Necromancer, What the Heck Is a Summoned 055?

Peiwen also mounted a tall warhorse. For the first time, Chen Mo saw this usually mild-mannered guard captain radiating murderous intent.

After chatting with him softly every day, Chen Mo had almost forgotten that he was a professional soldier in a violent line of work.

The warhorses began picking up speed in short strides inside the camp. The fur wrapped around their hooves muffled the sound so effectively that the Gaoshi Territory squad, which had been trailing them at a steady distance, only realized what was happening when they charged out of camp. The squad scrambled for their mounts.

Too late!

The Cloudmist Territory cavalry charged at full speed, closing to attack range in just a few breaths. A dense volley of crossbow bolts shot out, aimed primarily at their opponents' mounts.

The Gaoshi Territory cavalry had no time to build up speed before they fell one after another beneath the rain of bolts. Only Knight Tikpot ignored the bolts aimed at him, slashing left and blocking right to protect his warhorse.

A gust swept past as Captain Peiwen leaped from his horse and unleashed the swordsman's exclusive combat skill-Charge!

Bang!

A long furrow tore through the fallen leaves. In the blink of an eye, the Golden Scale swordsman and Mystic Armor knight collided with ferocious force, the tremendous shock of sound striking everyone's eardrums like a hammer.

A rapid series of clanging blades followed.

Both were warriors trained in the kingdom's orthodox tradition. Their swordsmanship was recognizably in the Moonrest Dynasty style, favoring wide, sweeping movements.

Their combat strength was similar, so the fight should have been evenly matched. In reality, however, Tikpot could no longer hold out after just a few seconds.

With a team and healing behind him, Peiwen once again fought by trading injury for injury. Every sword stroke was aimed at taking a life even at the cost of his own, leaving the Gaoshi knight scrambling and roaring repeatedly.

"Have you gone mad? You're attacking an envoy of a kingdom marquis, the captain of a high noble's guard!"

"Stop! We mean no harm. We're only carrying out the city lord's orders!"

"Let us go. I swear on my honor as a knight, we won't follow you anymore!"

Peiwen said nothing, attacking with each sword stroke faster than the last.

"Madman, you madman! Do you think I really don't dare kill you?"

As the wounds on his body multiplied and his cavalrymen were all shot to the ground by their opponents, a fierce light flared in Tikpot's eyes. At last, he let out a strange cry, turned and took a sword strike from Peiwen head-on, then lunged forward, knocking aside two Emerald cavalrymen in his path and heading straight for the Dark Forest.

Although he might be intercepted and killed by the elves if he entered the Dark Forest, Captain Peiwen clearly had no intention of giving him any chance to escape. With another high-speed Charge, he cut directly across Tikpot's escape route.

Using such a rapid acceleration skill repeatedly in a short time placed an enormous burden on the body, but Peiwen didn't care. With healing behind him, he could afford to be reckless.

The two collided again, and Peiwen staggered back several steps. Even so, he managed to block his opponent's escape route.

But this was the very opportunity Tikpot had been waiting for.

The Gaoshi family's city guard captain was no mediocre fighter. Knowing he had little hope of escaping once he was tied down, the Gaoshi knight captain used the momentum of the collision to knock Peiwen aside. Instead of retreating, he pressed forward, charging straight toward Cloudmist Territory's camp.

Several cavalrymen tried to stop him, but he ruthlessly knocked them aside. The power of a Mystic Armor grand knight was on full display at that moment.

Peiwen chased desperately after him. Emerald Territory's warriors hastily formed up at the camp entrance, while Master Locke gripped his staff in both hands and cast one protective spell after another on the warriors at the gate. Even the court lady Linda fought down her trembling and stood in front of the young commandery princess...

None of them could stop the Gaoshi guard captain as he thundered toward them like a charging rhinoceros.

Chen Mo dropped into a half crouch, shouldered his rifle, and fired!

The rat-a-tat of gunfire echoed above the river valley.

Chapter 64: The long journey of escape

Could an automatic rifle stop a fourth-tier Mystic Armor knight who had undergone class advancement? Chen Mo proved in a battlefield test that it couldn't.

So far, there had been a serious gap between the levels of power Chen Mo had encountered: either first-tier Bronze Pattern fighters at the bottom of society, or first-advancement, fourth-tier fighters who formed the backbone of the nobility.

Just as Peiwen and the others had only a vague understanding of the power of Chen Mo's weapons, Chen Mo also lacked an understanding of how tough high-tier warriors were. Now, at last, he had a chance to test it in actual combat.

