Chapter 90 Chapter 89 Escape
The crimson sword tip approached, the burning roof flew in from the right, and Ji Ma instinctively reached out, but her hand passed through the roof.
Ji Ma was now certain that the miraculous ability of the Eternal Chosen Marus was not merely pulling oneself towards him, but rather some sort of rule. Once a target was designated, they would inevitably face his sword within the range of his strikes.
In front of him, all positioning and space lost their meaning.
As for how it was achieved? Ji Ma had no idea, it was probably akin to how a person could turn into a mouse—this was one damn magical ability.
In the midst of her thoughts.
Ji Ma had already approached the Eternal Chosen Marus, who had raised his sword, coiled like a taut spring.
Ji Ma felt as if she might be sliced in half at any moment, her face stinging and her heart racing.
It had been a long time since she felt this way.
Ji Ma gripped the branch axe-spear tightly, attempting to take the initiative by leveraging the length of her weapon, aiming to strike at his sword first.
The blade of the Eternal Chosen Marus swung and collided with the branch axe-spear, creating an explosion that erupted with the collision point as its center. Ji Ma felt an immense force transmitted to her hands through the axe handle, causing the axe-spear to veer nearly ninety degrees to the right, almost slipping from her grip.
Her opening was wide, as she deflected the sword with her axe-spear, thrusting towards her chest.
Suddenly, a spinning runic battle axe flew in, striking the forehead of the Eternal Chosen with a thud. Unexpectedly, the Eternal Chosen tilted his head, leaving a dent on his forehead, contrasting sharply with the scratch left by George earlier.
But that did not stop the Eternal Chosen from sending the crimson blade into Ji Ma’s chest.
Substitute puppet!
As the magic power burned and was drawn out, Ji Ma felt her vision darken, pain in her chest, nearly gasping for air. In a brief period, having used two life-saving skills exhausted a significant amount of her magic; she was already down to just over half of her magic power.
Ji Ma suddenly appeared over ten meters away, in an invisible state. Just as she “teleported”, she felt a gaze piercing through her body.
Ji Ma looked towards the fiery red portal, and the Eternal Chosen Marus was staring at her, with a puppet strung up on the tip of his sword, which shattered into ashes.
How could he lock onto my teleportation position so quickly? I had randomly teleported.
Before Ji Ma finished pondering, George’s voice rang out:
“Retreat! Retreat!”
Ji Ma turned toward the sound to see George emerging from the burning area, with Jenna pointing one hand at his face, shooting out a beam of light that suppressed the flames on his face, extinguishing them.
Ji Ma flew towards George and manifested in the air. One, she wanted to check his wounds. Two, if the Eternal Chosen Marus used that move again, someone would be there to support.
“Alright.” George’s face, once severely disfigured by wounds, was now mostly healed. He said, “Leaving a scar behind. Everyone retreat immediately!”
The last sentence was directed at Ji Ma. She did not stop at all, quickly turning in mid-air and disappearing into the distance.
As George prepared to retreat, he heard a battle cry:
“Death! Honor!”
He turned toward the sound and saw the butcher Gawthric charging at the Eternal Chosen with a gaping hole in his chest—he was still alive.
George rushed over, picking up the butcher from behind and running.
“Put me down! Human!” Butcher Gawthric shouted, blood gushing from his chest, “I want to chop him up!”
Butcher Gawthric’s runic battle axe pointed at the Eternal Chosen trapped in the fiery red portal. At that moment, a stone wall suddenly rose up, blocking the Eternal Chosen.
Jenna ran over, pressing her hand against Gawthric’s chest, light bursting from her fingers, stopping the bleeding.
Ahead was the wooden wall of the town, inexplicably ablaze.
George, carrying Butcher Gawthric, jumped straight up, effortlessly clearing the burning wooden wall, with Jenna closely following. A silver shadow trailed behind, Eve Frostleaf, shooting a few arrows mid-air, taking the opportunity to create a distraction.
As George and Jenna landed, they left a dent in the ground, and George shouted, “Head straight to the dwarf camp, we need to leave immediately.”
“Received!”
“Received!”
“Bastard! Let me down!” Butcher Gawthric flailed like a child in George’s arms, his singed beard fluttering, “My beard!”
Within a few minutes, George and his group had retreated to the dwarf camp.
Ji Ma had already arrived at the dwarf camp and was urging the dwarves to get up when she saw George rushing towards her, and immediately flapped her wings to greet him.
George landed and set down Butcher Gawthric. He planted his feet on the ground and shouted, “I need to find the Eternal Chosen!”
But his voice was not as loud; after taking a few steps, he suddenly weakened and fell to the ground. The wound inflicted by the Eternal Chosen Marus was too severe.
“George, it’s not good!” Ji Ma said, “I just flew up, and from a distance, I saw that the Eternal Chosen Marus seemed to be sending something over.”
This was more terrifying than the Eternal Chosen coming personally; it was likely sending minions to hold them back until the Eternal Chosen arrived.
Without a second thought, George said: “Let’s move out immediately. Dwarf brothers, please take us to the underground passage right away. Ji Ma, continue scouting! Send someone to inform the refugees!”
Ji Ma, suppressing the pain in her chest, flew up into the air, holding a telescope, gazing at the town.
Town No. 1 had already become a raging inferno.
The stone wall erected by Eve Frostleaf crumbled amidst the flames, turning into countless rubble. In the center of the fire, the oval red portal stood, with the figure of the Eternal Chosen Marus within it.
She felt a chill; the brief skirmish earlier had nearly killed her, and she couldn’t tell if there was a limit to the number of times it could be used, or if it was because Eve Frostleaf blocked her line of sight with the stone wall that the Eternal Chosen Marus hadn’t used that ability again while retreating.
