Heart of the Castle

Chapter 743
The night wind was bleak and cold, blowing through the sparse and low bushes, the leaves rustled, and the branches of several immature oak trees stretched out like withered fingers and swayed gently, as if they were signaling to each other that humans could not distinguish .A red-eyed black snake with three silver lines on its back silently crawled across the grass, and the snake letter it spat out almost licked Belgritos' armored boots.

With the strong will of a sword-wielding marquis, the head of the second branch of the Death Knights tried his best to restrain his urge to grab the poisonous black snake, break off its head, and put the rest in his mouth.Snakes have always tasted very good, they are comparable to chickens when eaten raw, and the pulsating snake tail is whipping his throat, and the hard scales bring a sweet tingle to the esophagus, just imagining it makes him feel trembling all over his body.

"No, no..." Belgritos warned himself silently, "There are plenty of opportunities to enjoy delicious food, but if the invisibility ball breaks out due to greed and destroys the leader's plan, I'm afraid I will never be able to eat it again in my life." And there will be no chance to eat anything."

The red-eyed black snake twisted its slender body a little uneasy, and its scales reflected the faint light of the red moon.The cold winter is approaching, and the animals that want to get through it safely are doing everything possible to store fat. However, in the black snake's simple head, the desire to hunt live animals has gradually faded away, replaced by an inexplicable panic.

It's like the feeling of some terrible natural enemy lurking not far ahead, or in other words, the feeling of being hunted.

The red-eyed black snake raised its head, and the red snake tasted the cool night air, without smell, sound, or shadow.There was clearly nothing in the bushes in front of him, but it made Black Snake feel a wave of panic, even if he tried to get closer, his body would become stiff.

"Perhaps, tonight, you should rest." The red-eyed black snake thought so, then twisted its body, and walked back along the route it came from, but still felt puzzled in its heart.

The red-eyed black snakes are not terrible monsters, but they rarely have any real natural enemies.Its venom can make a strong bull convulse to death within a few minutes, and its quick movements can even attack a civet cat running away from the ground, but its small body is not enough to fill the stomach of even a large guinea pig.Such troublesome and dangerous opponents are rarely hunted by any creatures, even... the big crow with a wide food range should be no exception.

Seeing the black shadow covering itself, the red-eyed black snake raised its head vigilantly, showing four sharp and curved fangs towards the black bird with its wings spread out on the branch.But other than that, it did not make more aggressive hostile moves.The big crow is smart enough not to trouble a venomous snake with little meat unless it's starving and fainting.But looking at the shiny black feathers of the big crow in front of him, the red-eyed black snake had to admit that the abnormal feeling rising in his heart should be jealousy.

The big crow flapped its wings proudly, turned its head, and stared at the half-raised black snake with its round red eyes. "Little snake, hungry and skinny." The bird muttered, then moved its paws.

Only then did the red-eyed black snake realize that the big crow was stepping on a brown egg, and its speed of spitting out snake letters suddenly doubled, and even brought out a trace of suspicious saliva.Eggs!It was a rare delicacy to taste once.The simple head of the red-eyed black snake was suddenly filled with a sudden rise in appetite, and its body curled up tightly. The branch where the big crow was located was not very far from the ground, and it only took a few seconds at most before it could ...

The next move made by the big crow caused the red-eyed black snake to almost dislocate its jaw. Fortunately, snakes have a mouth that can open almost 180 degrees, so the tragedy was avoided.The black-feathered bird actually lowered its head, pecked hard through the eggshell with its sharp long beak, and pulled out a few strands of sticky egg white and egg yolk.

"Eggpecker..." There was only one word left in the red-eyed black snake's head, and then it saw the brown bird's egg with a hole pecked slipped from under the big crow's claws and fell into the grass.The red-eyed black snake immediately pounced on it like a black lightning bolt, opened its mouth to the limit, and swallowed most of the egg in one bite.

The price paid for this action was also huge. The big crow fluttered its wings and flew down almost at the same time. Its sharp claws grabbed the head and tail of the red-eyed black snake fiercely. It was so powerful that the eggshell in the snake's mouth immediately shattered.The red-eyed black snake twisted its body to fight back, but sadly found that its sharpest weapon was already stuck in the hard-boiled brown egg, and the strength of the big crow was also amazing, tearing its body like It's a taut bowstring.

"Follow me, I have eggs to eat." The big crow lowered his head, his hoarse and weird voice was heard in the ears of the red-eyed black snake, full of irresistible temptation, "If you refuse, you will die."

Li Weiston, who was far away in the camp in the north, suddenly received the news that "a red-eyed black snake admires your clever mouth and asks to join the team". expression. "Smart mouth?" Li Wei scratched his hair, and said to Sir Rodriguez with some uncertainty, "Isn't it sent to monitor the situation around the camp? How could it attract a red-eyed black snake? Let it join the heart of the castle?"

