"Ugh!" A gangster holding a dagger jumped out of the darkness and stabbed Rana in the waist.
The dagger hit the armor, and then slid to the side along an arc. Lana grabbed the gangster's head, twisted it with a click and threw it aside.
"Don't come here! Don't come here!" A thin gangster waved a broken knife and shouted while leaning against the cold wall.
Four corpses lay on the ground beside him. These people were equipped with crossbows and daggers, lurking around a corner and attacked the Shutoral team.
However, their inferior weapons could not even leave a scratch on the armor. Before the gangsters could react, the Shutoral team killed most of them.
"Surrender or die." Griffith pulled out a hemp rope and waved it towards the remaining gangster.
With no way to escape, the gangster clenched his teeth and stared at Griffith in front of him with a pair of bright eyes under the firelight. Then, the gangster raised his dagger, let out a shout, and rushed towards Griffith.
"Hey!"
The apprentice knight in strong armor easily dodged to the side, grabbed the gangster's delicate arm and twisted it gently. The little man screamed and fell heavily to the ground.
"Where did you find these brats?" Murat glanced at the gangsters on the ground, "They look like they are only twelve or thirteen years old."
"You can join the City Massacre Gift Pack if you are over ten years old. Twelve or thirteen years old is not young," Lana said while wiping his sword on the corpse, "It's just that he is relatively thin."
Griffith twisted the little man's hands behind his back, quickly tied them into a tight knot, and then lifted them from the muddy water to Ophelia: "Do you have any questions?"
"No~ there's nothing wrong with an ambush of this level," Ophelia tilted her head, "Apart from the first few groups of people who are stronger, the later groups are just simple children!"
"The lackeys of the nobles! I'm going to kill you, kill you!" the little man screamed. Before he could yell a few words, Griffith took him back to him and pressed his neck with both hands.
The sharp screams of the little man who was still yelling suddenly disappeared. A strong hand was pressing on his neck, and the cold steel penetrated into the bone marrow with the chill of death.
Among the dead bodies on the ground, a head that had been screwed to the back was staring here with empty eyes.
Trembling passed down his hands. Griffith watched indifferently as the teeth of the little man in front of him were striking up and down rapidly, and then the thin body began to tremble, as if he had malaria.
"We're taking this with us, it might be useful." Griffith put the little man down.
"Aye~!" The trainee knights agreed without any surprise.
…
The Shutoral team has gone deep into the sewers. Based on the distance estimated from the previous map, there will be no place for the Cook gang to hide.
"You must attack the mage immediately." Ophelia scanned the surroundings vigilantly. She seemed to have good vision in the dark. "The opponent is a fallen mage. This kind of person has not been systematically trained but may have special attack spells.
, but defense is often not a strength.”
"My dagger will kill him as soon as possible," Rana said. "The space here is small, and the encounters will not be too far apart. I will not let him have the opportunity to recite the spell."
"Kill all the lackeys of the nobles!" Suddenly there was a roar in the darkness, followed by the sound of chaotic footsteps stepping on the water and rushing towards this direction.
"Oh, here we come!" Ophelia bent her bow, nocked an arrow, and shot an arrow like lightning. As soon as a man turned around the intersection in the darkness, he was shot through the eye and fell to the ground.
"Charge! Kill!" A burly man holding a giant ax and wearing mail armor ran out surrounded by a group of minions of all sizes.
"Attack, be careful of the mage hidden in the crowd!" Griffins raised his short gun and nailed a gangster to the ground, "Armored Cook is here!"
The other trainee knights immediately quickly threw daggers, threw spears or shot bows and arrows. The gangsters armed with various weapons fell on the spot like wheat fields blown by the wind.
"Kill!" Boss Cook, the strongest and the only one wearing armor, had two daggers stuck in his body and was slashing with a big ax.
Griffith held the gun above his head with both hands, and stabbed Cook's left shoulder from the top of the shield.
The armor-piercing spearhead tore through the armor's defense with one blow, piercing Cook's strong shoulder and exiting from behind.
"Oh~" Cook, who was shouting and fighting fiercely, suddenly stopped shouting. He grabbed the spear head that was pierced into his shoulder blade, and raised the ax to strike at Murat's shield.
Griffiths had quick eyesight and quick hands, and he spun the short spear in his hand. Severe pain exploded on his shoulder with splashes of blood and flesh. Cook's whole body trembled, and the blow against the shield became weak and weak.
