Chapter 617: The Warriors' Battle (Part 1)

The two traveled together; Yeluba and the others fleeing ahead seemed to be in physical distress. Although Aoniweier and the others, who had been pursuing them all the way from the Forward Camp, were very tired, they were still in slightly better condition than Yeluba and his men.

Thus, when they had penetrated one hundred meters into the Forest near the Jiedian, Aoni and his group caught up with Yeluba's team.

"Huff, huff, huff..." Yeluba himself was in decent physical condition, but several of his subordinates were not doing well; one by one, their faces were pale, a foul odor wafted from beneath their battle skirts, and there was even vomit hanging from the beards around their mouths.

Clearly, Jier's Poison Mushroom Powder had performed a great service.

"Form up, fight them to the death! No matter who they are, they must accompany us to the afterlife!!!" It was impossible for Yeluba to abandon his subordinates and flee alone; he was accustomed to the role of a commander, and if he had no one under him to command, he would rather die.

The few physically weak subordinates had only just finished their wretched vomiting and excretion, and before they could even scout the situation in the Yingdi, a group of outside enemies had emerged here.

Clearly, no matter how stupid they were, they all understood that everything absurd that had happened today was related to these suddenly appearing outside enemies.

Previously, Yeluba had gathered some Soldiers who had escaped the Yingdi, so excluding the Defeated Soldier who had just been hit by a Crossbow bolt, he still had six subordinates at this time. Adding himself, who was in good condition, they should have had a massive advantage against the three pursuers, Aoni and the others.

But although Aoni and the three were clearly at a numerical disadvantage, their momentum was more aggressive. Aoni held his Sword and Shield, standing in the middle of the three in a full set of heavy Plate Armor. To his left, Weier, in flexible equipment with little Plate Armor, held his Sword and sized up Yeluba and the others as they formed their battle formation. And to Aoni's right, Balinba-Supulu, holding a Battle Knife, remained silent, his eyes scanning for flaws in the opponent's formation, pondering the direction for a breakthrough.

But before they could formally engage in battle, Bawei arrived quickly, carrying his axe, shouting words that made Yeluba and the others despair: "Everyone! Guess who I ran into just now? Haha—"

Weier said with a smile on his lips: "If it's not Xueya Site, then it's Jier the Knight. Since you're so happy, it's Jier, right?"

Jier also arrived empty-handed. Although he carried no weapon, his mere appearance still made Yeluba and the others, who were forming up for battle, feel despair.

Among these Defeated Soldiers, someone even whispered a suggestion to Yeluba: "Captain... why don't we just surrender? The other side, the other side is a Knight! And..."

The person suggesting surrender didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was self-evident: Jier had just been fighting the Knight Hate in the Yingdi, and now that he had arrived intact, it clearly meant that the Knight Hate had already been defeated.

Yeluba had the same thought, but before surrendering, he had to probe the origins of these people and the conditions for surrender. However, before he could test them, Jier waved his hand and said: "Don't think about surrendering. You might not be very clear on this, but in fact, we are dispatched by the Agricultural God Church on this trip to rescue the Changmai Village Villagers who were kidnapped and enslaved by you."

With just this one sentence, Jier extinguished any thoughts of surrender in Yeluba and his men, for they knew all too well what they had done to those innocent Villagers. Surrender? Being executed after surrendering would be good luck; what they feared was that they would not only die, but would have to endure a long period of torture before dying.

Then they might as well just fight to the death; the outcome would be cleaner.

"And, in order to increase the motivation to deal with you, I set a bounty reward of one Gold Coin per person for you lot before I came. My Warriors, for the sake of their own purses, won't let you surrender obediently. Although the bounty for capturing enemies is higher, it doesn't have much meaning; you are the final enemies, no need to interrogate for information, you must be executed after capture."

Jier waved his hand: "Kill them, men, let me see if you have improved your skills in these two days!"

Bawei also joined Aoni's team; now it was four against seven, and the strength was not so disparate.

Especially with Jier just a few meters behind them, the four knew they would definitely win this battle, so their confidence increased and their fighting spirit soared.

Conversely, Yeluba and his subordinates not only had faces like frost-bitten eggplants, but their bodies were also trembling with fear.

Weier was the first to strike; he intended to show off in front of Jier. He rushed out quickly, but instead of charging the six-man formation head-on, he bypassed the six men in front, intending to strike directly at Yeluba, who was commanding from behind.

He had just heard that someone among the six called this man Captain, so this middle-aged officer with a good appearance and a mature, handsome look was the culprit who led the Defeated Soldiers to raid Changmai Village.

Taking him down would be a great achievement.

The remaining three looked at each other, wanting to earn merit like Weier, but because they were a step slow, they felt embarrassed to compete for the credit. The three then, in their mutual gaze, chose the six men in front as their targets.

After all, they were six Defeated Soldiers, six Gold Coins; no one disliked this sum, which was more than their income from farming for many years.

Supulu rushed out to the right, Bawei rushed out to the left, and Aoni advanced with large strides, holding his Shield.

