves covered the forest ground. Step on them, and it was easy to leave behind a dark, wet footprint.

With a trail to follow, Anglie quickened his pace.

The trees on either side swiftly slid backward. Anglie gradually caught the scent of roasting meat. He stopped and looked around. The trees here had grown quite tall, their dense foliage nearly blanketing the entire forest canopy, allowing only the tiniest scraps of light to filter through. Even in daytime, the place felt gloomy and sinister.

Anglie removed his longbow and nocked a white-feathered arrow. It was coated in poison; a single shot would surely take a life. Despite his formidable weapon and the Biochip's alerts, he still raised his vigilance to the utmost.

If things were truly as the baron had said, and the other side was regular troops from the Saladin Empire in disguise, they might very well discover him first.

The Saladin Empire was a forest kingdom whose people had always lived in the woods. Most of them excelled at archery and moved through the jungle as freely as fish through water. They were the finest woodland warriors. Rumor had it that Saladin's founding emperor even possessed the bloodline of the elves from legends.

Anglie carefully moved forward. The smell of roasting meat ahead grew stronger and stronger. Clearly, he was already very close to their camp.

Crack!

A faint sound suddenly came from beneath his foot.

"Someone there!!! Stay alert!!" A loud shout suddenly rang out from ahead. Saladin and the Rudin Kingdom used similar languages and scripts, so there was no real language barrier between them. The instant those words were spoken, Anglie realized he had been exposed.

"Targets detected ahead. Eleven individuals," the Biochip promptly alerted him.

Eleven faint blue silhouettes appeared before Anglie's eyes. These figures were lurking in the grass, carefully yet swiftly moving toward him. Their movements were soft and silent, like snakes gliding through the undergrowth.

Several of them held longbows horizontally and slowly drew them. Their arrows had green exteriors like branches, making them highly concealed.

Anglie slowly drew his bowstring and steadied himself. Though he did not know what mechanism he had triggered, now that he had been discovered, battle was his only option.

Twange!!

The bowstring snapped violently. The white-feathered arrow shot out first, becoming a white streak that savagely buried itself in one of the archers. A scream startled the forest.

Anglie swiftly turned and ducked behind a tree, quickly nocking another arrow. With a thought, he kicked hard with his foot.

A stone flew out from his kick.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Three green arrows struck the fist-sized stone in rapid succession. Their metal arrowheads clashed against it with three sharp rings. The arrows glanced away from the stone and embedded deeply in the soil to one side.

Seeing the force behind those arrows, Anglie was secretly startled. This was no longer the level of ordinary soldiers. They were at least Apprentice Knights. Only people whose bodies had been strengthened could fire arrows with such power and precision.

Taking advantage of the opening after the enemy had fired, Anglie twisted his body and shot another arrow.

Another scream rang out. Clearly, someone else had been struck.

"Box him in and kill him!!" a deep male voice shouted in fury.

The sounds of swords being drawn rang out one after another. Clearly, they had abandoned the idea of attacking him from afar and were preparing to rely on their numbers to surround him.

Anglie touched the quiver on his back, a glimmer of excitement appearing in his eyes. He gently removed his longbow and quiver and placed them in the bushes at his feet. Then he quietly drew his longsword and tossed aside its scabbard.

There was not a sound from the woods behind him. But Anglie knew the enemy was definitely closing in.

Clang!!

He suddenly raised his sword to block at his right side. A thin blade as thick as a finger had just stabbed into his sword.

After knocking aside the thrust, Anglie shoved forward hard. Unable to withstand the force, his opponent staggered backward, landing right within range of Anglie's descending sword. Anglie slashed down with the momentum.

With a cry, half the man's neck was directly severed.

After being strengthened by the Blue Bamboo Shoot, Anglie's strength was no longer weak. Together with Dis's sharp longsword, the effect was immediately apparent.

After killing one man, Anglie shifted aside as though he had eyes in the back of his head, narrowly avoiding another thin sword thrust straight at him. Without even looking, he gripped his sword in reverse and stabbed backward.

A muffled groan sounded behind him. Another person had been struck squarely through the chest.

"Harry!!" A woman let out a shrill, grief-stricken cry.

Anglie licked his lips, ran two steps forward, bent low, and explosively sprang left. His longsword chopped straight down.

