Chapter 177 : Further North

“What? He’s really stopping? Puhahaha!”

“Is she really his lover? This mongrel?”

“Can you laugh right now? You damn bastards! The situation is……!”

“Flute, who is the one who should be angry right now? When we went to the trouble of subduing him, yet you let him recover?”

“That was Rud…… Damn it!”

The dispute between the masked figures didn’t enter my eyes.

‘Lauel……. How did this happen? Damn it!’

I was just nervous that Lauel was being carried on the shoulder of a slightly smaller masked figure who appeared from behind, and my hands were trembling.

“Let’s see. You ate Rud and healed most of those wounds? The crumpled armor has mostly straightened out too. Even the severed iron chains……. As expected, there was a reason the Masters demanded you.”

I responded to the gaze scanning my whole body with a provocation.

“At your level, you guys are quite good food for the body. How about it? Care to have a go without hostages?”

It was a proposal that would usually work on a normal knight.

But certainly, the reaction of the Magic Knights was different.

“Why would we? With this easy method available?”

“Did the top-tier Magic Knights get cold feet? As expected of guys who sold their souls to demons, it seems you have no guts.”

At my added remark, the eyes of the masked figure carrying Lauel narrowed.

“……Arrogant, too. Well, with that skill at that age, you deserve to be. You’re also a bad match for us. However.”

Thwack.

The guy’s translucent sword suddenly stabbed the side of Lauel, whom he was carrying on his shoulder.

“Shouldn’t you watch your mouth?”

“This crazy……!!”

“Whoa, whoa. Stop right there, Black Knight. I’ll slice her right here, you know?”

I tried to rush in reflexively, but I had no choice but to stop at his subsequent sneer.

Squelch.

Even as the guy pulled out the sword, Lauel’s limp body only flinched and didn’t move further.

Blood began to gush out from her side.

“Here. If you leave your lover like this, she’ll die in a few hours, right? Will you be quietly subdued, or will you try to resist until you die together?”

“You should know from experience, right? We won’t be careless now. If you resist, you die anyway.”

The words added by the masked figure next to him weren’t wrong.

Whether the enemy was four or three, I could only hold out a bit longer; the tide of battle wouldn’t turn.

Of course, I would still have to fight to the end, but.

‘Lauel…….’

Seeing Lauel bleeding, I couldn’t put any strength into my hands.

But just then.

Lauel’s right finger, which had been hanging limply as if she were dead, showed a subtle movement.

A movement that anyone else would have ignored as a mere tremble.

But that was one of the hand signals she and I had created.

‘Create, an opening?’

That made the eyes inside my helmet shine.

“Ho. Your hesitation is getting long, isn’t it?”

The moment the narrow-eyed masked figure raised his sword again.

I threw my greatsword onto the ground right in front of my eyes.

Thud.

And watching the mana blade wrapped in red flames rapidly fade, I raised both hands.

“Fine. I surrender.”

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

“Flute.”

“Me?”

“It’s a situation you guys created.”

“……Damn it. Fine.”

Clang.

At that moment, the masked figure named Flute drew his sword.

Seeing the demonic energy burning like black flames on that sword, it seemed the ‘subduing’ they spoke of was completely different from simply tying me up and escorting me.

“I’m cutting off one arm. If you resist, from then on, it’s a battle to the death again.”

Clater-clatter.

As the guy approached, I saw the masked figures behind him drawing their swords again as well.

I could clearly feel their will to execute exactly what they said.

‘This guy, or that guy…….’

The Demon Cult bastards and these guys too, why are they all trying to capture me?

Anyway, if Lauel’s trick works, can I finish off one guy for sure?

Then, can I handle two guys while carrying the injured Lauel?

All sorts of complex thoughts flashed through my mind.

Paa-ang!

When Flute’s sword approached in an instant to slice my shoulder, I had to make a decision.

‘I can’t just let you get me easily.’

Koo-oom.

