CHAPTER 328: I Will Be Your Hunting Hound

Under the light of the torches, the extremely tall figure was gradually revealed to the sound of mocking laughter. It was a handsome young man with a strange and evil smile. The young man was about one metre and ninety centimetres tall. When he stood, he was like an unsheathed sword, giving people an intense visual impact.

An azure warrior's uniform emphasised his refined physique. His mouth showed a faint smile that gave off an aura of playfulness, like an eagle in the sky planning to toy with a rabbit running frantically on the ground. He seemed both confident and at ease.

The frightened bandits looked around hastily as the young man revealed himself, as if they thought there were more people behind the young man, causing their nervousness and caution to peak.

"Stop looking around. It's just me!" Han Shuo explained with a faint smile, then stopped looking at the bandit leader who was clearly breathing a sigh of relief. He only looked at Dorcas, who was standing stiffly in the crowd, and asked, "Do you think these bandits, who only know how to enjoy themselves and are incapable of achieving anything, will be able to help you take revenge?"

Dorcas wore an indifferent expression. Then, after a moment of silence, he looked at Han Shuo, "That is none of your business. You came for the fifty thousand gold coins, right?"

Han Shuo shook his head with a smile, then continued to look at Dorcas as he said boldly, "No, fifty thousand gold coins might be a huge amount of money in the eyes of these bandits, but not in mine. The reason I followed you was not because of the fifty thousand gold coins, but because of you, Dorcas!"

Dorcas's expression suddenly changed and he glared at Han Shuo with hatred, as if he wanted to remember Han Shuo's appearance. Then he smiled sadly, "I had no idea that the two families would still have the desire to come after me after so much time has passed. I never thought I would be worth so much. Hahaha!"

"Stop this nonsense. You're just a single man and you dare to block our path. You're only looking for death!" Laxie, the bandit leader, wanted to hurry on to the Full Spring Garden. He suddenly roared loudly after confirming that Han Shuo was indeed alone, unable to suppress the urgency in his heart.

The other bandit leaders all agreed after hearing Laxie's roar. It seemed that their lust had made them unable to resist the situation any longer. Under the command of the bandit leaders, their subordinates, who were also in a hurry, quickly surrounded Han Shuo with their worthless weapons.

Han Shuo had a smile on his face from the beginning. He was completely indifferent to the actions of these bandits who only craved the smooth skin of women. He continued to stare at Dorcas and shook his head slightly. He finally decided to explain when he saw Dorcas' confused expression: "You may be both worthless and a hot potato to others, but you are worth far more than fifty thousand gold coins to me. I will explain to you in detail later, after I have cleaned up these bandits. Then I'll take the time to discuss your true value with you.

"Prideful fellow, you are asking for death!" Laxie glared at Han Shuo with anger. He waved his hands and shouted, "Kill him! He's definitely that evil necromancer. Close in on him and don't give him a chance to cast any spells."

"Aha, he is the new mayor of Brettel City! Look at that space ring on his hand. He's definitely a big target! Brothers, take the space ring for me, I can already imagine the wealth inside the space ring!" Bandit leader Tuca cawed strangely in excitement. He raised the broad, double-edged battle axe in his hands and stared greedily at the space ring on Han Shuo's finger.

"Dong... Dong dong..."

Just as the bandit underlings were about to tear Han Shuo to pieces, the sound of dull footsteps suddenly rang out.

"What's that?!" Laxie's untidy eyebrows tensed into two irregular triangles as he looked around and asked loudly.

The minions were about to make a move, but looked around in confusion when they heard Laxie's cry.

"Dong... Dong dong... Dong dong dong..."

As the muffled footsteps approached, several branches with sparse leaves began to shake, telling these third-rate bandits that even the ground was shaking slightly. But even if they had a torch, the distance it could illuminate in this pitch-black night was very limited. As a result, the bandits could only hear footsteps getting louder and louder, but they could not see what they were, no matter how hard they looked.

"That, my friends, is the sound of the metal hooves of the fire-spitting steeds of the evil knights. No need to look around, you're all doomed!" Han Shuo suddenly declared with a smile, surrounded by the bandits.

"Damn it, he has already summoned his undead creatures! Kill him immediately! As long as he dies, the undead creatures won't be too much of a threat without his orders!" The light mage, who had been hired by the bandits with a lot of gold, quickly shouted as he lost his composure.

