Category: The Azure Longsword

Chapter 13: Lost

Persuading Azure Longsword was unexpectedly easy.

Of course, the reason Phoebus felt Asker was easy to talk to was because Asker himself had intended to bring his team to participate in this anomaly from the very beginning.

Unlike other mercenary groups who wouldn’t lift a finger without profit, Asker’s primary consideration was always how to quickly improve his team members’ combat abilities.

The undead anomaly was a rare training opportunity.

Since the Night’s Watch extended the invitation, it was a good opportunity to negotiate terms.

After some bargaining, the Azure Longsword mercenary group obtained honorary member status in the Night’s Watch.

With this status, they would have the same trading privileges when encountering other Night’s Watch branches in other parts of the world in the future, without having to go through layers of approval again.

Of course, this status still needed to be applied for and approved by headquarters, but Phoebus had guaranteed that as long as they applied, it would basically be approved.

After all, the headquarters didn’t know who the Azure Longsword mercenary group was or how much they had contributed to this undead anomaly – whatever the Eastern branch said, went.

“By the way,” Phoebus suddenly remembered something and reminded them, “Before going to the center of the anomaly, you need to undergo a physical examination.”

“Physical examination?” Nuo asked, puzzled.

“The three sub-planes and the main plane have different auras.” Phoebus explained. “These auras will pollute your mental body, causing negative effects on your primary consciousness.”

“Take the Netherworld as an example. When we humans are in the Netherworld, we will inevitably experience depression. This phenomenon will become increasingly obvious over time.”

“When the depression reaches a certain level, you will fall into a semi-insane state, losing control of your mind. Therefore, anyone entering the Netherworld must take antidepressants regularly.”

“The purpose of the physical examination is to determine your baseline serotonin levels and to confirm whether you have any allergic reactions to antidepressants.”

“Eh? I remember 5-hydroxytryptamine is the scientific name for serotonin, right?” Nuo suddenly realized.

Medea immediately perked up her ears. Because serotonin happened to be one of the ingredients in her Conspiracy I formula.

“Well, I don’t know much about medicine, but I’ve heard that one of the effects of the Netherworld on the human body is serotonin imbalance.” Phoebus said, “Therefore, corresponding antidepressants are essential.”

So Asker took his team for a physical examination.

If it were any other hospital, he might have worried about the leakage of genetic information. After all, this wasn’t a purely transcendental world. With your blood sample, they could analyze and guess your approximate Sequence after some lab work.

But they could rest assured with the Night’s Watch. As one of the few benevolent and lawful supernatural organizations, the Night’s Watch’s collection of blood samples, from testing to destruction, was open and transparent. They would never retain any of your genetic information.

Of course, most outside mercenaries didn’t care about this anyway.

The examination reports came out quickly, packed in specially sealed document bags, and the girls collected them in the order of the examination. Because it was an anonymous test, only the person who received the sealed bag could see the results.

However, this didn’t prevent the girls from looking at each other’s reports after opening them, just like high school girls who love to take psychological tests together.

“Why are your physical and mental strength relatively balanced, while mine is heavily skewed towards physical strength?” Sidlipha glanced at Eleanor’s physical examination report and asked in confusion.

“I don’t know.” Eleanor, of course, knew it was because of “Will I,” and said jokingly, “Perhaps mental strength is affected by one’s innate intelligence.”

“Doesn’t that mean I’m naturally stupid?” Sidlipha was shocked and hurriedly took the report to the captain, her voice anxious and tearful. “Asker! Asker!! Look, my results must be wrong…”

After listening to her, Asker was speechless: …

Mental strength and intelligence weren’t really related, but Eleanor’s assessment of you was subtly accurate.

He looked through all the girls’ reports.

Overall, thanks to the previous large-scale battles, everyone’s physical attributes were higher than those of normal Transcendents of the same level.

Medea, Nuo, and Theodora were more focused on mental strength because their bloodlines were mainly spellcasting sequences.

Sidlipha’s focus on physical strength was simply because she was only level 1. The subsequent Frost and Thunder sequences in the Titan bloodline would rebalance her attributes.

The remaining members basically had balanced physical and mental strength development, which was also a characteristic of most player builds in his previous life.

In the words of the players, physical strength was suitable for brute force and strong attacks; mental strength was suitable for being cunning and playing dirty.

If you only focused on brute force, you might be easily killed by someone using cunning tricks.

If you only focused on being cunning, you might be too flashy and get punched through.

A balance between brute force and cunning was the truly stable way to fight.

Even his own Weapon Master bloodline, known for its fierce and aggressive style, still needed to absorb the “Tactics” and “Intuition” sequences to improve his resistance to sneak attacks.

As he was pondering silently, Peggy was also quietly staring at his profile.

Her right hand silently pressed down on her physical examination report.

On the last page, which Asker didn’t see, were the special test results.

“Low 5-hydroxytryptamine levels, further specialized testing is recommended.”

Everyone else’s results were normal, only hers was abnormal.

The team was about to set off. If Asker saw the abnormal results of her physical examination, she would probably be left alone in the camp at the rear.

He couldn’t know.

She couldn’t let that happen.

…

A few hours later, the Night’s Watch team had approached the edge of the undead curtain.

The initial team was composed of more than 800 elite knights from the Sun, Moon, and Morningstar branches.

Whenever they encountered undead during their advance, the main force would send out a specialized knight squad to intercept them, ensuring that the rest could continue to advance.

Looking down from the sky, one could see them advancing towards the center of the undead anomaly at full speed with this spearhead tactic.

Just as they were about to reach the edge of the curtain, they encountered a wave of undead banshees.

“We’ll go ahead.” Aerowen, the Silver Moon Knight Commander, raised her rifle and shouted, charging forward.

“Silver Moon Knights of the Watch, charge with me!”

More than a dozen powered armor knights, wielding firearms, flanked Lady Aerowen, who was activating her ability.

An ocean of light, like a tide, swept towards the banshees, the black aura around the undead rapidly evaporating in the air like dry ice.

This Lady Aerowen was already a level 5 “Death-Resisting Crusader,” and her supernatural ability, “Radiance II,” was the nemesis of all undead.

After separating from the Silver Moon knights, only twenty Sun knights remained in the team, all the strongest elites of the Night’s Watch.

Leading them were Commander Bryce of the Night’s Watch Eastern Legion, and the Knight Commanders of Sun and Morningstar, Cormac and Phoebus.

And all the members of the Azure Longsword mercenary group.

“Ahead is the undead curtain. Everyone, take antidepressants according to the standard dosage immediately!” Bryce ordered.

Everyone took out their medicine and water and took them according to the pre-determined amount.

“I suddenly feel energized.” Sidlipha said, moving her arms.

“That’s just the placebo effect, it’s psychological.” Nuo said with a smile. “The medicine doesn’t absorb that quickly.”

Peggy walked at the back of the team, feeling increasingly uneasy.

The medicine had no effect on her. Her limbs became heavy, and a deep sadness took over her consciousness.

Soon, she could barely see what was in front of her, as tears blurred her vision.

She couldn’t control the spread of sadness in her heart, and tears streamed down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Two figures vaguely appeared ahead.

Was it Asker? She strained her eyes and saw that it was her deceased father and mother.

“Peggy, come here.” Her mother beckoned her with a kind expression.

“Why are you crying like this? Girls shouldn’t be so fragile.” Her father said sternly, but his eyes showed obvious affection.

For a moment, Peggy felt a trance-like joy, as if her parents had never died that day and were still with her.

However, as a level 2 Transcendental, her spirituality quickly returned to normal.

No, they weren’t real.

My parents… are already dead.

The surrounding light had dimmed. Peggy, regaining her senses, could only judge the direction based on her memory.

If she remembered correctly, she had just stopped.

Then, Asker and the others should be right ahead.

But the two phantoms disguised as her parents were also waving at her in front, tempting her to go over.

Peggy couldn’t move forward and didn’t dare to run in other directions. She could only stay where she was in fear, crying miserably uncontrollably.

“Asker!” She hugged herself, trembling like an abandoned cub, screaming with all her might, “Asker! Asker!!!”

“What’s wrong?!” Just as she was about to fall into the abyss of despair, Asker’s long-awaited voice finally rang out, like a ray of sunlight piercing through the dark clouds, appearing in her dark world.

“Asker!” Peggy grabbed his arm tightly, as if all her strength was rapidly returning. “Did you hear me calling and come back to find me?”

“Calling?” Asker said strangely. “No, I didn’t hear anything. I just noticed you were falling behind. When I came back, I saw you kneeling on the ground crying. Didn’t you take the antidepressant?”

“I did.” Peggy said, a little guilty. “But it doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Let’s go back quickly.” Asker said calmly.

The phantoms of her parents that had been troubling Peggy had now disappeared, as if they had never appeared.

The two continued to walk forward. Peggy hugged Asker’s arm and asked cautiously:

“Are you really Asker?”

“Yes.” Asker said, “Do you need me to prove it?”

“Then tell me,” Peggy thought for a moment and said, “where did we first meet?”

“The cemetery.” Asker replied.

Peggy hummed, feeling a warmth finally rising in her cold heart.

“That’s not right.” Asker suddenly stopped.

“At our current speed, we should have caught up with them long ago, but there’s not a single sound around.” He fiddled with his radio headset. “No contact signal, and the mental connection is also silent.”

“You’re saying…” Peggy asked anxiously.

“We’ve lost them.” Asker frowned.

Chapter 12: Planning the Assault

“Alright!” Nuo cheered. “Everyone, say ‘Cheers’ with me!”

“Cheers!” Everyone said with a smile, standing in front of the table laden with potions, formulas, and transcendental materials.

Click! Nuo took a picture.

“Alright, alright, those who need to drink potions, go drink your potions, those who need to collect materials, go collect your materials!” Asker waved his hand.

In this transaction with the Night’s Watch, Eleanor and Miel gained the most.

The former obtained the “Resilience I” and “Will I” potions, while the latter obtained the “Vision I” and “Intuition I” potions. This meant that these two could steadily advance to level 4 and level 3, it was only a matter of time.

Next were Nuo and Medea. The former obtained three materials for “Spirit I” and was now only missing benzylamine.

As an industrial product, this had to be bought from the industrial area on the outskirts of the city, which wasn’t too difficult.

The latter’s “Conspiracy I” was still missing two materials: Architeuthis ink and serotonin.

Finally, there were Peggy and Sidlipha, who obtained the formulas for “Plague I” and “Ancient X” respectively. Although the Night’s Watch didn’t have the corresponding materials, these two potion sequences were niche, and it would take a lot of effort to buy them outside.

Therefore, this trip was also a fruitful one, the harvest comparable to the last time they looted the Grand Arena of Constantinople… if they didn’t consider the 3100 pounds they spent.

“Should I take Will I or Resilience I first?” Eleanor tried to ask for Asker’s opinion about her next potion.

“Let’s not talk about ‘should’ first.” Asker said with a smile. “Let me briefly explain the effects of the two potions.”

“The Resilience Sequence is a powerful passive bonus. It increases your resistance to damage, both physical and supernatural.”

“Your body will be less prone to injury, and your wounds will heal faster. At the same time, you will be less prone to illness, poisoning, and aging. Any negative status effects will last shorter on you, such as rigidity, flinching, dizziness, staggering, paralysis, etc.”

“Now let’s talk about the Will Sequence. This is the main sequence of your ‘War Crusader’ bloodline, and also a type of Mind Sequence.”

“A person’s mental body can be divided into the ego, id, and superego. The id in the flesh is the ‘Desire’ sequence mastered by Medea, while the superego in the mind is the ‘Will’ sequence.”

“Will I will make your mental will stronger, and your ability to focus will be greatly enhanced. When you are fully focused, you will even feel that time is slowing down.”

“Your spirituality will become stronger, and you will notice more details in battle. You will be able to perform more refined movements, which is very beneficial for learning higher-level techniques.”

“In other words,” Eleanor pondered for a long time and said, “Resilience strengthens my body, while Will strengthens my mind.”

“Pretty much.” Asker said, “From the perspective of supernatural power, Resilience does accelerate the transformation into physical strength, while Will promotes the improvement of mental strength.”

“I choose the Will Sequence.” Eleanor made her decision. “If I were fighting alone, the Resilience Sequence would indeed strengthen my survivability. But I’m in a team, and the Will Sequence will improve my abilities and help the whole team more.”

“It’s good that you’ve made up your mind.” Asker said meaningfully.

So Eleanor went to take her potion. Next came Miel, her sweet and childish face looking at him expectantly, like a kitten.

“You also want to ask about the potion order?” Asker bent down and patted her head.

“Hmm.” Miel hugged his hand that was on her head.

“The Vision Sequence will enhance your dynamic vision, allowing you to see fast-moving or distant objects more clearly.”

