Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 143 Chance Encounter
"Die."

The blood-stained holy sword was already being wielded, its holy light nearly exhausted.

Compared to the past, without infinite holy power, Rean's every Evil Slash consumes his own power.

Compared to the past, he must adjust his tactics and conserve his strength.

For the first time, he experienced the weakness of Suer's swordsmanship. In the end, it was an enhancement of the Evil-Slaying Slash, which also meant that more holy power would be required!

The paladin, panting heavily, had been cornered, and the dimming holy light revealed his weakness.

The well-equipped slave warriors swarmed forward, ready to send him to his death.

"ELDER (The Furnace Fire!)"
But unlike the other paladins who were besieged, Rean had another pool of magic power!

Flames descended from the sky.

The furnace fire expanded before their eyes, directly creating a pool of lava.

The approaching gray dwarves and beastman slaves were caught in the crossfire and engulfed in flames.

"Ahhh!"

Amidst screams, Rean gained a precious moment to catch his breath.

The sea of ​​fire separated him from the other attackers, allowing him to recover both mentally and physically.

Rean was increasingly grateful for Kuku's gift; the Dragon Word magic was truly useful.

Especially in terms of instant casting and armor-piercing spells, it is a truly practical combat magic designed for the battlefield.

The dying flames gave him a moment to catch his breath, but through the sea of ​​fire, the mind flayer's dark eyes remained fixed on him.

The monster was still waving the tentacles on its face.

It seems to be saying, "I'll wait for the fire to go out, and then overwhelm you with sheer numbers."

But Rean laughed. He ran his thumb across his neck, making a gesture that even intelligent beings could understand.

"Kill him!" The silent roar echoed across the battlefield as the mind flayer eagerly devoured the paladin's brain!

This paladin can actually launch sneak attacks! He's definitely a rare mutant!

And while it uses its spiritual power to lash out at its slaves, forcing them to advance through the flames.
"Boom!"

Its army was attacked from behind.

The six-armed paladin brandished her magic sword and charged ahead, while behind her, the spellcaster's murmurs echoed.

"Fireball!" With a delicate shout, an orange-red fireball drifted over.

"Boom!" An explosion like a mortar, flames spreading like an incendiary bomb.

A dozen slaves were blown away, and the unfortunate ones on the periphery were forced to retreat.

This area-of-effect spell, considered a symbol of mages, remains as effective in actual combat as ever, however...
"Do we have any mages with a third ring or higher in our team? Is it Victoria?" Rean was a little surprised, as he didn't think alchemists were particularly good at combat magic.

The next moment, Rean looked at the flames dissipating from Suliman's hand.

Rean noticed the blank look in her eyes and sighed.

This child is sick, and I'm afraid it's incurable.

But now is not the time to think about these things. Rean took a deep breath and charged directly at the somewhat panicked mind flayer!

"Die, you blasphemous thing with tentacles on your face."

A pincer attack is a good thing; enjoy, brain-eating monster!
"Demon-Slaying Slash!" This time, the holy power squeezed out was the final Demon-Slaying Slash.

Five minutes later, all that remained on the ground were the dead slaves and the mangled corpses of the mind flayers.

Rean sat to the side, letting Larry help bandage his wound. And I must say, she was quite skilled at it.

Rean also checked on the others. The candidates for Heroic Souls were all in good condition, but they all looked tired.

"The second sneak attack failed, didn't it? Let's stop here."

Purple Rose smiled and offered her senior's advice.

It was clear that she had been maintaining restraint.

It's both about hiding your presence from troublesome opponents and giving newcomers experience to hone their skills.

"Hmm," Rean put down his sword, looked at his hands, and seemed to be deep in thought.

He felt something within his body about to burst forth.
"You're about to advance? Your oath must be related to eradicating evil, right?" "No. Wait a minute."

Rean closed his eyes and recalled that when he killed those mind flayers, he did indeed feel the reward of his oath.

Eradicating evil is the holy knight's duty, and fulfilling this duty will bring stable benefits on this path, but Rean's feedback is clearly beyond what is normal.

Especially after beheading the spirit-absorbing monster, the Holy Power actually increased significantly, and the improvement of the Knight's Path seemed to be a bit excessive.

[I swear to fight to the death for humanity and the very limits of human nature!] It seems that only the third oath is currently in effect.

