Chapter 93: Battle Beneath Momona Village (Part 5)

"Ha, when will this underground tunnel ever end?"

Jier cleaved a parasitic monster to death with an axe, then stepped diagonally backward, clearing the path for Bell's attack.

Seeing the surrounding tunnel gradually widen, and realizing the light from the divine arts imbued upon the two of them and their weapons was no longer sufficient for combat illumination, Jier set down the axe in his right hand, letting it stand upside down on the spot.

Afterwards, he hooked and lifted a stone-crafted Blessed Short Staff from his belt with his right hand, taking it into his grasp.

"Hmm, this is how it's done, right?"

Jier muttered to himself, causing the passing Priest Clark to glance at him.

Lifting his hand, a bright Lighting Orb was launched forward from the gem at the tip of the short staff; it floated along the way, eventually sticking to the top of the Rongdong's stone tunnel, seven or eight meters high.

Don't let its small size fool you—it was smaller than a pinky fingernail—but the light it emitted was brighter than a dozen burning tallow candles.

At the very least, the dozens of meters of the tunnel ahead and behind were illuminated.

"Very good, Knight Jier."

The Church Hunters passing by nodded at Jier and offered a word of praise; clearly, sufficient lighting and a bright environment were very helpful for the hunters' shooting.

Although these formidable hunters could perform precise shots even in faint light, and after being imbued with Church divine arts for night vision, they could hunt beasts from afar at night as if it were broad daylight.

But a brighter environment was still much better than pitch black. After all, most parasitic monsters did not need vision to judge their environment.

If one were to fight monsters in a place with insufficient ambient light, where the monsters were unaffected but the humans themselves could not exert their proper strength, resulting in a defeat, that would be a great pity.

Putting away this Blessed Short Staff gifted to him by the local Sun God Church, Jier quickened his pace to catch up.

Every few dozen meters, he launched a Lighting Orb capable of lasting for several hours, brightening this enclosed environment—which was becoming wider, more complex in terrain, and taller in the Underground Karst Cave—providing everyone with ample illumination.

Interestingly, the consumption for releasing these Lighting Orbs was not provided by Jier himself, but by the Sun God Divine Power supplied by the small stone Blessed Short Staff in his hand.

After the group had walked for quite a while, a multi-layered altar, crafted from stalactites already present within the Rongdong and appearing simple and archaic, appeared in Jier's sight.

This was already a relatively spacious cave hall; one had to look up at least ten meters to reach the uneven rocks of the ceiling, while the actual boundaries of this hall could not be seen in the pitch-black environment to the left and right.

In short, the area was very large; let alone their small group fighting here, even organizing a slaughter of a thousand people felt more than sufficient.

The archaic-looking altar ahead was quite large in area and volume, about the size of an entire basketball court, and a large crowd of parasitic monsters had already gathered around it, firmly guarding this important teleportation altar of the Alien Evil God.

At the center of the altar's gradually rising platform stood a solitary, leafless tree made of deep green, illusory divine power. Its deformed and twisted branches extended upward, and several meters above the altar, those curved branches formed an olive shape.

In the middle of those intertwined branches was a sea of green divine power, and after every full breath of time, a parasitic monster with a broken body would abruptly drop from that olive-shaped sea of divine power.

Plop.

The weak monster crashed into the center of the multi-layered altar and was immediately forcibly helped aside by the flowering monsters parasitized from the tall and sturdy local villagers, making room for the new monsters coming out next.

The altar was located next to an underground river in the Rongdong. Seeing the newly arrived parasitic monster being helped down, another parasitized human here quickly used a bucket to draw a bucket of water from the cold underground river, pouring it from head to toe over the weak parasitic monster.

With a splash of water, the parasitic monster drank the cold underground river water in large gulps, its body rapidly absorbing the moisture. With the intake of this mineral-rich fresh water, the injuries on the parasitic monster's body healed quickly, and it then had the strength to stand straight, subsequently joining the group of monsters confronting Bell and the others on its own.

"What do you say? Should we wait for the others to arrive, or charge over in one go?"

Jier asked Priest Clark, while Priest Clark's eyes were currently emitting a brown glow, unlike a human's, his burning gaze fixed tightly on the Evil God altar not far ahead, seemingly scouting something through some special means.

"Wait for the others to come. Don't be impatient, Knight Jier. That existence perhaps hasn't realized anything; He is still in the divine power vortex at the top of the altar ahead, providing minions from afar."

