above the ring

Chapter 27 Assassination
"Is this your arrangement?"

Entering the banquet hall, Nefeli suddenly asked in a low voice.

"Why do you say that?"

"No sane person would think of giving such precious drops of golden tree dew to a child of ill omen."

Nefeli stared fiercely at Lear, as if she wanted to see through the man in front of her through the armor of the lost knight.

"So, who do you think the golden tree dew drops should be given to?"

"It is the spoils due to returning warriors, a gift from the Everqueen, and it shall not be stained by evil omens."

"Nefeli, you must know that it is the heart that is always tainted, not the appearance. I want this dewdrop to be useless, but giving it to him will yield unexpected gains."

Lear under the helmet spoke muffled, but he always explained to Nefeli patiently and gently, explaining these principles that she had never been exposed to before.

For the growth of Nefeli, Lear has also taken great pains.

The current Nefeli is not enough to be king, even if she is indeed in the state of "Son of the Wind", she has been chasing the trajectory of the wind, and even the two-handed giant ax is still the "Storm Hawk Axe" with the characteristics of the storm era .
She is the natural successor of the Storm King, her character is noble, stubborn and pure, but this also makes her more vulnerable.

especially.
Lear reluctantly moved his eyes away from the other party's naked skin.

Alas, this can only be blamed on the style of the female warriors of the highland clan. This brave suit has to be so revealing, and Lear doesn't need to be very careful at all. It is obvious that the other party has done a very good job with just a glance. The regular corset, the tight ribbon and leather tightened her skin, so this further highlighted the plumpness of the opponent's figure
The other party's skin is dark, it is a very oppressive bronze color, and most importantly, although her skin color is not the pink and white of common beauties, her skin looks very delicate and elastic. Well, this makes Li I think of my ex-girlfriend who loves to work out, she also has a similar skin, and her ideas are very wild (Note 1)

Lear quickly shook his head, hoping to drive away these harsh thoughts through physical methods, and focus on the next battle.

Who are you going to hit next?By the way, it's the "limb-grabbing" nobleman in Stonewell. This guy seems to have a lot of trouble fighting with shields.
Suddenly, the sound of shaking chains and the sound of footsteps came from the inside of the banquet hall, and the disgusting stench rushed towards the face accompanied by the sound of footsteps from far and near.

In the dark, narrow and cramped front of the banquet hall, Lear and Nefeli glanced at each other, and they both saw the fighting spirit in each other's eyes.

"I'll go first in a while, and I'll go one-on-one with that nobleman. When you find the right time, first clean up the surroundings to see if there are any miscellaneous soldiers missing. Remember to cut into the battlefield second, understand?"

"I'm with you, don't underestimate me, you may not be better than me!"

Nefeli said unwillingly.

"Nefeli! Be obedient!"

Lear was stern once in a while.

"You are not much older than me, why should I listen to you!"

The girl on the opposite side looked like a female leopard with frayed fur, glaring at Lear fiercely, expressing her dissatisfaction with Lear talking to her in such a tone.

How to deal with such a girl?

of course.
Lear took off his helmet, and the golden light that seemed to be blessed touched his eyes again at some point.

Seeing that the other party was unwilling to back down because of some persistent and stubborn temper, he slowly approached Nefeli's face, smiled, with the corners of his mouth curled up, and said in an unprecedentedly gentle tone: "I put my back I leave it to you, My Lord!"

After speaking, he immediately got up, took a deep look at the girl, and without giving Neferi any room to argue, he strode into the banquet hall with strides, and conveniently put the helmet he took off back into the mind space.

Wearing the heavy armor of a homeless knight, the sound of striding footsteps is very loud, as if the death knell is ringing, and I don't know who it is tolling for.

In the middle of the huge banquet hall, a huge spider-shaped monster kept wandering. It was a monster similar to the "grafting" nobleman I met in the King's Chapel before. It wore a unique nobleman's cloak, and its huge The figure is twisted and twisted, and various mismatched limbs are mixed together, forming a deformed and terrifying monster.

It is not as big as the grafted nobleman that Lear once defeated. Although that guy is not rational, his limbs have some special sword skills and even spell enchantment, but this one in front of him is a complete monster and has been completely lost. Sensible, as crazy as a wild dog.

It heard Lear's footsteps coming in, and stood in the middle of the banquet hall, as if waiting for Lear to enter.

Under the portrait of the original King Ge Fulei, Lear without a helmet has golden eyes, a knight in heavy armor, and a lost knight standing beside him with a halberd, staring straight at the strange monster in front of him.