Murat blocked the blow and bumped forward. Cook was immediately knocked to the ground, and even the ax fell into the sewage.
Griffith pulled out his short gun and stabbed Cook into his open mouth.
"Woo! Woo hoo!" The little prisoner who was tied behind struggled and shouted desperately. But his hands were tied and his mouth was stuffed with rags, so he could only make a muffled sound.
Cook, who was more than two meters tall, had his throat pierced by the gun tip.
"Have you seen him use his powers?" Lana asked while stabbing a gangster who was rushing towards him.
"No." Everyone shook their heads together.
The 12 Cook gang members who launched a counterattack were annihilated without causing any losses to the Shutoral team.
"Stay vigilant, it's not over yet," Griffith pulled the rope and pulled the tightly tied little man to the front. "You go ahead and see if there are any survivors inside."
The gagged little man was pushed forward. Griffith patted his shoulder with the cold gun blade, "This is your chance to survive, lead the way from the front."
Until now, the fallen mage has not appeared. Such a danger in the shadow makes the Shutorals even more vigilant.
Finally, on a dry platform in the sewer, the Shutorals found two figures huddled together. With the faint light, Griffith and the others could barely see the gorgeous clothes and trembling bodies of the two people.
body of.
"We are trainee knights of the Guards, here to rescue you," Ophelia shouted hiding behind Griffith, "Baron, Baroness, are you? Please raise your head and let us see your
Face."
The couple hugging each other continued to tremble. The baron raised his head and glanced at the five rescuers wearing iron armor: "Yes, I am."
"Ha, great," Ophelia sighed, "Are you injured? Can you move?"
"I... our feet were frostbitten," the Baron said, shaking even more violently. He didn't know whether it was because of fear or excitement, "That fallen mage did it."
"Keep walking to the Baron," Griffith patted the little man on the shoulder.
There were no traps around the Baron and his wife, but their ankles were shackled to the ground by silver-white shackles, making them unable to move.
"It's ice, shackles made of ice," Lana looked up and said, "Give me the torch."
The two torches were passed over, and Lana and Medienmaia carefully thawed the ankles of the Baron and his wife. Others stood guard around them.
"Where's the fallen mage?" Griffith asked.
"After he locked us up, he left and went further inside," Baron Caen hugged his wife, looking slightly relaxed. "Earlier, the gangsters tried to dig an escape route. I don't know if they succeeded.
.”
"It probably didn't succeed," Griffith pointed at the direction where Cook and others fell. "We killed their boss."
"Shh! Don't talk!" Ophelia suddenly raised her index finger and made a silent gesture.
The scene immediately became quiet. There was a rustling sound from the dark sewer, and it seemed that something was moving towards this direction.
Several bright torches appeared in the passage, and the firelight illuminated a piece of bright yellow armor. Two teams of city defense troops quickly ran towards this side.
"Hey! Guys, you're late!" Ophelia shouted triumphantly, "but the big mouse is still in the hole."
"Sgt. Rex of the city defense force came to report. Commander Cody asked us to accept your command," the city defense force led by him saluted the Shutorals.
"Very good, we are short of manpower," Griffith and Ophelia looked at each other, "arrange a few people to take the baron, his wife and the prisoners to retreat first, and the remaining people will go in with us to capture the fallen mage.
.”
At this moment, a fierce and violent aura spread from the darkness.
"Beast? Not exactly, it's mixed with human scent." Ophelia sniffed it with some surprise, "It might also be a product of some kind of black magic. It's in that darkness."
Two fiery red lights appeared in the darkness, like torches, carrying a fishy smell.
"What is this? A fireball?" Lana looked at it carefully for a while, but he didn't think it looked like it.
Two groups of red lights flickered from time to time, slowly approaching the crowd faintly. The blood-red core turned out to be like pupils.
"Mouse!" Ophelia suddenly shouted, bent her bow and shot an arrow towards the red light.
Before everyone could understand what was happening, the red light suddenly flashed towards the wall on one side, and then rushed towards the soldiers.
A giant black rat, bigger than a mountain bear, opened its bloody mouth and bit off the head of a city defense soldier in one bite.
Without being reminded, everyone present used all the weapons they could find to smash at the giant rat.
Lana threw the flying knife at lightning speed. However, the sharp blade deflected directly after hitting the shiny black fur, causing no damage at all.
