I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 462 Water Horse Knight

Richard stopped twenty meters away.

The horse turned to look at him, its eyes gentle.

It moved two steps this way, then stopped, positioning itself at a particularly easy angle, and lowered its head to wait.

The road is long, the wind is strong, and it's dark. If there's a horse standing there, it means you can borrow a ride.

Richard spread out the still water and sensed something ominous.

【博闻】To find the files.

each-uisge, water horse.

Once someone is on the horse's back, they can't get off; the skin sticks to the horse's back, and the more they struggle, the more firmly it sticks.

It drags people into the water and eats them clean, leaving only the liver floating back to shore.

Richard looked up and glanced at the road that seemed to hang over the sea.

The group is still moving. When they reach this part, the path will drop down and plunge into the bottom of the island.

The horse was standing on the side of the road where it landed.

Ma was not specifically waiting for Richard.

It's waiting for those who have fallen behind in the group.

Richard sighed inwardly; those were the people he was to deliver tonight.

"We can't go around it."

He turned around and reached out to the shadow.

Give me the staff of serpents.

The shadow covered Hermes' mask onto his face.

Two golden snakes twisted and stretched in the palm of his hand, biting together to form a staff.

Once the cane is firmly planted, the horse stops pretending.

It raised its head, and the docility in its eyes vanished completely. When its mouth parted, Richard saw a row of sharp teeth inside.

The water horse pounced forward on its hind legs, its four hooves landing on the mudflats without making a sound.

Richard stood still, for the messenger was not to be trifled with.

When it was seven paces away from him, the horse stopped itself, and the mud tumbled up.

It walked half a circle around Richard, very reluctantly, its breath hitting his face.

This horse knows how to set ambushes, so it's certainly not some ignorant, low-level evil creature.

It clearly recognized the staff.

"I was just passing by," Richard said.

Those dark, watery eyes stared at him, then looked away.

It turned its head and went toward the shadow, which had no staff in its hand.

Richard had been waiting for this moment. He flipped his right hand, and the cane dissipated into a wisp of smoke.

"Change players." The shadow had already moved, sliding to the side first.

Bearing the name "Black Dog," it started half a beat faster than the Water Horse's pounce.

The horse's mouth moved past where it had been standing, but it bit through empty air.

The double serpent staff landed in two dark hands, and the water horse froze completely.

Its momentum for another attack has already been unleashed, and now it must be forcibly reversed.

This caused his neck to twist at an inappropriate angle, his two front legs to kick wildly in mid-air, and his whole body to fall to the left.

Its neck was exposed on the side it fell to.

Richard was the one without the staff at this point. The one without the staff is not protected, but can still take action.

He drew out the longest Soul-Devouring Beast Tooth Needle.

The condensation method allows information from the entire mudflat to flow into the water. The ether travels faster in the section below the neck of the water horse than elsewhere, and all the ether passes through there.

Needle through!

The needle struck silently, hitting that weak spot! The water horse let out a scream and rolled on the ground to brush the moon nail off.

This horse is indeed very clever; when it sensed something was wrong, it sank into the surrounding waterline.

The moment it sank in, the ether of the entire mudflat was stirred up.

As the waves surged back, Richard's footing turned into slurry floating on the black mud.

The water horse has no intention of biting anyone anymore; it wants to turn this entire mudflat into water.

Richard acted faster than he thought, raising his hand to deliver a powerful "Silence."

Under its control, the shadow simultaneously emitted a vacuum.

The combined force caused the vacuum to fall on the spot where the water horse sank.

The wave that was pushing back stopped in mid-air, and Richard was swept away by the scattered water, his coat hem completely soaked.

He counted, but the silence wouldn't last long, two or three seconds at most.

Click, the pocket watch containing the light storage device popped open in his palm.

The device made of the Shadow Eater's scales was only as bright as a gas lamp, but that was enough. The horse's shadow was also illuminated.

The water horse surged out of the water and rushed straight towards Richard, recognizing whose hand had lit the lamp.

Richard couldn't dodge this charge.

The ground beneath his feet had turned into a quagmire, offering no leverage; the staff was in the shadow's hand, offering no protection.

He pushed the ether up to his ankles, [and swiftly crossed].

