Summoning the Holy Sword

Chapter 1351: City of the Decisive Battle (8)

It wasn't entirely unreasonable for Rhode to make such a decision. Even though the other party might have a certain advantage in terrain, he was still better than them. Because not only was he really familiar with the buildings, he was also clear about what purpose they served. This was something that the other team was absolutely inferior to, so he was confident enough to shake them off and teach them a lesson that they would never forget. After all, it wasn't a matter of reciprocity and he couldn't always be the one suffering, right?

And as a matter of fact, Rhode was really about to teach them a lesson.

"I don't understand why we didn't take the main road, but came here to climb the stairs instead."

While grumbling and following behind Rhode, Little Five squeezed through the one-man gap in front of her. Facing her complaints, Rhode swept a glance at her quietly. He finally discovered her third attribute besides being a foodie and a battle fanatic: a chatterbox. She talked endlessly along the way, and although she got serious whenever necessary, she spoke non-stop under normal circumstances. Even if no one responded to her, she soliloquized for a long while and not even snacks could stop her from talking. Rhode didn't know where she got so many things to talk about, but that wasn't his main concern right now.

Just like what Little Five complained about, on the way to the second tower, Rhode's team was attacked several times in a row by the same other team. They were very cunning; they left immediately whenever they missed their assault. However, due to the continuous attacks, Rhode noticed that the group of three was likely made up of another Little Five, Eleanor, and Dona. In terms of average strength, they were slightly stronger than his team. But he couldn't confirm whether the three of them were the core personalities or subsidiary personalities like the ones in his team.

Besides, he also couldn't figure out their unpredictable thoughts. As a result, his team had to be wary about ambushes, so their progress was naturally hindered. And judging from this pace, the other team could have reached the second tower before him since they must have also noticed his target. But instead of rushing ahead of him, they wasted time attacking him, which was rather puzzling.

It was like a long-distance race, where apparently A could reach the finish line earlier than B to set a new record, but in the end, A slowed down to block B rather than to run ahead to the finish line. This struck Rhode as really odd. And to be on the safe side, he had even adjusted his route to prepare to head for the third tower, which was obviously an indication of him giving up the second tower. However, the other team continued following him without a care in the world. Faced with this kind of completely unpredictable behavior, Rhode was at a total loss. Could it be that he was so attractive that they couldn't leave him alone?

But no matter what the other party was thinking, Rhode had to do something about them. Otherwise, if things continued this way, perhaps there was no possibility of him getting any more mental crystals later on, not to mention the second mental crystals.

That was why he deviated from the route and led his two teammates to a tower located in an alley. This was neither a place where mental crystals were placed nor was there anything particularly strange here. But for him, this was exactly the most convenient place to plot against those annoying foes.

But meanwhile, he didn't notice that just behind them, three pairs of eyes hidden in the darkness were scanning them. Those eyes glowed with an icy-cold glint and a fiery desire to fight; they looked full of contradiction and yet, they left one tremble in fear. Soon after, the three of them who were hidden in the darkness exchanged looks with one another, before dispersing swiftly and surrounding Rhode's team silently from three directions.

Rhode seemed to be completely unaware of that. Not only that, but he also led Little Five and Catherine around the dim and dark corridor, knocking on something from time to time. Little Five complained about the building being entirely different from what she imagined, where the decorations weren't luxurious or splendid or interesting enough. As usual, Catherine followed them with snacks in her arms, but her seemingly overwhelmed face was no different than before. They weren't even aware that there were three 'vipers' slowly but steadily approaching them from the back.

Soon, the three indistinct figures arrived close behind Rhode's team. And at that moment, Rhode happened to turn a corner with Little Five and Catherine, heading deeper into the depths. As soon as the three of them disappeared from view, the 'vipers' lurking in the darkness finally snapped their jaw open, revealing their fangs, and surged forward!

Ding, ding, ding———!

All of a sudden, a sharp and loud alarm sounded, causing the ambushers to freeze on the spot, exchanging looks with one another and wondering what the problem was. Were they discovered? Or was it a trap? What was that sound? Where did it come from?

