Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 440 Seven to Three

Several disheveled figures appeared one after another, passing by the panting Thales. They glanced at the prince with curiosity or complicated expressions before heading straight for the enemy.

They isolated the prince from the battlefield.

Thales, supporting his longsword, smiled.

Never lose your way.

This is one of the most precious gifts Thales received after escaping from Dragonfall City:

Even in the dark cell, Thales could clearly sense that they were on the eighteenth underground level, some distance from the lowest level of Sacel, but not far from another group of prisoners.

That group of prisoners was the most unique and also the most heartbreaking.

When Thales seemingly uttered his first words in a fit of rage, the boy actually doubted whether Quick Rope could understand him.

[Get the hell out of here! This is the 18th underground level. Use your stupid brain, where else could I hide?] — Where else in the 18th underground level could a "person" hide?

As it turned out, Quick Rope, who had been struggling alone for six years, possessed enough quick wit and a strong will to survive; he reacted swiftly and understood Thales's code:
【But I can't do anything about it, have you forgotten? I'm just a pathetic thief who can't even open a door!】—The cell where those guard prisoners are hiding? But I can't open the cell door.

After the first step of communication was completed, Thales could confidently toss the oddly shaped alchemical tower key in his hand to Quick Rope, and their exchange, hidden in just a few words, would then proceed naturally:
Stop being a thief in the shadows! Be a law-abiding robber who breaks down doors! — Don't worry about the door, just grab this key and unlock it!
[Robber? That's easy to say, I don't know how to be a robber...] — But how do I use this key?
[Don't understand? If you don't understand, why don't you just ask?] — Ask the prisoners inside, you idiot!

Recalling the perilous situation he had just faced, Thales shook his head with a self-deprecating smile.

The situation on the field gradually calmed down from the sudden chaos and became clearer.

"boom!"

The first burly prisoner to storm the battlefield braced himself against a scimitar, uttered an unintelligible groan, and with a burst of speed, rammed into the enemy in a head-on collision.

He seemed never to stop, wielding the stolen weapons as he charged through the mercenaries, causing chaos and destruction wherever he went. But Thales noticed that his angles of attack were deliberate, each time achieving maximum results with minimal cost.

Caught off guard, the mercenaries roared in anger, but he managed to disrupt their formation and prevent them from organizing a decent multi-person defensive line.

“That’s Saul Brie, the youngest son of the Brie Viscount family. He looks like he’s regressed quite a bit—he used to be much better than this.”

The lazy voice from before rang out, seemingly indicating that he had nothing to do.

"He used to belong to the Guards' Wing, following Tony to protect the princes' safety."

Guardian Wings?
Thiel turned around curiously and found the same person who had just smiled at him: he stood beside Thiel, toying with a sword he had just taken, seemingly determined not to go anywhere.

But the prisoners in the royal guard were mostly dressed in slovenly clothes, and the prince couldn't immediately recall who they were.

In the distance, the burly Saul Brie, despite a cut on his shoulder, roared once again as he overpowered a mercenary who was trying to ambush him.

"But as you can see, Brie can be as fierce as a bear when he gets angry. We all think he should go to the Vanguard Wing—but when the Second Prince went north, he took the Sharp Knife Sosa with him, not him, perhaps because he thought he talked too much nonsense."

Amidst the fierce sounds of battle, the languid voice continued, and Thales suddenly remembered: this voice seemed to belong to the one who had sung in the prison earlier—

Footsteps rang out!

The prince's eyebrows twitched: a figure approached the speaker from behind and charged towards them.

"Small--"

But before Thales could even warn him, the lazy man shrugged and turned around as if he had eyes in the back of his head, just in time to avoid a blade flash coming from the side!
He parried the enemy's second attack, then cleanly kicked the man in the knee, and swung his sword the instant the mercenary lost his balance!

A spray of blood from the neck was drawn out in the air.

Thales's reminder stuck in his throat.

The lazy man turned around, wiped the blood from his chin, and flashed his front teeth at Thales as if nothing had happened:
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. I am Tai Naki.”

"The honorary earl of Everstar City, son of Davon Naki."

Naki pointed to himself, his expression languid, making even the brand on his left jaw seem less grotesque in comparison:
"Your Highness, please make sure you recognize me. If possible, it would be best if..."

