Swords, magic, and martial arts

"Did you feel anything?" Rod asked Aya beside him. The oppressive aura disappeared as soon as he finished asking.

Aya shook her head: "There's nothing there."

After searching the ghoul's corpse, the huntress Ella stood up and saw Rhodes and Aya walking towards them.

"I was lucky enough to run into the knight as soon as I passed through the first door. It was with his help that I was able to get here," Ella said thankfully.

Rhodes asked, somewhat surprised, "Didn't you encounter that door at the end that only allows one person to pass through at a time?"

"We ran into him, but he smashed through the wall next to us with a warhammer that a ghoul was carrying," Ella said, pointing to a hole in the wall.

It seems that the ancient Nords who built this tomb only considered the sturdiness of the door, not the sturdiness of the walls. Moreover, they wouldn't have been extravagant enough to use only extremely hard materials. Even if they had piled up a lot of large stones, they could have easily smashed a path through them with a hammer.

From now on, I must bring a big hammer when I go into the tomb. It's a pity that my spatial ring was stolen. Rhodes felt very sorry when he thought of the spatial ring.

The knights descended from the platform and said, "There's nothing up there. We might have come to a dead end. Anyone who goes down a dead end gets trapped here."

Just then, a door lit up, and an adventurer covered in blood, carrying a mace and shield, entered through a wooden door. Rhode guessed that he had been fighting with other adventurers before coming in.

Rhode used the Mage Ball to carefully examine every corner of the hall, but found no traps. The platform was built with a special material, and the exit might be hidden inside it. The oppressive aura that Rhode had felt earlier also came from inside the platform.

When he finished his inspection, the last door lit up, and an adventurer dressed as a rogue with a very sleazy demeanor appeared in the hall.

Everyone present was searching for an exit. As time passed, the atmosphere of despair became more and more pronounced. Now, not only were the adventurers restless, but several soldiers were also arguing among themselves.

"Let's smash this platform together," the knight commanded, his attention now focused on the platform after searching for so long.

"This platform is so high, how are we supposed to break it?" a soldier asked. This was the first time today that Rhodes had seen a soldier question the knight's orders.

"I observed that one side of the stone on the second level was different from the other stones, so we smashed that side." The knight also noticed that the soldiers' emotions were a bit abnormal, and patiently explained to them.

The platform had many levels, each smaller than the last. The group reached the second level.

The knight took the lead and started smashing the wall. He took a hammer and went up to the first floor. He swung the hammer and smashed it into the abnormal wall. The entire wall cracked, and then all the stones fell to the ground, revealing the space inside.

"Holy Spirit, what the hell is this?" the knight exclaimed.

Everyone in the hall ran up to the first floor of the high platform.

"This is a sealed demon," an adventurer said after seeing what was inside.

Rhode saw what was inside: a humanoid monster with a pair of metallic wings covered in scales. Its face resembled a lizard's, but it had a pair of strange horns on its head. Its hands and legs were bound by metal chains. On the wall behind it was a magic circle emitting a white light, which formed a rope around its neck.

After seeing the creature's appearance, Aya hid behind Rhode, gripping her short sword tightly.

"What should we do?" an adventurer asked fearfully.

"Of course we should kill it. I think killing it will open the exit. This must be a test left to us by the former Lord Fors," said the adventurer dressed as a rogue. "Once we kill it, we'll have an inexhaustible treasure."

Besides Rhodes and his two companions, the knight, there are six adventurers and eleven soldiers present, but there's no telling who might try to break through the wall.

"Then stop talking and get to work," Rhodes said jokingly, noticing the adventurer wielding the mace earlier.

The adventurer dressed as a rogue shrank back. "I've only put forward this idea; we'll need you guys to actually implement it."

"You dare not let me do it," said an adventurer wielding a two-handed broadsword.

He stepped forward and slashed fiercely at the monster's neck, sending sparks flying. He only left a white mark on the back of the monster's neck, without causing it any harm.

After being attacked, the monster opened its eyes. Its pupils were as golden as gold, and the irises in the center were black, much like the legendary dragon.

After it opened its eyes, Rhodes felt the same oppressive aura again.

It opened its mouth and spoke a sentence, which was not the common language on the mainland, and no one present had ever heard of this language before.

Although Rhodes couldn't understand what it was saying, he felt that he could understand what it meant.

"I woke up to those nasty bugs again." That's what it said.

Rod looked down at Aya beside him and asked, "Can you understand what he's saying?"

Aya shook her head: "How could I understand that? Was it talking just now? I thought it sounded like the roar of a wild animal."

Rhodes felt strange; he heard something like a wild beast's roar, but he seemed to be able to understand what it was saying.

The adventurer wielding the two-handed broadsword remained remarkably calm, and he roared, "Die, monster!"

With a swift upward thrust, his broadsword slashed down to its throat, this time cracking the scales on its throat.

The bound monster roared as it struggled against its chains. "Damn bug, I'll tear you apart with my own hands!" That was what Rhode understood it to mean. The adventurer was terrified by its roar and retreated, while the white light rope around the monster's neck shone even brighter. The monster, groaning in pain, stopped struggling.

An adventurer dressed as a rogue stepped forward, short sword in hand, eager to test his skills. He taunted the previous adventurer, "Your attacks are no good. Watch mine."

He thrust his short sword into the monster's throat, but the sword shattered without leaving a mark. The monster roared at him, and he took a few steps back in fear. The people around him laughed when they saw this.

After hearing the laughter of those around him, in order to prove his courage and strength, he slapped the monster's face several times, cursing it loudly as he did so, and occasionally turning back to give it a smug smile.

What had this person experienced in the past that made him so eager to display his pathetic strength and sense of existence? Rhodes shook his head, thinking.

The monster glared venomously at the rogue-dressed adventurer who was humiliating it. The rogue then grabbed the monster by the neck with both hands and turned to the people behind him, grinning, "Watch me strangle him to death."

The monster was much taller than him, and he had to stand on tiptoe and raise his hands to grab the monster's neck.

He didn't notice that his hand was inside the rope formed by the white light, and his palm blocked the white light. After flickering a few times, the white light gradually dimmed and finally went out completely, and the white light from the doors also went out.

Some of those present noticed and were just about to warn him when the white light instantly went out completely, and the monster stretched out its head and bit off the adventurer's head...