Earthbound curse

"You... Who are you? How do you know my identity?" exclaimed the masked man. Although he was in a tough spot, there were no fear in his voice, only genuine curiosity and a tinge of hostility.

Noon ignored the masked man and quickly moved his hand, trying to grab him. However, as he was about to touch him, the masked man's pendant suddenly shone brightly. A golden transparent shield quickly surrounded the masked man, isolating him from the rest of the world.

Noon did not react to the change. He simply continued to move his hand which was promptly stopped by the shield. The shield started to glow even brighter as if it was pushing Noon's hand away but Noon did not seem to care. He continued to press his hand on the shield and just a few seconds later, a crack suddenly appeared on the shield.

For the first time, the masked man expression changed. His eyes were hidden by the mask but everyone could see his smile disappear as he clenched his teeth. Now, he was genuinely starting to be worried. When he first saw Noon, the masked man immediately identified him as someone at level 72. However, it was virtually impossible for someone at that level to break his shield so easily.

Even the masked man himself who was level 79 could not break his own shield that quickly. He once again tried to pull his rapier from Noon but failed. As much as he wanted to retreat, he could not leave behind his rapier like that. After all, it was a Grade 7 weapon and it belonged to the church; if it was lost, he would be accountable for it!

A few seconds later, the originally tiny crack had already expanded and now covered the majority of the shield. The masked man could only watch as his life-saving shield broke into pieces together with his confidence.

When the shield finally broke, Noon temporarily froze his hand and said: "Weak! I wonder how many more items you have with you? From the second I saw you, I knew you were one of the Ten Commandments of the Church. Your aura was different from the others and at the same time very familiar to me! I was not sure at first since it did not make sense to me why someone like you would come to such a desolate area of the empire but when after I saw your rapier, I immediately recognized it."

"How? Just who are you? Only a select few know about my presence here!" exclaimed the masked man.

While the church was a well-known entity respected by many, only a select few knew about the inner workings of the church. And even fewer knew about the leaders of the church's army.

During the rapid growth of the church, the leaders decided to divide the church into 10 separate shrines; one for each human empire with each shrine having their own ideologies, cardinals, and armies. The shrines were named after the fundamental laws declared by God and the leader of each army was bestowed one unique ability. Those leaders were carefully selected to always be loyal to the church and to represent their unique skill; in the end, these leaders became known as the Ten Commandments.

With their new ruling system, the church grew quickly, so much that new churches were built almost every week. However, it did not last long and things did not go as the pope expected. If the church had been well received in empires such as the Sylvester Empire, in others, they had been flat out denied entry and harassed by the other existing religions.

As a result, some shrines ended up settling in other empires but they never merged with the other already existing shrines. The shrine of faith was one of those shrines who had lost their original allocated empire and ended up settling in the Sylvester Empire. Since that day, several decades had passed and the shrine accumulated a lot of strength, yet, it was still ranked as the weakest shrine of the church.

...

"I already told you, my name is Noon and I recognize your aura. Now, you should use your special skill. I know that each Commandment was given a special one but to this day, no one knows what is the skill given to the Commandment of Faith. Can you enlighten me on this?"

Completely ignoring Noon's indifferent expression, the masked man exclaimed, "I don't know who you are but there are no grudges between us. Why are you doing this?"

"What about the rapier piercing my chest? Besides, even if you did not attack me, you would not have left this place alive. I have quite a history with the church. Taking down a Commandment would not affect it by much but it should still have some impact, right? At the very least, it should make those 'gods' waste quite a bit of energy."

The masked man remained silent. He wordlessly stared at Noon's palm for a moment. Nobody knew what he was thinking but a few seconds later, he finally reacted. Dropping all previous pretenses, the flames of fury appeared in his eyes.

"So you are looking down on me like that? I don't know how strong you are but it is obvious that level 72 is not your real level. I remained silent as you bad mouthed the church but I cannot do so when you are aiming for the gods. I don't know how you have obtained all this information about the church. You can look down on me as much as you want but today's winner has yet to be decided!"

As he heard the masked man's decisive tone, Noon concluded that he would not be able to extract any information from this man. The only option now was to kill him. With the shield gone, Noon attempted to grab the masked man but before he could reach him, the masked man suddenly jumped backward and took out another runic stone.

"All of you! Listen to my command and take down those barbarians who stand in our way! Don't be fooled by their words! It is a fact that they are protecting the devil's envoy! I will take care of this man, you all focus on the barbarians and the devil's envoy! For each individual head you bring back, you shall be awarded 50 merits! And the one to bring back the devil's envoy head shall be rewarded with an additional 200 merits!"

Immediately, the knights reacted. With all their weapons drawn, the knights charged forward in an orderly fashion. They have been trained for years to react to any orders given by the superiors and the effectiveness of this training was clearly displayed as the knights quickly rearranged themselves in an offensive formation with minimal guidance from the captains.

While the NPCs were well prepared, the players were surprised by the sudden order of the Commandment and took some time to react. At the same time, the Baron and his army, who were a separate entity from the church, did not join in the charge and instead started to retreat. He would gain nothing by participating in this fight; for him, it was better to stay away and avoid casualties.

