The Amber Sword

TL: Ok, I’ll see you on wednesday for a regular update of TAS. I’m going to go back to my art practice. Once again, thanks for your support.

Chapter 107 – Lure (6)

Brendel quickly recovered from the surprise and eagerly rushed to activate his Charge skill, moving across the terrain in a straight line, passed through the mercenaries and Elven infantry to swoop down into the thick of the fray. Dozens of Lizardmen rushed at him with their lances.

“Good! Come at me!” Brendel roared.

He activated Power Break and swung his sword to strike at the incoming weapons, knocking back the Lizardmen easily. With his current strength, he easily pushed back the Level 19 creatures.

He then took another large step forward, gripped his sword’s hilt tightly with two hands and swung it from right to left. The air instantly distorted and a translucent ripple could be seen rending the Lizardmen’s flesh and passing through them.

The foliage around him fluttered backwards freely from the Sword Rave’s shockwave. A series of green words and numbers filled his retina as the Lizardmen’s bodies separated into half. The enemies around him fell into a quick silence as they retreated in fear as the body parts were strewn in a fan-shaped area in front of Brendel.

There were only a few physical techniques that utilized thin air to wound the enemies other than magic and unsealed Elements. Medissa’s area of effect abilities did not come from her own Elven techniques but the Spectral Knight’s techniques. In order for a Silver Elf to do the same thing, they had to reach the peak level of 60 before possessing similar capabilities.

Brendel drew his sword back and changed his stance into a defensive one, taking time to breathe in properly.

Even though he killed only seven Lizardmen, the effect was more than enough to demoralize them. The Lizardmen nearest to him had their morale bars plunging to a red color, and they started to retreat away from him. The space around him was empty and gave enough time to check the amount of XP that he got.

[60 XP for these Lizardmen wielding a lance. A level 19 creature would give around 20 XP. I’m getting nearly three times the XP of a normal mob creature when I killed these lizards, this is just like how it is in the game. The Elven infantry got me 200 plus XP, I got 420 XP from my charge. If I kill a few Lizardmen leaders and the mobs around them, I’m going to level up!]

Brendel felt his blood burning hot. He was at 3200/7900 XP, and only had a chunk of XP required to get to reach level 25.

[Level 25 is a new checkpoint. Not only do I get a new talent, I can get the third ability from my profession. Along with that, I’m goint to be classified as a Silver ranked fighter, and only at the age of only nineteen. That’s at the level of a ‘Blessed’ character!]

Even though Brendel had never looked down on his NPC status, he was quite irritated to see ridiculous talents popping up around him with Gold-ranked abilities and stats.

[Or maybe I should target the level 25 dragoons or disciples first— Hold on, should I go after the Dark Bishop now?]

Brendel quickly swiveled his eyes around to look for the Dark Bishop in excitement. His eyes were starting to become bloodshot as he drooled over that sizable XP. However, what he saw was a group of high ranking disciples rushing to the Elven infantry like a wave. He realized that the Dark Bishop did not wish for the Lizardmen’s formation to break completely.

Once the Lizardmen’s army was cut into half, it would become difficult for the Dark Bishop to give orders, as well as becoming slower to respond to the enemy’s attacks. He knew that if he lost control of the battlefield, his chances to escape will be reduced significantly, thus he had no choice but to send out his disciples in order to prevent the situation from becoming worse.

Ten over disciples brandished their weapons while riding the boar-like demons certainly looked imposing, but the Elven infantry had already moved back into position and lined up with Brendel, ready for them. The Lizardmen were impeded by the mercenaries’ ranged attacks and there were not many obstacles between the disciples and the Elves.

If the Dark Bishop was a little better in commanding, he could order the Lizardmen around him to charge at the mercenaries on the hill. This would even the odds a little bit more, but he was simply not suited to lead. The only things he had in mind were to prevent the lines from splitting altogether and protecting himself.

After issuing his commands to his men to prevent any enemies from coming near him, he started to prepare his spells, but Brendel had already found him and formed a plan—

=============== Amandina’s POV ============

The war cries in the valley started to mix together and Amandina could no longer discern what was happening. The battle below seemed like it was happening in another world

When the cool wind blew over the hill’s top which was completely bare and void of foliage, she shivered and coughed lightly once, before tightening the cloak around herself. She stood alone in the open cliff and looked at her surroundings in slight fear, then turned back to check a certain crevice in the wall and whispered in exasperation:

“Romaine, are you still not done?”

“I’m almost done.” Her voice came back like she was finishing soon.

Amandina sighed. She had heard of that answer a few times already, but she knew that Romaine would definitely ignore her grumblings even if she tried, so she could only stomp her feet to get rid of the cold.

However, Romaine was really about to finish what she was doing. She went deeper into the narrow crevice and walked in the dark area without hesitation. Any normal person would feel frightened of this tight area that was void of light, but she walked with an excited expression as she reached her destination. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a crystal, bent down to her feet, cleared the small rocks on the ground and placed the crystal on top of it.

She got up and count the places where she laid five other crystals, nodded and finally came out from the crevice with a light-hearted expression. She discovered Amandina with her frowning eyebrows that nearly touched her eyes which were filled with full of discontent and blame.

