Chapter 56: The Collapse
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[A/N: This is a super long chapter, but it's all chapter 56.]
The re-organized formations were in chaos again and every single enemy was screaming and fighting to escape first.
The bridge was shaking more intensely as time passed. Fei was the only one standing still in the middle of the bridge which was filled with the largest cracks. He was very calm as he quickly planned his next move.
He took out a bottle of [Normal Healing Potion] and a bottle of [Stamina Potion] and chugged them down under the cover of flying dust and stone chips. All of his fatigue went away and his wounds instantly began to recover.
Soon, he was back at his peak state. Except for the holes in his armour and his broken axe, his body didn't have any problems. Not even a scar was left.
The potions from the Diablo World were just too magical.
At the same time, the strongmen on the north side of the bridge were shocked.
They surprisingly found out that King Alexander was standing in the middle of the crack, yet he was just standing there and not moving for some reason... They all thought Fei was exhausted and didn't have the strength to move anymore. If the bridge collapsed, falling into the river would be too dangerous, so they were all terrified for Fei.
"Damn... Quick, save the king!"
Pierce rushed forward to Fei's location like a mad god.
The other strongmen reacted the same way; they forgot about their bleeding wounds and risked their lives to rush to save Fei.
"Come back; you guys are crazy!"
At this time, Drogba kept a rare calmness; he grabbed Pierce and pulled him back swiftly. He roared, "If all of us go there, our combined weight will cause the bridge to collapse faster... We need to send someone who's fast to go and bring the back the king speedily."
"I will go! I'm the fastest!" After Pierce mulled for a second, he shouted as he was about to charge again.
"Hehe...You aren't as fast as me." A sly expression appeared on Drogba's face. He hit Pierce on the back of his head with his axe handle and knocked Pierce out. He rushed towards Fei as he laughed, as if he had gain something super advantageous. He yelled at his peers, "You guys don't need to come, I will help the king. Hahaha, take care of that whited haired idiot..."
After he said that, he charged even faster than a cheetah. The bridge was cracking and collapsing; Drogba used agility that wasn't proportional to his huge torso and rushed to Fei in just a couple seconds. He didn't say a word as he planned to grab Fei by the waist and put him on his shoulders to run back to the north bank of Zuli River.
"The f**k... Drogba? What are you doing here?"
Fei was concentrating on perfecting his upcoming plan and was surprised by the huge figure that sprang out of the dust.
"Your Majesty, the bridge is about to collapse, we need to get back!"
Fei was about to say something, but the part of the bridge under his feet suddenly shook aggressively. The biggest supporting stone finally collapsed and fell into the river. Many water beasts opened their big bloody mouths in anticipating to bite them...
"There's no time to do that!"
There was no way back, as the part of bridge that linked back to Chambord was gone. Fei grabbed Drogba's hand and used Barbarian's [Leap]. He powerfully stomped on the collapsing bridge, and the force caused the stone that Fei was stepping on to break off of the bridge completely. Fei jumped into the air with Drogba in his hands and 'flew' towards a safe location.
However, the direction that he leaped wasn't towards the north where Chambord was at, but rather... it the south where the enemies were at.
"Boom!"
Fei landed with Drogba firmly on a part of the bridge that was dozens of yards (m) away from the crack. This part of the bridge hadn't collapsed.
Finally, the dust that covered up the sky cleared up. The intense shaking of the bridge eventually calmed down as well.
Everyone could see the half collapsed bridge– There was now a gap about sixteen to seventeen yard (m) wide in the middle thinnest portion of the ancient half artificial bridge, as if a god had cut it in half. The current under the bridge whizzed as it quickly flowed downstream. The gap had become a natural barrier; after the collapse, the enemies had no way of getting to Chambord. Only star ranked warriors would be able to get across with the help of roped hooks; ordinary soldier couldn't get across unless they had wings.
Fei and Drogba stood on the edge of the gap. Behind them, there was the sixteen to seventeen yard (m) long death zone, and the current and the water beasts weren't a joke.
In front of them stood thousands of enemies. Their blades shined with bloodthirst, and they all had murderous gazes.
To these two, this... was definitely a dead end; there was no way they could make it out of this situation alive– unless Chambord could find a way to get Fei and Drogba back, or if they could kill all the enemies in front of them... But both ways were impossible.
On the defensive wall, numerous hearts sunk.
The soldiers' and citizens' face turned pale, and they couldn't utter a sound. Three star warrior Lampard frowned; beside him, the fairy like Angela bit her lips tightly and blood started to flow out. Crystal clear tears rolled off of her cheeks like rain drops, and Emma was sobbing silently in Angela's arms.
On the south bank of the Zuli River, the silver masked knight stomped with fury.
After the collapse of the bridge, the plan of conquering Chambord in a short time was ruined. The long gap between the two sides of the bridge blocked them off as if it was god's will. It was insurmountable.
"Kill them... Kill them!"
The silver masked knight pointed at Fei and Drogba. His sense of superiority, confidence and feeling of having everything under his control had all disappeared. His entire body started to shiver uncontrollably as if he had a sudden seizure; he couldn't even speak properly. He screamed frantically and lost all elegance in his demeanor.
His subordinates had to rub their eyes to make sure that it was the same person. For many years, they had never saw their commander go crazy like a stimulated psycho. Without his usual calm demeanour, the mad appearance was lower than that of a beggar on the street that was starving to death.
On the partially collapsed bridge.
Landes was relieved after the dust cleared. In this situation, the two opponents could only die in his hands. They had no way back and no chance to escape; no matter how powerful one was, even three and four star warriors wouldn't outlast thousands of soldiers.
Landes was confident, "Haha, you low lives, you're dead now… Dead! I will smash each of your bones, and cut off each piece of your flesh. I will make you beg for your death!"
Landes slowly approached Fei and Drogba with a nasty grin on his face.
Behind Landes, the enemy troops began to move forward slowly as well under the pressure of the supervision team. The chilling murderous sensation blew at Fei and Drogba, and the atmosphere became extremely depressing.
Ordinary people would've already broken down under such situation, but–
"Phew... Looks like both of us are going to die here. Do you regret it?" Fei didn't even look at the approaching enemies, he turned around and smiled at Drogba, "Are you scared?"
"To die beside the great warrior King Alexander is my Didier family's honour... Didier Drogba will never regret this!" After he said that, the strongman who had wounds all over his body held his axe tightly, decisively stepped forward and stood in front of Fei. His glared at the enemies and roared, "Hahaha, I have killed enough today... Ball-less bastards, if you want to harm my king, you have to step over my dead body!"
The roar was as loud as thunder.
Even Landes who was the three star warrior was a little intimidated by the roar of a person who was far weaker than him, which caused him to pause his steps. The enemies behind him reacted worse; hundreds and thousands of them were flustered and jumped as they backed off a couple steps.
At the moment, Fei's blood started to burn again.
Before this, Fei had asked himself repeatedly, "Why should I fight this hard? I'm only a passenger who accidentally came to this world. Wars, death, fighting, blood… All of these are irrelevant to me. If I wanted to leave, with Diablo World as my 'gold finger', I could survive anywhere else... Why would I fight so desperately?"
...
[Chapter 56.2: The Solution]
...
"Why would I fight so desperately?"
"Is it for the weak, yet kind and beautiful Angela?"
"Is it for the loyal and brave Brook and Pierce, and my soldiers?"
"Is it for the desperate and defenseless weak and elderly citizens who see me as a god and their only hope?"
"Hehe, since when did I become this great?"
Fei taunted himself many times. He doubted and questioned his decision more than once. But at this moment, seeing the strongman standing in front of him, the strongmen on the other side of the bridge who were madly trying to get across and the soldiers who were trying to rush out of the castle to support their peers and their king… Fei suddenly felt like there was nothing to hesitate about, and that everything was the way it should have been.
