Chapter 6: Battle

Ding—

The two slashed at each other with their swords.

Both stepped back.

Luo De retreated onto the hillside, his black cloak, resistant to blade cuts, snapping loudly in the scorching night wind.

He stood tall, his face handsome.

In his single hand, the steel crosssword shimmered with white-blue lightning, arcs of electricity dancing along its blade.

He looked exactly like a knight from a storybook.

“State your name, forest warden.”

Ali said coldly.

He spoke from feeling—before leaving his homeland, he had once read human storybooks to his young sister, and those books featured knights like Xiang Luode.

Now, it felt just like a knight’s duel from those tales.

One, a loyal knight of the kingdom; the other, a pioneer of the new world.

Luo De did not answer him.

Instead, he seized the opening to cast a spell.

Chang En Seal.

Minor Body Enhancement.

Two layers of light covered his body, then merged into his flesh.

Just as he was about to move, another layer of green light sank into him.

The familiar scent of trees.

Luo De immediately knew Wei An had secretly granted him a buff.

The semi-transparent wrinkles growing on his skin—likely the Tree Spirit’s Tree Armor Technique.

Luo De’s confidence surged.

“Huh—”

He charged forward, sword in hand.

His speed increased by more than thirty percent compared to before.

The distance between them closed rapidly to within five meters.

The halfling Ali retreated while raising his staff in his left hand.

Pure magical energy surged, launching three magic bolts.

The steel sword slashed through.

One magic bolt exploded midair.

The remaining two detonated against his body, but under the dual protection of the Chang En Seal and Tree Armor, he suffered almost no damage.

Ali’s eyes widened in shock at the ineffectiveness of the magic bolts.

The brief hesitation widened the distance between them slightly.

Ali steeled his resolve and pushed the halfling’s agility to its limit.

He weaved tightly around the trees.

Whenever Luo De closed in, he cast spells to delay him.

From an onlooker’s perspective,

Luo De was pressuring the halfling Ali.

“He dares not engage in close combat?”

That was Luo De’s first thought.

In truth, this delaying tactic was precisely the scenario he wanted.

When he first saw this group, Luo De had assessed their overall strength.

Why not let Tally fight the five-rank halfling directly?

Luo De’s strategy: a middle-tier horse against a top-tier horse—focus on stalling.

A top-tier horse against a low-tier horse—Tally finishes quickly, then comes to aid Luo De.

It was an obvious little trick.

Couldn’t the enemy see it?

On the other side,

As a young succubus, her battle experience was absurdly lacking.

Though she claimed to inherit her mother’s memories, those memories contained nothing but Se Se!

The bone knife sliced through the air.

Unfortunately, it never once touched flesh.

After transforming into a female beastwoman, her strength vastly overwhelmed them—but she had zero combat technique.

The remaining three subordinates were initially frightened by her size, but after a few exchanges, they quickly realized she was all show and no substance.

They circled Tally, laughing and mocking, stepping in occasionally to slash at her.

“This is a succubus? So weak.”

“Something’s off over there—finish this fast.”

“What’s to fear? Boss is just playing with him. Let’s have some fun with this succubus.”

Tally seemed to fully embody the beastwoman’s lack of brains.

She began swinging her cleaver wildly, frenzied and furious.

“What’s going on? My face itches—do you feel it too?”

Suddenly, one of them spoke.

Hearing this, the other two noticed their exposed skin reddening and breaking out in sores.

The bald man felt dread.

“It’s a spore spell! They have someone else!”

“Isn’t that what succubi use?”

“Idiot, succubi don’t use spore spells!”

“Damn it! End this fast!”

Just then, Tally’s cleaver jammed into a rock.

She couldn’t pull it free.

“Perfect chance!” the bald man shouted.

The three rejoiced, unleashing their strongest spiritual arts and charging forward together.

Whoosh!

Spiritual light sliced through the beastwoman’s body.

Like leather.

Yet there was no sensation of cutting flesh or bone.

“What’s going on?”

Suddenly,

A bone spike the size of a cup pierced the bald man’s heart.

He spat blood, still dazed.

