Asura in Arknights

"Who was that person just now...?"

Although the person was completely out of Li Ang's perception range, Li Ang was still somewhat puzzled by the other party's motives and did not understand what the person had come to do.

In the distance behind, a massive sand tornado was gradually taking shape, affecting the climate within a radius of several kilometers and reducing visibility to extremely low levels, creating an excellent opportunity for Li Ang and his group to escape.

"I've seen that person before..."

At this point, Adele said with a slightly complicated expression, "He was the other tower sorcerer who captured me back then."

……

After learning the identity of the figure from Adele, Li Ang didn't know what to say, and could only sigh at how complicated the relationships between the tower sorcerers were.

One of the two tower sorcerers was a scoundrel with a twisted sense of humor who took pleasure in poking at other people's wounds and enjoying their pained expressions.

As for the other tower sorcerer... was he probably a good person? Aside from helping them escape, Li Ang couldn't think of any other reasonable explanation for the sorcerer's actions.

Thanks to the sandstorm stirred up by the sorcerer, Li Ang and his companions were able to run a long distance without any problems.

Now, they have completely left Brandenburg's sphere of influence. The landscape is desolate, with no trace of human civilization in sight.

This is the general state of the wilderness in Terra: hilly terrain, frozen tundra, and under the threat of natural disasters, humans can only hide in small mobile cities, with more than 70% of the land remaining uncultivated.

On this vast plain, the tracks would be covered by sand within minutes, making it very difficult to find a vehicle. At least for the short term, they didn't have to worry about anyone catching up.

Li Ang needs some time to carefully check the condition of the off-road vehicle.

After all that commotion, Li Ang was worried that it might have left some hidden dangers for the off-road vehicle. If it wasn't found and repaired in time, it would be difficult to deal with if it broke down on the road.

So, Li Ang found a relatively secluded hillside and temporarily parked the SUV behind it.

"Phew... Let's take a break for now, Adele."

Li Ang opened the car door and jumped out of the SUV. "I need to check it out and see if there's anything wrong with the car."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Adele asked, getting out of the car as well.

"Hmm... okay, then you can help us organize our belongings," Li Ang said after thinking for a moment.

After all that fuss, the contents of the SUV's trunk were a complete mess, so this was a good opportunity to tidy it up.

After giving Adele his instructions, Leon was about to crawl under the car to check the condition of the vehicle when he noticed that Adele hadn't opened the trunk to organize her luggage after getting out of the car. Instead, she had placed one hand on the car body and looked up at the sky in a daze.

"What are you looking at?" Li Ang asked, somewhat puzzled.

Upon hearing this, Adele stretched out her finger and pointed to the distant sky.

"There seems to be something in the sky?"

In Adele's vision, a small black dot appeared in the distant sky, and this dot was growing rapidly as time passed.

It seems... something is coming towards them.

Chapter Fifty-Two: A Gift from Heaven

Outside Brandenburg, a striking sandstorm stretched straight into the sky, causing panic among some who believed it was a harbinger of impending disaster.

However, a few minutes later, people realized it was a false alarm; the sand tortoise remained in place and showed no signs of moving anywhere else.

The rapidly rotating airflow carried countless fragments of stone, each of which could unleash power close to that of a crossbow bolt. The entire sandstorm was like a giant meat grinder, and no one dared to approach this terrifying thing.

At the very center of the storm, in the eye of the storm, everything seemed perfectly calm. Lynn stood quietly in place, as if waiting for someone to come over.

After an unknown amount of time, a pair of large, well-defined hands suddenly appeared inside the eye of the storm.

Ignoring a pebble the size of a bullet, those hands tore a huge rift in the sand roll as if tearing a rag.

At this moment, the sand scroll could no longer maintain its original shape and slowly dissipated into the world.

Before Lynn even saw Alvin, he heard Alvin's angry voice, "Lynn... look what you're doing!"

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lynn replied calmly. “I’ve done everything I could.”

"You deliberately let them go."

Alvin, his face contorted with rage, stormed in from the outside of the sand scroll and stood before Lynn.

"I can't keep them here, that's a fact."

Lynn said calmly, "I set up the ceremony here in advance and prepared for nearly an hour, and this is all I can do."

"That Agor's power should not be underestimated. If I had made a move just now, I wouldn't have been confident of protecting myself."

"I don't need to risk my life over such a trivial matter."

Lynn's explanation sounds reasonable, but there is a problem here.

"Why didn't you immediately dispel your spell after the two escaped? Do you know how much this hindered our pursuit?"

"I'm not very proficient with this spell, so I can only wait for it to stop on its own."

"Stop making excuses!" Alvin roared. "Who do you think you can fool with such a lame lie?"

