Masked Knight

"Shut...shut up!" When Amore Hughes saw his men on the ship had died, he trembled. However, he gritted his teeth and charged. Amore Hughes flapped his wings and flew high up. Within a short moment, he was already in front of Rody. He thrust the long and slender sword towards Rody’s chest.

Rody finally closed his mouth and the huge wave suddenly stopped. However, his body seemed to flicker slightly for a moment and then instantly disappeared!

Amore Hughes’ expression changed as he instinctively felt himself in peril. He turned around and sure enough, he saw Rody behind him. A silver blade of light was already in front of him. Amore Hughes cried out in fear as he shot towards the back in retreat!

The two of them fought fiercely in the sky. Both of them actually used Teleport, a high ranked martial skill1. The impact of using this martial skill caused waves of energy to smash all around.

The people on the ships, regardless whether they were from the Roland Continent or the Radiant Empire, had stopped screaming. One after another, they stood up on the deck of the ships. They had forgotten their hostility to each other and were stunned as they looked at the two fighters clashing with each other, in the midst of a churning gale wind in the sky.

Bits and pieces of something seemed to fall from the sky. One of the drops fell on the face of a Roland knight. He casually wiped his face only to find something wet, slippery and had a certain smell. When he raised his hand to look, he realized that it was blood.

That knight turned as pale as paper and said, "Where did this demon come from? Could it be that even His Excellency the Paladin is not his match?"

Amore Hughes was now desperate!

Amore Hughes kept on thrusting his sword out frantically. However, none of his blows could accurately strike his opponent. On the other hand, his opponent grinned and easily wounded him swinging his scimitar.

Teleporting was a martial skill that consumed a lot of energy. After more than ten attempts, Amore Hughes was exhausted. He no longer had the energy to teleport anymore. However, the demon he was fighting seemed to have an endless supply of energy.

To a regular person, Rody’s teleports were simply a waste of energy. He would suddenly teleport to Amore Hughes’ left, and the moment he raised his sword, he would disappear. After that, Rody appeared on Amore Hughes’ right. When Amore Hughes reacted by raising the sword to block, a flash appeared in front of him and he felt pain on his back. And then, Rody inexplicably appeared right in front of him!

Rody was just toying with him!

Amore Hughes felt extremely dreadful. Anyone who could teleport—a top rate skill—so expertly yet in such a ‘wasteful’ manner was definitely much stronger than him. If Rody really wanted to kill him, there was no need for him to put in so much effort.

It was like a cat catching a mouse. Before killing the mouse, the cat would first play around with the mouse until it had enough.

During the first dozen teleports, Amore Hughes had difficulty but he could still contend with his opponent. After that, Amore Hughes could no longer keep up with his opponent’s speed. At that moment, he had suffered a dozen more wounds on his chest, his back, and his arms. Blood continued to bleed and his entire body was bloodied. He could feel himself gradually losing his strength and the sword in his hand also felt heavier.

Rody’s smile became even more joyful and radiant as he watched his opponent’s blood dripp from the body.

When Rody grabbed his neck with his cold but extremely strong hand, Amore Hughes gave up resisting. He loosened his grip and his sword fell from the sky. He closed his eyes and awaited his death.

However, after waiting for a while, he realized that there was no movement. Amore Hughes opened his eyes and saw his opponent closely looking at him with a somewhat puzzled expression.

"You..." Amore Hughes gritted his teeth and had just said a word when he saw his opponent flashed his scimitar in front of him. His opponent then looked at him for a moment and then looked at the scimitar again.

Amore Hughes understood what his opponent meant. He looked at the dragon language on the scimitar. After hesitating for a moment, he slowly read out, "#&^*@$%."

Rody smiled. That smile seemed genuine and did not have a murderous aura. Rody finally opened his mouth and spoke in a strange accent. With a harsh tone and difficulty, he said these words...

"You, are, a, Dragon!"

