On the Zuli River.
On a small mound.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Damn it... Can someone tell me how this could happen? How could this happen? That guy is actually a knight? A knight who has mastered dual Battle Aura? But there's clearly no Dou Qi fluctuation on him... My Tower Shield Dragon Spear Formation... Unforgivable!"
The Silver-Masked Man stared at the battlefield on the stone bridge, his usually sharp and piercing gaze momentarily lost in thought.
He simply couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Their once-proud elite army crumbled under the provocation of a bunch of mutts.
His anger burned, and suddenly a blue light flashed from his body, and a chilling aura surged, like a block of ancient ice suddenly releasing bone-chilling cold. The horsewhip in his hand was gripped tightly and, with a crack, froze into an ice block, falling to the ground and shattering into pieces.
Is there anything more humiliating for him than this?
His supposedly foolproof troop deployment crumbled rapidly under the onslaught of a dozen or so country bumpkins. The tower shield and dragon spear formation, which he had always proudly called the Black Armor Army's best defense, couldn't even last two minutes. Two minutes! It couldn't even last the time it took him to issue a military order before it turned into a pile of minced meat and scrap metal!
Such an unexpected defeat was an unbearable blow to the arrogant and invincible Silver-Masked Man. It was as if a high and mighty god who thought he controlled the life and death of thousands of living beings was suddenly knocked down by a dirty beggar, who then stomped on his face with his filthy and festering feet.
"I swear, I will leave no living thing in Chambord City. I will capture every man, woman, and child of Chambord City alive, skin them alive, stuff their skins with straw, and hang them on this stone bridge... I will chop their limbs and bones into mincemeat, and then make that ignorant King of Chambord City kneel on the ground and eat it bite by bite!"
The Silver-Masked Man roared angrily.
A faint blue, chilling aura emanated from his body, then surged dramatically. With a whoosh, a white blast of cold air flashed by, and a layer of white frost quickly condensed on the black iron frame of the Silver-Masked Man's warhorse. As for the priceless black steed, it was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture, its blood and flesh congealed in an instant.
The black knights behind him were so frightened that they didn't dare to breathe. They all lowered their heads and held their breath, not daring to speak. Even the black horses under the black knights sensed the danger and retreated uneasily. Their big eyes couldn't hide their fear as they looked at the Silver-Masked Man as if they were seeing a raging, bloodthirsty beast.
On the entire mound, only one person remained unmoved.
The mysterious black-cloaked figure who appeared to the right of the Silver-Masked Man seemed completely unaware of the situation. A faint black mist enveloped him, even distorting the light. The skinny white horse he rode was snorting and leisurely grazing on the grass, seemingly oblivious to the murderous aura emanating from the Silver-Masked Man.
"Order—the armor-piercing heavy arrow formation, prepare immediately! Launch an indiscriminate barrage! I will spare no expense to nail those bastards to their deaths on the stone bridge..." The Silver-Masked Man commanded in a fit of rage, his eyes bloodshot and terrifying.
"Master, there are still our soldiers on the bridge... there's a possibility of accidental injury..."
Upon hearing this, Duns was greatly surprised. At this moment, the group of demons in full steel armor had completely broken into the black-clad soldiers' formation. The two sides were mixed together. If they were to launch an indiscriminate barrage of armor-piercing heavy arrows, it would indeed be possible to eliminate the enemy, but their own hundred or so soldiers would have absolutely no chance of survival.
"Soldiers? Soldiers must use their blood and lives to achieve the commander's Glory; this is their mission. To die for me is their good fortune."
Without turning his head, the Silver-Masked Man casually uttered a single sentence that sealed the fate of hundreds of his soldiers.
However, in his rage, the last shred of clarity in his mind made him think that he should perhaps prepare some trump cards. The repeated defeats had instilled a sense of trepidation and vigilance in the Silver-Masked Man. The shock he felt from the guy charging at the front was so great that it even gave him the illusion that even armor-piercing arrows could not destroy that group of demons.
He rode the warhorse, now frozen stiff, turned slightly, and, his tone softening a bit, bowed to the mysterious figure in the black cloak, saying, "Teacher, if... if the armor-piercing heavy arrows are ineffective, I hope you can intervene and use your merciless magic to help me get rid of those troublesome mutts!"
The mysterious figure in the black cloak nodded.
This movement caused the black cloak to flutter slightly in the wind, revealing a magic wand engraved with intricate and mysterious patterns beneath the robe.
He didn't respond to the Silver-Masked Man's words immediately, but instead muttered to himself thoughtfully, "Incredible... Someone can actually switch freely between three completely different power attributes: ferocious physical strength, sinister and eerie magical power, and the knightly power of light. And it seems that guy also possesses some mysterious skills... Although none of them are particularly powerful, they're still quite interesting... I must obtain the secret; perhaps then I can break through my bottleneck and greatly increase my strength, hehe..."
Thinking this through, he turned to the Silver-Masked Man and nodded, replying in a hoarse, cold voice, "I can take action, but that guy must be captured alive; I need him for something."
As he spoke, the mysterious cloaked figure extended a finger from beneath his black robe. The finger was withered and wrinkled, resembling a dried-up zombie finger. The person he pointed at was none other than Sun Fei, who was charging ahead on the stone bridge.
The Silver-Masked Man frowned.
