Chapter 1046 - 865: Demon_2

The burly man seen in the forest, Ella called him Uncle Tie. When Uncle Tie saw Ella running over, he first frowned and shouted at her to go back, then spotted Duke trailing behind her. Hesitating for a moment, he picked up a sharpened wooden stick from by his feet and stuffed it into Duke’s hands.

"Do you know how to use it?" he asked gruffly.

Duke weighed the stick in his hands, nodded.

"Hold on to it for protection and stay back. Your small frame won’t be of much help." After thrusting the stick, Uncle Tie turned and headed towards the high wall, clearly not expecting the outsider Duke to be of any assistance.

The treeline of the field suddenly shook violently; several iron-gray ancient trees were forcibly parted by tremendous power, and a massive shadow charged out from the woods.

It was a demon with a body comparable to an adult plow ox, standing on four feet, with a back covered in rough, dark gray scale armor. On each side of its head were several unevenly sized dark red eyes, and its mouth stretched open to the cheeks, revealing two rows of jagged fangs.

After breaking through the treeline, it didn’t immediately pounce towards the fences but crouched low, circling the field once. A string of low growls emanated from its throat, as if assessing how much impact the simple defensive work ahead could endure.

Behind it, deeper in the treeline, more shadows were swaying; dark red light points flickered in the darkness like ghostly fires.

Uncle Tie’s fingers gripping the axe handle whitened slightly from the force, pressing out an extremely low curse from his throat.

Duke’s gaze passed over the fence, scanning the shadows on the field emerging endlessly from the treeline.

Uncle Tie and the other villagers had all their attention focused on the largest demon at the forefront, but Duke’s Spiritual Power had long expanded silently like an invisible net, reaching deep into the dense forest.

Under the shade of those iron-gray ancient trees, a significantly larger and more solid energy signal than these ordinary demons lay silently dormant.

Its size was at least as large as a house, and its energy fluctuations steadily pressed the Level 1 Peak line. Its heartbeat was heavy and slow, each beat causing a delicate ripple of dark red to stir in Duke’s Spirit perception.

It did not move, merely waiting, like an experienced Hunter quietly squatting at the edge of the prey herd, letting those low-level henchmen drain the prey’s stamina and will first.

Outside the fence, the first demon to charge out had already begun to grow impatient.

It lowered its head, aiming the rough bone plate on its forehead in the direction of the fence gate, pawing the ground with four feet as a series of increasingly urgent growls came from its throat.

On the fence, two young villagers held the village’s only two hunting bows, with arrows already nocked on the strings.

The bowstrings were drawn tight, creaking with tension. One of them had a hand slightly trembling, the arrowhead swaying incessantly in the moonlight.

The middle-aged man standing beside him cursed softly, raising a hand to press on the young man’s shoulder, signaling him to steady his breath.

Then, the middle-aged man released his bowstring first; the arrow carved a short arc in the night sky, precisely embedding into the demon’s shoulder at the forefront.

The arrowhead didn’t penetrate deeply, barely piercing between the gaps of the scale armor, as dark red blood seeped from the wound, trickling into a thin line across the armor’s surface.

The second arrow closely followed, hitting the side of the same demon’s neck, but the angle was off, grazing the hardened scale armor and sliding away, leaving only a shallow white mark.

That demon, provoked by pain, grew enraged.

It abruptly raised its head, several dark red eyes widening simultaneously. From its mouth, stretched open to the cheeks, sprayed a foul-smelling spittle before the entire body, like a boulder flung by a catapult, slammed ferociously towards the fence gate.

The ground quaked subtly under its charge, eliciting a half-step retreat from several villagers atop the fence.

Next to Duke, Ella gripped the pitchfork tightly, her knuckles whitening from force, but she did not retreat.

At this moment, a faint fluttering sound emerged from behind.

Duke turned his head to see the village elder swiftly emerging from a stone house, holding a small vine-woven cage.

Inside the cage was a bird no bigger than a palm, its entire body covered in warm, emerald-green feathers like jade. Its beak gleamed golden under the moonlight.

The old village chief opened the cage door, quickly grabbing a piece of thin tree bark from his sleeve, scribbling a few words with a charcoal pen on it, then rolled the bark paper into a thin strip, binding it to the bird’s slender leg.

He held the emerald bird in front of him, muttering a few words softly, then gently tossed it upwards.

The bird spread its wings, almost soundlessly disappearing into the night sky, leaving a fleeting trail of emerald green light under the moonlight.

The old village chief raised his head, his murky old eyes watching the direction where the bird vanished, then with a hoarse voice, he shouted towards the fence, "The message has been sent. The lord’s Knight can be here in half an hour at the fastest! Hold your ground!"

His words indeed prompted a few young villagers, previously pale-faced, to tighten their grip on their Weapons.

However, Duke noticed that no relaxed expression surfaced on Uncle Tie’s coarse face.

He had evidently seen the speed at which the lord’s Knight arrived, as well as the rate at which these demons breached the fence. He knew the fatal gap between these two "speeds."

At this moment, the first demon struck heavily against the fence gate.

The door reinforced with logs and stones emitted an ear-piercing creak, the vine ropes on the hinges straining to the limit under the tremendous impact, and several logs cracked with fine lines on the spot.

A few villagers pressed hard against the horizontal wood temporarily added behind the door, the impact numbing their grips, yet they managed to endure this strike.

The two archers on the fence released two more arrows, this time at closer range, one arrow embedding into the eye socket of the demon, splattering a burst of dark red blood.

The demon let out a painful howl, but those cries weren’t retreating, but summoning.

The darkness deep within the treeline suddenly surged violently, as more demons emerged from the shadows of the iron-gray ancient trees.

They scrambled to squeeze out of the treeline, their dark red eyes forming a dense mass in the night, like countless burning coals pouring from the depths of the forest.

Originally, there were only seven or eight demons on the field, but in the blink of an eye, over twenty appeared, with more shadows swaying behind the treeline.

Uncle Tie’s fingers gripping the axe handle trembled slightly from the force, and his face grew increasingly grim. He lowered his voice, saying a word to the villager next to him, a local term Duke hadn’t heard in the forest before, but judging from the tone, it was likely a crude curse.

Arrows continued to shoot from the fence, but the two archers halted their action, one of the young villagers placing down his hunting bow, glancing back behind him.

The doors and windows of the largest stone house in the village had been barricaded firmly by the women, muffled by the plaintive cries of a baby from within.

He turned back to the demon horde before him, now void of any fighting spirit, only hollow despair remaining in his eyes.

Ella stood by Duke’s side, her lips pressed into a thin line, holding the pitchfork without release. However, Duke could sense her body slightly trembling.

Seeing this, Duke knew this situation was beyond what these villagers could handle. He casually handed the wooden stick to Ella beside him.

Ella hesitated for a moment, accepting the wooden stick Duke handed over.

Before she could ask what he intended to do, Duke had already turned, stepping up on the pile of round logs inside the fence, leveraging his step, and effortlessly flipping onto the top of the fence.

His movement was so quick and fluid that the two young villagers holding hunting bows on the fence hadn’t reacted before Duke had leapt through the gap between them.

His toes landed softly on the muddy ground outside the fence with a faint, muffled sound.

The night wind on the field brought the foul stench of demon bodies rushing in, as the moonlight cast his elongated shadow onto the precariously swaying fence behind.