At the same time, the masked man firmly pressed onto the runic stone, causing it to crack, releasing a blinding light. The light shot right into the ground a few moments later, a golden dome made of light started to rise from the ground, trapping Noon and the masked man in a relatively small arena.

"I will admit that you are strong but thanks to the Devil Suppressing Barrier, I should have no problem dealing with you! Not only does it increase my strength by 10%, but it also decreases the strength of all non-members of the church! Now, you can only watch as your precious tribe members are slaughtered one after another!" said the masked man as he drew another blade to replace his rapier. It was only a Grade 6 weapon but it was the best weapon he had in hand at the moment.

"You speak too much! Just use your skill already, I am still waiting!" nonchalantly said Noon. He looked at the masked man who took out yet another runic stone from his storage back but did not seem to be worried. Instead, Noon silently pulled out the rapier from his chest; his face remained expressionless as the blade came out of his body. "If talking does not work, maybe a few strikes will loosen your tongue."

...

Without a word, the knights charged toward the barbarians, avoiding the area where Noon and the masked man were fighting. The captains did not need to verbally order the knights; the church had its own code for orders on the battlefield to avoid giving away information to the enemy.

The barbarians stared at the charging knights while raising their weapons. Many of them were on the verge of charging forward to but since there were so many different tribes, they had to wait for the orders of the representatives of the tribes and in particular, for the orders of the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader.

The latter calmly glanced at Noon and the masked man, completely ignoring the church's executioners. The next second, he sighed as his body suddenly vanished.

"Bang!"

The leading knight's body suddenly flew backward right into the knight's formation. None of the knights saw what exactly happened. They only saw their leader suddenly cough blood as he was thrown back. The knight's body rolled on the ground as the charging knights quickly reacted to prevent the horses from crushing his body.

However, it was all for naught. They soon realized that the captain was already dead. His armor was completely deformed, especially at the level of his heart.

The Wandering Ram Tribe Leader stood alone in front of the knight formation. He was not at all worried that the knights were still charging at him. Instead, his annoyance was directed at his right fist covered in blood. He shook his hand to remove the blood as he spoke, "looks like I got a bit rusty after all these years."

Although the captain was down, the knights did not stop the charge. On the contrary, the knights were now more cautious than ever. They did not see how he did it but the fact that a captain was killed through his armor with a single attack was more than enough to label the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader as a dangerous individual.

The latter jumped to avoid the charging knights as he shouted, "Don't fight! Retreat! Even if we deal with this batch, they will soon receive reinforcement from the town! Retreat while I delay them!" The Wandering Ram Tribe leader once again disappeared as another "Bang!" rang from the knight formation.

The barbarians hesitated at first. Their blood was already boiling and they could not wait to fight but they never expected the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader to order their retreat instead! As for the representatives of the different tribes, they let out a sigh of relief as they quickly ordered their own tribe to retreat.

They all looked in awe as the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader was fighting the whole knight formation by himself. He was alone, yet he was not scared of the knights. However, despite his courage, he was unable to stop the charge; at best, he could only knock down the captains and create some chaos in the formation.

The barbarians quickly kicked their horses and ran toward their own territory. Five and Ariel closely followed the barbarians. As he did not know how the Black Iron Tribe would treat him, Five decided to stay at the back of the group which also allowed him to watch the ongoing fight.

While riding his horse, he stared at Noon and the Wandering Ram Tribe leader, both engaged in their respective fights. His mind was a mess, of all the possible scenarios, he never expected the meeting of the tribes to end this way.

He still did not understand the Wandering Ram Tribe leader's actions. The latter first stated that he would not interfere as long as the border protected. His only role was to protect the border but he did not hesitate to anger the church for his sake. It did not make sense as not only would it result in making their previous deal void but it would also make the church one of their enemies. In comparison, giving his life away would have resulted in a far more stable border; the Sylvester Empire alone could not deal with the barbarians but if they allied with the church, the balance might tip in their favor.

"Anyway... He is probably a selfish guy with some obscure personal motives. As long as I get out of here with Ariel safely, then everything would be fine," said Five to himself. The barbarians' mounts were slightly faster than the Knights'; unless something happened, he would easily be able to get out of there. He was not worried about the Wandering Ram Tribe Leader and Noon. If they dared to step forward to face this small army, there was no doubt that they had some plan in mind, especially Noon who should have quite a few powerful items in his possession.

However, just as Five was starting to relax, a notification suddenly appeared in front of his eyes:

[You have been hit by the Player Two's Earthbound Curse, Earthbound Anchor has been set at your current location. Player Five will be unable to move more than 100m away from the Anchor for 10 minutes]

"What? What is that?" exclaimed Five. He quickly read through the detail and easily understood the situation. He wanted to curse but before he could, he suddenly felt that he had hit an invisible wall and fell backward. His horse continued forward, unaware that his rider had fallen.

"Master!" exclaimed Ariel as she quickly directed her horse to turn around. Her eyes were filled with worry, she did not understand what happened but she knew that her master was in danger!

"Ouch!" Five quickly tried to get up as he rubbed his nose. Although he did not lose any HP, he still felt the pain from hitting that invisible wall. At the speed at which the horse was running, it only took a few seconds for him to cover one hundred meters.

However, that was the least of Five's worries. Behind him, the knights were still charging; their spears were all pointed at him, glowing with a dazzling white light.