Splash!

However, before they reacted, they witnessed jets of water spraying out of the ceiling, flooding everything like a downpour. Not only that, but almost at the same time, a heavy, iron door dropped from above abruptly, landing on the floor and separating them from Rhode's team in just the blink of an eye.

"Oh no!"

Up until that moment, the ambushers realized that their whereabouts had most likely been exposed. At this thought, they no longer had anything to worry about anymore. Soon after, along with a dazzling blade ray, the iron and heavy fireproof door was cut open and the three of them darted through it swiftly. But they soon discovered another tough problem: everything in front of them was completely sealed off, while Rhode's team had disappeared from their view.

"It worked."

But at that moment, the three rather-flustered figures were completely unaware that within the shadows of another tower nearby, Rhode was smiling and watching them. He didn't know the art of divination, so naturally, it was impossible for him to know when they would attack him. However, he knew very well that the place he chose was very suitable for countering ambushes, so if the other party had been watching him as he expected, there was no way he would let go of such an opportunity to stop them.

That was why he decided on that place to launch a counterattack, and it turned out that his decision was correct. Those ambushers had indeed hid themselves and prepared to attack just as he predicted. And the only place they failed was that they weren't familiar with the facilities here. Although the outside was built according to the look of the tower that Karin was familiar with, the inside was laid out exactly as Rhode remembered it.

That was why they didn't know what he knew. If they were in another place, they probably wouldn't have been caught off guard. But the architecture in Rhode's world was different from the Dragon Soul Continent, and one of the biggest differences was that in his world, everything was standardized.

No matter how bizarre the appearance of the building, even if it was the first time when one entered, one should know that high-rise buildings must always have elevators, emergency exits, fire escapes, isolated iron gates, and firefighting facilities. This was standardized, but there were no such rules in the Dragon Soul Continent, which was why the buildings here were more unconstrained and depended entirely on the owner's subjective will to build something like a secret passage or chamber.

It was the first time Rhode's and the other team were here, so naturally they couldn't know what kind of mysteries were hidden here. And it was in this state of mind that the other team chose to follow Rhode, because even if he wanted to use the terrain to do something, it would be difficult to pose a threat to them.

However, they didn't realize that Rhode was much more familiar with the situation here than they were, so they accidentally fell into his trap. Of course, they didn't know that in Rhode's world, all buildings had strict safety and security regulations in place. That was why he deliberately turned on the alarm and activated the emergency measures to seal the entire building. So even if they weren't behind him at that time, they would still be sealed off in another area. It could be said that they stepped into a spider's web while following him into this place and any struggle would allow him to detect their presence in the shortest period. Even if they concealed it well before, it was meaningless in front of him now.

In that case, the attacking and defending side finally swapped over. Gazing at the shadowy figures, Rhode wore a smug smile. Now that they couldn't find him, it was impossible for them to follow him like they did before. Previously, he was caught off guard by them. But now that he knew that there was such a group of people who were specifically looking for trouble, he couldn't fall in the same place twice, could he?

Rhode snorted at this thought, before turning around and quietly disappearing into the pitch-black shadows.

After trying to find a way to bring both sides back to the same starting line, Rhode stopped paying attention to those three and instead, darted toward his destination with Little Five and Catherine. He had no more time to waste on them after going one huge round just to set up this trap. And now that the problem was solved, he shouldn't continue wasting time. In fact, it wasn't like he didn't have any intention of fighting back against them. But Catherine was unwilling to fight, resulting in the fact that he would be outnumbered in a battle against the three of them, so it would be hard to gain the upper hand. Thus, he sped up and dashed toward the direction of the second mental crystal.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Just as his team arrived at the location of the second tower, he heard another series of loud rumbles in the distance. He frowned and gazed toward the place where the sound came from, only to discover that two more towers had collapsed. Not only that, but also nine out of 12 mental crystals were left. In other words, three mental crystals, including his, were activated; it was just that he didn't know what was going on with the other teams. Upon hearing the rumbles, Little Five curled her lips and grunted.

"Here we go again. That's really…"

——!

