Close Combat Mage

Chapter 259 – Breaking Out of Encirclement Pt. 1

Hearing this, Suo Jia began to grow anxious. Although…Nicole couldn’t bring him to the Greater Trade Routes, Suo Jia had already thought of her as his friend after traveling with her for the past month. No matter what, he couldn’t just sit there and watch Nicole be executed.

If this was before, Suo Jia could’ve just charged fearlessly into the city lord’s residence with the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes and rescued Nicole. But this was clearly impossible now; the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes would no longer follow his commands.

Of course, Suo Jia had also considering crashing the residence alone to rescue her, but the results wouldn’t be pretty. If he just charged in like this, he’d basically be asking to die. What kind of place was the city lord’s residence? How could one possibly enter and exit it as they pleased?

Despite contemplating for a while, Suo Jia still hadn’t come up with a completely functional plan. Eventually, he came up with an idea that wasn’t exactly a solution: seizing the execution by force.

Why was he able to disrupt the execution, but not the city lord’s residence? The city lord’s residence was strictly and heavily guarded, with a vast amount of experts. Moreover, there weren’t really any objects to hide behind for cover, so while it was easy to enter, it was hard to exit. However, the execution grounds was different. When the time came, there would definitely be a huge audience. As long as he was able to mingle into the crowd, he’d be able to escape into a nearby building, and the opposite party wouldn’t have any way of chasing after him.

Suo Jia downed the glass in his hand, abruptly stood up, and strode out of the bar. There was still some time left before noon; he needed to make some preparations.

Time slowly passed, morning gradually turned to noon. The number of people in Endless Clouds City’s square had increased. Everyone that had heard about the news had rushed over from various places. As Nicole was the last generation of an influential family, her reputation far surpassed her actual abilities. Everyone wanted to personally catch a glimpse of that girl.

Finally…a group of soldiers made their way through. Nicole’s hands were bound behind her back, and she walked through the opened path, her body forcibly dragged to the middle of the stone platform.

Was she scared? No…Nicole had experienced way more experiences like this before. Although she wasn’t that old, she’d had a taste of too many intense thrills. At this point, she’d already become apathetic to such things.

However, although she wasn’t afraid of death, Nicole’s eyes were still vacant, with a trace of despair. Unlike before, Nicole definitely had no hope of surviving. But she couldn’t die; she still had so many important things to do. How could her life end here?

Two soldiers forced her up to the platform step by step. When she looked around, she saw that the large square had already been filled with nearly 100,000 people; the square was so packed that even water couldn’t flow through.

Nicole chuckled desolately. She knew that these guys had all come to watch her get beheaded. This was a human’s desire to jump at inferiority. People liked to butt in all the time; as long as there was something interesting to watch, they wouldn’t care about anyone else’s pain at all. Who would care about her current opinion and state of mind?

A middle-aged man with a thick and broad build wearing aristocrat’s clothing walked up to the stage and said in a stern voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sure you’ve already received information about this. That’s right…this person next to me is the brazen thief that dared to steal from our city lord’s residence.”

The middle-aged man sharply surveyed the crowd as he said in an icy tone, “I know…that there are definitely many thieves in this crowd. I’ll take this opportunity to warn everyone here that you cannot just steal from anyone; she is a good example.”

The man turned to coldly stare at Nicole and he said, “Since you dared to display such vile behavior at our city lord’s residence, you must be aware that you will die. Go on obediently, and don’t become a thief again in your next life.” The middle-aged man nonchalantly gestured at the executioner, then turned around to walk off the stone platform.

After receiving the middle-aged man’s order, two warriors on the platform grabbed Nicole’s shoulders and pushed her down. At the same time, another warrior drew a glinting, steel blade from his back. Seeing this, the crowd couldn’t help but hold their breaths; they knew that the execution was about to begin.

Everyone watched as the warrior with the blade smirked and casually swung around the steel blade in his hand. He neared Nicole and said, “Don’t worry, my blade is very fast. I promise you won’t feel any pain; a single slash is enough to behead you.”

Hearing the warrior’s words, Nicole stared at the dazzling steel blade in front of her, her mind in complete chaos. She was just about to leave this world for eternity. This sky, this earth, this sunlight, were all things she’d never see again. Her head would soon be chopped off. Her warm blood would flow throughout the entire stone platform, but nobody would feel sad about her death. The people would only shout in delight for having been able to see a priceless scene for free.

Nicole closed her eyes. Glittering tears quickly flowed down, dropping from her eyelashes. Not being afraid of death didn’t mean she wanted to die. If one had a choice, who would be willing to just die like that?

“Ready.” The guard captain on the platform said in a solemn voice. The blade-wielding warrior slowly lifted his weapon, both his hands gripping the hilt. His fingers were white from the amount of strength he was clutching the blade with; it was clear to see that he was already prepared. A single command was enough for him to slice off the other party’s head in one fell sweep. Otherwise, it’d be too embarrassing; what kind of warrior was he if he couldn’t even behead someone in front of all those people?

“Execute.” Following the guard captain’s bellow, the blade-wielding warrior suddenly shouted, and he bent down as he exerted strength in his arms. The shining blade flashed with a brilliant light, and made the sound of thunder as it swiftly slashed down with an earth-shattering power.

Everyone watching the scene felt their hearts jump to their throats, their pulse racing at a much faster rate than normal. Their eyes were wide open, as if afraid that blinking would cause them to miss the critical moment.

At the same time, Nicole bit her lip hard. She was finally going to die. Even though she still had important things left to, even though she still had regrets, she couldn’t do anything about it. The instant she was about to meet her death, Nicole raised her head. The observers that were closer to her could see that unexpectedly, there was a wide smile on Nicole’s face. Was this how one felt when facing imminent death? It didn’t seem as scary as she had imagined.

“Fwish…clang.”

The instant Nicole came to this realization of the meaning of life and broke through the disillusionment of life and death, a brilliant, blue light suddenly crossed Nicole’s vision. The next moment…a clear sound rang out above Nicole’s head.