Thales was stunned, but was interrupted by another sharp and sarcastic voice.

"Tai Naki, the most boring idler in the Guardian Wing."

It was another man. He walked past the two of them, revealing a sharp, sinister eye beneath his long hair. He stared fiercely at Naki, looking quite intimidating.

"You'll be in trouble if you spend too much time with him."

Naki stopped talking, rubbing his nose with a helpless expression.
Thales raised an eyebrow and saw this mean-spirited man clutching a dart that appeared out of nowhere. Facing a calamity swordsman wielding a shield, he hesitated to make a move until the opponent charged fiercely, at which point he nimbly dodged to the side.

The mercenary with the shield brushed past him, then his neck snapped to the side, like a mountain collapsing!
"thump!"

The mercenary collapsed to the ground, his breathing gradually ceasing.

He stared at the mean-looking man in front of him, his eyes wide with disbelief.

Thales was taken aback, only then realizing that a dart had somehow become stuck in the deceased's neck.

The gruff man who had thrown the dart crouched down, quickly stripping the enemy of their leather armor and weapons, tossing them far away to his unarmed comrades, not even sparing the darts stuck in the corpses:

"Speaking of which, Naki the Idle Man, why don't you lend a hand?"

Naki shrugged, oblivious to the situation, and declared confidently:
"Protecting is my duty..."

The mean-spirited man glared at Naki, then threw another dart, eliminating an enemy behind Brie who was charging ahead.

Seeing the other party turn and join the battle, Naki, the bystander, frowned, raised his hand to cover his mouth, and whispered to Thales in a tattletale tone:

“That’s Sass Nye, that damned second-in-command of logistics… Look at the way he kills people, he’s got that stingy, mercenary style of the logistics wing…”

“When we went on field missions before, he always found us the worst hotels, you know, the kind where the beer tasted like horse piss, the bards' songs sounded like pigs squealing, the beds felt like chopping boards, and the girls were touching big birds in those shady places…”

Thales could only raise his eyebrows.

Amidst the cacophony, the melee lasted no more than ten seconds.

The mercenaries were caught off guard and lost their leader, but the experienced mercenaries seemed to recover quickly and organize a counterattack, closing in on Thales. The burly Brie at the forefront immediately slowed down, and Nai's steps were also hindered.

But that was enough time for the other prisoners to get weapons and arm themselves.

A guard prisoner, covered in thick hair and resembling a "savage," caught the axe thrown by Nai from afar and swung it back at him!
The moment the "savage" clashed with the enemy, the axe in his hand trembled!
His enemies grinned maliciously.

This is their unique power of termination, as long as...

Thales was startled by what he saw, and then he remembered something important!

"Be careful, their end is..."

However, before Thales could speak, the "savage" lunged forward fiercely, crashing into the enemy's arms!
Amidst the enemy's unseeing gaze, the "savage" risked injury to cut him down, then rose and used the handle of his axe to knock back another man.

His fearlessness and ruthless methods effectively silenced Thales's concerns.

"Notice!"

The "savage" roared, alerting his companions: "Their power of termination is flawed—they're traitors from the Tower of Termination!"

"The Sword of Calamity!"

The mercenaries were all startled, seemingly surprised that their secrets had been exposed.

"Don't get entangled with them, go straight for the vitals and take them down in one blow!"

Amidst the echoes of the other prisoners, the fierce and tough "savage" faced his next enemy.

“Oh, this guy who’s rock hard all over, Luton Belletti,” Naki, who was sitting next to Thales, started chattering again.
“A distant relative of the famous Belletti family.”

"Sigh, he used to be a good person, just loafing around with us, waiting to die..."

Was it?
"Until the old captain unexpectedly promoted him to succeed Sackel as the commander of the Penal Wing."

Upon hearing that name, Thales' heart sank.

Naki, watching from afar as Belletti stood fiercely before the enemy like a wild beast, shook his head, as if chanting a song:

"There's always that one type of person who, after agreeing to be a complete jerk together, quietly rises to the top..."

"Leaving you alone to continue your pathetic demise..."

As he spoke, Naki's expression suddenly changed!
He took a step back and lunged at Thales, shoving the prince violently to the ground.

"Shh!"

