I, Guinevere, am going to crush you, you curry stick, today!

They searched the entire village thoroughly, from top to bottom, for fear of missing any information, but not only did they fail to find any useful clues, they also uncovered several more mysteries—there was no sign of cultivation anywhere near the village, and not even a proper road in the wilderness. They had no idea how anyone got in or out.

Of course, people live off the land and water, and with a large forest behind them, the villagers should be able to make a living by hunting. But this is the second incredible thing.

In this vast village, there was nothing to eat. If it were just the girl alone, one could say she had overlooked something, but Musashi confidently claimed that his nose was sharper than a dog's and that he could find food even if he dug three feet into the ground. If even she said there was nothing, then there really was no food.

But if that's the case, does that mean the people living here are all immortals who live on dew and wind?

Come to think of it, it’s unlikely.

The child knew of the village's existence, and perhaps even understood why, but his babbling was unintelligible to the two. They exchanged a glance, both seeing a deep sense of helplessness in each other's eyes. They had thought finding the village would reveal their current situation, but instead, this was how it was…

"I hate these weird things the most. Even if a monster suddenly appears, it's better than nothing at all..." Musashi was complaining in frustration when she saw the small pebble she had just kicked across the way suddenly roll back out. She slowed down the second half of her sentence. Without her prompting, Guinevere had also noticed the commotion.

In an instant, the air seemed to suddenly become quiet. Two pairs of eyes watched silently as the pebble slowly rolled out of the shadows. The child was a beat slower, noticed the two people's expressions, and looked over as well. At the same time, the pebble, which was rolling happily, suddenly shattered into several pieces with a snap.

The next instant, a deformed arm with four joints descended from the sky and pressed down on the spot where the pebble had been.

pong——

"what--"

The child immediately screamed and hid behind Musashi. The two torches, their blazing light illuminating the area as if it were daytime, revealing every detail. Guinevere watched as a long-armed, long-legged monster crawled out from between two houses like a spider, using all four limbs. She closed her eyes briefly and said, "Look, Musashi, the monster you wanted has arrived."

"That was efficient." Musashi smirked, surprised that his words had actually lured out a monster. "But one is still a bit too few; not enough for my warm-up..."

Before she finished speaking, several more monsters appeared silently. The girl counted them quietly: "One, two, three, four... five, six, seven, seven in total. That should be enough for you... to warm up, right?"

Having been told his words had come true twice in a row, Musashi couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. He let out a long sigh, then laughed nonchalantly, "That's enough. You protect this child, I'll go and kill them." He handed the torch to the child behind him and drew his other sword with a swish.

"Do you need help?"

"Don't worry, what I do best is fight against overwhelming odds—" In the blink of an eye, the long-armed monster that had appeared first had left the shadows, landed on all fours, and with a sudden burst of strength, pounced towards them. Musashi took a step forward, swung his left-hand blade, and as the monster was in mid-air, he opened his mouth to bite it, while his right-hand blade slammed heavily into its face.

With a single strike, the monster was slashed repeatedly, as if being chopped into meat on a chopping board. In the blink of an eye, it was impossible to tell how many blows it had received. Its massive body froze in mid-air, its face and upper body a bloody mess. As Musashi sheathed his twin swords, it flew back with a whoosh.

Two long-armed monsters that were charging towards them from behind hurriedly dodged when they saw this. Musashi took the opportunity to push off the ground, and his blade flashed in the air, drawing a bright straight line. With his body intersecting, he pinned one of the monsters' shoulders to the wall.

She had already moved out of the firelight's reach, drew her sword, and kicked the monster again. From this angle, the monster, its shoulder wounded, appeared to have been kicked to the ground, its spine seemingly broken, limp and struggling to get up. Musashi darted into the shadows beside her. The remaining monsters then surged towards that direction.

Guinevere, protecting the child, slowly retreated into the hut where Musashi had just gone. Having learned from her previous experience, she paid special attention to the shadows around her, but perhaps Musashi had successfully drawn the enemy's attention, because for quite some time, they did not encounter any new monsters.