“The Intuition Sequence will grant you the ability to sense danger. Even if you don’t see anything, you can still ‘see’ the coming danger at the most critical moment.”

“Metaphorically speaking, Vision I enhances your physical eyes, while Intuition I gives you an extra ‘mind’s eye,’ understand?”

“I choose Intuition.” Miel said, “My eyesight is already good.”

“Then go ahead.” Asker said, “Let your Sister Nuo look after you, don’t lose control.”

“Okay.” Miel said obediently.

…

The Azure Longsword mercenary group was about to welcome two newly promoted members.

On the other side, the Night’s Watch was also studying this undead anomaly incident.

All the items that could be used as clues, brought back from the slain Black Knights, were now displayed before the high-ranking members.

“It has been confirmed that these Black Knights are all Companions, the ‘Companion Cavalry’ of Alexander the Great at the end of the Second Age.” Phoebus explained to everyone present.

“Judging from the style of the powered armor, it is indeed the military armor popular in the Siris Peninsula during the Second Age, because at that time, this kind of armor had a linen lining inside the exoskeleton for shock absorption.”

“The ancient Solomon Republic of the Third Age improved the exoskeleton structure, and mainstream powered armor after that no longer had this lining.”

“Another piece of supporting evidence is the weapons.” Phoebus picked up the weapons on the table. “Xiphos swords, 3D printed with high molecular weight carbon fiber. Only the Church still retains the production technology for this material now, and it would never be used to make weapons, it’s too extravagant.”

“Finally, multiple knight squads have claimed that the Black Knights possess a strange supernatural ability, being able to split off a phantom when wielding weapons, and the phantom has the same attack power as the main body.”

“Phantom Sword?” The other Night’s Watch members immediately guessed the answer.

They knew nothing about the Celestial Ninefold Strike from the East. But another supernatural sword technique – Phantom Sword – was very familiar to them.

“That’s right, the ancient Macedonian secret sword technique, Phantom Sword.” Phoebus said with a solemn expression. “According to historical records, the generals and Companion Cavalry under Alexander the Great were also his friends and students, so they all mastered his supernatural sword technique, Phantom Sword.”

“Using Phantom Sword requires supernatural power from the Arcane Sequence. Alexander the Great’s own bloodline was Meteor Shower, and for the Companion Cavalry to use Phantom Sword, they had to rely on external sources to supplement their arcane power.”

Phoebus picked up a broken piece of arm armor and showed the mithril pattern on the back to everyone: “The relevant evidence is the magic circuit on the armor, drawn with sintered mithril powder, the end connected to a Philosopher’s Stone containing Alexander the Great’s own blood.”

“The Philosopher’s Stone provides energy, and Alexander the Great’s blood changes the energy attribute, converting it into arcane power, is that the principle?” Cormac asked doubtfully. “But I remember that Hannibal of Carthage was also famous for Phantom Sword, but he himself was of the Undead Sequence and didn’t use any Philosopher’s Stone.”

“That’s because Hannibal’s Phantom Sword was the Undead Phantom Sword that he improved.” Phoebus said, “Alexander the Great died after conquering the East, and his Phantom Sword was taken to all parts of the world by his generals.”

“Among them, the Carthaginians in the Southern Continent learned this sword technique from the Ptolemaic dynasty. Later, Hannibal Barca improved this sword technique, integrating the nature of the undead into the phantom, making it so that it didn’t require arcane power and could split off multiple phantoms at once.”

“In comparison, the Undead Phantom Sword is more flexible, suitable for one-versus-many group battle scenarios; while the phantom split off by Phantom Sword itself, although smaller in number, has almost the same combat ability as the main body.”

“Let’s not talk about Phantom Sword for now.” The Silver Moon Knight Commander, Lady Aerowen with long golden hair, frowned and said, “I’m more concerned about why the Companion Cavalry under Alexander the Great a thousand years ago are now appearing here as undead Black Knights?”

“I’m afraid only Alexander the Great himself can answer this question.” Phoebus shrugged.

“I’m not joking, Phoebus.” Aerowen sighed. “Since the Companion Cavalry have already emerged from the earth, even if Alexander the Great himself returns from the Netherworld tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

“That’s impossible.” Cormac said disapprovingly. “The current magic tide level cap is only level 5. Before Alexander the Great died of poisoning, he was already a level 28 demigod. Now, even if he returns from the dead, even slightly mobilizing his spirituality would drain his power and make him die again.”

“What if he doesn’t do it himself?” Aerowen asked rhetorically. “Even if he’s just commanding from behind the scenes, with his military command ability comparable to Caesar and Hannibal, it would be enough to cause heavy casualties to our Night’s Watch.”

“However, this is just your speculation.” Cormac reminded her. “There is no evidence that Alexander the Great has returned from the Netherworld.”

“There was also no evidence before that high-level undead like Black Knights would appear in this anomaly.” Aerowen said bluntly. “If it weren’t for the headquarters’ warning, who knows how many knight squires would have been sacrificed in the first exploration. We should always prepare for the worst, shouldn’t we?”

“May I ask what the worst-case scenario plan is?” Cormac asked her rhetorically. “If Alexander the Great returns from the dead, our Eastern Legion can’t possibly resolve this anomaly. Even if the headquarters sends Resting Paladins to support us, it won’t be of any use.”

“We can request a space-based orbital cannon strike, with a small nuclear bomb.” Aerowen said. “A central bombardment, once and for all.”

“Space-based nuclear bombs are limited, the headquarters won’t waste them here just because there’s a ‘possibility’ of Alexander the Great’s undead appearing.” Cormac sighed.

“Well, it seems that the headquarters would rather let us fill this unknown pit with our lives than use the precious nuclear bombs that fly over our heads every day.” Aerowen stood up, her anger evident on her face.

“We Silver Moon knights have already lost two people, and there will be more casualties in the next few days. After this anomaly is over, I will personally deliver the metal nameplates of every fallen knight, along with the casualty list, to those gentlemen at headquarters!”

She stormed out of the command tent, leaving the remaining people looking at each other.

“We Morningstar knights have five times the casualties of the Silver Moon this time.” Phoebus sighed deeply. “What can we do? Isn’t it the Night’s Watch’s duty to eliminate the undead? If we don’t go deep into this undead anomaly, who will deal with it?”

“Indeed.” Commander Bryce, who had been silent, said, “What does the razor principle say?”

“Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” The two Knight Commanders replied.

This razor principle originally meant “simplicity is better than complexity.” In the Night’s Watch organization, however, it was interpreted in two ways.

Ordinary knights believed that it meant focusing on combat and not overthinking. Only the high-ups knew that it meant “don’t use two pennies to do something that can be done with one penny.”

The Night’s Watch headquarters also didn’t have unlimited resources!

“By the way, we can have that Azure Longsword mercenary group scout with us!” Phoebus suddenly said, “Their kind of unorthodox combat organization must have more experience in surviving in unknown environments than us Night’s Watch knights!”

This was obviously nonsense, because even the most seasoned mercenary group couldn’t have more military experience than the formally trained Night’s Watch. After all, there was a difference between professional soldiers and amateur mercenaries.

However, Phoebus’ unspoken subtext was to let the Azure Longsword mercenary group scout and share the damage, so they didn’t have to pay the price or take the risk.

At most, they would let them take the lion’s share of the loot.

“Hmm, indeed. With that Captain Asker’s combat skills, he can easily defeat a powered armor knight, so a few more shouldn’t be a problem.” Commander Bryce understood his subtext and said thoughtfully.

“That’s right.” Cormac also immediately understood and said with a smile, “In my opinion, Captain Asker’s true strength is unfathomable. Even if Alexander the Great himself were here, his Azure Longsword mercenary group wouldn’t be without a fighting chance.”

You’re exaggerating! The other two were speechless.

If they could even fight Alexander the Great, this Azure Longsword mercenary group would have already ascended to heaven, and the Night’s Watch would have to treat them as ancestors.

“Ahem, let’s not talk about Alexander for now. I think the Azure Longsword mercenary group can still handle demigod-level undead.” Phoebus quickly smoothed things over. “Besides, we Night’s Watch won’t stand idly by, we will provide long-range support for them, of course.”

These four words, “long-range support,” hit Commander Bryce right in the heart.

Long-range meant hiding in the back and firing safely, without having to face the undead’s attacks directly.

“Then let’s do this!” Bryce made the final decision. “Commander Phoebus, go and ask Azure Longsword for their intentions, and find out their conditions.”

Chapter 11: The Assassin’s Flash Step

Two missed shots, and a sword at the back of his head.

Even on a real battlefield, relying on the defense of powered armor to save one’s life was not glorious.

Aside from the equipment advantage, Claude had lost completely.

There were no cheers, no applause. The Night’s Watch knights watching seemed to have fallen into complete silence.

For a Night’s Watch knight to be defeated by an outside mercenary in an open competition was an absolute disgrace to the self-proclaimed elite Night’s Watch.

Not to mention losing so thoroughly, making the watching Night’s Watch members lose face as well.

However, Knight Commander Claude’s actions weren’t wrong at all.

He fired immediately after the starting pistol, didn’t panic when the opponent approached, and quickly raised his gun for a close-range shot. All his actions were in accordance with the Night’s Watch military manual, a textbook response.

If any other Night’s Watch knight were here, they wouldn’t be confident in performing better than him.

Then how to explain this defeat?

In the command tent at the highest point, the Commander-in-Chief and several high-ranking members of the Night’s Watch watched the entire battle on the command screen. Their expressions were solemn, and they frowned in thought.

“It’s Flash Step.” Cormac, the Sun Knight Commander, dragged the mouse, rewinding to the very beginning.

The screen showed the moment the starting pistol fired and Knight Commander Claude fired. In the still frame, Asker could be seen lowering his body slightly, his heels slightly raised.

“The Ilania Swordsman’s Flash Step?” Commander Bryce asked, frowning.

“To be precise, it’s the Assassin’s Flash Step.” Cormac replied. “This footwork is widespread in the East, but it did originate from the Assassin sect.”

“Mainstream Flash Step involves a lot of heel rotation, the purpose is to make the swordsman’s footwork more difficult for the opponent to see. However, the Assassin sect believes that heel rotation is a meaningless extra movement, because the purpose of Flash Step itself is to burst into high speed in a short time.”

“If you can instantly reach full speed, how can the opponent see your footwork?”

“With the Assassin’s physical qualities, they are indeed qualified to say that.” Phoebus said with a smile. “Because even without heel rotation, few normal people can see their speed clearly.”

“That’s right.” Cormac switched to 0.1x playback speed. “Look at the footage again, from here to here, this Asker, with the balls of his feet on the ground, took at least three steps in just 0.3 seconds, with an average stride length of less than half a meter. His speed instantly reached its peak, without any heel rotation.”

“It’s the perfect Assassin-style Ilania Flash Step.” He concluded. “Not to mention Claude, even a Templar Knight might not be able to hit him with the first shot.”

“So you think this Asker is from the Assassins?” Commander Bryce asked.

“I don’t think so.” Cormac said cautiously. “As far as I know, the Assassin-style Ilania Flash Step is extremely difficult and arduous to learn.”

“I heard that their Assassin instructors would scatter caltrops on the floor of the dining hall passage, leaving only a gap half the width of a foot, forcing the assassins to pass through with Flash Step.”

“At noon every day, when the dining hall opened, they would only provide two-thirds of the food, so the assassins had to rush through the caltrop area as quickly as possible, otherwise they would go hungry.”

“Under years of training, most assassins have festering wounds on the soles of their feet from repeatedly stepping on caltrops due to Flash Step mistakes. To relieve the pain, they have the habit of taking anesthetic drugs and wrapping their feet with painkillers and bandages.”

“And this Mr. Asker doesn’t have any smell of anesthetic drugs.” Phoebus said thoughtfully. “His standing and walking postures are also very natural. Either he’s good at hiding it, or…”

“Or he’s really not from the Assassins, but learned the Flash Step technique through other channels.” Cormac analyzed. “I think it’s the latter, because with his strength, he would definitely be the most elite White-Clad Assassin in the Assassin sect.”

“Assassins of this level, their targets are either Cardinals of the Church or royalty and nobles of various countries. We are just the Eastern branch of the Night’s Watch. With all due respect, even your head, Commander, wouldn’t be worth a White-Clad Assassin personally taking action.”

“My head isn’t that valuable either.” Bryce shook his head. “Anyway, just handle it according to normal procedures.”

“Wait a moment, Commander.” Phoebus said, “He has proven his combat skills, but Quasimodo also mentioned one thing that makes me a little concerned.”

“It is said that this Mr. Asker pierced the Black Knight’s powered armor helmet with an ordinary steel sword.”