Thales coughed and braced himself against the ground, and in his astonishment, he saw a hand axe sweep over their heads and smash into the wall.

"Don't worry, Your Highness."

Naki nonchalantly got off the prince, dusted himself off, and showed no remorse for having been attacked by the flying axe.
"We have specialists to handle these types of sniper attacks..."

Before he could finish speaking, Thales saw from afar that the mercenary who had thrown the axe at them widened his eyes and a sharp blade protruded from his chest!
As he was still trembling and touching his chest, a pair of thin arms reached out from behind him and dragged him, who was doomed, towards a corner.

Thales recognized the guard prisoner who had stabbed him in the back, the so-called "special agent":
Although he dragged the corpse with practiced ease, his expression was trembling with fear, his eyes wide with terror, his body hunched over, and he furtively glanced around as if afraid of being discovered. Thales recognized that terrified face.

It was the guard prisoner who recognized the Shadow Shield's footsteps in the darkness.

“That skinny monkey is Jonah Cannon, a scout on the Vanguard Wing, responsible for gathering intelligence, relaying messages, and detecting threats…” Naki chuckled as he pulled the prince to his feet, gesturing towards the cowering prisoner:
"A private soldier from the Starry Sky family, whose family is merely noble, but if you underestimate him because of that, he's capable of slitting your throat in the middle of the night..."

"If it weren't for a sudden cold, that guy would have joined the Starshine Legion and gone on a campaign with Duke John to quell the rebellion."

Naki's words carried a hint of emotion.

Thales stared in surprise at the thin and hunched Cannon, who had snatched a knife from his opponent and tossed it to the next man.

Another figure took the knife from Cannon and came into Thales's line of sight.

"Hahahaha!" That desolate laughter rang out again.

"The last time I swung my sword like this..."

This figure was strange, holding a knife in his left hand and a sword in his right. The knife in his left hand flashed sharply, while the sword in his right hand was menacing. The attacks alternated back and forth, dazzling and overwhelming.

"Still in Fuxing Palace..."

Blood splattered everywhere!
The prisoner, who had been laughing as he faced his enemies, sheathed his sword. His two opponents couldn't even mount a proper counterattack before collapsing, clutching their fatal wounds to their thighs and necks respectively.

He turned around, eagerly searching for his next target.

"The one who's laughing and fighting like this is Guti Tardin—the Tardin family is a prominent family in the Central Territory, one of the 'Seven Stars' like the Belletti family. His great-grandmother was even a princess, as you can tell from his flamboyant moves."

Naki looked at Tardin, who was brandishing swords and looking for fights, with envy, jealousy, and hatred in his eyes:
"But unfortunately, our Guti Tardin rejected his father's 'evil plot' and ultimately avoided the 'tragic fate' of inheriting the family business and becoming a happy parasite. Instead, he ran off to become a guard for noble love."

"Love?" Thales frowned.

"Yes, everyone knows that he is completely infatuated with Princess Constance..."

"Enough with the nonsense, Naki," Tardin, seemingly possessing exceptional hearing, shouted without turning his head, "I'll say it again, Naki!"

"I would be happy to help you get your kidneys checked!"

Naki flashed his front teeth, first giving Tardin an innocent smile, then, when Tardin wasn't looking, gave Thales a "See?" look.

Thales turned his gaze away from the former royal guards.

"Bear" Bree, who rampages and disrupts formations; Nye, the stingy logistics officer who cautiously throws deadly darts; Belletti, who tears apart his opponents like a beast; Cannon, the scout rider who lurks in the corner; Tardin, who wields a flurry of swords; and Naki, the lazy man who guards his side...

These six individuals, each with different skills and styles, worked together to scatter the three-times-numbered Blade of Calamity, leaving them in disarray.

Thales frowned.

This is... the royal guard of Starry Sky eighteen years ago?
“We’ve regressed quite a bit. If it were before, the royal guards would have formed a formation—ah, there’s jerky!” Nakin pursed his lips, rummaging through a corpse on the ground, letting out a happy groan.

Thales turned his gaze to the seventh person.

The calmest, most composed, and most unique man in the arena was simply a man holding a sword and shield, slowly walking through the center of the battlefield.

