A blue-haired youth poked his head out and waved at Qiu Meng.
“Hurry!”
Qiu Meng ran toward him without looking back. As soon as she was inside the tower, Telaika shut the door and locked it.
“Huff… huff…”
Qiu Meng leaned against the wall, slowly trying to calm herself down.
Telaika looked at her, his brow deeply furrowed. He wasn’t much older than Qiu Meng—he looked about nineteen, clad in light armor, with blue short hair plastered to his forehead by sweat. There was anger in his eyes as he looked at her.
“Do you realize you almost got the Captain killed just now?”
Qiu Meng lowered her head.
“I…”
“If the Captain hadn’t reacted fast, he would’ve been torn apart by that monster!”
“And you can’t get that close, and you can’t just shout randomly on the battlefield. Your voice gives away your position, miss!”
“…I know.”
Her voice was very quiet.
Seeing her like this, Telaika didn’t continue scolding her. He just sighed and pointed to a small window with iron bars nearby.
“Watch from there. If you see anything unusual, tell me immediately.”
With that, he picked up the crossbow leaning against the door and quickly returned to his firing position upstairs.
Qiu Meng noticed two spare crossbows leaning against the wall.
She instinctively reached for one.
But when she looked at the small window, she immediately gave up. The gaps between the iron bars were too narrow, and the angle was too awkward. There was no way to shoot from there.
So Qiu Meng just stood by the window, watching the fight outside.
After Dante confirmed she had entered the tower, he visibly relaxed.
Then he reset his stance.
Instead of confronting the monster head-on, he immediately shot two ordinary arrows at its arms. Though they didn’t do much damage, they enraged it.
After hitting his target, her father immediately turned and ran toward the stables on the left.
The monster roared and chased after him.
The stable had narrow spaces, and the monster’s massive body couldn’t fit through easily.
Dante used the stable’s wooden pillars and fences to move through the gaps. But this bear was no ordinary monster.
The crystals on its back flashed violently, electricity climbing up its spine to its head. It opened its mouth, and a blue-white orb of light condensed deep in its throat.
“What is that…?”
Qiu Meng’s pupils shrank.
Dante clearly hadn’t expected the monster to be able to use a ranged attack. He quickly dove out from behind the stable, rolling to take cover behind a thick tree.
The next instant, the electric orb struck the stable.
BOOM—!
Planks, nails, hay, and remaining tack exploded in all directions.
The blast erupted from the center of the stable, and the shockwave kicked up a cloud of dust and smoke, completely obscuring her view of her father.
Dante was caught in the blast’s aftershock, stumbling.
He pressed a hand to his ear, apparently temporarily deafened.
Dust and smoke filled the air, and the monster vanished from sight.
Qiu Meng held her breath. She soon noticed something was off.
That monster had used the explosion’s smoke to circle around to the other side, just like mimicking Dante’s earlier tactic. It burst out from the ruined stable, its claws aimed straight for Dante’s face.
“…!”
Clang!
Dante raised his sword to deflect the claw strike.
The immense force tore blood from both his hands at the tiger’s mouth, and his sword let out a piercing shriek.
But he didn’t retreat. He channeled mana into the gem on his sword’s guard. The gem glowed faintly, and mana flowed along the blade, making the ordinary sword sharp and heavy in an instant.
He immediately accelerated himself with Wind Magic and swung at the monster’s lower half.
Seeing this, the monster struck back in an instant.
Sword and claw collided, producing a dull boom.
Dante had already expended a great deal of mana and stamina, and his body was running low. But he still managed to force the monster back half a step. And that half-step was enough. He immediately reached for his belt.
A powder bottle flew out, and white mist exploded in front of the monster again.
Then he closed his eyes, stepped back to avoid the lime, and pulled out two more small bottles from his waist, smashing them against the crystals on the monster’s back.
Cooking oil coated the crystals and fur.
Dante quickly drew an arrow wrapped in oilcloth, muttered a brief incantation, and a flame ignited at the arrowhead. He then drew his bow and fired.
The flaming arrow embedded itself in the monster’s back. The moment oil met fire, the bear let out a piercing scream.
The outer layer of fur caught fire. Flames spread along the roots of the crystals, scorching the monster’s back.
Qiu Meng stared in stunned silence.
So that’s how her father used those strange little gadgets he’d prepared.
Not like the warriors in novels, using mana and attacks in smooth combos against enemies.
But using tactics and strategy to fight enemies far stronger than himself.
The smoke cleared.
The monster turned in fury, searching for Dante.
It suddenly looked up. Dante was standing on a tree branch.
The next instant, he leaped down from the branch, his longsword descending in a vertical slash that split the bear’s right eye.
