Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 407 Monster
His original name was John, a very common name.

He vaguely remembered that he used to live in a small village outside Gray Rock Fortress.

The house was drafty, my mother had a bad cough, and my father died in the winter of the year the mine collapsed.

Later, when there was a food shortage, some people in the village started sending their children to "Ciyuan" (a local charity school), saying that at least they could eat their fill there.

He was among the last batch sent in. At that time, his mother was on her last breath and told him to be good and live well.

When he arrived at that place, he did enjoy good food and drink for a while, and at that time he still believed that the person in the white robe under the lamp was kind.

Until one day, he was pinned to a metal table.

Cold instruments, restraint rings, needles piercing his spine... his cries were choked in his throat, as if he were being sunk to the bottom of the water.

Then, the sound disappeared.

Pain is cut off, memories are emptied, and names are erased.

Only number 2371 remains.

His world was reduced to just a few words.
Climb upwards, kill everything in your way, destroy...

Early this morning, he was pulled out of the cage, and a metal tube was inserted into the interface between his sternum and collarbone. When the medicine was pushed in, his whole body felt like it was being ignited from the inside by burning coals.

The bottle of dark red potion was more murky than ever before.

The tubing vibrated beneath his skin.

The blood felt like it had been injected with something unfamiliar.

My heart was forcibly accelerated, my stomach was convulsing, and my sense of smell and hearing were in complete disarray.

This is just a sample after the final step of the process.

The command buzzed in Number 2371's mind: Climb up, climb up, climb up...

So he lay on the black steel stone of the capital city wall, his limbs spread out in reverse, his movements like a giant gecko whose vocal cords had been removed.

The fingernail dug into the rock crevice, making a soft "click" sound that was almost inaudible.

Number 2371 smelled the scent of blood... that smell made the black mist in his chest restless.

A thin red mist seeped from beneath his skin, coursing along his blood vessels to his limbs, surging like a living thing.

That was a completely distorted, blood-red battle aura.

With each heartbeat, the crimson mist spreads half an inch around him, tinging the shadows of the city wall with red.

His forearm muscles were taut and deformed, and scaly tissue could be vaguely seen trying to grow under his skin.

Like the remnant soul of some ancient dragon, it growled within him.

The medicine was still heating up.

He occasionally experiences a brief emptiness in his chest, like a moment when his heart forgets to beat.

His breathing became shallower and shallower, and his shoulders and back twitched slightly from time to time.

These are all signs of the "final dose".

At this dose, survival is limited to a maximum of two days.

But he doesn't understand this knowledge, nor does he need to.

He only needed to carry out the orders that Raymond had personally nailed into his consciousness.

Climb upwards.

Kill everything that stands in your way.

destroy.

So he continued climbing, his knuckles rubbing sparks from the black steel stone.

Suddenly, a stream of scalding liquid poured down from above.

The acid, the saliva of the green dragon, is so potent that a normal human would turn into a pool of blood before even having a chance to scream. Even the battle aura of an elite knight would be corroded by this acid.

However, number 2371 did not move.

No, it can only be said that this attack couldn't even activate his surface-level instincts.

The acid dripped onto his shoulders and back, his skin hissing shrilly.

But in the next instant, the hidden power within him surged forth as if enraged, his bones cracking...

Under the cover of crimson battle aura, gray-black keratinous scales grew wildly in an instant, like the remnants of the ancient bloodline of the dragon awakening beneath the skin.

The scales not only hardened, but also shimmered with a metallic sheen, like a second exoskeleton born for battle.

The acid was immediately blocked on the surface upon contact, leaving only pale white smoke where it fell.

Once a scale is corroded, a new one immediately grows out.

It is corroded again, and then it regenerates.

Number 2371 felt no pain; he was simply following orders... and continued climbing.

Suddenly, the lights above the city wall came on.

That was a sign that the magic array was being activated.

The golden lightning patterns of divine protection exploded above his head, and the lightning-like magic scorched his scales, making a sizzling sound, like roasting a piece of meat.

The lightning bolt pierced through his spine and body; any knight would have been struck so hard that his breathing would have become disordered, his senses would have collapsed, and he would have even bled from all seven orifices.

But number 2371 only paused for less than half a heartbeat.

His muscles and bones quickly adapted and strengthened in the lightning, and even began to memorize the trajectory of the current, further reducing the damage of the next lightning strike, but his movements did not stop.

He didn't even know what pain was.

Where the scales were burned by lightning, new scales quickly grew back, stronger than before.

Nearly.

The array node for the Divine Protection Array is located above; it is a silver artifact embedded in the city wall, engraved with intricate patterns.