Lynn remained silent for a while, then said slowly but firmly, "I do not agree with Her Majesty the Queen's actions. They are first and foremost our compatriots! And only then are they unfortunate infected individuals!"

"If Her Majesty the Queen believes that all infected individuals in Letania are part of the population that can be discarded at any time, then I have nothing to say. The operator accepts any punishment from Her Majesty the Queen and the Tower."

“I joined the Tower… not for this kind of thing.”

Seeing Lynn utter such 'treasonous' words, Alvin said with a dark face, "You'd better save those words for later. I have some bad news for you: what you just did was meaningless."

“One of the Queen’s Voice’s ‘knights’ has found them.”

-------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the location where Li Ang and the other person were.

Upon hearing Adele's words, Leon looked puzzled. The sky? What could be in the sky?

He was about to ask a question when he heard Adele shout anxiously, "Leon, get out of the way! Something's coming at you!"

Faced with an attack beyond visual range, Li Ang behaved much like an ordinary person. He only felt something huge appear at the edge of his perception range. Before he could confirm what it was, the distance between him and the unidentified object was reduced to zero.

Li Ang only had time to place his cane horizontally in front of his chest and make the most basic blocking motion before the unidentified flying object from afar slammed heavily into him.

"boom--"

The next second, as if a meteorite had struck the earth, the whole world fell silent. The huge sound almost shattered Adele's eardrums. The unidentified object falling from the sky slammed Li Ang's calf into the ground. Under the impact of this thing, Li Ang plowed two furrows more than ten meters long in the ground before finally stopping.

Amidst the swirling dust, Adele saw a tall figure slowly rise from the shadows, followed by Leon's slightly hurried voice, "Who are you?"

"The voice of the Queen belongs to 'Knight' Willard."

It was a burly man over two meters tall. His dark metal armor gleamed ominously in the setting sun. From beneath his full-face horned helmet came a voice that sounded like a blade scraping, sending chills down the spines of anyone who heard it.

"By order of Her Majesty the Empress, we have come to apprehend the criminals or to execute them on the spot."

Pulling his legs out of the ditch in the ground, Li Ang felt his muscles trembling all over, his whole body felt like it was about to fall apart, and he was in pain all over.

The little black dot Adele saw in the sky just now... that's the guy in front of her who's put himself in a metal can. I really don't know how he did it, launching himself out like a cannonball.

The opponent didn't even draw the greatsword from his back; he just crashed into him under the influence of gravity, nearly killing Li Ang half his life.

Perhaps... even the city gates of the mobile city couldn't withstand that blow that just fell from the sky.

Li Ang's body trembled slightly. He could feel a warm current surging from deep within his body after the severe injury he had just suffered. It quickly spread throughout his body, and under the influence of this warm current, his discomfort was rapidly subsiding. He would regain his normal mobility in just a few seconds.

At this moment, Adele finally came to her senses from the sound of the impact.

Looking at the 'metal giant' standing in front of her, Adele subconsciously launched an attack. Just like a volcanic eruption, a blinding flash of fire appeared out of thin air around Adele, completely engulfing the metal giant who had his back to her.

In the raging inferno, even the soil on the ground was scorched into a molten liquid by the high temperature, but the knight seemed to be unaffected at all, and slowly turned around under the firelight.

"Target confirmed, cleanup to begin."

The knight drew his greatsword from his back and slashed it down amidst the scraping sound of his gauntlets against the hilt.

The heavy force of the sword almost stirred up a small gust of wind, making it difficult for Adele to open her eyes.

At this critical moment, Li Ang had recovered and pushed off with all his might, leaving a shallow crater in the ground, thus blocking Adele in time.

"Let's go! Let's drive away from here first!"

Li Ang gritted his teeth, enduring the pain, and shouted, "This guy... I'll deal with him!"

The knight before him... was on a completely different level from the enemies he had faced before.

Chapter Fifty-Three: The Knight

'Knights' are legendary beings in Letania. It is said that these people are born with the blessing of Originium Arts, which allows them to easily obtain power that ordinary people cannot achieve.

Since arriving in Letania, Leon had heard countless stories like this, but if he could, he hoped that the legends would remain just legends, instead of standing in his way like they were now.

With a powerful swing of his arms, Li Ang twisted his cane to deflect the sword blade that was inches away, and quickly jumped back, increasing the distance between himself and the knight.

In the two brief exchanges just now, Li Ang was completely at a disadvantage.

It's not that his strength was inferior to that of the knight; their strengths were roughly equal. If Li Ang hadn't been caught off guard, he might even have been stronger.

However… he faced a very real problem: that metal can in front of him was damn heavy.