"It seems that the charm of that bird has surpassed the boundaries of race, Master Levi, this is really gratifying." Sir Rodriguez, who was looking at the camp's defense map, did not lift his head, flattering in a calm to hypocritical tone Say. "In addition to the snakeskin beasts, petrified lizards, and multi-armed naga it pulled into the Castle Heart not long ago, I don't think it will take long before Castle Heart will have to create a separate captive area for these birds and beasts."

"Not only that, Master Levi, the development of the dungeon must also be included in the plan." Mr. Dish's tired voice sounded from behind the two, "The main city of humans in the heart of the castle and the river of flames are not suitable for dark elves to live in. Of course, the death knight's resting temple is even more inappropriate."

"Mr. Dish, has the problem of the Faceless Man been solved?" Levi turned around as he spoke. When he saw the scene behind him directly through the wound on the old magician's chest, the corners of his mouth suddenly held back. I couldn't help twitching, "Well, Mr. Dish, I know you are using the body of a lich, but it's better... to cover up the wound a little bit?"

"The sleeping potion is more effective than I thought, and the Faceless Man just looked at me standing up, and he looked like he was about to pass out." Mr. Dish nodded nonchalantly, and at the same time covered his chest with his hands casually The scar piercing through his back, "Master Li Wei, I found that the legendary assassin has traces of very clever alchemy intervention. In other words, his original power does not belong entirely to him."

"A legendary assassin created by means of alchemy?" Sir Rodriguez shifted his attention from the leather map in his hand to Mr. Dish, "Old Dish, this sounds like your method. kind of heart."

"Indeed, even in the era when alchemy was so popular in the world, being able to use alchemy to break through the legendary threshold is an extremely clever means. At least I have never heard of that great master who was able to do it at the same time." Dish The gentleman's face became serious, and deep wrinkles appeared between his brows, "Maybe it was an earlier age? Or is there something more troublesome left by Moti, the God of Alchemy, besides the statue of the Alchemy Colossus?" ..."

"In other words, there is another old alchemy monster who survived?" Sir Rodriguez looked shocked, folded his hands in front of his chest, and assumed a pious posture of a believer praying, his tone Heavy and sad, "Great Sleeper Ku Ximo, you must have been too careless in your work."

Mr. Dish couldn't help but get angry.

As soon as the smile appeared on the corner of Li Wei's mouth, it was frozen by the voice in his ear, "Mr. Dish, Sir Rodriguez, I am afraid that the clever mouth has once again contributed to the northern border. If it continues like this, I am afraid that the distance between It won’t be far when King Arthur canonized the first Sir Raven." He stood up straight and looked to the southwest outside the camp, "It found a troop lurking in that direction. Equipped with excellent weapons and horses, there is also a knight called 'very strong' by Li Zui."

"A very strong knight?" Sir Rodriguez's eyes flashed a dark green light, and Mr. Dish also recovered his solemn expression while looking southwest.As the leader of the Raven Scouts of the Griffon Knights, Lilizui is absolutely trustworthy in his vision. He is called very strong, which means that the leader knight of the lurker should have the strength of a sword-wielding earl.

When the northern camp was suddenly attacked by the dagger-wounded faceless men of the dark elf assassins, this army did not make any hostile actions.However, this does not mean that their purpose of lurking outside the camp is for peace and friendship, it is just because Levi's countermeasures in advance are just right, and there are no mistakes worth taking advantage of.Although the Dark Elf Assassin Troop achieved certain results at the very beginning by virtue of their poisoned hand crossbows, short swords, daggers, and shadow lurking abilities, they did not harm the relationship between the royal court of the North and the Griffon Knights. None of the important figures in the camp were able to plunge the camp into irreparable chaos.

All the noise and battles were suppressed in the center of the camp, and the important outlying fortifications were not damaged in any way. The alchemy ballistas and elf catapults on the mound were in full swing, enough to make the enemies who came from any direction suffer. .Being able to do this was of course due to the coping strategy that had been arranged before, and the person who presented this strategy of being tight on the outside and loose on the inside was Bamilyan, the palace chief who used the assassination method quite skillfully.

According to the order issued by Li Wei, the northern camp had raised the alert level to the highest level before, and the manpower of each patrol team was doubled. In addition, the Griffin Champion Knight with the strength of the Great Knight Commander led the team, even if the same number Even if the Dark Elf Assassin launched an attack, it could last until the alarm was sounded, or even other teams came to help.

