Geralt arrived late, followed by a short-haired woman dressed in a Nilfgaardian noble's tunic, silk leggings, and riding boots.
Her emerald eyes held both elegance and wildness, and her gaze was intensely aggressive.
Chen Xu dared not use Detection recklessly. His intuition alone was enough to warn him that this woman was terrifyingly powerful.
"L-Lady Vigo, welcome to the Crow's Perch garrison." The officer's expression visibly changed when he saw the woman, but after stepping forward to salute, he still carefully checked the military orders on file.
"What is going on here?"
Fringilla Vigo held her chin high, standing before the Nilfgaardian officer, who was at least six feet tall, and forcing him to bow and scrape.
This member of the Lodge of Sorceresses, an imperial sorceress, glanced disdainfully at the mud beneath her feet, worried about soiling her magnificent boots.
The officer explained everything in full, daring neither to conceal anything nor embellish it.
The woman before him looked beautiful, but she was a powerful sorceress and a distant relative of the royal family. The emperor had once imprisoned her for treason, yet now she was brazenly walking around again!
"I know this man. He really is the blacksmith from White Orchard," Geralt spoke up for him.
"A friend?" Fringilla glanced thoughtfully at the witcher.
A friend of the witcher...
"I'm his creditor. He owes me his life," Geralt denied, winking at the woman.
These two definitely had something going on.
Chen Xu envied nothing else, only the White Wolf's formidable prowess at pounding.
The panel was still too narrow-minded. The White Wolf ought to have a skill called [Womanizing].
"It's nothing significant. The empire is already preparing to mass-produce similar weapons." With a wave of her hand, Fringilla got Chen Xu out of trouble.
She instructed the officer to keep Zhaotian Zhi under close guard, preferably finding a way to silence him or simply killing him.
Not long ago, the emperor had suddenly acquired a talent for designing weapons and had already laid out a new weapons manufacturing strategy for the rear, a blessing for the empire.
This man with the same ideas was something of a talent too. Ordinarily, he could have been recruited into the empire, but at this critical juncture, he absolutely could not be allowed to reach the North.
Though she kept her voice down, none of the Chosen present were ordinary people. Not only could Chen Xu hear her, but Zhaotian Zhi heard every word too.
The situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse. How could the "great inventor" fail to understand now? A Chosen had descended in Nilfgaard!
"Brothers, charge with me!"
Zhaotian Zhi roared and easily broke free of the two soldiers restraining him.
Yet the other Chosen with the [Soldier] identity remained unmoved. This guy only cared about himself when he was doing well. Now that he was in trouble, he remembered us?
His small eyes swept viciously over everyone. Gritting his teeth, he seized a poleaxe and swept it around, cutting down a swath of nearby soldiers. For a moment, he advanced as though no one stood in his way.
Total level: Lv. 9. Max-level [Hoodlum] + [Thug] Lv. 4.
[Shared Lineage] also granted a 10% strength bonus.
Despite his short stature, [Detection] showed that Zhaotian Zhi's strength attribute was a full 10 points, without exaggerated muscles all over his body hampering his agility.
To Chen Xu, the most absurd thing about the panel was its ability to enhance the Chosen's minds and senses at will.
Or to give a person immense strength far beyond their size.
Such an effect could only arise from the density and strength of both muscles and bones transforming together.
Imagining an ant throwing an elephant over its shoulder gave some sense of how ridiculous it was.
Zhaotian Zhi broke through the encirclement with all his strength, stepped over the soldiers' corpses littering the ground, and leaped onto a sturdy horse tethered beside the road, charging toward the outer city.
Once mounted, his charges became even more terrifying, and the battlefield fell into a rhythm of riding and slashing.
"Whoa!"
Chen Xu whistled. Lizi stopped abruptly, throwing off the unprepared Zhaotian Zhi.
The witcher seized the opportunity to draw his steel sword and close in!
Metal clashed. Zhaotian Zhi rolled and quickly sprang to his feet, blocking Geralt's two-handed downward strike with one arm.
His left hand shot out and grabbed the collar of Geralt's leather armor. Twisting his body, he hurled him away like a piece of rubbish.