“There’s such a thing?” Cormac said in surprise. “The material strength of military steel, even after thousands of years of corrosion, is not something that an ordinary forged steel sword can pierce.”

“The person is in our camp, we can just ask him directly.” Commander Bryce said.

On the training ground, Asker had already sheathed his sword and stood quietly.

The surrounding area was buzzing with discussions like a beehive. The Night’s Watch knights whispered to each other, their gazes towards the field filled with shock and doubt, confusion, and mostly undisguised hostility.

“Asker is so amazing!” Nuo grabbed Medea’s arm excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

However, she quickly noticed the uneasy change in the surrounding atmosphere and complained angrily, “What’s wrong with these people? My Asker clearly defeated the other party, why are they all so cold?”

“Oh, it’s like this when fighting on away turf.” Medea said leisurely.

Looking around at the surrounding audience, she could hardly read any friendly thoughts. Medea suddenly raised the corners of her mouth, revealing a mischievous smile.

“Team Leader, you’re so handsome! I love you!” She shouted at the top of her lungs as if she had become a fangirl.

The surrounding OO@@ sounds immediately exploded. Many Night’s Watch members even stood up, pointing in this direction and shouting excitedly, but it was impossible to hear clearly because of the noise.

“Medea!” Nuo next to her was also shocked. If she hadn’t known that Medea had androphobia, the nun would have really thought that her best friend had suddenly become a love rival.

“Don’t do this!” She hurriedly pulled Medea’s arm, trying to make her sit down and shut up. “Don’t deliberately provoke them! You’ll be beaten!”

“Let them come.” Medea said nonchalantly. “Let them try to touch me! I’ll explode on the spot! Blow them all up!”

She shouted “I love you” and “You’re so handsome” a few more times before Asker finally turned around, his face filled with the helpless look of someone caring for a mentally challenged child.

“Stop it.” He said mentally.

“This is fun.” Medea said through the mental connection, her tone filled with the joy of a successful prank.

On the other side, Claude, the defeated Knight Commander, stood there blankly, his mind in a daze.

I lost?

How could I lose?

Lose to an unorthodox outside mercenary?

I’m an elite Night’s Watch veteran equipped with powered armor and with over seven years of service!

Powered armor… Right, his sword just now pierced my helmet, logically speaking, it shouldn’t be able to pierce it at all.

If this were a real battlefield, I wouldn’t have been injured at all!

I haven’t lost yet!

Knight Commander Claude, in his despair, seemed to have grasped a lifeline. His spirits lifted, and he raised his head, about to speak.

Phoebus, the Morningstar Knight Commander, put his hand on his shoulder from behind.

“You fought well.” Phoebus said in a deep voice. “You’ve done your best, go and have a good rest.”

“Commander Phoebus!” Claude said eagerly. “I haven’t lost yet! His sword couldn’t pierce my helmet…”

“Enough!” Phoebus shouted in a low voice. “Inferior in skill on the battlefield, and still relying on equipment advantage to save face, as a Night’s Watch knight, don’t you feel ashamed?”

Claude immediately looked ashen upon hearing this, his whole being falling into a state of dejection.

“Go back and think about where you lost.” Phoebus said, then suddenly added, “Take off your helmet and give it to me.”

“What?” Claude asked listlessly.

“Lend me your helmet.” Phoebus emphasized. “You can go to the quartermaster and get a new one later.”

Claude obediently took off his helmet and handed it to Phoebus. The latter took the helmet, walked onto the field, and said to Asker:

“You have won, Mr. Asker. As we agreed earlier, I will approve your trade application and submit it to Commander Bryce.”

“Another piece of good news is that Commander Bryce was also watching this battle. Regarding Quasimodo’s account of you piercing the Black Knight’s helmet with your sword in the end, he hopes to witness it with his own eyes, is that alright?”

“No problem.” Asker nodded.

Unlike the abilities of supernatural characteristics, supernatural swordsmanship wasn’t something worth keeping secret – especially the Dragon Kingdom’s Celestial Ninefold Strike, which no one on this continent could understand.

Even if they filmed the whole process with a camera, then played it back in slow motion for analysis, or took the helmet to a physics lab or materials lab for research, there wouldn’t be any results.

So Phoebus raised the helmet high.

Asker’s sword flickered, the blade humming as it thrust forward.

Celestial Ninefold Strike – Heavy Break.

The sword pierced the helmet without any hindrance, like chopsticks piercing tofu.

The tip of the sword stopped in front of Phoebus’ eyes. He held his breath, his pupils constricting.

Just now, the faint hum of the sword had briefly attracted his attention.

When he came back to his senses, he realized that the sword had already pierced through the powered armor helmet, and a few more inches forward would be his forehead.

And his skull was definitely not harder than the powered armor helmet.

The surrounding Morningstar knights suddenly stood up, many of them even reaching for their guns before being stopped by their companions.

“Is that enough?” Asker let go of his sword and asked calmly.

“That’s enough.” Phoebus took a deep breath.

Then he realized that his back was already covered in cold sweat.

Chapter 10: The Contest

“Now we just have to wait for approval.” Quasimodo said.

“How long will that take?” Nuo asked.

“Hard to say.” Quasimodo shook his head. “According to the procedure, it needs to go through the Quartermaster Procurement Department, the Financial Audit Department, the Legal Cooperation Department, and the Morningstar Headquarters for co-signing before it’s finally submitted to Commander Bryce.”

So long… everyone thought silently.

However, lengthy procedures were a common problem for large companies and organizations, and this was unavoidable. Thinking about the many items on the order, they felt it was bearable.

“Actually,” as the group left the supply warehouse and walked towards the open space outside, Quasimodo said, “Whether it’s the Quartermaster Procurement Department or the Financial Audit Department, there probably won’t be any obstacles, because we sell things at a higher price for external transactions, there’s a surplus profit.”

“For the Legal Cooperation Department, as long as it doesn’t involve a contract, there’s no problem with this kind of on-the-spot transaction where money and goods are exchanged.”

“The more troublesome part is the Morningstar Headquarters, because as your guarantor, if there is any problem with the transaction, Morningstar will be jointly liable. And Commander Phoebus, our Knight Commander of Morningstar, is a shrewd and difficult person to fool…”

“I didn’t expect you to have some insight, Quasimodo.” A middle-aged man walked over from the opposite side, wearing the inner uniform of powered armor, his hair and mustache neatly combed and shiny, his appearance quite mature and handsome.

Beside him was Claude, the Knight Commander of the Morningstar Second Squad, who was now looking at Quasimodo triumphantly.

“Commander Phoebus!” Quasimodo hurriedly saluted upon seeing the man.

“No need for formalities in informal settings.” Phoebus said lightly, his deep gaze turning towards them.

This Commander Phoebus is quite handsome! Nuo thought in surprise.

However, he’s still not as good as my team leader~

She turned to look at Asker’s profile and couldn’t help but laugh at herself.

“This is…” Phoebus asked slowly.

“Asker, the leader of the Azure Longsword mercenary group.” Quasimodo hurriedly introduced.

His tone was so serious that Claude couldn’t help but laugh.

“So it’s the Azure Longsword mercenary group, it’s a pleasure to meet you, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Claude said mockingly, his tone full of sarcasm.

His expression seemed to be saying, “What kind of trash mercenary group is this?”

Phoebus frowned imperceptibly.

The reason he came here was because Claude had snitched on him, suspecting that Quasimodo had taken the spoils of their fallen comrades and falsely claimed them as his own squad’s loot.

According to the Night’s Watch rules, the belongings of any knight who died in an undead anomaly incident, if they had any unsubmitted loot, should be uniformly inventoried and settled by the quartermaster, and the money should be sent in full to the family of the deceased as an additional supplement to the pension.

Therefore, privately taking the belongings of fallen comrades was not only a serious violation of the Night’s Watch rules but also a great moral transgression, the kind of serious stain that would be condemned by everyone.

Phoebus knew Quasimodo of the Third Squad. Although this guy was always arrogant and not very sociable among his colleagues, he still knew right from wrong and was unlikely to do such a despicable thing.

It was just that Claude’s description was too exaggerated. Seven Night’s Watch knights killed more than a hundred ghouls and a Black Knight without any casualties? Even the Sun and Moon knights couldn’t do that, unless it was the “Resting Paladins” from headquarters.

“I was just about to explain to you, Commander.” Quasimodo said seriously. “The loot this time was not obtained solely by our squad, but with the help of the Azure Longsword mercenary group, we achieved such results.”

He described the whole incident, including the sudden change of direction of the ghoul horde, how they were divided into two and then annihilated by the mercenary group, and then the appearance of the Black Knight, who was then defeated head-on by Asker in one, two, three strikes.

Phoebus and Claude were dumbfounded. Quasimodo, are you kidding me?

The former, after all, was deep and unreadable, his face expressionless. The latter exclaimed:

“What? Defeated a Black Knight with powered armor head-on? You might as well say that this mercenary is actually a demigod in disguise.”

“What I said is what I saw with my own eyes.” Quasimodo insisted. “I swear on my honor.”

“That’s enough, Claude.” Phoebus frowned and said, “In that case, then…”

“Why don’t I have a contest with him!” Claude said angrily. “A mercenary killed a Black Knight? This is not how you shirk responsibility! Do you take me and Commander Phoebus for fools?”

Phoebus turned his head back in surprise.

In his impression, although Knight Commander Claude was mean and sarcastic, he wasn’t so easily angered and foolish. Why was he acting like he wanted to fight Quasimodo to the death today?

“Medea?” Asker asked mentally.

“A good show, isn’t it?” Medea smiled, revealing her white teeth.

In her sleeve, her slender fingers manipulating Desire clenched tightly, and everyone heard Claude say fiercely:

“Commander Phoebus! After I defeat this mercenary, please ask Quasimodo again where those spoils really came from!”

Phoebus stared at him expressionlessly for a moment, then smiled slightly.

“Mr. Asker.” He turned his head and said gracefully, “I don’t doubt the veracity of Quasimodo’s account, but since Claude has requested verification, would you be willing to demonstrate your strength here?”

“If you can defeat Claude, then there will be no further doubt in this matter. As compensation, I will immediately approve your trade application and personally submit the order to Commander Bryce.”

“Everything is going smoothly as planned, that’s great.” Medea’s voice echoed leisurely in Asker’s mind. “Next, it’s time for you to show your skills, Captain.”

“Okay.” Asker nodded. “I have no problem with that.”

“Then let’s go to our training ground.” Phoebus made a “please” gesture.

The news that Knight Commander Claude of the Morningstar Second Squad was about to have a contest with an outside mercenary quickly spread throughout the camp like wildfire.

Not only the Morningstar Night’s Watch knights, but also the Silver Moon and Sun knights, and even some non-combat priests came to watch.

After all, they had just experienced a difficult mission and urgently needed some entertainment to relax.

Watching the fun was human nature, and even the Night’s Watch knights were no exception.

The training ground was located in the valley below the high ground, a small natural flat area.

Knight Commander Claude was holding a spiderweb gun, a firearm specially designed for capturing undead. Its ammunition was a kind of ultra-high molecular viscous liquid, which would be oxidized into a sticky liquid in the air. Once it adhered to a human body, it would quickly entangle, immobilizing the target.

Asker was holding an iron sword – it was Commander Phoebus’ officer’s sword, used for self-defense. Because it wasn’t used very often, the blade was very well maintained.

“This isn’t right, is it?” The Night’s Watch knights on the hills on both sides discussed in surprise. “One side is powered armor + spiderweb gun, the other side is ordinary chainmail + iron sword? The equipment gap is too big, isn’t it?”

“What kind of performance is this? Modern technology crushing cold weapons?”

“Hey, hey, hey, Knight Commander Claude, at least take off your powered armor!”

“Yeah, why are you wearing powered armor when the other party doesn’t even have a gun? Shameful! Get off the stage!”

Claude stood on the field blankly, listening to the jokes and jeers from his colleagues, his heart full of regret.

He didn’t know why he had impulsively offered to have a contest with that mercenary.

Thinking about it carefully, for a formally trained Night’s Watch knight to have a contest with this kind of unorthodox mercenary, it wouldn’t be strange to win, but it would be embarrassing to lose!

It was completely disadvantageous, why did he lose his mind and propose it in front of Commander Phoebus?

He wished he could slap himself.

Claude didn’t want to wear the powered armor, but Phoebus had asked him to.

Since Quasimodo claimed that this Asker had defeated a Black Knight head-on, it was naturally necessary to wear powered armor, just like the Black Knight, in the process of verifying it personally.

How the other party would react under the powerful deterrence of powered armor was what Commander Phoebus wanted to see with his own eyes.

As for why he was using a spiderweb gun instead of a cold weapon, it was naturally to prevent injuring the other party. With the output power of powered armor, even a wooden sword could cut the other party in half.

