Chapter 23: Infiltrating the King’s Castle II
While flying, Draven maintained a low altitude so the archers on the top wouldn't notice him. Several seconds later, far from the residents, a tiny pine forest near the city walls appeared in his sight. Instead of landing through the canopy, Draven disappeared from the sky, activating the short-distance teleportation.
The forest was small, bright, and rich. Its canopy was eclipsed by mostly pine with some hickory and larch. Their crowns allowed cascading light and rain to shimmer through for a flood of plants to rule the soft, rich soils below.
Swooping vines held onto every tree, and various flowers, scattered sporadically, added some color to the otherwise mundane terrain.
A cacophony of water droplets drumming the canopy resonated through the air. It overpowered the croaks of frogs in the nearby water puddles.
Landing on a hickory branch, relatively high in the air, Draven leaned on the tree to survey the castle. He saw the twenty or so archers patrolling the crescent city walls.
Like a predator watching its prey, Draven observed the archers and their patterns.
"Twenty archers. Odds aren't on our side," Margoth's ghostly head appeared over his shoulder,
"We are not going to take them out. Instead, we are flying there," Draven pointed at one of the fourteen slim square towers at the far end of the castle. On top of the square, there was only one Archer and it was the highest point in the castle. Thus, no one would notice if Draven took out the archer silently.
"Can you fly that high? This is, after all, a pigeon's wings. Not a hawk's,"
"Time to find out,"
"Don't you have a plan B?" Margoth growled,
"Plan B is to make plan A work," Draven simply shrugged as he opened his red wings. Deep down, Draven was confident he could fly to the tower. Else, Draven had plan C, but he didn't tell Margoth as he would bitch about that plan.
Boom!
Draven flapped his wings with enough force to send himself into the air like a bullet. However, he didn't fly all the way. Instead, he used short-distance teleportation to reach higher and higher. That was the reason the archers didn't see him because he kept disappearing and appearing way above their sight.
Draven combined the teleportation power and the power of wings to reach higher and higher in the sky. But despite his blank expression, Draven felt an intense pain in his back. The higher he went, the more resistance he felt from the atmosphere. The wings weren't built for high-altitude flying. At that moment, he was hundreds of meters above the rain clouds.
Nonetheless, Draven gritted his teeth, fighting through the pain to reach higher than the tallest tower where the archer stood watch, scratching his back with an arrow.
"Drop him," As Draven flew above the archer, Margoth ordered him.
Floating fifty or so meters above the archer, Draven closed his wings and dived towards the archer. The water droplets brushed against his face with enough force to hurt his skin. Then, diving down, he heard nothing but the howling sound of the wind.
When Draven was a few meters above the archer, he disappeared and appeared behind the archer.
"Arghh!" Draven grabbed the archer from behind and choked him until the archer lost consciousness.
"Damn, who gives archers metal armor. It would affect their flexibility and reduce their speed" looking at the silver armor the archer wore, Margoth rolled his ghostly snake-like eyes,
"That's not our problem," Draven responded to Margoth as he opened the latch on the ground to see a ladder leading into the castle,
As soon as Draven climbed down the ladder, everything became silent. They no longer heard the heavy downpour or the howling sound of the wind. Instead, the walls around him were depressingly decorated with a dull crimson red wallpaper with golden flowers. Additionally, there were portraits of men and women in fancy clothes hanging on the walls beneath the bright orbs, which were powered by etherian energy. These orbs lit the hallway in a dazzling golden light.
"Let's go kill some soldiers," Margoth laughed menacingly in his demonic voice,
"No killing Margoth. These are just soldiers doing their job," Draven immediately shut off Margoth. No matter what, Draven wouldn't kill innocent people. Otherwise, he wouldn't be any different than the supervillains he vowed to eradicate.
"Promise me, Draven. Promise me you wouldn't go down a dark path" Draven heard his mother's gentle voice in his head. So that day, when she learned that her son was the Angel of Lotus, he made her a promise.
Of course, the line had been blurred as Draven began to kill the evildoers instead of bringing them to justice, which Draven lost faith in a long time ago.
But no matter what, Draven wouldn't take an innocent life.
"Then what you gonna do when a soldier sees you? Knock them out?"