The Agors have muscle fibers and even bone density far exceeding that of ordinary people, yet even so, Li Ang's weight did not exceed one hundred kilograms, while the big guy opposite him, including his iron suit, might weigh one or two tons.

There was a huge difference in weight between the two sides. Li Ang's attacks could hardly shake the opponent's heavy body, while the knight could make Li Ang retreat repeatedly by swinging his greatsword with all his might, while he himself would only take a step or two back.

As the sound of the engine behind him faded into the distance, Li Ang focused all his attention on the knight in front of him.

If he had made a move earlier, Li Ang was worried that it would have affected Adele and the SUV. Now that Adele had driven away, Li Ang could focus on the enemy in front of him.

Adele's previous attack had already proven that she and this knight were extremely incompatible. His armor, made of some unknown material, showed no signs of melting or deforming even at temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius.

Li Ang immediately concluded that Adele wouldn't be of much help even if she stayed, so it would be better for her to take her things and leave quickly.

Stepping forward to meet the oncoming blade head-on, Li Ang swung his cane upwards.

With a heavy thud, the slender cane deflected the greatsword's edge. Before the knight could retract his sword, Li Ang had already lowered his body and closed in on the knight's side, slamming the cane down onto the vulnerable joint of the knight's knee.

The cane collided with the armor, and in that instant, the knight's armor emitted a teeth-grinding cracking sound, sending a large number of metal fragments flying out.

Boom!

With a muffled thud, the knight's injured knee could no longer support his weight, and he collapsed to his knees.

His height of over two meters gives the knight a powerful sense of oppression. On the battlefield, he might be a terrifying killing machine capable of taking on a hundred enemies single-handedly. However, in one-on-one situations, this massive body becomes the knight's weakness.

Being large means being slow to move. As long as Li Ang is even slightly faster than the knight, he will have a significant advantage in this one-on-one confrontation.

However, at this moment, the knight had already sheathed his greatsword, one hand pressed on the ground to support his body, and the other hand gripped the greatsword, sweeping it horizontally towards the direction where Li Ang was.

Li Ang rolled on the spot, dodging the blade whistling overhead. As he rolled, the tip of his cane was also aimed at the knight kneeling on the ground.

The Earth-Shattering Wave Sword was unleashed, and a shockwave powerful enough to distort the air slammed into the knight. His body was thrown backward, almost losing his balance, and his defenseless chest was completely exposed to Li Ang.

Taking advantage of the knight's wide-open chest, Li Ang tried out his most powerful move—the Explosive Flame Wave Sword—which, unsurprisingly, did not have a good effect.

Even Adele's flames couldn't melt the knight's armor. The damage from the Blazing Wave Sword was mostly focused on the subsequent explosion, which had unparalleled destructive power against flesh and blood. In terms of temperature alone, it was slightly inferior.

The knight managed to steady himself as he plunged his greatsword into the ground, barely managing to stay upright. After taking the blast of the fiery wave sword head-on, his dark armor was now pitted and looked as if it would shatter at any moment.

However... the person hidden inside the armor wasn't seriously injured. Watching the knight slowly rise from the ground, Li Ang couldn't help but click his tongue.

"Tsk, so it really doesn't work?"

Li Ang knew things weren't that simple. If the knights could be defeated so easily, they wouldn't deserve to be called the legends of Letania.

“Agorian…you are very strong.”

A sharp, piercing sound came from the armor. The knight adjusted his helmet, which had been blown askew. A shimmering light, like rippling water, appeared on the armor. The scattered metal fragments on the ground were drawn back to the armor by some force.

Amidst the rippling waves, the armor seemed to revert to its original state as if time had reversed.

If it weren't for the few pools of blood scattered on the ground, Li Ang would have doubted that he had caused him any harm.

"But you shouldn't disobey Her Majesty the Queen's orders and die here!"

The knight began his charge, his heavy metal boots leaving shallow craters in the ground, making the entire earth seem to tremble. A mountain-like pressure, mixed with a foul wind, swept over him, and the knight's surging killing intent almost made Li Ang's skin sting slightly.

"Crush!" A thunderous roar exploded in the air.

It was just a simple downward slash, but with the knight's tall frame, it felt as if the sky had collapsed, making it breathtaking.

The countless Originium microparticle rings surrounding Li Ang suddenly contracted, completely enveloping his entire body. Li Ang did not dodge; he simply turned his body slightly to the side.

The knight's greatsword struck Li Ang's side with a sharp whistling sound, but it seemed to have hit an absolutely smooth barrier, sliding uncontrollably to the side.

Li Ang seized the opportunity and kicked the spine of the greatsword, forcibly changing the direction of the knight's attack.

But that wasn't enough. After the exchange, Li Ang knew that what he had done was insufficient to stop the knight and create an opportunity for a fatal blow.