Blood sprayed.
The bear’s scream shook his eardrums.
It opened its mouth. The originally blue-white electric light, disturbed by the flames, had turned a dark red, and it spewed forth.
Dante chanted a low Wind Magic spell. Wind pressure exploded beneath his feet, propelling him forward. He ran a few steps, then jumped, driving the makeshift wooden spear he had prepared downward.
The training spear pierced the bear’s upper palate. The bamboo tube fixed to the spear began to glow red… But Dante immediately kicked the spear’s butt with his foot, using the momentum to jump again.
Boom!
The bamboo tube exploded.
The impact forced the bear’s head down, its mouth pointed directly at its own torso. The dark red electric orb shot out from its mouth, but due to the angle, it blasted straight into its own chest and abdomen.
The second explosion was heavier than the first.
The sound reminded Qiu Meng of a scene from an action movie in her past life, where massive amounts of explosives detonated at once.
Even though the monster’s mouth had been blown to a bloody mess, its tongue charred and its lower jaw missing, with dark blood pouring onto the ground, it still didn’t fall.
It supported itself with its forelimbs, now stripped of flesh down to the bone, and tried to attack Dante again.
Just then, reinforcements arrived.
Seven mounted guards charged into the gate’s outer perimeter, their military crossbows all loaded and aimed.
The bear sensed the new threat. As it turned, it exposed a weak point.
Dante seized the opportunity, immediately firing a flaming arrow that precisely struck its left eye.
The monster instinctively twisted its body, raising its forelimbs to put out the flames.
The guards didn’t let the chance slip. Crossbow bolts flew in from different directions, piercing its belly and armpits—the relatively vulnerable areas.
A volley of shots penetrated its flesh, striking its internal organs.
Finally, the monster let out one last hoarse roar, and its massive body crashed to the ground with a resounding thud.
“So strong…”
She thought to herself.
“I finally understand why people without magic can’t just become soldiers.”
On a battlefield like this, an ordinary person’s body was too fragile. Just being caught in a shockwave, making a single wrong judgment—any of it was enough to cost a soldier his life.
The reason her father survived was because of his experience.
Qiu Meng was about to open the door to check on Dante’s safety.
The next moment, she saw a gleam of cold light flash from the top of a distant tower.
A spear was thrown from the high point.
Its target was Dante.
“Father—!”
Before Qiu Meng’s voice could fully leave her mouth, Dante had already turned.
He extended his left hand.
And caught the spear, accelerated by Wind Magic, with his bare hand.
The spearpoint stopped less than a finger’s width from his chest.
Wind pressure hissed against his leather gloves. The spear shaft vibrated violently from the high-speed impact. But Dante didn’t retreat a single step, nor did his shoulder even tremble.
He raised his head.
His gaze calmly fixed on the top of the tower.
Standing there was a mage in a gray-black cloak.
Qiu Meng instinctively shrank back into the tower and locked the door again.
Telaika stood behind her, lightly patting her shoulder, signaling her to stay away from the door.
Dante only stared coldly at the mage and said:
“Which stray dog sent you?”
The mage did not answer.
He simply looked down at Dante and said calmly:
“A greeting gift, not worthy of your name.”
Dante lowered his head to look at the spear in his hand.
The spearhead was forged from rare patterned steel, and the shaft was engraved with intricate designs. It wasn’t something a frontier bandit could possess. Dante had seen that style of decoration before.
It was a high-grade weapon from the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union.
At the same time, the guards immediately raised their crossbows, aiming at the tower top.
But before the triggers could be pulled, the mage’s figure vanished in a flash of white light.
“Light Magic?!”
A guard gasped.
The light reappeared, and the mage was now beside one of the guards. A light sword condensed from the crystal on his staff, aimed straight for the guard’s neck.
Clang!
The light sword was blocked by a longsword.
Dante stood beside the guard, his expression still calm.
A flicker of surprise passed through the mage’s eyes.
He grabbed the sword hilt at his waist and opened his mouth to chant a Wind Magic incantation for a speed boost.
But Dante was faster.
He stomped down on the end of the mage’s still-sheathed sword, pressing it hard. The scabbard and its fasteners snapped simultaneously. Half of the weapon was driven into the mud.
The mage raised his right foot, a hidden blade ready to spring from his boot. But Dante grabbed his throat, and his left foot kicked the mage’s shin.
The sound of a bone breaking reached the mage’s own ears.
He was slammed to the ground.
Thud!
The guards froze.
The mage opened his mouth, trying to cast Ice Magic with a rapid incantation.
But before the first syllable left his lips, Dante shoved his scabbard into the mage’s mouth, cutting off the spell.
