Battle(1)

"Thum Thum Thum"

Despite the disturbance caused by the Wandering Ram Tribe leader, the Knights never stopped charging forward. Instead, they slowly gained momentum and swiftly reached their maximum charging speed. The ground was shaking as a loud rumble resonated through Five's ears.

The latter would be lying if he said he was not panicking. He had made ample preparations for many scenarios where the barbarians might turn against him but he never expected a whole army of knights to be charging at him.

He instinctively wanted to take a step back but at the same time, Five could feel the invisible barrier against his back. The barrier was still there, like an unmovable mountain, blocking his only escape path.

"F*ck! How did it turn out like that?"

Five swore loudly as he looked at the charging knights. Coming here was a mistake but the biggest mistake he had made was that he underestimated the players. He never treated the players as a threat but it turned out that they had been the largest threat all along.

Compared to the level 40 knights, Five previously thought that the players were only there to spectate the fight. After all, their levels only ranged from 15 to 25. With Ariel at his side, it was easy to deal with them but what he did not take into account was the wide variety of classes the players had access to.

If the church specialized in priests and paladin related classes, the players did not restrict themselves to these two classes. The skills they could display also had a wide range of effects. The Earthbound curse was one of the skills Five never expected to witness; as its name suggested, it was a curse, the antithesis of the blessings of the church. But more importantly, it was a unique skill that Five had never seen in the dungeon shop!

Five did not know the origin of the skill but he did not have time to think about this small detail. He quickly browsed through his inventory, taking out a couple of vials. He hoped to never have to use them but considering the situation, it seemed that they were his only hope. The vials were Grade 2 Explosive Potions that Five purchased before leaving the dungeon.

Each explosive potion could deal a maximum of 60 damage in a 10m radius of the explosion with a 50% bonus damage dealt to beasts. However, one potion was far from enough to deal with the knights. Their class specialized in tanking damage and as they invested heavily in their vitality stats, their HP ranged from 300 to 500. And more importantly, there was a whole squad of healers standing behind the knights; if he did not instantly burst the knights to 0, then all his efforts would be in vain.

Fortunately, Five bought an entire stock of those explosive potions and had a total of 50 of them in his inventory. Each potion was a one-time use item and cost 5000DP each but compared to his own life, this amount of DP was nothing.

"Master! Be careful!"

As she noticed Five suddenly fall from his horse, Ariel did not hesitate and jumped off her own horse and flew toward Five. She no longer cared about hiding her identity as a harpy and spread out her wings in front of Five to protect him.

"You should leave! All these knights are too much for you!" exclaimed Five.

"No! No matter what, I will protect you!" As she spoke, Ariel activated one of her skills. She did not have the confidence to stand against the knights but she knew that her mother was hiding not very far from there, waiting for the right time to strike!

"Alright, in that case, stand by my side!" said Five. He was holding 5 Explosive potions in his right hand, ready to throw them at the charging knights. He knew 5 potions were far from enough to kill one knight but it was different for the horses! Their maximum HP was slightly lower than the knights and as they were beasts, they all took bonus damage from the explosive potions. For now, his main objective was to stop the charge of the knights!

However, before he could get into a proper throwing stance, Five suddenly heard a series of "Woosh" above his head. The next second, the horses at the front of the formation suddenly stumbled and fell on the ground. The knights riding the unfortunate horses did not have time to react before they found themselves rolling on the ground, desperately trying to avoid the charging horses of their teammates.

The previously perfect formation suddenly crumbled as the knights at the back hurriedly changed direction to avoid the fallen knights. This resulted in the compact formation suddenly spreading open and more importantly, they could no longer charge at Five unless they were willing to sacrifice their fallen comrades.

From his point of view, Five was only able to see a series of rays of light piercing the armored horses of the knights but he easily determined what happened. He quickly looked behind him and as he expected, several barbarians were holding their bows fully drawn as they continued to retreat on their mount. Most of those archers formed part of the Wandering Ram Tribe but what surprised Five was that the Black Iron Tribe also stood among the archers who helped him.

Just a few moments ago, when he saw the Wandering Ram Tribe members suddenly draw out their bows, Baltra also immediately ordered his fellow tribesmen to do so. The Shaman had previously given him the mission to test Five's strength and so, he did not hesitate to put Five in danger. However, the situation had changed, the relationship between the barbarians and the church had already turned sour and with the Wandering Ram Tribe leader fighting them, there was no guarantee that the church would take down Five's dungeon in the future.

As a result, he quickly needed to reconcile Five and the Black Iron Tribe. Before that, he did not care much about Five as if the church was really going to take down all the dungeons, there was a high chance that Five would naturally disappear but now, the situation was different. Even if Five died, if he could really return to his dungeon, then he might make things difficult for the tribe. And so, even if it was just a few arrows, as long as he showed that the tribe stood on Five's side, he hoped that Five would not mind his earlier behavior.

