Chapter 52 – Knight (2)
by Heavenly CatThe knights entering the village had their expressions harden stiffly.
The village was already turned to ruins. The wooden houses had burned down and even the stone-built village hall in the center had collapsed.
Throughout the area, burned corpses and blood-stained walls showed the devastation even more clearly.
“Everything here has burned down. Did fire break out from a monster attack?”
The knights and wizard arrived at the village center and dismounted from their horses.
“Do you think there are any survivors?”
“Wait a moment. Let me check.”
At Daniel’s words, Wizard George stood his staff upright and began chanting a spell.
“How about we search the surroundings too?”
“No, it’s better to protect the wizard until he finishes checking.”
Daniel shook his head at Mexley’s words. The other knights showed puzzled expressions at Daniel’s words, who usually led the way to save people, but now that his suspicions had been confirmed, the two agreed with his words.
Daniel felt sweat flowing down from tension at the back of his neck as he continuously looked around.
Though they had no choice but to enter the village to check for survivors, this entire place was a contaminated area. They didn’t know when contaminated monsters might come charging in.
Moreover, Daniel was even more on edge because of the lack of response from those above since earlier.
From his experiences so far and stories from summoned colleagues, missions were supposed to occur immediately upon contact with contaminated areas or contaminated objects.
But now there continued to be no response. One case where no mission had come down despite contact with a contaminated area flashed through Daniel’s mind.
‘Could it be?’
That’s when the wizard frowned and opened his mouth.
“It seems there are no living people.”
The knights’ expressions turned cold.
“Moreover, there are monster reactions approaching this location.”
“How many?”
“Three.”
At the wizard’s answer, the knights looked at each other. Three red wolves – it seemed they could exact revenge for destroying the village.
Daniel was somewhat worried about the abilities of contaminated monsters, but his anger was no different from the other knights. No, his anger was greater.
“Let’s take one each.”
Albert raised his shield in front and spoke.
“The last one gets punishment.”
Mexley responded to his words, and
“Be careful! They might be stronger than expected.”
“Then you’ll be the one getting punishment.”
When Daniel warned them to be careful, Knight Mexley began teasing. Soon after, Wizard George raised his staff.
“I’ll provide support from behind.”
George began chanting spells while holding his staff up.
Steam began pouring from Mexley and Albert’s armor.
One of the specialized techniques knights possessed had been cast.
“We two will finish them all. Just get ready and wait.”
Howl! Howl!
Along with their words, wolf sounds came from behind the half-collapsed front wall.
The two knights immediately leaped out at that sound. With the special technique <Body Acceleration> activated, their bodies shot forward like fired cannonballs.
Simultaneously, Daniel stood in front of the wizard with <Body Enhancement> activated and raised his greatsword, while fireballs formed from the wizard’s staff and shot toward the wall.
Boom!
The half-remaining wall instantly crumbled, and monsters burst out from the smoke.
Wolves with flowing red manes – but as the knights approached, these wolves gradually stood up and began running on two legs.
“Lycanthropes! They’re werewolves!”
Daniel shouted in surprise, and the eyes of the two charging knights widened, but the knights’ steps didn’t stop.
Werewolves, especially red-furred lycanthropes, were monsters famous for being fast and strong, but the knights with <Body Acceleration> activated were not far behind in speed. Though not as comfortable as facing wolves, they could handle them sufficiently.
“Fall back! They’re not ordinary ones!”
That’s when Daniel shouted loudly from behind, but his cry was too late.
The werewolves charged at the knights with their red eyes raised, and the next moment the knights and lycanthropes collided.
“What is this!”
Along with surprised Knight Mexley’s voice, the two knights began being helplessly pushed back by the werewolves. Because the werewolves’ speed was faster than they expected.
The two knights could hardly even block the wolves’ attacks, let alone attack. Their armor began getting torn apart.
Daniel wanted to help the two, but he couldn’t move because of the remaining werewolf charging toward him and the wizard.
Daniel gripped his sword firmly and drew up <Body Enhancement> even more. He felt power surging from within his body and his skin becoming harder, but instead felt his body become slightly heavier.
Using <Body Enhancement> would make his movements slower, making it even harder to catch werewolves that had become even faster due to contamination, but they were werewolves that couldn’t be caught up to even with <Body Acceleration> anyway.
The werewolf arrived in front of Daniel in an instant and swung the sharp claws on its front paws toward Daniel.
Daniel couldn’t keep up with the werewolf’s attack. Instead, he steadfastly raised his sword and brought it down toward the werewolf.
Thud! Thud!
Crash!
Daniel, who should have been the first to be attacked by the werewolf and have his armor smashed while spurting blood, was unharmed.
His armor, bought with points, had blocked the claws. Though the armor got sharp scratches, it definitely protected his body, and instead his sword blew away one of the werewolf’s front legs.
The werewolf’s quick movement managed to avoid damage to only one leg in the midst of this, but the werewolf’s opponent wasn’t just Daniel.
The moment the werewolf retreated backward, the wizard’s spell finished.
“Hold!”
With the wizard’s words, the werewolf briefly hesitated in its movement. The contaminated werewolf’s magic resistance was high, so the wizard’s magic didn’t work properly. But that brief moment bought time for Daniel’s greatsword to swing once more.
Slash!
The werewolf’s head flew up into the sky.
It was an excellent cooperative attack by wizard and knight, but the enemy wasn’t just the one werewolf from before.
