The cold, pale moon, which has not changed since hundreds of years ago, cast its light through the gaps in the dark clouds from the deep black sky and passed through the evergreen branches and leaves of the Aika black pine deep in the Protasia forest. The cold moonlight shining on the ground is different from the warmth of the sun, which only makes people feel cold. In the courtyard, which has not been visited by anyone for two hundred years, the soil that has been covered with humus and turned dark is growing some yellow weeds due to the fall of autumn. It swayed gently in the night wind.
The nameless reptile fled in all directions due to the sudden movement. Where it flashed, a big leather-booted foot clearly visible in the moonlight stepped heavily on it.
"Crack——"
The two women were stunned by this unprecedented scene.
The only word in the world that is suitable to describe this scene, no matter how hard I think about it, I can only come up with a word that absolutely no one would use to describe battle under normal circumstances.
--dance.
It flows smoothly without any foreshadowing, confrontation, or scrutiny.
He just pulled out his big sword, then rushed forward with a lunge, and the battle started at that moment.
Every movement seemed to have been meticulously rehearsed, and there was nothing superfluous. Every blow, every step, every breath, every turn was so perfect, as if--
He has done this not hundreds of times, but tens of millions of times.
"Qiang——" The blade of the big sword shone charmingly under the cold moonlight. Henry's starting position remained the same as a classic upward move. Mira looked at him blankly. She remembered it. The sage also killed her with a single blow when he rescued her two weeks ago.
"Crack--" He perfectly split open the rat dragon that jumped up from the ground, and before its blood could spurt out, Henry turned around and converted the kinetic energy of the upward sword, and with one hand Grasping the place near the gauntlet, he put the palm of his other hand against the weighted ball and rotated the whole body. At the same time, he swung the sword in a circle and slashed it down hard.
"Ka-puff-" The heavy blow shattered the Tianling Cap and even part of the spine of the other rat dragon. It was completely dead before it even had time to scream. Henry stepped out with his left foot and held the sword with one hand. The whole sword stood up and "squeaked"
The rat dragon that jumped up and pounced on him impaled its entire body on the front half of the sword. Henry's judgment and actions were so precise that when he attacked, you looked like one of those rats. The dragon took the initiative to bump into the sword blade - the half-dead rat was twisting and struggling, but the sage flipped his wrist, raised it slightly upwards, and then threw it down heavily on the sharp sword edge, easily cutting open the rat dragon. At the same time, he threw it and the blood all the way away - but it wasn't over yet. He just finished throwing the sword and without looking at it, he turned his hand behind his back and stabbed the sword hilt with the tip towards his back.
"Squeak! - Puff!" The scene just now happened again, and the sword blade easily hit the rat dragon in Henry's visual blind spot as if it was cast with magic that caused the enemy to hit him.
"Cuck, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak." After wiping the blade clean, he put it back directly behind his back.
"You...you...you, you you you..." The blond girl pointed at Henry with her white and slender fingers very rudely, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, didn't say anything for a long time, and the sage looked at her. Take a glance, and then start to look at the surrounding environment from left to right.
Thanks to the two bright moons that can be seen at this time of night in the Torigal continent, the courtyard is very bright.
It is not big, about 20 meters square. You can vaguely see towering city walls wrapped in trees and vines all around, and a large part of it has been damaged due to plant growth and exposure to sun and rain. Henry thought, based on the basic structure of a Baroque castle, combined with the design of the long buffer passage in front and the location of the general armory, he could probably deduce that this was a "ramp".
——Although this title sounds like it describes an ordinary passage, it is not simple.
Originating from the Padrosi Empire established by the descendants of the Lamanites, this design that began to emerge hundreds of years ago has a name that is harmless to humans and animals, but it is an out-and-out murderous design.
The design of this castle built two centuries ago is not as mature as it is now, but it is already in its early stages. A typical Baroque castle will have such a ramp in the middle. It is composed of several sections, and the ramp leads towards the core of the castle without any forks - this will be an excellent route for the invaders who have broken through the front line of defense and entered this side. However, as mentioned before, it is a killing trap.
The walls along the way have quite thick surfaces, and the reason why they are designed in the open without a roof is to facilitate the archers standing on the walls to attack from a high position when the enemy invades.
As long as you enter this death slope, you have no choice but to move forward desperately under the rain of arrows coming from the sky.
Henry looked around and found that this rectangular passage was obviously their only road at the moment.
Maybe climbing up the wall would be a shortcut to meet up with Bernie and the others, but after two centuries, it would be fine if it was in a dry area, in a place with rich vegetation like the Protasia Forest - Henry's eyes He stopped at the scattered roots and branches of the tree on top of the huge limestone used to build the castle. Just think about it, he didn't want the whole wall to collapse on him when he stepped down.
\
The only option left was to cross the passage filled with weeds, shrubs and tree roots, turn around and tell the people behind him this judgment, and Henry took the lead and walked forward.
The weeds that almost reach the height of the sage's waist are naturally more terrifying to others, especially the young Mira. The petite white-haired loli is almost the same height as the weeds and therefore cannot see the road ahead clearly. It didn't make her look even more uneasy at all.
Henry saw the other party's reaction, but he just smiled lowly and did not take any action.
When they first met, the girl showed calmness and maturity beyond her years, but when she encountered horrors beyond her understanding and imagination, she still looked nervous like a loli should.