This approach prevented the dark elf assassins who sneaked into the northern camp from launching an attack rashly. Instead, they concentrated almost all their forces in the central area of ​​the camp, trying to cooperate with their leader's assassination of Levi Stone himself.If there is no big lynx led by the big lynx leader Mengmeng and the shadow assassins under Alan Skett, this strategy cannot be said to be problematic. However, including the leader of the faceless man, all the dark elf assassins are not clear. Their whereabouts have long been captured by the sharp ears and noses of the bobcats, and the shadow assassins with similar strength have already occupied all the shadows that are easy to attack, waiting for the faceless men who are wounded by daggers to throw themselves into the net.

The battle didn't start smoothly. The mighty Griffin Knights were like an unshakable wall of iron, besieging the dark elf assassins who thought they had sneaked into the central area of ​​the northern camp by virtue of their luck and strength.And when they were stabbed by highly poisonous crossbow bolts, or cut by daggers or short swords, some of the knights actually prayed loudly while performing very powerful healing and detoxification spells, making the dark elf assassins Their most effective means lose their power.

No matter how cocky the dagger-wounded faceless men are, they at least know the weakness of the assassin profession.The weapons and armor they equip are excellent, but for the sake of stealth and hiding, they are all lightweight, and most of the attached magic is related to invisibility.Using such equipment and the whole body is protected by steel plate armor, the eyes are hidden behind the full-face helmet, and the Griffin Knight is equipped with a long sword and shield to fight face to face. No matter how you look at it, it is a very disadvantageous approach.

However, just when the faceless men wanted to hide in the shadows, the familiar shadows that were part of their bodies suddenly rejected them in a very rude way, piercing the dark elves' studded leather with poisoned daggers. The protection of the armor pierced deeply into the middle of the spine gap.The sudden pain made the wounded dark elf assassins open their mouths, wanting to yell for warning, but their necks were immediately held tightly by powerful fingers protruding from the shadows, and the barely made gurgling sounds could not be heard at all. Cut through the din of battle.

When the leader of the legendary assassin, the Faceless Man, was captured alive by the bobcat, the few dark elf assassins who were still fighting in the corner immediately lost their fighting spirit. Sword, completely giving up hope of victory.

Bergritos lay flat on his stomach behind the bushes, with his left cheek pressed against the dead branches and leaves on the ground, listening attentively to all the sounds in the wind.What made him quite uneasy was that he could hear the rustling of dead leaves blown by the wind, he could hear the surging waves of the Oath River, and he could even hear the cry of a big crow from hundreds of meters away—— Around the northern camp, there seemed to be a lot of these mourning birds. Belgritos at least heard the crows of more than a dozen crows from different directions. It seemed that they were inviting friends and companions to hold a gluttonous feast here. .

Thinking that one of the crow's favorite things to eat is rotting corpses, Belgritus couldn't help but shudder. Although a quarter of the orc blood in his body gave him an iron stomach that can digest anything, But the other quarter of dark elf blood makes him have higher requirements on the freshness of the food he eats.

"If I have to eat corpses, I'd rather cut off their heads and eat them while they're still alive..." The head of the second branch of the Death Knights muttered in a low voice, stretching out his hands to scrape away the wet ground covered with fallen leaves . "Smell the wind Arnold." He lowered his voice, and called out the name of a Death Knight with his nickname, "Don't you always like to boast that you have a sensitive nose, and you can even smell victory and defeat? Come here to smell Smell, what are those black and faceless guys doing, why can't they even hear the noise?"

A medium-sized Death Knight then leaned forward and leaned forward. He had an oversized rosaceous nose on his face, which combined with relatively small facial features had a ridiculously funny effect. "I'm going to be frank, my lord, the air is filled with the smell of failure, it's choking."

"Then why are we lying here waiting? It will be dawn in a few hours. No matter how strong the effect of the invisibility ball is, I'm afraid it won't be able to last until then." Belgritos gritted his teeth and looked menacingly. Looking at the northern camp that has been shrouded in silence again, almost all the resentment in his eyes can take form.

"Failure, failure again, what the leader hates most is failure." Belgritos made a "evacuation" gesture behind him, and continued to mutter, "I also hate failure, because there is no honor if you fail. And prestige, there is no way to change my surname back, Grytos... such a human aristocratic surname will be ridiculed by the same family for a lifetime, I should have spoken more clearly, my surname is "cut off the head and eat 'Ah...why are these nasty crows still screaming around us?"

The last sentence of the second branch leader of the Death Knights was uttered in a low growl. On a dead tree more than ten meters away, a big crow with a pair of round red eyes suddenly spread its wings and uttered Let out a terrifying cry, then shot up into the sky like a sharp black arrow, and disappeared into the black sky in the blink of an eye.

Belgritos showed a smug smile, as if he was satisfied with the intimidating power of his growl, but he quickly scratched his scalp in confusion, revealing an expression rarely seen in this half-orc, half-dark elf. The thoughtful expression on the team leader's face.

"That big crow seems to be holding something in its claws? Is it the intestines of a rotting corpse? Or is it a little black snake that I've seen before?"

(End of this chapter)