This was the decision of a real king.
After breathing in the air filled with the smell of blood from the battlefield, Fei walked beside Drogba. He smiled and said to the strongman who was pumped and ready to die, "When you get back, pass on my commands. Tell Brook and Lampard to stop our soldiers and citizens and make them retreat immediately. Regardless of what happens, don't leave the castle… Remember this. This is my command as the king. It doesn't matter who it is, everyone must obey, or else it will be considered treason!"
"What? Back…" Drogba was confused. He didn't get what Fei meant.
At that moment, Fei suddenly took the axe out of Drogba's hands and held the strongman by his waist. He tensed up his upper body and lifted Drogba off of the ground. He turned around and used the momentum of the rotation to throw Drogba away.
Drogba didn't any time to react. He just felt like his body was suddenly light.
The next moment, his vision blurred as he flew through the wind. In a series of gasps, he was thrown like a sandbag by Fei and flew over the big gap. He landed on the other side of the bridge. Fei's throw had demonstrated the Barbarians' ability to utilize their own strength; Drogba smashed into the other half of the bridge and glided four or five yards (m). There were tons of sparks on his metal armour from rubbing against the bridge. His body finally stopped gliding at where the rest of the strongmen were standing. Aside from a slight dizziness due to the fall, Drogba wasn't injured at all.
"Go back! All of you!… Trust me, I will make it back!"
Fei's voice came from the other side of the bridge. It went through the whizzing current and was clearly heard by Drogba, Pierce, Brook, Lampard, Angela and everyone else. It echoed in the sky and didn't disappear for a long time…
After he shouted, Fei threw away the axe that he took from Drogba and suddenly charged forward. Like a blizzard, he rushed towards Landes and the enemies.
"You're dead! AHAHAHAH!"
In this situation, after seeing another opponent escaping in like that, Landes was enraged. The series of losses despite having such a huge advantage was making him go crazy. He stomped his feet to push himself forward and took Fei head on; the red flame energy surrounded his body and shined like the sun. Landes was definitely at his peak.
"Hahaha, I'll send you to hell with this one strike and separate your head from your body!"
Fei wasn't scared, and he laughed as he provoked Landes even more. During his charge, Fei suddenly changed to Sorcerer Mode, A powerful magic field surrounded him instantly and the air beside him heated up.
"Whoosh!"
A series of fireballs appeared and shot at Landes.
Sorcerer Fire Spell– [Fire Bolt]
Next, "Crackle, crackle", a series of silver lightning balls flew towards Landes from Fei's palms.
Sorcerer Lightning Spell– [Charged Bolt]
That wasn't the end.
After the lightning, "Crack, crack", the temperature of his surroundings dropped like crazy. A cloud of ice energy appeared in Fei's palm; it formed into an ice ball and also flew towards Landes. It froze the air around it as it travelled in mid-air.
Fei didn't hesitate and used all three skills of the level 3 Sorcerer. After depleting all the mana of his mana, he switched back to Barbarian Mode and sped up his the charge.
A gold light flashed by.
He called up the substitute weapon of the Barbarian– [Azure Spiked Shield] and [Storm Sabre].
On the other side, Landes was in a panic due to Fei's Sorcerer spells.
Not even in his wildest dreams would he have guessed that the opponent was a mage too.
However, a three star warrior wasn't that weak. He dodged the series of fireballs easily. But before he could adjust his position, the series of lighting balls was sent right in his face. Landes tried to block them with his sword, but the lighting balls exploded before they touched his sword. The silver lightning exploded in every direction and many of them landed on Landes' body. It numbed his body and slowed his movement down for a little bit.
But after his red flame energy quickly got rid of the lightning energy in his body and he was about to fight back, the ice ball occupied his entire vision. Although he was strong, he wasn't able to dodge this time.
"Boom-!"
The ice ball landed and a thin layer of ice covered up his body instantly.
Before he could use his red flame energy to melt the ice, he saw a quick flash of gold light and his neck felt cold. Landes felt like he was flying and saw a familiar figure. It was his body, the head on top of the neck was missing, and blood was spurting out like a water fountain…
"I've been… beheaded?"
That was the last thought that came to his mind. Before he could feel any fear, his consciousness faded…
...
Chapter 56.3: Breakdown
...
Everything was quiet. There were white clouds in the blue sky.
On the bridge.
With the gold sword in his right hand, the half transparent shield filled with hooks on his left forearm and the head of the three star warrior Landes in his left hand, Fei stood tall and firm. Blood was dripping on the ground and left a series of blood stains…
Behind Fei, blood spurt towards the sky from the neck of the headless corpse of Landes.
"Tink!"
The sword slid out of the corpse's hand and made a crisp sound when it hit the ground. Then, the body that had infinite strength a second ago slowly fell down powerlessly, like a rotten tree…
A three star warrior couldn't even handle one strike, and ended up beheaded.
Landes' eyes were still wide open on the head in Fei's hand. It seemed like he didn't even have time to process what had happened. His nasty grin froze on the face; there was no life left in his eyes.
The majestic three star warrior was powerful and unchallenged when he was alive, but now he was no different from a beggar after he died.
Fei sneered as he slowly walked forward. His steps were light, but every time he took a step, his enemies who were in shock and panic backed off ten steps…
Fei gave no dominating speeches, nor any murderous stares. He just walked forward quietly.
He didn't even look at the thousands of enemies in front of him. His looked past the scared enemies and stared at the black energy cloud further away. An intense pressure came from that magic field, and the sense of danger Fei felt in his mind was continuously getting stronger.
"How can I kill this mage?"
Fei thought to himself quickly.
His fight with Landes looked easy, but it wasn't at all for him.
First of all, he switched to Sorcerer Mode and used all the three skills he had– [Fire Bolt] to attract Landes' attention, [Charged Bolt] to numb Landes' body and alter his movement and [Ice Bolt] to freeze Landes up for a half a second. The whole process was precisely calculated and Fei had executed it perfectly; that was how Fei was able to kill the tough enemy.
Speaking of actual strength, Fei wasn't anywhere near as strong as Landes. However, the skills in the Diablo World were mysterious and bizarre. Fei used that to his advantage and took Landes by surprise, which was how he was able to successfully challenge the three star warrior.
However, the figure in the black energy cloud was way stronger than Landes. Moreover, since all of Fei's trump cards had been used on Landes, that mysterious mage probably observed all of them. The skills from the Diablo World wouldn't be as effective anymore because the enemies had now taken precaution. Moreover, Fei's tricks and strategies were child's play considering the significant gap between the power levels.
Numerous thought rushed into Fei's head, but he didn't slow down his steps.
He approached the enemies slowly. On the other side, the enemies felt like they were a bunch mice facing a lion and couldn't help but step back chaotically. They even lost the courage to look at Fei. The monster's series of incredible battle records—especially his terrifying performance of taking the three star warrior down with one strike—had dismantled the morale of the elite enemies, causing them to fall apart.
"Drip, drip."
Thick scarlet blood and white bone fragments slid off the deformed and ruined armour. Fei left a shocking trail of blood as he walked forward. It felt like Fei was walking through a garden; there wasn't any noise or violence. However, the enemies were devastated and fled like the plague. They were retreating so quickly that although the supervising team tried to execute the escaping soldiers, they couldn't stop them. Some enemies even rushed up towards the executing supervising team to escape faster...
"AHHHHH… Archers, shoot him! Quick! Shoot him!!"
After seeing Landes beheaded by that 'Iron Beast', the silver masked knight almost fainted. He screamed at the archers harshly.
