บท 69: The Headless Riders (Part 2)
บรรณาธิการ: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Aini pulled out his weapon and swiftly retreated. On the chest of the headless rider, was an additional charred wound about half a foot wide. A black water ball spurted out of the wound and exploded violently. It splattered on the bodies on all five mercenaries.
Only now did the body of the headless rider stop struggling. The mercenaries who were spattered by the black liquid saw darkness in their eyes and sank to the ground limply. This black liquid was very poisonous, and it was too late to consume an antidote, if any existed.
One of the mercenaries had obviously attained the level of swordmaster and possessed the sword aura. He did not faint immediately, but glared angrily at Aini. If Aini had given a warning, he and his compatriots would definitely have had time to hide.
Aini smiled coldly, ignoring the glare of this mercenary. He lifted his weapon and approached the main door, preparing to find a chance to help Saleen. If these five mercenaries did not die, where would they get the horses from? Now it was much easier with four people and five horses. Nailisi did not even need to ride a horse. These five horses could be rotated among three of them, and were enough for them to journey through the day and night.
Aini knew that Saleen was ruthless but not heartless. For matters that had already happened, Saleen could accept them readily. It was not like Saleen to kill people for horses. If Saleen had left him behind, it would have been easier for him to escape.
The headless rider did not know what fear was. His compatriot had been killed, and yet the second rider still waved his weapon and charged forward instead of retreating. Or rather, for the headless riders, death was also a cherished source of relief.
In the hand of this headless rider was, however, a wide-bladed battle axe. The crescent-shaped blade was actually almost a meter long. Even a huge supreme demon could have been chopped into two. The difference between a battle axe and halbert was that the axe did not have a spear and could only be used for hacking. Sika leaped up high. The headless rider lifted his weapon, planning to cut Sika into two.
This action had exposed his chest.
After Saleen had completed his last spell, he had used less than a second to prepare his ice arrows.
This was the only Grade 2 spell he could deploy with speed. A white flash of light shot out of his hand, and fatally struck the chest of the headless rider.
A loud dang resounded. The ice arrows pierced through the thick, heavy metal armor, but did not go through the body of the headless rider. They had stopped after penetrating more than half a foot. A violent howling sound came from within the headless rider’s body. The hand slowed down and did not hit Sika’s body. Instead, the huge battle axe met with Sika’s cudgel.
Sika could not hold back the force, and her entire body was knocked into the air. She continued to fly more than ten meters away before falling to the ground. She turned over and sat up. There was flesh blood in her mouth and nose. Her left hand drew her boomerang and cast it out.
In reality, Sika had never practiced the sword aura and relied on her extraordinary innate combat ability. Now, without the supplementary help of her magic beast soul, her combat ability had dropped significantly. Otherwise, she would not have been so badly hurt by the headless rider’s one strike.
The energy contained in the headless rider’s battle axe had been transferred onto her body and hurt her internal organs. Sika strenuously threw out her boomerang, but could no longer lift her cudgel.
Saleen saw that his ice arrows had killed the headless rider and shouted loudly, "Nailisi!"
Aini heard Saleen’s loud shout, then realized that Nailisi had disappeared. As Saleen’s voice cried out, a black shadow appeared on the back of the headless rider. There was no knowing when Nailisi had actually gotten onto the headless rider’s war horse.
Nalise’s slender limbs held onto the headless rider. She opened her mouth, and with all her might bit into the headless rider’s shoulders.
The headless rider continued to advance, and Saleen retreated. Sika’s boomerang cut directly into the chest of the headless rider. The headless rider’s chest had already been frozen and weakened. This was the damage that the ice arrows had created.
Aini was astonished to see such a frightful scene. Nailisi stretched open her mouth. Those bright red sexy lips continued to expand, and finally turned into an enormous bloody mouth which bit into the full shoulders of the headless rider.
The sound of metal splitting apart could be heard. The steel armor that had been clipped onto the headless rider’s shoulders was bitten into by Nailisi’s enormous mouth. Together with its shoulders, it was crudely snapped off.
Aini had previously been envious of Saleen’s fortune in love affairs. This particular scene, however, completely petrified his mind. Just what had Nailisi evolved from?
The headless rider was severely injured, but still charged forward. His weapon fell off along with his broken arm. His war horse, however, went on a rampage, and was charging directly at Saleen.
Saleen retreated calmly, and as he retreated, he deployed his spell.
Aini had been frightened by Nailisi and did not even notice that Saleen still possessed the residual energy from deploying a Grade 2 spell. Saleen deployed a Grade 1 spell – Frost Array. This was a suppressing spell, and was not very effective where headless riders were concerned. It was not able to freeze the headless riders or their horses to the spot.
The speed of his deployment had been too fast, and Saleen had completely exhausted his magic chords in an instant. However, he was still unable to stop the headless rider from heading towards him. Saleen felt as though he had a splitting headache as the magic chords in his body were nearly depleted. He desperately gathered the last bit of his magic chords. His magic chords were trembling as though they could no longer withstand any expenditure, and suddenly burst at their core.
Saleen himself had not known that his remaining magic chords would allow him to deploy seven Grade 1 spells. Now, he had already continued by using twelve frost arrays.
The ground of frost was behind the headless riders. The temperature within the walls of the yard decreased sharply.