"Ah..." Even after entering the room, the child still obediently held the torch, looked up at her, and pointed outside the door, his face full of worry. The girl understood what he meant: "It's okay. You saw it just now, she's very strong..." These words seemed more like a reassurance to herself. After thinking for a moment, she pointed outside the door and gave the child a thumbs up.

She wasn't sure if she had successfully conveyed her message, but seeing that the child no longer seemed as worried as before, Guinevere felt a little relieved. Those long-armed monsters weren't particularly strong; even without the Dragon Armor, she felt she could easily handle ten to twenty of them. Judging from Musashi's earlier display of skill, he should be stronger than her.

As long as none of those enemies that resemble Shadow Heroes appear again... No, no, I can't have such a flag-setting thought! Besides, enemies that look like elite monsters should be extremely rare, they shouldn't be encountered so easily, no way...

"Ah...ah!"

The child hurriedly backed away, while Guinevere, who kept chanting "It won't appear, it won't appear," sighed, opened her eyes, and waved to the dark figure who had appeared at the door, wielding two pistols: "Hello. There are three of us here. Rather than fighting... how about we play a thrilling game of Dou Dizhu?"

"what!"

The child's eyes widened, and he screamed again. The girl looked down at the spear tip stuck in her chest, shrugged, and said, "He didn't even say hello. How rude."

Swish!

The sword reflected the firelight and clashed heavily with the twin pistols in the shadowy figure's hand. Golden light appeared in Guinevere's eyes, and her aura suddenly changed. The bright room seemed to darken abruptly. The child was not affected by the dragon's might, but the shadowy figure's movements slowed down for a moment. It was in that instant that the sword light slashed out!

Wait a moment……

Suddenly, the enemy who had fought with the drill-shaped sword flashed through her mind, along with the image of the black smoke dissipating and the boy reverting to his former self. Perhaps this time he was also a manipulated living person… This thought flashed through her mind, and in the nick of time, the girl changed her slash to a smash, the back of her sword landing heavily on her opponent's chest.

With the power of the evil dragon added to her strength, she was now no less powerful than the demonic boar. Although she changed her tactics at the last minute, the enormous force still sent the shadowy figure flying into the air, crashing onto the street outside the house, and rolling several times before finally coming to a stop.

For an ordinary person, this blow would have caused their chest to cave in, and their heart might even have been shattered. However, Guinevere had already fought these shadowy figures twice before and was familiar with their strength. She wasn't worried about killing them. Sure enough, the shadowy figure immediately stood up unsteadily, holding two short guns and glaring menacingly at them.

"Things are getting complicated..."

Shaking her head, the girl thrust her longsword, creating a small hole in the ground. Releasing her grip with her left hand, she allowed the torch to stand firmly, its light enveloping the entire room. She turned and smiled slightly at the frightened child, indicating there was nothing to worry about, before turning to the shadowy figure with twin pistols slowly approaching, and exhaled.

"...Let's try to capture him alive first."

……

The figure tumbled and crashed into the darkness, the sound of wind whistling from behind. Musashi raised his hand and swung his sword, sending half a door flying into the air. He blocked the whip-like arm that was swinging down, and the door instantly turned into a shower of wood chips.

She rolled to the ground, the blade plunging upwards and piercing the monster's jaw. The monster remained in a waving arm posture, but its body suddenly froze in place.

With a swift movement, Musashi drew his blood-stained and brain-splattered blade, dodging the corrosive blood. He then stood up, glancing around at the corpses lying haphazardly on the ground: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight… twenty-one. Not bad. Only three times the usual number…"

As soon as he stopped speaking, he suddenly thrust his left-hand sword into the ground, pinning an arm to the ground. At the same time, he swung his right-hand sword, and Musashi flew backward. With a few swift strokes, a headless corpse with its head cut off appeared on the spot.

"Twenty-two. It seems that as long as there are no fire-type monsters, they will keep appearing. I should go back and meet up with the others as soon as possible. But speaking of which, I don't think I've asked that friend's name yet... Judging from her voice, she should be a very young girl, but unfortunately her face is covered by her helmet. It would be great if she were a beautiful girl... *slurp*"

He wiped the drool from his mouth. Of course, while he said that, he might not actually have that need. After a fierce battle, people always need to find a way to relax their tense minds; otherwise, mental problems are bound to arise over time. For Musashi, delicious food, good wine, and beautiful young men and women could all have a very good relaxing effect.

