The Abyss(7)

The Eagle Demons began their second attack, and they swooped down like raindrops. Brendel hurried to lead the knights back, behind them was a dense woodland and its canopies of black pines would work as a natural protection against the Eagle Demons’ attack.

But sooner or later they would be able to make through the cascading branches and attack them, Brendel knew that he would have to find a way to get down the hill and back on his horse. The Eagle Demons were good at fighting in the sky as their specialty was flexibility, but they were not great at speed and endurance. We have to find a way to get rid of them.

It was at this moment when several Eagle Demons descended from the canopies, Brendel looked up and saw the sharp claws of these monsters, they clung to the tree branches and were jumping forward, to Brendel’s surprise they were not much slower than flying and it only took a short while for them to reach somewhere above their heads.

This scene was exactly like the scene when he first fought these flat-haired beasts in the wetland forest near the Grey Harbor. Subconsciously, he shouted, “Shoot them down, try to aim for their backs!”

The knights immediately removed their short bows or four-armed crossbows from their waists and aimed at those monsters. The Eagle Demons were terrifyingly nimble. They hovered from side to side between the tree branches, avoiding almost all the crossbows.

However, the knights managed to discover the trick very quickly, they found out that the Eagle Demons tend to swing back when dodging. Along with Brendel’s reminder, the knights calculated the distance the monsters would swing back in advance, and this time more than half of the Eagle Demons were shot immediately.

The knights were excited, “Lord, how did you know that?”

“Knowledge is power. All the answers in the world are in books.” Brendel answered.

These words simply made him sound like an inexplicable sorcerer, and the knights immediately showed a sense of respect. But this sentence reminded the princess who was at the side of what Fleetwood taught her, ‘All wisdom that is sharper than a sword is hidden in books.’, it was an old proverb of the Kirrlutz. It was said that all the mages promoted the same idea.

Although she was running forward with all her might with her hands held tightly by Brendel, her mind was calm. Mr.Knight was indeed a Danir, as he had such high regard for the knowledge of Highland Wizards.

Brendel however noticed that the Experience Points of the Eagle Demons killed by the knights had to be counted into his account, and one Demon equaled 60 EXP. This was obviously a number after calculating the group penalty and rank penalty value, but the Eagle Demons he killed alone had only around 90 EXP.

These Experience Points were nothing to him, but the point was that it further proved his earlier hypothesis about the team. It looked like as long as it was an alliance it would be counted as the same team as him, but the limit of the distance was unknown.

A row of people had already passed through half of the forest at this point, and the number of Eagle Demons climbing down from the tree trunks were increasing. So much so that they did not dare to stop for a moment to rest, as just a little slower and they would be encircled. Two knights had already been dragged out by a moment’s negligence. What awaited them was hard to imagine.

The end of the woods was near, and there was an open space which was a hundred meters wide. The Eagle Demons would obviously siege them furiously when they passed by that area, and in fact a few Eagle Demons were already hovering in the sky over there waiting for Brendel.

“Brendel, what’s next?” Apparently Count Audine had also noticed the awful situation that awaited them. But Brendel looked around and was at a loss of ideas. The cards in his hands were barely applicable, there was also a lack of Elements. The Black Wolf had already been summoned once, and so Buni the King of the Giant’s Concealment Cloak was the only one he had that could help him escape.

But the Buni’s Concealment Cloak could only hold ten people, not to mention it could only last for less than five minutes.

“Everyone, hold hands and charge! Be careful not to get dragged out!” Brendel activated the Colliding Halo, and a pale yellow aura phalanx spread out from around his body. Most of the knights recognized this signature skill of the Holy Knight and knew immediately what he was up to.

Looks like we have no choice but to charge out.

Brendel looked beyond the forest and decided to cast a Mist Spell or something similar first. He was an Elementalist anyway, and the Mist Spell was just a tier two spell which was not hard for him. The only trouble was that he was still wearing armor while running which made the failure percentage extremely high. Brendel tried three times in a row before finally releasing that spell.

The Mist Spell was actually nothing more than a water mist that created confusion, which was extremely effective in preventing the enemy’s precise long-range strikes, and Brendel wanted to use this spell to suppress the Eagle Demons’ quantitative advantage. But the moment he cast the spell, an unexpected scene occurred.