He was like a block of cold ice, unmoving in the face of danger, but suddenly bursting forth as he passed each pair of combatants, his sword and shield appearing like an avalanche of ice and snow!

As the man passed an enemy wrestling with Brie, his shield suddenly slammed down, striking the enemy squarely in the knee. The latter staggered back in pain, only to have his sternum crushed by a blow from Brie's hammer.

The third offensive strategy – the cold attack strategy.

Thales said quietly.

After passing Belletti, who was fighting two people, the man suddenly burst into the fray, his shield blocking an enemy's blade, while his longsword drew blood from another man's neck.

The third defensive style is the counter-attack style.

Thales clenched his fist: This was clearly a defensive stance, yet he was using it to attack.

Facing a menacing enemy, the man skillfully deflected his shield, causing the enemy to stumble. Then, Nai's dart came out of nowhere and pierced the latter's throat.

The first defensive stance – Iron Body Stance.

Thales pursed his lips: it was the first move he had learned.

The man passed a burly enemy. His first attack was so powerful that his sword slipped from his grasp. However, he seized the opportunity to release his grip on the sword, lunged into his enemy's arms, grabbed the shield with both hands, and smashed it down, denting the enemy's skull with the corner of the shield.

The sixth set of offensive techniques and the second set of defensive techniques—the stealth attack combined with the thunderbolt attack?

Thales recognized the two combined formulas and realized that they could be used in this way.

The blood-covered man picked up his longsword, and just as he turned around, a torch was smashed into him!

Sparks flew, igniting his clothes.

The enemy seized the opportunity and launched a fierce attack.

Thales felt a chill run down his spine.

But the burning man did not retreat an inch. Instead, he took a step forward with a roar, and, braving the flames and the opponent's longsword, unleashed a fierce shield bash!

"boom!"

The next second, the man's sword pierced the enemy's chin, slamming the back of his head against the wall. Only then did he push away the enemy's sword that had cut his arm and slowly brush off the sparks from his body.

The fifth offensive stance – the frontal stance?

No, it's also somewhat like the second offensive style—a flanking attack?

“Little Quill Barney,” Naki noticed Thales’s gaze and sighed softly:
"After Nolan Nur followed Horace north, the old captain appointed him as acting chief vanguard officer."

"There's not much to say. He's one of the few in the team, a top-tier expert on par with the guards Tony, Walker, and 'Skull,' and a terrifyingly obsessive person."

"And you can see that... he fights not with his body, but with his life. He was just as deadly eighteen years ago as he is eighteen years later."

Quill Barney Jr.

Thales stared blankly at the man with the sword and shield, watching him either cooperate with his companions or attack alone, efficiently and quickly taking down one person every few steps.

Every encounter was clean and decisive, a swift and efficient battle.

He was decisive and efficient, and never had a single opponent.

Thales was puzzled.

Yes.

It is also a sword technique used by the northern army.

But why, in the hands of this man before me, was it so...

Is it fatal?
"The Northland was once the Empire's most resilient bulwark, the gathering place of the first knights, and the origin of how scattered humanity united to fight against foreign enemies. This sword technique is a testament to that era filled with war and bloodshed, death and hope."

Before I knew it, a familiar voice came into view, steady yet cold.

Thales frowned and stared at the menacing-looking Barney.

"No matter who taught you this swordsmanship..."

“Seven offensive moves and three defensive moves, seven to three, and there’s a reason for that,” Little Quill Barney said, pulling his longsword from a corpse and gazing at Thales with a distant look.
"In those days, without the courage to fight to the death and take a desperate gamble..."

"Then this sword technique is meaningless."

"There would be no glorious and boundless human empire as we know it today."

At that moment, against the backdrop of bloodshed, Barney's gaze was menacing.

"The most primitive form of combat is not about arithmetic or comparing sizes, nor is it about fighting techniques or speed; it doesn't involve offense, defense, advance, or retreat..."

Barney glared at him fiercely.

"It's a fight to the death!"

“You might risk your life and still not win,” Thales listened intently to the other’s resolute words, “but if you’re not willing to risk your life, you’re bound to lose!”

"If we don't lose this time, we'll lose next time."

"A prince I don't know."

----

I've revised the first few chapters; you can go back and take a look.

It will be revised again in the next few days.

(End of this chapter)