Chapter 321: The Knight Rises Again and Jier

Wooooooo!!!!

A powerful force pushed out from the air, erupting from the center of the Magic Beast. In the direction of the Knight, who was the primary target, large swathes of accumulated snow and mud were sent flying into the distance.

Knight Lanisha only leaped into the air at the very last moment, tucking in her legs and arms to let the thick armor on her limbs help her withstand the impact.

One cannot confront magic head-on; this was common sense she had learned from heroic tales since childhood.

Therefore, when facing the Magic Beast's unknown magic, she relied on instinct first, jumping up to let this erupting force push her away.

The Bandit Yingdi was about five hundred meters in diameter, and they were fighting near the edge of the Forest. Thus, when the Magic Beast's power suddenly erupted, Knight Lanisha, who was hit head-on, was pushed all the way through the air into the Forest on the other side of the camp.

The sounds of trees being snapped with a crash carried far, leaving the Hunters who witnessed this scene horrified.

They hurriedly waded through the snow, running toward where the Knight had been sent flying, shouting Knight Lanisha's name incessantly.

As the accumulated snow and frozen mud blasted away by the magic fell from the sky, the Bandit Yingdi, which had appeared clear after the Magic Beast retracted its Mist, was obscured once again.

Jier heard the massive commotion from ahead, followed by the violent shaking of the ground.

After being pushed away, he couldn't stand steady at all, so he had to lie flat on the ground once he fell to prevent himself from tumbling. Fortunately, the Magic Beast had no time to trouble him; its legs were also pressed tightly against its own body, dug into the ground to stabilize itself.

Once the shaking subsided, Jier scrambled to his feet, guarding against a sneak attack from the recovering Magic Beast.

The surrounding Mist, dozens of meters wide, had been blown away by the Magic Beast's own power, so the view was clearer. After standing up, Jier noticed that the light in the Magic Beast's glowing Abdominal Sac was fading rapidly, and a stream of bright Magic Waste Gas was even spraying out from the center of the beast's tail.

Jier saw that after the Magic Beast did something unknown, its massive body began to tremble and shake slightly, as if enduring immense pain.

His eyes darted, and he felt he should do something at this moment.

Quickly approaching the Magic Beast, which seemed to be in an unfavorable situation, he raised his axe. Jier swung his arm in a full arc and delivered a Heavy Cleave with the sharp axe onto the surface of the rapidly dimming Abdominal Sac.

Puchi, puchi.

After two axe blows shredded the skin of the Abdominal Sac, he drew his Long Sword and thrust it into the wound.

He stirred it a few times, shredding the Luminous Organ inside.

"My Lady!"

"My Lady! My Lady! How are you?"

Knight Lanisha's head ached, and after a moment, she finally regained her consciousness.

She wanted to lift her hands, but both arms were burning with pain.

Breathing rapidly to recover her strength, she kept her body still while twitching all her muscles, sensing the condition of her body part by part.

Soon, she let out a sigh of relief. The magic the Magic Beast had just released looked powerful, but it seemed to be all show and no substance; the power was too scattered. Although it was aimed at her, most of the force had dissipated.

Barely circulating the sluggish Life Energy in her body, Knight Lanisha used this power to support her body's functions and dull the pain in her limbs.

"Hoo! Stuste, Bo'erlong. I am fine." Lifting her arm again, Knight Lanisha opened the Faceplate of her Helmet to see outside.

The Hunters under her command were all gathered around her, looking at her nervously.

Seeing the Knight move her arm, they had thought the situation was fine. But after Knight Lanisha opened the Steel Helmet's Faceplate, it gave the concerned Hunters a fright.

"My Lady, your face is covered in blood!" an old Hunter said in terror.

Knight Lanisha realized suddenly; no wonder her face felt sticky and there was a bloody smell in her nose—it was a nosebleed. She licked her mouth with her tongue but did not taste the flavor of fresh blood.

It seemed she hadn't vomited blood; the situation was not bad.

"It must be a nosebleed, it's fine. Quickly, help me up." Only then did Knight Lanisha realize she was still lying on the ground, half-pressed into the cold, hard frozen mud.