Nailisi saw that she could not bite the headless rider to death. Both of her hands swiftly curled inwards, grasping the open wound on the chest of the headless rider. The chest of the headless rider had first frozen by the ice arrows, then cut open by Sika’s boomerang. Now there was a one foot long wound that could not be closed up.
The ten fingers of Nailisi hooked tightly onto the two sides of the wound. Using all of her strength, she ripped open the chest of the headless rider. The bones in its chest slowly broke apart, revealing a black heart. Nailisi used her hand to grip this heart, and forcefully gave it a pinch.
The headless rider leaned backward with a thump, planning to knock Nailisi off of its war horse. Nailisi wrapped both of her legs around its waist, rendering it unable to exert any force. Nailisi’s hand kneaded the headless rider’s heart, tugging it with all her might. At last, the black heart which was being kneaded and tugged could not withstand the great damage, and broke into pieces with a snap.
At this moment, the war horse of the headless rider also knocked into Saleen’s body. The mage robe on Saleen flashed with red light, and the Fire Ring of Resistance flared up.
Saleen was knocked aside, but not injured. The inside of his body was now undergoing an upheaval of changes.
The shattered core of his magic chords had rebuilt and were beginning to grow quickly. Originally, these magic chords had possessed over twenty branches that had been completely exhausted. Now, the magic chords had not only rebuilt new branches, but had also grown more than forty longer subbranches. It was just that some of these magic chords were as thin as strands of hair, and Saleen could not make use of them in deploying magic.
Saleen had never believed that mages could advance whilst in battle. However, such a matter had indeed happened to him. Not only had the subbranches of the magic chords increased, but the main branches had also become longer. If he used meditation to recover, these magic chords would be thicker than before. Then he would be able to use them to deploy Grade 2 magic.
Saleen fell to the ground. The Invisible Shield and Potency spells on his mage robe were still functioning. He had only rolled once to stop his body’s movement. He pressed on the ground with one hand and stood up.
Saleen’s body training and the pills he had taken daily had taken effect. Saleen’s body was not weaker than a swordsman’s, it was just that he could not practice the sword aura. His strength and balance were much better than the average person’s.
A frail mage would not live long. Only when he could live long would he have the opportunity to advance to a higher rank.
The headless rider’s heart shattered. The black liquid splattered and stained one of Nailisi’s hands. Nailisi was not bothered by it, and casually pushed the body of the headless rider off of the war horse. The war horse reluctantly continued to charge forward, wanting to use its hooves to stomp on Saleen.
Nailisi hugged the war horse’s neck and used her might to twist it. The dull sound of bones breaking could be heard. The thick neck of the war horse had been broken by Nailisi with a snap, and the horse’s head was twisted to the left and could not distinguish its direction anymore.
Sika had seen everything and felt uneasy. Twisting a war horse’s neck was something that she could do too. But to do it with such ease, and to twist it while the war horse wore armor, was definitely not something that she was capable of. This demon had formidable battle skills, and with her around, she would probably be of no use to Saleen.
Nailisi jumped off of the war horse in midair and let it dash towards the manor.
With a loud bang, the war horse crashed into a wall. It finally stopped moving forward and fell to the ground. The battle power of a headless rider’s war horse was strong, but it was merely a living creature with the grade of a black puppet. It normally relied on the protection of its armor as it dashed about. Now that its neck had been snapped off, it had lost its balance and could no longer control its body.
The manor was in a deep silence once again. The last mercenary could not hold on any longer. The poison had attacked his heart as he lay on the ground. Even upon death, he did not let go of the three-edged sword in his hand. Facing death, he finally understood that the morbid youth holding the magic weapon had wanted them to die, all because of their five horses.
Nailisi vigorously ran over to Saleen and pulled at his sleeve. Her gentle gaze fraught with worry, she asked, "Master, were you hurt?"
Saleen shook off Nailisi’s black blood stained hand, feeling despair in his heart. If Nailisi had struck earlier, Sika would not have been hurt. He took the water pouch from his waist, came to Sika’s side, removed the cover, and fed Sika a mouthful of the restorative water. Sika gave a small cough, spitting out a clot of black blood.
Saleen felt relieved that her internal injury had been dispelled. Based on Sika’s body structure, she would likely recover very soon.
Nailisi stood in her place pitifully and glanced at Aini. Aini shivered. Nailisi was bored and licked her lips before spitting out the rotten flesh stuck between her teeth. Then, she looked at the five corpses of the mercenaries.
The bodies of the mercenaries were rotting at a speed that was perceivable by the naked eye. Even if they had not been rotten, she assumed that Master would not have let her eat them.
"Saleen…"
Aini finally spoke up. He had killed the five mercenaries indirectly. This time around, it had purely been to rob them of their horses. Although he had felt compelled to do so, he was unsure if Saleen would develop ill-feelings towards him.
Saleen helped Sika stand up, sighing as he said, "I understand. The killing of people requires their beheading, and the cutting of grass, its uprooting. Even if they had not met us, these five people would not have lived anyways."
As Saleen spoke, he glanced at the corpses of the five mercenaries. The postures of the five were very similar. All of them were tightly clutching the handles of their three-edged daggers. He could not bear it, and said, "Burn them all. Just in case the black magic mage discovers them."
Death should happen on a clean slate, without any concerns.
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