The moment Daniel defeated the werewolf, the two knights collapsed to the ground bleeding. They had been neutralized by the werewolves’ attacks. Though not dead yet, they looked unable to move anymore.
The werewolves were about to finish off the knights when they saw their companion’s head fly off. They abandoned the fallen knights and began moving toward Daniel.
“It seems impossible. At least you should escape, Wizard.”
Daniel pointed his sword toward the approaching werewolves and shouted to the wizard.
“It’s no use. I don’t know what kind of magic resistance is so strong. The shock scattered all my mana.”
The wizard had blood visible in his mouth, seeming to have internal injuries. In this state, moving would be impossible for the wizard too.
Daniel’s expression hardened stiffly. Trusting his armor, he felt he could somehow handle one, but two would be impossible.
“Huh? The detection magic I cast earlier caught a new life form reaction? A knight? For a knight, the reaction is strange though?”
Behind the tense Daniel, Wizard George suddenly muttered unexpectedly.
Someone similar to a knight but different. Daniel had met such people before.
“Reinforcements!”
Daniel gripped his greatsword with both hands and drew up <Body Enhancement> to the fullest.
“Growl!”
Simultaneously, the two werewolves threw themselves toward Daniel.
Rumble!
That’s when an earth wall shot up in front of Daniel. The earth wall that instantly rose several meters blocked the werewolves’ path, and the werewolves crashed into the earth wall and tumbled backward.
“What on earth is going on?”
Following that, Sun-woo arrived at the scene.
Sun-woo, who arrived next to Daniel, asked Daniel with a bewildered expression, but Daniel couldn’t understand Sun-woo’s question.
“What are you talking about?”
“I was suddenly summoned alone, then a mission popped up out of nowhere to save Knight Daniel. Moreover, I couldn’t figure out the location, so I ran to a nearby village.”
It seemed the Summoners hadn’t abandoned Daniel after all.
“Moreover, what on earth happened here? Not just the village, but the entire mountain range seems completely contaminated… There’s no way there could be a contamination source of this scale… Could it be?”
Naturally, even Daniel found it hard to imagine a contamination source that could contaminate an entire mountain range. But such a massive contamination source had been seen by both Daniel and Sun-woo before.
“I had similar thoughts. It’s probably similar to the large-scale contaminated area we saw in that place called the New Continent.”
If that was the case, it explained both why Summoner missions didn’t appear in this contaminated area and the massive contaminated region.
But if the guess was correct, it was no ordinary big problem. To think such a huge contaminated area would appear right next to the kingdom – Daniel’s homeland was in great danger.
Growl!
“Wait a moment. Let’s catch those guys first and then talk.”
When the werewolves’ howling was heard from beyond the earth wall, Sun-woo left words for Daniel and created an earth pillar beneath his feet to shoot upward.
Sun-woo rode the earth pillar up onto the earth wall, then immediately jumped down behind the earth wall. Soon the werewolves’ screams began to be heard.
Yelp. Yelp.
As Daniel listened to those sounds, Wizard George’s voice full of questions came from behind.
“What exactly is that person? It was mana, no, energy I’ve never seen in my life. His clothes are unusual too, and he’s an Easterner.”
It was naturally worth being curious about. Daniel roughly told him about it.
“He’s a secret agent who was following us. Since it’s a secret organization, you probably don’t know about it. Please keep the secret.”
At Daniel’s words, the wizard tilted his head. He was very puzzled by the sudden secret organization story.
It was a lie that would be immediately exposed once they returned to the capital, but Daniel wasn’t very worried about it.
And more importantly, treating his colleagues came first.
Shortly after, the dog-catching sounds stopped and the earth wall sank back down.
Behind the earth wall, Sun-woo’s figure and two werewolves with their necks severed by sword could be seen. Though they were werewolves that had given the knights such a hard time, they were no match for Sun-woo who had reached peak level.
Ignoring the wizard’s surprised expression, Sun-woo and Daniel moved the two injured knights.
Both were severely injured, but fortunately their lives seemed to be in no danger.
The wizard, who had stabilized his mana during this time, cast healing magic on the two, and the two knights seemed to stabilize somewhat.
“Let’s get out quickly. It would be better to escape this place fast.”
Daniel agreed with Sun-woo’s words.
The two brought over the horses that had been left to one side, loaded the unconscious knights on them, and tied them with ropes. It was a crude method, but it was the only way to take the two with them.
The party tried to immediately lead the horses and exit the village, but had to stop walking again.
Because the wizard was looking toward the mountain range and muttering again.
“This time it’s a monster? But the approaching speed is ridiculously fast.”
At the wizard’s words, Sun-woo and Daniel looked toward the mountain range, and Sun-woo, who raised his head just in case, saw a strange flying creature.
“Do you see that? It looks like some kind of pterosaur-like monster.”
At Sun-woo’s words, Daniel and the wizard who raised their heads turned pale.
“Good heavens, a wyvern, and it’s a fire wyvern from the eastern mountain range at that.”
The wizard muttered while looking at the approaching monster with an incredulous expression, and
“I should have realized when I saw the village burned down. It wasn’t the werewolves’ doing!”
Daniel gritted his teeth while looking at the sky.
The huge black wyvern that flew from the mountain range opened its mouth wide toward the party.
Roaaaar!
Tremendous flames swirled in the opened mouth, then shot toward the party like a giant flamethrower.
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