"It seems that mind flayers are seen as enemies of 'humanity'."

It is only natural that it is regarded as "the enemy of man" because it constantly devours human brains and emotions.

The rewards for Rean's paladin path from slaying these mind flayers were somewhat beyond his expectations.

It seems he no longer needs to return to Radiant City for further study (paladins usually find a church to pray and meditate, and complete certain training to help break through their bottlenecks). He only needs to find a place to rest and recuperate before moving on to the next step.

It seems that the classical paladins also have some advantages; Rean doesn't really need the gods' permission or help.

Although progress is much slower in theory, as long as you keep "eliminating evil," your progress will be quite stable.

"I get the feeling that the path of a paladin is quite brutal, all they do is kill, kill, kill." Rean's words were something an ordinary paladin probably wouldn't dare to say, as it would be somewhat blasphemous.

"You're only finding out now?" Kuku had something to say. As an "evil kobold," he had suffered greatly at its hands.

He couldn't even remember how many paladins he'd seen who drew their swords first and then tried to communicate (because they couldn't win).

In his mind, paladins were even more manic than berserkers and barbarians, often displaying unreasonable and aggressive behavior.

But this is also a stereotype in another sense: ordinary warriors and berserkers can "coexist with evil," while paladins and evil creatures will eventually have to fight to the death.

Since a fight is inevitable, it's best to strike first.

"Let's take a break. This tactic is no longer effective," Rean, who had somehow become the captain, made the assessment.

There was no need for a third attempt. The failure of two consecutive sneak attacks, leading to a full-scale assault, meant that Rean and his group's hunting methods had most likely become ineffective.

"It must be an intelligence leak. Who would randomly cast sonic spells?"

This area is probably outside the scope of the mainframe, so there's no reason for mind flayers to be able to communicate in real time. However, as long as someone brings information back to the mainframe, the mainframe can spread the information to every mind flayer as much as possible.

In a sense, each mind flayer is a branch of the mainframe and also its signal base station.

"But this also shows that we hurt them. Heh, at least two of the five mind flayers we killed had advanced in rank. These monsters, which could normally kill great warriors, died such a humiliating death. The mainframe must be heartbroken."

As a paladin, Rean also had to take on the task of boosting morale.

How to encourage them? Just shout "Win! Win! Win!" To maintain high team morale, keep repeating "Winning Principles" until they are defeated.

Rean was telling the truth. The results were there for all to see; everyone had amassed a lot of loot, and the mind flayer's belongings were all quite valuable.

“Indeed, if this continues, we’ll suffer a great loss.” Seeing that Rean’s words had been agreed upon by the others, Purple Rose smiled and affirmed it.

"Based on my understanding of these octopuses, once they've confirmed that we're hunting his lone team, they'll definitely set traps to lure us in. We might encounter three to five mind flayers in our next ambush."

As she spoke, she gestured.

"They also have spatial teleportation capabilities. Maybe halfway through a fight, two or three of them will suddenly pop out."

Rean gasped. Despite his smooth hunt, he realized it was all due to the shameless tactic of "warriors using shields to overpower magic users".

It really turned into a positional war, with mind flayers huddling together in groups, not much different from spellcasters banding together.

At that time, they will use slaves to wear you down, then interfere with and weaken you with their mental abilities, and occasionally unleash a few high-level mental powers, which will be quite deadly.

"How about we notify the other teams?"

“No, they’ll think you have a conspiracy to swallow them up and seize control.” Victoria replied immediately, her voice full of resentment, as if she had suffered a loss before.

"Let's take a break first. Is there a suitable place nearby?" Everyone agreed. A team without a priest would indeed have some problems in terms of sustained combat.

Surprisingly, after comparing the maps, there were indeed suitable supply points.

"The Spider-Man's village isn't far away." Although the Spider-Man and the main force have returned to the surface, the houses they left behind are still more comfortable than camping outside, and the higher ground will also make nighttime less troublesome.

But as soon as he arrived at the village, Rean regretted it a little. The village was not deserted; some people had already arrived.

"Horned disciples of the Beast Order? And dark elves too. Why are they chatting together? Didn't Mosodirka put a bounty on those horned disciples?" It seems that their arrival is not quite appropriate.

(End of this chapter)