Seeing the large gap on the bridge, he felt defeated. He knew that there was no reason to fight anymore today. Chambord was now an invincible castle. To the silver masked knight, he had thousands of ways to conquer Chambord easily, but somehow he didn't know why he had lost so tragically. He felt that his strategies were very carefully planned out. He utilized all his resources properly and didn't underestimate the enemies… But he lost, and his troops suffered a heavy loss.
After staring at the figure who was slowly walking up the half collapsed bridge without any soldiers daring to stop him, the silver masked knight suddenly realized that he had ignored something important in this battle– He never thought that the enemy king's strength could improve this fast. The king was only barely able to force Landes to back off yesterday, but now the king was able to invincibly charge into his formations and behead Landes with a single strike.
"Going from one star rank to three star rank?"
No one could have thought of that, but it was a weight that could change the balance of the scale of victory. All of the silver masked knight's strategies had turned into Fei's advantages… If he had known that Fei had a strength similar to a three star warrior, he wouldn't have positioned all of his formations on the thin bridge .
"But, how?"
"Could it be… that man increased two star ranks in a single night?"
The silver masked knight's pupil contracted. He was shocked by his hypothesis. "If that's true, then what kind of monster is this man? Is he the reincarnation of God of War himself?"
"No, I can't let a man like this live on, or else…"
After thinking about the reign of terror that could occur if the enemy's strength was fully developed, an unprecedented fear overtook the silver masked knight's mind, and a cold sweat covered his body. The mysterious mage's wish of keeping Fei alive was thrown out of his mind, and he screamed at the arrow piercing formation, "Follow my command, shoot the piercing arrows… Shoot him down! Quick… quick, quick, quick! Right now! Quick!"
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
This was probably the only command that the silver masked knight sent in this battle that was on time and effective. After his command, numerous bowstrings were drawn, and they left a series of afterimages from their vibrations. In the sounds of the vibrations, many huge black piercing arrows were shot into the air; like a crowd of bloodsucking leeches, they grinned as they covered the entire sky over the top of the bridge.
"Shit!"
After seeing this, the mysterious mage in the black energy cloud shouted angrily. He was planning to capture that beast alive and obtain his secret of easily switching between powers, but after this round of arrow rain, even if the beast was made out of iron, he wouldn't have any life left inside him.
On the half collapsed bridge.
Fei suddenly raised his head and saw the sky covering arrow rain; it felt like the call from the Grim Reaper… the enemy commander didn't care that his own soldiers were on the bridge and would be caught up in the arrow rain.
Facing this danger, he lifted his left arm and covered up his handsome face with the [Azure Spiked Shield]. Then, "Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink!" like many hammers smashing against his body, painful sensations overwhelmed his nervous system…
At the same time, on the bridge.
Many black armoured enemies wailed as they fell down under the arrows of their fellow soldiers. Like the saplings under the axe of a lumberjack, they were instantly shot down without any resistance. Blood spilled everywhere and the sounds of wailing and crying were louder than the whizzing of the current. The lethal arrows pierced through the enemy soldiers' eyes, thighs, heads, chest, and feet… Some severely injured, but not yet dead soldiers wailed as they tried to crawl back to their base, dragging along with them a long trail of blood.
The bridge became a literal hell.
Further away, the silver masked knight stood on a hill on the south bank of the Zuli River and watched everything tensely. The blood, wailing and cursing of his own soldiers entered his vision and ears, but were filtered out instantly. The only thing that he cared about was the figure.
But what made him angry and scared at the same time was that after the first round of arrow rain, the monster that was fully armoured and covered in blood all over his body was swinging his sword and circular shield. He was struggling to block the arrows, but he wasn't injured fatally.
"Archers, don't stop, keep on shooting!"
...
Chapter 56.4: The Death
...
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The arrows covered the sky like "dark clouds" with pointed tips, almost like stars at nighttime, flying towards the bridge.
"Tink! Tink! Tink! Tink!"
These arrows made for penetrating armor were harvesting all the lives wherever they were falling. The arrow heads were like the tip of the Grim Reaper's sickle and had pierced through all the armor and obstacles in their way, even denting huge holes on the bridge.
The arrows had no emotions, they whizzed down on the bridge volley after volley, endlessly killing every soldier left.
Soon, there weren't any lives on the bridge. The enemy soldiers who were wounded and whining and crying moments earlier couldn't be more dead now. Every corpse had a ton of arrows attached to it; the white fletching made them all look like hedgehogs.
The silver masked knight stared at that figure.
Finally, what he wanted to see happened– that demon had finally stopped moving. Arrows were pierced into every part of his body, he looked like a giant chicken with all the feathers from the arrows sticking out. Soon, "Tink!", the sword and shield fell out of his hands and disappeared when they hit the ground,and "Bam", that figure had finally collapsed to the ground..
"Dead, Hahahaha! Finally dead… He is finally dead!"
The silver masked knight shivered as he laughed crazily. He stooped and teared up while continuing laughing, unclear if he was happy or sad. To the last, he continued laughing as he kneeled to the ground. His voice became hoarse and filled with madness as his laughing turned into crying…
His grasped the grass on the hill where he was standing with his hands; and tears rolled off of the silver mask uncontrollably.
Finally dead.
That man was finally dead.
But his three thousand elite troops were also finished. Not only did they suffer heavy casualties, but the soldiers who survived were all frightened to death. They didn't have any courage left in them to hold their weapons and step on a battlefield again. What made him even more mad was that he had lost more than half of his personal black knights who were all one star warriors, not even mentioning that the three-star warrior Landes also lost his life in the battle.
The silver masked knight was pushed to the verge of mental breakdown by that beast.
On the battlefield, after seeing that figure had finally fallen down, the enemy soldiers all held on to their neck and started breathing heavily, as if the Grim Reaper had let go of his grasp on their lives. The mountain like pressure that was on their minds had finally lifted and the shadow of death disappeared. Some enemy soldiers went insane. They laughed as the tears rolled down their faces.
Before this, they could never imagine that one man, only one man could dismantle an entire army.
The mysterious mage was enraged, but after he saw the collapsed expression on the silver masked knight's face from afar, he held back his anger and decided not to argue with him. After thinking and changing expressions, he order a couple transfixed soldiers beside him: "You guys, go move that corpse and bring it to my tent."
The majesty of a mage had called back the souls of the soldiers who were almost going to break down. Quickly, a couple strong soldiers rushed over to the corpse that was full of penetration arrows, lifted it up, and followed the mysterious mage back to his tent.
The corpse was heavy. With the ruined metal armor and arrows, it weighed almost three hundred pounds. The couple enemy soldiers who were carrying the corpse were sweating; they didn't even dare to look at the corpse. The murderous sensation from the corpse was shattering their souls causing the soldiers who were following the mage to shake uncontrollably.
"You guys can leave now. Doesn't matter what happens in here, don't let anyone in and disturb me."
After they had arrived at a black, gloomy tent, the mage ordered the soldiers to put the corpse in the middle of the tent and told them to leave. The soldiers felt like they had being given an amnesty and rushed out of the tent as if they were running for their lives. The air in the tent smelled damp and musty, and was faintly mixed with the smell of rancid corpses. Weirdly shaped sharp tools and bottles were hanging from everywhere. The whole place felt like a slaughterhouse and none of the enemy soldiers wanted to stay in there for even one second.
The mysterious mage closed the curtain to the tent. He also carefully placed a couple small defensive magic arrays at the entrance as security. Then a blue flame flew out of his hand and ignited the brazier hanging off of the middle of the tent. The blue flame was fainting and flickering. Although there was a fire, the tent was still filled with coldness; everything felt creepy as the hell.