But these colleagues around him didn’t know that! Claude couldn’t just jump out and say: “It was Commander Phoebus who asked me to wear powered armor, understand! It has nothing to do with me!”

So he could only endure the comments and mockery from his colleagues, aiming his gun at Asker fiercely.

End this farce quickly, it’s embarrassing to stand here for even one more second.

“Take your positions!” Quasimodo, acting as the referee, stood on high ground with a straight face, aiming his starting pistol at the sky.

“Ready!”

A gunshot rang out. Claude immediately pulled the trigger.

The spiderweb splattered on the empty ground. Claude’s eyes caught the other party’s figure, and his heart immediately skipped a beat.

So fast! Such explosive power… the opponent’s physical strength was very strong, at least level 4 or above!

In an instant, Asker had already rushed to him, swinging his sword horizontally.

Claude retreated half a step, slightly raised the muzzle of his spiderweb gun, and pulled the trigger.

A sword couldn’t possibly break through the defense of my powered armor! And as long as the other party was hit once, this ridiculous contest would be over!

The spiderweb shot out, missing again. This time, Claude couldn’t catch the other party’s figure. He subconsciously wanted to charge forward and dodge, but he felt a slight force behind his head.

The surrounding Night’s Watch knights fell silent.

They saw it clearly from the sidelines: the moment the spiderweb shot out, Asker had already spun to dodge, then swooped down, passed under Claude’s left arm, and pressed his sword against the back of his helmet with a backhand.

If Claude hadn’t been wearing powered armor, he would have been dead with just this one sword strike.

Chapter 9: Exchange Needs

Half an hour later, everyone returned to the Night’s Watch camp.

Compared to before their departure, the camp was undoubtedly much emptier now, but the atmosphere was more tense and solemn.

Among the Night’s Watch knights who had returned, those with minor injuries were bandaging themselves, while those with serious injuries were being rushed to the emergency tent.

On the open space outside the emergency tent, more than a dozen body bags were neatly arranged, covered with the Night’s Watch banner.

In undead anomaly incidents involving Black Knights, even official Night’s Watch knights could suffer casualties.

The Night’s Watch knights of the Morningstar Third Squad saluted the body bags solemnly as they passed by the open space.

Then they found the quartermaster by the supply warehouse and displayed all their harvest.

“More than a hundred ghouls? And a Black Knight?” Looking at the pile of mutated pituitary glands and the high-value components removed from the Black Knight’s powered armor on the table, the quartermaster’s eyes widened in surprise.

“You, the Morningstar Third Squad? No casualties?” He looked up incredulously. “Not even injured?”

“What?” Knight Commander Quasimodo’s face immediately darkened. “Would you only be satisfied if we had casualties?”

“That’s not what I meant.” The quartermaster hurriedly denied, becoming even more puzzled.

The three combat branches of the Night’s Watch, in order of strength, were Sun, Moon, and Morningstar.

The knights had other names for their three branches: Combat Branch, Support Branch, and Odd Jobs Branch.

Morningstar was the so-called Odd Jobs Branch.

When encountering difficult super undead (such as bone dragons, liches, etc.), the Sun Branch was responsible for the frontal assault, the Moon Branch was responsible for support and assistance, and the Morningstar Branch was responsible for setting up the perimeter defense line and preventing unrelated personnel from entering (specializing in odd jobs).

Because of this, in this undead anomaly incident, the Morningstar knights had the least gains and the most casualties.

Seeing that there were only 7 knights in the Morningstar Third Squad, but they had managed to kill more than 100 ghouls and 1 Black Knight without any injuries, the quartermaster naturally found it unbelievable.

Before Quasimodo could speak, Lorant next to him started bragging:

“See? This is the strength of our Morningstar Third Squad! Strength, do you understand? Strength is returning alive!”

“Returning alive?” A sneer came from inside the warehouse. Another Night’s Watch knight walked out, his gaze sweeping contemptuously over the Morningstar Third Squad. “Could it be that you didn’t fire a single shot, turned around and ran away when you saw the Black Knight, and returned alive with your tail between your legs?”

His gaze finally fell on the table, and he suddenly seemed to understand something, his face darkening.

Not firing a single shot was, of course, just his casual guess, thinking that the other party probably couldn’t produce any evidence…

As a result, the evidence was all piled up on the table. The ghouls’ mutated pituitary glands and the Black Knight’s armor components were like an invisible slap in the face.

“Hehe.” The Night’s Watch knights of the Morningstar Third Squad, led by Quasimodo, all sneered without saying a word.

Although strictly speaking, these materials were “bought” from Azure Longsword, not obtained by the team themselves.

But the other party obviously didn’t know this, so they were happy to let the other party misunderstand and be slapped in the face.

“These… these materials…” The Night’s Watch knight’s eyes twitched. He pointed at the sneering Quasimodo and asked the quartermaster incredulously, “Are these the spoils of their Third Squad?”

“Yes.” The quartermaster said, feeling his face burning for him.

“That’s impossible!” The Night’s Watch knight exclaimed. “How many knights are there in the Third Squad? How could they get so much loot! And not even a single injury!”

Quasimodo’s anger flared up: “What do you mean, Claude?”

“I mean, you must have used some underhanded methods!” Claude, the Knight Commander of the Morningstar Second Squad, said angrily. “For example, you happened to encounter the death of another Night’s Watch knight squad and took their loot and belongings!”

“Then tell me, whose legacy did I steal?” Quasimodo sneered back.

Claude: …

“How would I know? But I can be sure that with the strength of your Third Squad, it’s impossible to achieve such results!” Claude said aggressively. “I’m going to find Commander Phoebus and report this matter to him!”

Phoebus Chateaupers was the overall commander of the Morningstar Branch. Hearing that Claude was going to find Commander Phoebus, the knights of the Morningstar Third Squad were shocked and apprehensive.

If it were really their achievements, then they would let Commander Phoebus come over and slap Claude of the Second Squad in the face.

The problem was that these materials were not the spoils of their Morningstar Third Squad! They belonged to the Azure Longsword mercenary group!

Seeing the strange expressions on these knights’ faces, Claude immediately guessed that something was fishy and walked out with a sneer.

“This… Quasimodo, what do we do?” Knight Roger asked hurriedly.

“Don’t panic!” Quasimodo said calmly. “Did we say that these were the spoils of our Morningstar Third Squad?”

Thud! The quartermaster next to him almost fell off his stool.

“These are not your spoils?” He widened his eyes and asked incredulously. “Then whose are they? Could it really be the legacy of some comrade?”

“Of course not.” Quasimodo sighed. “It’s from outside help… I was just about to report this matter to Commander Bryce.”

“Oh.” The quartermaster nodded. As long as it wasn’t the legacy of other fallen comrades, as for outside help, it had nothing to do with him, the quartermaster.

“By the way, there’s one more thing.” Quasimodo said seriously. “The outside help wants to trade with us. In this regard, as the captain of the Morningstar Third Squad, I can act as their guarantor.”

“Then follow the organization’s regulations and go through the reporting process first.” The quartermaster nodded and took out a document from the drawer.

Quasimodo took the pen and paper and started writing on it. The quartermaster, seeing what he wrote in the “External Personnel” column, read it out curiously:

“Azure… Longsword?”

“Yes.” Quasimodo replied. “That’s the name of the mercenary group.”

“This name reminds me of a children’s book my youngest son has, also called ‘Azure Longsword’.” The quartermaster said.

“Oh, what’s it about?” Quasimodo casually made small talk.

“It’s just the most cliché adventure fairy tale.” The quartermaster said with a smile. “An adventure team composed of a warrior, a mage, and a priest, after going through all kinds of hardships, finally defeats the evil dragon entrenched in the mountains.”

“It’s always good for children to have dreams.” Quasimodo said, “Unlike my daughter, who only plays with her phone and watches dramas all day at home.”

“He’s just not old enough yet.” The quartermaster said.

“I’m done writing, take a look.” Quasimodo handed over the document. “If there are no problems, I’ll call them over.”

A few minutes later, Asker, who had received the news, came over with Nuo and Medea.

“Generally speaking, our Night’s Watch supply warehouse is not open to the public.” The quartermaster explained to the three of them. “But since Quasimodo is willing to be your guarantor, you have been granted temporary permission to submit an order.”

“Of course, it’s just submitting an order. As for whether the transaction can be carried out in the end, it depends on whether Commander Bryce is willing to approve your application.”

“Assuming all the procedures go smoothly, we can settle the bill according to the order. The purchase of materials or potion formulas is limited to Sequence I, and the total value cannot exceed 7,000 pounds.”

“These are our rules.” Quasimodo shrugged and said, “Only official Night’s Watch members can purchase Sequence II transcendental items. For Sequence III and above, you need to apply to our headquarters in Florence.”

“No problem. Thank you very much, Commander Quasimodo.” Asker nodded. “Then let’s take a look at the inventory list first.”

So the Night’s Watch brought up the inventory list on the computer. The dazzling array of various material entries made Nuo’s eyes spin.

Medea was even more overjoyed. She wished she could mind control the quartermaster and directly rob the warehouse, just like she did with the Grand Arena of Constantinople last time.

“I’ll look at the inventory list and read out the names, you fill out the order.” Asker took the order form and pen from the quartermaster and handed them to Nuo next to him.

“Okay.” Nuo, accustomed to taking notes, immediately nodded in agreement.

“PETER-7310: Plague I formula.” Asker read.

This is Peggy’s level 3 potion formula, Nuo thought as she wrote, and couldn’t help but feel happy for her.

“SAFE-1147: Will I potion.”

Eleanor’s potion… Nuo quickly wrote it down.

“SAFE-1144: Resilience I potion.”

Whose is this? Nuo wondered.

“Will I? Resilience I?” Quasimodo was also a little curious now. “The bloodline path of this member of yours is very similar to our Night’s Watch.”

Asker smiled but didn’t answer. He knew that the Night’s Watch’s transcendental bloodline was “Death-Resisting Crusader,” while Eleanor’s transcendental bloodline was “War Crusader.” Although both contained the Resilience and Will sequences, they were not exactly the same.

There was no need to explain the secrets of his team members to Quasimodo.

“SAFE-1151, Intuition I potion, two bottles.”

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Quasimodo clicked his tongue, thinking that there must be a “Death-Resisting Crusader” in Azure Longsword. He just didn’t know whether it was the girl with the spear and shield or the girl with the double axes.

“SAFE-622, Vision I formula.”

This must be for Miel. The Vision formula was exclusive to the Gunman Sequence.

“EUCLID-771, Ancient X formula.”

This is… Sidlipha’s? Nuo thought uncertainly.

“Then there are the transcendental materials.” Asker opened another worksheet and read, “Purified Ectoplasm, Hector’s Blood, Ephemera Seeds.”

My Spirit I potion materials! Nuo couldn’t help but feel excited, a joyful expression appearing on her face.

That’s right, the potion materials for Spirit I basically all came from the undead, especially supernatural creatures related to ghosts, and hunting undead was the Night’s Watch’s specialty. It was only natural that they had these materials.

She suppressed her excitement and continued writing quickly.

“Tentacles of Crystalline Gembeetle, Pituitary of Shadow Insects.” Asker scrolled to the bottom and said to the quartermaster, “That’s all for now. After the transaction is approved and we get the formulas, we’ll add more materials to the order.”

“Okay. I’ll start the approval process for you.” The quartermaster glanced at the pivot table and said, “The total price is 3100 pounds.”

That’s not the right price! Nuo frowned.

She estimated the order. Based on the market price of ordinary Sequence I related potions, formulas, and materials, it should only be around 2800 pounds.

In other words, it was 10% more expensive.

Of course, if they were to purchase them at the supernatural gatherings outside, it would take more time and effort, so paying 10% more was still acceptable.

Nuo calculated it one last time and found that it was only 300 pounds more, so she decided to pay it.

Chapter 8: Cleaning the Battlefield

What’s the concept of a mercenary single-handedly defeating a powered armor knight?

It’s like a three-year-old kindergartener single-handedly defeating a thirty-year-old muscular man.

In fact, the enhancements provided by powered armor to the knight were far greater than the difference between a thirty-year-old muscular man and a three-year-old child.

If a three-year-old child stabbed with a knife, the man’s leg would still be cut.

If the man swung a hammer, the powered armor knight could stand there and let him hit him however he wanted. Even if the hammer handle broke and shattered, there wouldn’t be a single mark on the armor.

As military technology designed powered armor, the original purpose was to replace mechanical vehicles like tanks, and its most basic function was to be bulletproof.

Unless it was a professional anti-materiel sniper rifle, ordinary firearms couldn’t penetrate it at all.

Not to mention swords. To break through powered armor with cold weapons, one would need at least level 8 physical strength.