Lear's resounding voice resounded through the banquet hall: "The lost knight, Lear, should be here today to crusade against criminals! Execute immediately!"

Kick the handle of the halberd and hold it with both hands.

This time, Lear didn't use a shield, and he didn't even plan to use a fire. He only needed to hit the opponent with the Homeless Knight's Halberd until the opponent was almost powerless to fight back.

The limb-grabbing noble who had gone completely mad on the opposite side ignored Lear's words at all, raised his sword and rushed towards Lear.

Lear stepped forward, and the Homeless Knight's Halberd in his hand was dexterous as a shot, stabbing the opposite monster from a strange angle, because the length of the Homeless Knight's Halberd was just longer than the several big swords held by the monster, this stabbing It hit the large shield held by the opponent's left limb, making him unable to move forward.

The right two hands of the limb-attached nobleman hold two sharp swords of different lengths, the upper limb on the left holds a gold round shield stained with black dirt, and the lower limb holds a thin sword. There are no rules or routines in swordsmanship, horizontal slashing and vertical slashing are its most commonly used moves, because the brain has almost no thinking ability, and after being restricted by Lear's knight halberd, it only knows how to swing randomly.

The two sides were in a stalemate for about ten seconds. The nobleman jumped back and roared on the spot. His voice was sharp and terrifying, not too different from the eunuch's shouting. Then he used several legs under it to run quickly He rushed towards Lear, swung his weapon uncoordinatedly with his upper body, and swept away all the neatly arranged tables and chairs around him.

Lear didn't dodge or evade, relying on his great strength, he waved the halberd.

In an instant, the metal and iron collided, and there were bursts of sound, and the sound of tinkling and bang bang was endless.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nefeli climb up to the second floor along the chain against the wall.

The female warrior's skills are really extraordinary, and her hands and feet are so quick.

Seeing this scene, Lear subconsciously withdrew some strength, so as not to kill the powerless ram who was opposite him a few times, and the head would not be able to get away from Nefeli's body.

Compared with the nobles in the King's Chapel, the grafted nobleman in front of him is a bit less interesting. Apart from wielding a sword with brute force, there is only a sharp roar left, and its limbs look more like a knot The raised sphere, when Lear swung the Homeless Knights Halberd, he felt like he was playing baseball.

Perhaps the other party was annoyed by Lear's pressing and beating, he jumped back a few steps, and his steps became chaotic, as if his brain couldn't control his hands and feet. After several times of incoordination, it finally synchronized all his limbs He got up and began to spin on the spot. The weapon in his hand was swung by it at high speed, his feet turned, and he rushed towards Lear with this "storm sword dance" that seemed to be able to crush everything.

"Underestimated you"

Lear murmured, the weapon in his hand seemed to feel the master's thoughts, and began to groan softly.

The battle technique taught by the old knight, "Call Up the Storm", appeared in Lear's mind.

The so-called "storm sword dance" performed by the ball-shaped limb on the opposite side looks very similar to "evoking the storm" in terms of special effects, but in fact the opponent relies on his own strength to swing the weapon quickly, cutting the air and making a whistling wind The explosive sound is not a combat skill of the storm genre at all.

Therefore, Lear felt that it was time to teach this iron waste with serious storm fighting skills.

While the opponent was spinning and charging, Lear began to dance the halberd in his hand according to the rhythm, and the high-speed storm formed a storm vortex around him, stirring up the surrounding small objects, and met the grafted nobleman.

In an instant, in the huge banquet hall, two storms of terrifying force collided together, and the extremely dense sound of metal and iron clashing crazily and suddenly, even Lear felt a terrible sense of oppression at that moment.

"Awakening the Storm" is a combat skill that integrates offense and defense, and the storm vortex well blocks the advance of the opponent's sharp sword.

It was too late to say so, and within a few seconds, the two sides had fought for more than a dozen rounds, and then the storm stopped, and even this huge spherical object also stopped in place for a moment.

"good chance!"

Lear seized the moment when the opponent paused, held the halberd back in the air, and hammered the opponent's body with the head of the halberd handle. The huge force made the nobleman move backward several meters!

Above, Nefeli, who was already in place, leaped through the fence on the second floor, holding a double ax and slashing at the grafted noble who was about to lose control of his figure!

The limb-attaching nobleman only had time to raise his shield to defend, and with a "bang", it blocked the violent jumping and slashing, but the golden round shield that was already full of filth was also split open.