Those words made Amore Hughes looked as if he had just been slashed. He stared at Rody, gritted his teeth and asked, "Are you also from the Dragon race?"

Rody looked blank and he seemed to be lost in thought. After that, he smiled and let go of the hand holding Amore Hughes’ neck. He then pointed at the ships below and slowly opened up his left hand.

The aura of a Dragon!

The most primitive and purest aura of a Dragon!

Space seemed to twist a little. As Amore Hughes was close to Rody, he felt as if the dozen wounds on his body was squeezed by an external force. He screamed as blood vigorously shot out from all his wounds. At the same time, a black aura solidified in Rody’s palm and formed a small black ball of light.

Along with the crackling of the black electrical cocoon, Rody slowly raised his hand until it was above his head. The ball of light in his palm grew bigger as if he was holding it in his palm.

Amore Hughes trembled. He was not a timid man. He was truly a brave Dragon. However, when confronted by the incomparably powerful and pure Dragon aura emitted from the body of his opponent, his felt both respect and a deep fear in his soul.

Finally, Amore Hughes clearly heard a few notes spoken by Rody. Those notes were spoken most accurately in the Dragon language. The moment he heard those words, he felt as if his whole body was fiercely whipped. He looked inconceivably at the person beside him. His vision turned black and he became stiff.

This... This guy actually said the legendary words: ‘Mystic Dragon Purge!’

An extremely loud and clear roar of a dragon reverberated through the skies. With a boom, a black dragon shot out from the ball of light in Rody’s palm.

The huge meandering body carried black flames and dived down. The huge body of the dragon covered the whole sky as it opened its big mouth and roared towards the sea.

"No, this is impossible!" Amore Hughes seemed to have suddenly become sober and roared, "Impossible!"

He flapped his wings and dived down. He then roared in despair, "Run! Run quickly!"

The Paladin from the Dragon race used the last of his strength to dive underneath the huge black dragon. He raised his hands high and a huge disc of golden light suddenly appeared in his hands. The disc flashed with the pattern of a gold colored, long-horned dragon head.

The black dragon light struck Amore Hughes’ disc of light. Amore Hughes’ body shook violently. Immediately, a raging golden flame burned him inside it. It was so dazzling that the sun looked dim in comparison.

He was like a raging golden fireball. He became so bright that people could not look directly at him.

The roar of that huge dragon vibrated and made everybody cover their ears. The sky also shook and the clouds in the sky had long since vanished. It was as if the sky had lost its color and the entire space was shaking endlessly. The figure of the Paladin in the sky was extremely small compared to the black light dragon. However, he ignited his fighting energy with all his vitality, using the dragon race’s ultimate defensive technique, ‘Dragon God Guardian’ to stop the attack of that huge black dragon.

Rody floated in the sky as he looked coldly at everything below him. He clasped his hands behind himself and coldly said, "Why are you doing this? Did you think you can stop this just by burning away your own vitality?"

Amore Hughes was already speechless. He was like a piece of burning firewood. In the golden burning flames, the black demon dragon roared. His disc of light was pushed down bit by bit. Despair flashed in his eyes as his body started to dissipate.

His body turned into powder starting from his feet and slowly disappeared as the wind blew...

After his entire body disappeared, there was nobody else that could stop the roar of the Mystic Dragon. After losing the last line of defense, the black light dragon brought the hellfire down ...

Several ships immediately broke into countless pieces. The waves immediately surged and vaporized. The countless pieces of debris disappeared completely in the hellfire. The surface of the sea within a five-kilometer radius had become a vacuum. In that circular vacuum, the sea water vaporized and everything else—such as the sea creatures, the stones, the corals, the debris of the ships, the Roland sorcerers, the soldiers and the sailors—all completely disappeared in the undying black flames!

The only thing that remained was the ship of the Radiant Empire. That ship was already shrouded by a mass of black light. The surrounding hell fire seemed to avoid it. The soldiers and the sailors of the Radiant Empire had distorted faces when they saw what happened around them. That had already gone beyond what they knew throughout their life. When they saw their powerful enemies destroyed instantly, they not only did not feel delighted, instead, they had a deep sense of fear.

