The group left the house, leaving two guards to watch the entrance, while sending another back to the Lord's manor to report what had happened. The residents in the alley watched from afar, none of them daring to get too close.
By the time the search reached the fourth house, Knight Stine asked the residents if they knew anything about the old man's recent situation.
“Has that old man been associating with anyone lately?”
The resident of the fourth house shrank back and shook his head. “After his son died, all I know is that a woman was taking care of him. I don't know anything else.”
“Where did that woman come from?”
The resident shook his head again. “I only saw her from a distance once or twice. I've never spoken to her.”
“Was there anything memorable about her appearance?”
The resident frowned in thought for a moment before shaking his head again. “She was quite pretty. I heard a lot of young men were smitten with her, but I've never heard of her being close to anyone.”
Over the next while, with every house they searched, Knight Stine would personally ask about the woman named Liz. His tone remained calm and unhurried, as if they were just making small talk.
Although to Roger, this seemed like beating around the bush and alerting the enemy. If the woman named Liz saw a group of guards searching from afar, she would probably have vanished long ago.
But he didn't say this out loud. He was just a mercenary doing a job for money; there was no need to teach a knight how to do his work.
Just then, a commotion broke out ahead.
“What do you think you're doing?! Stop! Stop right now!”
The people on the street looked toward the sound, only to see a group of soldiers forming a semi-circle, cornering a person in the middle. By the time Roger and Knight Stine's group arrived at the scene, several people were already lying in pools of blood.
The perpetrator swung a mace in his hand with completely erratic movements, but his blows were incredibly powerful. The surrounding militia couldn't get close at all and could only fight while retreating.
The man's eyes were bloodshot, and a bone chain was wrapped around his wrist.
Knight Stine stepped forward immediately, Life Energy surging from within him and flowing to every part of his body.
Detecting Knight Stine's approach, the monster roared and swung its mace at his head. Knight Stine raised his sword to parry, the clash of metal echoing through the narrow alley. The soles of his boots slid backward on the ground, but his body remained completely steady.
Taking this opportunity, the soldiers retreated to give them more space.
Roger had already drawn his bowstring to the limit, pointing his arrow toward the sky. The moment Knight Stine forcefully pushed the monster back, Roger released the string.
The arrow traced an arc through the air and pierced the monster's chest.
“Points +100. Total: 122.”
The monster's body collapsed backward and stopped moving.
Knight Stine sheathed his sword, nodded to Roger, and then signaled the guard captain to carry the corpse away. The several bodies at the scene were quickly placed on stretchers, and the bloodstains were covered with a thin layer of soil.
Knight Stine didn't linger and continued leading his men forward with the search.
For the rest of the day, the group conducted a carpet search of the slums, but even after scouring every corner, the woman named Liz seemed to have vanished into thin air without leaving a trace.
At nightfall, the exhausted team returned to the camp. Knight Stine went to report the day's search to Baron Raymond, while Roger collapsed onto his bed and fell fast asleep.
Just as he was dreaming about being called on by his teacher to answer a question in advanced mathematics class, he was jolted awake by a sudden shouting.
“Assemble! Everyone assemble!”
Roger opened his eyes and sat up. The conscripts in the surrounding bunks were all frantically pulling on their clothes. By the time he reached the open ground of the camp, many people were still lingering inside their tents.
It took quite some time for the conscripts to finally line up under the urging of the knights.
In the distance, the night sky was filled with blazing fire, and the faint sounds of wailing and clashing metal echoed through the air.
Soon, Roger learned the general gist of what happened from Knight Stine: the old man wasn't the only puppet of the cultists. Just an hour ago, several other people controlled by the cultists had lost control at the same time, wreaking havoc across the slums.
The cultists had likely used some means to hide these controlled individuals, which was why they weren't discovered during the day.
Hearing this, Roger couldn't help but feel puzzled.
“Aren't there quite a few Awakened in the noble coalition? Can't they even handle a few out-of-control people?”
Knight Stine also expressed his helplessness regarding this:
“Because of that, Count Nigel is worried that rashly deploying high-tier combat forces would trigger even larger-scale destruction, so he decided to have lower-tier Awakened handle the situation first to keep it under control. At the same time, he needs to preserve his strength to deal with the goblins.”