Number 2371 raised his palm, which was no longer a fingernail, but the prototype of a dragon claw.

"Snap!" A metal buckle securing the joint snapped off.

He looked up and bit the exposed magic stone with his teeth.

The sharp fangs bit down deeply, and with a "crack!" magic exploded in his mouth.

The array nodes were forcibly severed.

In that instant, the magic of some of the surrounding nodes was completely paralyzed, as if a giant beast had bitten off its spine.

The mage on the wall froze, exclaiming, "Monster... monster—!"

Before his scream could even escape his throat, Number 2371's vertical pupils had already risen and locked onto his position.

…………

The knights were initially horrified by the group of dragon-blooded youths scaling the wall, but their fear was quickly overwhelmed by a deeper tremor...

Because the darkness outside the city is being torn apart by the new, more orderly sound of iron hooves.

It was the sound of the knights marching in unison.

Thousands upon thousands... more and more armor reflected the faint light of the night, like a tide pressing down on the walls of the imperial capital.

An elderly knight stood behind the arrow stacks. Although his eyesight was not as sharp as it had been in his youth, the intuition he had honed on the battlefield was more accurate than any eagle's eye.

He suddenly grabbed the arm of the knight beside him, his voice trembling: "Look...over there!"

The thick fog was dispersed by the air currents that swept across the area.

Below the city, a flag, tattered and mottled from being scorched by flames, yet still majestic, unfurled in the wind.

Dark gold dragon patterns, dragon wings outstretched, dragon claws gripping the imperial longsword.

Only the royal family's legitimate personal guards were entitled to display it.

A deathly silence fell over the city wall in an instant.

The flag was raised by a tall knight himself.

He took off his helmet, revealing a face that no old knight in the capital would ever forget.

Time has etched deep marks on his face, but his eyes remain as sharp as a knife.

He roared, his voice piercing through the rain: "I am—Karen August!"

The name exploded like thunder on the city wall.

"Back when I was holding back the beast tide at the border, many of you stood right behind me!" He pointed to the dragon flag in his hand, his voice tearing through the air: "Now, for a few blood-stained gold coins given to you by that beast! You want to shoot arrows at this flag?"

A knight on the city wall suddenly loosened his fully drawn bowstring, and the arrow flew off course, grazing the stone crenellations.

The deputy commander of the Fifth Army Corps stood atop the city wall, his armor adorned with elaborate decorations, and the greed in his eyes shone brighter than the firelight.

He accepted the money from Rhine, but also the death order, and roared, "Don't listen to his nonsense! He's a traitor! I order you to shoot! Whoever kills him will be rewarded with ten thousand gold pieces!!"

However, the rain of arrows... remained sparse.

Some knights hesitated, while others lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at the dragon banner, and still others had already quietly lowered their arrows from the bowstring.

It was in that brief moment of hesitation that things happened.

A deafening roar came from outside the city.

More than 10,000 border knights surged onto the capital city like a tidal wave!
The dragon-blooded youths climbed silently, while the real steel storm rushed in head-on.

"rush!"

Kalen waved the dragon flag, his voice booming as if he were declaring war on the heavens.

His warhorse reared up and neighed in the night.

More than 10,000 knights roared and charged with him, their fighting spirit igniting like flames in the darkness, illuminating every wavering face on the city wall.

The city walls were in complete chaos.

…………

The first group of dragon-blooded youths who climbed up the wall have already scaled its edge.

They moved with incredible speed, as if they were launched by a silent string, driven only by an intense killing intent.

As soon as they landed, their crimson battle aura exploded.

It was as if someone had suddenly splashed a bucket of blood around them; the misty blood vapor swept through the air, causing the nearby knights to feel a tightness in their throats, as if they were being squeezed and unable to breathe.

These teenagers... are clearly not even sixteen or fifteen years old.

Yet the crimson battle aura was as thick as that of an elite knight who had experienced a hundred slaughters.

Their appearance was more like that of someone from a cursed abyss—their faces were covered with gray-black scales.

His eyes were lifeless with vertical pupils, his mouth revealed fine fangs, and faint black runes pulsed beneath his skin.

All of this tells the Imperial Knights that this is no longer human.

A knight reacted swiftly, swinging his sword horizontally and cleaving a charging youth in two at the waist.

But just as the blade was about to pierce his body, the boy grabbed the sword with his other hand.

Scales flew like swords, and blood flowed down.

But he felt no pain, no hesitation, and no retreat.

Instead, he used the momentum of the sword blade embedding itself in his body to propel himself forward: "Ugh—!"