"Hoo, hoo, hoohooo…"
The mysterious mage;s laughter sounded like an owl. A greedy light shined in his eyes as he stared at the corpse on the ground. He spoke to himself with a slight regret: "Too bad we didn't capture him alive… But fortunately I had acquired some undead magic, maybe I could figure out the secret to switching powers from dissecting his corpse. Hoo hooo hoo… After getting this secret, I might be able to break through the bottleneck of the four star rank that had been holding me back for many years and advance to the five star rank. Advancing to the moon rank wouldn't be just a dream anymore, Hohohooo!"
His laughed hoarsely. Stooping his back and not being able to wait any longer, he touched the armor on the corpse with his withered bamboo like finger and was about to take it off and started dissecting…
But when he turned the corpse around strenuously so it was facing upward and laid his finger on the buckle of the armour, his smile froze and an unprecedented shock came on his face.
Even though the mysterious mage was powerful and thoughtful, he was trembling in fear.
It wasn't because he was timid–
Any one would freak out if they saw a corpse suddenly smiling at them. The mage's nerves reacted normally.
"You… Impossible… You are still alive?"
The mage shouted as if he saw a ghost, but he quickly shivered in fear.
What was going to happen when a monstrous warrior was that close to a defenseless mage? The mage's face turned pale. A dense cloud of energy appeared out of nowhere and started to spread throughout the entire tent rapidly. The mage wanted to protect his body, like a drowning hapless guy would try to climb up on a tiny piece of floating wood. To a mage, they had to protect their weak bodies with their magic powers, it was almost an involuntary reaction.
A series of obscure syllables float out of his mouth, but…
"Bam-!
One punch from Fei had stopped the mage's effort for protecting himself. The low magic chanting was cut off, as if a someone was strangling a crowing rooster. Next, the black cloud of energy suddenly disappeared.
The mage's mouth was wide open.
Transparent saliva and white spit sprayed out of his mouth which had been chanting majestic magic spells a second earlier. Like an assaulted virgin, an unbelieving expression came on his face as he held tight onto one of his body parts– His crotch.
"Damn! So the Dong is really the weakest part of a man!"
Fei laughed as he blew at his fist and thought shamelessly. Although he was laughing, he didn't forget to seize the opportunity; he jumped up and kick the mage's crotch again forcefully.
The mage's body stiffed up after that kick. The deep hoarse growl akin to a dying beast came from his throat and he fell backwards onto the ground. The black cloak fell off of his body and an emaciated, skeleton like face appeared. He was so pale and skinny that his skin was stretched tight over his skull. There was not even a single hair growing on his head.
Due to the beating of the vital body part, the poor four star ranked mage's face turned from white to black, then to green… The powerful four star ranked mage was tearing up due to the pain. He crouched like a cooked shrimp and rolled on the ground, but fainted quickly.
"DAMN, pretending to be dead like me?"
Fei couldn't believe that he took care of a four star mage this easily. To make sure that this "human skeleton" wasn't pretending the faint, he walked up to the mage, after thinking for a couple seconds, he spit and he smiled evilly as kicked the mage's crotch again.
"Crack", Fei heard a light sound, it sounded like some sort of egg had shattered.
"Looks like he really fainted."
Fei was relieved. His tensed up nerves relaxed as the pressure on his mind disappeared. He felt a lot more at ease and sat on the ground as he took some deep breaths.
Everything went so smoothly, it was far beyond Fei's expectation.
During the battle, after seeing the appearance of the enemy's strong archers, Fei suddenly had an idea– faking the death. He had a layer of the heavy metal armour, and also could call up the armor of the level 12 Barbarian– Especially the [Arctic Fur]in the [Arctic Gear]. That armor had a ton of defense; with the two layers of armour, surviving under the arrows wasn't going to be a huge problem. Next, only if Fei could get into the enemy base and sneak attack the four star mage out of the blue, he had fifty, sixty percent chance of taking out the powerful mage.
Fei was worrying about how to get near the enemy mage to sneak attack, who knew that the mage was really unfortunate, and was seeking his own death. He ordered the soldiers to carry Fei's body into his tent and wanted to touch Fei "obscenely".
...
Chapter 56.5: Torture
...
"It looks like when I get lucky, nothing can stop me… hahahaha, I'm the king of luck!"
Fei took off the heavy metal armour that was barely holding together, showing the Barbarian's armour underneath. The piercing arrows were very effective and even left many dents in the [Arctic Fur]. The force from the arrows passing through the armour had damaged Fei's body.
"…Faking death is actually very practical!"
Fei took out the [Normal Healing Potion] from his belt and took a sip. His injuries recovered quickly and the pain that was seeped deep into the bones disappeared. He didn't dare drink the whole bottle; there was about one sixth of the potion left when he put it back into his storage belt.
After he recovered, Fei began to observe the black and dark tent. The air had a stench as if numerous creatures' corpses had been rotting and fermenting here. Under the flickering light of the blue flame, it felt quiet and horrible.
Fei's eyes finally landed on a couple of black ropes. His eyes shined as a great idea came to mind. He decided to tie the fainted mage up. He didn't want to kill this poor mage; in his eyes, a living four star mage was far more valuable than his corpse. As long as the mage was under his control, all kinds of information in the mage's brain was a treasure. Chambord was only a kingdom in a remote area on the continent. There were many things about the Azeroth Continent that Brook and Lampard couldn't even explain. Fei wanted to get more information directly from the mage's mouth.
Fei grabbed the ropes and started to laugh evilly, "Hahahaha! How should I tie up this old bastard?"
Tying up prisoners was a highly technical job. If they weren't tied up properly, the prisoner could easily get loose and escape. But due to Fei's expertise from watching 18+ S&M movies, it wasn't a problem at all for him. Fei didn't mind putting the theories in his mind to the test.
After a few minutes.
"Phew, finally!" Fei clapped his hands as he looked at his "project".
The poor four star mage was tied into a "human rice dumpling". Fei used six ropes and demonstrated twelve tying methods. He made a huge knot when the rope was going around the mage's face and stuffed it into the mage's mouth. That way, even if the mage woke up later, he wouldn't be able to chant any magic spells.
Of course, that wasn't the end.
Fei was a very alert person. To guarantee his safety, he found a stubby wooden stick and shamelessly and mercilessly stuck it into the mage's butthole. After that, he connected the stick and rope together; if the mage struggled even a little bit, the rope would move the stick and he would be r*ped continuously. That pain would cause even the toughest man to faint.
Even after that, Fei still didn't feel secure enough. A four star mage was too powerful for him. What if that guy had ways to untie the ropes… After some thinking, Fei crushed the mage's bones and limbs. After seeing the fainted mage unconsciously struggle aggressively and a bunch of blood and foam coming out of his mouth, Fei knew that the mage wouldn't wake up any time soon, so he initiated his plan with a sneer on his face.
…
In the enemy base.
The remaining soldiers were packing up their belongings and were getting ready to retreat quickly. Ten minutes ago, a scout rushed back to the base and reported that the scout team had discovered the traces of the Zenit Empire's troops. It was almost certain that they were heading in the direction of Chambord. It forced the silver masked knight to give up the siege on Chambord Castle—the silver masked knight knew very well that the reinforcements from the Zenit Empire would be a great excuse for him to retreat. After the bridge had collapsed, there was no way that his army could take down Chambord Castle.
On top of that, almost all of his soldiers didn't want to fight near that castle anymore. What happened today had destroyed the elite soldiers' courage; all they wanted to do was to leave this demonic land and never see that castle across the river again within their lifetime.
