Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

"I want to try—"

"...Are you crazy?"

But what made Noah even more unbearable was that Jian actually became excited. Even for her, this was her first time trying to face the Lord of the Royal Court directly and take Manfred away from him. The possibility of this was infinitely close to zero, but for Jian—it was very challenging.

"I don't think you're capable of fighting two at once right now, and Manfred isn't some pushover." Noah, through the spiritual seed connection, warned Mace not to act rashly. If the plan failed, it failed. He could find another opportunity. The Lord of the Royal Court couldn't always stay by Manfred's side, so he could strike back then. Now was the worst possible time. "Abandon the plan."

"I'm not fighting one against two, but two against two." A smile appeared on the corner of Mace's mouth. After taking off the mask, she seemed to no longer obey Noah's orders. She regained the style of the Black Knight. Even in impossible circumstances, she would make the impossible possible.

This is the Black Knight, this is the mace.

There's no way to win? She couldn't understand this.

So, just after Manfred and the Blood Demon Lord met, a figure suddenly appeared in front of the two of them, lightly and naturally. She did not make any disguise, nor did she try to launch a sneak attack. Instead, she appeared in front of the two of them like a guest who should have come here.

Holding two maces, the natural warrior is facing the master of the royal court.

"...Is this your guest, Manfred?" The Blood Demon Lord looked at Manfred beside him and asked, "He's not a Sarkaz, but he came to the Sarkaz camp and even interrupted the meeting with the Lord of the Royal Court. Is this how you treat guests?"

"...No." Manfred stared at the uninvited guest. For some reason, he felt an unprecedented sense of threat. It seemed the other party was coming for him. Assassination? Who would choose to assassinate someone in the presence of the Blood Demon Lord?

"Then I'll deal with your little bug—I've truly underestimated you. Even a tiny creature like you dares to confront the majesty of the Lord of the Royal Court." The Blood Demon Lord's lips curled dangerously. "I'll hang her head on the city wall. Manfred, step back. This will be my greeting."

"Don't get me wrong, you're not my prey." At this moment, Mace's gaze was always locked on Manfred. "Are you planning to attack us all at once, or one by one?"

The atmosphere instantly grew heavy, and Noah was already starting to have a headache. However, she couldn't just stand by and watch Mace get into trouble. She had to try to help, so she gave Hedley a look and turned away from the crowd. Her disappearance didn't attract anyone's attention. After all, everyone's attention was focused on Mace, and no one paid attention to the sudden disappearance of an insignificant soldier.

"One against two—you're confident."

The Blood Demon Lord admired the brave, but now she was more like a fool. "Manfred has no right to interfere in the battle of the Lord of the Royal Court. Your only enemy is me."

"Then I'll just get rid of you first."

Facing an unprecedented enemy, Jian was also very happy. The Blood Demon Lord was undoubtedly a strong enemy, but she did not feel an aura that was beyond her reach from the other party, which meant that she did not think that the other party was much stronger than herself.

Then, defeating him is the only option.

A sticky sound rang in his ears, and bright red liquid condensed at the feet of the Blood Demon Lord at some point. Immediately, these bright red liquids rose from the ground like living things, turning into tentacles and stabbing towards the mace.

It happened so quickly that in less than half a second, the mace used the double maces in her hands to directly smash the Blood Demon Lord's magical creation. Her physique that was born unable to use Originium skills made her extremely resistant to various Originium skills. The Blood Demon Lord could not control the blood in her body at all. She was like some kind of magic insulator. The Blood Demon Lord's means could only damage the mace through physical means.

But physics?

It may not be useful to reason with a mace, but if you use physics with it, you must be prepared to be crushed to pieces.

The double maces flew up and down in her hands. The Blood Demon Lord's creations, those tentacles, the blades transformed from blood, and even the blood waves like tidal waves were all defeated one by one by the maces. In fact, the mace even had the upper hand over the Blood Demon Lord on the scene.

This was something no one had expected, including Noah, who had originally planned to provide remote support.

