Swords, magic, and martial arts

After hearing the female knight's words, Sven stood up, wiped away his tears, picked up his sword and shield, and said, "Then let's act quickly. Let's launch our attack under the cover of darkness and not let a single cultist escape."

"We should first inform the lord and have his army surround this place. If they outnumber us, we won't be a match for them," Weber said.

"If you're scared, then go and inform the lord," Sven said coldly.

"I think you should go. It's not about being brave or cowardly. You're blinded by hatred right now. If you go up there, you'll only lose your life for nothing. Besides, you're the only noble among us, and you've even met the local lord. You'll be more persuasive than us when you talk to him," Weber said calmly, without getting angry.

"I will not use that as an excuse to desert my post," Sven said angrily. "I will personally hand these cultists over to their god."

"I think he's right. Sven, you should go and inform the lord," the female knight said. "We're all counting on the reinforcements you've brought." Her voice was very pleasant, even more so than the female bard Rhodes had met in the tavern.

Sven hesitated, but ultimately agreed to their suggestion, "Then you must wait for me to come back before you take action. Without me, you are even less of a match for them. Protect Uncle Harvey's body."

"His body can be placed in Rhodes' spatial ring first, as it won't decompose there. Once all this is over, he can accompany you back to bury Harvey," Baron suggested.

Sven and the female knight agreed to Baron's suggestion, and then Sven rode the horse he had lent to Rhodes toward the lord's castle.

Rhode tidied up his spatial ring. He had almost used up his supplies before going to town, and with so many things happening in town, he had forgotten to replenish them, so there was still plenty of space in the ring. He found an empty spot and placed Harvey's remains into the ring's storage space.

After watching Sven ride away, Baron said, "Let's go up the mountain now. I have a feeling that the magical ritual up there is about to end. Once it's over, it will be too late."

"Aren't we waiting for Sven to return with reinforcements?" Rhodes asked.

"It will be too late by the time he gets back, and I have a bad feeling about it," Weber said.

"I also feel my warhammer groaning uneasily," Hammer said, though Rhodes thought he had heard them all say the same thing and was repeating something similar.

"I'll scout ahead," Weber said before disappearing into the darkness.

"Let's follow him," Baron said, walking forward.

I don't know how Baron was able to see Webber while he was in stealth, but Rhodes couldn't detect him at all.

Aside from dismantling a few bear traps and tripwires, Webber encountered no danger along the way.

The mountain wasn't as high as it looked. In about twenty minutes, the group reached the top of the mountain, where a large platform had been cleared out in the middle of the forest.

The platform is covered with intricate magical symbols and patterns, and in the very center of the platform is a high platform that looks like an altar.

A bright red mask floated in the center of the altar, and the red light in the sky emanated from this mask. The altar was surrounded by a dense crowd of people, but everyone's gaze was vacant and lifeless.

They must be the missing residents of the town, and it seems they are not only residents of Riverbridge, but also from other towns.

Looking around, a rough count shocked Rhodes; there were probably a thousand residents here. He wondered what methods the Cult of Death had used to control them all.

Besides the residents they need to rescue, there is also a person wearing a black and red priest's robe, seven werewolves, and three assassins dressed in black carrying short swords.

The werewolf and the assassin stood facing the priest, who was saying something. Rhode was too far away and couldn't read lips, so he didn't understand what the priest was saying.

The werewolf who had previously fought Harvey and was injured was also among them.

"You three dare to hunt down these members of the Cult of Death?" Rhode asked the female knight beside him. She hadn't removed her helmet, so Rhode didn't know what she looked like. But such a powerful knight must be all muscle; even if she were beautiful, just thinking about it made Rhode...

The female knight ignored Rhodes, still carefully observing the situation on the platform, thinking about the best way to launch a surprise attack.

"Weber, don't you know lip reading? What is that charlatan saying?" Hammer asked in a low voice.

"We already have one companion who has returned to the embrace of the great Lord," Weber repeated. "Now we will activate the magic circle to free these lost sheep from this hell on earth and bring them back to the embrace of the great Lord. When no one suffers in this hell anymore, we too can return to the Lord's embrace."

