They were now near the border of the Kingdom of Dylan. After days of continuous travel, Punk and the others had entered the area between the dense jungle and the swampy forest. The nearby vegetation and trees had started to grow thicker and more abundant.
It was nearly midnight, around twenty-six o'clock in the evening. However, the atmosphere tonight felt even darker than usual. Thick black clouds covered all three moons at certain times. To avoid being caught by the pursuing enemy, Punk decided to use spells to help them move quickly. Two warriors, brimming with battle energy, took turns carrying Princess Nesa on their backs as they followed Punk. Even though the two warriors were exhausted from the day's battle and Princess Nesa still in shock over McNeesey's death, they all pushed themselves to their limits, as all of them knew the risk of any delay.
The night resembled a still, dark lake, without a single ripple, profoundly quiet. The cloudy sky didn't have any stars and as they galloped through the dark forest, the tree branches appeared like the ominous claws of some concealed beast.
Although the sky was shrouded with deep darkness, the ground was actually scattered with some fluorescent plants and some tiny fireflies-like insects which were shining with dim different colored lights. Nevertheless, these faint and small lights only felt like the last breath of a dying old man in this deep darkness,
This somewhat weird mixture of faint lights and deep darkness made One feel like they were just about to rush out from this dark and hazy veil, But they were surprised to find that it was not as simple as imagined.
In such a quiet place where even the sound of insects did not exist, even a faint killing intent was like the forest fire under the spring thunder in Punk's senses. Suddenly-
"Sizzle!"
Punk, who was running at an extreme speed, stopped. At the same moment, a large circle of crimson sparks glowed under his feet. Every spark filled with a large amount of compressed fire element had a horrifying temperature of more than a thousand degrees. 'Firey discharge'- This was one of the few trainee-level elemental spells that Punk was familiar with.
Although the sparks coming out of this spell were slender and small, they were released in a very large number and formed a dense circle of fire that resembled the emission of fireworks in that area with a radius of about one meter.
In less than a second, dense clusters of ultra-high-temperature sparks swept across the large swaths of air around Punk. With two shrill screams, two masked people in tight black clothes came out from the seemingly thin air. Now, these two poor guys had been scorched by the 'Firey discharge' and fell on the grass that has also turned into coke. Both of them died before even they had a chance to struggle!
However, Punk didn't feel relief; instead, his expression grew even more serious. These two foes were merely apprentice-level Assassins, lacking any powerful magical artifact. Also, their method of sneak attack was both clumsy and stupid. With such methods wanting to assassinate a trainee-level mage was just a fool's dream. One possibility was that they could have been sent to give some information to Punk!
Negotiation! But that was obviously impossible!
Punk quickly turned to look at the two warriors behind him. One of the warriors was carrying Princess Nessa on his back in order to speed up. At this time, Princess Nesa, who was tired and fell asleep, just woke up because of the loud noise. She rubbed her red and swollen eyes and looked at the darkness aimlessly with a puzzled look on her face, but she could not find out what was going on!
But the two warriors immediately realized what happened, So they looked at Punk with awe and also realized that this powerful mage was definitely better than themselves when it came to safeguarding the princess from the lurking Assassins.
"Fools, shouldn't you run in a zic-zacing manner?"
Seeing two soldiers running straight and carelessly to his side, Punk immediately knew what kind of useless teammate they were.
At this moment, besides being angry with them, there was something about these two that Punk couldn't understand. While they were typically a bit slow, their intelligence seemed normal. So why at present their IQ was not even as good as pigs?
What Punk didn't know was that there was a very significant difference between train soldier professionals and rogue professionals. Train Soldiers who required consistent at everything were accustomed to obeying orders. Under the guidance of Pheren plane's military concept of "absolute obedience", they had developed a thinking habit of "no thinking, only obeying" Such habits might be effective in ensuring that the army commander could organize a coordinated attack strategy in large-scale military battles. However, in the face of disorganized small fights, their ability to respond properly was really a bit miserable.
Unfortunately, now... it was time for them to pay the price for their poor endurance...
A dark green dagger appeared very abruptly in the air beside the princess with a sharp piercing sound, and the cold, gleaming blade was about to pierce the princess's jade-like neck.
Even if these two Warriors found out about the sudden attack beforehand, they would not be able to escape because of their fast and straightforward charge.
As one should know when two objects move toward each other, the speed at which they close the distance is equal to the sum of their speeds. Now, the charging warriors and the approaching dagger found themselves in this scenario. The soldier, carrying the princess on his back, was accelerating, and the dagger aimed at the princess was also rapidly gaining speed. The acceleration on both sides increased the potential damage from the dagger's strike.
What's more unbearable was that as the soldier was still holding the princess with both hands, his scabbard sword was placed in his waist. So he did not have any means to block the dagger's stab...
Since Punk was occupied dealing with the two lower-ranking Assassins, he couldn't cast spells to save her when he noticed the poisoned bone dagger closing in on the princess's delicate throat. He didn't have the time to cast spells and rescue her, so at this time, he could only watch the "sure-kill" dagger as it was about to successfully assassinate Princess Nesa who was still confused...
"Well, I really did my best, so the Trial's eye wouldn't count it as the breach of my contract, right?"
Punk touched the brass ring on his left hand indifferently. He really didn't has any hope of the princess's survival!
But although Punk was indifferent about the princess's life or death, that did not mean that the other two would not be willing to make sacrifices for the princess!
"I...will never let you succeed!"
Suddenly, a roar of rage squeezed out between the warrior's teeth, and the running warrior, knowing that it was too late to pull out his sword to defend, so as a true "loyal" soldier, exploded with battle qi and resolutely decided to put his head between the sharp dagger and the princess's neck.
"Bah"
A clear sound rang briefly in the rustle of leaves in the quiet night and then disappeared in a flash...
The dagger pierced deeply into the warrior's head and penetrated his entire skull, revealing a small green tip on the back of his head. The warrior was shaking and opening his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but In the end, no sound came out...
Accompanied by the same brutal sound of piercing, the dagger was pulled out as if it didn't experience any friction between the blade and the skull. As the dark green dagger was quickly pulled out of the warrior's brain, a large amount of blood with a touch of green sputtered out....
The warrior's corpse fell gently on the ground, and the burning battle qi slowly extinguished in the dark night. The whole forest became silent once again as if the fierce charge just now never even happened.
The young princess was carried to Punk by momentum. The lone remaining warrior stood frozen in shock. the deep darkness once again fell on this remote wilderness....
Through the mage armour just released by him, Punk observed the young princess who had promised not to cry. She was silently shedding tears once more in the dim light, but this time, her eyes, crystal-clear and beautiful eyes no longer shed any tears...