This request put the surrounding Hunters in a difficult spot, so they had to grab the Knight's armor pieces and pull with all their might to drag her out of the crater she had made, leaning her against a broken tree trunk nearby.

Only then did Knight Lanisha see the situation around her.

In front of her, a straight path extending from where she was to the Magic Beast crouching in the distance appeared in this remote forest clearing.

A large amount of snow and mud between the two had been blasted away. Turning her head to look, those things had either been pushed to the sides or blown far behind her.

And in front of her, several tree trunks she had snapped were nowhere to be seen; only the dull ache behind her told her how wretchedly she had been sent flying.

Honestly, at the time, she really thought she was dead. Who could have imagined that the strange Human Heads growing on the front of the Magic Beast's body, which had always seemed useless, were actually the means for this guy to release powerful magic?

Taking a clean piece of fine cloth from the small pouch on her belt, she wiped the cold blood off her face. Her nose had stopped bleeding; she touched it, and it was fine, not deformed.

Power and stamina were rapidly returning to her body. Knight Lanisha rested for a moment, then shooed the Hunters away, telling them to have some people go over to contain the Magic Beast and support Jier, who she didn't know was alive or dead.

After standing up, Knight Lanisha whistled, and soon, her beloved horse ran over from the edge of the Forest.

The warhorse was fine, just covered in loose mud, and some gaps were filled with white snow.

Mounting the warhorse, Knight Lanisha did not close her Faceplate. She led the Hunters under her command and charged straight toward the Magic Beast, which was still staying in place.

It seemed that guy was not having an easy time either; this discovery made her feel a bit more comfortable.

Looking down at her Steel Armor, she suddenly noticed the surface was shiny, even quite smooth. She rubbed the front of the armor with her finger a few times; sure enough, a thin layer of metal had been scraped off the surface of her armor by the Magic Beast's powerful magic earlier.

Not only that, but on the main protective area of her armor's front, there were more than a dozen shallow impact dents.

Rotating her arm, Knight Lanisha wanted to see what these dents on the armor surface were.

Her pupils contracted violently; even though the images of the dents were upside down, she recognized what they were. That thing was actually the faces of the Human Heads growing on the Magic Beast's body.

The dents vividly imprinted the twisted expressions of these things controlled by the Magic Beast.

She hurriedly checked the surface of the armor on other parts of her body and discovered nearly ten more twisted head imprints.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! My armor, today you will surely die by my hand!!" The Knight shouted angrily. She squeezed the horse's belly, making the warhorse approach a wooden hut that hadn't collapsed from the magic's impact.

"You all approach the Magic Beast first, I will be there immediately!" she said loudly.

After speaking, she jumped off the horse, kicked the ground to accelerate, and then flew up to kick the main supporting wooden beam of the hut. She kicked the hut to pieces with just one blow.

Among the scattered, thick tree trunks of the hut, she selected a dry trunk that looked the hardest.

Carrying this trunk, she jumped onto the warhorse, causing the strong warhorse, which possessed some unknown bloodline, to neigh in dissatisfaction. However, the Knight patted the helmet on its head: "Avenge me, okay? Avenge this armor of mine! This is too ugly; I have to find someone in the Province Capital to rebuild it and remove these disgusting things after I go back. Quick! Accelerate! Let's give that Magic Beast a taste of our power."

While talking to the warhorse, Knight Lanisha drew the Fine Sword from her waist, swung the sharp blade, sharpened one end of the thick, dry trunk, and quickly hacked a hole in the other end to make it easy for her to grip.

The closer they got to the Magic Beast, the faster the warhorse ran, because the ground around the Magic Beast now had no snow at all; it had all been blown away in large swathes by the previous magic.

This allowed the warhorse to accelerate. The frozen, hard mud also made it easy for it to let loose its hooves and run at full speed.

Passing two groups of Hunters, Knight Lanisha thrust her right arm deep into one end of the trunk, pointing the other sharp end toward the Magic Beast.