"The Cult of Death believes this world is a true hell, and they believe that every time they kill someone, they are helping that person to be freed from hell. The Cult of Death is what we call them; they claim to be the guides to heaven," the female knight explained to the group.

This was the first time Rod had ever heard of such a strange doctrine. This world was hell. Did he, who had traveled from a previous world, come to hell to suffer?

"They're about to begin, let's go straight for them," Baron shouted, watching the priests walk toward the altar.

After saying that, he picked up his giant axe and charged toward the cultists, with Hammer following closely behind him with his warhammer.

They're about to start fighting right away, without even exchanging a single word?

This time, Baron didn't hold back like he did with the bandits. With a chipped but still sharp axe blade, he cleaved a werewolf in two.

Previously, the female knight's all-out attack at the foot of the mountain could only cause a bloody wound on the werewolf's arm, which it used to block. However, Baron was able to directly cleave the werewolf and his arm in two, with blood splattering all over the sky like a blood rain. Baron was also drenched in blood, and now he looked like a bloodthirsty demon crawling out of hell.

He raised his blood-stained axe and attacked the other werewolves. Seeing the tragic state of their companion, the other werewolves dared not meet his attack head-on and could only use their agility to fight back.

Hammer, wielding a warhammer, was driving back a group of black-clad assassins. Unlike the assassin at the foot of the mountain, who used short swords to parry Hammer's attacks, these assassins didn't dare to use their weapons against him. Instead, they would strike once and then retreat to create distance, regardless of whether their blows hit or not.

Heavy weapons are still the best. I didn’t expect that Hammer, who always gets injured in battles, could take on a group of black-clad assassins by himself, even though these people were clearly not as strong as the one who killed Harvey.

Before Rhodes arrived at the battlefield, the situation had shifted to Baron holding the upper hand against six werewolves, while Hammer was evenly matched against four black-clad assassins. Meanwhile, Waver rushed to the vicinity of the altar to deal with the seemingly most powerful priest.

It's a mystery how Baron managed to hold off six incredibly fast werewolves all by himself without sustaining a scratch, while Hammer, fighting four of them, was repeatedly slashed and wounded by the enemies during his brief moments of attack.

"I'll go help the little stalker deal with that priest," the female knight said. "You go help the one with the hammer; his attacks are draining his stamina too quickly, he's already panting."

Rhodes nodded to her, then ran toward Hammer. When he arrived, he launched a sneak attack on a black-clad assassin who had been dodging Hammer's attack. Rhodes slashed a wound on the back of the black-clad assassin, forcing him out of the battle and beginning a one-on-one fight with him.

With Rhodes joining the fray, Hammer's advantage grew even stronger. He seized the opportunity, and his warhammer flew out of his hand, striking two assassins who were standing close together. The two assassins were struck by his warhammer and coughed up blood, unable to stand up again.

Having lost his warhammer, Hammer charged at the remaining assassin bare-handed. Although he was unarmed, his gloves and arm guards were made of high-quality steel, providing strong defense. The assassin's short sword could only leave a white mark on them.

However, Hammer's stamina had clearly decreased after this battle. Empty-handed, he could only fight the assassin to a standstill, and as time went on, he might actually lose the upper hand.

Rhode's one-on-one fight with the wounded assassin was not easy. The assassin was experienced in combat and could predict Rhode's attack direction based on his eye movements before he could make a move, and then defend and counterattack accordingly.

Rhodes felt as if the assassin had seen right through him. This assassin was able to keep him on the defensive. If it weren't for his Iron Shirt and the tattered but still somewhat protective iron armor he was wearing, he might have been killed several times over. As the fight went on, Rhodes became increasingly impatient.

This can't go on. To defeat him, I must catch him off guard. But this kind of battle is also the best time to hone my swordsmanship. As long as I'm a little careful, I won't get hurt. If I upgrade my basic swordsmanship to level 3 and add a special ability, I'll definitely be able to defeat him easily, Rhodes thought to himself.

……