Chapter 33 - Turbid Impact
The gnolls did not specifically hide their whereabouts. To be precise, they didn't have the IQ to do so.
Hence, Zwei and Alyssa easily found traces of those demihumans at the scene of the incident.
Judging by the tracks left behind, the gnolls had no interest whatsoever in hunting or heading to human settlements. Instead, they appeared to be searching for something.
Following the routine of novels with fantasy world settings, Zwei could roughly guess what would happen next.
Soon after, Zwei and Alyssa followed the gnolls' tracks to a hill near the Angola Mountain Range. After arriving there, the number of gnoll tracks they came across increased.
Clearly, the gnolls' target should be close by.
The sky gradually darkened. Just as Zwei hesitated whether to stop for the day, they came across several gnolls moving in a hurry.
Unlike ordinary gnolls, these gnolls wore crude armor on their furry bodies and held inferior spears in their hands.
However, that wasn't the important part. What truly mattered was that these fellows were riding massive gray wolves!
Zwei quickly recognized the gray canines to be wargs.
Wargs belonged to the dire wolf species. Unlike the saberwolf species that excelled at magic, the dire wolf species were more inclined to strengthen their physical bodies. In terms of fangs, body size, physical strength, endurance, and explosive power, dire wolves were superior to saberwolves of similar levels. Even wargs, the weakest of dire wolves, had bodies rivaling donkeys in size.
However, wargs were native to the Southern Hills, and they had been tamed by the beastmen to serve as mounts. In fact, wargs made up the largest portion of the beastmen's cavalry mounts.
Now that a band of gnoll cavalry had appeared, Zwei was almost certain the southern beastmen were the main instigator of this incident.
However, although Zwei was confident he could easily defeat the warg-riding gnolls, who were just slightly stronger than the goblin charger, he refrained from taking action. Instead, he utilized his Apprentice Cloak's concealment properties to cover himself and Alyssa. They then quietly tailed the gnoll cavalry.
Very quickly, they arrived at the gnolls' destination.
It was a valley with a well-hidden entrance. If not for the 30-odd gnoll cavalry gathered before the valley's entrance, Zwei might've even overlooked it.
However, to Zwei's surprise, there was actually a human among the gnolls. The human in question was wearing a full set of knight armor. Moreover, the handsome fellow was also riding a warg and even appeared to be issuing orders to the gnolls.
Meanwhile, several corpses of gnolls and wargs littered the valley's entrance, and standing amid these corpses was a human male geared in armor resembling the warg-riding human's. This man wielded an exquisite longsword and had a resolute expression on his face as he blocked the mouth of the valley.
However, compared to the gnolls, the lone man looked much more miserable. Not only was he panting in exhaustion, but even his armor bore significant damage, with blood seeping out from those spots. At this rate, even if the gnolls didn't continue with their attacks, the man would still die of excessive blood loss after some time.
Zwei couldn't sense any mana fluctuations coming from the man acting as the valley's gatekeeper. In other words, the other party wasn't a magic swordsman.
There was no such thing as Qi in this world. If a person wasn't a magic swordsman or a combat magician, then regardless of how much they trained, they could rival only Level 9 monsters, at best, in terms of combat power. For the lone man to have actually killed seven Level 8 Gnoll Cavalry with his own strength was amazing, even though he had relied on the valley entrance's narrow terrain to do so. With such strength, he could be regarded as an extremely powerful warrior.
Unfortunately, the man was already at his limits.
Under the warg-riding human's command, another gnoll cavalry charged toward the valley entrance. This time, no matter how one looked at the situation, the lone man would definitely get torn to shreds!
It was at this moment that Zwei made his move.
For better or worse, Zwei was a human. Meanwhile, as the claws and fangs of the beastmen, the gnolls were the enemies of humans. As for the warg-riding human, the fact that he could ride a warg and command the gnolls showed that he wasn't a good person. Even though Zwei didn't wish to get involved in such troublesome situations, in the face of humanity's enemy, he still decided to help.
Hence, after handing his cloak to Alyssa and having the girl hide in a bush, he started sneaking toward the battlefield.
If he had come across this incident yesterday, then even if he wanted to help, he would have been powerless against so many gnolls. However, it was a different story today!
After closing to a certain distance, Zwei pointed at the gathered gnoll cavalry and released the Dark Celestial Sphere's inherent second-circle magic, Turbid Impact!
Meanwhile, the gnolls, who were originally licking their lips in excitement over the smell of blood, suddenly discovered a magic circle about one meter in diameter appearing underfoot. Before their meager brains could figure out what was going on, however, a torrent of dark mana suddenly spewed out of the magic circle!
From afar, the magic circle looked like an uncovered manhole vomiting sludge. However, what erupted from the magic circle wasn't harmless sludge but deadly shadow energy instead!
The gnolls screamed in agony as shadow energy invaded their bodies. Before long, over two dozen gnolls died from heavy injuries. As for the wargs the gnolls rode, despite most of them suffering worse from Zwei's Turbid Impact, only half of them had died. The rest were still convulsing on the ground and looked to be on their last legs, but they were undoubtedly still alive.
In the blink of an eye, the gnolls that had been full of killing intent just a moment ago had turned into corpses. Even Zwei himself was shocked by the power of the spell. Despite both Turbid Impact and Flame Impact being second-circle spells, Turbid Impact's power was far superior!
At this time, the warg-riding human stood up from behind his dying mount. Previously, he had been some distance ahead of the gnoll cavalry. He had also noticed the magic circle's appearance in time, instinctively jumped to the ground, and used his mount as cover. Hence, he had managed to come out of the attack mostly unharmed. Even so, when he saw the sight before him, he was still stunned.
Just one spell had overturned the tide of the battle!