Chapter 144 - Volume 2

Chapter 89 – The Kings and the dead (4)
The Spectral Knight raised its spear for the third time, moving much slower than before, and the Nightsong Tiger shot a bolt before it was ready to attack. The sky-blue Bolt of Wind struck the Spectral Knight’s horse from the front, and trails of colored wind wrapped around its hooves.
The binding magic was effective, and both the Spectral Knight and its mount were slowed down once again.
[-12.7%]
Brendel immediately pulled the Nighsong Tiger to safety while he read the effective data. The Spectral Knight’s attack had landed on their original positions.
[That projectile was almost spot on for accuracy. For someone who has the stats of just an Iron-ranked fighter, the Mercenaries of Lopes are quite impressive indeed. Right now the distance we have is giving me enough time to read his moves, and we just need to lead him to the ambush.]
The ambush was no more than fifty meters away. Brendel believed that the effects of the bolts were going to last more than two minutes, which gave them enough time to lure it.
The Spectral Knight thrust its lance after missing the third Vortex Strike. The lance’s stab through the air seemed to create a vaccum, which created an explosion of air rushing to fill its void, distorting the vision of the nearby trees into a maelstrom, causing them to break and crunch loudly, with the void rushing towards the two men.
Brendel quickly dragged the Nightsong Tiger behind the cover of the largest boulder while he summoned the Magic Control card in his hand. (TL: Magic Control, a Planeswalker’s card that seizes control of a magic.)
[This time it’s Seismic Blast. Let’s see if this still works.]
The card lit up brightly and the blast of air was directed back at the Spectral Knight, causing its body to shake massively. Brendel saw that it did more than three hundred damage and chortled in his mind. The thrusting of the lance made it seemed like a physical attack, but the gamers eventually discovered that it was Soul magic, and countered it by sealing off such properties to render it useless.
Because the Magic Control card was a counter-magic spell, he thought that it might work. The damage caused it to lose a third of its health, and Brendel was certain that it entered into a Stunned state, and would enter Stage Two of its boss phase. Brendel quickly pulled the Nightsong Tiger to his feet and they started to run to the location of the ambush.
The intelligence stat of the undead Spectral Knight was considerably high, so he was also certain that it would not use the same attack again.
When the Spectral Knight shrugged off its Stunned status, the two men had already reached the ambush point with shallow breaths. They were pushed to their utmost limits from the very start. Even though the entire exchange was done in less than thirty seconds, they were starting to get tired. Brendel’s forehead was full of perspiration, which was no better than his own.
The Nightsong Tiger was certain that the Spectral Knight had not shown off its full prowess, so he looked at Brendel and wondered what other tricks he had that could reverse the situation.
Everyone at the ambush’s location was also thinking of the same thing.
The Elementalists twins felt their limbs were turning cold when they saw the Spectral Knight made its first attack. The level of how it fought was beyond any battles they had before, and the strength that it had was beyond common sense. The younger sister even trembled as the older sister hugged her tightly, with both of them gritting their teeth and staying where they were. Any other mercenaries would surely have run away.
There was an infamous incident in the game where the gamers incited a war against the NPCs against the Kirrlutz’s White Lucerne city with a population of five hundred thousand. Eleven Gold-ranked gamers fought in the war and caused half of the city to be destroyed. Even though the gamers were routed at the end, the damage that was caused by these high ranking adventurers were fully shown.
Every kingdom eventually tightened the control of such adventurers after that incident.
The damage of the Spectral Knight that it caused with the Seismic Blast silenced Amandina. The unending might of the Spectral Knight appeared like it could distort nature, and even though it was an illusion, it made her feel nothing but despair.
The Spectral Knight started to charge forward towards Brendel once again, covering an immense distance in a short period of time, and everyone held their breaths.
But a miracle seemed to happen.
The Spectral Knight suddenly stopped after charging through a certain point. It raised its head  and stared at the two men in front of it, then attacked with its lance twice, causing two blasts of wind pressure to sweep across them.
The two currents of air rushed forward and caused deep gullies, forcing the nearby trees to bend and groan, but before it could strike Brendel and the Nightsong Tiger, they vanished.
[[[[[What?]]]]]
The Spectral Knight paced back and forth against an invisible line, swinging its spear again and again, trying to slay the two men in front of it, but it was quickly proven that it was pointless to do so. Everyone started to wonder if Mother Marsha had given her blessings to their lord.
Amandina was initially surprised but she quickly became suspicious of how the events turned out.
Romaine was also in a state of nervousness, and she sighed with relief and showed a faint smile.
[Auntie, little Romaine has an outstanding sweetheart—]
The mercenaries started to cheer loudly, while the Nightsong Tiger looked at Brendel in disbelief. Brendel had not relaxed in the slightest. He had estimated the distance correctly but the battle was not over.

Everyone is to enter the attacking range of the Spectral Knight.

And everyone looked at him in disbelief.

My lord, isn’t this good enough? We can hit him without being worried that he would hurt us!
One of the mercenaries said, while a few others took out their crossbow and prepared to aim at it. They were somehow worried that their lord had gone half mad.

My lord……
The Nightsong Tiger began to speak.

These are my orders! Are you going to obey them, or not?
Brendel roared loudly. The situation was not as simple as the mercenaries thought. Perhaps they thought that the undead was unintelligent, but if the situation continued as it was, the Spectral Knight would return to the temple.
He was the first to move into the attacking range of the Spectral Knight, which quickly reacted by slashing its lance in his direction. While he nimbly avoided the attacks, he shot another Bolt of Ice and caused damage to it.
Even though the mercenaries were unwilling to fight within its range, they still moved in once they saw Brendel did so. With the cumulative effects of the magic bolts, they were able to avoid the slow ranged attacks made by the undead monster.
The undead monster kept striking at them but it did not use the powerful Seismic Blast, and the Vortex Strike was continously interrupted by Brendel and the Nightsong Tiger. The mercenaries were delighted to see that the enemy could not reach them as they continued to scurry around it like rats, poking and hurling their projectiles at it, completely disregarding their image on how unsightly and cowardly they were acting.
The Nightsong Tiger could only expressed his astonishment in his heart. If the prowess of the Spectral Knight was beyond his imagination, the fight they had right now was the most bizarre he ever had.
Brendel was feeling a little smug when he saw the Nightsong Tiger’s expression. The gamers had spent countless hours trying to bend the rules in the game, and the endless creativity they had created numerous strategies in the virtual world. In his former life, there was a well-known meme:
‘The more freedom a gamer has, the more cheats they possess.’
They would always seek the easiest solution to solve a problem and never stick to common sense. If any resources and advantages were available, they would use it in order to defeat the enemies beyond their means.
Brendel believed in such a creed. They represented the crystallization of wisdom that would allow him to progress through the darkness and conquer this world that was full of difficulties and pain. He took out the remaining Bolts of Ice and tossed them to the mercenary commander.

My lord?
The Nightsong Tiger was confused.