"Captain?" Seeing someone bypass the battle formation and attempt to strike directly at Yeluba, one of Yeluba's confidants among the six shouted.

"Don't worry about me! Fight to the death! Use your lives to trade for the lives of a few of them! Young Knight, if you don't make a move, just wait to regret it! Haha!" Yeluba let out a strange cry and stepped forward to fight Weier.

Yeluba saw that Weier was skilled, but he wasn't made of mud either; the Soldier Armor on his body was well-maintained, and his own martial arts were not weak. Moreover, he was lucky enough not to have been poisoned, although he didn't know how everyone else had been poisoned; some people had mysteriously been poisoned by the food they ate at noon, while others were fine, and some were abnormally excited, shouting and yelling wildly.

A finely crafted and well-maintained Soldier Changjian was wielded by Yeluba with great force, not only blocking Weier's attacks but also counterattacking several times, with the possibility of overwhelming the opponent in momentum.

But in fact, Weier was just quickly familiarizing himself with Yeluba's martial arts, and at least four-tenths of Weier's attention was on his other three companions; after all, three against six, even if the enemies were poisoned and weak, was still very risky.

These Defeated Soldiers were not the Bandits they had routed along the way; each of them had quite complete weapons and equipment, and it was not easy to rout or take down any one of them.

But that was before, when their equipment was inferior to the Defeated Soldiers. After they took Changmai Village, they seized more weapons and equipment from the enemy than their own numbers, especially sets of Soldier Armor, Soldier Shields, and Soldier Changjian. With these things, they instantly closed the gap in strength between themselves and the Defeated Soldiers.

No, for some particularly capable Warriors, once their equipment was no weaker than the enemy's, the enemy was truly nothing to fear.

"Ha!" Aoni let out a roar and charged head-on at three Defeated Soldiers who were also using Sword and Shield.

In the second before the two sides were about to collide, he accelerated his pace and rammed into them, preempting the pincer attack of the two enemies on the left and right, directly knocking the Defeated Soldier in front of him flying with a fierce impact.

Aoni had noticed during the pursuit that although these enemy Soldiers had good weapons and equipment, their hands and feet were soft, and their bodies looked as if they had just been drained of strength, as if diarrhea had consumed all their stamina.

His intuition was very accurate, because these Soldiers had indeed just been having a miserable time in the Shulin.

Bang! After knocking the person down, Aoni didn't stop at all, letting the two Defeated Soldiers in the back row slash at him with their swords, making clanging sounds, as he accelerated his strides to continue ramming into Yeluba, who was fighting Weier.

Yeluba had never expected that six people couldn't stop three, so he thought the footsteps coming from behind were his own men coming to support him, but when he was knocked flying forward by the huge force from behind, he realized something was wrong.

At this moment, Weier struck. Although Weier was not satisfied with his fight being interfered with, an opportunity was an opportunity, and he wouldn't let it go to waste.

Weier's movements instantly became at least twice as fast. He lunged forward from a combat distance of two meters, his whole body suddenly stretching as he thrust toward the falling Yeluba at the limit of his reach.

This sword was fast and accurate. Before Yeluba could react, the area under his right shoulder and armpit, where the Soldier Armor could not protect, was pierced by Weier's Long Sword, and Weier exerted force from his wrist to pull fiercely from the inside of the opponent's fragile joint.

This move crippled Yeluba's entire right arm, and when a Warrior's main hand is crippled, they lose more than half of their combat effectiveness.

"How could this be..."

Just as Yeluba fell to the ground, Aoni, who had stopped his charge, chuckled, triumphantly raised his right hand toward Weier, and incidentally gave Yeluba's butt a fierce kick.

Then, he raised his Shield and charged toward a Defeated Soldier who was fighting Bawei.

The thickened and weighted Plate Armor on his body was not afraid of the stabbing and slashing of the Soldier Swords hacking at him; it didn't matter if it sparked or made clanging sounds.

Bawei was vigorously swinging the Two-handed Axe in his hands, which forced the Defeated Soldier fighting him to retreat constantly, and because he had no Soldier Shield, he didn't even dare to block the opponent's axe with the Long Sword in his hand.

An axe swung with full force could easily knock a Long Sword away or out of hand if it touched it, and if the quality of the weapon was not up to par, it could even break or snap the Long Sword in one blow.

This was very fatal in battle.

But this Defeated Soldier certainly didn't expect that something equally fatal was the enemy holding a shield who suddenly rushed out from behind, where he should have been safe.

Bang!

Aoni knocked the Defeated Soldier, who was focused on the fight, flying forward, and Bawei took the opportunity to follow up with a spinning slash; the heavy axe blade chopped the head off the dazed enemy, securing the first kill of this battle.

"Ha! A beautiful axe strike!"

Jier, watching from not far away, clapped his hands in encouragement.

Seeing Bawei take the first kill, Balinba-Supulu took a deep breath and stopped entangling with the two enemies in front of him; he also wanted to prove himself.