This made Henry look very happy, and after the petite white-haired loli noticed the sage's emotion, she naturally wrinkled her cute little eyebrows again and said those words with a pout. .
"Mr. Sage is the worst kind of adult."
The girl said this, and the key words in her mouth made the eyes of the blond girl next to her light up. The lively young lady looked at Henry's back with bright eyes, but did not say anything.
The group of people continued to move forward, and Henry's tall figure walking at the front gave those following him a sense of substantial security, especially after experiencing the almost leisurely battle in the front, even if they had prejudices against him The woman also quietly closed her mouth and followed behind.
The long passage was covered with all kinds of weeds. If there wasn't a door between each passage and the dilapidated city wall that could occasionally be glimpsed under the vegetation, everyone would almost feel like they were walking in a forest. .
The tall trees that broke through the city wall and extended from the forest outside wrapped the outside. The lighter shrub seeds may have been carried to the open space due to the proliferation of birds, and grew piecemeal in the open space, and more There are countless weeds and vines scattered everywhere.
Under the cold moonlight, this ancient castle in the uninhabited forest seems like some legendary dark creatures will pop up at any time. People can't help but look around nervously, for fear of accidentally paying attention to what's behind them. There was a dark creature standing on the high wall.
But the moonlight was bright, and in the end, except for a huge centipede that was trampled to death by Henry, the group did not encounter any more dangerous creatures.
There was indeed some movement in the grass, but they were all small. The wild animals with a keen sense of smell smelled the strong smell of blood on Henry's sword, which was still strong even after it was wiped off, and they wisely avoided this behemoth. .
Rat dragons should be regarded as the top predators in this area. With the high walls of the castle as a support, these hybrid dragons that are thrown into the forest and cannot even be defeated by wolves can become the overlords of one party.
The passage is full of traces of rat dragons. Under the moonlight, the grass in some parts of the passage has been worn away due to year-round activity. It is precisely in these places that some large insects - including the large centipede just now. ——The leftover shells were piled densely there.
In addition to these, there were also some nut shells and the bones of birds and small mammals left there. Henry stopped and searched carefully among the incomprehensible eyes of others.
There he saw a small skeleton that was quite similar to the rat dragon itself, which verified a theory known to the sage in the academic world that had never been proven - that is, the rat dragon, like rats, can eat its own kind.
"It's so cruel." The white-haired Luo An Loli obviously thought of something like this when she looked at the skeleton. She sighed, and the blond girl behind her nodded in sympathy.
The group of people moved forward without stopping any longer. These discoveries on this past defensive path confirmed the diet structure of the rat dragons living here. Apparently, this castle formed a complete food chain within the forest supported by barriers. Based on the quantity, location, and even freshness of the food remains, Henry could roughly estimate that there would be no more than a hundred rat dragons living here.
The basic basis for making this judgment is the bones of those small rat dragons. Cannibalism generally only occurs in two situations, one is fighting for territory, and the other is real hunger.
But the former only exists between two adult rat dragons, so it can only be caused by hunger.
Another side support for this point of view is the fact that Henry and the others met those young rat dragons when they first came in - the reason why they drove out the young rat dragons that had grown into rats to live outside the relatively dangerous castle was obviously due to lack of food. Such a reason.
The hungry young rat dragons were working hard outside, and a large part of them were killed by the advanced predators inside the forest. The remaining ones who survived through all kinds of hardships obviously had the strength to come back and compete with their parents for territory.
By repeating this process, the rat dragon population can not only ensure a healthy continuation, only strong individuals will survive, but also always maintain a certain number and there will be no large-scale famine.
——But that might be the end of it.
Because a certain sage who was dressed in black and maybe even a little bit black in his heart came to this place - this characteristic of the rat dragon combined with some facts gave Henry an idea. It was quite stressful for the whole team to deal with a hundred or so rat dragons. The first thing they faced was the lack of proper weapons and armor. In addition, this place was their home base and Henry and the others were outsiders.
The combination of these factors means that they do not have the heart or the strength to deal with the entire nest of rat dragons in exchange for a night of peace in the castle - but fortunately, if Henry's idea comes true, they don't have to do this.
The sage turned his head and took a deep look at the dark wooden door behind him. A pair of eyes with a hint of fear had been following them far away from a long time ago. At this moment, they just met Henry's eyes. It immediately disappeared into the darkness again.
"Hmph..." The sight of the black-haired sage smiling at the darkness behind him looked like a mental illness in the eyes of the three people next to him, but they couldn't stop swaying when they turned around. Some clues can be seen among the weeds.
"..." Henry looked away and immediately saw a pair of disdainful blue eyes shining in the moonlight below. He stretched out his hand - and halfway through, he changed his other hand and touched Mira's head. , and then half talking to himself and half to the people behind him.
"The next thing is to meet up." Henry said this. The passage has reached the end, and ahead is a dark castle soldier dormitory. He raised the torch again, but at this time, a noisy shout of death came from the left side accompanied by the scream of the rat dragon.
"We have to hurry." Henry nodded to the people behind him, then rushed forward and kicked the wooden door downstairs of the soldiers' dormitory down to the door frame.
…
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R: This book has been signed with Qidian. However, due to the Spring Festival express holiday, the contract has not yet been sent out, so the status has not changed. In short, what I want to say is, readers who are still hesitating because they are worried that I will suddenly become a eunuch, please feel free to follow it. I will collect and recommend it, so please download it without mercy.