The Blood Demon Lord's spells seemed to fail one after another, the mace's physical condition rendering most of his methods ineffective. The twin maces in her hands were also forged by a master, reportedly incorporating some otherworldly material, making them both sturdy and possessing a strange strengthening ability.

At that time, the master craftsmen called it "ghost transformation".

Although it will double the consumption of physical strength, the speed of the mace will double when it transforms into a demon. In short, the current mace surpasses the Blood Demon Lord in terms of speed.

The double maces once again shattered the blood barrier that the Blood Demon Lord used to protect himself. A smile appeared on the corner of Mace's mouth, and then the whole person turned into a storm in mid-air.

This was because the speed was too fast to be discerned by the naked eye. In an instant, all the magical creations surrounding her were shattered. It looked like the juice that burst out after a watermelon was smashed with a baseball bat. This was the first time that the mace actually hit the body of the Blood Demon Lord.

If there wasn't a layer of blood barrier that absorbed most of the force, the Blood Demon Lord would have been knocked away directly. But even so, the Blood Demon Lord felt a surge of blood.

What kind of power does that strange weapon have? Why can it make my spell ineffective after hitting me? No - my spell seems to have no effect on the opponent.

——What kind of physique is this?

Or……

What kind of power is this?

Although, up to now, the mace seems to always have the upper hand... but Noah understands that the disadvantages of becoming a demon have begun to appear.

The mace probably has very little strength left.

Chapter 47: Thousand Arrows of the Dragon

The power of demonic transformation doubles the drain on one's stamina. The artisan cat had specifically mentioned this when crafting the twin maces, so Kuro was well aware of it. As a warrior, one should be aware of one's own limits. And now, her speed had increased, her desirability for a quick victory clearly written on her face.

The Blood Demon Lord, who realized this, was immediately furious. It was bad enough that he was suppressed by a group of juniors, but this junior actually wanted to speed through him?

This was a great humiliation for the Blood Demon Lord who prided himself on being a strong man, so the next moment, the Blood Demon Lord immediately activated his witchcraft and set up several barriers in front of the Black Knight. Although he also knew that these barriers would not last long under the force of the mace, these barriers could effectively reduce the speed of the mace.

As long as he could catch the other person, he would have the opportunity to capture him all at once and then completely detain him - he would not let him die easily. This arrogant young man would of course be tortured to the point where he wanted to commit suicide in order to relieve his hatred.

Sure enough, the numerous barriers visibly slowed the mace's speed. The moment the barriers were broken, the reaction force would inevitably slow it down, as would anything that adhered to physics. If the barriers weren't broken, the mace's range of movement would be squeezed by these dozens of barriers. This was an open strategy, and the mace had to ensure its strength was sufficient to break through the barriers.

Several shattering sounds were heard in mid-air. The remaining barriers were shattered by the mace at once, and at that moment, the mace, with its old strength exhausted and new strength yet to be regenerated, was finally forced to slow down, and the Blood Demon Prince seized this opportunity. Immediately, a huge blood bubble seized the slowing mace.

To prevent the opponent from breaching the bubble, the Blood Demon Lord immediately added numerous reinforcements to the bubble's outer layer. As expected, the bubble's structure was almost instantly destroyed, but the outer layer's reinforcements delayed the process, giving the Blood Demon Lord time to rebuild it, creating the most perfect restraint. A smile played at the corner of his mouth—it seemed as if he had already won.

But before she could declare her victory, a black shadow arrow came from the outside world and pierced through the blood cocoon directly. Then the shadow spell on the arrow took effect, tearing the originally reinforced spell structure into pieces. The one who shot the arrow was naturally Noah, who had quietly moved away from the crowd. At this time, she was holding the folding longbow that she had brought to the competition.

After the body structure of the transformer cluster was perfectly restored, it attached its own shadow spell, and the arrows it shot out were actually similar to the arrows of light that were shot on the field. The only difference was that the arrows of light were mainly powerful in penetration, while the arrows of shadow could disintegrate spells and had the effect of special attacks against spells.