Five could not be concerned by the reasons for the Black Iron Tribe's actions; for now, he needed to focus on the current situation. He could see the healers at the back quickly raise their staff as they activated their skills. Although the knights changed directions and instead charged after the barbarians, once the fallen knights recovered, the situation might change!

When he saw the light glow on the fallen knights, Five knew he did not have much time left and so, he quickly tossed the vials in his hand at them before taking out another batch of five.

"Boom Boom!"

Five continuously threw his explosive potions all around him. All he cared about was to keep the fallen knights down but it was clearly a battle he was going to lose. The healers at the back continuously used their skills, forming defensive shields to absorb the damage of the explosions. As a result, none of the knights really died, even after half of Five's explosive potions were used.

Five frowned, the situation looked really desperate. His escape items were all being negated by the Earthbound curse and his few offensive items would all be countered by the army of priests. He looked at Ariel who was quietly floating at his side with a resolute expression but he doubted she would be enough to turn the tides. The only good news was that none of the knights that went pass him turned back to attack him from behind; instead, they continued forward to chase after the barbarians.

Five did not understand their intentions but nevertheless, he did not mind having fewer knights aiming at him. However, he soon understood their motives.

A black blur suddenly appeared in front of him. Five quickly jumped to the side, avoiding the blur but he was too late. The blur rapidly materialized into a player. He widely grinned at Five as he quickly drew his dagger.

Five took a moment to process what happened; he could only stare at the approaching dagger but fortunately, Ariel was at his side and reacted quickly.

In a flash, she appeared in front of Five. She joined her hands together as she glared at the player.

[Zephyr Strike]

The player's expression suddenly changed. He only noticed Ariel appear at the last moment and before he could react, his body suddenly flew back as it was hit by the [Zephyr Strike]. He did not even see the skill being activated and only felt his stomach being torn apart by an invisible force. The pain was so intense that he could only let go of his dagger as he pressed his hands onto his stomach.

The next moment, he ungracefully rolled on the ground, trying to move as far away from Ariel as possible. He thought it would be easy to obtain those 200 merit points but he never expected Five to have such a strong bodyguard.

"Thank you," said Five as he gratefully looked at Ariel. He had already recognized the skill used by the player to appear in front of him. It was the assassin's skill: [Shadow Dash], allowing its user to dash across any obstacle, dealing damage to any enemies it went through.

"D*mnit, they are using me to train the players? F*ck!" Five loudly swore as he stared at the assassin. He now understood why the knights did not bother with him; it was because they wanted to use him to test their new recruits! Although it was degrading to be looked down by the knights, it was still good news to Five as the players were weaker than the knights.

Many of the players had already obtained their advanced class, giving them access to many more skills. For example, Assassin was one of the advanced classes available to rogues while Knight was an advanced class available to paladins. Those advanced classes significantly boosted the attack power of the players. However, it was still a game where they were restricted by levels and in front of the level 32 harpy, the players did not amount to much.

...

At the same time, in the middle of the Devil Suppressing Barrier.

"Can you really afford to not do anything? Look, you little protégé won't last very long in this situation!" said the masked man as he parried Noon's attack.

"Haha, I don't think so! You should take a look at your people instead," answered Noon as he pointed in a particular direction. There, the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader could be seen mercilessly attacking the defenseless priests at the back. Although many executioners appeared to protect the healers, they could only delay the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader to some extent.

The masked man frowned and jumped back to heal himself. Despite the Devil Suppressing Barrier, he was not having a good time when facing Noon alone. He had already depleted a large number of items but Noon was still standing firm, looking perfectly healthy.

Both of them suffered some injuries from their fight but it was obvious that the masked man was on the losing side. Furthermore, with his troops being massacred outside the barrier, even if he managed to survive this encounter, how was he supposed to explain this to the higher-ups? He was starting to lose hope when he suddenly noticed Noon's expression change.

During this entire fight, Noon had been rather carefree despite facing one of the strongest members of the church. Instead, his attention was more focused on what was happening outside the barrier. To him, the masked man did not represent a major threat; once all his items would be exhausted, it would be easy to capture him.

However, when he saw the masked man retreat, he suddenly felt a strong suppressive force seal a portion of his power. The Devil Suppressing Barrier was already taking away 20% of his power but now, another 10% was being taken away by this mysterious force.

20% or 30% did not make a big difference to Noon but the mysterious force gave him a familiar feeling. With his knowledge and experience, Noon easily located the source of the force and soon his eyes lit up!

'This... This is the Curse of Weakness of the Cursed Tribe! How can someone from the church use this skill? It is impossible! Unless...'

Noon's face lit up as he turned toward the masked man.

"So that's why you are here! All this time, I have been wondering why a Commandment would appear at such a desolate area. It's because of that man! You are trying to bait out the remnants of the cursed tribe!"