That guy was originally the Silver-Masked Man hated the most. If he hadn't been charging ahead unstoppably, the Black Armor Army's tower shield and dragon spear formation probably wouldn't have been so easily torn apart and broken through so quickly, causing Silver Mask to suffer heavy losses. Silver-Masked Man had almost wanted to shoot this guy through the heart with a thousand arrows and turn him into a hedgehog, but since it was the man in the black cloak who spoke, and considering his nominal teacher's terrifying magical power of up to Four-Star Class, Silver-Masked Man finally nodded in agreement.
"Pass down the order, have the archers keep that guy half-dead, just don't kill him!" the Silver-Masked Man coldly changed his previous command.
The black knight behind him didn't dare to breathe and quickly obeyed the order and left.
Soon, a squad of black-clad warriors marched out from the black camp. Their steps were steady, clearly indicating considerable skill. They carried massive black bows on their backs, their quivers filled with grotesque arrows with white fletchings. The arrows were engraved with magical symbols and emanated a faint magical aura; these were armor-piercing arrows capable of penetrating heavy steel armor and the magical shields of low-level mages—a nightmare for any heavily armored knight or mage on the battlefield.
Each of these armor-piercing heavy arrows was extremely expensive to produce, practically made entirely of gold coins. They were generally too precious to use on the battlefield. Yet, the Silver-Masked Man had unabashedly revealed all his trump cards, demonstrating the intensity of his anger.
The mysterious figure in the black cloak ignored this.
He chuckled softly, his voice hoarse and grating, like a dull knife being sharpened on rough mountain rocks. He urged his skinny horse forward at a leisurely pace toward the stone bridge. A wisp of black mist shrouded him, growing thicker and thicker as the horse moved forward, gradually obscuring the view of others.
Meanwhile, in those less than two minutes, the battle on the bridge intensified—or rather, the slaughter by Sun Fei and his twenty-two heavily armored warriors reached a fever pitch. With Sun Fei as their unbreakable spearhead, any formation of the black-clad warriors was as fragile as soft, wet cheese, and they could easily break through.
The six siege ladders had long been destroyed and overturned into the surging river below the bridge. In the past two minutes, these twenty-three blood-soaked killing gods had swept through a javelin formation and a swordsman formation of black-clad soldiers with unstoppable momentum.
Wherever they passed, the bridge surface transformed into Shura Hell, thick with blood. Wailing and screams became the main melody on the bridge, mingling with the howling of the rain, as if death itself was grinning in the sky. Even the air turned blood red; taking a breath meant inhaling not air, but crimson blood!
By this point in the battle, even the well-trained and battle-hardened black-clad warriors had completely collapsed. They had utterly lost the will to fight. Beneath their armor, smeared with blood and bone fragments, a single glance from the knight through the peephole of his visor was enough to terrify the soldiers at the front. A single roar from him would make their legs go weak. Although the blazing Scorching Sun still radiated intense heat, they felt as if they were in an icebox...
The once orderly formation crumbled completely. The soldiers in the front ranks screamed and fled to the rear, scattering the other formations of the black-clad warriors behind them. The bridge suddenly became incredibly crowded, and many soldiers, pushed and shoved by their own men, fell off the bridge and into the river, disappearing after a few splashes...
Even more terrifying was the Bloody of blood and flesh flowing from the bridge into the river, attracting monstrous fish to the surface to fight for the prey. These fish were covered in black scales, each four or five meters long, with countless sharp teeth that gleamed coldly in the Sun. Even a living person who fell in would be quickly torn to pieces...
"My God, it's Bloodthirsty Fierce Water Beast! Damn it, the blood attracted the water beast..."
Upon seeing the strange fish, some of the black-armored soldiers screamed in terror, panicking even more. Many more fell into the river and perished in the beast's belly during the stampede and shoving. A few slightly luckier ones desperately clung to the bridge's edge, but soon succumbed and fell with cries of agony...
"Charge! Charge! Charge! Charge! Charge!"
Sun Fei switched freely between [ Paladin Mode ] and [ Barbarian Mode ], using the Paladin skills [Power] and [Prayer] to ensure his companions behind him were not injured, while wielding the Barbarian's super axe to sweep away all enemies.
Rumble, rumble--!
In the blink of an eye, they advanced to the very middle of the two-kilometer-long stone bridge, its narrowest point. Several massive stone launchers were parked there. Sun Fei blasted aside the soldiers blocking his way with an axe, then kicked one of the six- or seven-hundred-pound launchers. With a deafening roar, the first launcher was kicked off the bridge and crashed into the water, killing many Bloodthirsty Fierce Water Beast. Several black-clad soldiers were also dragged down with their cries of agony...
The frenzied advance left the already chaotic black-clad warriors with no way to stop it. Soon, with several more thunderous booms, four of the six giant stone launchers had been propelled into the water by Sun Fei and his burly men...
The situation was developing exactly as Sun Fei had predicted, even proceeding more smoothly due to the enemy soldiers' rout. But then, an unexpected change occurred—
" Explosive Flame Slash--!"
With a roar, a massive red flame of Dou Qi aura, carrying an unstoppable force like a mountain crashing down, suddenly soared through the chaotic crowd of black-clad warriors and hurtled directly towards Sun Fei and his group.
Sun Fei's pupils contracted.
It was the enemy's Three-Star Class expert—the swordsman Langde.
It's finally here.
Another 3500 words, making it over 10,000 words today, haven't you?
Do you have any collectibles? Do you have any red stamps?
There's no more content. I'll eat a Xiaodao bit after each update tomorrow morning. I haven't eaten anything yet.
Seeking comfort.