The Amber Sword

v3c356

Requiem(6)

The Mother of Spiders sprung her forelimbs out and swept at Brendel’s back like a sharp machete, the air vibrated as it swung past, creating a transparent band of light in the dark underground.

Brendel heard a shrill sound that resembled an explosion, it was as if the shriek that was just heard had already moved behind him. This was the power of the most powerful creatures; at that moment Brendel remembered the several attack patterns of Anarons’ forelimbs, he pushed the princess forward at the last second and laid the Halran Gaia on his back with a backhand.

A teeth-aching loud ‘bang’ was heard. Although Brendel could not see it, he could feel the moment the Halran Gaia bent due to excessive force, and the power that could not be filtered out passed through his body; he felt a massive force from behind, and he was sent flying.

The distance between the cliff and himself seemed to suddenly become much closer.

But Brendel knew it was an illusion, instead, he was flying over the crag and over the abyss. Luckily, the Willpower attribute had strengthened his nerves’ tolerance, otherwise, his body’s self protection system would have been triggered and caused him to pass out from pain. Brendel did not want to fall into the abyss while unconscious.

He was shot forward like a cannonball and his body was flopping in mid-air. Despite the sharp pain rubbing against his nerves like fire he gritted his teeth and thrusted the Halran Gaia towards the ground of the cave.

With the Elemental Awakening power exerting full force, the Halran Gaia pierced directly into the rocks for more than a foot, and a trail of golden sparks appeared in the darkness.

Brendel’s momentum immediately decreased, but the Halran Gaia in his hand still sliced through the cliff as if it was cutting tofu; as his sword carved a deep line into the ground, he neared the cliff’s edge .

All of this happened in less than a blink of an eye, and, as if he hadn’t even drawn another breath, Brendel had already flown off the cliff. He finally stopped his momentum, his action causing a mass of rocks to tumble down.

Brendel flipped in mid-air, he raised his right hand with the Wind Ring and fired a wind bomb at the cliff on the other side. The air currents converged on top of his ring in a flash then slammed down on top of the rocks on the other side. The huge grey rocks shattered and debris flew everywhere, the intense reaction finally brought Brendel to a momentary halt in the air.

He lifted his head.

The sound of the wind overhead brought about another sharp whine which was the right forelimb of the Mother of Spiders. After she swept out her left limb, with the remaining six limbs supporting her massive frame, she raised her right limb and stabbed at Brendel in mid-air.

To the outsiders and even the Silver-ranked knights, both attacks seemed to have happened at the same time. But only Brendel knew that it was actually staggered, this was the most common attack of this cunning creature.

If it couldn’t kill the first move, then the second move would have made up for it perfectly. But this time there was no one to help him distract the creature again. Brendel stared wide-eyed at the scythe-like hooked claw coming closer and closer to him.

But he knew very clearly that it was actually futile, it was too fast, it had even surpassed the level of his in-depth analysis.

What really took effect was the Darkness Perception attribute he got from the Glow Wave, the magic that flowed through Anarons’ body was like a spark in the dark. It came close to him in an instant.

This was just the moment.

Brendel only had this one chance. He reached out and grabbed the sharp tip of the Mother of Spiders’ right forelimb, his entire body getting dragged back by it.

At that moment time seemed to have slowed down in his perception as he saw himself gripping onto the receding forelimb and being drawn back into the cliff, then approaching the side of the cliff in a beautiful arc. He could almost see the crack that was getting closer, as well as the faces of the knights.

They seemed to have just come back to their senses but were yet to even let out a gasp, Brendel only saw some of them opening their mouths.

He calculated the distance, and as soon as he let go, the crack was already right in front of him.

Perfect landing. He tensed his nerves, then like a cannonball, he slammed into the rock wall with a loud thud.

“Holy shit, ah……” Brendel let out a cry of extreme pain. He never thought that he would make a mistake at the last minute, and in any case, this mistake was enough for him to remember for a long time. It’s scary how hard the rocks underground are.

But he had no time to be chagrined. At once, he cried out desperately, “Pull me in!” Fortunately, the others did not notice this minor mistake of the young Lord, after all, it was already very impressive to be able to escape from that terrible monster.