The giant rat that was attacked rushed into the crowd like lightning, knocking a group of city defense troops to pieces.
Murat waved his big shield and struck hard at the giant rat running past him.
"DUANG!"
Indescribable fluctuations spread, and all the soldiers nearby staggered. The giant rat was also knocked to the ground, its fiery red eyes glazed over.
Griffith resisted the dizziness, stepped forward with the gun and stabbed the red eye hard.
"Squeak!" The giant rat screamed like an ordinary rat, and its long tail, which was comparable to a crocodile's tail, swept over.
Griffith felt like he was flying out like a cloud, and hit the cold wall, unable to move for a while.
Midianmaia roared, swung the shovel in his hand and thrust it hard into the other eye. The blood-red eyeball exploded on the spot.
The giant rat, which had lost its eyes, began to wildly wave its huge tail and attack, opening its bloody mouth and roaring.
Midianmaia and Lana swarmed forward, grabbing the giant rat and trying to pin it to the ground. However, the monster's power far exceeded the two of them, and they were thrown away in the blink of an eye. Murat's quick eyesight and quick hands caught the two of them after they were thrown away.
The moment he opened it, he smashed the giant rat in the face with his shield.
Another dizzying wave came, and the strong giant rat was stunned for a while again.
Ophelia calmed down, pulled out an arrow engraved with flaming magic patterns from her quiver, bent her bow and shot it into the mouth of the giant rat. After shooting the arrow, Ophelia held her head in both hands and stood on the spot.
roll.
"spread!"
Before anyone else could react, the giant rat's mouth exploded with a "boom". The sharp fangs mixed with flesh and blood flew everywhere, and a large piece of the city defense army that could not dodge fell on the spot.
"Kill it!" Murat was closest to the monster, but miraculously he stood up first. He looked at the sticky flesh and broken teeth all over his body, drew out his sword and pointed it at the still twitching monster.
The rat struck with a sword.
"Huh~ The fur of this thing is good," Murat turned the long sword inserted into the giant rat's head, "Hey! Griffith, are you still alive? Move if you are alive."
"I, I finally returned to the capital of the world alive..." Ophelia stood up from the sewage and flesh and blood in embarrassment, and wiped her faceplate that was smeared with something unknown, "I didn't do it for
Fighting such a bad fight!"
Before the other Shutoral could laugh out loud, the belly of the dead giant rat suddenly began to squirm violently, as if a naughty child was hiding under the quilt and crawling around.
"Mura! Get out of the way!"
The giant rat's belly exploded, and countless rats of all sizes flew out from inside. Each of them stared at the scarlet eyes and pounced towards the people present.
Screams and roars suddenly broke out, and all the Shutoral who were still able to stand wildly waved their weapons and struck at the black rats that were pouring out.
"Bang!" The first little mouse that was killed exploded, and a cloud of white cold air came out. The surrounding sewage was immediately frozen into hard ice. The densely packed little mice exploded into white ice piece by piece.
fog.
"Oops! Oh no!" Ophelia watched as a cloud of ice mist exploded and stuck in the gap in her faceplate, blocking her sight. Then, she lost consciousness before she understood what happened.
…
One after another, the injured were carried out of the sewer on stretchers.
Whether it was Shutoral or the city defenders, their clothes and armor were covered with thick layers of blood, flesh and mud, and these dirty things were frozen and stuck to their bodies.
"Five Scitorals were injured, one of the twenty-five city defense troops was killed, and thirteen were injured." The on-site commander Cody reported to Chief Heinz with a black line on his face, "I'm sorry, although the Baron was rescued.
Husband and wife, but your Excellency's Shutoral elites are also allowed to fight such a bad battle."
"They suffered a loss but are all alive," Cavalry Commander Heinz Wilhelm opened his hands, "Don't talk nonsense, send your city defense troops down quickly, and be sure to catch this damn mage."
Not far away from them, the messy Ophelia limped towards the pool on the far corner of the street. A city defense soldier on guard tried to come up to help her, but was refused.
"How is the injury of the trainee knight?" a medical officer asked this obviously female Shutoral.
Ophelia moved her arms with difficulty, and then pointed to her frozen visor. The doctor frowned and looked at the dirt frozen into ice, shook his head and walked away.
