The Book of Hibernation

Aldin lost consciousness for a short time, and then woke up quickly.He was lying on the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the swearer walking towards him.

At first he thought he must be screwed.He was dizzy and his vision blurred, and he couldn't stand up even if he wanted to run.Fortunately for him, despair did not come—the Vengeance Sworn walked past him as if he hadn't seen him at all.

Aldin immediately thought that the target of the Vengeance Sworn was not him, it must be looking for Winter Thistle and Kanai, it should be an order from March.

The order it received was to find a specific target instead of killing all the creatures it saw along the way, so it only killed the dead hunter and did not attack Aldin.As long as you don't take the initiative to hinder it, you are equivalent to stones and trees on the side of the road, and it will ignore you.

When Aldin struggled to remember, the Vengeance Sworn had already stood at the entrance of the cave.

The swearer wanted to jump into the hole, but was blocked by an invisible barrier.It turned into an incorporeal body to try, but it still didn't work.So it began to chop with a sword, dig with its hands, and tried to dig other passages from the side...all of which were useless.The force field barrier is actually a complete sphere, and only a small piece is exposed outside the hole.

Vengeancers are immune to most arcane spells, and force-type spells are one of the few spells that can hinder them.

Just now the entrance to the cave disappeared, and Aldin searched for a long time but couldn't find it. Now, not only the swearer found it, but even Aldin saw it at a glance.It is estimated that there were blindness spells outside the cave, but blindness spells cannot fool undead creatures, because they do not rely on eyes to find targets.So after that spell failed, Winter Thistle didn't make up for it, but replaced it with a force field spell.

Aldin remembered that Winter Thistle said that he was not very good at force field spells.I don't know how long his spell can last.

Aldin wondered, what should he do now?

It is impossible to defeat the Vengeance, even if his body is not sick, and the living can hardly do harm to it.It is estimated that the necromancer has a way to deal with it, but no one knows how.

Maybe the winter thistle in the burrow will do the trick.When he successfully separates Wu Yun and Kanai, the three casters can probably work together to figure out a way...

The idea of ​​"these three people joining forces" emerged, which made Aldin feel a subtle discomfort.He realizes that Dark Cloud probably needs to stay in a body, probably one of Winter Thistle or Kanai...

Could it be so?Ordinarily, Winter Thistle should have a better way... Aldin hurriedly got rid of these associations, and still had to focus on this moment.

The most important thing now is to prevent the Oathsworn from entering the cave.So far it can't get in, so there's no need to disturb it on purpose, just let it continue to chop the force field barrier; once the barrier shows signs of loosening or dissolving, immediately use other methods to hold the oath. hater.

Aldin supported the ground with his sword and stood up slowly.My head doesn't seem to be as dizzy as before, and my body's strength has returned a little. I don't know if it's a real recovery or a psychological effect.

He still couldn't figure out what the sudden dizziness was, but he could guess that it must have something to do with the Winter Thistle.

Aldin slowly approached the swearer, not getting too close, keeping a distance that could be advanced or retreated.

The Vengeancer ignored him at first, still focusing on the force field barrier, and gradually its slashing motion slowed down and finally stopped.

All the movements of the swearer stopped, even the ghostly fire in his eyes stopped shaking, and stopped at a certain moment.

Aldin didn't understand what happened, and continued to observe with bated breath.

After a while, the swearer resumed his movements.It didn't continue to attack the force field barrier, but trembled slightly, and then suddenly swung its sword left and right, launching an irregular attack.

The fire in its eyes gradually grew larger, from a small flame to a raging flame, and a vertical gap was cracked on the originally dark face, like a mouth that had grown in the wrong place, and the "mouth" was burning. With the same bloody fire as the eyes, the fire spread to the whole body in a short time along the small gaps on the body surface.

Then it roared into the sky, making the sound of howling wind.

At first, it just kept swinging its sword wildly, attacking everything within its reach, then it stopped for a moment, as if it saw Aldin—the living creature closest to it.

Aldin secretly cried out that it was not good.Sure enough, the swearers rushed towards him like a hurricane.

Aldin was mentally prepared, so he didn't panic.He blocked the charge with the blade of his sword, but his whole body was blown away by the powerful impact.

After falling, he got up immediately, but his movements were not as agile as before.It seems that some physical strength has indeed recovered, but it is far from returning to normal.

The Sworn Ones did not follow closely.Its action mode has undergone some changes. Now it neither focuses on the cave nor targets the living. It no longer focuses on the same target. Instead, it keeps destroying everything within reach while chasing the living. Including trees, rocks, and the dead hunter's body.

It's obvious something is wrong.In this case, Aldin had a chance to escape.He should use all the remaining physical strength to escape for his life.

But Aldin thought that if he left the area quickly, the Vengeancers might return to attack the burrow.