Everyone in the base was rushing to get things packed, making it look very chaotic. Outside the mage's tent were two enemy soldiers. They were the guards that the silver masked knight gifted to his teacher. Both of them stood tall and strong; they were afraid that if they slacked off, the mage might find out. Before today, fourteen soldiers had been taken by the mage as lab rats for his experiments for that very reason. Those fourteen poor souls had definitely suffered unimaginable torture before their deaths. They screamed and wailed like wild beasts, causing all the soldiers in the base to have nightmares.
Both of them wished for this siege to be over soon. Once the troops retreated, they would't have to guard this demon-like mage anymore.
At this moment–
"Hula–"
The thick curtain that covered the entrance of the tent opened and someone stepped out.
Both of the guards quickly turned around to bow and salute. But when they saw the face of the man who had just stepped out, they felt cold. Their faces turned pale, their mouths started mumbling and their teeth chattered and made a series of brittle sounds. Their tongues almost fell off and they couldn't say a word.
"Plop!"
After a few seconds of trembling, one of the soldier's eyes turned white and he fainted due to shock. The other soldier was better, but his body was also shaking as if he was trying to shake lice off of himself. He pointed his finger as if he had seen an undead, and his mind was completely blank. He was a little bit envious of his fainted colleague; he didn't know what to do and had to face the demon half consciously.
"Hey man, I'm lost. Which tent is your boss living at?" Fei was afraid that the soldier in front of him was also going to faint. He put on a smile he considered friendly and bright and asked the soldier with his most sincere voice as he lightly tapped the soldier's shoulder.
The soldier was shaking uncontrollably and couldn't utter a word. He trembled as he slowly pointed his finger at the big black tent about fifty yards (m) away, and "Plop!" fainted as he had wished.
"Pooh!"
Fei looked at the tent further away and spit on the ground. Although the enemy soldiers were everywhere, he didn't try to hide at all; he directly walked up to the tent. After taking care of the four star mage, none of the enemies could stop him.
After a couple seconds, someone had finally discovered the rampaging Fei. However, no one yelled nor even made a sound.
"Tink! Tink!"
In the entire base, almost all the soldiers who had seen Fei started trembling in fear as their faces turned pale. They couldn't hang onto their weapons anymore, causing them to fall to the ground. As if they had all been petrified by a magic spell, none of them moved. They were all "shake dancing" in unison as they watched Fei walk up to the big black tent in the middle of the base.
The atmosphere was quiet, yet strange.
…
On the Chambord defensive wall.
"Oh God…"
"Impossible…"
"King Alexander…"
After seeing the piercing arrows cover up the collapsed bridge, many people started crying instantly. Their tears made their faces super wet and they had to hold onto one another to stand, as if their stamina had been sucked away. Lampard didn't say a word; he jumped off of the defensive wall. Emma fainted in the arms of Angela, and Angela's face was as pale as snow.
The sun in the sky had suddenly lost its brightness.
Everyone on the defensive wall felt the world had turned dark, as if something magnificent had suddenly collapsed.
...
Chapter 56.6: The Big Win
...
Chambord's soldiers and citizens lost their strength to even stand up and their weapons were dropped to the ground. They all rushed down the defensive wall and ran towards the castle gates. Everyone wanted to get onto the collapsed bridge. Even if they ended up dying, they still wanted to bring their king back. No one believed that their king who was blessed by the God of War was dead. He had to be alive; he just had to be!
In the crowd, only a few people were standing still quietly; they all had different expressions, but their excitement leaked through their eyes. Head Minister Bazzer was standing under the watchtower and was having a hard time holding back his delight, "Great! He's finally dead!" Honestly, the strength that Alexander had shown in that battle greatly shocked and threatened him. He didn't expect that the retarded teenage king could have that kind of power, "Was Alexander's retarded behaviour from before all an act?" Bazzer would have a cold sweat every time he thought about that. The more he looked at the invincible figure on the bridge, the more he became terrified… "It's perfect! Alexander was killed in the hands of the enemies and the collapse of the bridge means that the enemies can't threat Chambord anymore. It's just like killing two bird with one stone! My upcoming plans can be perfectly executed now."
Beside Bazzer, the fatty Gill had a big smile on his face.
"Alexander, you idiot! You're finally dead, hahaha. Idiots will always be idiots. Even though you became normal, all you knew was to charge like a dumb pig and risk your life for those lowlife citizens. See, you got shut down by all the arrows!"
Gill turned his head and stared at Angela. He licked his lips as an obscene and vicious look came on his face. His eyes were filled with craze; If Brook wasn't guarding Angela closely, Gill wouldn't have waited and would've done something already…
…
In the huge black tent located in the middle of the enemy base.
The silver masked knight was sitting on the stone chair in the middle of the tent powerlessly. He looked at the remaining nine black knights and said in a deep voice, "Get ready to retreat. Kill all the severely wounded soldiers that can't make it; we can't let the Zenit Empire know that we've been here. Clean up the battlefield carefully and don't leave behind any trace… I swear, one day, I Mateja-Kezman will lead the iron cavalry of Eindhoven and break this little kingdom into pieces!"
As he was saying the last part, the silver masked knight squeezed his hand tightly and trembled in anger. But at this moment, something unexpected happened–
A sharp gust of air whizzed from far away and cut the whole tent into two pieces. The tent collapsed onto the two sides, causing the bright sunlight to shine through and reveal everything inside the tent.
"I'm afraid that you won't have a chance to go back."
An apathetic voice sounded in the distance. The silver masked knight's pupil suddenly contracted. He discovered in fear that the monstrous figure that was supposed to be dead was approaching him slowly, step by step. The bloody murderous sensation pressured him more and more, and he was having a hard time breathing.
"You…" The silver masked knight had an inconceivable expression on his face, "You didn't die?"
"Of course I didn't die. Hehe, that means you'll have to die!"
Fei moved closer and closer. He looked as sharp as a knife. This was the first time he had seen the silver masked knight, but from the luxurious clothing and the way the knight was protected in the middle of the black knights, it was obvious that the man wearing the silver mask was the commander of the enemies—and the culprit for the sieges and the death of hundreds of Chambord citizens and soldiers. Fei couldn't ever let someone whose hands had been bathed in so much blood go.
Fei didn't sense any large energy fluctuations from the silver masked knight, so he estimated that the silver masked knight was around two star ranked. That kind of power was no threat to Fei at all. He was confident that he could kill the silver masked knight with a single strike.
The surrounding soldiers didn't dare come any closer. The silver masked knight and the black knights to his right seemed so weak compared to Fei.
"Go, kill him!" The silver masked knight yelled as he pointed his hand. The eight black knights didn't hesitate and roared as they charged at Fei. Although they knew that they would probably die, under their strict discipline and the silver masked knight's coercion, they didn't dare to think twice.
"Die–!"
Fei's expression turned cold and he sped up. His body left a series of afterimages in the air. As he was about to collide into the black knights, a white light flashed and the Barbarian's [Azure Spiked Shield] and [Storm Sabre] appeared in his hands. Then, a 180º half-spin, causing the golden sword to turn into a flash of gold light.
"Pllkkkcchhhh!"
After eight light sounds, the eight black knights froze in their positions. Fei didn't slow down a single bit. He turned into a frantic tornado and swept towards the silver masked knight. Although his expression was cold, a raging fire was burning in his heart.
"Haha, I'll kill you myself!"
The silver masked knight reluctantly gathered his courage. Blue magic power shined around his body. He condense a spiky ice ball about the size of a basketball and shot the ice ball towards Fei. At the same time, a series of icicles appeared and rotated around him, forming into an ice shield.
Instant attack and defense. The silver masked knight was a two star ice mage. From his moves, Fei could tell that he had a lot of practical combat experience; he made the best decision in a split second.
"Bam!"