Even Lear had to sigh in his heart: What a powerful force!
Nefeili was so unreasonable that she wielded her twin axes, and a more powerful and pure storm than Lear's unleashed gathered around her. In an instant, lightning flashed and the wind blew, and the twin axes were dyed gray and gold. Nefeli took a step forward, and relying on her strong waist, she turned around in the air, and the two axes slashed out, directly into the gnarled flesh of the limb-grabbing nobleman!
"Aw—" the monster let out a scream that didn't sound like a human voice, and blood spurted out.

On the wound, the gray-gold wind and thunder are still raging.

The limb-grabbing noble made the final struggle with all his strength, but Nefeli skillfully gave up the ax that had been inserted and could not be pulled out, and jumped back, allowing the opposite monster to attack indiscriminately while screaming, and Lear Stand shoulder to shoulder.

Not long after, the monster seemed to have finally died, lying motionless in the banquet hall.

Nefeli walked over, ready to draw her twin axes.

Suddenly, the limb of the nobleman holding a rapier slowly lifted up, but the silly girl didn't seem to notice it.
The next moment, a long halberd was thrown vigorously, and it happened to be stuck on that limb. With the crisp sound of the rapier falling to the ground, Nefeli completed the final blow to the monster with the ax in his hand.

Nefeli turned her head, her long black hair fluttering as her body turned.

"Thank you."

"You can escape."

But Neferi shook her head. She knew that she couldn't avoid it. She had been fighting in Stonewell for three days. For a long time, she has been mentally tense, which still makes her unresponsive.

A stab wouldn't kill her, but even a small wound would be very difficult for her.

"Why do you call me that?"

"What's your name?"

"That's right, that's what you did just now."

"It's just a title."

Lear walked over and picked up a talisman-like thing from the corpse of the nobleman, engraved with a pattern that Lear had never seen before.

The same talisman was also worn by the limb-grabbing nobleman in the King's Chapel, and now it's in Lear's carry-on bag, almost useless, and there is no reminder in his mind.

Lear carefully looked at the pattern on the talisman.

Many weapons are coherently carved out in the form of being glued together, not like the emblem of a certain faction.

He felt a little familiar.

Where have you seen it?
After thinking for a long time, Lear didn't think of the origin of this thing, and heard Neferi say next to him: "This is the sealed talisman of the nobles of Stonewell, and it is a reward from King Gefrey. They also used to fight fiercely on the border of the storm. past heroes."

"A sealed talisman?"

"We call it the Martial Talisman. It is said that it was inspired by an unnamed hero who guarded Moen City in the previous era. Similar talismans were made. Most of the talismans have no effect, and only a few have special utility."

"This thing looks like it's only worth commemorating."

"No, when King Godfrey was just expelled, he was drunk and depressed all the time, and he gave this talisman at the same time as he issued an order, which I still remember very clearly--'If anyone can send When all the martial talismans are collected, he will give that person a big rune'." (Note 2)

"It seems to be raising Gu."

"Yes, it's very similar. Because the first frontier heroes who were conferred were generals and knights who surrendered in the previous era, this move itself was also to make them internally infighting. But maybe the reward of the Great Rune is too tempting. This order was also passed on to the soldiers under King Gefrey's command, and later, even the Golden Clan joined in.

"At that time, they were abandoned by the Eternal Queen, and their blessings were taken back. It was a time when the future was bleak. Some people may follow King Ge Fulei to leave the junction, but some people will still sneak back and participate in this dispute."

"Has anyone succeeded?"

"No, because no one expected that the invincible King Ge Fulei would die outside the territory. Without the king who fulfilled his promise, the dispute would naturally come to an end."

"It's really a pity. Those heroes must have suffered heavy losses."

"It doesn't count, the adoptive father said, they were all blended together."

"Ok?"

"It's the forbidden technique of 'attaching limbs'. In the battle against each other, one of them found this technique from the catacombs in the drifting cemetery underground. He was the first to kill other heroes and win the martial amulets The hero melted the corpse into his own body, and since then, the dreaded 'attachment' has been passed down."

"Where's Greg?"

"He is a latecomer. After escaping from the royal city, he took over Stonewell, which was ruled by his former brother. Later, he studied the reason why his brother became stronger, and finally used this forbidden technique."

Those so-called heroes betrayed the belief of the storm and turned to the golden tree, but they also failed to die well.

Lear shook his head, put away the martial talisman, and when he meets the resurrected King Geoffrey one day, maybe he can even chat with him.

"Do you still have the strength?"

"is acceptable"

"Use me to carry you?"

"Hey, no matter how you look at it, I'm not so delicate yet."

"Let's go, let's find a place to rest."

"Where are you going?"