Anthony’s knights were as if they were just woken up from a dream, the three knights who were standing in front of the rift immediately rushed out and dragged him back. Brendel was not far away at that time, he was only a meter or two off so the knights managed to drag him back easily.

On the other hand, the princess had been pushed toward Babasha’s feet by Brendel. The old witch hurriedly helped her and Sugar Jar inside, although the witch looked skinny and weak, she did have quite a bit of strength. “Thanks,” Gryphine replied weakly, there was a patch of blood on her shoulder and the large blood loss was making her pale face even paler, but she still managed to hold herself together to show her pride as a noble. It might be difficult for Brendel or other people to understand the nobles who valued pride more than their own lives, but it felt natural to the princess who grew up with such education.

But as for the princess, perhaps there was one more thing that could be added on, which was her stubbornness.

The princess saw Brendel lying on the floor covered in blood and was startled. She asked in a low voice, “Mr. Brendel?”

“I’m fine.” Brendel was not lying, in fact, most of the injuries on his body were scrapes from the last full-face hit against the rock wall. He just looked wretched, compared to him, the princess’ injuries were actually much more serious. But Brendel did not have time for nonsense, because the Mother of Spiders has poked her head in from the crack again and was trying to reach her claws in to drag them out.

Everyone was startled and retreated further into the crack. The Mother of Spiders was so close to reaching the knight outside, she could not help but let out a screech of anger that was so high-pitched it sounded like a sharp object slicing across glass, and it was extremely creepy. Only Brendel knew that the Mother of Spiders could never enter here, though it was not safe here either. He ordered, “Don’t stop, keep retreating further back, there are still many of her offsprings here and she will find a way to have them get in and kill us.”

Everyone was already frightened by Anarons and upon hearing that there were also small spiders, they would not dare to stop , they all hurried to progress into the depths of the rift. Brendel moved forward with help from a knight, and after resting for a while, he finally let out a sigh of relief, then he took out the Health Potion and distributed it to several injured knights and the princess. Of course, there was no need to elaborate on the Health Potion’s power as it only took a moment before all of them were looking at him with curiosity and respect.

In their eyes, Brendel was capable of anything. A Lord at such a young age could defeat the Holy Cathedral of Fire and escape from terrifying demons, and also had what seemed to be countless treasures with him, it was as if no situation could ever baffle him. Such a person might not even have existed in long poems or legends.

Even the knights could not help but think that if today’s story leaked out, it might become a legendary folk song that would spread throughout the pubs of Aouine or even all of Vaunte.

After the princess drank the Health Potion No.7, she held the bottle and entered a daze. She looked at Brendel with puzzled eyes, the Health Potion was different from ordinary magic items because it often could only be made by a high ranking divine officer of the Holy Cathedral of Fire who knew alchemy, and Brendel had a surprising amount of Health Potions. Not to mention the fact that Brendel had distributed these Health Potions to the knights without any reserve.

This meant that he must have more Health Potions in store. Although Gryphine did not covet these Health Potions, it did not stop her from becoming increasingly curious about what Brendel had gone through.

She wanted to know more about what other secrets this man was hiding, just like in her mind she had always wanted to confirm his identity and purpose. The half-elf girl acquiesced to Brendel becoming her knight, but it was known that this title was a bit of a sham, and even the princess herself felt that there were too many unknown things about him. It was less of a knight and princess relationship between them, but more like an equal relationship where she needed his help.

Such a relationship had once made her feel uneasy, and she had always vaguely wanted to rectify it. But it was all in vain, she did not know if Brendel could understand her kindness and her intention to change this relationship, but the moment Brendel was in danger, she suddenly understood that she would never allow Brendel to die just like that.

She has been feeling the taste of loneliness for too long already.

Even someone as outstanding as the Wolf could not fully comprehend her thoughts, and no matter how perfectly Sir Beninnger disguised himself, he was just someone who could provide her with help.

The princess realized that she had developed feelings for Brendel. She felt her heart tighten and frowned, she hurriedly recollected her thoughts and returned to her original calm state.