If he wants to distract the swearer, he has to pay attention to the distance from the swearer while running away. The distance between them can't be too close, it will be dangerous if they are too close, and they can't be too far away. Will definitely catch up.

It's too fucking hard... Aldin cursed under his breath.

He untied the whip from his waist.The whip's damage is low, but the sword is useless anyway, after all, the opponent is a swearer.What he needs is not lethality, but the attack range of the long whip.Bows and arrows are not good. If you stand too far away, you may not be able to attract the swearer, and if you stand too close, he may not have time to draw the bow.He needs to keep the distance while maintaining close combat, continue to harass the enemy, and gradually draw the swearers away.

The tactic was successful at first.The Vengeancers targeted Aldin and followed him farther and farther.

But it won't last long, Aldin will get tired, but the vengeance will not; Arden will be restricted by the terrain, and the vengeance can switch between solid and incorporeal, no matter how rough the ground or dense forest is, it will not affect him. It's agile.

To make matters worse, the last rays of the setting sun were about to disappear over the edge of the distant mountains.The fog has not dissipated, and the forest is as dark as night. After the sun has completely set, I am afraid that I will even lose sight of my fingers.

At this time, Aldin heard a more violent wind.The Vengeance Sworn has also been making a whistling sound like a gust of wind. That sound does not overlap with the sound of the wind heard now, and the two sounds come from different directions.

He could only hear voices, but he couldn't feel any wind blowing on his body.This is obviously not a real weather change.

Besides the Avengers, what howls sound like the wind?The only answer: another hater.

Things are obviously very bad.However, Aldin felt a little strange: there were indeed two March Vengeancers, but would she send both of them out to find Winter Thistle?Normally, she should leave one to protect herself.

The Vengeance slowed down, as if affected by something else as well.Taking advantage of this opportunity, Aldin found a big tree that was strong enough, wrapped his whip around the high branches, and swung up skillfully.In this way, he can get a little respite.

He took out the lighting stick, polished the top, and threw it in the direction of the whistling sound.

The cold light fell to the ground, illuminating a range of more than ten feet.In the white mist, there is a large piece of black that is opaque to the light. It walks close to the ground, looks like black smoke, and is rapidly approaching the swearers.

Feeling the hostility, the swearer also rushed towards the black smoke.When the two met, black smoke rose into the sky and surrounded the swearers, who also turned into incorporeal bodies.

Looking from a distance, they no longer have clear fighting movements, but blend into one, constantly tumbling and spinning, and small black wind eyes appear in the white mist.

Not only do they blend in shape, but their voices gradually merge into one, becoming the same wind.Originally, the blood-colored flames were burning on the body of the swearer, but now the flames spread out and turned into tiny lightning, crackling and flickering on the upper part of the eye of the storm.

After a while, the wind gradually calmed down.The eye's rotation slowed, and eventually it dispersed, falling back to the ground as black smoke.

The woods returned to calm.The black smoke is still there, but the swearers are gone.

There were rustling footsteps in the distance.As the footsteps approached, the black smoke condensed toward the center, forming a human-shaped object with unclear edges.

Its eyes were lit up with ghostly flames, exactly the same as the normal state of the swearer.

At first the black smoke blocked the light of the lighting stick, but now the black smoke got out of the way, and Aldin finally saw who was coming—Winter Thistle walked within the range of light, picked up the lighting stick from the ground, and held it in front of him.

Winter Thistle looked around.He held up the lighting stick, and Aldin could see him from a distance, but he couldn't see Aldin on the tree.

"Aldin, are you there?" Winter Thistle called a few times, "Are you around? Can you hear me?"

Aldin replied, "I'm coming."

Winter Thistle looked in his direction.

After making the sound, Aldin suddenly regretted: I was too negligent, I shouldn't make the sound now, at least I should observe more.

Judging from the situation seen just now, it seems that the black smoke swallowed the swearers of March, and the two merged into one.He didn't know what that meant.Such a strange thing happened before his eyes, and he didn't even know whether Dong Ji was an enemy or a friend at this time...

He was used to Dong Jiwen's weak and harmless appearance.It wasn't until this moment that he realized that this half-elf could also be a very dangerous person.

But the matter has come to this point, and it is useless to be on guard.Aldin jumped down from the tree and walked towards the light of the lighting stick.

Winter Thistle looked at the black smoke.Aldin walked to the side and asked him what it was.

Winter Thistle replied: "It's hard to explain in one or two sentences. You can understand it as another form of Vengeance. They have similarities, but they are not exactly the same."

After speaking, he put his hand into the black smoke.Tiny characters appeared where the skin came into contact with the smoke.After reading the characters, he shook his head and sighed.

"What?" Arden asked.