Considering that the last magic tide surge was at the end of the Fifth Age, and the magic tide level had been maintained at the bottom level of 5 for hundreds of years.

Therefore, in this era, powered armor knights were electricity, light, myths on the battlefield, the superstars of all soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers.

Now, a superstar had been defeated head-on by a mercenary… so much so that everyone present, whether the Night’s Watch knights or the mercenary girls, didn’t know what expression to make in the face of this fact.

Looking at the Black Knight’s corpse, completely dead, everyone’s expressions were numb, indifferent, and frozen.

“Ha, hahaha…” Knight Lorant’s eyes twitched, and he let out an awkward dry laugh. “Could this Black Knight be wearing fake powered armor?”

He stepped forward and kicked the Black Knight’s powered armor, making a crisp metallic clang.

The powered armor was real.

There was no denying it now.

Knight Commander Quasimodo came back to his senses and sighed helplessly.

This time, even if the other party didn’t give him a way out, he couldn’t continue to play deaf and dumb.

The Night’s Watch could ignore low-level mercenaries, but when they encountered a swordsmanship master who was second to none even in the world, they had to make friends and build a good relationship.

In the future, when they encountered major undead anomalies that even the headquarters had trouble with, they would have to ask these swordsmanship masters for help.

Therefore, as the Knight Commander of the Night’s Watch Morningstar Third Squad, Quasimodo had the obligation to win over the other party for the Night’s Watch, at least he couldn’t completely ignore them like before.

They could only start by improving their relationship.

Forcing a smile onto his face, Knight Commander Quasimodo turned his head with difficulty and said complimentarily:

“What amazing combat skills. I didn’t expect that your mercenary group would actually have such hidden talents…”

His voice trailed off because the mercenary girls were also dumbfounded, their faces filled with utter disbelief.

“Wait, why do you also look so shocked…” Quasimodo asked weakly.

The girls looked at each other, not knowing what to say, their minds blank.

Yes, they had originally thought that Asker was a very powerful person, but they didn’t expect his true level to be so powerful that he wasn’t even human… From today onwards, he was a god, a top god, an existence they could only look up to.

A dignified powered armor knight, with output power measured in tons, burst speed that could reach 10 meters per second, 360-degree full-body military steel armor coverage without any blind spots, and the body was an emotionless, always rational undead that wouldn’t make mistakes.

He was actually defeated head-on with just a few cold weapons… Are you even human? You must be possessed by the God of War! Even novels wouldn’t dare to write this!

“Nuo.” After a lot of effort, Asker finally pried open the Black Knight’s powered armor, revealing the exoskeleton, hydraulic connectors, and circuit boards underneath. “Come and take a look at this.”

“Huh? Oh!” Nuo remembered that she was, after all, a military nun. Besides healing, mechanical repair was also her specialty, so she hurriedly ran over.

“Um, what do you want me to do?” She stammered. “Repair this powered armor?”

“I just asked you to come and take a look, to familiarize yourself with the internal structure of the powered armor.” Asker said helplessly. “What’s with the honorific? Why did you suddenly start calling me ‘you’?”

“Because calling you directly by your name feels disrespectful…” Nuo said embarrassedly.

“It’s okay.” Asker sighed. “Just call me ‘you,’ or you can call me by my name.”

Hmm… Nuo looked conflicted, but finally nodded.

Asker stood up and beckoned Medea over.

“What are your orders, Captain?” Medea bowed slightly and said with a smile.

“For every time you say ‘you’ in that formal way, you’ll add one more lap to your morning run the next day.” Asker said with a straight face.

“Oh, I was just kidding.” Medea’s face turned pale, and she quickly tried to smooth things over with a charming smile.

The so-called morning run was running a lap around the edge of Furnace Island, which was not just a kilometer or two.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” Asker frowned. “Suddenly so respectful, are you playing maid?”

“No, no, no, we’re just having our worldviews refreshed.” Medea waved her hand. “After all, we used to think that powered armor knights were almost invincible on the battlefield. Seeing you kill the Black Knight so easily and neatly, we were a little shocked.”

“Oh.” Asker understood, so it was his preconceived notions again.

In the original game world, if a level 3 player defeated a powered armor knight head-on, everyone would only think that he was cheating. After all, not everyone had a clear understanding of the strength of professional e-sports players.

But in this world, if a level 3 Transcendental defeated a powered armor knight, no one would ever think of cheating – they would only be shocked and think: “Is he even human?” “This guy is so terrifying?” “Are all mercenaries monsters?”

“It’s nothing.” Asker decided to be humble, lest the girls worship him too much, which would make it difficult to carry out the subsequent teaching work. “Powered armor knights are not invincible, you don’t have to be so dramatic.”

“Of course, it was just unexpected before.” Medea said with a smile. “Now we have a sufficient understanding of your upper limit of strength. Even if you poke a demigod to death with a toothpick in the future, we will only smile slightly and not be surprised anymore.”

“If someone really pokes a demigod to death with a toothpick, I suggest you still be politely shocked.” Asker shook his head. “Medea, you go and discuss with the Night’s Watch about selling them the transcendental materials from the ghouls.”

“And this Black Knight’s powered armor, after we’re done studying it, we’ll sell it too.”

So Medea went to negotiate with the Night’s Watch. Asker thought for a moment and called Peggy over:

“The transcendental material on the Black Knight is a corrupted central brain core, located in the cerebellum inside his skull. But his head was blown up by my spear, so go and search nearby with your spirituality. It should be gray, a stone-like object.”

Peggy: …

So she parted the grass on the ground and carefully searched the surroundings with her spirituality.

The remaining girls, after recovering from their shock, also started chatting.

“This is that sword!” Mia picked up Asker’s sword from the ground, held it high like the legendary holy sword Excalibur, and sang in a chanting tone.

“The sword of the king~
Pulled from the stone~
Slayed the evil Black Knight~”

Miel clapped expressionlessly beside her, clap, clap, clap.

“Let me see that sword, Mia!” Sidlipha said eagerly, but Mia quickly hugged the sword and ran away.

“At least let me touch it…” Sidlipha dropped her arms weakly, listlessly.

“You can touch my spear.” Eleanor, seeing her dejected look, said, “Strictly speaking, it was my spear that delivered the final blow to the Black Knight.”

“It’s not the same.” Sidlipha said in surprise. “What I want to know is, why can this sword, which is also made of steel, pierce the helmet of powered armor? Logically speaking, the hardness of steel should be about the same, right? Could that sword really be the so-called ‘sword of the king’?”

“You actually believe such childish words…” Eleanor said, both amused and annoyed.

Medea quickly finished the negotiations. The Night’s Watch knights, who were originally cold and aloof, were now unexpectedly friendly and approachable. When Knight Commander Quasimodo talked to her, he practically had the word “friendly” written on his forehead.

Using her psychic abilities to read his mind a little, Medea immediately understood the reason and smiled like a fox.

“It’s settled, this is their offer.” Medea reported to Asker through the mental channel.

“Such a good deal?” Asker was a little surprised.

“Isn’t a good deal good?” Medea said with a smile. “It’s better than them directly refusing and not trading with us at all, right?”

“Hmm.” Asker pondered.

“I have an idea.” Medea continued. “You brought us to participate in this undead anomaly, perhaps for the purpose of training team members and conducting practical exercises. However, compared to this, isn’t obtaining the next stage potion more important?”

“You’re saying?”

“As one of the three major legal supernatural organizations in the world, the Night’s Watch must have accumulated transcendental materials harvested from countless anomalies over thousands of years, and they might even have quite a few potion formulas themselves.” Medea explained.

“They may not sell us Sequence II and above potion formulas and materials, but Sequence I should be no problem, right?”

“They refused to trade before, but now they suddenly changed their mind and said they could, also because you showed your extraordinary strength. So, as long as you continue to perform like this, once you catch the attention of higher-level members of the Night’s Watch…”

“They will offer a higher price to recruit us.” Asker nodded.

“Not us, just you.” The corners of Medea’s mouth curled up into a sly smile. “So next, as long as you’re more noticeable, it shouldn’t be a problem with your strength, right?”

“Show off, huh.” Asker pondered. “I’ll try my best.”

“I’ll cooperate with you.” Medea glanced at the Night’s Watch knights over there. “Also, that Morningstar Knight Commander Quasimodo doesn’t seem to be very popular among the other Night’s Watch knight squads.”

“Perhaps he can be used as a target to create conflict…” She muttered to herself, secretly scheming.

According to the agreed deal, Knight Commander Quasimodo readily paid.

Of course, according to the organization’s procedures, he should have first gone through the reporting process, obtained Commander Bryce’s approval, then went to the quartermaster for inventory settlement of the loot, and finally given the money to these outside mercenaries.

But Quasimodo chose to borrow from other Night’s Watch knights and bought these materials in advance with his own personal funds as an extra gesture of goodwill towards Asker and the others.

With the real money in their hands, the girls’ expressions finally improved, and they were no longer as repulsive and disgusted with the Night’s Watch knights as they were at the beginning.

Seeing the easing of the relationship between the two sides, Quasimodo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After collecting and packing all the loot, the Night’s Watch knights set off to report back to their superiors.

Overall, there were no casualties this time, which was a blessing in disguise.

Thanks to this mercenary group… uh, what was the name of this mercenary group again, Pale Sword?

“What’s the name of your mercenary group?” Knight Jalevin walked at the rear and quietly struck up a conversation with Nuo.

“Azure Longsword.” Nuo replied. “Although we’re not very famous now, we will definitely be very famous in the future.”

She said this with a confident and firm tone.

“I believe that too.” Knight Jalevin laughed heartily. “Do you want me to introduce you to a few big clients? We Night’s Watch knights often receive undead elimination quests from nobles, so we have some connections in high society.”

“Yes, yes.” Nuo’s eyes lit up and she said immediately.

“Then let’s add each other on CM first.” Knight Jalevin took out his phone.

Chapter 7: The Black Knight

“I feel like the Transcendental power gained from killing ghouls is a bit low.” Sidlipha commented.

“First, the experience points, or Transcendental power, gained through killing has natural decay.” Asker explained. “Second, if the opponent’s Sequence is very different from yours, there will be a difference loss.”

“For undead like ghouls, assuming their Transcendental power is 100%, then Peggy, as an undead Transcendental, can absorb about 14% of it, while others can only absorb single digits at most.”

“The easiest way to gain Transcendental power is still like the Frankish knights we fought last time. They’ve never taken any potions, their levels are all 0, but they have accumulated a large amount of pure Transcendental power in their bodies.”

“Considering only natural decay, this kind of Transcendental power without characteristics can achieve a 20% absorption rate.”

“According to what you said, fighting supernatural creatures is not cost-effective.” Eleanor pondered for a moment and said, “No, fighting supernatural creatures should be for the purpose of obtaining transcendental materials.”

“That’s right.” Asker agreed. “If you want transcendental materials, go to dungeons, do archaeology, explore ruins, and fight supernatural creatures; if you want to improve your attributes, become a mercenary, go to the battlefield, and fight humans like you and me.”

“What are the transcendental materials of these ghouls?” Peggy asked.

“Mutated pituitary glands.” Asker said, “But they’re useless to us, ghoul pituitary glands are potion materials for the Undead Sequence. We can just sell them to the Night’s Watch.”

“Then I’ll go and negotiate with them later.” Nuo said.

The members of the Azure Longsword mercenary group were chatting and discussing, while the Night’s Watch stood far away, keeping their distance from the mercenaries and the ghoul corpses.

This was clearly showing their attitude, indicating that the Night’s Watch wouldn’t touch the harvesting of materials from the ghouls, they belonged to Azure Longsword.

“Don’t worry, the boss seems to be coming.” Asker looked at the distant hill and didn’t speak.

The girls followed his gaze. That direction was where the ghoul horde had come from earlier.

“That is?” Eleanor suddenly noticed a faint shadow on the opposite high ground, seemingly walking towards them.

Miel immediately picked up her sniper rifle and, observing through the high-magnification scope, warned:

“It’s a knight, a… strange knight.”

The Night’s Watch knights on the opposite side, seeing that Azure Longsword was looking into the distance, couldn’t help but look over there as well. With this glance, they immediately noticed the shadow.

“It’s a Black Knight!”

If they encountered a Black Knight in the wild, the first thing to do was to shoot. This had become a creed in the strictly trained Night’s Watch organization.

Four crimson rays instantly shot towards the Black Knight a few hundred meters away.

They missed.

The Black Knight on the hill simply rolled and dodged the four laser attacks simultaneously, then charged towards them at high speed.

“Tactical dispersion!” Quasimodo roared, rapidly firing towards the Black Knight. “Hey, mercenary leader over there! Tell your melee warriors to stay away and provide fire support!”