"Yes," Draven simply said as Margoth appeared over his shoulder and extended his ghostly neck to come in front of Draven,
"If one soldier came out to consciousness and alerted the guards, our whole mission would go down the drain," Margoth bore his teeth at Draven,
"By the time they alert the guards, we'll be long gone" Draven walked straight and took a turn left. A narrow straight corridor appeared in his sight.
There were several doors, and each door was guarded by a soldier carrying a golden spear. Just as the soldiers Draven knocked out at the walls, they all wore full metal armor.
"Good luck knocking out thirty fully armored soldiers without raising the alarm," Margoth snickered before vanishing into Draven,
Regardless of the number of soldiers, Draven fixed his eyes on the door at the end of the corridors. If his memory served him right, that door would lead him to a lift, and using that lift, he could get to the secret passage Draven planned to take advantage of.
A fifty-meter corridor was guarded by thirty fully armored soldiers standing between him and the door.
[The system recommends the host purchase a berserker pill for 500 Legendary points?]
All of a sudden, Draven heard the system's voice resonate in his head,
[The host currently has 230 Legendary points. If the host wishes to purchase the berserker pill, the system can loan the host 600 Legendary points]
"What the hell is a Berserker pill?" Margoth once again materialized over his shoulder,
"Okay," Draven's voice trailed off as he wasn't sure about taking a lone or the Berserker pill,
Nevertheless, Draven agreed with the system because he was curious. Secondly, he wanted to know more about the system's capabilities,
A few moments later, Draven felt a mild pain in his brain as the glowing blue numbers appeared in the corner of his vision. First, the numbers went from 230 to 830 and then rapidly descended to 330.
Upon the number reaching 330, Draven felt something materialize in his hand. He raised his hand to see a tiny wounded box sitting on his palm, radiating a faint whistling sound.
"Open it," Margoth's voice turned serious as he felt immense power pulsating from within.
Draven opened the box slowly as faint light escaped from the box. Then, he saw a small crimson red pill trembling inside the box,
[The Berserker Pill will temporarily enhance the host's strength, speed, and endurance and reduce the pain]
[The effect of the pill lasts for 10 minutes]
The system instructed them. For a few moments, Draven just stared at the pill. He had so many questions about the pill and the system's capabilities.
"Let's consume it. What's the worst thing that could happen?" Margoth saw no way out of the situation. Even if Draven agreed to kill the soldiers, he would go through an uphill battle. However, they were all fully armored and could withstand an immense amount of damage.
It was unfortunate they couldn't use the short-distance teleportation to pass the guards without getting detected. To Draven's knowledge, the castle was one of the most protected places in Veland. There was no easy way of getting in and out and certainly no way to do this quietly without Sarah's help.
If Sarah had been in the UFH servers, she could have pulled out some information about the castle's secret passageways and helped him form a good plan. But, since she was yet to hack the servers, Draven had to do this the hard way.
Cracking his neck right and left, Draven took the pill in his hand. The pill was cold, and when he put it in his mouth, he felt a bone-chilling sensation all over his body. Suddenly, his pupils shrunk as his muscles inflated, stretching his armor.
After Draven took the pill, Margoth could hear a creaking noise from the armor being stretched by the inflating muscles. In a couple of seconds, Draven grew several inches taller and broader.
Draven then walked around the corner as the soldier standing a couple of meters away from him noticed Draven,
"Hey, who are you?!" the soldier's shout immediately drew the others' attention. The soldier rushed at Draven with a clear intention to apprehend him.
The soldier had only taken a few steps towards Draven when he just disappeared and appeared behind the soldier,
Boom!
Draven grabbed the soldier's head, banging it against the wall so hard that the ceiling crumbled down from above. The place where Draven hit his head caved in as Draven kept banging his head until the helmet lost its shape.
The soldier collapsed to the ground. At that time, all the remaining soldiers were poised to attack Draven. The corridors became noisy with heavy metal boots clanking,
Draven stomped the ground, forcing the spear to fly to his hand. Margoth thought Draven was going to use the spear to fight the soldiers. However, Draven raised his leg, broke the metal spear in the middle like a twig, and turned the spear into two metal bars.
"Come on, come on, come on," Draven kept mumbling as the soldiers rushed at him.
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