Chapter 194: The Warrior Sneak Attacks, The Warrior Can't Win, The Warrior Runs!

There was a thunderous boom.

Fierce winds, like an explosion, swept up fragments and debris from the carriage, turning them into pellets of high kinetic energy that shot out in all directions.

The sudden attack startled everyone.

By the time the soldiers instinctively flinched back half a step and looked again, they found half of the Troll’s body obscured by smoke.

Only then did they realize something was wrong.

The Troll Bob’s not-so-bright brain took three seconds to realize what kind of accident had occurred behind him.

By then, the soldiers had already pulled out their horns.

“Assassin!”

The Royal Knight roared to warn those around him, and a swordsman blew a horn.

The long, low blast of the horn echoed through the air in a distinct rhythm.

It all happened so fast that the dust and smoke had not yet dissipated.

Bob let out a roar, lifting his leg and stomping heavily down into the smoke.

“What is he doing!” the knight cried out in alarm.

There was more than just a potential assassin in that smoke.

Mia and Godrick were in there too!

No one was fast enough to stop the Troll before his massive foot came crashing down.

A boom resounded, distinct from the roar of the initial attack, and the wind pressure pushed the smoke aside.

A figure suddenly lunged out from within, twin axes slashing through Bob’s leg, nearly severing the joint of his left foot.

Bob bellowed, losing the ability to maintain his balance.

He began to topple backward slowly.

There was another loud crash.

The Troll fell, causing the stone tiles on the ground to crack extensively.

The smoke cleared completely, revealing a woman with an axe standing on the Troll’s chest, having driven her blade deep into its forehead.

The Troll twitched once and then ceased to move.

The culprit was a woman dressed like a barbarian, with bronze skin that had a metallic texture; her upper body, clad only in a fur wrap, revealed a magnificent, well-trained physique.

She pulled out her axe: “Godrick! My name is Neffeli Lou. Where are you hiding? If you are a warrior, stand forth!”

However, she found herself facing Godrick’s soldiers instead.

In the wreckage of the carriage behind Neffeli, Mia, Godrick, and Wilden looked at each other in bewilderment.

The three of them didn’t actually need to hide, because Neffeli wasn’t looking at the carriage behind her at all.

She didn’t seem to be very bright.

“Godrick, defiler of the storm, come out and face me! Fight like a warrior!”

“I never said I was a warrior,” Godrick muttered, attempting to defend himself.

“There’s no time.”

With a wave of Mia’s hand, a staff appeared in her grasp.

Seeing no sign of Godrick, Neffeli turned her attention to the soldiers and knights before her.

She raised her twin axes and charged toward Godrick’s soldiers.

“Protect the Lord! Quickly, protect the Lord!” the soldiers shouted.

A shimmering Glintstone Crystal shot toward her from behind. Sensing the wind, Neffeli suddenly rolled to the side, dodging the crystal.

The Glintstone Crystal missed Neffeli and flew toward Godrick’s soldiers and knights, but it shattered into a pile of sparkling powder right before them.

“Ha, so you were hiding there!”

Neffeli locked her gaze onto Godrick.

“I wasn’t hiding—”

“Get down!”

Godrick hadn’t even brought a weapon.

Neffeli Lou leaped toward the wreckage of the carriage like a projectile from a catapult.

Though a catapult projectile likely wouldn’t be as precise as she was.

Neffeli landed directly in front of Godrick. Having no weapon, Godrick had no intention of fighting her and immediately began to flee in the opposite direction.

With a loud clang, the ear-piercing sound of clashing metal rang out like a bell as Wilden’s twin swords parried Neffeli’s twin axes.

“Oh?”

Neffeli raised an eyebrow.

As she continued to apply force, Wilden’s feet plowed two furrows into the stone road.

“It seems you are a warrior too!”

She used the corner of one axe blade to pull Wilden’s sword aside, while raising the other axe high for a heavy downward strike.

Wilden shifted his feet and quickly retreated several steps; Neffeli’s battle-axe slammed into the ground, sending earth and stone flying.

After the initial exchange, Wilden’s expression grew solemn.

This Tarnished before him was very powerful.

After all, she had been able to take down a Troll in the blink of an eye.

“Stand back!” Wilden barked at the soldiers who wanted to come help.

He didn’t want teammates who lacked coordination to interfere with his combat.

Neffeli lifted her great axe from the ground, took a step back, and stood sideways, eyeing Wilden from a short distance away.