“Wait, why should our melee fighters stay away?!” Sidlipha protested.

“He just thinks you can’t beat the Black Knight.” Asker said.

Sidlipha fell silent.

She wanted to say “How do you know if we haven’t fought it,” but the Black Knight’s fierce reputation, even in the North, was enough to make a three-year-old child stop crying.

No fear, no fatigue, clad in impenetrable heavy armor (or even powered armor, which was even worse), possessing all the martial arts experience from their previous life, filled with instinctive hatred for the living, they were undead monsters who only knew how to kill, almost every appearance resulting in the slaughter of villages and towns.

Fortunately, we have the Night’s Watch knights and the captain here… she thought to herself, glancing at the people around her.

“When the boss gets close, everyone get ready to listen to my command.” Asker said in the channel. “Keep the channel clear!”

“Understood!” The girls responded in unison.

So only the shouts of the Night’s Watch knights, the muffled explosions of laser rifles burning the air, and the sound of used batteries being ejected from the chambers remained on the field.

Everyone held their breath, watching the shadow in the distance rapidly approach.

As the shadow gradually drew closer, they could see that it was a knight in powered armor.

The powered armor was covered in rust, and some of the exoskeleton was damaged and twisted. The helmet was covered with moss, and there was a small flower on top, trembling in the wind.

However, no one dared to laugh at this Black Knight, because he ran towards them at high speed, jumping and rolling to dodge most of the Night’s Watch knights’ shots.

Even after more than a thousand years, the single-phase nuclear fusion battery of this powered armor was still supplying power, and the deceased inside still possessed the martial arts and military literacy of their previous life.

This was terrifying. It was like facing a powered armor knight in their prime, and the opponent also had the characteristics of the undead, without the weakness of vital points.

Even if they were directly hit in the brain or heart, they wouldn’t die immediately.

The Night’s Watch knights’ tactic against the Black Knight was very simple: keep their distance, shoot until it died.

The Black Knight had already charged within 50 meters, and they could almost smell the faint stench of decay mixed with earth. The two shotgun knights immediately joined the firing line.

Gunfire roared, thunder boomed, and dense shotgun pellets shot towards the Black Knight.

The latter simply raised the shield on his left arm and blocked all the shotgun pellets effortlessly. He continued to charge forward, his right-hand sword making a feint slash.

“Dodge!” Asker suddenly shouted a warning.

The girls were well-trained. Hearing Asker’s sudden order, they immediately jumped back without thinking. The Night’s Watch knights, however, didn’t react, still steadily retreating and firing.

The next second, Knight Langres fell backwards, the flamethrower in his hand split in two, black military-grade fuel spilling all over the ground.

How could there be two Black Knights? Everyone’s eyes widened, and they saw a Black Knight with a sword and shield still charging towards them.

The other Black Knight was standing in front of Langres, splashed with fuel from the split flamethrower, then his figure dissipated in the air.

“What the hell was that!” Knight Lorant roared, aiming his shotgun at the Black Knight and firing fiercely.

The latter raised his shield to block the bullets, his right-hand sword slashing again.

Learning from the previous experience, this time, without Asker’s reminder, all the girls and the Night’s Watch knights quickly dodged.

Then they saw a figure rush out from the Black Knight, another Black Knight with exactly the same appearance, even the powered armor and sword and shield were identical.

This figure was even faster than the original, almost instantly reaching Peggy, his sword slashing down directly.

A gunshot rang out, and the Black Knight’s sword-wielding arm was instantly broken and sent flying.

Peggy looked up incredulously and saw that it was Asker in the distance who had drawn his gun in a split second and blocked the fatal attack with an elephant hunting bullet, shattering the Black Knight’s phantom at the same time.

“That was…” she said in a trance, her voice trembling.

“Supernatural sword technique – Phantom Sword.” Asker sighed. “Everyone, retreat. This boss… is not something you can face head-on.”

The girls hurriedly retreated. Asker continued in the channel:

“Sidlipha, give me your axe.”

“Medea, Desire manipulation, target me.”

“Thira, cast Levitate on me.”

A series of commands were issued, and the girls acted like a well-oiled machine. Sidlipha threw her battle axe over, and Asker reached out and caught it, feeling the Levitate spell taking effect on him – the air pressure was canceling out his own gravity.

In the distance, the Black Knight, influenced by Desire manipulation, had locked onto Asker as his target.

“I’ll only demonstrate the following techniques once, without explanation.” Asker, holding a sword in his right hand and an axe in his left hand, calmly faced the Black Knight, and said to the girls in the channel, “It’s mainly to let you experience what professional-level combat is like.”

The Black Knight slashed out again, a phantom separating from his body, charging and thrusting with his sword.

Asker lowered his body slightly and suddenly disappeared from his spot.

Ilania assassin technique, Flash Step.

“So fast!” Peggy and Mia exclaimed at the same time.

As agility-based warriors, they naturally knew what this scene meant – Asker’s burst speed was much faster than their full speed.

The Black Knight phantom changed his thrust to a slash mid-charge, his sword slashing towards the approaching figure.

Asker, charging forward at high speed, had already bent down and flipped. With a flash of sword light, it was impossible to see what move it was, but the phantom had already been split in two.

In less than two seconds, Asker had covered a distance of 20 meters, instantly approaching the Black Knight’s main body.

“Careful!” The Night’s Watch knights shouted, because the Black Knight had already swung his shield, smashing it forward.

With Asker’s current high-speed charge, if he was hit head-on by this shield bash, it was possible for his skull to be crushed on the spot.

The shield smashed down, colliding like a mountain. Asker’s figure suddenly stopped in front of the shield, as if ignoring inertia, then he jumped back and leaped up like lightning, his battle axe slashing at the shield.

Ilania assassin technique, Two-Stage Counter-Charge.

With a “crack,” the inner edge of the battle axe caught the upper edge of the shield. Asker had already used the force to spin and fly up, delivering an extremely fast thrust in mid-air!

Caucasian assassination technique, Shadow Hawk’s Prey!

The Black Knight quickly tilted his head to dodge, but the sword strangely shifted its angle at the same time, still stabbing straight at the Black Knight’s armored helmet.

Celestial Ninefold Strike, First Form, Sharp Break. Ignoring any blocks or dodges, guaranteed to hit.

The moment the sword was about to pierce the armored helmet, the blade suddenly vibrated with a hum. This strange vibration was maintained at a tiny amplitude, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, only a faint sword hum could be heard.

However, under this vibrating thrust, the seemingly hard steel of the powered armor helmet became like paper, easily pierced by the sword, which went straight through the Black Knight’s head and out the other side.

Celestial Ninefold Strike, Second Form, Heavy Break. Piercing through all physical defenses.

Although a sword was stuck in his forehead, the Black Knight, being undead, didn’t die. He just swung his shield furiously and violently.

Asker in the air kicked off his shield, landed, rolled five or six steps away, and then threw a flying axe.

Norman axe throwing technique.

The battle axe whirled and spun in the air, hitting the Black Knight’s helmet – where it had been pierced by the sword, fine cracks had already appeared, and they instantly shattered under the axe’s blow.

Steel fragments exploded and scattered, revealing the undead’s head underneath. His hair was scorched, his skin was shriveled, and his nose was completely rotted away, leaving only two bare holes.

“Spear!” Asker shouted.

Before anyone else could react, Eleanor had already stepped forward and thrown the adamantine spear in her hand forcefully.

Asker dodged the Black Knight’s slash, caught the spear falling from the sky, twisted his waist, rotated his arms, and performed a perfect Iron Cutter.

The spear tip hit the Black Knight’s shriveled head from the side, like a long stick hitting a watermelon, smashing the Black Knight’s head.

Chapter 6: Please Make a Mistake

“The ghouls on that high ground have been dealt with.” Jalevin looked at the high ground where Peggy and the others were and saw Thira and Medea working together to kill the last ghoul.

He turned around and asked the Knight Commander for instructions, “These ghouls… should we intervene?”

Quasimodo fell silent. Usually, he wouldn’t hesitate to order the knights to go up and eliminate them.

However, this time, the original tactical plan had failed. The ghoul horde, for some unknown reason, went crazy and turned to attack the mercenaries following behind them.

(This Knight Commander didn’t know that the ghouls’ change of direction was due to Medea’s use of Desire manipulation.)

Normally, these mercenaries would be surrounded and devoured by the ghouls, so the Night’s Watch knights would naturally have no psychological burden to directly take revenge for the mercenaries.

After all, participating in an undead anomaly, casualties among mercenaries were inevitable. It wasn’t the Night’s Watch’s duty to protect them.

However, this small mercenary group not only didn’t suffer any casualties, but also single-handedly eliminated most of the ghouls.

The remaining ghouls were even rounded up by them and used for training the two melee warriors.

The other party was clearly handling the situation with ease. If the Night’s Watch knights, who hadn’t contributed much, were to forcefully intervene, it would be blatantly stealing monsters and disrupting things.

Stealing monsters… Quasimodo looked up speechlessly. As elite Night’s Watch knights, they were always the ones who personally killed the undead and saved humanity from danger.

When did they stoop to stealing monsters from outside mercenary groups? When did these mercenaries become so strong? Are you all monsters?

“Let’s watch for now.” After a long silence, Quasimodo could only say awkwardly.

As members of the Night’s Watch, it was their duty to eliminate the undead in front of them; however, their dignity as elite members of the Night’s Watch prevented them from doing such a despicable thing as stealing monsters.

Then what to do? They could only watch from the side!

“Watch what?” Knight Lorant, who was not good at reading between the lines, asked directly, puzzled.

Quasimodo sighed and said:

“See if they make any mistakes. If they do, we’ll step in and kill these ghouls.”

Oh, oh, oh, oh, the Night’s Watch knights suddenly realized.

After all, it was actual combat training. If they made any mistakes, the Night’s Watch knights would step in to save them and kill the ghouls by the way, which would be perfectly justifiable.

Ten minutes later.

The Night’s Watch knights, holding laser rifles, shotguns, and flamethrowers, stared boredly at Eleanor, who was still fighting the ghouls.

Make a mistake quickly! Why haven’t you made a mistake yet! This is so frustrating!

“I smashed it to death! Asker!” Sidlipha shouted.

Asker fired his pistol lazily, luring another ghoul over for Sidlipha to practice with.

“Why don’t I also fire a shot and lure these ghouls over.” Knight Roger said with a wry smile on the communication channel. “Then we pretend to be defending ourselves and quickly eliminate these ghouls.”

“Then how do you explain firing your gun?” Quasimodo sighed and asked.

“Well, an accidental discharge?”

“As an elite Night’s Watch knight, you accidentally discharged your gun?” Quasimodo asked rhetorically. “Don’t you think an accidental discharge is even more embarrassing?”

Knight Roger was speechless.

After another 5 minutes, Knight Roger couldn’t help but say again:

“I have another idea: I’ll get closer as if I’m watching, and lure the ghouls over.”

“That might work.” Quasimodo nodded. Getting too close and attracting the ghouls was indeed an acceptable reason.

After all, ghouls, as undead monsters, didn’t have uniform abilities. It was plausible to say that they had misjudged the detection range of this ghoul.

So Knight Roger quietly moved forward, pretending to want to observe carefully, and got closer to the ghouls.

As a result, Eleanor used a Two-Stage Thrust and led the ghouls in the opposite direction.

Knight Roger was dumbfounded and hurriedly took a few more steps forward.

Then Eleanor, with her back to him, used another 360-degree Iron Cutter, sending the ghouls even further away.

Roger gritted his teeth and simply ran forward.

“Knight, please stop!” Eleanor could only shout a warning. “Be careful, these ghouls might turn and attack you!”

That’s exactly what I want them to do! Knight Roger was tearful.

Since the other party had said so, if he continued to move forward, it would be obvious that he was trying to cause trouble.

Knight Roger could only stop awkwardly and look back for help.

The Night’s Watch knights behind him all facepalmed, their expressions full of speechless frustration.

“I think it’s better to just be upfront.” Knight Jalevin suggested. “Tell them that our Night’s Watch creed is to eliminate the undead, and we can’t leave before these ghouls are completely put to rest.”

“No!” Knight Commander Quasimodo immediately vetoed. “That’s right, the Night’s Watch creed is to eliminate the undead. Then let me ask you, who eliminated most of these ghouls? Was it us, the Night’s Watch knights?”

“As members of the Night’s Watch, we didn’t play a major role in this battle. The other party defeated most of the ghouls, and we still have to ask them to leave the remaining stragglers for us. Who are the Night’s Watch knights? Who are the mercenaries picking up scraps?”

“No matter what you think, I, Quasimodo, can’t lose face like this! Whoever dares to speak up is insulting the honor of our Morningstar Third Squad!”