The power of an advanced-class fighter was on full display. Chen Mo emptied a magazine, yet failed to bring down the grand knight as he had expected.

But that didn't mean his opponent paid no price.

Bullet after bullet bit into the grand knight's body, which shimmered with a green glow. It was Psionic Energy, forged through countless days and nights of arduous cultivation and tempered into his flesh and blood, now stubbornly resisting the violent impact of a weapon from another world.

The rapidly spinning bullets pierced his clothes and, like miniature drills, gouged pits into the surface of Tikpot's skin. Their kinetic energy was quickly exhausted, but they also rapidly consumed the grand knight's protective aura.

The burst sent blood spraying from wounds all over the grand knight's body and slowed Tikpot slightly, but it failed to inflict any substantial damage. Instead, it completely ignited the knight captain's savage fury.

Tikpot let out an angry roar and charged even more fiercely.

A wild boar that hadn't been hit in a vital spot usually reacted like this.

Seeing the grand knight charging toward them, drenched in blood and more fearsome than ever, the Cloudmist Territory warriors involuntarily tensed every muscle. The terrifying reputation of first-advancement fighters made their legs tremble, but military discipline kept them from retreating. They could only tighten their grips on their weapons as the rusty scent of blood and a suffocating sense of pressure filled the air.

If bullets couldn't hurt him, grenade fragments probably wouldn't do much better.

The thought flashed through his mind. Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Mo pulled a No. 4 grenade from his combat belt, pulled and pressed it, took a half-step running start, and threw it toward the oncoming grand knight. He turned swiftly and nimbly, darting into the defensive circle formed by the Emerald Territory warriors with swords raised and shields braced.

It was a military-made special thermobaric grenade.

Boom!

With an unusually muffled, tremendous blast, a dazzling fireball more than two meters across suddenly expanded, engulfing the area in the middle.

Although Tikpot reacted quickly and dodged the scorching damage at the center, the multiple shock waves produced by the instantaneous explosion of the fuel-air explosive inside the thermobaric grenade still slammed into him, sending the grand knight, who had run nimbly even under gunfire, stumbling hard.

Tikpot's vision went dark and his ears rang incessantly, as though countless bronze bells were pealing madly inside his skull. The violent detonation at close range not only churned his internal organs, but also instantly depleted the surrounding oxygen, leaving his chest tight and suffocated. A powerful wave of dizziness struck, completely disrupting his sense of direction.

The grand knight staggered a few steps and shook his head hard, struggling to make out the direction of his enemies.

Then he heard a shriek behind him.

Guard Captain Peiwen unleashed his third Charge, crashing hard into Tikpot's back. The longsword in his hand pierced straight through the Gaoshi knight's waist and abdomen, then cut and pulled sideways, tearing open a huge L-shaped gash. Blood sprayed out like a fountain.

"Despicable! You... ambushed me..." Tikpot laboriously turned his head halfway, coughing up a large mouthful of blood. It was clearly blood from his internal organs flowing back up his esophagus.

Peiwen pulled out his blade without hesitation and struck again. Using the last of his strength, the Gaoshi knight clamped his hand around the blade, letting his fingers fall away piece by piece as he asked the question that had plagued him at the end: "W... why?"

Guard Captain Peiwen answered softly, "Green Pine and Emerald are at war. We are enemies now!"

He thrust the blade inward, piercing the knight captain's heart. The light in Tikpot's eyes went out completely, and his towering body crashed to the ground.

Captain Peiwen glanced at the large, radiating crater blasted out by the thermobaric grenade, then gave Chen Mo a complicated look and an approving gesture. He immediately issued an order: "Clear the battlefield. Quickly, quickly! We have to leave at once!"

The Cloudmist Territory warriors hurried to clean up the scene, while Chen Mo, now free, began taking stock of what he had learned.

First conclusion: 5.8 mm rounds didn't work well against a first-advancement warrior-class fighter. Captain Peiwen had indeed had reason to look down on a little bullet.

Second, even a grenade couldn't guarantee it would take down an enemy. He needed to talk to his family and see whether they had any other useful heavy-duty gear.

Once the Cloudmist Territory group had dealt with the scene and set off toward the Dark Forest, Chen Mo chose to accompany them.

The young commandery princess's group had helped him more than once. If he turned and ran at a time like this, he would feel somewhat guilty.

Of course, the more important reason was that Guard Captain Peiwen had spoken with Chen Mo. After gaining a better understanding of Chen Mo's value, Peiwen had promised him an independent territory and a certificate as a pioneering knight, provided the young commandery princess returned safely to Cloudmist Territory.