She didn't need to actually go that far—in fact, she'd never truly experienced that feeling herself. Just cuddling with something cute would make all the pressure and tension she'd accumulated disappear. As long as she had something cute around her, she could keep fighting!

Thinking about it half seriously and half jokingly, I suddenly remembered the orange-haired girl I met on a small island. I wondered how she was doing now... I couldn't go back to the worlds I had been to, so I probably wouldn't have the chance to meet her again. I hoped she was still safe and sound.

With these jumbled thoughts swirling in her mind, Musashi surveyed her surroundings and slowly began to walk back. Along the way, she occasionally encountered sporadic long-armed monsters, but she easily dealt with them, finding them nothing to fear. A moment later, she returned to the empty village. Following her memory, she soon saw a bright light ahead.

"This is……"

After a brief exchange of information, Musashi learned about the battle that had just taken place and also learned that her new companion's name was Guinevere... She felt that the name sounded familiar, but for a moment, she couldn't remember where she had heard it before. But more important than that at the moment was obviously the "prisoner" that Guinevere had captured.

"With the help of the armor, I finally managed to capture him alive..." The girl spoke in broken Japanese, looking exhausted. She sat on the floor without any regard for her image, staring at the shadowy enemy in front of her who had been forcibly suppressed by her dragon's might and could only make weak struggles.

The child, who had been timidly hiding behind Guinevere, clearly grew closer to the older sister when Musashi returned. He immediately ran over, grabbed Musashi's sleeve, and babbled and gestured wildly for a while. Musashi guessed he was describing Guinevere's heroic fighting skills and couldn't help but laugh: "That's amazing! I never expected you to be able to capture such a dark creature alive. Even I have to admit defeat."

"It was just... cheating." Without the invulnerable Dragon Armor, Guinevere would have had a tough time just defeating her opponent, let alone capturing him alive. Hearing Musashi's praise, she wasn't pleased, but just smiled and shook her head.

"But he doesn't seem prepared to have a friendly exchange with us... What are your plans?"

“He is very likely… being controlled. I have a way to save him.” Guinevere paused, “but it will take time.”

"No problem, with me here, I won't let anything touch a hair on your head," Musashi said confidently, raising his chin.

"it is good."

Using the oppressive power for a long time is also a great burden on the mind. Guinevere decided to finish the battle quickly after Musashi returned. She released the oppression, and the dark figure immediately leaped up to attack again. But as soon as it stood up, the girl called out in her heart: "Klausolas!"

The scene shifted, and the arena of fate opened in an instant, pulling both her soul and the shadowy figure before her into it. Guinevere's body in reality suddenly went limp, her head drooping as if asleep, while the shadowy figure froze in place. Musashi watched this scene with great interest, stroking his chin: "How interesting..."

Inside the arena.

Guinevere first checked her body. It seemed that her soul was still intact and had not been affected by the dragon's power. Of course, she did not intend to immediately summon the Dragon Armor to see if she could take it back. Something was definitely amiss. Even in reality, she needed to find out the reason for the dragon's power going out of control as soon as possible before considering appropriate countermeasures...

"My lord, time is limited."

The sword of light's reminder brought her back to reality. The most urgent task at hand was to rescue the person being controlled as soon as possible—most likely a resident of this village.

According to the Sword of Light, this existence, which resembles a Shadow Heroic Spirit, is essentially a spell similar to Heroic Spirit Possession, forcibly transferring a powerful being into another body. This wasn't originally an evil spell, but the effect it's currently displaying is clearly vastly different from ordinary possession rituals, exuding a chilling and eerie quality.

But since it is possession, no matter what changes have taken place, the main steps are still largely the same. As long as you target the soul and sever the connecting ties, you can send the descending spirit back to its original place. The existence of the Arena of Destiny also makes this originally difficult step very simple.

