Nightmare Despair

Chapter 116 A Candle of Life
The steel-core bullet, capable of easily tearing Elizabeth apart and even blasting through the armored vehicle's deck, struck the enemy's lance, exploding in a blinding burst of sparks and leaving only a shallow crater.

Zhou Kai immediately imagined ten thousand alpacas galloping through his mind.

This is a slap in the face.

However, the terrifying strength displayed by this heavily armored knight was far from over.

After deflecting the bullet with his lance, the tall figure rode his horse in a half-circle, then suddenly looked up and, from over two hundred meters away, precisely locked his gaze in the direction from which the bullet had come.

Zhou Kai froze.

He was exposed.

Realizing that shooting was useless, Zhou Kai quickly put away his weapon and changed position.

But the knight's movements were too fast, graceful as a startled swan, and lithe as a swimming dragon.

It sat firmly astride the giant skeletal horse, raising its exaggeratedly shaped lance high as if to throw it.

The next second, its arm muscles suddenly tensed up, like a heavy catapult fully charged with power, and swung it forward fiercely.

boom!
A giant, nearly ten-meter-long steel spear transformed into a steel comet tearing through the air, hurtling towards them!
A long-lost feeling of suffocation enveloped Zhou Kai.

However, his reaction was just as fast as the knight's reaction to parrying the bullet.

At this level of speed, unless you anticipate it in advance and know that the knight has such a mechanism, you can only rely on reaction to block. Unless your strength increases further, you will be able to dodge.

In an instant, Zhou Kai's face contorted in rage, and the muscles all over his body bulged and twisted like the gnarled roots of an old tree.

"Drink!"

With his muscles straining to their limits, Zhou Kai roared out.

He suddenly drew his two-handed greatsword and swung it with all his might at the enormous creature that had already charged towards his face.

boom! Click!
The broad, heavy sword clashed with the even heavier lance.

The metallic clang of the sword bending and the crisp sound of bones shattering on the right side of his body rang out almost simultaneously.

Zhou Kai was like a leaf caught in a storm, flying backwards.

The momentum of the cavalry was like that of a thousand troops, unshakeable.

Zhou Kai didn't even have time to activate the chariot's engravings. His desperate attempt to block only caused the lance to deflect slightly.

The lance struck the greatsword at an acute angle, blasting his right shoulder, right arm, and even the right half of his body until they collapsed limply and finally sank into a nearby building.

Zhou Kai flew more than ten meters before landing hard on the branch of a crooked tree, his whole body wracked with pain.

His expression was contorted, and he couldn't recover for a long time.

Zhou Kai stared blankly at the buildings affected by the flood, dozens of meters away.

The house looked as if it had been hit head-on by a heavy mortar shell; half of the wall had collapsed, and billowing smoke and dust filled the air.

Did I get taught a lesson by both forehand and backhand attacks?
But isn't the caliber a bit too different?
Zhou Kai's buttocks were still stuck in the tree branch.

He threw away the greatsword, which was bent at an acute angle, and then used his free hand to slide down the tree branch to the ground.

His vitality was working hard to repair his body; his strength was gradually returning, and his injuries were healing.

With half of his body mangled, Zhou Kai had no chance of regaining his mobility in just a few minutes.

"But... it should be alright."

Zhou Kai scanned his surroundings; he had cleared the area and it was safe.

If he's lucky, he can hold out until his injuries heal.

But all of this is based on one premise.

"That thing won't come after us..."

Zhou Kai's heart tightened as he stared intently at the direction of the manor's mist.

After a dozen or so breaths, he let out a long sigh.

The thing didn't move; it seemed trapped in the mist of that area, unable to get out.

"That's settled then, you don't have a second lance, do you?"

Zhou Kai struggled to sit up, intending to return to the shelter as soon as he recovered.

The next moment, Zhou Kai's heart, which had just settled down, jumped into his throat again.

"Huh? This thing is actually alive?"

A series of clicking and scraping sounds came from the ruins of a building dozens of meters away, creating an eerie noise.

A swift, silvery shadow wriggled and crawled out of the ruins. That thing was the lance the knight had thrown.

On the sides of the lance, metal slits split open, and four or five pairs of slender segments were forced out, supporting the lance and moving like a stick insect magnified hundreds of times.

After it climbed out, it immediately turned around and swiftly rushed back towards the knight.

Zhou Kai's face instantly turned even darker than Lao Da's.

"It's not considered open if it's not closed, right?!"

The lance will be returned to its original position within ten seconds.

At that time, Zhou Kai would face a second lance attack.

If he takes another shot in his current semi-crippled state, he'll be completely crippled and then just wait to die.

Fortunately, Zhou Kai had a plan in mind. He raised his only intact left hand and snapped his fingers.

Hey!
The snap of fingers, stained with blood and dirt, was sticky and slippery, but it still made a sound.

laugh!
[The Gift of Foul] suddenly burst forth with dazzling brilliance.

This is different from the usual fire.

This time, Zhou Kai replaced the wick of the oil lamp with one made of gastrodia elata.

Thus, the flame of the oil lamp was given a new name.

[A Vital Illumination]!!

It consumes both the wick and fuel to produce a burst of intense flame and possesses near-miraculous regenerative abilities.

Under the candlelight.

In the very first second, the shattered bones healed!

The second second, the severed tendon was reconnected!

In the third second, the rotten flesh regenerated!

In the fourth second, the organs were revived!

In just six seconds, the oil lamp dimmed instantly, almost going out.

In return, Zhou Kai's flattened half of his body swelled up again like a balloon.

Tatata!
Zhou Kai grabbed the sharp-angled two-handed sword and then picked up the Dark Annihilation sword, which had been broken in two.

Zhou Paopao is making a limited-time return.

The chariot markings that hadn't had a chance to activate before finally erupted.

The ground beneath Zhou Kai's feet cracked, and he seemed to be accelerating like he was on nitrous oxide, frantically maneuvering across the town's roads, leaving trails of afterimages.

……

The edge of the manor shrouded in mist.

The stick insect-like lance arched its body, affectionately rubbed against the knight's gauntlet, and then obediently transformed back into its weapon form.

The knight raised his lance again, aiming at the spot where Zhou Kai had just been.

But Zhou Kai was already prepared, employing a variety of Z-steps, S-shaped movements, and backflips, his positions constantly shifting unpredictably.

The knight aimed for a long time but couldn't lock on, and Zhou Kai's figure had already disappeared, so he finally gave up on shooting.

It tugged at the whip, and the skeletal giant horse let out a shrill roar, taking a step as if to break free of the mist.

It seems this knight actually intends to personally hunt down Zhou Kai.

However, the horse's head had barely peeked out of the mist by half a foot.

The thin mist instantly thickened, transforming into countless gray-white tentacles that suddenly lashed out, binding the horse's legs and the knight's armor, forcibly dragging them back into the depths of the mist.

……

[Successfully escaped from a powerful enemy, avoiding death – a resounding victory! Chariot Mark Experience +1]

Zhou Kai slammed the door shut, leaned against the bolt, and gasped for breath.

His lungs, which had just been repaired, were burning with pain, but he couldn't care less.

He only cares about one thing.

Will that RPG-like lance fly back again? Will that freakish knight chase after us out of the fog?

(End of this chapter)