The woman's voice had come from there.

Clang! Clang!

After two consecutive blocks, a woman dressed in tight green clothing was struck on the crown of the head by Anglie's sword. Her entire head was nearly split in two. Without even a grunt, she fell dead to the ground.

The Biochip's prompts allowed him to grasp every movement across the battlefield.

The remaining seven or eight people finally took the chance to surround him.

These people wore green clothes adorned with leaves. There were both men and women among them, and most of them were quite attractive—the men handsome, the women beautiful. If they had not been enemies, Anglie might even have felt the urge to hire them as his subordinates. After all, if all the guards around him had pretty faces, his mood every day would be much better.

Even surrounded by seven or eight people, Anglie did not panic. From the series of fights just now, he had realized that these people's movements were far slower than his. In his eyes, their speed lagged an entire beat behind. With the Biochip's alerts as well, he had more than enough room to evade their attacks.

"Anglie!! He's Anglie Leo!! Kyle Leo's only son!!" A young girl suddenly shouted in grief and fury. She looked no older than seventeen or eighteen, yet she had actually taken part in such a secret operation.

"How is that possible!?" The others stirred uneasily.

Anglie grinned. He was beginning to enjoy this feeling of walking along the edge of danger.

He kicked off the ground and charged forward in a sudden burst of speed.

With a hiss, his blade swept across the beautiful girl's neck. Blood erupted as her head was sent flying, crashing against a tree trunk before rolling to the ground. Even in death, her face still held a trace of disbelief. Her beautiful green eyes were wide open.

"Kill him!!! Heavens!! He killed Elena!!" The remaining men charged at him madly.

Anglie tilted aside, evading two thin swords. With a clang, his longsword blocked the point of a blade he could not avoid. Borrowing the force, he spun and slashed. With a hiss, another man's waist was cleanly cut open. His midsection was nearly severed entirely. Still holding the posture of thrusting forward with his sword, he crashed to the ground. Blood gushed out in great torrents.

The others were stunned for a moment. Anglie was just about to finish off the rest.

Hiss!

He abruptly raised his sword to block in front of his forehead.

A massive clang rang out. Anglie was shaken backward several steps. A black arrow fell weakly into the grass beside him.

"I'll kill you!!!" Amid an enraged roar, a burly figure lunged out from the side. He held a black thin sword in his hand. Before he even arrived, the blade trembled, stabbing toward Anglie's entire body like a rainstorm.

"A Knight Level expert!" Anglie was secretly startled. However, it was only expected that the fugitives who had escaped the baron's grasp would possess a Knight Level expert. After a moment of alarm, he quickly calmed down again.

His crossguard sword flexibly blocked the opponent's continuous thrusts. Anglie discovered that the other man's sword was actually faster than his. Yet the other man's fighting movements contained far too many unnecessary motions. They were nowhere near as concise as Anglie's. Many times, he could clearly have been faster, but his habitual movements and flaws in his swordsmanship prevented his own speed from displaying its full might.

With a clang, he blocked an arrow shot from the side, yet Anglie still had the leisure to inspect the data provided by the Biochip.

"Unknown target's physical qualities: Strength above 2, Agility above 3, Constitution above 1 and below 2. Target is in a state of potential eruption."

He took two steps back, then suddenly crouched down. Without even looking, he thrust his longsword upward. A spray of blood burst forth.

"It's over." He pushed off with his feet, leaping backward and pulling away.

The unnamed Knight Level expert stood blankly where he was. From his chin to his forehead, a blood-red vertical seam slowly seeped blood.

"No!! Lord Riga!!" The remaining few cried out in agony.

Anglie sighed inwardly.

"This is the advantage of swordsmanship. With the Basic Swordsmanship the Biochip had compiled, against a world with only crude sword techniques, he was simply powerful enough to be cheating."

Thump!!

The Knight Level man's corpse collapsed to the ground. Most of his head had been split open by Anglie. There was no chance he could survive.

"This was the first Knight Level expert I had independently killed in this world!" Anglie felt an indescribable surge within him. Gripping his longsword, he looked toward the remaining few people and suddenly pounced.

Several sounds of metal clashing came from the woods, followed by a few screams. Then there was nothing but silence.