Capítulo 733: Chapter 366: Crystal Granules, The Final Location (Part 2)
“Tap, tap.”
The shadow of the black wolf moved with an appearance of grace and slowness, but in truth, its speed was even faster than Margaret’s earlier, flashing to the spot where the blacksmith was about to land in the blink of an eye.
His breathing was long and deep.
Xia Nan stood firm in place, the ash-black blade of the straight sword [Ash Fall] seemingly fully blending into the surrounding darkness of night, with only a vague outline visible under the moonlight’s reflection.
“Whoosh!”
In the cold air, a brief whistling sound quickly disappeared.
The straight sword swung forward as if dragging the moonlight, leaving a full silver-white arc in front of Xia Nan.
[Vortex Slash]!
It was already at full level, its power beyond questioning.
The timing was perfect, and the attack position was precise, using the experience gained earlier to perfectly avoid the area on the back of the blacksmith’s neck covered by gem-like spore-crystal particles.
Utilizing the inertia of the opponent’s fall, he controlled the straight sword to slash upward at an angle.
“Swish.”
Accompanied by a familiar sensation of brief resistance then smoothness in his hand, an already familiar sound reached his ears: the lodious sound of a sharp weapon tearing through flesh and slicing through bones.
Bang—
The blacksmith’s burly fra crashed to the ground, yet his head remained lingering in the air.
As blood sprayed, the shadow of the black wolf behind Xia Nan slowly dissipated, and the head, propelled by the sword’s inertia, finally rolled onto the ground like a ball.
The battle ended in an instant.
With a casual flick to remove the blood drops from the sword, Xia Nan took out the cloth he carried from his waist pouch and wiped the stains and blood marks from the surface of the straight sword.
On the other side, the dwarf and female knight had already gathered.
“This thing’s strength is quite sothing, probably around a Level 1 or 2 warrior,” Soldin said, picking up the blacksmith’s forging hamr. After examining it for a mont and discovering it to be just an ordinary tool and not an enchanted weapon, he curled his lip and tossed it back onto the ground.
Margaret frowned.
She first glanced at the tip of her long sword, rubbed her fingers over so minor scratches on its surface, then looked at the blacksmith’s corpse on the ground.
Her gaze lingered particularly on the neck stump, still gushing blood.
“This thing… its strength isn’t quite right.”
Margaret didn’t believe that an ordinary person like him could withstand her battle skill, which she had honed to the ‘master’ level, using just his physical body.
It was those moss-like tiny crystal particles, centered around the pink jadestone on his chest and spreading across his body, that granted him such formidable physical defense abilities.
Even Xia Nan himself, recalling the strength of the female knight’s strike earlier and the subsequent attack on the blacksmith, couldn’t say he could easily break through the defense.
If the blacksmith’s entire body had been covered with those physically defensive gem particles, he wouldn’t have been able to end the fight as easily as he did.
As a minor trump card, with only two uses of [Gravity Etching] left, he considered saving it, but a protracted fight was unavoidable.
Suddenly, as if recalling sothing, Xia Nan stepped forward a couple of steps towards the corpse.
First, he checked the other parts of the body for crystal particles.
Given their remarkable physical defense capabilities, he thought of scraping so off, possibly for forging armor.
Unfortunately, with the blacksmith’s death, the crystal particles on his skin had already softened, falling away like skin flakes with only a light scrape from the dagger, losing their original defensive properties.
Feeling slightly disappointed, Xia Nan turned his attention to the pink jadestone embedded in the chest, gently touching it with his fingertips.
“Ding!”
A familiar chanical sound rang in his mind.
The [Dream Weaving Corridor] silver ring trembled slightly, adding another 0.0005% to his energy balance.
Glancing at the charging progress of the [Dream Weaving Corridor], Xia Nan suddenly thought, if during the previous fight, he had moved forward and absorbed the pink jadestone’s energy in the blacksmith’s body, would the opponent, like the previous townsfolk, have broken free from the spiritual control state and ceased to be aggressive?
In so sense, this might have preserved the opponent’s life.
Of course, this was just hindsight.
Under such circumstances, with an enemy attacking them suddenly from the shadows, aiming for their vitals,
it was already a rare opportunity that his teammates created an opening for him to attack with full force. How could he let his teammates down by sparing soone he’d only t twice, who had shown obvious hostility towards him?
Besides, not to ntion the danger of touching the jadestone on soone potentially conscious and combat-capable, if his guess was wrong and he couldn’t absorb the gemstone energy while the opponent was alive, it would have wasted the attack opportunity and led to unpredictable consequences.
Xia Nan had a conscience, but wasn’t a saint.
At most, he thought of testing this idea with similar enemies in the future, without feeling too guilty or self-reproachful.
“I suspect that the state of soone like the blacksmith or the innkeeper, with controlled minds but retained mobility and so awareness, might be a deep manifestation of gemstone influence.”
Margaret picked up the blacksmith’s head from the side, not minding the blood water on her hand, scrutinizing it while providing her reasonable hypothesis.
“That could be a problem.”
Xia Nan furrowed his brow slightly.
With a population of two to three thousand in Sheep Horn Town, even if only a tenth retained consciousness, it would still an triple-digit enemies.
In reality, that might even be enough to montarily fill the street in front of them.
Judging by the blacksmith’s performance in battle earlier, although they might be average in individual strength,
with their physical fitness enhanced by the gemstones, achieving a professional-level in strength and explosiveness, in other aspects, they were still ordinary people.
Especially in combat experience and skill, they were particularly lacking.
A regular Level 1 professional from the bottom up could easily beat them in a one-on-one situation.
For Xia Nan and his party, it was even easier. The cautious maneuvering at first took only three rounds, concluding the fight in re seconds.
But if the numbers reached two or three hundred… they might have to avoid direct confrontation, pulling back and counterattacking, avoiding encirclent at all costs.
Not to ntion, with such numbers, there’s a chance more deeply influenced individuals could erge.
If their strength and explosiveness were further enhanced, and those physically defensive gemstone particles covered their entire bodies… it would indeed be troubleso.
“Be more careful.”
Xia Nan looked up at the radiant beam connecting the sky and earth from the direction of the church, reminding the two others.
“Prepare for battle.”
…
…
On the road thereafter, the three of them maintained extre vigilance against potential enemy attacks.
Moving cautiously, even Soldin, who usually lightened the team’s pressure with jokes, kept his mouth shut.
The journey took them nearly twice the ti it usually would.
Strangely though, until they reached the central town square, they hadn’t encountered any more enemies like the blacksmith.
Their over-easy journey didn’t reassure Xia Nan but instead made him more alert, suspecting a bigger plot might be in the making.
“Sure enough, that old geezer’s up to no good!”
Soldin hadn’t thought that far ahead.
As they arrived at the square, the light beam, whose base had been hidden among dense buildings, was now completely exposed to them.
Just as they had surmised,
the huge, dazzling pink beam rose from the church’s do, piercing into the heavens.
It was the source.
The doors remained shut, and the overly brilliant light had even dyed the rose-engraved holy emblem on the wooden doors with a tinge of strange pink.
With dark eyes reflecting the towering church under the beam of light ahead, Xia Nan nodded slightly:
“Is everyone ready?”
“This… should be the end.”
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