The Amber Sword

Brendel just finished his sentence when he saw the knight did not run towards him, but to the outside. He was stunned, Just what is happening? He looked back and felt the entire place tremble once more, like a beast stomping from the top. The ceiling creaked, and signs or collapse began to appear.

“Not good!” Lonin’s complexion changed, and by the time he could react to the voice, Brendel had already moved to the stairs.  It was unknown when this manor was constructed, but it had the architecture style of Anson the Eleventh. All of the designs were vibrating vigorously, and the priceless art pieces on the walls began to fall one by one.

Brendel did not even have the time to protect these art pieces when he saw a blinding light from the stairs leading upwards. A golden flame engulfed the pieces of art, turning it to ash. The temperature of the corridor began to rise, and a stream of flames came gushing down like a waterfall straight onto the corridor. A few knights who did not make it out of the seas of flame could only cry out, wailing in the lonely nights.

In a second, the whole corridor leading to Lonin’s room turned golden red, the flame had reddened Brendel’s face. However, the flame did not burn through him and only circled around him.

“Magic flames!”

Brendel immediately recognized the nature of the flame, but there was only one thing that could create a magical flame of this scale. He nervously gripped his sword and squinted his eyes.

Then came a loud crash. And from the flames arose a rampaging monster. It had a head the size of a bullfrog, and on it were horns. The blood flowing underneath the skin was fresh red, and its muscles tightened to support its body. The hind legs it had seemed to be filled with some sort of froglike explosive strength.

But the most significant feature of the monster was the burning flames on it back and limbs, its two eyes that sprouted fire, and the seemingly never-ending smoke that leaked out of its mouth.

It was an Abyss Lord. Originating from the Sulfur River in the Burning Hells, it was a monster that was a lot stronger than the lowly devils summoned by the Black Fire cultist. It had a high level of intelligence, and had the strength of a peak Gold ranker.

How did this thing appear in the capital of the Holy Cathedral’s jurisdiction? Brendel thought curiously. But then, the monster noticed him and croaked in deafening voice. Then it slashed its blazing claws at Brendel.

Its claws were the size of a table. Brendel hurriedly dodged, and the palm came smacking down on the floor. A ring of fire began to grow out of its claws, and a charring smell from the wood being burnt could be smelt. The Abyss Lord’s attack did not connect.

But it did not stop there.

It lunged at Brendel. It was almost four times the size of Brendel, and it squeezed through the corridor space. Wherever its body touched, the part of the wall would be swallowed in flames, like it integrated into the monster’s self.

Behind Brendel was Lonin’s room. If he stepped back, he could not guarantee their lives. Under those circumstances, he raised Halran Gaia and stepped forward and slashed at the monster.

In terms of pure strength, Brendel was indeed inferior to the Abyss Lord. But he was empowered by the Crystal, so there should be no problem for him to defeat the monster.

The front of the Abyss Lord was soft, and with its high intelligence, it immediately raised its claws to clip Brendel’s sword.

It was moving so fast that Brendel could not even react. Its claws were like metal, and as Brendel tried to pull his sword out of the monster’s grasp, screechings and sparks appeared.

Brendel’s arms fell numb when his attack was parried. Its strength surpassed me by about 100 points. Thankfully I do have 200 points myself that its force did not blow my sword away.

Brendel sucked in a breath. The scorching environment began to burn his lungs. Even when it was not exactly burning or was on flames, Brendel still could not help but hold his breath.

But it can be said that the monster was the most troublesome enemy he fought after facing off Andersha. Devard may be stronger than this monster, but in reality, if Devard had come off on Brendel at full strength from the beginning, Brendel was not sure about his victory chances.

However, the monster from Sulfur River was not someone who would follow the knight’s code, so they would only fight in a rampaging manner. In this state, they would be able to pull out 200 percent of their normal power.

At this point, Brendel could feel his eyebrows begin to burn. At that thought, he let go of his sword and grabbed for the monster’s claws, and with his other arm, he struck out, “Berserk of the Fool! Screw off, bastard!”

He roared and used all of his strength, and his right fist seemed to penetrate a layer of space and connected with the monster’s chest. A fissure began to spread out of the monster’s chest, and the monster raised its head to reveal a horrifying look before flying away.

“Ah!” Raban, Ferlarn, and Morpheus who never seen Brendel using the Berserk skill yelped in surprise. And even Lonin was shocked. He obviously knew what the monster was. He had thought that he would not be able to overcome the adversity this time around. But then, unexpectedly, the monster was smashed to smitten by this youth that was just around peak Gold rank.

Just who is the monster now?

But Brendel did not come out unscathed. He wiped the blood off his lips. It was no doubt the monster with the highest Defense amongst all of the monsters. The damage inflicted by the Abyss Lord, plus the rebound damage by his own punch immediately pushed his HP down by 300 points into the yellow region. But it was still more than half, and that was only thanks to his berserk skill that increased his vitality.

“My Lord, your arm,” Morpheus covered his mouth. The part of Brendel’s arm that connected onto the Abyss Lord was now on fire, and Brendel looked like he was wearing a gauntlet of fire. If it was a normal person who hit the monster, there was no doubt it would have immediately vaporized. But Brendel had high magical resistance, so the flames on his arm only felt slightly hot. He just waved his arm, and the flames wisped away like a candle flame.

Lonin now looked at Brendel with revere. He was truly a monster. I was just waiting for a chance to get him distracted and flee this place with Count Yanbao. But it seems like it would be impossible to escape from this man>

He looked at the other end of the corridor. And he saw the monster embedded in the wall itself, and its flame had weakened a lot.

A moment later, smoke rose from its body, and it charred black to become a dead corpse.

It actually died with just a punch!

But Brendel did not find that odd. His one punch had the power of an Activated Elemental Awakener, plus it struck onto the Abyss Lord’s weakness. After all, it was really common to one shot a monster that was not some particular Boss like the Abyss Lord. And it was being too careless. It thought that it had the upper hand in a close combat fight with Brendel, and Brendel had taken advantage of that mistake.

Brendel stared at the body, now a pile of ash, and sighed at Ferlarn, “Monsters are usually hard to be killed outside the Sulfur River. Upon death, they will return to the Burning Hells. However, they might leave behind some spoils. Ferlarn, go and check if it had left anything.”

“Why is it me again?” Ferlarn voiced out, displeased.

“It’s because you’re green.”

Ferlarn just looked at him, confused at his sentence.

But Brendel was not focusing on her and looked back at Lonin. After the explosion, he became worried. Plus looking at the knights panicking outside, the people in the manor must have known what is going on. But Brendel still could not believe that someone would summon the devil in the middle of the day in a place protected by the Holy Cathedral. He looked at Lonin, and asked with a serious tone, “I believe there isn’t a tunnel to the Burning Hells here, would there? I believe you do know something, do you?”

But unexpectedly, Lonin was shaking his head adamantly. It was then he heard a pair of soft footsteps heading towards Brendel. Looking back, he realized that it originated from the stairs coming down.

“I’m sorry, sir. It was me who summoned the Devil…” A weak voice spoke out.