The bandit leaders were frightened and did not know what to do. They all shouted at their subordinates when they heard the light mage's cry, "You idiots, kill him quickly!

The minions sprang back into action as they heard their leaders give them the same order to kill. They brandished their weapons and rushed Han Shuo, trying to kill him before the undead creatures arrived.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Under the flickering red light of the torches, long, thin, black bone spears shot out from Han Shuo. These bone spears flew out with extreme speed and were like rays of life-taking black light. The endless bone spears actually seemed to be connected to each other, making Han Shuo look like a strange black peacock with its tail fully open.

"Ah... Ahhhhh..."

The bandits who'd rushed over let out a dense series of horrible howls that sounded like firecrackers. When Han Shuo opened his "tail", the bone spears either easily pierced their armour, which was only worth a few silver coins anyway, or penetrated deep into the gaps between their bones or intestines, sending blood flying everywhere.

The bone spears didn't lose any of their power as they pierced the bandits' bodies. They had enough momentum to even string up the bandit behind the first one, making this kind of tremendous impact truly terrifying.

In the blink of an eye, the thirty or so bandits that had charged forward were all fatally pierced by the bone spears amidst their terrible screams. The blood that covered the ground looked strangely beautiful in the light of the torches that had fallen to the ground. The thick stench of blood immediately filled the noses and mouths of the bandit leaders.

"Not good!" Laxie's lust was gradually extinguished by the bone-chilling cold as he watched Han Shuo slowly rise from the piles of corpses and blood. An intense flame of fear incinerated everything in his mind.

"Dong dong..."

The muffled footsteps pounded like drums in the hearts of each and every bandit. The 'things' they had only heard, but couldn't see, now appeared behind them one by one. These "things" had no eyes. Instead, their sockets were filled with flickering flames. By the light of their burning eyes, huge figures gradually emerged from the darkness.

Tuca's lips suddenly became strangely dry. He couldn't even speak smoothly as he muttered softly, "Everyone. Those are evil knights, run!"

The hands of the two light mages trembled as they held their staffs. They had been hired with a lot of gold. However, purifying light magic with their current strength was truly limited. What's more, there were actually more than ten evil knights in front of them. Thanks to the blurred light, their sharp eyesight could see many more shadows behind the evil knights.

These bandits had indeed heard the rumours that Han Shuo had annihilated the bandit Troda and others at the foot of Mount Tali. However, they'd thought that it had been done by the many soldiers from Brettel City, as well as Fulkin's mountain people.

There was no way they could have anticipated the appearance of an Archmage Necromancer with mental strength on par with a Grand Magus, as well as a bone staff that doubled the number of undead creatures summoned. How many could Han Shuo summon?

"Sorry, we don't want the rewards anymore!" The light adept mage turned around and looked at Dorcas, then said to the other light journeyman mage, "Give them back the gold coins!"

The two light mages poured out about a thousand gold coins from their money bags. The adept mage bowed slightly to Han Shuo in the distance and said in an anxious yet respectful tone, "This doesn't have much to do with us. Please allow us to leave."

"You two despicable mages! How dare you run away first! I'll kill you myself!" Dorcas's bandit leader roared, then lunged at the two mages as they tried to retreat.

"I don't know why, but I'm starting to dislike light mages more and more. I also really hate your actions of defecting at the last minute, I think it's better if you stay," Han Shuo coldly looked at the two mages who only knew how to save their own skin and replied plainly.

Due to the wave of dense bone spears, none of the bandits dared to approach Han Shuo. They all stayed as far away from Han Shuo as they could. However, there were still a large number of undead creatures behind them, so no matter how they looked at it, they were still dead.

"Pierce!"

A bandit right next to an evil knight was pierced by the evil knight's huge bone spear and lifted up. The slaughter began as soon as the bandit's body hit the ground. The ten evil knights slowly drowned the bandits, along with a thousand or so different undead creatures.

The night was dark as ink. The torches began to go out as the bandits were killed one by one, and the darkness of the night began to affect the bandits' vision. But the undead were like fish in water at night. They silently slaughtered everything in front of them, not knowing what mercy was.

Dorcas, too, had a terrified expression on his face as all sorts of horrible howls rang out, and he stood out in the crowd for his peculiarities as he held the torch. Evil knights and zombies walked past him as if they didn't know that a delicious human body was standing next to them. He didn't seem to exist to them as they slaughtered the living around him.