Without taking a step, the place where people stand is empty.

The amplification from behind the curtain pushed the 20-meter landing point to over 30 meters away.

He landed on the left rear of the horse, still breathless when he came to a stop.

[Swift Crossing - 2/3 Remaining for Today]

The water barrier was emptied.

It rushed forward for more than ten steps before stopping, and when it turned around, Richard had already finished charging up.

[Shadow Armor]. This time, he didn't hold back, scooping up a large amount of his [Spirit Appearance] and pressing it all onto the newly erected shadow.

[Lingfu 20/20→ 14/20]

The water horse's four legs sank down simultaneously.

Crack! The layer of frozen mud underneath, which hadn't fully thawed, crumbled.

Its entire front half sank in, and the mud rolled upwards, trapping it.

Sinking into the mud, with twice his own weight pressing down on his back, Li realized the time was almost ripe.

The shadow lifted the tip of the antler wrapped with the reins, and the entire etheric field of the mudflats changed accordingly.

Richard shouted coldly, "Stop right there!"

The water horse was stuck in the mud, its back weighed twice its own weight, and it stared straight at the truncated horn.

It has started to shake.

Richard stood still, his mind calculating.

That Shadow Armor and Silence attack just now cost me a lot of Ether to make it look good. [Swift Crossing] has two uses left, and the waterline to the east is still rising.

My time is running out.

Killing this horse will only get him a little bit of evil material, and he'll have to spend time collecting it.

Then you have to wade through the mud that's about to flood you for half a mile. When you get to the water's edge, you'll not only be in a bad state, but you also don't know if there are any other evil spirits along the way.

Give me the horn.

The shadow handed over the cut corner.

Richard lowered his head and began to untie the reins from the tip of the antler.

The rope was so thin it was only as thick as a strand of hair, wrapped around the base of the corner, but it grew larger as it was untied.

Once it was completely untied, he now had a proper rein in his hand.

The moment it was undone, frozen soil, horse sweat, and the smell of grass trampled by tens of thousands of hooves surged up from the mudflats.

The water horse stopped struggling completely, its four legs stuck in the mud not daring to move at all.

It recognized the taste. "I am the hunter's messenger."

Richard wrapped the reins around his hand once.

"These antlers and reins were taken from its mount."

The water horse's two front hooves sank back down into the mud.

"I can report you," Richard said.

"The names you give out will be hunted down by the hunters."

The water horse opened its mouth wide, as if to say, "What have I done to deserve being hunted by such an expert?"

This is obviously just something to bluff people.

If Richard were to waste this precious opportunity tonight on a water horse, he would be so ashamed that he would commit suicide when he got back.

But it didn't matter. All Water Horse knew was that the living person in front of him did indeed have the aura of the Wild Hunt, and the moment he gave his name, Ether really responded.

"But I don't want to report it tonight."

Richard lowered the reins. "I need to cross this mudflat."

"Give me a ride to the island."

"When I reach the end of the rope, I will untie it, and I will not reveal my name."

"Consider this trip a business deal between us."

On the mudflats, the head bowed.

It went down to that particularly easy angle, just like the pose it struck when it first met Richard.

Richard sneered inwardly.

It agreed too quickly.

Right now, all he's thinking about is that once he sits on it, the skin will stick to him, and once it's stuck, that's his for the rest of the journey.

"So there's still one thing missing."

He raised his hand.

[The recorder's pen]. The name must be analyzed before it is written down; the analysis has already been completed.

The first name he recommended was—[Mount].

The name flipped in mid-air and bounced back, making his wrist go numb.

[Internal Awakening] quickly brought the reason to light.

A mount must have an owner. He is not the owner of the water horse, not tonight, and never will be.

The reins he was holding were borrowed, and he was using someone else's name.

Moreover, Richard himself didn't think much of this water horse.

Calling it a mount is a fabrication, and fabrications will backfire.

"……OK."

Richard lowered his hand and changed direction.

He named this journey.

He reached into his inner pocket with his right hand and pulled out the fifth runestone from the half-set. 【raidho】—to travel, to ride, to travel by wheel.

There's no need for him to make it up; the road is definitely real.

Runestones are carriers of true names; once they land on a runestone, there's no need to push it.