The ice ball accurately hit Fei.
An ecstatic expression appeared on the silver masked knight's face. As long as the ice ball could numb his opponent's body and slow his movements for a little while, he could use numerous magic devices and chant many magic spells to easily take down his most hated opponent.
However–
That charging "tornado" didn't slow down at all. With an impressive speed, Fei arrived in front of the silver masked knight instantly. In the silver masked knight's eyes, the golden sword symbolized the call from the Grim Reaper, and it pierced him continuously.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH…"
Under such a dangerous situation, the silver masked knight roared like an injured bear. His magic power floated out of his body crazily and formed into numerous icicles and rotated around him rapidly, forming into layers and layers of ice shields. All he wanted to do was block the lethal attacks from that golden sword. However, he was terrified; he blocked off the golden sword for a little bit, but after having a taste of blood, it pierced through the ice shields like lightning.
"Plik!"
The golden sword was merciless and pierced through the silver masked knight's throat.
The next moment, the last strand of life disappeared from those eyes under the silver mask. The silver masked knight couldn't believe it. Even until the his last moment, could it possibly be that he, the high and majestic prince who was going to inherit the throne of an empire and leave his legacies on the Azeroth Continent, was going to… die in a place like this?
"Pooh… Wearing a mask? You wannabe!"
Fei grabbed the handle of the [Storm Sabre] tightly as he spit at the silver masked knight disdainfully. He didn't worry about the ice chips that were on his body. He kicked the silver masked knight's corpse as he pulled out his sword. He glanced scornfully at the surrounding enemies who were staring blankly. At the same time, the eight black knights who were standing still in their positions fell down—their lives had already been plundered by the [Storm Sabre].
"Hurry up and get the f**k out of here!" Fei suddenly roared.
The thousands of enemies felt like they had been pardoned when they were standing in front of an execution. They screamed as they turned around and escaped from Fei; all of them wished that they were born with two more legs so that they could run faster…
At this moment, a loud bugle sounded on the plain from further away. A large formation of cavalry charged in the direction of Chambord. Looking from afar, it felt like the cavalry were like darks clouds and were creating an earthquake.
...
Chapter 56.7: Reinforcements
...
Fei's facial expression changed. He jumped up to a higher hill and took a glance. Far away on the horizon where the blue sky and the green plains met, numerous elongated silver flags appeared. The flags fluttered in the wind and looked like flying silver dragons. Then, the ground started to shake and numerous silver armoured cavalry charged in the direction of Chambord like a huge tidal wave.
"From what I can see and feel, it seems that there are at least six hundred cavalry in this formation… are they help from the Zenit Empire or reinforcements of the silver masked knight?"
Fei observed carefully. He quickly found out that the silver armoured cavalry that suddenly appeared didn't slow down their charges at all when they saw the defeated enemies, but rather started a merciless massacre under the sound of the loud bugles. Wherever the iron horseshoes stomped, blood and flesh flew into the air. The blades and lances penetrated the enemies; it was like letting hungry tigers into a cage of sheep. The one thousand enemies screamed and whined, but they had no strength to fight back; it was a one-sided battle.
"Phew… Great, it looks like they're the aid sent from the Zenit Empire." Fei was a little relieved. He thought about something and jumped off of the hill. He returned to the mysterious mage's tent and was surprised to find out that there were some signs of struggling. It was obvious that the four star mage had woken up and tried to break the ropes. Unfortunately, he wasn't successful at all—Fei's sickening tying method proved useful. The poor mage was anally decimated, and his blood stained the ground. It seemed that the wooden stick moved when the mage was struggling, so he had fainted again due to the unbearable pain.
Fei lifted the fainted mage off of the ground and walked towards the collapsed black tent where the silver masked knight was at. Fei put the mage together with silver masked knight's corpse, then he cut off a big piece of cloth from the tent with the [Storm Sabre]. He wrapped the mage and the corpse together into a big package and put it beside him.
After doing that, he stood on the plains and looked at the aid sent from the Zenit Empire. At that time, the cavalry with their shiny armour were still rotating and charging to wipe out the remaining enemies. About twenty cavalries split off and charged in Fei's direction.
Fei was about to ask them something, but he saw that the cavalry didn't slow down when they saw him; rather, they laughed as they sped up their horses and yelled arrogantly. The lances in their hands were raised and shined with a murderous light under the sun. The tips of their lances were still dripping with the enemies' blood and they were now aimed at Fei.
"Damn! Did these dumbasses mistake me for one of the defeated enemies?"
Fei was dumbfounded. As he was about to shout and explain himself, the knight in luxurious armour who was leading the charge suddenly laughed as he turned his body and threw his lance at Fei using the momentum of his charging horse. The two yard (m) long lance whizzed as it tore through the air and aimed at Fei directly.
"Tink!"
Fei's expression turned cold. He raised his left arm and the [Azure Spiked Shield] lightly tapped on the lances; the fierce lance was re-directed into the sky. Fei felt that the knight who threw the lance wasn't even a one star warrior. That level of attack he put out wasn't threatening at all to a level 12 Barbarian.
"You… you dare resist? Go stomp him into meat paste!"
The luxuriously armed knight didn't expect that his most accurate attack would be so easily dealt with by a 'defeated enemy' who was covered in blood. After a brief moment of surprise, he felt his prestige being challenged.
"Tink!" He was enraged as he pulled out his sword from his waist and shouted as he pointed the sword at Fei. He and the dozen cavalry behind him kicked their horses with the spurs on their iron boots. The horses felt the pain and suddenly sped up and rushed towards Fei aggressively.
They wanted to send the enemy in front of them into the air.
"Wait… Stop! I'm from Chambord, I'm not an enemy!"
Fei had no way but to shout and explain himself.
Who knew that the luxuriously armed knight who was leading the charge didn't rein the horses to slow down after he heard Fei's shout. He lowered his head and accelerated the horse even more. The cavalry behind him did the same; they all had excited and mocking smiles on their faces, and the way they looked Fei was no different than looking at an idiot and a dead person.
"Damn, this isn't right… These bastards want to kill me on purpose."
Fei's heart sunk a little as he smelled something fishy. After looking at the taunting smile on the knight and cavalry's faces, Fei knew that words wouldn't solve any problems. He sneered as he positioned the [Azure Spiked Shield] onto his shoulder and bumped directly and aggressively into the charging knight and cavalry.
"Sons of b*tches, let's see who's tougher!" Their provocation had angered Fei.
Quickly, the one man and fourteen horses collided with each other head on.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!"
A series of loud muffled noises sounded as if they were smashing into a firm defensive wall. Filled disbelief, they were slammed off of their horses and fell to the ground hideously and couldn't stop crying and screaming. The leading knight was especially worse off as he turned into a soccer ball and kept rolling on the ground. His luxurious suit of armour was covered in blood and dirt; his helmet was lost and his face was so dirty that he looked like a homeless beggar that hadn't taken a shower in years.
The dozen horses were flipped onto the ground and struggled to get back up.
Fei turned around and stood still. He didn't say a word; he just sneered at the knight and the cavalry who were struggling to get up. His expression was filled with disdain; it felt like a dragon was staring at a couple of dogs who dared to challenge him. It made the knight and cavalry feel so resentful that they almost vomited blood.
"You…" The leading knight pointed his finger at Fei, "You reckless bastard, how dare you attack the knights of the Zenit Empire? Ahhhhhhh, you are dead… I'll kill you!" Although he was yelling arrogantly and ferociously, none of them dared to charge at Fei. His domineering act of consecutively knocking over a dozen charging horses almost made them crap their pants.
Fei had nothing to say.
