I brought my shield about and prepared for the next engagement. Though there were many more opponents this time, individually, they appeared to be weaker than the lion-type Chimera from earlier. They were slender and smaller in size, and it didn't seem like they had any nasty surprises like the scorpion tale.
Even so, there was something so…unnaturally wrong with them. I wasn't sure how to describe it, but my skin crawled and I felt an extreme sense of unease, as if my world was being turned upside down just from recognizing their existence alone. It wasn't as bad as when I first encountered the lion-like Chimera, but these wolf things came in a pack and presented their own danger.
"Can you still fight?" I asked Lin Xue. She nodded, already on her feet. She was pale and panting slightly, but she had her finger on the trigger and was producing a new wave of electricity.
"I still have plenty of juice left in reserve. Not as much as before after expending quite a bit of energy against that huge monster from earlier, but for creatures of this size, it should be more than enough."
As if to emphasize her point, she fired a bolt of lightning that struck the closest charging wolf. There was a sharp crack before its head detonated in a blast of embers and sparks. Its headless carcass toppled, twitching, even as its packmates scattered in alarm.
I didn't flinch and stepped in front to hammer my shield against the next beast. It whined as it fell, scrambling against the dirt and lashing out with its mishappen claws. They scrabbled uselessly against Aegis, and then I raised her and smashed her edge against its head. Once, twice until its skull was split open and spilling brain matter across the soil.
Pivoting on my foot, I swung Aegis to swat another wolf once more, hurling it against a tree with bone crunching impact. Spinning my shield around to protect my flank from eviscerating claws, I then charged my assailant and crushed it between Aegis and a tree. While I was busily pinning its thrashing body against the trunk, Lin Xue provided covering fire by laying down a stream of lightning that electrocuted one wolf and kept the others at bay.
They might be feral beasts, but they weren't suicidal. They warily kept their distance, circling about to poke at whatever openings they could find. Lin Xue, though exhausted, maintained her guard and deterred them with bright flashes of lightning, though I noticed that each subsequent bolt was growing weaker.
She was running out of energy.
I rammed Aegis against my opponent's throat, crushing its windpipe, and then departed, leaving it gagging and choking as it slid into entangled roots. Retreating to Lin Xue's position, I formed a phalanx to defend her while she continued to shoot from behind cover.
"Commander," Aegis suddenly spoke up, though she didn't cease the traffic of combat data and sensory information into my mind. "I've run a few scans and preliminary biological analyses indicate that these were originally genetical branches of analogous species from Earth. However, their genome has been corrupted by an unknown energy, resulting in the unstable mutations and deformities that you are currently witnessing."
"Unknown energy? What do you mean?"
"Exactly as I said. Unknown. I am unable to locate this specific energy signature or anything resembling it in the Empire's extensive database."
That was bad. But it wasn't exactly a priority concern right now. I sighed and pushed the dreadful implications out of my mind for the moment.
"We'll worry about that later. For now, let's focus on surviving."
"Understood, Commander. To your rear."
I whirled around and slammed Aegis into the neck of a pouncing wolf beast, sending it crashing into its brethren. While they sprawled on the ground, Lin Xue fried them with her lightning gun. I noticed that the damage was reduced, and though the wolves convulsed as their nerves were burned out, their fur wasn't as singed as Lin Xue's previous targets.
Her breathing was growing heavier too. I hardened my resolve, vowing to protect her no matter what. She was a senior I looked up to, someone who helped me get a scholarship and join Sprue. She had kept her promise, not bothering me when I was studying for the Gao Kao, and yet provided me with benefits in the form of stipends and access to training equipment.
"That is why I suggested that she be your mating partner, Commander."
"Now's not the time for such jokes!" I yelled at Aegis mentally. "And that's not what I was thinking! I truly respect her as an admirable senior, that's all!"
Channeling my rage and adrenaline into a blow, I caved in the skull of a leaping wolf beast before reversing my swing and hammering Aegis into the gut of its snarling packmate, breaking its ribs and causing it to fold over.
Still, there was so many of them. However, as long as we kept this up, we might just be able to…
"Incoming!"
Even without Aegis's warning, I could pick up the rustling noise of twigs and leaves. Something was hurtling through the forest at incredible speed. Raising my head, I looked up just in time to see a massive figure burst from deep within the forest and into the clearing. I glimpsed a massive gauntleted hand rising up, an enormous gun held in its grip that barked.
And then one of the wolves that were harrying Lin Xue exploded into meat and blood.
I couldn't see clearly what the newcomer was, only that he was a giant clad in black, silver and crimson. He landed in the midst of the ravenous mutant wolf pack, his movements blurring into a whirlwind. He was like a force of nature, an elemental entity that cleaved through the mutant wolves as easily as a hurricane throwing up leaves.
The wolf beasts he sliced through simply ceased to exist, transforming into body parts and eruptions of blood. I barely caught sight of a sword – a gleaming blade forged from the finest of metals – sweeping through the pack and bisecting a wolf, parting thick fur, muscle and bone as if they were nothing more than butter before a hot knife.
He didn't just wield a sword. The gun I saw earlier occasionally swung up, firing with uncanny precision. More of the wolf beasts were obliterated, their blood spraying tree trunks. It took me a few tries, but I could finally make out the projectiles ejected from the barrel of the absurdly huge gun. They were bolt rounds, each of them a miniature missile that punched through skin to penetrate deep within the target's body before detonating violently.
It was messy and brutal, but incredibly effective. Any monster that suffered more than just a glancing shot was a guaranteed kill.