In front of him was an enemy Soldier holding a Sword and Shield, and another Soldier holding a Long Sword with both hands. The two coordinated well and were likely partners from the same team; compared to the opponents faced by the others, Supulu's opponents were more troublesome.

"Fortunately," he thought, "fortunately Aoni's valor broke up the enemy's battle formation, which makes it easier for us to deal with the enemies individually."

He lunged suddenly toward the front left, striking hard against this soldier's Mujishibingdun.

A Battle Knife is best at dealing with enemies who lack much armor protection, and the most troublesome enemies are those who wear armor and hold a Shield.

But Sipulu wanted to challenge difficult opponents.

He adjusted his footwork and posture, keeping the enemy holding the Shield to block in front of the soldier who was wielding a Long Sword with both hands. Using the enemy's own people to hinder them.

He swung the Battle Knife with force, once again sending a large spray of wood splinters flying from the wooden Shield.

To avoid having his sharp Battle Knife get stuck in the opponent's Shield, Sipulu intentionally avoided the more powerful Vertical Chop, opting instead for a Horizontal Slash. He did not use the Diagonal Chop much either; his goal was to destroy the confidence of this soldier using the Shield.

The soldier holding the shield in front of him gripped it with difficulty, gritting his teeth and holding on, watching helplessly as his Shield was damaged to the point of ruin by the opponent's full-force strikes. This soldier couldn't help but roar: "Charge up and kill him! What's the point of hiding behind me? We're all going to die! Are you still trying to fight over the order of the queue after death? You %￥!"

The soldier behind him was also angry; it was clearly this guy who had been blocking his front the whole time, completely obstructing his path of attack, and now he was blaming him? They had known each other for more than a year or two, and now that they were both going to die, he was still complaining, still complaining about him!

The soldier behind angrily shoved his companion's shoulder, forcibly pushing the person aside, and only then did he wield his Long Sword with both hands and move forward to join the fight.

This soldier was highly skilled in martial arts; after gripping the Long Sword with both hands, both his speed and power increased significantly. His movements were agile and swift, and the swung Long Sword emitted a loud whistling sound as it cut through the air, subsequently clashing repeatedly with the equally fast-swinging Battle Knife.

In the rapid exchange of clanging sounds, metal sparks constantly erupted at the front, left, and right sides of the engagement, making it difficult for anyone nearby, friend or foe, to intervene. Because anyone with even a little martial skill could see that if one were to rashly intervene now, it would very easily lead to unpredictable changes for the two people fighting.

It should have been like that.

But the Defeated Soldiers knew they would surely die today, so they couldn't care about that much while fighting. The soldier whose Shield had been severely damaged just now dropped his Soldier Shield, barely seized an opportunity—whether appropriate or not—and thrust his Long Sword directly at Sipulu's abdomen.

Jier narrowed his eyes; naturally, he would not watch his own Warrior suffer a setback. Without a second thought, he reached out and drew the Heart Fire Dagger from his waist, ready to throw it at any moment.

If the creator of this Magic Dagger knew that their proud series of works, Heart Fire, was actually being used by someone as a dagger to be thrown, they would probably be furious, right?

Jier did not care about such things; even if it was a Magic weapon, to him, it was merely a tool for killing enemies. Weapons are meant to be used to attack enemies, whether by using Magic to destroy enemies according to their design, or by 'wasting' them by throwing them according to their form—it is all the same.

But in the end, Jier did not throw the Magic Dagger; it was not because he was reluctant, but because Sipulu resolved the crisis himself.

In the moment before being ambushed, Sipulu, whose concentration was highly focused during the fight, sensed another clear killing intent from beside the enemy in front of him, about to—no, it was happening right now—strike at him.

"Must block it! No, I must defeat them all!!"

Driven by this intense thought, his movements of swinging the Battle Knife with both hands actually became even faster. In a narrow escape, after repelling the Long Sword held by the enemy in front with both hands, he took advantage of the momentum to parry the Long Sword of the ambushing enemy from the side, and then, instead of retreating, he advanced, taking advantage of the moment the opponent's front was wide open to slam his left shoulder into them.

Bang!

Sipulu's left shoulder ached terribly, but this unexpected move successfully knocked the enemy to the ground. With a nimble hook of his toe, he hooked the Helmet off the enemy's head, and then the Battle Knife in his hand followed through with a downward slash, splitting the unlucky enemy's entire face in two.

The face was cut into two halves, but the person did not die immediately; blood surged into the nasal cavity and trachea, pouring out from the face and filling the entire oral cavity.

This enemy soldier even tried to reach out from the ground to grab Sipulu's feet, but Sipulu withdrew while he was ahead, gradually retreating while engaging the enemy who held the Long Sword with both hands, not giving the opponent this chance.

"Not bad!" Jier's eyes lit up. Seeing that Sipulu could further improve himself even in the midst of battle, he felt that this guy would likely achieve great things in the future.

If he underwent Knight Training, he would probably be terrifying.

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