This explanation failed to convince Roger.
But looking on the bright side, the fewer powerful experts involved, the more opportunities he would have to secure kills. Although the level of danger would increase accordingly, as long as he honestly stayed in the back and dealt damage, it wouldn't be a big issue.
Baron Raymond handed over command of the troops to Knight Stine, and under the latter's leadership, the unit marched toward the slums.
The closer they got to the slums, the more ear-piercing the continuous wails became, and a burnt odor permeated the air.
Many civilians were fleeing in the opposite direction.
After entering the slums from a certain alley, Roger saw a group of soldiers holding weapons and torches, confronting a figure ahead.
The figure stood still. Under the glow of the firelight, the tumors covering its body swelled and contracted from time to time.
“It's a monster created by the cultists,” Knight Stine's voice came.
Roger immediately thought of the old man from earlier today with the twisted patterns on his forehead. He drew a poisoned arrow from his quiver, nocked it, and aimed at the face covered in tumors.
Knight Stine took the initiative to step to the very front of the team, holding his sword across his chest, once again taking on the heavy responsibility of being the frontliner.
Roger steadied his breathing and released the bowstring. The arrow pierced the night, drilling into a swelling tumor with a sharp whistle. Black blood splattered from the wound, emitting wisps of thin smoke against the wall.
The monster immediately let out a painful wail. Reaching out, it pulled the arrow from the tumor, knocked aside the surrounding soldiers, and rushed toward Roger's position.
Knight Stine instantly blocked the way in front of Roger, swinging his sword at the monster's legs.
However, the monster caught Knight Stine's incoming sword with its bare hands, letting the blade bite deep into its palm. The moment its fingers touched the blade, they began to elongate, transforming into tentacle-like shapes that tightly wrapped around the sword.
Knight Stine hastily activated his Life Energy. The blade burst with white light, slicing the tentacles into several segments. At the same time, a second arrow zipped past Knight Stine's shoulder, piercing the monster's throat.
“Surround him! Don't let him get close to the archer!” Knight Stine ordered immediately.
Gritting their teeth, the soldiers raised their spears and pressed in from both sides, trying to restrict the monster's movement.
The monster pulled the arrow out of its neck, letting black blood spill onto the ground. Bending its knees, it leaped into the air, clasping its hands into a double fist to smash down toward Knight Stine's head.
That punch smashed against the sword blade. In that instant, Knight Stine's web of his thumb and index finger went completely numb, and the sword snapped in two from the middle.
A second punch closed in instantly. Unable to dodge in time, Knight Stine activated his Life Energy to endure the blow. The impact force immediately surged from his chest, forcing him back several steps.
Roger moved quickly and horizontally among the chaotic soldiers, seeking a new shooting angle and refusing to stay in the same position for long. Once a few brave soldiers rushed forward again to pin down the monster, he nocked his third arrow.
This time, the arrow pinned itself into the monster's right knee, piercing through the joint. The monster stumbled a few steps, its eyes—squeezed by the tumors—turning toward Roger's position before it began rushing toward him.
The soldiers blocking the way were flung aside by those deformed arms.
But Roger noticed that its speed had slowed down. While that reckless rushing momentum was still there, the frequency of its movements was declining.
The poison must have spread through its body.
“It seems that even when controlled by that bizarre power, these monsters are still affected by poison.”
Roger didn't know the exact mechanism, but he could see that the current situation was in their favor. He activated Iron Wall, preparing himself to take a hard hit, while continuing to move his feet.
Before the monster could get close to Roger, Knight Stine blocked the path between them.
The Life Energy bursting from the latter grew even more intense, as if his entire body were enveloped in white flames. He swung his fist, smashing it into the wound on the monster's face.
A dull thud echoed as the monster stumbled back several steps. At the same time, however, its ten fingers elongated and deformed once more, turning into tentacles that coiled toward Knight Stine.
Knight Stine didn't dodge or evade, charging straight into the tentacles. The tentacles wrapped around his limbs, tightening loop by loop, but he gripped them back with a death grip.
“You won't get away this time.”
Rate on N.U.
