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.
Leave a Reply