The situation was bad.
Whether Rhode or Carter, at this moment, both of them had the same thought.
The Wind Serpent Lord is a really difficult opponent.
Perhaps the ship would be destroyed before we can even land!
"Hmph!"
Carter shot forward, thrusting his swords straight at its huge claws. However, before he could reach, the Wind Serpent Lord suddenly opened its mouth. Carter could taste the stench of its breath pervading his sense of smell. Before he could react, the attack had already arrived towards him.
Carter tried to dodge, but he didn't expect that the Wind Serpent Lord would release its grip on the hull to attack him. He did not have the time to dodge, so he used his sword to block it. Even so, he was still sent flying a few meters away, hitting the mast of the ship.
We can't go on like this.
Rhode frowned and shifted his gaze to the anxious girl that stood not far from him.
"Lize, I need your help."
"Ah?"
"I will draw its attention, and when it attacks me, I hope you can cast a shield for me!"
"Sure!"
Lize nodded without hesitation. She gripped her hands tightly and a bright soft light appeared on her body. When Rhode saw this, he did not say anything; he turned his head and started to thrust forward.
Blade of Destruction!
A dazzling bright light once again streaked through the air. This time, he did not focus the light on the tip of the sword; instead, he let the light scatter to attack, so the power seemed weaker than before. It wasn't able to pierce the hard scales, but the scattered attack made some visible bloodstains throughout its wings which made the Wind Serpent Lord shriek in pain.
"Hiss!!!"
The Wind Serpent Lord was startled. It quickly turned its head; a burning flame could be seen in those pair of bright red eyes, tightly staring at the young man on the deck as it once again opened its mouth, rushing to attack Rhode.
The Wind Serpent Lord moved quickly. In the blink of an eye, Rhode could already see it appearing to the top of him opening its bloody red mouth. It made Rhode quite nervous since it was a risky endeavor. He deliberately did not use Shadow Flash to maintain a slow speed just to lure the Wind Serpent Lord to make a move. Even though it would be more dangerous, but when the opponent was attacking in full power, its weakness would also be more visible——this was the chance that Rhode wanted to seize.
The Wind Serpent Lord opened its mouth in front of him. It only needed half a second to swallow that pesky human whole, but it wasn't able to do it.
At that moment, a faint, dazzling white, egg-shaped light barrier suddenly appeared around Rhode's body, blocking the Wind Serpent Lord's fangs. The Wind Serpent's movement slowed, it then used more force to crush the barrier, but it only managed to bite air.
Rhode had already activated Shadow Flash.
Like a phantom, he dodged the Wind Serpent's fangs. Then, he raised the white sword in his hand and slit across the Wind Serpent Lord's throat.
That was its weakest point. Previously, it had shrunk back its neck, making it difficult to attack. But now that it completely gave up on defense, it unintentionally revealed its weakest point.
"———!!!"
A sharp shriek rang throughout the ship. The Wind Serpent Lord looked upwards as if it had been shocked by electricity. From its throat, dirty blood sprayed out, covering the entire deck with red. Its body gradually became weak and fell heavily on the deck, lifeless.
After its death, Rhode something dark green expanding in front of him.
"Boom!!!"
Suddenly, he felt the hull tremble and his body was thrown into the air. The next moment, his vision turned dark, completely losing consciousness.
When he woke up again, he could only feel the cold wind blowing.
"What happened…"
The first thing he saw was a beautiful night sky. Unlike the city, the night here was clear. The soft moonlight shone down as the shadow of each leaf were mapped on the ground. Not only was the night sky filled with stars, it also had interconnecting lines. They were linked together, spreading throughout the night sky.
This was one of the special characteristics of the Dragon Soul Continent. According to an ancient legend, this place used to be chaotic and desolate. But then the Five Creator Dragons came along and used their bodies to create the sky and all things on Earth from nothingness. In order to suppress the chaos, the Five Creator Dragons sacrificed their bodies to shape the world and left their soul in order to protect the world.
Each soul had its own unique form: just like the sky Rhode was looking at just now. It represented the region under the Light Dragon's protection. Its unique characteristic was the presence of light even in the night. On the flip side, the Dark Dragon's soul completely blocked the light. It didn't matter whether it was day or not, there would always be eternal darkness.
