Chapter 48

The sword glow arrived, splitting the Holy Knights' formation. A lean figure followed the sword glow, rushed to Ma De's side, and swung his sword in a horizontal slash.

Ma De held his sword vertically to block, but it was like being struck by lightning. His longsword was deflected by the immense force contained in the opponent's horizontal slash, leaving his center wide open.

Ma De's face turned ashen, but his gaze remained firm. He knew he was in grave danger. From the sword glow the opponent slashed out, he knew the newcomer was a powerhouse at the Sword Saint level. He should only be a Low-Rank Sword Saint, but it was already beyond what he could contend with.

Mages are divided from low to high into Apprentice, Low (1-3), Mid (4-6), High (7-9) ranks, Grand Mage, Arcane Mage (Magus), and Truth Mage (God of Magic).

Swordsmen are also divided into Apprentice, Low (1-3), Mid (4-6), High (7-9) ranks, and Low and High-Rank Sword Saints.

Their levels correspond to each other. The difficulty of a Low-Rank Sword Saint is equivalent to that of a Grand Mage, though their combat power has different focuses.

For example, on the battlefield, in a head-on confrontation, a Grand Mage can toy with a Sword Saint, bombarding them and leaving the Sword Saint with no power to fight back.

But in restricted terrain, when closed in, a Grand Mage is like a chick in the hands of a Sword Saint—one pinch and they are dead.

Therefore, a mage must have followers to prevent melee professions from getting close, while also being able to block and attract enemy attacks during battle, allowing the mage to cast spells calmly and blow the enemy to pieces.

Mages can recruit followers, so can swordsmen recruit mages to escort them, allowing them to slash people with peace of mind?

Theoretically, it is possible, but swordsmen are generally poor, while mages are wealthy and can afford to support people. What do swordsmen have to support mages? So basically, one can only see mages surrounded by stars and moons, while swordsmen are alone.

The Holy Knights' combat style is close to that of swordsmen, but they have many more auxiliary abilities. They are skilled in group battles but not good at single combat.

Ma De is a Level 7 Holy Knight, with strength corresponding to a Level 7 swordsman, but the enemy is a Low-Rank Sword Saint. There is a three-level gap in strength, which is impossible to bridge.

If his group had warhorses and a neat formation, they might have had a chance to fight, but now they had nothing, and even their weapons had been deflected. What could they use to resist?

Use their firm conviction!

"Break through with all your might, I will hold him off! Sacrifice!" A dazzling holy light erupted from Ma De's body, and raging holy flames surged out, wrapping him like a glowing fire man. He punched toward the enemy.

The remaining Holy Knights were heartbroken and wished they could turn back to fight, but they were stopped by the handsome Holy Knight: "Go! The captain is burning his own life; don't let him sacrifice himself in vain!"

With the handsome Holy Knight kicking and dragging them, the rest of the Holy Knights ran wildly, but the road ahead had been blocked by undead creatures, and the encirclement had closed.

The handsome Holy Knight accelerated with all his might to the very front, leaped toward the front of the encirclement, and smashed both fists into the ground—Holy Shock.

The ground shook, and the skeletons and zombies in the front circle wobbled, unable to even stand. The handsome Holy Knight took the opportunity to manifest a Holy Shield in front of him and exerted force to ram through—Holy Charge.

After two consecutive skills, his companions realized what he wanted to do, and their eyes immediately turned red. Being so reckless, even if he broke through the encirclement, the handsome Holy Knight would have no strength left to escape. He was sacrificing himself to open a path for everyone.

Any more words or hesitation at this moment were meaningless and would only waste the sacrifice of Ma De and the handsome Holy Knight. Everyone gritted their teeth, silently swung their swords, and followed the handsome Holy Knight out of the encirclement.

After breaking through the encirclement, the handsome Holy Knight was indeed exhausted, and his speed slowed down. His companions endured the pain, passed his position, and ran further away.

The handsome Holy Knight simply stopped and shouted: "Beware of Li Ao Na De. He hid information; he clearly wanted us to come here to die."

"Ahhh!!!" Only the suppressed, sorrowful roars of the departing companions could be heard.

The handsome Holy Knight turned to face the surging undead creatures, smiled brightly, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and fearlessly swung his longsword until he was submerged by the skeletons.

The lean Sword Saint dodged left and right, avoiding Ma De's edge. He had read records about Holy Knights in books. After these Holy Knights burn their lives and activate 'Sacrifice', no matter how severe the injury, it cannot stop their advance until the moment their life burns out.

Rather than risking a hard fight, it was better to wait for him to burn out. It was just a pity that the rest of the Holy Knights had escaped.

Two minutes later, the holy flames on Ma De's body grew weaker and weaker, finally extinguishing completely. He remained in the posture of throwing his last punch, the luster in his eyes completely dissipated.

The Sword Saint sighed, stepped forward to close his eyelids, and laid him down on the ground.

Fei Lin, Li Sha, and the others approached and saluted: "Greetings, City Lord Luo Fen."

The Sword Saint returned the salute.

"Brother!" An Na's long-suppressed scream finally erupted. From the moment the Sword Saint appeared, An Na recognized from his figure and posture that it was her brother, Lu Se Luo Fen. But fearing to disturb her brother in battle, she had suppressed her excitement until this moment, when she shrieked and threw herself at her brother.

Lu Se, who had just been looking deep, showed disgust and held her head to keep her from throwing herself at him: "What are you doing, what are you doing? With so many people watching, hugging and cuddling, what does that look like? My image has been ruined by you. Do you have anything to eat? Hurry and get me some; I'm starving to death."

Only then did everyone notice that Lu Se's body was steaming, and water vapor could be seen rising from his head, as if he had undergone extremely intense consumption.

"It seems this Holy Knight's strength is not weak; you had to go to such great lengths to take him down," Fei Lin sighed.

Lu Se was the recognized cultivation genius of Bingcheng. He broke through to a Low-Rank swordsman at eight and reached the level of a Low-Rank Sword Saint at twenty. He was the only powerhouse in this world to break through to Sword Saint in a thousand years. If even such a powerhouse had to go to such great lengths, the Holy Knight's strength was not weak.

"No, no, I ran over from twenty kilometers away, I'm just tired from running. A white light flashed here just now, and I knew these guys would be here," Lu Se explained.

White light? Everyone glanced at the angel skeleton.

Lu Se was somewhat confused. Why did everyone look at a skeleton when mentioning 'white light', and this skeleton also had two bones sticking out from behind, a bit deformed.

"By the way, who has food? I'm starving to death. I get hungry easily whenever I fight. Get me something to eat."

A swordsman is a high-energy-consuming profession. Once they reach the level of a Sword Saint, it goes without saying; a single sword swing could be the caloric equivalent of several bowls of rice. Therefore, the higher the level of the swordsman, the more they eat.

Everyone had come out to set an ambush and encirclement; who would bring food? Not to mention that An Na was the only living person here. Finally, everyone cast their gaze toward Ang.

Food? Ang tilted his head. Grain that hadn't been husked certainly couldn't be eaten; the little zombie's predecessor had died of hunger exactly like that. So, besides grain, he only had this kind of thing left to eat right now.

Looking at what Ang dug out, Lu Se and An Na's eyes lit up. Lu Se's eyes even glowed, and he shouted excitedly: "Beets, are these beets?"