Seeing that Jier and Bell didn't quite understand, Priest Clark explained straightforwardly: "Simply put, He is not here, but at the other end connected by the altar, busy transporting minions here."

Jier understood the explanation, but he frowned instead: "Then how do we make Him come over? If we attack the altar and destroy it, won't He just abandon this place? Although the local area is saved, the root cause remains. It doesn't matter to us, but your hunting is clearly a failure, right?"

"Therefore, we have prepared that thing."

At this very moment, even though the Alien Evil God was not truly here, Priest Clark did not directly say the name of the Duel Magic Arrow, but used lip-reading to remind Jier.

Having reached this point, Jier could only trust the professional Hunting God Church, hoping their Duel Magic Arrow was truly as miraculous as they claimed, capable of designating a duel target, dragging the Alien Evil God directly from the other side of the altar—wherever that distant place might be—and restricting the opponent from leaving.

Unless one side of the duel was defeated and died.

Otherwise, no one could leave this place.

Even using spatial transfer means would not work; the Duel Magic Arrow would reinforce and seal the surrounding space, making any common spatial means impossible to execute.

If Priest Clark hadn't told him about this method in the afternoon, he wouldn't have believed that this seemingly backward otherworld actually possessed such astonishing spatial control technology. In his past life, these were things that only existed in imagination.

Beside the altar, the two sides stood in confrontation, separated by a distance of fifty meters.

A parasitic monster was added every little while, and Jier's side also had subsequent personnel arriving quickly.

The three priests and hunters of the Hunting God Church were all in place, and the ten Church Priests participating in this hunting operation had also arrived and taken their positions.

Jier and Bell stood at the very front of the line as frontline warriors, facing the hundreds of parasitic monsters. Next were the thirteen priests from various churches, while the Church Hunters, the main force of the battle, were instead located at the very back of the line.

They were also the group with the largest number of people.

"Is it time?"

Jier asked loudly.

He didn't indicate whom he was asking, but everyone present understood that Jier was asking Old Priest Mardo. For this operation, this Hunting God Church priest of unknown strength but rich experience served as the actual commander.

"It is time."

The old priest said.

He deftly pulled a pocket-sized arrow, over forty centimeters long, from somewhere inside the sleeve of his robe. Arrows of this length were mostly used for small hunting bows, often for close-range shooting and hunting in complex jungle environments.

However, no one dared to underestimate this short arrow, because as soon as this thing appeared, everyone present could feel a sensation of their vision being forcibly snatched away. Their attention would involuntarily drift toward that object, as if this hazy arrow, whose specific image could not be seen clearly, possessed unparalleled attraction.

"Little Falcon, you use it. May the hunt be smooth."

The old priest's last sentence was not merely a blessing, but the secret code to awaken this special magic arrow.

As soon as his voice fell, the hazy magic arrow held in his hands immediately became clear in image; it turned out that it looked like an arrowhead and shaft made of ice crystals or pure glass, and the tail did not have tail feathers to maintain balance—this thing seemingly did not need them either.

A middle-aged hunter beside the old priest quickly took the arrow, took out an ancient wooden hunting bow inlaid with glowing runes from under the cloak behind him, and pointed the hunting bow diagonally upward toward the front—not aiming at any specific place, but simply projecting it toward the altar in front.

"I declare," the old priest said loudly.

The middle-aged hunter who had nocked the Duel Magic Arrow onto his glowing bowstring, the hunter with the title of 'Falcon', also followed by repeating the old hunter's words: "I declare."

"Under the witness of the great Hunting God!" the old priest continued.

"Under the witness of the great Hunting God—" the 'Falcon' hunter continued to repeat the words.

The Duel Magic Arrow on his bowstring seemed to start taking effect at this moment; the arrowhead gradually bloomed with the Hunting God Divine Power, a mix of brown and red. This divine power was so vast and operated in a way that no one could understand.

The others turned their heads to look, and felt as if they had fallen into a giant tumbler, their entire bodies spinning round and round. Their sense of human balance and their grasp of distance and space also became distorted.

Everyone forcibly stopped looking, fearing they would be knocked down before even starting, unable to participate in the battle.

As for the parasitic monsters opposite, perhaps their "eyes" were also fixed here, so they were immediately dizzied by the changes in the Duel Magic Arrow. Even though the humans they parasitized had empty heads and lacked the cochlear organs to maintain balance, they still collapsed to the ground because they kept staring here and could no longer correctly grasp their own spatial position.

"One side of the duel is the Evil God Flesh Demon Lord, the Enemy of Humanity Tree, the god of an alien race, the natural flesh-mixed Magic Beast, Gelagolalikdakogaala!"