With the arrow's breakthrough, the mace seized the opportunity and directly shattered the blood cocoon—as if she had emerged from it and been reborn. In just a few breaths, her physical strength had largely recovered. This was the result of her naturally strong body and its terrifying ability to recover.

You know, Jian doesn't have any divine bloodline, and is naturally insensitive to Originium, which prevents her from replenishing her combat effectiveness through Originium skills. She can only hone her martial arts day after day, year after year. Later, she realized that the fancy Originium skills could be so fragile. There is no reason for her body, which has been tempered into steel, to lose to those Originium skills!

After tearing the blood cocoon, Mace's sight fell directly on Manfred who was standing beside him. At this time, Manfred was already covered in cold sweat - the opponent could actually fight back and forth with the Blood Demon Lord, which was beyond his imagination.

It is hard to imagine that if the other party had arrived when the Blood Demon Lord was not there, he might have been defeated in the first encounter.

Although he couldn't tell from the other person's clothing who they were, Manfred knew that there weren't many people in the world with such skills. Furthermore, the presence of such a skilled person in Londinium was not good news.

Who's behind this? Is this the Grand Duke's attempt? Or... is this some other force infiltrating Londinium?

Manfred had no time to think. He drew his sword and tried to stop the opponent's attack, but it was too late. The eyes of the mace that had regained its demonic transformation seemed to flash with lightning, and its long hair moved without wind, making it look as if its fur had stood up. According to the Artisan Cat, the demonic transformation of the mace reminded him of a monster he had seen in the past when he was hunting. It was not an ancient dragon, but was as troublesome as an ancient dragon.

——Excited Golden Lion.

Although the mace is not the incarnation of that kind of monster, the lightning flashing in the eyes does have a power beyond common sense. At the first sight, the weapon in Manfred's hand fell out of his hand and was kicked away.

The Blood Demon Lord naturally realized this, and although he had turned in time, the mace's speed still exceeded his expectations. Furthermore, he still had another opponent to worry about: the archer who had sniped his blood cocoon from a very long distance. Although his blood cocoon was a temporary construction, mainly for internal protection, even so, an arrow that could penetrate the external structure was still rare.

If he could penetrate the blood cocoon, it wouldn't be that difficult to penetrate his body. With such a powerful warrior and archer appearing at the same time, it seems that Londinium is still home to many hidden talents.

Although he didn't care whether Manfred would be attacked by the warrior, he would lose face if something happened under his nose. He could only take the initiative to provide support and cover Manfred with his blood shield. After the timely support, he immediately heard the sound of an arrow breaking through the air from a distance.

Weng——

This arrow was actually aimed at his heart. The Blood Demon Lord was a blood demon, and the most important thing to him was of course his heart, which was the source of his power.

The other party had obviously done his homework. Although the heart was indeed the Blood Demon's weakness, even the Blood Demon Lord was no exception, how could he not focus on protecting such a weakness?

But before the contemptuous smile on his lips could show much, he realized that he might still have underestimated the archer.

When he saw the size of the arrow, he even suspected that the other party shot it with a siege crossbow. Although his protection was complete enough, it did not mean that he could fight against the siege crossbow, right?

Immediately, he could only choose to deviate from the arrow's trajectory as much as possible. Then, he was directly carried away by the exaggerated force of the arrow and nailed to the city wall.

Only then did Noah put down the longbow in her hand - Thousand Arrows of the Dragon, which was the name of the move she had just released.

The force of this strike can even penetrate thick city walls. The disadvantage is that it takes a long time to charge, but once it is shot, the damage this arrow can cause is simply terrifying.

Even though she saw through the Eye of God that her arrow had taken effect, she did not look happy at all. She knew that her arrow still missed the target.

In the end, the Blood Demon Lord still deviated from the arrow, otherwise the arrow should have pierced the Blood Demon Lord's left chest - she was really aiming for the heart.

