Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 102 Lost

Storm Hill.

The relentless winds here howl day after day, sharpening the jagged rocks and pressing the withered grass lower. The terrain is complex, crisscrossed with ravines, and wild beasts lurk in the shadows, making it a place rarely visited by humans.

But occasionally, one or two travelers, merchants, or nobles fleeing from disaster would pass through this area.

The people of Nymgford under Grek's rule were already living in misery, and the Storm Hills region was a vortex of chaos. Many residents were driven mad by the shattered magic ring and the loss of runes, while the nobles with any sense and foresight had already fled from Stoneville's shadow like frightened birds.

What a joke! Today Grik takes on the Faded Ones, tomorrow he takes on the Dragons, and he even dares to drag nobles into his twisted "workshop." Who knows if the next "pupa" hanging on a spider's limb will be himself?

However, the fleeing nobles ultimately underestimated the dangers of the border region itself.

For example, the person in front of me.

He lay silently on the dusty ground, his once magnificent cloak, embroidered with gold thread and symbolizing his status, now soaked in dark red blood. The gruesome wounds on his back and abdomen spoke of the immense pain he endured in his final moments.

Not far away, a simple animal-drawn cart was leaning against the side of the road. The horses that pulled the cart were nowhere to be seen, and the goods on the cart were scattered all over the ground.

Two figures were rummaging through the mess.

They were tall and robust, clad in crude armor roughly sewn from thick snow wolf pelts, which protected them from the biting wind and exuded a wild and fierce aura. Sharp, heavy sabers, as sharp as guillotines, hung casually at their waists, their hilts gleaming. They were the Kaidan mercenaries—a nomadic horse-riding people from the harsh, snowy mountains, whose members were almost all renowned warriors. Their names had been legendary on many battlefields, making Kaidan synonymous with the land of mercenaries.

However, in this era of decline and decay, the feudal lords have ceased their campaigns and are merely clinging to life, leaving the Kaidan mercenaries with no battles to fight. Far from home and without any guarantee of survival, they have taken up their sabers and transformed into a fearsome force that strikes terror into the hearts of travelers—bandits.

With their superior martial arts skills and sharp weapons, plundering was a simpler way of survival for them than war. For example, the still-warm corpse of a nobleman at their feet was their newly acquired "prey."

But today, the favor of the storm god does not seem to have come.

Da da da.

The crisp sound of horses' hooves pierced through the howling wind and came from the path hidden in the dense forest.

A figure slowly appeared.

He was covered in silver-gray, sword-scarred plate armor that gleamed metallically in the dim light, with two exaggerated greatswords behind him. A tall, spirited horse with unusual features and two horns carried him, its steady steps traversing the rugged ground.

The knight's face was obscured by his visor, with only his golden eyes gleaming in the shadows as he calmly surveyed the scene before him.

He pulled on the reins, and the spirited horse stopped and snorted.

The knight's gaze lingered briefly on the two Kadan mercenaries, and beneath his visor, his brow twitched slightly.

He didn't rebuke, nor did he show any obvious hostility. He simply watched quietly. His posture conveyed a kind of indifference born of someone accustomed to life and death.

However, the Kaidan mercenary on guard duty clearly had no intention of letting any witnesses slip by.

His eyes flashed with a fierce light, but he didn't utter any warning shouts, which were unnecessary in the border area, or perhaps because he lacked the rationality to conduct a complete and coherent conversation.

The mercenary stomped his feet on the ground, standing upright like a giant bear, and unleashed the signature combat technique of the Kaidan warriors—

"Roar!"

With a roar that exploded, the mercenary's strength surged, and he raised his heavy saber high, its blade tracing a deadly arc in the gloomy sky, carrying the brute force to split mountains and shatter rocks as it slashed down at the knight on horseback.

The silver-armored knight seemed to completely disregard his opponent. He snapped his fingers lightly, and his spirit horse vanished instantly. He raised one hand behind his back and gripped the hilt of his sword—he didn't even bother to draw his other sword. Clang!
A piercing metallic clang echoed through the empty forest!

The mercenary Kaidan, who was on guard duty, struck with the force of a tiger, as if he had crashed into an unmoving cliff.

The silver-armored knight didn't even make a big move. He simply gripped the hilt of his sword, holding the blade horizontally in front of him, which firmly blocked the heavy saber, preventing it from advancing an inch.

The mercenary's ferocious face was filled with disbelief and astonishment, and the knight's golden pupils were reflected in his bloodshot eyes.

The knight's whisper drifted over, tinged with a playful mockery:

"interesting."

The knight gripped his greatsword with his right hand and suddenly deflected the saber. At the same time, he swung it with superhuman speed, and visible gray-white energy swirled around the ancient, heavy blade!
Combat Skill: Storm Blade!
The enormous head flew off the torso, tumbling through the air in a crimson arc. Its wide, fierce, and bewildered eyes hadn't even completely lost their luster.

His companion, standing nearby, hadn't even reacted before the knight's molten gold eyes turned to him.

Fear instantly overwhelmed every nerve in his body, and the bravery of the Kaidan people was completely crushed and dissipated at this moment.

His muscular body instinctively staggered back half a step, veins bulging in his arms, his Adam's apple bobbing, his mouth opening as if to speak:
"Rao"

puff!

Boom!
His head lay on the ground, stained with dust and blood, staring blankly at the sky.

"interesting."

Lu Mingfei flicked the blood off his sword, then casually wiped it on the fur armor of the Kaidan mercenary.

"These two guys don't seem so crazy; they can even talk."

He thought about the enemies he had encountered before: either madmen who wielded swords and only howled, or silent knights who only cared about cutting people down.

"Melina."

He called out softly.

In the void, like fireflies gathering, the hooded riddle-maker... no, the guiding girl, silently appeared beside Lu Mingfei.

The girl's expression remained calm as always, her gaze fixed on Lu Mingfei, as if to say, "What do you want?"

"Look at this!"

Lu Mingfei tapped the tip of his greatsword, which was clearly not clean and was still dripping blood, on the two mercenary corpses on the ground:
"Why can these two bandits still talk? I've never encountered anything like this before."

Melina's gaze swept over the two corpses:
"Because they contain more runes in their bodies."

"Rundor?"

Lu Mingfei tilted his head, and a confused voice came from under his mask.

“Runes are fragments of the law, sources of power,” Melina explained calmly. “Their dissipation leads to madness. But if runes can be held or bound more stably, they can partially resist this erosion.”

(End of this chapter)