"Giddyup! Giddyup! Speed up, speed up!" The cold wind brushed against her face; her cheeks, still stained with uncleaned blood, were exceptionally excited and furious. All her emotions converged as she, along with her horse, slammed into the front of the Magic Beast.

It wasn't that the Magic Beast didn't see that annoying fellow riding over on a horse again, but it was currently extending all its legs toward the abdominal sac at the back of its body, wanting to quickly finish off that annoying Human.

Just a moment ago, after it forcibly released the Magic it instinctively knew how to use, its entire body was filled with powerful, violent Magic Power. The Magic Beast was not a Human mage or any other spellcaster with civilization and heritage. Ever since it knew from the void that doing this or that could release powerful strength, it had never been able to use this ability.

It wasn't that it couldn't, but that it didn't want to.

After all, if it were just hunting in the Forest, there was no need for such a thing. Relying solely on its massive size, its cautious, ambush-style predation, and its always-effective instinctual Mist, it was enough for it to run rampant through the vast Forest.

But this Human, who could see through its Mist, was agile, had abundant stamina, and was covered in metal, was truly difficult to deal with.

There was no other way; it had to use this Magic ability it had never used before.

It was truly painful. Once the Magic Power, which was usually docile, was transformed and activated by its own body, the strength was so violent. After releasing it, the remaining Magic Power inside its body tortured it with agony, causing its whole body to tremble incessantly.

Even in such pain, that Human behind it who was causing trouble wouldn't let it go, continuously destroying the many Magic Organs that controlled its Magic Power, causing a large amount of violent Magic Power to run wild in its abdominal sac.

"Squeak!! Chirp!!"

Even though its remaining three legs were still sore and weak, it had to drive away the Human who kept attacking it.

But misfortune never comes singly. Just as it was struggling to deal with Jier behind it, that most annoying Human was riding a horse and charging straight at it again.

"Ha!" At the final moment before colliding with the Magic Beast, Knight Lanisha leaped from her warhorse, using her final step on the Muan to accelerate and strike the front of the Magic Beast's body with the sharp tree trunk controlled by her right arm.

The warhorse nimbly kicked its hooves a few times, barely avoiding the stiff bristles protruding everywhere on the Magic Beast's body.

And Knight Lanisha, at the moment of impact, specifically aimed at those dozen or so Human Heads that had beaten her into such a sorry state. In the last scene she saw, she discovered that these Human Heads, which had released powerful Magic moments ago, all had their eyeballs burst open.

It must be the inevitable price of releasing Magic.

She thought to herself.

Subsequently, the huge, sharp tree trunk slammed into these strange Human Heads. After the tree trunk collided with the Magic Beast's hard carapace, the large amount of Wooden Spike that burst and scattered blasted all the Human Heads, along with their necks, into pieces.

After the Human Heads burst and scattered, what flew out from the skulls wasn't brains, but some pink, tender spiders the size of a fist.

Knight Lanisha felt it was strange, but also felt it wasn't strange at all.

After all, it was a mysterious and unknown Magic Beast; who knew what abilities these guys had. Using 'small' spiders to replace Human brains might also be something it was inherently capable of.

Drawing the Armor-piercing Rapier from her waist, Knight Lanisha didn't hold the sword in her right hand, but gripped it with her left. The left sword stabbed into the Magic Beast's body from the severed necks of the various Humans, stirring and pulling, while the broken tree trunk in her right hand smashed downward, breaking and knocking down the many stiff bristles that hindered her movement on the Magic Beast.

Immediately following, the first batch of young Hunters arrived. They aimed directly at the severed mouth part of the Magic Beast and fired, smashing the Magic Beast's mouth, which had barely stopped bleeding, once again, causing blood to flow incessantly.

The pain in its mouth caused further discomfort to the Magic Beast, and the corpses of the Human Bandits it had swallowed not long ago were continuously vomited out. The corpses of these guys, who were originally strong, were now not only covered in large and small wounds on the surface, but their bodies were soft, as if their bones had been removed. After being vomited out by the Magic Beast, they lay flat on the ground, and from the wounds on the corpses, body tissue like egg fluid continuously flowed out, only to be frozen by the surrounding cold temperature.