Knight Jalevin turned his head speechlessly. Was this really the Night’s Watch knights’ problem? These outside mercenaries were very strong, okay? It was because you, Knight Commander, misjudged them at the beginning that we are in such an awkward situation!

Everyone present naturally understood that it was just because Quasimodo had talked tough and acted arrogantly at the beginning, belittling the other party as worthless.

As a result, the other party didn’t bother to argue with him, but just casually showed their hand and killed the ghouls before the Night’s Watch knights.

This made Quasimodo’s previous contempt and mockery seem like arrogant nonsense.

Now, if they were to communicate with the other party as equals, the other Night’s Watch knights would be fine, but the Knight Commander was really afraid that the other party wouldn’t give him face.

If the other party just chuckled and casually said “You fought well too,” with Quasimodo’s arrogant personality, he might turn around and jump into the sea to commit suicide on the spot.

Sigh. Jalevin sighed and turned to see the other mercenary girls who had been holding the high ground walking over, talking and laughing.

It seemed that they could only take an indirect approach.

Knight Jalevin, calmly, scanned the faces of each of the mercenary girls.

The red-haired beauty seemed a bit scheming, skip.

The masked mysterious girl, disguising her face means she doesn’t want to interact with people, skip.

Two underage girls, I’m most afraid of dealing with brats, skip.

The beautiful Eastern girl, she looks a bit fierce? Skip for now.

The young lady with brown curly hair, this equipment… she should be a nun, right? She might be easier to talk to.

So Jalevin set his sights on Nuo, walked over, and said with a hearty smile:

“Hello everyone, excuse me.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Nuo asked softly and politely, seeing that the other party was talking to her.

“It’s like this…” Knight Jalevin explained the whole story and finally requested, “…So, I still hope you can help relay the message to your captain. After all, these are real undead monsters. Even if it’s just used as practical training, it’s still quite dangerous for you.”

The girls looked at each other. They didn’t expect Asker to actually use the ghoul horde as target practice for Eleanor and Sidlipha. Judging from Jalevin’s tone, this seemed to be a headache for the Night’s Watch knights as well.

“Heh.” Before Nuo could speak, Peggy sneered with a “I knew this would happen” expression. “Aren’t you Night’s Watch knights all elites? How could you let so many ghouls get to the rear? It’s not very nice to wait until we’ve killed most of the undead before coming out to take advantage, is it?”

This… Jalevin was tearful. Knight Commander, why do I have to bear these taunts and mockery for the grudges you’ve made?

“Oh, don’t say that, Sister Peggy.” Mia also smiled, her eyes narrowed. This little girl also held grudges. “That knight who brought us in said that it’s the nature of hyenas to follow behind lions and scavenge for food, they can’t be driven away.”

“Okay, both of you, stop talking.” Nuo frowned and scolded, which eased Jalevin’s embarrassed expression.

“This matter is our Night’s Watch’s fault.” Jalevin said sincerely. “I apologize to you on behalf of the Knight Commander for his unintentional words earlier. However, after all, the undead monsters in this area haven’t been completely eliminated yet, we still need to cooperate.”

“Yes.” Nuo nodded and said, “I’ll talk to Asker.”

“That’s great.” Jalevin breathed a sigh of relief, feeling inexplicably moved.

This nun was so kind! She was so understanding!

On the radio channel, after Nuo relayed Jalevin’s words, Asker agreed:

“Okay. Sidlipha, quickly kill the ghoul you’re dealing with and then go support Eleanor. We’re ending the training.”

“What, I haven’t had enough yet.” Sidlipha complained, but she killed the ghoul with an axe blow.

Then she ran towards Eleanor. There were now less than ten ghouls left, still stubbornly and futilely besieging the knight lady.

The spear pierced the head of the last ghoul, and Eleanor breathed a sigh of relief, pulling the spear tip out of the half-rotten corpse.

“I feel like I haven’t practiced enough yet.” She said to Asker on the channel. “Whether it’s positioning or target selection, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Can we add extra practice for this to our usual training plan?”

“No way, you can only practice through actual combat.” Asker replied.

If they were offline, professional clubs would have their own simulation programs (similar to private servers), where you could spawn countless monsters with the press of a button, which was very convenient.

However, in this world, they could only run more dungeons.

After all, the cultivation of positioning and target selection awareness had to be done under the extreme pressure of one against many. In a one-on-one duel, there was too much room for positioning, and it wouldn’t achieve the desired effect of improvement.

“Take a quick break, we’re preparing to fight the boss.” Asker called the girls together and said.

“Ah, there’s also a boss?” The girls exclaimed.

“Of course there’s a boss after clearing the mobs!” Asker said strangely.

Seeing that the ghouls had been almost completely eliminated, the Night’s Watch knights also breathed a sigh of relief.

This meant that the undead in this area had been cleared, and the Morningstar Third Squad could return to base.

Although they hadn’t contributed much, they hadn’t suffered any casualties, which was great.

Chapter 5: From Combat to Training

Arcane Mage.

As a transcendental profession originating in the Macedonian kingdom of the Second Age, it was famous for its immense destructive power.

The Arcane Sequence had five classic sequences: Fire, Frost, Storm, Meteor, and Thunder.

In essence, Fire manipulated high temperatures, Frost manipulated low temperatures, Storm manipulated air pressure, Meteor manipulated gravity, and Thunder manipulated electromagnetism.

Hailing from the court of the Eastern Solomon Empire, which followed the Orthodox Church, Thira, although lacking in practical experience, had no problems with theoretical knowledge and naturally knew how to utilize the power of the Storm Sequence.

She made a pistol gesture with her right hand in the air. In the spherical area about 1 centimeter in radius in front of her index finger, under the effect of supernatural power and spirituality, the internal air pressure was rapidly being extracted.

This created a pressure difference between the inside and outside. The outside air, under natural atmospheric pressure, instantly rushed in.

In less than 0.1 seconds, this “bullet” composed of a large amount of highly compressed air was quietly suspended in front of Thira’s right index fingertip.

She aimed at one of the ghouls and simultaneously erased the air pressure in front of the bullet.

The air bullet instantly shot out. The moment it entered the ghoul’s body, it was invaded by the supernatural power within the undead, and the “formula” maintaining the ultra-low air pressure inside the bullet immediately collapsed.

The highly compressed air bullet, almost solidified, exploded the moment the formula collapsed.

As if a grenade had been stuffed inside, the ghoul’s entire chest was blown to pieces, making a loud noise like a gas tank exploding.

“Whoa.” Medea, whose attention was drawn by the loud noise, asked in the channel, “Is that also an ability of the Storm Sequence?”

“Yes.” Thira said calmly. “Using the pressure of the sudden expansion of air, it’s actually the same principle as the firing of a gunpowder firearm.”

“Oh, an air bullet.” Medea immediately guessed the principle of her ability and said with a smile, “In that case, I’ll use my Desire ability to lure a few more ghouls to your side, do you mind?”

“Bring it on.” Thira said indifferently.

In an instant, she seemed to regain the feeling of sitting on the ivory throne, her mind extremely calm, yet her blood boiling.

Because this time, she wasn’t surrounded by her scheming elder sister, her respectful yet calculating ministers and guards, and the endless intrigues, conspiracies, and probes.

Instead, it was an intense and exciting battlefield, with intertwined steel, flames, and flesh, and… trustworthy companions fighting side by side.

She spread her ten fingers, and a highly compressed air bullet condensed at the tip of each finger.

“Come on, monsters.” She stared at the ghouls climbing up below and said coldly.

On the high ground a few hundred meters away, the Night’s Watch knights were surprised to find that in the few seconds of the battle, these mercenaries didn’t immediately collapse.

Instead, they fought alone, outnumbered but strong, stubbornly surviving among the ghoul horde.

“Everyone, go immediately! Flying geese formation, flamethrowers in front, shotguns follow, laser rifles at the rear, Go! Go! Go!” Quasimodo made a decisive decision and quickly changed his command.

Since these outside mercenaries could hold on, there was no point in holding the high ground anymore. The ghouls wouldn’t turn back before defeating these mercenaries.

It was better to take advantage of the situation and attack from both sides.

The Night’s Watch knights quickly rushed towards them. On the other side, Asker and the two girls had broken out of the encirclement. He switched to his Desert Eagle in his left hand and fired three shots in a row.

Triple shot.

Wherever the bullets passed, the ghouls were knocked down.

“Fan shot! No, it’s an armor-piercing fan shot!” The approaching Night’s Watch knight shouted.

The so-called fan shot was firing continuously while swinging the arm, the trajectory fanning out.

If it was an armor-piercing bullet, then each trajectory would penetrate all enemies in a straight line, causing damage and rigidity to a large number of enemies.

For the Night’s Watch knights, the armor-piercing fan shot was a very practical technique because their powered armor could withstand the recoil of firing armor-piercing bullets consecutively.

The fact that Asker could perform an armor-piercing fan shot with his flesh arm could only mean that his physical strength had reached a certain level.

“Such strength, compared to using firearms, would probably be even more terrifying when wielding swords…” Quasimodo couldn’t help but think.

As if to confirm his thoughts, the next second, Asker put away his pistol and turned to take the spear from Eleanor’s hand.

“Comrades, the more outnumbered you are, the more you must pay attention to controlling your positioning!” Asker said earnestly, stepping forward with his spear in one hand. “Watch carefully.”

Eleanor and Sidlipha looked closely and realized that the ghouls that were chasing them before, those in front knocked down by Asker’s fan shot, were now getting up.

The ghouls behind them, who hadn’t been hit, were pouncing forward with their claws and teeth bared.

The ghouls that caught up collided with the ghouls that were getting up, instantly causing a chaotic “traffic accident.”

Moreover, because they had been knocked down by a fan shot and had just gotten up, these ghouls, colliding and entangled with each other, were now in a fan-shaped formation.

“This is… Iron Cutter!” Eleanor suddenly exclaimed as if she had been enlightened.

As she blurted out, Asker had already charged forward a few steps, the spear in his hand swinging out a swift semicircle like a storm!

Iron Cutter!

The position where Asker swung his spear was exactly the center point of the ghouls’ fan-shaped formation. Therefore, this perfectly positioned Iron Cutter instantly knocked down more than ten ghouls.

Where the spear blade passed, severed limbs flew.

The next second, Asker charged forward again, breaking through the center of the front line of the ghoul horde, a sharp thrust with his spear.

The ghoul in front hurriedly jumped up, trying to dodge the thrust, but the spear tip followed it upwards, Dragon Spear!

The Dragon Spear lifted the ghoul into the air. Asker had already turned, his spear swinging sharply to the right, throwing the ghoul on his spear out.

So all the ghouls on the right were knocked down by this “cannonball.” Asker continued to spin, instantly turning 270 degrees, the spear blade returning to the left.

Then, Spiral Thrust!

To be precise, it was Charge + Spiral Thrust, the professional spear technique known as “Two-Stage Thrust” that was highly praised by players.

The high-speed charge, coupled with the unique deflecting effect of Spiral Thrust, instantly caused the ghouls in a straight line on the left to be either knocked down by Asker’s charge or sent flying five or six meters away. The scene was both magnificent and shocking, making one’s blood boil.

Eleanor and Sidlipha held their breath in excitement, only one word left in their minds:

Unstoppable!

“When attacking, you have to consider how to control and kill the most enemies with the shortest route.” Asker said as his charge came to a smooth stop.

The ghouls around him who could still move immediately charged forward fearlessly. His face, however, showed no fear. He just said calmly:

“At the same time, you also have to consider your position and the enemy’s relative position after the move ends, and how you should move and attack next.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he swung his spear again and used Iron Cutter.

This time, the Iron Cutter swung a full 360 degrees, sending all the surrounding ghouls flying.

Then came another Two-Stage Thrust, knocking away the ghouls blocking his way in front.

“First, use Iron Cutter to damage and repel all enemies around you. Then, Two-Stage Thrust, adding Spiral Thrust during the charge, knocking away enemies blocking the path in a straight line and repositioning yourself, then use Iron Cutter again.”

“Repeating this attack, because they are all skills that repel enemies around you, you can remain unharmed throughout the process. It’s called a ‘brainless tactic’ by spear technique players.” Asker charged all the way back to Eleanor and Sidlipha and said.

“Although it’s indeed a bit brainless, it can help you practice positioning and target selection.”

“With perfect positioning, your Two-Stage Thrust will be very smooth; with excellent target selection, your Iron Cutter can hit more ghouls.”

He handed the spear back to Eleanor and pointed at the ghouls pouncing towards them with their claws and teeth bared.

“Practice with this routine I taught you. It’s rare to encounter so many and such stupid meatbags like this.”

“Okay!” Eleanor said with a serious expression, grabbing the spear and charging towards the ghouls.