When Dorcas noticed that none of the undead creatures attacked him, the fear in his heart began to subside. Due to the treachery of the bandit leaders earlier, even though Dorcas had originally been their comrade, he felt a hint of joy as he watched them die.

"Good riddance, good riddance, this scum should have been dealt with long ago." Dorcas muttered to himself as he watched the bloody carnage with indifference.

The two light mages were the first to bear the brunt of the bandits' attack after Han Shuo's merciless refusal. The two light mages, who had originally been able to threaten the undead creatures a little, were nearly drowned by the bandits' furious attacks. After the bandits had finished off the light mages, they were consumed by a wave of undead creatures. As time passed in the pitch-black night, the horrible, never-ending screams gradually ceased.

After a while, only Dorcas was left, holding a torch with an indifferent expression on his face. Next to him was a floor covered in corpses, and a few ghouls munching on them.

"That was a bit gory, but I hope you don't mind." Han Shuo floated towards Dorcas with a smile. He didn't seem gentle at all as he smiled in the middle of a floor full of corpses. Instead, there was a different kind of terror and foreboding about him. The fact that the ghouls feeding on the ground all left Dorcas' side when Han Shuo approached only emphasised that all this horror had come from this young man with a strange and evil smile.

Dorcas took a deep breath and forcefully stopped himself from vomiting. He focused on Han Shuo, trying to soften the horrible scene painted around him. "What do you want?"

"Hahaha, I know some things about you, and I can also understand the endless anger in your heart. I want to give you a chance. A chance to take your revenge," Han Shuo offered this extremely tempting proposal with a smile.

This was something no one could give him!

Before Han Shuo had shown the cruelty of slaughtering all the bandits, Dorcas would not have believed that the Lord of Brettel City, someone who had found it hard to protect himself, could give him a chance.

However, Dorcas now had reason to believe that as long as Han Shuo was willing, the revenge that had seemed impossible would not be difficult in the face of this man who was as fierce as a demon.

Therefore, Dorcas hesitated for only a moment before nodding, "As long as you can take revenge for me, I can do anything for you."

Han Shuo shook his head and said slowly with a smile, "It's not that I will take revenge for you, it's you who will take revenge for yourself!"

When Dorcas frowned, Han Shuo smiled and said, "I will give you the chance to take revenge with your own hands. With your talent, the two families will sooner or later be dancing in the palm of your hand. Hahaha, isn't torturing them to death bit by bit with your own hands much better than letting someone else kill them?"

The girl who had fallen in love with Dorcas had now become his enemy's plaything. Because of the girl's relationship with Dorcas, her fiancé treated her cruelly. The poor girl was completely helpless as she washed her face with tears every day.

Although the girl's family was unhappy about this, there was nothing they could do as their daughter was already married. What's more, her husband's family were of a higher station, so her father could only blame Dorcas. He did not hold back in his pursuit of Dorcas. It could only be said that Dorcas was very lucky to have survived the hunt for so long.

The Dark Mantle knew all this, but in a world ruled by nobles, the commoner-born Dorcas' shocking talent for military affairs was not enough to change these unwritten rules that had existed for several thousand years.

The Dark Mantle would only kill those nobles who had betrayed the Empire. But it wasn't a big deal if nobles occasionally bullied a few peasants. It was even more negligible if the peasant being bullied didn't have any support. The Dark Mantle had countless other things to do. They would not, of course, waste their efforts on such trifles. The fact that they had a note in their records was due to Dorcas' strategic talent. Otherwise, there probably wouldn't even be a record of his name.

"I am a fugitive, how could I use my power to kill my own enemies!" Dorcas was clearly moved by Han Shuo's suggestion. However, since Dorcas had excelled at the Imperial Academy, he was no fool. He looked at Han Shuo and asked after thinking for a while.

"Whether you are a fugitive in Brettel City or not is up to me, the city lord! I know your identity and your hatred. The fact that I dare to accept you means that I am not afraid of your identity as a fugitive," After saying this with a slight smile, Han Shuo raised a finger and pointed in the direction of the seven duchies, then said seductively, "Apart from intense hatred, I can also see arrogant ambition that cannot be hidden in your eyes. Brettel City is a hunting ground for the Seven Duchies. But it is also a hunting ground for me. Are you ready to become a hunter like me?"

Dorcas looked deeply at Han Shuo. After a while, he prostrated himself before Han Shuo, ignoring the blood on the ground, and said solemnly, "Sir Count, I am not a hunter, but I will be your hunting dog!