Suppressing the pain in her chest, Ji Ma focused her sight on the figure of the Eternal Chosen Marus, adjusting her bronze telescope to zoom in… that wasn’t the Eternal Chosen Marus.
Inside the fiery red oval portal, a black horse fully clad in armor was stuck halfway out.
It shook and trembled, and with each tremor, it moved outward bit by bit, and it appeared that within a few minutes, it would fully emerge from the portal.
The Eternal Chosen Marus was definitely not kicking out a normal horse; it was surely coming to hunt them down, buying time for the Eternal Chosen Marus’s arrival.
Ji Ma immediately flew to the ground; George was still loudly “negotiating” with the dwarves.
“Something big has happened.” Ji Ma shouted, “I saw with my own eyes, Marus seemed to be slowly pushing a warhorse out of the portal like a bowel movement.”
“It’s definitely coming to hunt us.” George was very decisive: “We must retreat immediately. Dwarf friends, I apologize that we cannot take every dwarf with us.”
A rough sled lay beside them, with a wooden box hitched behind it, seemingly added on temporarily, with limited passenger capacity.
Ji Ma instantly understood what they had been arguing about earlier, which dwarf would leave. The Savior team of four each had a means of quick movement, but the dwarves had short legs and simply couldn’t keep up.
“Just a warhorse.” The dwarves were unwilling to abandon their companions: “Why should we run away like cowardly goblins, with our tails tucked?”
“It can’t be an ordinary warhorse.” Without another word, George pushed down Butcher Gawthric who was trying to climb out of the sled.
Butcher Gawthric weakly said: “We… can kill that warhorse while it’s stuck.”
George shook his head: “If the Eternal Chosen just pulls the warhorse back, he will come down himself with an unknown ability to kill us.”
As he spoke and acted, George pulled up the reins, fastening them to the heavenly warhorse, while seven dwarves were piled on the sled; there had originally been nine, but two refused to get on.
“Try to split up and escape.” George said, “Hopefully, we can meet again in the underground city.”
“Goodbye, human.” The left-behind dwarves waved, “You are a great friend.”
After receiving the position from the dwarf guide, George sprang forward, easily pulling the sled, with Eve Frostleaf following alongside, occasionally conjuring ice and snow in front of the sled.
Ji Ma flew above, acting as the eyes of the team. She saw that the departing dwarves were not splitting up and running away; instead, they picked up their round shields and axes, huddling together to form a shield wall as they marched toward the burning town.
The group advanced at full speed, the heavenly warhorse raced swiftly, with Jenna falling behind. Occasionally she had to use her displacement ability to catch up, transforming into a beam of light and landing on a distant hill, the light coalescing into human form.
The team had passed two small hills.
Butcher Gawthric, who had been lying on the sled, suddenly filled with strength, jumped up and shouted:
“Stop! Quick, stop!”
George turned back and asked: “What happened?”
Butcher Gawthric didn’t explain; he immediately filled with energy, leaped off the sled, rolled on the ground a few times, then got up and ran towards a group of people not far away, shouting: “Felix! Felix!”
It was Felix, dressed in a red cloak, he seemed not to understand what was happening, playing a flute, talking to a young girl.
Butcher Gawthric grabbed his cloak, shouting: “Come with me, quick!”
He was dragged along, groggily asking: “What’s happening?”
Butcher Gawthric jumped onto the stopped sled, grabbed the bard Felix by the collar, pulling him onto the carriage: “Get in! Hurry!”
Thus, Felix was pulled onto the sled in a daze, squeezed in.
The heavenly warhorse galloped, watching the nearby supers moving as fast as horses; Felix first waved goodbye to the young girl in the distance, then turned to Butcher Gawthric, asking:
“My savior, where are we going? What happened to your chest?”
“Just now… we had a fight with the strongest demon king.” Butcher Gawthric said: “Now he’s chasing us.”
“What?”
“He stabbed me right through with his sword.” Butcher Gawthric said: “But just thinking about you, you haven’t even written me a song yet, I got so angry it kept me alive.”
Felix quickly glanced around.
George’s helmet was missing, his throat covered in blood, his shoulder armor missing a piece, and even his armor had a gaping hole exposing his white shoulder. He also noticed that George’s two-handed sword looked different from during the day.
This was a warrior capable of slicing through a horde of trolls, yet he appeared so battered.
“Can I get off?” Felix asked: “I’m ready to face the strongest demon king.”
“No.”
Felix stood up, shouting: “Holy knight, stop the carriage.”
“I said no.” Butcher Gawthric jumped up, slapping Felix on the shoulder, pushing him back down, his face angry: “You promised me you’d write the butcher’s song; you must witness my death with your own eyes before turning my glorious death into poetry.”
Felix was reluctant, but he didn’t continue to argue.
In the distance, from the direction of the town, a huge burst of flame suddenly erupted, illuminating the sky, and a roar resounded from afar.
Everyone instinctively turned to look back.
Ji Ma lowered her altitude, saying: “The dwarves formed a formation to block the pursuers; they’re all dead.”
Butcher Gawthric gripped the edge of the sled tightly.
Ji Ma said again: “The horse is chasing very fast; it could catch up in ten minutes.”
George shouted: “Report status!”
Ji Ma glanced at her personal system, finding she had twenty-seven percent magic power left, saying: “About thirty percent.”
Eve Frostleaf said: “Six.”
Jenna shouted: “Thirty percent.”
George reported: “Thirty percent.”
The status of their remaining magic power was very grim; if Ji Ma’s magic dipped below twenty percent, she would be at risk of going berserk and losing control. The team’s combat effectiveness might only be one-third of its peak.
George ordered: “Frostleaf, try to hinder and test them.”
“Understood.”
Eve Frostleaf performed a backflip, landing behind the team, bow in hand, preparing to impede the pursuers.