Double acceleration and Brute Strength.

As the now-familiar pattern for short-term decisive battles put heavy pressure on my body in an instant, I twisted my body following the grain of the incoming sword.

Kagagak.

In the slowed time, the shoulder armor wrapped in gray flames deflected the guy’s sword.

Of course, it was unavoidable that a significant part of the shoulder armor was shaved off in the process.

‘Kuh…….’

I had to endure it.

The moment I felt the eyes inside Flute’s mask widen.

I focused my mind on the ‘Blade’ that had already fallen from my hand.

‘Blade Explosion.’

Boom!!!!

“Cra…… zy……!”

Following my will, the fragments of the exploded blade poured down on the two guys, excluding the one holding Lauel.

Of course, even so.

Kagagagagang.

Moving at high speed even within the slowed time, the two guys struck away the fragments, so I couldn’t deal them a heavy blow.

But that was enough.

“You……!”

When the guy carrying Lauel threw her aside and rushed at me.

Thump.

I also started charging toward him.

At that moment.

Swish.

Lauel’s limp body moved as if she had been waiting.

As she fell from the masked figure’s shoulder, her hand tapped the Ghost’s Bow she was carrying on her back.

Following that touch, the bowstring spun around and hooked the masked figure’s neck as he was about to rush out.

At the same time, Lauel’s left hand, which seemed to be rolling on the ground, pulled the bow grip, and the arrow in her right hand, filled with blue light, aimed for the masked figure’s side.

At this, the masked figure glared with veins popping out on his neck.

He jerked his neck and waist back to release the bowstring and simultaneously moved as if sliding to dodge the arrow that was about to pierce his side.

“F*ck……!”

In the midst of that, his sword, bent in the opposite direction, was swung towards Lauel with rage.

It was truly amazing reflexes, but that was a fatal mistake.

Did he trust his colleagues? Or did he forget the situation in his anger?

His eyes, which seemed to have rolled back, overlooked the truly dangerous enemy charging in front of him.

‘I’m taking down just one!’

I ignored the translucent swords stabbing my back and side, focusing only on that masked figure.

Rattle.

The iron chains from my two hands curved left and right, reaching out to the guy and Lauel.

The iron chains shooting out from my feet added propulsion forward, not upward.

The result.

Kaa-boooooooom!

“Kkeuak!”

“Kueuuk!”

I flew tens of meters amidst the shock conveyed from front and back.

But even then, the iron chain wrapped around the rolling Lauel cushioned the impact on her, and conversely, the iron chain that snatched the masked figure, whose spine was crushed by my shoulder charge, tightened around its prey even more.

Kaa-ang!

Crack.

Kwa-bang!

My body flew, smashing tree trunks in succession.

The sword that pierced through my side left a shock that churned my insides, but fortunately, the sword strike aiming for my back only managed to scratch the armor.

But that wasn’t the end.

“You bastard!!!”

“Kill him!!”

The masked figures attacked my back like lightning even as I was bouncing away.

Crunch.

“Kkeuk!”

I responded by throwing their colleague, whose demonic energy had already been absorbed, at them.

When the demonic energy absorbed from the guy began to rapidly heal even the newly acquired injuries.

“Lauel! Run! To the territory……!”

Paa-ang.

The iron chain wrapped around Lauel threw her far away from the battlefield.

An action I could take because I confirmed she had her eyes open, despite her pale face and the blood flowing from her side.

But the price was high.

Puk.

“Keu-heok!”

Thwack.

Stab.

Stab.

As if they had clearly learned the characteristics of my armor from several clashes.

The masked figures’ attacks continued mainly with thrusts filled with demonic energy.

Those attacks were enough to pierce through my whole body, which was barely defending its vital points.

Rattle.

I glared at the two masked figures in succession with the iron chains spread in all directions, but.

“Hmph!”

“If we just don’t give you an opening to absorb!”