"Are you a dumb pig? You shot your lance at me first and wanted to stomp me into a meat paste because you had more men… If I didn't defend myself, should I have stood here quietly and let you kill me?… So it's reasonable for you to kill me, but if I block you then I'm a dead man?"
The botched manners and poor performance of these reinforcements suddenly wiped out all the interest Fei had in the aid from the Zenit Empire. He picked up the cloth package containing the mage and the silver masked knight's corpse and walked back to Chambord Castle without saying a word.
"Don't leave if you dare, you bastard…"
Although the luxuriously armed knight was pretty scared, his didn't shut his mouth. After seeing the opponent backing off, his courage was reignited and he pointed at Fei and cursed and provoked him.
Fei stopped and turned around; his expression was as cold as the arctic.
"If you say even one more word, I'll kill you!"
At that moment, Fei really had killing intent. Because they were the help sent from his Parent Empire– Zenit, Fei didn't want to make a big fuss about these dumb knights. But who knew that they would return in high spirits and provoke him again. After Fei said that, the [Storm Sabre] flashed a golden light. If those knights said anything more, he would show them hell.
Suddenly, a soaring bloody and murderous sensation was violently emitted from Fei's body.
Including the continuous killings in the Diablo World and real world, no one knew how many monsters, demons and enemies died under Fei's blade. Fei was literally stepping on mountains of corpses and seas of bloods for the last couple days. The murderous sensation had condensed in his body, and it almost became a tangible substance. Now, it soared into the sky and was as sharp as a knife when dismantling the opponent's courage and morale.
The cavalry shut their mouths in fright; the leading knight who was the most arrogant of the bunch turned mute. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead as he felt the threat of death in the opponent's cold eyes; he felt like he was in a freezer. He knew what Fei said wasn't just a threat; he had no doubt that if he said anything more, he would definitely be killed.
"Pooh! Coward!" Fei swore and scorned. He walked back to Chambord with the huge package in his hands. He knew that everyone on the defensive wall had seen his fake death. He couldn't imagine how sad and worried everyone must've been, especially Angela and Brook. He knew that if would definitely be in chaos, so Fei had to rush back to comfort everyone.
...
Chapter 56.8: Return of the King
...
Just like he thought, when he reached the gap on the collapsed bridge, he saw many people crying and yelling as they rushed out of the castle gates and stumbled as they ran towards the gap on the bridge. There were a lot of people standing on the other side of gap trying to get across…
Fei's heart was warmed. He used the Barbarian's [Leap]; like a giant bird, he whizzed in the air and reached the sixteen to seventeen yard (m) gap in a couple of jumps. He didn't pause and used another [Leap] to jump over the huge gap with the big package in his hand, and landed in the crowd on the other side.
"It's King Alexander…" someone cheered.
"Haha, I, blacksmith Harry knew you that were still alive, haha! How could those cowardly dog sh*ts hurt you!" An old white haired man was excited to the point of tears after he saw Fei.
"King Alexander, you… I… Amazing! Bless you…. Thank the God of War for blessing my king!" A couple paupers who were holding farming tools as weapons kneeled down and prayed to thank the God of War for protecting their king.
After a moment of surprise, all the strongmen including Pierce and Drogba threw away the ropes they were trying use to get across the gap and rushed to Fei, crying as they clung onto his legs. Twenty or so fully armoured tough men who were covered in blood and didn't even frown when the blades and lances of the enemies penetrated their bodies were now crying like little kids.
Further away on the defensive wall.
Head Minister Bazzer's thin and dry body started to wobble as he saw that scene. He felt his vision darken and gold stars started to appear in front of him. His mouth was wide open, exposing his yellowish-black teeth. His gray hair was messed up by the blowing wind and he murmured to himself dully, "Impossible… This is impossible… He's still alive… How… Is he a monster? Still alive after being penetrated by hundreds of arrows? DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The old man felt like he was about to go crazy. Gill who was gloating on the side felt like he lost the strength in his legs and fell on his butt. "Alexander isn't dead…" The fatty's sharp intuition told him that, "Shit! My luck is about to disappear, big trouble is about to come!"
Under the watchtower.
"Hum…" Angela slowly awakened, still in sorrow like a withering lily who hadn't even bloomed. Her eyes dimmed as they lost their luster. After hearing the cheers on the bridge, she turned her head and looked at the bridge through her eyes that were still blurred by her tears. But at that moment, her sight was fixed. The girl's heart started to beat unquenchably; she saw the familiar and resolute figure standing on the bridge through her blurred vision. The sad girl quickly rubbed her eyes in astonishment… "Oh God of War, it's really him!!"
Liveliness and brilliance suddenly returned to the girl's soft and weak body.
"Alexander…"
Angela whispered and tears rolled off of her face uncontrollable. Despite crying once more, this time her tears were not those of heartbreak, but instead those of joy. She suddenly stood up, wiped off her tears quickly, picked up the edge of her long dress and ran off of the defensive wall like a happy bird in spite of Brook and Lampard blocking the path to protect her.
"I have to go see him!" The beautiful girl said to herself.
She had walked through the path from Chambord to the stone bridge countless times; watching the sunrises and sunsets on the defensive wall or the bridge to pray for the poor Alexander was something she often did. However, she never felt that the path was this long.
She wished that she could teleport to the man's arms instantly.
"Hey! Watch your steps… Angela… Slow down… Relax, wait for me!"
Emma was smiling and yelling behind Angela. She skipped as she followed her; the golden ponytail on her head bounced up and down. This bright and happy scene gave Chambord's number one warrior Lampard a big smile. A few moments ago, after seeing Fei turn into a white porcupine by all the arrows, Lampard was shocked and jumped off of the defensive wall selflessly to rush over to the other side of the bridge… But during the process, he suddenly remembered Fei's request to protect Angela. After a moment of hesitation, he quickly returned to Angela's side to protect her.
Thank god that Angela was okay. At that key moment, Brook was beside her, guarding her vigilantly.
Now, everything was good. Alexander returned alive and the enemies were defeated and madly retreating. The reinforcements from the parent Zenit Empire had also arrived. All of Chambord's dangers were instantly removed. It was the happiest ending.
After Lampard thought about it, his usual calm "dead" face couldn't help but reveal a big bright smile. It was the first time that he smiled this happily in the past couple years. He looked at Head Minister Bazzer—who was not too far away and as gloomy as a dark cloud—with that smile on his face. His provocation was clear.
Bazzer could only 'humph' silently.
…
On the south bank of the Zuli River.
The hundreds of cavalry sped towards the river bank and stopped after they had wiped out the thousand or so retreating enemies. A huge red carriage that was being pulled by eight horses side by side slowly pulled up and separated the crowd. The carriage was giant; it was at least three yards (m) long and was supported by four huge delicate wooden wheels. The carriage looked like it was carved as whole from a huge natural timber. Thorny floral patterns were engraved onto the carriage and the birds on it were lifelike. There were two small ventilated windows on both sides of the carriage. What was most surprising was that carriage navigator was a shiny armoured knight, and he looked powerful.
After seeing the arrival of the carriage, the luxuriously armoured knight who Fei had knocked down scrambled as he rushed to the carriage and held onto the shaft. He cried as he lied and exaggerated about what just happened, "Sis. Tanasha, that damn guy insulted the dignity of the Zenit Empire, he even insulted you… You can't go easy on him."
The carriage was silent for a couple seconds.
Next, a weak and soft voice replied, "Jimmy, you're the one who provoked him, right? Now you've finally met a warrior that doesn't care about your identity as the young prince of Zenit. Let your suffering this time teach you something. Don't ever provoke anyone again… I told you many times that to become a true knight, individual strength and military feats are far from enough. Humility, honesty, compassion, courage, justice, sacrifice, honour and spirit… after you remember these eight criteria, you just might be able to become a real knight."