Without a word, he drew his sword and immediately severed the mage’s tendons in both wrists and ankles.
Qiu Meng swallowed hard. She said nothing, but felt a deep chill. In the novels from her past life, both sides in a fight would at least exchange some threats… But these two combined hadn’t even exchanged five lines…
The mage’s face twisted slightly in pain, but he didn’t scream.
Dante stood up and wiped the blood from his cheek.
He recognized this type.
Mercenaries of the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union.
A bunch of butchers who treated human life like a game, devoid of any emotion.
But he didn’t say it out loud.
If they knew the attack involved the Four Alliance Merchants’ Union, they would be standing against those people. A demotion would be the least of it. Assassination, being silenced, or being framed for colluding with the Demon Race were all possibilities.
Dante himself might be able to withstand it, relying on his position as Guard Captain and his status as a Veteran of the Dark Decade.
But they couldn’t. Without battle merits, they had no way to stop the schemes of those old foxes.
“Put Magic Shackles on him.”
Dante said. The guards snapped back to reality, quickly bringing out the Magic Sealing Shackles and locking them onto the mage’s hands. With his magic sealed, Dante pulled the scabbard from his mouth, then collected the spear and the Noble Sword that had been stomped into the mud.
But then, an unexpected turn occurred. Qiu Meng suddenly caught a glimpse of her father turning away and covering his mouth with his hand as he coughed twice softly.
When he moved his hand, there was a patch of blood on his glove.
Her heart sank.
“Father is…”
Telaika had seen it too, but he just said in a low voice:
“The Captain’s fine. He just used too much mana.”
“Okay… okay…”
The mage being led away, under the shadow of his cloak, the corner of his mouth curled up in an almost imperceptible smile.
That smile vanished in a flash, but Qiu Meng alone noticed the anomaly.
‘Why does that mage look like he’s succeeded, even though he’s been captured…?’
‘And… why didn’t that mage just use long-range magic on Father from the start? Why did he choose to get close and fight like a battle-mage?’
‘Could his goal not have been to kill Father…?’
‘Was his goal just to stall, to exhaust him, maybe even… to make everyone think the crisis was over?’
Qiu Meng’s gaze shifted toward the Hunting Forest.
It had already sunk into the shadows of dusk.
The wind blew through the treetops, making the branches sway, as if something was moving silently in the darkness.
***
At the same time.
From the shadowy part of the Church bell tower, another mage looked down at Dante and his guard detail below.
The hem of her cloak fluttered gently in the evening breeze, her face hidden beneath her hood.
She watched her captured companion, making no move to rescue him.
She pulled out a Communication Stone and spoke in a low voice:
“Everything is going smoothly.”
A hoarse voice came from the other end of the Communication Stone.
“Good.”
The mage continued:
“The Crystal Bear has been killed. The main force of the guard has been stalled and exhausted. Dante is confirmed to have drained his mana. The captured one has also entered their sight as planned, enough to direct their investigation toward the High Wall attack and the Defensive Magical Artifact orders.”
The hoarse voice let out a soft grunt.
“What about the wolves?”
The female mage’s gaze turned to the Hunting Forest.
There, the bodies of the two dead guards had already been dragged into the bushes.
Then, the bodies of two of the wolves began to twist.
Within moments, they transformed into Demihumans resembling humans.
One put on Grint’s armor.
The other put on Linse’s clothes.
They lowered their heads, pressing their ears into their helmets and tucking their tails into their cloaks. From a distance, they looked almost no different from ordinary human guards.
The female mage said calmly:
“The wolf pack has infiltrated the Hunting Forest. As long as the Count holds the Hunting Festival as planned, the assassination can be carried out.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the Communication Stone, followed by a satisfied laugh.
“Well done.”
“But there’s a child who saw the gray wolf.”
“A child?”
“According to intelligence, it’s Dante’s daughter. The one without magic talent.”
The hoarse voice seemed unconcerned.
“A child with no magic won’t affect the plan.”
The female mage didn’t answer immediately. She just looked toward the small window in the tower.
She lowered her eyes slightly.
“No.”
She said quietly.
“I recommend not underestimating her.”
A sneer came from the other end of the Communication Stone.
“Since when did you start being afraid of children?”
“It’s not fear.”
The female mage put away the Communication Stone, turned, and melted back into the shadows of the bell tower.
“It’s just that child is too sharp. She can dodge an ambush, and she can point out that someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes. I suggest we nip this in the bud…”
“Then arrange for someone to take her out.”
“Yes…”
Then the mage vanished into the shadows, and a new threat slowly began reaching toward Qiu Meng.