He gathered his strength and jumped straight up, caught the edge of the inner city wall, then pulled himself onto it with a slight flex of his abdomen.
Geralt rolled as he landed to dissipate the force, then turned to look at his opponent, who had just steadied himself atop the wall. He aimed his left hand, blue light glowing around his bent middle finger.
Aard Sign, telekinetic blast!
The air before his fingertips was violently forced aside. Zhaotian Zhi flew backward off the nearly three-and-a-half-meter-high inner wall, executed a graceful flip in midair, and landed firmly on his feet.
His expression turned ugly when he saw the Nilfgaardian soldiers forming another encircling formation.
He lightly tapped at his heart with his left hand, and a terrifying, savage aura spread.
The place where Zhaotian Zhi lived was a wasteland with unimaginably harsh conditions.
Industrial garbage and energy waste buried the surface. A single breath of clean air was hard to find anywhere on the planet!
Sometimes people died over nothing more than a mouthful of water. Those who survived were the most cunning, the most vicious, and also the toughest and most unyielding!
His small, hunched body straightened. His muscles kept swelling, even bursting through his leather armor.
The skin all over his body stretched to its limit, as though it would burst the next instant, unable to contain his raging muscles.
"Hah-"
Second-stage mutation!
Praise the High Heavens for letting me see such a beautiful world!
He slowly exhaled a foul breath. His veins bulged like earthworms, and his pupils had become vertical, bestial slits.
Chen Xu's [Detection] revealed no information about this state. All he knew was that Zhaotian Zhi's strength attribute had suddenly changed from 10 to an unknown question mark!
It was probably a secret he had never revealed, something unique to each Chosen: [Talent].
Decimate! Crippling Strike!
He held a heavy poleaxe in each hand, weapons that should have required both hands to wield.
In this state, Zhaotian Zhi became a battlefield meat grinder, dominating the fight with absolute brutality.
The winged-helmet officer immediately ordered his men to retreat, clearing space for the bowmen and crossbowmen behind them.
Yet Zhaotian Zhi clearly retained his awareness, following the soldiers wherever they went.
For a moment, the officer had no solution. Fringilla yanked aside a soldier who appeared to be standing in front of her to protect her but whose legs had actually gone weak with fear.
"Nasa-Mimongolis-Poli-Ge-Sisa!"
An obscure incantation, grand and solemn, erupted from her slender frame. Zhaotian Zhi instinctively looked back and instantly lost himself in endless illusions.
Illusion magic! Illusion magic again!
Fringilla's mastery in this field was clearly greater than Penny's. Zhaotian Zhi stood motionless, a look of struggle on his face.
His consciousness had clearly fallen into layers of illusions, leaving him without control of his body.
The soldiers, who had been slaughtered into throwing away their helmets and armor, still dared not approach. Chen Xu seized the opportunity to pick up a poleaxe from the ground and swung it in a full arc into that vein-bulging neck.
Blood shot skyward, surpassing even a fountain.
Zhaotian Zhi's corpse shriveled back to its original form, yet the head that fell to the ground wore a strange smile.
[You killed the [Baron's Guard] Chosen Zhaotian Zhi. Points +200. Reveal your name?] [You attempted to comprehend the [Poleaxe] proficiency at the introductory level... Failed.]
The brute had been executed, and the Nilfgaardians began clearing the battlefield.
The other four Chosen present exchanged looks. Their leader was gone. Who would give orders now?
The winged-helmet officer returned the steel sword Gram, which Chen Xu gladly accepted. He led Lizi back and tethered her beside the road again.
He had scored a huge bargain in this fight: a whole crowd provided support while he stole the kill, and no one held him accountable afterward.
"A rare opponent, and you finished him with one swing of an axe." Geralt sheathed his sword, looking rather dispirited.
He was still surprised that an ordinary person could unleash such formidable combat power.
"The opportunity was too good to miss." Chen Xu smiled helplessly, activating [Deception]. "We couldn't let him keep killing."
"Quite right." Fringilla, for her part, appreciated such decisiveness in killing.
She mounted her horse and rode into the inner city, speaking to the two men with her back turned in a tone that brooked no argument. "You have five minutes to catch up. Geralt, we still have business to attend to."