"Hoo~!" Ophelia came to the pool at the corner of the street, picked up a bucket of water and poured it on herself, then turned around and leaned against the corner to rest.
A group of city defense troops ran past her and headed towards the sewer entrance where the battle had just ended.
Ophelia, who looked exhausted both physically and mentally, looked at the soldiers passing by, stood up with difficulty, and walked alone towards the secluded alley.
"Where are you going?" A somewhat familiar silent voice sounded from behind.
Ophelia turned her head and saw Griffith, who was also in a mess, standing not far behind her.
Ophelia spread her hands helplessly and pointed at the visor frozen in ice.
Griffith walked over completely nonchalantly, came to Ophelia's side and continued to move forward with her: "What do you think?
"The fallen mage hiding in the sewers has such a powerful familiar, and he is also very skilled in ice magic. He has such strength, why didn't he cooperate with the Cook gang in using it at the beginning?"
Ophelia seemed unable to answer this question. She just walked in silence. Seeing her silence, Griffith continued:
"Even if he has such strength, there is no chance of him being let go after causing so many casualties to us. The next ones to deal with him are the regular knights and the great knights.
"With the loss of his familiar, his only end is death.
"In that case, why not take advantage of the opportunity to take hostages and break out with the Cook gang while you still have the strength?"
Ophelia stopped where she was and looked up at Griffith who had taken off his helmet.
The nearby residents and city defense troops had gathered at the entrance near the sewer. The two of them just looked at each other in the quiet alley.
Ophelia lowered her head and gently stroked Griffith's dented and damaged breastplate with her right hand, just like a girl touching her boyfriend's strong chest.
"Isn't this good~" Ophelia said in a strange voice, "The old cat has already caught the mouse but refused to eat it, isn't it afraid that the mouse will bite him back?"
White frost spread on Griffith's breastplate wound at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, Griffith grasped "Ophelia's" wrist with lightning speed and flipped it over with a "click".
"Ah!" The female mage wearing Ophelia's armor screamed in a low voice and collapsed to the ground.
Griffith reached out and pulled off the loose iron helmet, looking at the fallen female mage with a face full of pain.
"I'll give you one minute to convince me not to break your neck," Griffith grabbed the female mage's hands, raised them above her head, pinned them to the ground, and pressed his knees against her chest.
The appearance of the female mage being suppressed was beyond Griffith's expectation. Her face was quite round, with short brown hair, her facial features were not beautiful but quite regular, and her sparkling eyes were full of...
There is no sinister aura of learning about ice and black magic.
"Kill me, the lackey of the nobles," the female mage looked at Griffith without fear, "if you kill me, thousands of brave people will stand up and overthrow this chaotic world!
"
"I have no interest in your life. Your mental power is very weak and you are not a professionally trained mage. How did you manage to master both frost magic and demonized giant rats at the same time?" Griffith seemed not to have heard her.
asked the same question.
"..." The female mage was stunned for a moment, "I have a ring that allows me to use low-level ice spells several times every once in a while. The control of the familiar is given by others, and the connection with it is imprinted on my soul.
On the ring... I hung it on my chest with a rope."
Griffith held down the female mage's hand while taking off her armor and groping for you under her clothes.
The female mage turned her head and avoided Griffith's eyes: "This is my only valuable thing. If you take this away, you will let me go, right?"
"I have no interest in your life." Griffith found a pale bone ring from the female mage's body and looked at it curiously. "Let's go, cut off your spiritual connection with this ring, and give up ownership.
Also, tell me the name of the person who gave you the demon."
The bone ring seemed to have an invisible barrier, preventing Griffith's consciousness from reaching it.
"OK."
As soon as he finished speaking, endless murmurs suddenly poured out of the bone ring, wrapping Griffith's brain. The murmurs seemed to be calling for something, but no matter how hard he listened, he couldn't hear it clearly.
A large amount of messy information was tumbling in the trainee knight's head. He didn't even understand what happened before he fell to the ground with a plop and his whole body twitched.
"Bah! Lackey!" The female mage struggled to get out from under Griffith and kicked him hard.
The female mage silently looked at Griffith who was twitching on the ground, and suddenly snatched the ring back from his hand and held it in her palm, saying viciously: "Idiot, after you cancel the connection with me, the will of the Lord of the Rings can crush you.
I won't give it to you, lackey! This is our hope to overthrow the old world. It is our power, my power!