The other wolf rider, upon seeing Han Shuo rush over with a long sword, forcefully widened his eyes that rested beneath his furry forehead. He roared angrily, obviously unpractised in the common language, "Tri... tricky humans, you are... looking for death!"
The giant wolf beneath his legs howled as the orc wolf rider drew a crossbow from behind him, raised it and fired at Han Shuo. It whistled with a deafening sound as it flew towards Han Shuo's neck.
His magical yuan churning rapidly, Han Shuo focused his concentration. The sharp whistling crossbow suddenly seemed to slow down in front of his eyes, as bizarre as the slow motion scenes in the movies Han Shuo used to watch. In stark contrast to the speed of the crossbow bolt was Han Shuo's strong and fast perception.
When the crossbow bolt flew about a metre away from Han Shuo, the longsword in his hand suddenly thrust out and landed an unerring hit on the head of the bolt. A sharp crack sounded and the crossbolt suddenly exploded into pieces.
Even after destroying the oncoming crossbow bolt, Han Shuo's speed was not affected at all, even though he was still on the back of the battle steed. Before the wolf rider had a chance to fire a second bolt, Han Shuo had already raised his longsword and charged in front of the wolf rider.
The cold arc of a blade flashed from Han Shuo's right hand as he brandished the sword. The longsword had been solid and heavy, but it was as light and graceful as a feather in Han Shuo's grasp.
The orc wolf rider also raised his sword, but just as the two swords were about to collide, a smaller, brown crossbow bolt suddenly flew out of Han Shuo's right sleeve. The crossbow bolt sizzled as it flew past the orc's longsword and sank into the orc's wolf rider's neck with a soft thud.
"Trea... treachery!"
His mouth foaming with bloody bubbles, the orc-wolf rider finally spat out the word with great difficulty as the large hand that had held the longsword suddenly lost its strength. The heavy longsword caused his fit and bulky body to fall off the huge wolf's back. It was obvious that it was dead.
"A race of low intelligence indeed. Heh!" Han Shuo's previously stern and cold expression vanished as he came to the side of the giant wolf, his face filled with traces of an evil smile. A flick of his long sword sent the sack on the giant wolf's body flying towards the battle steed behind him. Then the sword plunged downwards and the giant wolf collapsed in a pool of blood.
"Kill, kill, kill!"
At that moment, a wave of figures suddenly materialised from the corner of the northern road. More than ten wolf riders howled loudly as they desperately pursued a group of mages and warriors. Among the runaways were Beacher and the rest of the Academy's Light Major, riding inferior battle steeds.
"Hurry and go!" Han Shuo reacted immediately after pausing for a moment. He lifted the reins in his hand and the battle steed trotted out with a dull, hasty clop as it changed direction once more to charge northwards.
Fanny and the others were speechless as they watched Han Shuo's dog-eat-dog performance. Seeing Han Shuo suddenly rush out, they also understood that the situation was dire. They also urged their battle steeds to follow Han Shuo and lead their escape to the north.
After half a day of frantic galloping on the backs of their horses, Han Shuo's crew made their way to a large canyon. The sides of the canyon were steep and at its end was a huge river. Han Shuo and the others reined in their battle steeds at the end of the canyon and gazed at the azure waters of the river, suddenly sinking into a quandary.
"This must be the Nirolan River of the Empire. After crossing the Nirolan, we can make our way to the city of Balthazar in the southern part of the empire. Balthazar City and Zajoski City aren't too far apart. It's not as heavily fortified as Zajoski City, but I'm sure it has a heavily armed guard. I think we'll be safe as long as we can make it to Balthazar City.
Gene's brow furrowed in thought as he gazed at the vast Nirolan River, then spoke suddenly.
"To get to Balthazar, we have to cross the Nirolan River first, but this Nirolan River is so vast. I don't think we'll be able to cross it without a ship to carry us." Fanny's face was filled with anxiety as she sighed as she gazed at the azure waters of the river from afar.
Han Shuo hadn't said anything after reaching this place, just rifled through the two large bags on the battle steed. The shops in the city of Drol were set up for the adventurers and mercenaries, so the shops mostly sold goods needed for battle.
Han Shuo took inventory and found that from the two bags looted from the two wolf riders, there were four crossbows and more than ten bolts of the highest quality, three daggers of high quality, two longswords and mage staffs of ordinary quality, and three sets of leather armour designed to be worn next to the skin. There were also a few bottles of healing medicine and all sorts of poisons.
Han Shuo picked out the sharp dagger with the sapphire embedded in it first, hiding it close to his body of course. Then he carefully put the bottles of various poisons away and finally poured the weapons and armour out of the bags onto the ground. He raised his head, looked at everyone and said calmly. "Put these things away and prepare to fight!"
The necromancy students and teachers, who had been sighing and frowning in deep thought about possible strategies, suddenly started at Han Shuo's words. Gene paused and suddenly remembered Han Shuo's performance earlier. He exclaimed in surprise and stared at Han Shuo questioningly, "Bryan, did you use the Bone Arrow magic just now?
Gene's question caused everyone except Fanny to stare at Han Shuo with shocked faces. Lisa even squealed in shock and pointed her right finger at Han Shuo with a face full of disbelief. "That's right... Bryan, how can you use magic?"
"This is not the time to discuss such things. Some of the orc wolf riders were on their way here. I think those damned wolf riders will be here soon. We have a canyon ahead of us and the mighty Nirolan River below. What we should be doing now is thinking about how to deal with the Orc wolf riders that are about to arrive. Han Shuo's expression was calm as he neatly arranged the weapons that had been in the bags, calmly explaining as he did so.
"If you hadn't led us to this deserted place, how would we be in such dire straits?" Bella looked at Han Shuo disdainfully as she heard his words, taunting him with a cold expression.
His forehead furrowed, Han Shuo's calm face suddenly turned cold as an uncontrollable feeling of disgust and loathing grew in his heart. He lifted his head to look at the mocking Bella and said, "Are you saying my decision was wrong?"
Bella was about to open her mouth to say "exactly" when she suddenly realised that Han Shuo's gaze was eerily cold. Bella's body shivered involuntarily as she saw that his gaze was like that of jackals and wolves sizing up their prey. She smiled anxiously and stammered, "I... I didn't mean that."
Nodding, a smile found its way back onto Han Shuo's face as he smiled as if nothing had happened. "Since that's the case, each of you choose your weapon. Our mental strength is limited and the range of magic isn't as far as a crossbow. I think we should use weapons first and if the weapons are useless, then use magic to attack. Come, let's make some preparations and wait for these wolf riders to fall to their deaths.
Han Shuo's performance now had the style of someone in charge. Originally, this would have been a very comical scene. After all, he was an errand slave for the Necromancy Major and had no right to call the shots.
However, after experiencing the horrors of Han Shuo going berserk in the Dark Forest and his previous cold and cruel killing of the two wolf riders, no one thought it was funny to follow Han Shuo's orders.
It was as if they were all getting to know Han Shuo all over again. Even Fanny and Gene came over docilely and started picking crossbows out of Han Shuo's hands. No one raised an objection against Han Shuo.
Unbeknownst to anyone, the original errand slave Han Shuo had established authority among them, causing them to willingly listen to Han Shuo's instructions.
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