...As expected of the Lord of the Royal Court, even his most powerful weapon couldn't kill him...

Noah couldn't help but sigh at the power of the Lord of the Royal Court. Even after he knew the opponent's weakness and took out his trump card, the Thousand Dragon Arrows, he still didn't kill him with one blow.

Apart from the telepathic Originium technique, the only means left for him was to use the nameless harp - if he really had to use the nameless harp, then he could be said to have reached the end of his rope.

"It's time to retreat--" Noah muttered to herself. It seemed that they had the advantage, but Noah knew that from the arrow just now, the Lord of the Royal Court had already realized her sniper point, and this place was no longer safe.

Without the support of the sniper, Mace would most likely be captured by the blood cocoon again, and by then it would be truly powerless to save the situation - the two of them could only barely suppress the Lord of the Royal Court with all their strength, and they once again understood how powerful the Lord of the Royal Court was.

This time, Jian did not linger in the fight. When she saw the Blood Demon Lord pulling out the arrow that was like a spear from his chest, she knew that she probably could not take Manfred away this time. Instead of killing Manfred, it would be better to let Manfred be a hostage to delay the Blood Demon Lord. As long as he was here, the Blood Demon Lord would not chase them with all his strength.

With the speed after transforming into a demon, it was not difficult to leave the scene. Noah also disappeared from the sniper point in time - when the Blood Demon Lord pulled out the arrow, the two of them had completely disappeared without a trace.

The gloomy Blood Demon Lord floated down from the wall and landed in front of Manfred, his eyes full of anger - she knew the other party's purpose of keeping Manfred, but even so, she could not leave Manfred alone.

He licked his lips and raised the corners of his mouth. From the smile at the beginning to the crazy laughter with his head thrown back, the Sarkaz guards on the entire city wall were trembling in the crazy smile of the Blood Demon Lord.

This was the first time that the proud man had his head stepped on like this. His anger can be imagined. Manfred knew that he wanted to twist his head off. This was not because he had any hatred towards himself, but was simply taking his anger out on others.

Fortunately, the Blood Demon Lord was still somewhat rational. He did not attack the Sarkaz present. Instead, after calming down, he gave Manfred his usual elegant smile.

"It seems that we need a thorough search and an attack on the Sarkaz commander - this is not something that the resistance can do, right?"

There was no warmth in the Blood Demon Lord's smile, only a bone-chilling chill. Especially when his nails scratched his skin, Manfred even got goose bumps all over his body, but he knew what to do now.

"Orders, martial law throughout the city. Anyone who can provide information about the golden-haired warrior will be rewarded. Anyone harboring the criminal will be executed."

"Very good, very good. A good order is a small step towards success." The Blood Demon Lord nodded with satisfaction. "Now, I will stay by your side. Be happy, you will have the Lord of the Royal Court as your guard."

——Since their target is you, I will keep a close eye on you.

The meaning couldn't be clearer. Now the Blood Demon Lord really regarded Manfred as a bait, trying to lure out the warrior and archer who had made him lose face.

But the enemy is in the dark and I am in the light, and Manfred has no idea where to start. If you say that these two people are from the rebels, if there really are such masters, why would the rebels have to hide?

Before the arrival of the Blood Demon Lord, Manfred didn't think he could deal with either the archer or the warrior, especially the archer. Although he only shot two arrows, the power of these two arrows was obvious to all. Could he avoid either of these two assassinations?

Manfred had to question himself... He felt that being hit by that arrow might have the same effect as being hit by a city defense cannon.

After the Sarkaz took action, the retreating mace returned to Noya at top speed. This operation was a failure, but it did reveal some things. For example, he could pose a threat to the Blood Demon Lord, but that had to be done without exposing himself. If the first arrow was the Dragon's Thousand Arrows, then he could truly penetrate the Blood Demon Lord's heart.

But there are no ifs in the world - now the Blood Demon Lord already knows his trump card, and the possibility of him threatening the other party has dropped sharply.