The weak voice sounded like the person had just recovered from a long term illness. However, it had the power to penetrate through people's minds; the girl named Tanasha revealed the little prince Jimmy-Tropinski's lies and also taught her good-for-nothing little brother a lesson.
Little prince Tropinski was planning to teach that savage who dared to challenge his prestige a lesson through his sister's hands, but he tucked in his head under Tanasha's rebuke. He took his chances and argued again, "Big sis. It wasn't me this time…"
"Alright, that's the end of it. If you have any other opinions, I'll have to make the soldiers send you back…" The weak voice sounded again in the carriage and cut Tropinski off coldly. After a moment of silence, she said, "Ask the butler Bast to come over politely."
Tropinski stood up moodily and quietly said to the soldier near him, "Go bring that damn navigator over."
The soldier complied and walked away.
Soon, the soldier brought back a middle aged man who was about forty years old. He was about six feet tall (180cm). His short black hair was fixed properly; with his bright eyes, tall nose, handsome face and proportionate body, although he was wearing a coarse robe, his leisurely postures made people feel like he was wearing the world's most expensive suit. Everyone could feel a refined grace and temperament from him. This man was definitely a super handsome guy when he was young. Although he was forty-ish now, he could still charm innocent young girls easily with his appearances.
"Bast, you lowly "navigator". Go and tell your retarded king son-in-law that the canonization ambassador from Zenit Empire has arrived and get him to come out and kneel down to greet us…" Maybe it because of jealousy between the same sex, but the little prince Tropinski was angry every time he saw the calm middle aged handsome man. He ordered Bast and emphasized the word "navigator".
"As you wish, your Royal Highness!"
The middle aged Bast wasn't mad at all. He curved his waist gracefully and gave Tropinski a standard aristocratic salute, then walked towards Chambord at a moderate pace. The reasonable and decent attitude made the little prince feel like his behaviour was that of an uneducated hillbilly's; he felt so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood. However, one thing that no one caught was that after Bast had turned around, he pointed his middle finger fiercely in front of the prince.
...
Chapter 56.9: Old Bastard
...
"Finally back at Chambord." All the Bast's worries had disappeared.
After seeing the firm, basically intact defensive wall, Bast was relieved, "Good, the reinforcement didn't arrive too late. The worst case scenario didn't occur, and the black armoured enemies didn't conquer the castle…" When he thought about it, he sighed, "The number one warrior Lampard is here, so Bazzer couldn't do too much. Angela and that retarded king should be safe and sound."
The numerous ruined corpses and marks left on the wall from the intense battle struck terror into Bast. He didn't know how Chambord held up. It was a miracle; four hundred soldiers in the King's Guards were able to defend for five days against the siege of more than two thousand elite enemies?
After he stepped onto the bridge, the calm, cool and collected Bast was finally stunned.
"Oh God of War… Unbelievable! Breaking the stone bridge? Whose idea is this? Eh, Lampard and Brook are both strong-headed, there's no way that it was their idea… Could it be Bazzer? Since when could that old dog do something good?"
Bast lowered his head and thought.
Suddenly, he heard the cheers on the other side of the partially collapsed bridge. That was when he noticed that numerous citizens of Chambord gathered on the side for some reason and were celebrating. Under the whizzing of the fast current, he faintly heard "Hail the King!", "Long live His Majesty!" and other similar shouts. Bast was a little surprised, "Hail the King? Eh… They aren't talking about the retarded Alexander, are they?"
Bast quickened his steps and then he saw another shocking scene–
His beautiful and innocent daughter Angela was sprinting towards the bridge from the castle. She abandoned all her ladylike manners; like a beautiful butterfly fluttering in a trail of flowers, her face was all red and she was breathing heavily as she separated the crowd. She laughed and cried at the same time as she hugged and jumped into the arms of the young man wearing a ruined suit of armour and covered in blood.
Bast couldn't believe his own eyes.
"God! Since when did my pure and obedient baby Angela become this open and bold? Embracing an unfamiliar young man in public? Did she forget that she'll become the future queen of the kingdom? Or did something magical happen since I left Chambord?"
Bast felt jumpy as he thought about it.
He felt that he needed to remind his silly daughter to never be tricked by the playful and charming words of a young man. Bast rushed to the gap on the bridge and intentionally yelled, "Hey Angela, my sweetheart! I'm back!"
…
On the other side of the collapsed bridge.
Fei was enjoying the ecstatic feeling of the warm and soft hug. Although he was surprised that his beautiful fiancée rushed out of the castle and jumped into his arms, after being stunned for a brief moment, he was full of joy. This guy thought to himself happily, "Hahaha, this should count as a perfect match, right? The hero and the beauty…"
While Fei was so delighted that his teeth were almost falling off and he was holding back his drooling urges to just to feel the beauty in his arms, someone acted recklessly and made him feel really unpleasant by shouting, "Angela, my sweetheart! I'm back!"
Fei was enraged.
"Damn!" Who is this eyeless bastard? Who dares to flirt with my girl so blatantly?"
The fire of anger started to burn unstoppably in Fei who was getting extremely jealous. Fei glanced around furiously and looked across the gap of the bridge by following everyone else's sight. He saw a good looking "old bastard" who was staring at the girl in his arms "indecently". He was definitely up to no good.
"Who the hell is that old man?"
Fei felt his fists starting to itch.
After seeing the "old bastard" continue winking recklessly on the other side of the bridge, Fei almost crushed his own teeth into pieces, and his knuckles were cracking from how tightly he held his fists. The soldiers and citizens beside Fei stopped cheering and looked at Fei with a strange expression on their faces.
Bast had left the castle with a ton of treasures from the king's collections. Many people thought that the butler had abandoned his daughter and the retard son-in-law and ran off with the treasures. However, no one would've thought that he would return at a time like this. Everyone's minds couldn't react fast enough to this; that's why their expressions were weird.
But Fei got it all wrong.
The king's fiancée was being flirted at so openly, especially during his victory celebration. How was he supposed to react? Fei subconsciously thought that the reason why everyone's expressions were weird was because...
"Whoosh!"
Fei instantly used Barbarian [Leap]; like a tiger with wings, he jumped from the north side of the bridge to the south side. Without a word, he grasped his future father-in-law's robe and lifted the "old bastard" in his mind off of the ground; he was ready to teach this rude crackpot a lesson…
At that moment, Angela's shaky voice sounded, "Father, you… You're back!"
"Eh...Father?"
Fei was surprised. A thought flashed through his mind like lightning as his expression turned weird as well, "Damn, this old man is… is actually Angela's father?" Fei suddenly burst into a cold sweat. Before he could say anything, the old man in his hands yelled in surprise, "It turned out to be you, Alexander. You turned normal… Ay, what are you doing, I'm your future father-in-law, quickly put me down…"
Fei was embarrassed.
He felt that he couldn't hold onto the situation, "Darn it! What is this? Jealous of my father-in-law? This is as tragic as Oedipus in Greek Mythology who married his own mom… What should I do?"
"I can't panic, I have to hold everything together!"
After he thought about it, an idea flashed into his head. In a second, his ferocious robe grabbing turned into an intimate hug. Fei hugged Bast tightly with both of his arms and put up a surprised and cheerful smile. He laughed, "Ah, dear uncle Bast, I missed you so much!"
"Eh, really? Why do I feel like you want me dead?" Bast had a hard time breathing in Fei's tight hug.
"Hehe, you're just imagining things, that's 100% your imagination… Eh, allow me to bring you over." Barbarian [Leap] was initiated, and Fei held his future father-in-law under his arms and jumped from the south side of the bridge back to the north side.