Despite our astonishment, Lin Xue and I didn't just stand there and gawk. We weren't going to let the newcomer do all the work. Lin Xue continued firing lightning at the rapidly dwindling pack, while I protected her, swatting away any wolves who threatened to get close to her. Bashing them to the ground, I pulverized their heads with the weight of Aegis while feeling a little ashamed at my crude fighting style when compared to the elegant and graceful strokes of swordsmanship that our rescuer demonstrated.
The surviving wolf beasts faltered and turned tail to flee, realizing that they were no match for the newly arrived knight. They whimpered under his gaze – though his features were masked by a grim black helm – and they retreated. Unfortunately, their route of escape was cut off by a newly arriving group of cavalries, more knights arriving on horseback. Bolts thundered from huge antique guns, blowing up the poor beasts. Those who escaped the gunfire were speared by hunting lances or beheaded by swift strokes of longswords.
"Thank you," I said, setting Aegis down and bowing gratefully. Lin Xue stepped beside me, looking cautious, but also lowering her head deferentially.
The knight who first appeared said nothing, regarding us silently. Then he raised both hands and removed his helm, revealing a patrician face with flowing blond locks and a neatly trimmed beard. Now that I had a good look at him, I saw that he really was a knight, his sword sheathed at his hip and his gun holstered at his side. A massive black stallion strode into the clearing to stop by him, and he calmed him by placing his hand on his neck.
Like knights from medieval ages long past, he wore thick, bulky armor. Mostly black as night with silver trim and splashes of red, the armor was a mix of archaic design and advanced technology, with hydraulics and servo-fibers. He sported a crest on his chest, a sword pointing forward while sprouting great angelic wings from the blade.
The other knights were alighting from their horses and gathering behind their leader (or so I presumed), and I saw that the first knight was the largest among them. Though all of the knights appeared bulky because of their heavy armor, the bearded swordsman was a true giant, towering over even them. He was maybe over three meters tall, perhaps reaching four? His bulk, and the sheer aura of authority and strength that he radiated, reminded me of a demigod, reinforced by the sublime skills with both sword and gun that he displayed earlier.
Any mortal would be compelled to kneel before such a majestic figure.
But I was no mere mortal.
Instead, I held my ground and simply kept my head lowered deferentially.
"I am Li Tian Xing, and this is Lin Xue. We have traveled from afar and find ourselves lost here."
To be honest, I didn't think this would work. Aegis had informed me that we were in another world. Even if these people turned out to be humans just like us, there was no guarantee that they spoke the same language as us. However, I had nothing to lose, so I might as well try communicating with them. At best, they wouldn't understand us.
To my surprise, though, the man tilted his head and nodded comprehendingly.
"I am Lion Johansson, Knight-General of the Order."
My jaw dropped, not only because he spoke the same language as me, but also because…
"Lionel Johansson? The Order? Really? Won't this get us into copyright trouble with Games Workshop?"
"I do not understand what you are talking about, Commander," Aegis said coldly. I sighed and shook my head before returning my attention to the enormous knight before me.
"Sir Johansson. Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to you for saving our lives."
"Not at all. You fight well." Lionel Johansson nodded toward the blackened carcass of the Chimera. "To think the two of you can take down a Leoric by just yourselves, without a full hunting party of heavily armored knights at your back. And you've also acquitted yourselves impressively against the dire wolves." He fixed his green eyes on me – and I saw that they were as verdant as the trees around us. "I must say, your lady fights better than most men."
"Oh, uh…where we come from, men and women are equal." Such a statement would be considered misogynistic in modern Earth's politically correct society, but Lionel Johansson and his knights – all of whom were male, now that I had a good look at them when they were cooperatively taking off their helmets – were clearly from a medieval society with…uh, outdated values. "I'd say she's stronger than me."
"This isn't a competition," Lin Xue said with a scowl. But she remembered herself and she smiled politely. "I am flattered by your praise, but I only did what was necessary to survive."
Lionel Johansson nodded. "That is certainly fair. These beasts do not discriminate between gender, after all."
"Lord, perhaps we should…?"
One of the other knights came over. he was almost as tall as the knight-general, but less broad and bulky. A handsome man with dark hair pulled into a ponytail and a neat beard, he wore similar armor to his lord, sporting the same winged sword heraldry.
"Ah, of course, Luther." Lionel Johansson nodded before turning back to us. "I recommend that the two of you follow us back to our camp. The woods aren't safe, and you do not look equipped for an extended hunting mission in the forests. I mean no insult to your strength, but there are far deadlier beasts than that Leoric lurking deeper within these woods."
"Um…" I hesitated. Even though these knights just helped us out, it didn't change the fact that they were an unknown quantity. I didn't want to sound ungrateful, but I wasn't naïve enough to blindly trust them.
On the other hand, we were on an alien planet, and obviously it was going to be difficult for both Lin Xue and I to survive on our own in such a hostile forest. Plus, caution didn't necessarily mean paranoia, and if we kept suspecting the motives of other people, we weren't going to get anywhere.
"I recommend that you follow them back to their camp, Commander," Aegis said. "The benefits outweigh the risks. There is an 87.64% of death if you and Lin Xue attempt to brave the forest alone, whereas the chances of treachery are below 5.186%."
I glanced at Lin Xue, who was raising an eyebrow at me. She had no objections and was wondering why I was hesitating. Damn, but she was quite the trusting girl, always believing in justice.
"Furthermore, it is possible that they might lead us to clues regarding the relic."
"Relic?" That caught my attention. Aegis pulsed in affirmation.
"Correct. There is a relic in Carmarthen, and I highly recommend that you retrieve it."