"There's a church on the west side of town, and I've made an appointment with someone to meet there."

"Who?"

"You are from the Round Table and should know him, Roger."

"Oh, it's him."

"He said he came to Stonewell looking for something, what he was looking for, do you know?"

"Probably something related to the night of the Black Knife Conspiracy. He used to be a member of the small group that fought against the Deathborn in the hall. Later, for some unknown reason, he parted ways with the others. When are we going to go?"

"Come on, I'll get something."

"Is there anything else here?"

"Their 'relic'. You are here, don't follow, it was a horrible scene."

Bypassing the body of the limb-grabbing nobleman, he walked to the side of the elevator room, and stabbed the wild dog that had no eyes and barked to death there. Among the disgusting and terrifying chrysalis, Lear found their relics.

It was a pin wrapped in a red velvet cloth, and there were still a few spots of blood on the pin.

Lear could see the gray mist lingering above, it was the souls of the dead chrysalis, they seemed to be talking, but they couldn't hear their voices.

But the girl in Storm Hills could hear it.

Lear stepped down from the chrysalis group, only to find Nefeli standing at the door with her mouth covered.

There are still some sparkles in her eyes.

Seeing Lear approaching, Nefeli took a last look at the chrysalis group, and followed Lear to leave.

She just retched a few times, but didn't spit out anything.

Taking the rope ladder from the elevator room, Lear and Nefeli came all the way to the blessing point on the tower. They touched the blessing respectively and sat down to rest together.

Lear found two buckets of clean water from the other side of the room. After he was sure that it was drinkable water, he handed one of the buckets to Nefeli.

He also wanted to clean himself, so he took off his gauntlets and the armor on his upper body.

If he didn't wash it again, Lear could foresee what he would look like when he woke up tomorrow morning.

There were quite a few buckets in that storage room, and many of them were full, probably because there were not many ordinary people in the city who still needed to drink water.

Nefeli didn't deliberately avoid Lear, but Lear still gave her due respect, left the room and went to the outside terrace for a while, waiting for her to carefully wash her body and face with the water in the bucket.

The Stormhawks that once raged on the terrace have all disappeared, and they all flew to the city gate. Up to now, the howling of eagles in the distance can still be heard here.

From the terrace here, Lear could see the church in the distance, it was hidden in the buildings in the city, and it was out of place with other buildings around.

Nefeli is not a hypocritical girl, and soon she came out, with drops of water on her face and body, which made Lear think of the word "wet body", but seeing her red eyes, she seemed to be still After crying, Lear quickly returned to his normal state, and patted the girl's shoulder with his clean hands.

"Let's go." Nefeli's voice became a little hoarse, "I'm much better now, the scene just made me sick."

"Well, don't think about it anymore, there is still hope for this city."

"We're going to kill Greg, aren't we?"

Nefeli suddenly raised her head, looking at Lear with her clear black eyes.

Only now did Lear realize that Neferi's eyes were very similar to his.

So, Lear deliberately eliminated the golden light in his eyes, and said slowly but firmly, "Only us."

"We, can't we get help from others?"

"This is an assassination, Nefeli, it's not a righteous challenge. Even if you and I kill Stonewell, as long as Gregor doesn't accept it, we are not here to challenge justifiably. Therefore, we must walk in the shadows, we must step on In the dark alleys of the city, one must walk on the path less traveled by, and advance alone and bravely toward the depths of darkness."

"Want to walk in the dark?"

"As long as there is still light in your heart, as long as you still have justice and justice in your heart, you and I are heroes."

After saying this, Lear hugged him naturally.

On the terrace, clouds and mist lingered, and the wind was blowing.

Nefeli closed her eyes, countless pictures flashed in her mind.

Until, the gentle voice sounded in her ear: "Now, I am your knight, and you are my hero."

She opened her eyes, raised her head, and stared at the man in front of her.

The two looked at each other and stood for a long time.

PS: Change first and then change.

Note 1: When writing this paragraph, my reference object is Nidalee the leopard girl
Note 2: I adapted this by myself. There is no direct account of the border hero cemetery at the birth point in the game. I personally think that if I write it this way, I can combine the "Sword Skeleton Great Sword" of Moen City and future generations with this great sword. The "Warrior Talisman" forged by the sword and the forbidden technique of "attaching limbs" are connected. After all, when exploring, I believe you must have seen the statue of Malika under the cemetery of the frontier heroes, and it looks like It seems that someone is dedicated to enshrining it, so although "attaching limbs" is a forbidden technique, it seems to be related to the golden tree.

(End of this chapter)