Swords, magic, and martial arts

An adventurer with a thick beard dragged a greatsword and charged at Rhodes. With a roar, he swung the greatsword at Rhodes. Rhodes felt that if he tried to block with his short sword, it might shatter. He instinctively rolled away from the attack, but before he could stand up, the greatsword was already in front of him again.

"What are you doing?" Rod asked loudly while dodging.

The adventurer silently continued his attack on Rhodes, his greatsword slashing at him relentlessly like a fan, giving him no chance to use his spellball.

Rhodes suffered from the shortness of his weapon. This adventurer was very experienced in combat and always deliberately controlled the distance between them, so Rhodes' short sword could not reach him at all.

However, he had already figured out how to deal with this adventurer. With such continuous attacks, the adventurer's stamina would definitely be depleted quickly. Moreover, he had fought with the ghoul for a while before. As long as his stamina was exhausted and his openings became more numerous, he could easily win.

However, this adventurer was like a monster. After more than ten minutes, although he was panting heavily, his attacks continued like waves.

If Rhode hadn't been worried that the short sword would be cut in half by the adventurer's greatsword, he would have used the White Rainbow Sword Technique, which uses stillness to control movement, long ago.

The adventurer feinted with his sword, and Rhodes instinctively jumped back to dodge. However, this was just a feint, and the adventurer quickly closed in and unleashed a powerful strike. Rhodes could only raise his short sword to parry.

The two swords clashed with a loud sound, and a piece of metal flew into the air. Rhodes initially thought it was a piece of his short sword that had been knocked off, but he found it was from the adventurer's greatsword. His greatsword had a large chip in it, and then with a "crash," half of the greatsword shattered and scattered on the ground, leaving only the hilt and a piece of the broken sword.

However, Rhodes was wielding his sword with one hand when he was parrying, and the adventurer wielding the sword with both hands made his wrist go numb. He lost his grip on the short sword, and it was knocked away.

The adventurer quickly dropped his broken sword and punched Rhodes. Rhodes couldn't help but smile when he saw this, and easily blocked the adventurer's punch.

He used the Taizu Long Fist and threw a punch. The adventurer directly chose to meet Rhode's fist with his own, and a "crack" sound of bones breaking was heard. The adventurer groaned in pain. Having suffered a great loss, he wanted to step back and pick up Rhode's short sword.

Rhodes changed his fist into a grab, pulled the adventurer's arm in front of him, and used his other hand to strike the adventurer's face with the Taizu Long Fist.

The adventurer's face was distorted from the blow, and most of his teeth were broken. He endured the pain and kicked Rhodes hard. The distance was too close, and Rhodes couldn't dodge the kick at all.

A sharp pain shot through his lower abdomen, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. This adventurer, who was as strong as a bear, was truly powerful. If he hadn't had his Iron Shirt and Golden Bell Shield, he might have been killed by that kick.

Rhode retrieved the mother-and-child throwing knives from his system space, held them in his hand, and stabbed them toward the adventurer's throat. The adventurer dodged by tilting his head, and Rhode slashed back, cutting a large gash on his neck, but he did not cut the trachea or artery.

The adventurer grabbed Rhodes' shoulders with both hands and rammed his head into Rhodes, who was shorter than him. Rhodes was very familiar with this move, and he slammed his neck back in response.

The two men's heads collided. Although Rhodes had an invincible shield, he still felt a headache and dizziness, while the adventurer saw stars and fell to the ground. He struggled to get up but fell down again.

Rod grabbed his neck, held a throwing knife to his throat, and asked in a deep voice, "Why did you kill him?"

"Are you an idiot? Didn't you see that door can only let one person through at a time?" the adventurer mumbled, his teeth knocked out by Rhodes, making his speech slurred.

Rod tilted his head and looked inside, noticing it was another one of those doors. He asked, "Then why didn't you just rush through the door?"

The adventurer paused for a moment, then said fiercely, "Enough nonsense. Kill me or do whatever you want, but you'd better just stab me in the neck."

Rhodes was somewhat amused and exasperated. How could someone so fierce be so lacking in intelligence? Does becoming stupid make one stronger, or does getting used to reasoning with fists make one stupid?

Rhodes didn't really want to kill him, but leaving him there to starve to death was even worse, which put him in a dilemma.

Aya picked up the short sword that had been knocked away earlier, walked over, and said, "Why didn't you just kill him?"

If Rhodey were to kill him during a fierce battle, he could do it. However, when he was no longer able to resist, influenced by movies and TV series like Green Arrow and Batman, Rhodey found it difficult to do so.

The adventurer, pinned to the ground, burst into laughter, his once-white teeth now stained red with blood. "What are you pretending to be compassionate for? You think you're kind and benevolent? You're just a pathetic coward. If you have the guts, look me in the eye and give me a quick and painless cut on the neck."

Rhodes stared into the adventurer's eyes, while the adventurer looked at him with a mocking smile.

"No, I think I should throw you into the river to feed the mermaids. I wonder if you'll still be laughing then." Rhodes gave him a strange smile.

"Aya, strip those adventurers of their clothes and tie their hands and legs up," Rhode said.

Aya glanced at Rhodes, then turned around to strip the clothes off the dead adventurers.

"No, no, no! You can't do this!" the adventurer cried out in terror, his eyes wide, and struggled violently. Rhodes knocked him unconscious, bound his hands and legs with his clothes, left him there, and carried Aya behind the wooden door.

"Let's come back and figure out what to do with him after we escape. Or maybe he'll get a brain fart and just smash the wall in with brute force," Rhodes said to Aya. He was very confident that even if the adventurer came in, he wouldn't be a match for him.

He had noticed before that the walls of the hall were just ordinary stone, and as long as the sides of the door weren't made of thick mountain material like before, that person could probably smash it open with his strength.

Rhodes thought that those Nord barbarians who liked to use hammers would also think of smashing the wall. For example, Hammer, if he and others were trapped inside and the door could only be passed by one person at a time, his first reaction would definitely be to smash the wall.

On the other side of the door was a huge circular hall, similar to the one they had initially dug out, only larger and with far fewer doors.

The hall was very tall, and in the middle there was a high platform so tall that you couldn't see what was at the top.

The first group to arrive here were not Rhodes and his men. The knight and his soldiers had arrived long ago and had already dealt with all the ghouls. They were now climbing the high platform.

Rhode saw Ella checking the ghouls for gold coins, which reminded him that he had forgotten to do this kind of work. He felt like he had lost another hundred million.

Why did he say he lost another hundred million? Just as he pulled out his mother-and-child throwing knives and cut the adventurer, generating another child throwing knife, he suddenly remembered that he hadn't been able to generate a child throwing knife using the mother throwing knife for the past few days. Thinking of this, his heart ached even more.

He kept comforting himself that there would be plenty of opportunities to make big money in the future, and that he shouldn't worry about this small amount of money, but he still couldn't stop feeling heartbroken. Had he caught Baron's disease?

Just as he was contemplating his losses, a wave of oppressive power emanated from the high platform, giving him the feeling of encountering a natural enemy...