It was also because of this that the species distribution in this continent had their own rules. In the region under the Light Dragon, lush green grass could grow bountifully. As for the Dark Dragon's region, one can only see the shadow of plants. Of course, this unique characteristic also applied to the distribution of the various races in this continent. Humans were usually under the protection of the Light Dragon, so were the elves and angels. As for the undead, vampires, incubi, and other dark races were, of course, people under the Country of Darkness.
This continent had no god. To put it bluntly, the beings that they worshipped were the Five Creator Dragons. Similarly, it also included the Dragon Soul Holder.
In this continent, each soul had their own Soul of Existence, the Five Creator Dragons were no exception, and their Soul of Existence was usually hidden in a person's body. It made that person able to wield the same power as the dragon to provide its respective unique characteristic to the region. For example, if chaos is a 'virus,' then Dragon Soul's ability would be the 'firewall,' and the Dragon Soul Holder's role is the CPU. As long as the CPU is still able to operate, then the firewall would not fail and will remain strong enough to resist the influence of the chaos from the outside world. Thus, these Dragon Soul Holders were viewed as the heir of the Dragon Soul.
But these things meant nothing to Rhode.
Rhode slowly stood up. A violent pain swept through his body, especially his left chest injury, which seemed to be more serious than before. Before, he was barely able to move his left hand and now, he could not move it at all; even moving his fingers would cause a stinging pain.
But he felt relieved; this meant that his left hand was still there. If he could not feel anything—that would be a bigger problem.
Looking up to the sky, Rhode discovered the wreckage of the floating ship. Around him were tall trees, meaning that he was in the forest.
Rhode understood what happened after collecting his thoughts. Though he managed to kill the Wind Serpent Lord, the ship couldn't maintain its aerial ability as it had received too much damage.
Right now, the forest was bathed in silence; even the sound of insects could not be heard. Rhode scanned his surroundings and found many corpses; humans and Wind Serpents alike. And not far from him, a petite figure lay motionlessly on the ground.
"Lize!"
Rhode came to the girl's side, lowering his body to check the situation. Luckily, although the girl was pale, both of her hands were still clenched tightly, and her breath was steady. When Rhode called out to her, she opened her eyes after a while.
"What… what happened…"
Lize opened up her eye, blinking at the man in front of her.
"Am I still alive?"
"Yes."
Seeing that Lize had answered him, he felt slightly relieved. She slowly stood up, shook her head, and bit her lips; apparently, she wasn't fully recovered, but to her, there were more important things she needed to do.
"Where is everyone? How about leader?"
"…"
Rhode did not answer, but it from his expression, she had guessed what happened.
"Impossible … Crete! Charles! Leader!"
She rushed towards bodies of the fallen mercenaries, desperately calling out their names, but no one responded. However, Lize did not give up; she lowered her body, carefully checking the mercenary in front of her. After making sure that the person had truly passed, she did not cry, but only bit her lips and ran to the next person.
However, her efforts were in vain. She couldn't do anything when they were dead.
A terrifying thought gnawed her mind, but she chose to ignore it and cling on to whatever hope she had left. It was until when she saw Carter's figure that she finally broke down.
The previously spirited mercenary leader had turned into a cold, dead body. His lower half was stuck in a gap on the deck, and a broken splinter had penetrated his lower abdomen.
"Lea… Leader…"
Lize's knees gave way as she stared blankly at her leader's corpse. The ever so tiny flame of hope she had been grasping on, was completely extinguished. Eventually, she lowered her head and covered her face with both of her hands. No words were spoken, but only a heart-wrenching cry of a woman filled the quiet night sky.
Rhode gazed at her trembling shoulders helplessly. Now, all he could do was to stand silently behind her and not say anything.
Before the battle, he did not care anything about life and death, but when he saw the dead bodies surrounding him, a complicated feeling overwhelmed him. It wasn't as though he hadn't seen a dead body before in the game, but that was merely a simulation. Moreover, there were ways to resurrect the 'dead bodies' in the game. However, what he was witnessing now wasn't a game. Dead people stay dead, and death meant the end of the road.
At that moment, Rhode somehow recalled the night from seven years ago when he could only helplessly watch death devour the ones he loved without having the power to stop it.
After a while, just as he was about to say something to comfort Lize, a sudden call for help broke the silence.