Guinevere looked up, intending to check on the state of the person she was possessing, to see if they were alright, but she froze the moment she saw the figure in front of her.

"This...this kind of outfit..."

Across four large rocks, the Sword of Light was stuck in its seat. Further away stood a tall man, nearly 1.9 meters tall. He wore a mask that looked like something out of a horror movie, an iron ball-like mask that didn't reveal an inch of skin. Six small holes were drilled into his face, from which a faint, pale blue light shone.

He was wearing only a strange bodysuit, mainly green with yellow stripes in a few places, which clearly outlined his explosive body and eight-pack abs.

Black smoke was constantly billowing from the strange-looking man, and behind him, the smoke vaguely coalesced into the figure of a man wielding two guns. He himself seemed unaware of what was happening, looking around blankly—if he could still see anything while wearing that strange mask—suddenly, the small hole in the mask stopped pointing in his direction, and a faint blue light flickered a few times, becoming slightly brighter than before.

Guinevere took a step back, her expression changing slightly.

Before this, she had never seen such a peculiar outfit in person, but she had heard about it more than once from other people. Her father, her brother, Balan, who taught her swordsmanship, other knights and nobles who had been on the battlefield, and so on, had all described this strange attire to her.

And its significance.

The blue-glowing mask and the tight-fitting blue bodysuit were the attire of warriors from the Picts, a foreign tribe that inhabited the area north of Scotland.

The number of yellow stripes on the bodysuit indicates the strength of the warrior. At this moment, a rough glance reveals that this person has as many as thirteen yellow stripes.

Elite level.

But... how could it be a Pict... The thought had just flashed through her mind when she suddenly heard a hoarse roar like a ferocious beast. The man stared at her for a while, then suddenly clenched his fist and charged at her!

"what--"

……

P.S.: The author has a note that maintenance will continue until April 4th, so I can only manually edit this... I originally wanted to split this chapter, but considering that splitting it would only leave this chapter with monster fighting, I simply released it all at once. So, seeing how diligent Qingbai is, how can you bear not to vote for me?

Chapter 181 First Contact (Part 1)

With two consecutive sword strikes, Guinevere deflected the opponent's twin guns held in front of her. Then, with another sword strike, she cleanly and decisively pierced the chest of the gunslinger, watching his figure scatter and explode into a cloud of black mist.

The sound of wind whistling past her head didn't deter her. Instead, she grabbed behind her with her left hand, leaned forward, and delivered a solid over-the-shoulder throw, sending the Pict man who was attacking from behind flying.

Watching the figure fly forward several meters and disappear into the air, the scattered black mist also vanished in the blink of an eye. Only then did the girl wipe away non-existent sweat from her forehead and sigh, "Finally done... So tired."

This was not her toughest battle to date, but in some ways, it was the most exhausting.

The powerful dual-wielder alone was already extremely troublesome, and she also had to be wary of another troublemaker at all times—this Picket was completely uncommunicative. Although she had come to rescue him, he just kept charging at her like a mad dog, punching and kicking her. Yet she had to restrain herself from hurting him. With two things on her mind, the fight was fraught with danger, and she was almost forced to use her trump card, the Dragon Armor, several times.

Considering the strange phenomena of the dragon's power in reality, the inability to remove the armor, and the inexplicable urge to bite Musashi's neck, Guinevere decided to avoid using this power until the cause was clearly investigated, even though no obvious drawbacks had yet appeared.

This was ultimately just one of her cards, not her only one.

It was all because of this guy's constant interference that this battle was so difficult. "How inexplicable..." she muttered angrily before dismissing Krausolas's domain and returning to reality.

"How about it?"

Although the Sword of Light spoke with absolute certainty, Guinevere only truly felt relieved after witnessing the black aura surrounding the figure gradually dissipate, transforming it back into the possessed Pict person. However, looking at this distinctively strange attire and considering the other party's identity, her feelings couldn't help but become somewhat complicated.

Using a spell already places a great burden on the body and soul of the person being manipulated, let alone this obviously abnormal "modification". Although the black aura has dissipated, judging from the other party's appearance, he probably won't wake up for a while.