He struggled to turn toward his two remaining companions.

Likewise, the other two were also pierced by bone spikes.

He instantly understood—the succubus had been feigning weakness, waiting for the chance to kill all three at once.

Tally revealed her true form.

She pinched her nose, her heart-shaped tail swaying in midair.

“Why do you all smell so foul? I have no appetite to eat you.”

Luo De used the recoil of the Repulsion Technique to surge forward a great distance.

He swung his sword.

Ping—

The mage’s barrier shattered instantly.

Luo De immediately raised his crossbow and fired an arrow.

Ali grunted, struck in the shoulder by the bolt, caught off guard.

Worse still, he saw all three of his subordinates were already dead.

“Damn it!”

He gritted his teeth, slashed out an air blade to barely block Luo De’s heavy strike.

At the same time, he unleashed a spell he had been charging.

“Shadow Assault!”

The shadows on the ground stirred unnaturally, then solidified into form.

“!”

Luo De realized the danger too late.

The shadow-formed black thorns pierced through Chang En’s aura membrane and Tree Armor technique effortlessly.

They pierced through his heart.

Luo De was pinned in place.

Ali exhaled a thick breath.

“If not for the flames being too bright, making the spell hard to form, you’d be dead already.”

The weakness of shadow magic: it doesn’t work well in places too dark or too bright.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“A mere fourth-rank human made me waste a sixth-rank spell ring.”

Shadow Assault was a one-time spell ring he exchanged for in the sect—one of his trump cards.

If not for this guy stacking shields so thickly, making low-rank spells ineffective against him, I wouldn’t have used this trump card.

He was deeply pained.

But a fourth-rank human and a fifth-rank succubus’s divine peach, plus this mission’s reward, make it all worth it.

Ali looked toward the succubus not far away.

He found her staring intently at him, eyes wide open.

As if trying to etch his appearance into her mind forever.

“A succubus who doesn’t run? Rare indeed.”

He raised his left staff.

“Let me borrow your divine peach. Ughhhhh!!!”

Just as he began channeling Qi, unbearable pain suddenly surged through his chest.

He looked down.

A steel sword pierced straight through his body.

Blue-white lightning danced wildly along the blade, destroying all flesh it touched.

Ali struggled to turn his head.

His eyes bulged in horror.

“You—you.”

Behind him, Luo De stood drenched in blood, gripping the sword with both hands.

Luo De grinned, his mouth smeared with blood.

“Saples.”

Ali spun and slashed out an air blade.

His movement was slow; Luo De dodged it easily.

At this point, he no longer cared why being pierced through the heart hadn’t killed him.

Ali frantically pulled a magic potion from his pocket, didn’t even check what it was, and poured it all down his throat.

Luo De wanted to stop him, but his severe injuries left him powerless.

Soon, the half-elf’s figure slowly blended into the surroundings.

“Invisibility potion?”

Luo De hurled poison powder and lime all at once.

A staggering fleeing figure appeared.

Tally’s arm transformed into a bone blade as she sprinted forward.

Before she reached him.

Five thick, sharp vines burst from the ground, impaling the figure and spearing it into the air.

Blood splattered across the ground.

Luo De stared in shock.

He looked toward Vivian, who stepped out from the edge of the woods.

“Vivian?”

Vivian’s face still showed no expression.

She stared at the flames still blazing on the trees.

“Forest. Destroyer. Die.”

Luo De blinked in surprise.

He couldn’t help but think Vivian resembled that extreme plant-protector from Earth’s DC comics.

“Impressive, Vivian.”

While no one was paying attention.

A burst of light ignited atop the thick vines.

“I’ll take someone down with me!”

Ali was still invisible, glaring hatefully at Luo De.

Fifth-rank spell: Oilfire.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Luo De cursed inwardly.

One of his hearts had been pierced; severely wounded, he couldn’t move quickly at all.

“Watch out!”

Boom!

Tally appeared before him.

She burst into flames, then quickly shed her skin.

The fire and the skin were flung onto the ground.

She stood before Luo De, arms crossed, smiling triumphantly.

“That’ll last five days, right?”

(End of Chapter)