On top of that, he would introduce Chen Mo to at least one magic teacher.

Chen Mo couldn't help being tempted.

The main question he now had to consider was whether he could safely entrust weapons from Blue Star to the Cloudmist Territory warriors.

The leaders of Cloudmist Territory were also delighted that Chen Mo had ultimately decided to continue traveling with them.

Captain Peiwen felt it most keenly. As a swordsman from an orthodox background, his skills followed a direct and open approach, and he was unfamiliar with the underhanded tactics used in assassination. Normally, when he fought someone of the same tier, neither side came out on top.

Yet in the short time since meeting Chen Mo, he had already killed a fourth-tier fighter and a fifth-tier fighter.

With that record, at least among the people of his own tier he knew, if he claimed second place, he doubted anyone would dare claim first.

More importantly, he knew very well that although he could easily handle this youngster with a single Charge, he could clearly sense that the other party's strange "nonmagical items" were a systematic set of killing weapons.

They must have come from a bloodthirsty, brutal sovereign, a warlord. He had no idea what such a figure saw in this refined, easygoing youngster.

For now, this young noble was on his side, which was reassuring. If he could offer more suitable sacrifices in the future, perhaps he might even obtain some more powerful "equipment."

As for the young commandery princess, she was extremely pleased by the heroism her chosen "potential affair partner" had shown by stepping forward at such a critical moment. Whenever she had a spare moment, she would wander past Chen Mo and sneak a glance at him with her big eyes.

Master Locke, who also worked as an alchemist, surveyed the scene once more and gave the weapon a highly accurate assessment: a devastating weapon for breaking formations.

Chen Mo was admitted to the high-level meetings of Cloudmist Territory's core group.

The entire Cloudmist Territory group was ostensibly led by Commandery Princess Liushuang, but in actual decision-making, the young commandery princess was just a figurehead with no say at all. The other two also relied heavily on Guard Captain Peiwen's judgment in military matters, so command was highly unified, with no squabbling to speak of.

Peiwen gave a brisk, straightforward briefing on his arrangements.

All carriages and supplies were to be abandoned. The warriors exchanged their plate armor for light armor and set out with only light weapons and their warhorses.

"Even in full armor, we can't possibly defeat the enemy kingdom's regular army. We can only rely on mobility, so we must shed every burden!"

The burdens Peiwen spoke of included not only possessions, but people as well.

Peiwen gave money to the wounded soldiers who had difficulty moving, the delicate maids, the temporarily hired mercenaries, and the auxiliary troops who were no longer of use, and told them to disperse on their own.

"Find somewhere to hide and wait for the war to end. I'll send someone back for you! If the roads become safe, you can also find a chance to make your own way to Cloudmist Territory."

"If the enemy captures you, you have permission to surrender. But remember, you must not disparage the lord or the commandery princess!"

"Go! If you're still in my sight after twenty breaths, you won't live!"

The maids' eyes brimmed with tears, and the young commandery princess was also reluctant to part with them, but Peiwen firmly drove them away.

Taking the twenty remaining warriors, he protected the young commandery princess and the group of mages as they plunged into the vast, wild Dark Forest.

They would travel north, crossing the entire territory of the enemy kingdom and heading for the broad Emerald Great Plain.

Chapter 65: Mountainview Camp

The Bloodred Corridor presented little difficulty to the current group. Since the elves had opened such a passage over land, they naturally had no wish to expend precious fighting strength there any longer.

Now, only ordinary magical beasts wandered the road, along with eerie white bones scattered across the ground and worn by the passage of time.

A squad of elite guards was enough to clear away any trouble along the way.

They encountered no travelers on the road either. Unless they were a powerful group or facing some special emergency, people still preferred not to take this route.

After all, the gloomy, sinister forest was no safe place. Why not take a safe flying ship instead?

For Chen Mo, the real challenge was the journey itself.

Because they needed to travel fast and light, he had been forced to abandon bulky equipment such as the weather station, collection instruments, and solar panels, taking only the memory cards.

Peiwen keenly noticed the reluctance in Chen Mo's eyes. He had his men dig a deep pit on a secluded hillside beside the road and carefully bury the instruments.

"Don't worry. Once this war is over, I'll come back and help you retrieve them myself! They won't be lost!"

Then there was Skeleton Xiaobai, who had always served as his "storage jar" and "lancer." Chen Mo certainly couldn't leave Xiaobai behind, so Peiwen assigned another warrior to carry Little White and Little White's bundle along the way.