The Old Priest spoke the true name of the Alien Evil God in one breath, having glimpsed it.

However, this tongue-twisting name made the middle-aged Hunter who followed along to repeat it somewhat troubled; after a pause, he shouted loudly: "One side of the duel is the Evil God Flesh Demon Lord, the Enemy of Humanity Tree, the god of an alien race, the natural flesh-mixed Magic Beast, Gelagolalikdakogaala—"

It was a close call, but the 'Falcon' Hunter correctly recited the correct name of the Alien Evil God.

At this moment, a roar seemed to come from the ocean of Divine Power at the top of the large tree on the altar ahead. Once this roar sounded, it made everyone's skin crawl, and then a series of chaotic words rang out from the altar ahead, though no one present could understand what the voice was saying.

But the next moment, all the parasitic monsters around the entire altar charged toward the group with long strides as if they had gone mad.

Jier was extremely nervous; he immediately threw his Two-handed Axe forward, then drew the Hunting Sword at his waist, preparing for close-quarters defensive combat.

But he was overthinking it. The dozen or so Church Priests standing behind him and Bell immediately took out the small statues of their respective deities, gripped them in their hands, and reached them forward. Facing the parasitic monsters that were charging over with all their might to interrupt the activation of the Duel Magic Arrow, the priests simply released a uniform and powerful Divine Power Impact. This self-defense method, which most regular Church Priests knew, directly turned into a uniform shockwave that blew a large area of parasitic monsters back.

The monsters flying backward collided fiercely with their companions behind them, instantly cutting off their momentum.

This caused a large number of monsters to become entangled with each other, unable to charge over quickly.

"The other side of the duel is the Hunting God Church Hunter 'Falcon', Hunter 'War Bear', Hunter 'Siliezhe', Hunter 'Fengbaojian', Hunter 'Tiaowangzhe', Hunter 'Shixuezhe', and Knight Qiao-Jier."

The Old Priest called out the nicknames or names of the selected duelists on their side in order; until all seven of these people died, the two sides of the duel could not leave this place.

You ask why he didn't add the names of everyone on their side?

First, the Old Priest had to consider the possibility of the Hunting failing. If the situation was unfavorable and the Hunting was going to fail, the others whose names were not called would still have a chance to retreat in time. Before the Alien Evil God killed the seven, the rest of their manpower could successfully withdraw from this place.

Secondly, regarding priests from other churches, Old Priest Mardo did not have the authority to place priests who held faith in other gods in such an important position. Even if that priest personally agreed, it would not work, because it would cause bickering and thus trigger conflicts between the churches.

Elsewhere, if two churches had a conflict, they would just resolve it through various means, including war and competing for Faith. But in the Saint Hors Kingdom, this was not allowed; here, the gods had agreed that they could only compete for Faith and mediate conflicts through various "refined" means.

Finally, in selecting the duelists, Old Priest Mardo specifically chose only the two most outstanding Hunters from the subordinates of the three, and for the two Knight spots, he chose Jier.

One reason was that if the situation were unfavorable and Jier were also on the duel list, he would inevitably die in this failed Hunting operation; this could be considered a guaranteed result for this Great Hunt. The surviving members of the Hunting God Church, in order to give an account to their god, would turn to pick up the already abandoned Great Bird god and pursue the hunt.

Another reason was that Bell-Sasi was, after all, the Heir of a local Baron Noble. Offending a noble family for no reason—even if the other party was only a small local Baron—could lead to them causing trouble in the Noble Council of the Southern Province if they wanted to make things difficult for the Hunting God Church.

Therefore, by comparison, Jier was a young Knight without a fief or a liege. Even if he had recently appeared to become a Divine Knight of the Sun God Church, the Sun God Church was so vast that losing one new Divine Knight wouldn't be a big deal, right?

After the Old Priest finished calling out, the Hunters whose nicknames were called were not uneasy or worried; instead, they proudly puffed out their chests and prepared their special arrows and Magic Arrows, which had different functions.

As for Jier, he looked back at Old Priest Mardo with quite a bit of surprise.

Jier did not know the ins and outs of this duelist selection; he just felt a bit surprised.

He also did not know that once the Duel Magic Arrow was fired, only when one side of the duel was completely dead could the other side leave the range limited by the Magic Arrow.

This was like a shackle, a beast-fighting cage, locking both sides together; they had to decide a life-or-death outcome.

?? On New Year's Eve, I wish everyone a prosperous life, good health in the new year, and happiness every day.