She understood that it was impossible, so she had to be careful.

This was the limit.

After entering the rift, the line of men had delved deeper into the ground of Ampere Seale. The temperature had risen a little, initially just offsetting the cold outside but gradually becoming hot. Especially since there was no wind circulating in the undergrounds, the air was filled with a stale smell.

Brendel was talking to Babasha, “Babasha, do you know where that secret passage leads to?”

“It’s somewhere not far north from here, I know where there should be a secret gate.”

“So that means we can pass by itt on the way?” Brendel’s eyes sparkled when he heard the good news. He was afraid that the secret passage would be in the Hall of Ancient Ruins in the east or the ancient underground tunnels even further east, because even without mentioning the problem of whether he would remember the maze-like terrain since it’s been so long, there was the big issue that it was also the territory of Anarons, the Mother of Spiders, and he absolutely did not want to mess with her.

She’s an enormous female bug after all.

Babasha looked at him mysteriously, not speaking. Just like how the rumors of the Darkness Dragon were deeply etched into everyone’s heart, she undoubtedly believed that lord Brenel already knew all of this, the prophecy of the Dark Word was absolutely right without question, thisfeudal superstition was deeply planted in her mind.

But it was at this moment, Brendel， who was leading the way in the front stopped in his tracks.

He stopped and stretched out his arm to prevent anyone from moving forward. Everyone was slightly stunned because they did not feel anything abnormal at all. But they have all went through a few battles already and had a certain level of tacit understanding, so no one opened their mouths to question Brendel. After a moment, they saw several black shadows emerging from a crack not far away.

The knights exchanged glances as encountering other human-like creatures in this crisis-ridden underground was obviously a little beyond their expectations. But only Brendel could see that they were cavemen.

He made a silent gesture as cavemen had surprisingly good hearing, especially in the silent underground where sound mostly traveled only in one direction. Fortunately, Brendel’s senses were also a hundred times keener than normal people after he had obtained the Elemental Awakening, or else they would have been discovered by the other party first.

There were very few cavemen who stray beyond the Underground Lord except for clans like the Firbur who had left the underground and fled to the surface. One clan was already really rare, and Brendel did not think that he was so lucky to encounter such things one after another, the only possibility was that these were part of the Jorgendy Ridge Underground Army.

But how did they get here? Did the other party discover this secret passage too?

Brendel thought that this was unlikely, unless there was a passage around here that connected to the undergrounds of Jorgendy Ridge? This was quite possible, and he could not help but frown as he watched the cavemen slowly and leisurely burrow their way through another crack.

The underground world was connected by pathways everywhere, but most of the naturally occurring passages were dead ends. Some of them also led to the lairs of magical items or to traps. But Brendel remembered that that path was supposed to lead towards the Hall of Ancient Ruins.

The other party seemed like they were yet to discover the secret gate mentioned by Babasha.

He was slightly relieved. After the cavemen walked away, the knights asked, “Lord, they?” These knights of Anthony used to address Brendel as “mister” but now they’re just addressing him as “Lord”.

But Brendel did not realize that the change in this appellation was not just due to the fact that they respected his capabilities, but more due to the fact that Eikkel had been speaking of his deeds in the Long Song Forest among his knights for years. These knights might have originally scoffed at their Lord who was full of knightly thoughts, but now it seemed that even Eikkel’s place in their hearts had risen quite a bit.

Unfortunately, Brendel did not know these details, or he would have felt ashamed. He waited a moment before answering in a small voice, “The cavemen know way more about the underground world than we do, so it’s not surprising that they could discover this place. This doesn’t mean anything, let’s just move on.”

Everyone nodded their heads, with a feeling of “whatever-Brendel-says-must-be-right.”. But in fact, Brendel was uncertain too, he just hoped that the old witch Babasha was not lying to him.

The secret passage better be as secretive as she described, or it’ll be a waste of effort. And finding the way out would be another problem.

He could not help but glance at Babasha. Unfortunately, the old witch’s face was hidden under her hood so he could not tell, but she did not seem nervous.