He threw himself onto the knight's chest, his fangs biting deep into the knight's carotid artery!
A jet of blood gushed out, drawing a terrifying arc in the air.

The knight's fighting spirit exploded in despair, but it was unable to shake off this crazed body.

Three knights nearby rushed forward at the same time, but they were all a moment too slow.

The boy, like a hungry wolf, tore off the knight's throat.

The blood splattered on his face only intensified his blood-red fighting spirit.

"Monster...monster!!" someone screamed.

Some stumbled backward and knocked down their comrades; many more could not hold their weapons, their hands trembling.

Another dragon-blooded youth charged straight at the spear.

The spear tip pierced his abdomen, but he didn't stop for a second.

His intestines were ripped open, but he slid down the shaft of the spear towards the knight, then grabbed the knight's helmet with his five fingers and pulled hard with both hands.

"Crack——!"

The knight's armor was pried open, and his head was twisted off.

The next second, he pulled out the spear stuck in his abdomen, and with a swing of his hand, he swept it out like a club, sending a knight flying off the city wall!
Blood rained down, and howls rose and fell.

As the horde of monsters surged forward, the psychological defenses of the capital's defenders were instantly torn open with a massive breach.

"I didn't come here... to fight to the death..."

"Don't come any closer!! Don't come any closer!!"

Some people broke down and threw down their weapons and started to run away, some knelt down and prayed, and some fell while retreating and were trampled by their companions.

But the dragon-blooded boy showed no joy.

They simply continued to execute the implanted commands.

Upward, kill, destroy... even becoming increasingly frenzied until the last drop of life is consumed.

…………

At this moment, the city walls of the capital truly began to crumble.

Taking advantage of the chaos on the city wall, the prince's guards set up a ladder at the foot of the wall, and the second prince was the first to jump up the ladder with his sword.

An arrow grazed his cheek and pierced his ear, but he didn't even blink.

Then the commander of the Fifth Legion on the city wall looked at the blood-soaked, demon-like Second Prince and dared not look any longer. He recalled the passion he had felt when he charged with the Second Prince at the border.

He also realized that the check the fourth prince had given him would probably never be cashed.

The storm howled on the city walls, and arrows flew wildly in the dark fog and rain, but what truly shattered this section of the defense line was not the enemy's offensive, but the fear that had been torn apart in the hearts of the defenders themselves.

One of the guard knights finally couldn't take it anymore.

He dropped his longsword and knelt heavily in the blood, tears mingling with the rain as they streamed down his face.

"Your Highness! We can surrender! Don't kill us... I used to fight alongside you!"

The sound was like the mournful cry of a dying beast.

He thought the second prince would stop and pardon him as he had done in the past, after all, he was just an ordinary knight who had been coerced.

But the person who came was not the Second Prince.

Three dragon-blooded youths landed in front of him without warning.

Their movements were as light as shadows, yet carried a nauseating power.

They don't have the concept of surrender; their world has only one command... kill!

Before the knight could even scream, three dragon-blooded youths pounced on him simultaneously. The sounds of fingernails, fangs, and violent tearing were especially clear against the backdrop of the rain.

Flesh and blood burst open between the gaps in the armor, and shattered bone fragments splattered on the stone bricks like carelessly discarded debris.

His pupils were dilated and turned upwards before he died, his last glance still seeking the Second Prince's pardon.

Kalein walked past his body without even glancing at it.
His boots sank into the warm, bloody mud as he continued climbing, as if he were walking up his own stairs.

The supervising officers drew their swords, attempting to form a defensive line. One of them roared, "Stop them! Hold them off..."

Before they could finish speaking, Kalein had already arrived.

His sword light, imbued with fighting spirit, traced a silver line through the rain.

With a diagonal slash, the bodies of the three overseeing knights instantly split open, cleaving diagonally from their chests to their abdomens.

The armor broke, blood splattered in the rain, and several pieces of the corpse tumbled down the slope.

Kalein raised the broken tip of his sword, his voice as cold and hard as iron being pulled from a furnace: "Charge in."

His voice wasn't loud, but it overwhelmed all the storms.

"Leave no one behind!"

This statement was like igniting gunpowder.

In the next instant, the dragon-blooded youth, the border cavalry, and the deserter knight all surged towards the breach like a flood.

The entire city defense line collapsed amidst a humming sound, and the stone surface vibrated from being trampled.

The ladder was pushed against the wall, and the metal hooks gripped the edge of the stack firmly.

Hundreds and thousands of knights began to climb, their armor clashing and making heavy thuds.

Rainwater streamed down their armor plates, but it could not wash away the blood and killing intent.

(End of this chapter)