“Do you think you can be our opponent!”

There was no way to catch the masked figures moving acrobatically by kicking off the surrounding trees.

Woooong.

Even when I tried to gather the fragments of the ‘Blade’ again, their attacks, not allowing even that gap, cut off my breathing.

“Where!”

Kaa-ang!

Thanks to the demonic energy of the guy I consumed just before, I could treat the immediate wounds, but I wouldn’t be able to last long.

Naturally, despairing thoughts encroached on my mind.

‘Damn it…….’

But I was aware that even this current battle result was a miracle.

If the attackers were pure 6-Star knights rather than Magic Knights, I would have become a corpse long ago.

Paa-ang!

“Futile!”

Boom!

There were inevitable gaps in their movements as they tried hard not to touch my hands or iron chains at all, but.

Even that.

Kaa-ang!

“Keu-heok!”

While my fist aiming for one guy cut through the air, the other guy dug in like a ghost under that hand and struck my face.

In the meantime, the sword of the guy who had dodged first dug deep into my stumbling shoulder.

Thwack.

‘Kuh…….’

Boom!

They even had the cunningness to pull the sword out as soon as I tried to grab and break it.

I clearly felt that the guys who didn’t coordinate well at first were now slowly getting in sync.

It was hopeless.

‘How, what do I do?’

I couldn’t think of a way to get through this crisis at all.

Where on earth did these guys suddenly pop out from?

‘Red Magic Tower, Master……. Don’t tell me…….’

The words I heard earlier were belatedly combined with the knowledge in my head, but thanks to that, the sense of crisis only amplified.

Stab.

“Keuk!”

I almost collapsed at the sword digging into my thigh again, but the more it happened, the clearer my mind became.

However, after using all the absorbed demonic energy to treat that injury, it began to be burdensome to maintain even the Double Acceleration and Brute Strength.

‘Lauel ran away…… right?’

Crunch.

The feeling that my body was already screaming.

‘I can’t hold out anymore.’

The moment the calculation was done.

Rattle.

The guys slightly distanced themselves, dodging the iron chains stretching from my two hands with large movements.

Pa-ak.

Following that, the iron chains shooting out from my feet pushed the ground, not them, launching my body into the air.

“What!?”

“Catch him!!”

Pabababak.

I felt their presence climbing the trees, but.

‘If it’s a forest, then…….’

Rattle.

My iron chains stretched out long toward a tree in the direction of the deeper demonic realm.

“Follow me if you can!”

Paa-ang.

The iron chain, rapidly shortening and pulling, threw my body into the air like the wind.

I knew this might be a suicidal act, but.

“This sh*t!”

“Kill him!!!”

Seeing the enemies scattering thick killing intent and chasing after me like the wind stepping on branches, nothing else came to mind except this method.

Paa-ang!

The sound of tearing through the air created by the chainman play evoked only tension instead of pleasure for the first time.

‘Did Lauel make it down safely?’

Can she pass through the Snow Troll territory or Gnoll territory safely with such heavy injuries?

‘Also, even if she arrives at the territory, the person to come help me…….’

When all sorts of thoughts were flashing through my mind.

Paa-ang!

“Hup!”

A black arrow grazing my body floating in the air blew away even those worried thoughts.

An arrow containing too much power to twist with metal manipulation ability.

It was fortunate that it missed.

“Haoran!”

“You were alive!?”

At the enemies’ voices, I glanced back from the air.

In the distance, I saw a person wearing half-broken armor, bleeding from all over his body, kicking off a tree and running.

Another enemy with a bow as big as his body.

“Shut up and catch him first!!”

The injury he suffered clearly showed why the black arrow just now was inaccurate compared to before.

Of course, it was clear that the situation had gotten worse.

So.

‘F*ck, I don’t know anymore.’

Rattle.

Paa-ang!

In the gradually deepening darkness, there was no hesitation in my movement as I fired the iron chains toward the high trees.

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