“What about me? What about me?” Sidlipha asked hurriedly, ignoring her previous embarrassing defeat, grabbing Asker’s arm and shaking it.

“Your problem is that your attacks are too fierce, and you lack variation in your moves.” Asker took out his Aphrodite and casually shot a ghoul, attracting its aggro.

“Just practice with this one, only use the blunt side of your axe to attack, and don’t hit its limbs, torso, or neck, only its head.” Asker lured the ghoul over and dodged all its consecutive pounces with a few light back hops.

“Okay.” Sidlipha said with some disappointment and started to deal with the ghoul.

As a result, when the Night’s Watch knights arrived, they saw Eleanor alone, wielding her spear and moving freely among the ghouls, without any signs of distress.

On the other side, Sidlipha was gritting her teeth, hitting the ghoul’s head with the back of her axe.

Occasionally, a ghoul would break away from Eleanor’s side and try to attack the two here, and Asker would charge out with his sword.

A Wing Beat, sending the ghoul flying straight up, then rapid pistol fire, knocking the airborne ghoul away, back to Eleanor’s side.

“This… seems like training?” Roger said uncertainly.

The Night’s Watch knights were speechless.

Using ghouls for training rookie squires was commonplace in the Night’s Watch. However, they were basically all deactivated, half-dead ghouls, and there were dedicated senior knights supervising in a professional arena.

As for directly using a live ghoul horde for practical training, the risk was too high. In the Third Age, the ancient Night’s Watch still retained the custom of practical training, but later, because of the excessive casualty rate, it was abolished in the early Fourth Age.

This small mercenary group called “Azure Longsword” actually dared to use an intact ghoul horde for practical training? Weren’t they afraid that a mistake in battle would lead to death on the spot?

Chapter 4: The Siege

Knight Commander Quasimodo had deployed the classic “Eagle Wing” tactic.

Most of the knights were distributed on the high ground on both flanks. If the ghouls wanted to attack, they could only charge uphill, and they would inevitably be slowed down due to the slope.

On each high ground, there was a knight armed with a shotgun. This powerful close-range firearm could easily knock the slowed-down ghouls down the hill.

Laser rifles were the main source of damage, cauterizing the flesh wounds with high temperatures, accelerating the ghouls’ blood loss and death.

Since the high ground was difficult to attack, the ghouls, with their basic hunting instincts, would naturally choose the central pass between the two high grounds as their first breakthrough point, which was where Knight Langres was guarding.

Although he seemed isolated and alone, Langres possessed the team’s most powerful heavy weapon – a flamethrower. The ultra-high temperature flames generated by the military-grade fuel could quickly burn any target within a three-meter radius in front of him.

Ghouls, who were naturally afraid of fire, were completely countered by this weapon.

Therefore, whether it was the “eagle wings” where the high ground was located or the “eagle beak” where the flamethrower was located, it was not easy to break through.

If nothing unexpected happened, these ghouls should first be killed by the flamethrower, then forced to turn and attack the high ground on both flanks, losing a large number of their forces during the climb, and finally be annihilated or flee.

This was the ideal scenario.

Of course, considering the huge disparity in numbers between the enemy and themselves, casualties were still possible.

If hundreds of ghouls charged the high ground together, no matter how powerful the shotgun was, it couldn’t knock them all down. A rotary machine gun might have a chance.

However, something unexpected happened right from the start… The ghouls didn’t rush towards the central pass guarded by Langres as Quasimodo had expected, but instead took a large arc and charged towards the edge of the high ground on the right.

Quasimodo hurriedly looked over there and was instantly shocked – he saw two mercenary girls running desperately, and the ghouls were chasing closely behind them, the distance between the two sides rapidly closing.

“Lorant, Roger! Overdrive and intercept!” The Knight Commander made a decisive decision and quickly ordered the right high ground to increase their firepower.

Overdrive was a mode that increased the firing rate for a short period of time at the cost of accelerating the lifespan depletion of the laser rifle.

With the sudden increase in firing rate, more than a dozen ghouls couldn’t withstand the attack from the side and turned to pounce on the right high ground.

However, for the ghoul horde chasing the two mercenary girls, this was only a negligible loss of troops.

“Asker!! I will not let you off even if I become a ghost!!!!” Medea’s angry scream echoed explosively in the mental channel. Because the ghouls in front had almost caught up, Medea could even smell the disgusting stench of corpses behind her.

“Don’t be afraid.” Asker replied, taking the sniper rifle from his back, the weapon he had obtained from hunting Von Kesim last time.

“Miel, alternating suppression, prepare.” Asker knelt on one knee, aiming his gun forward.

“Roger.” Miel replied from the tree.

Rhythmic gunshots began to ring out on the plain. Two sniper rifles, one in the tree and one below, fired accurately and steadily.

Whenever a ghoul was about to catch up to Medea and Thira, the next second it would be headshotted by a sniper rifle bullet, its body flying backwards in mid-air.

“Quasimodo, am I seeing things? That’s alternating suppression!” Watching the scene on the plain ahead, a Night’s Watch knight exclaimed in the channel.

Alternating suppression was a firing tactic used by gunman teams.

Because hitting a target would cause the enemy to enter a state of rigidity, their charge would be halted or even repelled.

Therefore, when a large number of enemies charged towards a gunman team, the gunmen needed to shoot the targets from near to far in turn, creating rigidity rhythmically to suppress the overall charge speed of the enemy and prevent them from getting close in a short time.

Although this tactic was simple to describe, it was very difficult to execute in practice.

The first problem was shooting accuracy. It was very challenging for a gunman’s reaction speed to judge which enemy was closest and quickly hit them in a short time.

The second problem was coordination. Alternating suppression required the coordinated shooting of multiple gunmen, but a situation that easily occurred was that two gunmen hit the same target almost simultaneously in a split second.

This was equivalent to wasting an opportunity to create rigidity. It was very challenging for the tacit understanding between gunmen to judge which target their companion was about to shoot and which target they should shoot.

And what the Night’s Watch knights saw at this time was such an incredible scene.

Ghouls, as undead, didn’t have vital points, so they weren’t easily killed with a single shot from a sniper rifle.

However, their attack method was pouncing, and they would briefly leap into the air during the process.

If they were shot by a sniper rifle while in the air, their entire bodies would be blown away.

The ghoul horde instantly caught up to the two running girls. The closest one kicked off the ground with its hind legs and pounced viciously at the girls’ backs.

At the moment it left the ground, its charging figure suddenly froze and then flew backward strangely.

The second ghoul leaped over its body from below, roaring ferociously and pouncing forward.

Then it was headshotted again, flying backwards and falling to the ground.

This strange scene repeated itself continuously, with countless ghouls leaping forward one after another, not even touching the corners of the two girls’ clothes before flying back one after another.

What really made the ghouls perform such exaggerated “acrobatic feats” were the two sniper rifles from the distant hill, firing two almost perfect alternating suppression trajectories.

They never fired at the same time, nor did they hit the same ghoul, they just steadily suppressed the ghouls’ charge, preventing them from pouncing on the two fleeing girls.

“Bravo!” Seeing three ghouls pounce simultaneously, then be shot down by sniper rifles one after another in mid-air, even Jalevin, the calmest member of the team, couldn’t help but cheer. “That’s amazing!”

“I’ve never seen such perfect alternating suppression!” Other knights also commented.

“Their gunmen are definitely professional level!”

“Quasimodo!” The hot-tempered Lorant shouted again. “Are you sure we’re just going to watch here? Such professional mercenary gunmen should be brought over to fight alongside us! It’s a pity for them to die at the hands of ghouls!”

“It’s too late to go over there now.” Quasimodo sighed. It would take at least 20 seconds to rush over there, enough time for the ghouls to tear these mercenaries to pieces.

“Everyone, hold your positions, laser rifles continue long-range fire, try to eliminate as many ghouls as possible before they die.” Regrettable as it was, his professionalism still made Quasimodo make the most rational decision.

Four laser rifles roared simultaneously, crimson rays burning through the air, scorching the ghouls’ decaying bodies.

In pain, these ghouls became even more twisted and frenzied, scrambling to pounce on the two fleeing girls ahead.

Finally reaching the edge of the bottom of the high ground, Thira and Medea were already out of breath. Eleanor passed the exhausted two, swung her shield violently, and directly smashed the ghoul at the front.

Her right hand thrust out like a dragon, piercing the abdomen of another ghoul.

Dragon Spear!

The spear lifted the ghoul entirely. The ghoul waved its claws in the air, still unable to break free from being impaled.

The next second, it was thrown out by the spear, like a huge cannonball, smashing all the ghouls in a straight line behind it.

At the top of the tree above the high ground, Miel quickly switched her Slaughter-III to assault mode. The muzzle began to rattle, firing at the ghoul horde rushing towards Eleanor.

Although the bullets didn’t do much damage to the undead, they could put them into a state of rigidity, preventing Eleanor from being surrounded by these monsters.

Eleanor held her shield horizontally in front of her chest with her left hand, blocking the ghouls’ scratches and pounces. She pulled her spear to her left side with her right hand and twisted her waist, suddenly exerting force.

Iron Cutter!

This Iron Cutter swung a full 270 degrees, sending all the ghouls around her flying.

Sidlipha next to her immediately charged forward with her axe, Whirlwind Slash!

The ghouls sent flying by the Iron Cutter crashed head-on into Sidlipha’s axe storm, instantly being torn apart.

On the other side of the high ground, out of sight of the Night’s Watch knights, Mia teleported Thira and Medea into Furnace Island, and then teleported them out again, just like a transport unit in StarCraft loading up troops at the bottom of the high ground and then instantly dropping them onto the high ground.

“Where’s that Asker!” As soon as she got to the high ground, Medea started waving her claws like a ghoul, wishing she could tear Asker to pieces.

“He jumped off the high ground!” Mia hurriedly replied.

“What?” Medea and Thira were both shocked.

Eleanor and Sidlipha were at the bottom of the high ground because one was equipped with magic copper armor and the other with meteorite armor, so they could withstand the ghouls’ claws that could tear through steel.

Asker was only wearing chainmail, how dare he just rush into the battlefield like that?

“Is he crazy? He actually charged down there like that!” Before Medea could speak, Thira, ignoring her panting, shouted in panic, “If he’s killed, what will happen to our team?!”

“No way, how could Asker die?” Mia subconsciously denied. “Even if our entire team is wiped out, he will definitely be the last one alive!”

Thira didn’t waste her breath with her, but quickly rushed to the edge of the high ground. She saw Asker with one hand on his sword, rushing towards Eleanor and Sidlipha.

Several ghouls quickly surrounded him, ferocious as wolves surrounding a lone antelope.

Then the antelope in the center turned into a lion.

Drawing Slash! A crescent-shaped cold light flashed, and all the ghouls pouncing in the air were sent flying backwards. Asker swung his sword with his right hand and pulled the trigger of his Aphrodite with his left hand, bullets firing rapidly.

The ghouls hit by the bullets were pushed even further by the force, almost flying more than ten meters away.

More ghouls pounced towards him. Asker quickly turned his body, dodging the ghoul’s claw attack, and at the same time, a Lion’s Fang struck its head.

The ghoul’s head was forced down by the blade. The next second, Asker had already stepped on its head, using the force to jump high into the air.

Leap!

He leaped in the air like a dragonfly skimming the water, using the shoulders and heads of countless ghouls as stepping stones, quickly approaching Eleanor’s position.

Whenever a ghoul tried to pounce on him, he would swing his sword downwards, effortlessly knocking it away.

“Whirlwind Slash, Spiral Thrust, break through at 3 o’clock.” Asker said quickly on the channel.

At this time, Eleanor and Sidlipha, with more ghouls arriving, were immediately at a disadvantage.

They could only stand back to back, dealing with the poisonous claws from all directions. Their armor was covered with white marks scratched by sharp nails, showing faint signs of corrosion.

If it weren’t for the protection of these high-level armors, their intestines would have been ripped out by now.

Hearing Asker’s command, the two immediately turned and charged without hesitation, breaking through in the 3 o’clock direction.

Thira stared blankly in that direction when someone suddenly pulled her up forcefully.

“Hurry up and help!” Mia shouted in her ear.

Thira was stunned for a moment before realizing that about forty ghouls had left the ranks besieging Asker and the others and started attacking the high ground here.

Peggy guarded the only gentle slope that could be charged with her sword, frantically moving and dodging within the narrow range of four or five steps, killing and repelling the approaching ghouls.

The remaining ghouls, some continued to charge the entrance of the gentle slope of the high ground, while others tried to climb up the cliff with their claws. Nuo and Miel were constantly firing, knocking them down one by one.

Thira took a deep breath, and the mithril circuit on her right arm began to glow.