With nothing else to do, the three decided to take a short break. The child seemed startled upon seeing the man's appearance, then stayed by his side, growling softly. Guinevere, looking at the two, asked Musashi, who was munching on compressed biscuits, "Were the others you encountered... dressed like this too?"

"Yes." Musashi, with two cookies in his mouth at the same time, crunched away, making a mess of crumbs everywhere. His reply was a little muffled because of this. "I thought this was a local specialty. Here—" He tossed a cookie over, which Guinevere caught and took a bite of.

A familiar yet unfamiliar taste filled her mouth. She squinted her eyes and chewed slowly, taking a full five minutes to finish a small piece of biscuit.

"And you, take this." Musashi tossed another piece to the child, who caught it hastily, holding it in both hands with a look of surprise and joy, as if he had received some precious treasure, and flashed a big smile at Musashi.

He likes you very much.

Musashi smiled faintly. "Unlike adults, children generally don't have complicated reasons for what they like or dislike. Simple, pure...that's why I really enjoy interacting with children." He patted his knees. "You know them?"

“Saying we know each other… isn’t quite right.” Guinevere shook her head, considering how to begin.

"Oh?"

“They are the Picts, the northernmost tribe of Britain. They have been enemies of my country, Scotland, since ancient times.”

"So you're Scottish." Musashi said thoughtfully, "According to you, the Picts who live on the north side of the island would appear here, which means this place should be the northernmost point of Britain, which is near Scotland?"

"Probably."

"But in that case, you'll essentially be saving the enemy's life. Is that alright?"

“No problem.” Guinevere glanced at the child standing beside the man. “There are good people among the enemies. And that child… is probably a Pict too.”

"Are there good people among the enemies? I think so too." Although she concealed it well, it was still clear that Musashi breathed a slight sigh of relief at this answer. The question just now was a test; if she had chosen to eliminate this Pict here, Musashi might have stood up to stop her.

The two hadn't known each other long, but the girl had already begun to understand the swordsman's personality. They chatted casually for a while longer, when suddenly, the man's fingers twitched almost imperceptibly. The child noticed, turned around, and exclaimed in delight, "Wow—!"

"Hopefully his attitude won't be too bad." Recalling his frenzied, dog-like pursuit, Guinevere forced a smile and silently prayed. Musashi, who was getting up, paused, startled by her whispered words: "Didn't he return to normal?"

The words have not yet fallen.

Beneath the previously dim mask, a dark blue light suddenly shone brightly!

The blue light and firelight mingled, creating a strange yet eerie atmosphere. Suddenly, the figure lying on the ground let out a loud roar: "Ahhh—" The voice sounded like that of a wounded beast, filled with despair and grief.

Blue light seeped out from the six small holes in the mask. The elite Pictite warrior leaped up, his body poised to pounce in an instant. The blue-haired child was caught off guard and fell to the ground in fright. Musashi, who had just stood up, also gripped the hilt of his sword warily upon seeing this.

Guinevere remained seated, having already prepared herself mentally; she was actually the calmest of the three. "Wait—" She had already unsheathed the Sword of Light and placed it beside her. As she raised her hands, the man turned his head, and the girl smiled. "I have no hostility."

"what--"

With clenched fists and a deafening roar, the man was about to charge forward as if he had gone mad just like he had in the Arena of Destiny. Musashi stepped forward, blocking Guinevere's path, and the girl raised her voice: "We mean no harm! Don't be impulsive!"

These few sentences were already spoken in a native Scottish accent; she believed that the Picts, having fought with Scotland for so long, should have some understanding of the local language.

But whether he actually heard her words or not, the Pickett just stared intently at them, saying nothing. The strange blue light beneath his mask flickered, and he didn't charge forward again. Musashi exhaled, his fingers on the hilt of his sword gradually loosening.

The atmosphere remained tense, and the three of them were making subtle adjustments. Just then, a small figure suddenly rushed out from the side, spread her arms, and stood in front of the man.

"ah--"

The child shook his head vigorously. He only reached the Pickett's calves. He babbled for a while, pointed to himself, then turned and pointed to Guinevere and the other man: "Ah! Ahhhhhh!"