“I’m regretting this already. Let’s go back now.” Amandina shivered and coughed from the cold.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a small experiment and Brendel won’t notice it at all,” Romaine showed a lopsided grin and pulled Amandina’s arm: “Let’s move on to the next location.”

“W-wait……”

“Give me more of that crystal.”

“What are you trying to do!” Amandina’s wary hands went over her pouch. It was unlucky enough that that damned girl discovered her secret, but she did not want to have anything to do with her crazy acts.

“But your calculations are fine right?”

“Of course!” She gritted her teeth as she answered: “Romaine, you horrible woman, I’m actually a recognized student in Lantonrand’s Royal Geology Circle…….”

Romaine immediately made a disappointed sigh.

=============== Brendel’s POV ==============

A Wind Bullet and a Fireball.

When the explosion of burning air finally dissipated from the battlefield, the high ranking disciples had been turned into ashes.

[Ring of the Wind Empress, 20 OZ, 30 damage, Flame ring, 24 OZ, 70 damage. That’s enough to clear out these Silver-ranked disciples. I was worried there might be some elite demons that came along with the disciples, but it looks like my concern was for nothing. If I think about it, they are unlikely to come into this world in great numbers…… Unless a flag is somehow raised and the Gate of Demons is opened, cough—]

Brendel’s XP was raised by two thousand points. He was nearly level twenty five. He quickly lowered his sword and gave new orders to the Elven infantry: “Attack the enemies’ flanks, get rid of the Lizardmen and clear a path for me. The BOSS, I mean, leave the leader to me! Got it?”

Twenty Elves nodded at the same time.

“How about me, my lord?” The Nightsong tiger asked.

“Go along with Nalaethar.” Brendel replied.

“You don’t need any help?” The Elven commander asked.

“Just leave the leader to me, I don’t want that bastard to die off too quickly.” Brendel answered.

He had other thoughts about the Dark Bishop. Even though the latter had abilities and stats equivalent to a level 35 normal NPC, his true level was only 25 and Brendel actually had an easier time to deal with enemies with lower levels.

Without giving them a chance to argue, the youth charged towards the Dark Bishop, but  two Bachsa demons that were nearly three meters tall were obstructing him.

They were aggressive demons who also had the Charge abilities, and could be said to be the bane of low level archers and wizards. Brendel stopped before them for a split moment before going around their backs like a stealthy spirit. His hair flitted about as their weapons missed him before they landed onto the ground with a resounding crash.

Although the demons had the Charge abilities, their agility was incredibly low and their regular strength were also no match for Brendel’s strike combined with Power Break. His sword danced across the demons’ bodies, painting injuries across them one after another as he constantly moved behind them and biting at their backs. The demons were slowly bleeding to their deaths, but they were not even able to catch a glimpse of Brendel’s appearance.

The Dark Bishop did not waste any time and quickly finished casting his spell. He screamed and directed a bolt of lightning towards Brendel who had kept an eye on him.

[Claws of the Demon, a magic spell of the Third Circle.]

Brendel easily recognized the magic spell. It was a spell that had two effects. Even though it was based on the Dark Element, the dark energy converted Hellfire into burning damage, while the second effect caused a loss of speed. As a magic spell of the Third Circle, the effects were much more effective than an Ice Arrow. It would literally seal the enemy onto the ground with dark energy unless they had over 40 OZ strength, and would only dissipate after a couple of minutes.

This spell was one of the most common spells amongst Dark Elementalists and Witches, and were primarily used for a sneak attack. Brendel really wanted to tell the Dark Bishop it should not be used in this manner when he saw this ugly sight. During the early days in the game, players simply used this spell without thinking until much later, where they discovered that it was better used with a combined spell to hide the flashy effects, or even used as a close combat spell.

The reason for that was because the spell needed careful aim.

When Brendel saw the Dark Bishop’s hand stretched out, he immediately kicked the Bachsa’s body in front of him to block the lightning’s path. Hundreds of black electricity sparks chained the body onto the ground and spluttered hellfire everywhere. It was an impressive sight, but the spell effectiveness was rendered to zero as it missed its intended target.

He then activated Power Break again with an upwards swing of his sword, sundering the other demon’s neck and arm and instantly killed it with the body parts flying high up into the air.

Brendel took a moment to take a deep breath. The recent addition of the Spectral Knight’s crystal had caused the effectiveness of Power Break to increase his strength to over 30 OZ, but the drain on his stamina was even higher than before.

Fortunately, the balls of light that flew from the demons into his body caused him to level up and his body felt lighter than before. Green words streaked across his retina:

– You have reached Level 25. New talents are available.

– You have gained the technique Frontal Assault;

– Frontal Assault (Level 0): Spend 5 stamina and break the opponent’s defenses (Armor, Magic, Natural), causing your enemies’ defenses to weaken by 1.7 OZ.

– Detected an Item of Destiny: ‘The Golden Seed of Destiny’. Do you wish to activate the destiny of ‘The Golden Dawn’?

[What the fuck! No, I refuse to activate!]

Brendel was stunned for a moment before he hurriedly shook his head.