However, before Little Five finished her sentence, a magnificent magical ritual suddenly unfolded above them. In the blink of an eye, bright halos enveloped Little Five one after another. At the next moment, her entire body metamorphosed into a golden light that rushed toward the magical ritual above.

"Sh*t! Let's get out of here!"

Looking at this scene, Rhode's heart sank.

Looks like we're too late.

It seemed like someone was ahead of them in activating the mental crystal. What made him feel even more uneasy was that Little Five was actually chosen. According to Catherine's previous encounter, it was likely that there was another Little Five among the people who activated the mental crystal. Unrelated people would be imprisoned after the mental crystal was activated. In the mental world where talking was better than fighting, as long as the usage of mouth was great enough, it would be sufficient to convince and please the opponent even without having to do anything… Hmm? Why did it sound a little wrong?

But now that Little Five was transported up to the magical ritual, Rhode and Catherine naturally couldn't stand idly by and watch the show. Thus, in the face of this unexpected situation, he returned to his senses quickly and beckoned to Catherine, before pushing open the door in front of him and rushing into the tower. However, the moment he entered the entrance, a scythe shimmering in an icy-cold radiance was brandished at his neck. If he hadn't react in time, perhaps his head would have fallen to the ground already.

Clink!

Facing the sudden emergence of the scythe, Rhode responded immediately. He lifted the sword in his hand and deflected the scythe, stopping its momentum. Not only that, but the moment he resisted the assault, his sword also metamorphosed into a silver snake that bared its fang at the other party. Along with this action, a figure wrapped entirely in a black robe drifted across the air in a whoosh, evading his counterattack.

Eleanor!

This time, Rhode finally witnessed the other party's face clearly. And at the same time, his heart sank yet again. He had fought against Eleanor in the past and knew her strength. Not only that, but her weapon was also very tricky to take on; the scythe was an odd weapon and its angle of attack was always unpredictable. He had a hard time taking her on previously outside of the mental world. If it weren't for Lapis's usage of explosive bombardments, perhaps Eleanor would have been even tougher to deal with. And now, he was finally about to have another confrontation with her.

While this thought cropped up in his head, Rhode had no intention of stopping his attack. Right after making contact with Eleanor, he launched another round of attacks at her again. The silver-whitish sword in his hand metamorphosed into a bolt of lightning, stabbed at her wide, black cloak and forcing her to retreat.

Eleanor was also quick to react to his attacks. She spun the huge scythe in her hands around, forming a solid shield that blocked him repeatedly. In a series of collisions and sparks, the Grim Reaper drifted in midair, while Rhode followed her closely without any intention to let her escape.

"Catherine, board the elevator and head to the top floor and help Little Five! You should know how to use an elevator!"

After a quick glance and not spotting anyone else, Rhode decisively gave an order to Catherine. When Catherine heard his command, she hesitated for a moment. Then, she nodded, turned around, and ran over to the elevator door on the first floor. Rhode had explained in detail to Little Five and Catherine about the elevator. After all, in this place where flight was prohibited, one definitely had to use the elevator to reach the highest floor in the shortest time.

Upon seeing Catherine's departure, Eleanor, however, chuckled and swung her scythe to slash her down, trying to intercept the Angel of Light. But before Eleanor flourished her scythe, Rhode had already shown up in front of Catherine, brandishing his sword at the scythe once again and repelling another attack from Eleanor. In the face of his retaliation, Eleanor wasn't annoyed. Instead, she snickered and drifted far away. But despite that, Rhode felt that her eyes were firmly locked onto him.

She isn't one of the three from before!

Up until that moment, Rhode confirmed that this Eleanor before him wasn't a member of the trio that ambushed him earlier. Although there was also an Eleanor amongst the trio, she gave him an eerie feeling like she was an elusive Grim Reaper. Meanwhile, this Eleanor had a certain playfulness and litheness in her fighting style that was unique to a young lady. Rhode was very sensitive to this aspect, so he was sure that the ones who activated the mental crystal were definitely not the trio that attacked him before.

But no matter who they were, Rhode had only one goal now.

Defeat them and gain victory.