Winter Thistle said, "March . . . also Irene Tarr, she is dead."

"So the swearer is out of control?"

"Yes. When the master dies, if the swearers are not released, but in the master's body, then they will dissipate with the death of the master; if the swearers are going out to carry out orders, and the master dies suddenly, The vendettas go out of control, they go berserk, they attack anything they recognize, and they attack forever, without end."

"There are two swearers in March," Aldin reminded, "are they both here now?"

Winter Thistle shook her head: "The other one is not here."

But judging from the situation just now, it seems that two swearers of hatred have merged into one... If the other is not there, what is the black storm that suddenly appeared?

Aldin had doubts on his face, and Winter Thistle did not continue to explain for the time being.He kept his hand inside the black smoke, and wrote a string of arcane characters with his fingers.

The words were blood red when they were first formed, and then gradually melted into the black smoke.After everything melted away, the two ghostly flames on the "head" of the black smoke flickered violently, as if expressing something eagerly.

Winter Thistle looked at it and said, "Since it's something we've already discussed, I'm sure I won't go back on my word. Go, farewell."

After he finished speaking, the black smoke swirled again.It shrunk into a small point first, and then shot into the depths of the forest like a sharp arrow.

Now only Winterthistle and Ardine remained here.Aldin looked at Winter Thistle, seeing that he didn't seem to be injured, he felt a little relieved.

Aldin turned his eyes back to Winter Thistle's face, and found that Winter Thistle was also staring at him.

"What, amazed that I'm still alive?" Aldin asked.

Winter Thistle said, "No, I'm surprised you're still around. You could have run away when the Vengeancesworn first appeared, he's coming for me, and he won't come after you if you don't get in his way. "

"I know." Arden said.

He didn't explain why he didn't run.It's not because of his stubbornness, but because Dongji must understand the reason, so he doesn't need to say more.

Winter Thistle thought he would ask something next, and waited for him to ask, but Aldin didn't speak.

So Winter Thistle took the initiative to say: "I sent that thing away, and it will find another Oathsworn, and swallow it in the same way. It's actually not accurate to say 'swallow', it's between incorporeal undead creatures Coherent chimera... It's very troublesome to explain, so just understand it as swallowing it."

Aldin asked, "That thing...is it stronger than the Vengeance?"

Winter Thistle said: "No. Under normal circumstances, two Vengeances cannot attack each other, even if they come from different masters. They can't hurt each other, only the other master... so there is no way to compare Who is more powerful. But the out-of-control swearer is different. It is no longer a complete thing, but a residue after the accidental termination of a spell. We use incorporeal creatures of the same type, and we can treat them Homologous chimerism."

Aldin sighed; "Oh, I can understand that it's like the Peregrine Falcon Mercenary Group encountered a team of deserters, and there was no commander in the team, so we could easily recruit them into our hands."

"It's kind of similar." Dong Ji smiled at first, then seemed to think of something, and his expression became serious again, "If I guess correctly, another swearer should be protecting her by March. March must be It's near the Khiva River, there are a lot of people there, and it will be difficult for the swearers to lose control... I hope there is still time."

Aldin said: "The death of March means that the necromancer must have clashed with the temple knights."

Winter Thistle nodded and sighed.

If things go well, once someone discovers that there is no Kanai in the laboratory at all, the necromancer should evacuate, and the city-state will continue to defend the river bank.

If this is the case, there will be no casualties on both sides, and the situation should not be too bad.

But Winter Thistle has long understood that this is only "the most ideal situation", and the reality often has various variables.He couldn't take care of all parties, so he had to prioritize his biggest goal - completing the spell.

Thinking of this, Winter Thistle looked at Aldin with some doubts.He thought that Aldin was in a hurry and would quickly ask if the spell was successful, but Aldin just didn't ask.

They had already talked so much, Aldine didn't mention Kanai, not a single word.

At this time, Aldin was walking around, picking up some branches and forks.Winter Thistle asked what he was doing.Aldin pointed in the direction: "There is an open place over there. If you are not in a hurry to leave, let's go over there and light a fire to get warmer."

Winter Thistle really wants to say that it is not easy to get warm, just go back to the cave... The cave is already warmer than the outside, if it is not possible, there are constant temperature spells, which are more effective in small spaces such as indoors. Outdoor use is limited.

But he suddenly realized that Aldin didn't forget the burrow, but he didn't want to take the initiative to go back.When you go back, you may see Kanai directly.

If Winter Thistle took the initiative to talk about these things, Aldin would definitely want to hear them.His desire to light a fire meant that he wanted to sit down and talk.But he didn't ask, apparently because he didn't want to hear bad news, so he was making weak and unnecessary evasions.

Winter Thistle sighed, looked at Aldin's back, and followed with a wry smile.