There was no mist, but instead there was a dark cloud that blocked the entire hillside in a blink of an eye, and the place was in total darkness.

“What’s going on?” The knights suddenly started to panic, even Brendel was startled. This is no Mist Spell. The good thing was that it was not his first time battling in the dark, he had been fighting with Madara’s necromancers for a long time in the game, he had to prepare to deal with all sorts of Black Magics.

Brendel was relatively calm, he subconsciously grasped the princess’ hand to ensure that the Wizard was not coming for the most important target beside him while holding his breath to listen to the ringing noises in the surroundings.

The sound of rain falling rumbled in the distance, but within the rain, the same panicking croaking noises of the Eagle Demons could still be heard.

It seems like the newcomer is not an enemy.

At least it’s not the Devil Warlocks.

He was slightly relieved, but it was at this moment when he heard an old voice from within his soul, “Please come with me. My King. Don’t mind the dangers around you, head north and I’ll be waiting for you there.”

Brendel was shocked, “Who are you and how can I trust you?” He asked subconsciously in his mind.

“Sense with your heart, darkness has no secrets before you, you should be able to sense that I mean no harm.”

Brendel breathed in softly. Indeed, he did not sense any danger. The other party had clearly struck out in such a situation to offer him help, but he hesitated as everything should be done cautiously. He then said to all who was around him, “Everyone, listen to me, hold hands and follow me.”

He then reached out to pull Count Audine who was at the side. Everyone held hands, Brendel was not sure which way was north but he vaguely felt that a certain direction was safer, so he walked towards that direction step by step.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, the screams of the Eagle Demons in the darkness were getting further and further away.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief at this moment. After all, no one would want to die if they could live. It was for this reason that the knights could not help but be grateful to Brendel, who had led them out of danger.

“Mr.Brendel.” Princess Gryphine’s voice came from behind him. “Is this your spell?”

“No, I don’t know either.” Brendel replied. Because the truth was he did not know the answer too, he had activated the Psychic Connection in his mind and had started to contact Ciel who was on the other side. Only God would know if this was another trap, he had to be on the safe side.

“Ciel, do you hear me……”

……

In the pine forest, the students had set up a makeshift camp for shelter from the rain, the simple tent was made by pine trees with a wooden wall and a waterproof canvas. In the tent, Makarov of the Royal Faction, his men, and Oberwei were in a cold war.

It seemed like the Royal Faction was about to break off the princess once again, but those who had been here all along knew that it was nothing more than just a disagreement over the next battle plan.

Oberwei supported Brendel’s opinion that it would be better to divide the defensive zone with the Northern Coalition Army respectively for the time being. On the other hand, Makarov did not trust those northern nobles, his thought that the Northern Coalition Army was perfectly capable of acting as a frontal mainstay to defend the Devil’s attack together with the Kirrlutz.

That parchment map that had been drawn on countless times was now on a wooden table. A campfire was burning not far away, Amandina was whispering to Count Yanbao, the two were not interested in the nobles’ battle plans; Oberwei despised the Royal Faction, while Amandina only had absolute trust in Brendel and was naturally unimpressed by the nobles’ proposals.

However, the tired look on the noble lady’s face was obvious, she just forcefully held back from yawning.

Makarov seemed to be destined as Oberwei’s opponent, the two had disagreed on the Royal Faction’s future previously and now they disagreed on how to work with the Northern Coalition Army. But fortunately, they were still aware of the current situation and at least did not fight, otherwise, the kingdom’s Sly Fox and Lone Wolf might have to fight against each other right then and there.

Some of the older courtiers of the kingdom might remember the previous battle when they were both young. But that battle was due to their beloved girl, this time it was a matter of ideals.

Just as they were about to open their mouths again, Ciel came in from outside. He took a look at everyone inside the tent and said, “The Lord is in trouble.”

Everyone froze.

“Well, actually the princess and the Lord had been spotted by the Eagle Demons and are currently under the Devil Army’s siege.” Ciel had to explain it again.

“What did you say?!”