“A warrior’s duel? Hmph, I accept.”

The two began to circle each other in the small clearing before the carriage wreckage.

Each was trying to find a flaw in the other’s defense.

This stalemate did not last long.

Whether it was intentional or not…

…as they circled…

…Neffeli Lou ended up with her back to Mia and Godrick once again.

That woman seemed to be completely immersed in this so-called ‘warrior’s’ duel.

Wilden glanced at Mia.

In that very instant, Neffeli charged forward.

‘An opening!’

Her eyes were filled with nothing but the frenzy of battle.

Wilden parried Neffeli’s first strike, but she didn’t retreat; instead, she used the momentum to spin her body.

As the twin axes rotated, a wind pressure strong enough to push people away swirled around Neffeli’s body.

Neffeli charged at Wilden along with the storm.

Right then…

…a wall of crystal blocked the path between the two.

Neffeli’s eyes widened in shock as her twin axes, unable to be pulled back in time, slammed hard against the crystal wall.

The crystal wall shattered under Mia’s control, and Wilden’s bright twin swords lunged from behind the starlight.

Clang, clang, clang, clang—the sound of weapons colliding was incessant for a time.

Wilden was like the wind as well; his swords were fast, and even without the power of a storm, they could stir the air.

Neffeli parried and dodged several times until she finally managed to analyze Wilden’s combat rhythm. Seizing the moment of a swing, her great axe collided directly with Wilden’s longsword.

Both their bodies were knocked backward simultaneously.

Wilden was pushed back further; his strength was clearly inferior to Neffeli’s.

“Despicable! Outnumbering me!” Neffeli managed to catch her breath, a dark flush appearing on her bronze cheeks as she glared at Wilden in a rage.

She wanted to curse more, but a Fluorspar Meteor forced her to swallow her words.

“I never agreed to a duel with you,” Wilden said calmly.

Using the time Mia had bought for him, he looked down at the longsword in his right hand that had just clashed with Neffeli; cracks had appeared on it.

Wilden thrust the longsword into the ground at an angle and stomped hard on it; the cracked Royal Army straight sword snapped instantly.

Swapping his weapons, he held the shorter dagger in his left hand and the longer straight sword in his right. The moment Mia’s Fluorspar Meteor stopped, Wilden closed in once more.

The golden light of grace shone behind him; this time, Wilden would bring an even more rapid offensive.

One enough to disrupt a storm.

Though he was slightly weaker in strength, it was uncertain who would prevail if it came down to speed.

Neffeli let out a roar, her legs planting firmly on the ground as she opened her stance like a giant bear.

“Outnumbering your opponent, what kind of warrior are you?!”

With a boom, her muscle-bound legs suddenly exerted massive force.

A gale swept through, blowing up gravel and fallen leaves.

Only to see Neffeli Lou…

…she…

…she…

…actually leaped directly over the small battlefield, past the carriage ruins and Godrick, landing heavily on the roof of an abandoned house.

She smashed right through the roof.

?

Within the dust, the woman’s figure appeared again; this jump had allowed her to land steadily on the roof.

Then, she began to sprint along the line of buildings.

“She’s running away!”

An observant knight shouted.

“Aren’t you a warrior!”

Mia yelled in that direction.

“So this is a warrior’s retreat!”

Neffeli’s shout drifted back from the rooftops in the distance.

“Godrick, you who defiles the storm with Grafting, I will kill you in a duel one day!”

Knowing she was no match for Wilden with Mia’s buffs, Neffeli left behind those harsh words.

Then, an eagle’s cry echoed from the sky.

A giant eagle dove down, knocking Neffeli right off the roof.

Another thud came from over there.

That fall must have hurt quite a bit.

The giant eagle circled above where Neffeli had fallen, letting out a few more cries.

“Quickly, after her!”

Godrick peeked out from behind the carriage and shouted loudly.

The soldiers immediately sprang into action.

“Make sure to take her alive!!!” Mia cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone, yelling toward the running soldiers.

“Wilden, you go too. I’m afraid the soldiers might suffer losses if they try to capture her alive.”

As Mia spoke, she tossed a new straight sword from her storage space.

“Yes!” Wilden replied decisively.

This attack had been aimed at Godrick.

But Mia was clearly within the scope of the attack as well.

As far as Wilden was concerned.

Both Mia and Godrick held significant places in his heart.

He could not tolerate the attacker simply walking away so brazenly.