"raidho".

The stone shard flashed in his palm.

[Lingfu 14/20→ 13/20]

When the name was given to the water horse, it trembled.

It changed after it was shaken.

The sticky, dangerous feeling on my back disappeared;

Those fierce, dark eyes became lazy, and the row of sharp teeth in his mouth retracted.

Its four legs, on the contrary, became strong, so strong that it was immediately pulled out of the mud.

The fehu in Richard's pocket trembled very slightly at that moment. It was a symbol of livestock and wealth.

He tucked the stone further inside and didn't look at it.

As Richard walked over, the shadow's faceless head tilted towards him.

Richard took out a small piece of low-concentration condensate and threw it over.

"Keep running, don't come up."

Without stirrups, you can only grip the horse's belly with your feet.

He placed his left hand on the hunter's reins and tightened his right hand around the bag on his back.

"Walk!"

The journey was much faster than he had expected.

The route was so winding and illogical that it bypassed three potholes and a large patch of freshly turned-up black mud.

Richard used his "Flying Shoes" to levitate himself and used the Mirroring Technique to observe the entire journey.

Wherever the water barriers bypassed, something was moving beneath the mud. It knew this area better than anyone else.

Halfway through the race, it started to veer to the left.

It's very slightly off-center; the left side is deep water.

Richard pulled the reins to the right.

"raidho!"

It came back.

It ran about two hundred more steps and then tried a second time.

This time it lowered its head and began to step down with its four legs.

The water churned up as it was being stepped on, threatening to engulf the person floating on its back.

If Richard were to be splashed by the water, the moment his feet touched his back, he would be hit with the whole set of water.

"No!"

He didn't draw his gun, nor did he reach for the needle case. He spat it out in silence.

This one bite is relatively mild, but it's enough.

The water horse's four legs slipped on the paddle, sliding half a meter before it regained its footing.

The water horse lowered its head again.

It ran perfectly along the rest of the way, never veering off course again.

The shadow followed on the left.

Bearing the name "Black Dog," that black patch is even more stable than this water horse.

Richard floated on his back and glanced back.

From afar, you can see that the entire mudflat has sunk into the water; there isn't even a trace left where the fight just took place.

Upon reaching their destination, Richard dismounted.

"I also want a few strands of your mane."

The water horse suddenly raised its head. "Don't rush."

Richard spread his hands.

"I didn't kill you tonight, nor did I report your name. It's not unreasonable for me to take something from you."

Shui Ma stared at him for a long time.

Then it lowered its head and rubbed it against its neck a couple of times.

A few strands of wet mane surfaced.

Richard picked it up and found his fingertips sticky, making it difficult to separate his two fingers. He had to use his other hand to pry them apart three times before he could.

"……nice one."

He coiled up the mane and put it into the frost branch box.

"Then I'll give you something in return."

"If you've ever eaten a human, there should be some things in your stomach that you can't swallow."

He took out a silver needle and inserted it directly. It was naturally the [Moon Nail - Reflection].

Water Horse thought it was a surprise attack and tried to hit Richard on the head.

But before he could do anything, his throat churned up, and he vomited up a lump of stuff.

Looking at the pile of metal at his feet, Shui Ma's eyes were full of surprise.

These are all things it can neither eat nor digest:

Dozens of buttons, a fork handle, two coins, a pair of glasses frames with one half broken off, and a few pieces of iron that were hard to identify.

Richard squatted down and started picking at each item one by one.

He quickly stopped, and the points on the panel started moving.

It was a pendant with a name engraved on it and a small cross in the middle.

Richard held the pendant in his hand; this was truly an unexpected bonus.

After taking the things, he reached down to the horse's neck and untied the reins.

As soon as the reins left his hand, the wet mane began to trickle down again, and the docility in his eyes vanished completely. Richard put the runestone back from his palm.

【raidho】 went dark.

After the naming effect disappeared, the horse grew larger, and something seemed off on its back again.

Richard stood still.

Those eyes stared at him for a long time.

Then it turned around to go into the water, but halfway through, it looked back once.

Richard rewound the deer antler tip and stuffed it back into his pocket. Perhaps he could kill the horse and take its meat next time they met?