Jier continuously dodged the Magic Beast's weak-kneed driving away, and even after destroying the Magic Organs inside the Magic Beast's abdominal sac, he still had the leisure to swing his axe to strike the front of the Magic Beast's legs that he had dodged.

When using his full strength, these hard and sharp Magic Beast legs were not impossible for him to destroy.

Every effective heavy blow would cause a small section of the leg to shatter. Although it was protected and bonded by the translucent blood seeping from the Magic Beast, as long as Jier struck the same spot again, the barely stuck hard shell of the leg would shatter and scatter in large pieces.

His eyes and brain had been enhanced by the Sugar Pill he had swallowed. To those Bandits, the Magic Beast's legs were silent, fast, and powerful, but to Jier now, they were no faster than a branch waved by a young child.

As long as he concentrated, he could anticipate the direction of the Magic Beast's attack in advance through the movement and changes of the Mist. Then, by dodging in advance, he could avoid the Magic Beast's attacks that his body couldn't handle.

Once he dodged the Magic Beast's attack, the Magic Beast would instead enter an unfavorable situation, because compared to the tiny Jier, any one of the Magic Beast's legs was much larger than him, and Jier could always hit the legs that were not so agile.

Suddenly, the Magic Beast's entire body moved back one step. At the same time, a huge crashing sound that even the Mist couldn't cover came from the front of the Magic Beast's body.

Jier was startled, but suddenly saw the Magic Beast's legs waving wildly, as if its body had suffered a heavy blow.

A good opportunity! Jier directly used several consecutive axe blows to split a triangle-shaped hole the height of a person into the Magic Beast's abdominal sac. This shape of hole was different from an ordinary straight-line wound; basically, once the tough carapace of the belly sac within the triangle was destroyed, many tissues and organs inside the Magic Beast's body would surge out due to the pressure.

Jier used his axe to catch the edge of the triangular wound and pulled hard backward: "Hah!!" He shouted loudly. Following the shout, Jier ripped off the human-height triangular Magic Beast carapace in one go.

Some muscle tissue still connected to the carapace and internal organs was repeatedly hacked and cut by Jier using the Long Sword he had drawn, removing more than half of it.

The rest were broken by the Magic Beast's own wild attacks.

Once he approached the Magic Beast's opened belly, the Magic Beast could no longer attack Jier and could only moan while striking the surrounding ground with its legs.

At the front, Knight Lanisha's continuous attacks destroyed all the Human Heads on the front and some of the connecting tissues beneath them.

She even confirmed it; sure enough, the body tissues beneath those Human Heads' necks were not Human chests, but the Magic Beast's body.

Perhaps those heads were just a Human appearance the Magic Beast created to scare people?

It was possible. After Knight Lanisha destroyed these, she immediately focused on the roots of the Magic Beast's remaining three legs. As long as she cut off these three legs, this Magic Beast would be dead for sure.

When the time came, without the legs used to move its body, what would it rely on to move its huge body?

Rely on its mouth? Ridiculous.

Turning her head to look, the Hunters under her command had all approached. Before the Mist, which was gradually reappearing all around, completely shrouded them, they fired as many of their bows and arrows as they could, all shooting at the Magic Beast's mouth, leaving nothing there but Arrows and the gushing Magic Beast blood.

At this time, the things barely vomited out from the Magic Beast's mouth were no longer complete Human corpses; the vast majority were left with only bones and a tattered skin sac on the outside.

This made Knight Lanisha frown deeply, and the movements of her hands became faster.

Although the Armor-piercing Rapier could also penetrate the hard carapace on the legs and cause damage to the Magic Beast, it was still far inferior to the Single-handed Heavy Sword. Often, one sword thrust would only create a small hole the width of the blade at the root of the Magic Beast's leg, and nothing more.

The annoyed Knight Lanisha even felt that the Magic Beast should hurry up and fill the area with Mist again, so she could take out her heavy sword to cut off the roots of the Magic Beast's legs.

Of course, that was just a thought.