The situation with the mace was similar. Even the trump card of turning into a demon was played out, but the goal was not achieved. Obviously, assassinating or taking away Manfred was no longer something the two of them should consider.

As long as the Blood Demon Lord is by his side, their assassination or kidnapping attempts will never succeed.

...It can only be said that it was too coincidental. It happened that at this moment, the Blood Demon Lord came to Manfred's side, and it happened that at this moment, they began to act.

It can be said that after this action, both sides were scared out of their wits.

On one hand, they were surprised that there was still a strong man in Lentinim who could threaten the Blood Demon Lord, and on the other hand, they were frightened by the Blood Demon Lord's hard power. The situation that they almost failed after playing all their cards forced them to start to be cautious.

"This meeting with the Blood Demon Lord wasn't without good news. My arrow might not have caused much damage to the Blood Demon Lord, but the spell I attached to it should cause him some minor trouble." Noya's arrows were all enchanted with shadow spells, but when facing the Blood Demon Lord, she chose another approach—

She applied the light spell that Uncle Maenna had given her to the Dragon's Thousand Arrows. The blazing light was obviously more difficult for the Blood Demon Lord to deal with than the shadow spell.

"——Plans can't keep up with changes, so we can only adapt. After this attack, the military camp will definitely be more vigilant. We must first warn the resistance forces of the dangers during this period."

Noah's luck has always been bad, which is not surprising. Facing the Lord of the Royal Court, it is already an extraordinary performance for them to escape unscathed.

Next, they could only use other methods... to try to paralyze the city defense cannons on the city walls.

Chapter 48: Askalon

"What a mess..." This was the only comment the Doctor gave after hearing about the actions of Noah and the others.

Although, in terms of the situation, Noah and his companions suffered no losses and even inflicted considerable damage to the Blood Prince, this action against Manfred was, from any perspective, a bit too radical. While high risk and high reward were certainly a given, if this resulted in Noah or the mace being trapped or even killed, it would be an unacceptable loss for Rhodes Island.

But since both of them have escaped successfully, at least the doctor does not intend to blame each other this time.

Moreover, although the operation failed, it did not cause serious consequences. Noah and Mace both hid their identities - at least Noah's identity was very difficult to find out. She used the bow and arrow very rarely, and the last time she used it was when she was forced to take over Maria Linguang's body.

Moreover, this action also indirectly helped the doctor and others test the capabilities of the opponents they were going to face.

From this point of view, Noah's actions are not meaningless.

As for the mace, she was thrilled—after so long of suppressing her strength, being able to give the Blood Demon Lord a good beating was a complete release of pressure. She was even itching to try again.

For her personality, taking the initiative was far more suitable than passively waiting. She was a guard only because she wanted to protect Noah, not because she was passive. She was actually better at opening the situation with her own strength.

"Although transforming into a demonic being can increase your speed, it also consumes too much of your physical strength. I believe you can calculate the time well, but this time... you were too arrogant." Noya knew that Jian was in a good mood, but she still wanted to pour some cold water on him. "You should have given up the mission when you saw the Blood Demon Lord..."

Jian did not deny that she was too arrogant, but she did not regret it. Even if she were asked to choose again, her choice would probably not change.

So, she just curled up the corners of her mouth into a smile and listened to the girl in front of her complaining, just like in the past, when they were not familiar with each other, and she was still sitting in a wheelchair, complaining that she was too heavy-handed and difficult to handle.

Now, she truly felt that the Miss Noah had returned. She was no longer so cold and calculated as to make every possible effort, nor was she so arrogant as to think that everything was under her control. She would be impulsive, worried, and like now... she would mutter to herself, yet reveal her deep concern.

If you ask me if I was impulsive, yes I was.

But after his impulsiveness, Noah did not choose to force himself to retreat, but picked up the bow and arrow and went into battle himself.

This is the difference between the Noah of the past and the Noah before.

I have to say, she was very happy that she found Noah, the woman she loved.