The hellfire that could burn everything gradually disappeared. When the boundary of the vacuum disappeared, the surrounding seawater rushed in and refilled the empty space. The Empire’s ship was thrown about by the waves of water filling up the empty space. The ship shook so violently that everybody on the ship was afraid that the ship would be destroyed. But at that moment, a figure fell heavily onto the deck of the ship.

When Rody’s feet stepped onto the deck, all the shaking and vibration stopped. No matter how strong were the surrounding wind and waves crashing against the ship, the ship remained immovable, like a huge boulder amidst the waves.

After nearly an hour, the sea calmed down again. When the waves had subsided, they could see that the surrounding seawater was still blue, the sky was also still blue and the sun was still golden.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Looking at the broken hull of the ship and the demonic Excellency the Earl standing on the deck, all of them wondered if they were having a nightmare.

Rody stood there but no one dared to say a word or approach him. Finally, after some time, Rody suddenly stepped forward. The black light in his eyes flashed and disappeared. With a clatter, the scimitar in his hand dropped to the ground. Rody seemed to open his mouth to say something, but before he could say anything, he fell to the ground with a loud crash.

In the sea, when the ship lost its mast and its helm, it actually lost its ability to move. The ship just stopped there adrift in the ocean. The sailors and the soldiers looked at one another, not knowing what to do next.

The captain of the ship was already dead. The leader of the soldiers was also already killed by the Paladin and His Excellency the Earl was unconscious. There was nobody on board who could give orders or lead. The only person left, the first mate of the ship, also did not have any ideas. He simply told the sailors to check the ship’s condition and see if they could restore the ship’s mobility.

The sailors were stunned by the horrible scene earlier and none of them dared to go near Rody. On the other hand, the soldiers, the loyal elites of the Imperial Guards, helped to carry Rody into the cabin. When they entered the cabin, they found that the Roland envoy was actually not in a good condition.

It seemed that the Roland envoy was also a sorcerer and was affected by the sound wave that killed most of the Roland sorcerers earlier. Fortunately, the envoy did not die. However, the envoy had shrunk into a ball and seemed to be delirious.

The condition of His Excellency the Earl also made them helpless. They took off the Earl’s armor and wiped the blood off his body only to find that His Excellency obviously did not have any injury. However, he had fallen into a coma.

The soldiers were helpless and a higher ranked warrior ordered everyone to vigilantly guard the cabin.

His Excellency the Earl remained unconscious for two days and two nights. The first mate along with his sailors checked the ship and were despondent that the ship had completely lost its ability to move. In the absence of tools, the main mast could not be repaired at all. In addition, the helm that had been crushed into pieces also could not be repaired. The ship could only continue to float with the flow of the waves in the sea.

Fortunately, there was an abundance of food and water on the ship. However, without the ability to move, it drifted aimlessly in the sea, making everyone’s hearts feel heavier and heavier with every passing day.

Finally, on the third day, when the soldier guarding the cabin was trying to feed Rody, who was still in a coma, some water, the door of the cabin was pushed open.

The first mate rushed in with an excited expression. He could not conceal the excitement in his voice as he shouted, "Has His Excellency woken up?

Seeing the soldiers shake their heads, the first mate continued, "A fleet of ships has appeared in front of us. They have found us and we are now negotiating!" He paused for a moment and then added, "They are warships from the Sauron Kingdom! Their signalmen informed us that they were ordered to welcome the Empire’s envoy!"

The soldiers followed the first mate and rushed out of the cabin. They could see about seven or eight large warships in the distance. Flying high on the ships were the banners of the Sauron Kingdom.

Translator’s Notes:

1. 瞬移 Shu yi. Literally, warping or teleportation. As it is a martial skill, some may also recognize it as Instant Transmission. As the word is used, first as a ‘skill name’ and later as an action, I decided to stick to teleport.