Swords, magic, and martial arts

"What a piece of trash," the knight cursed.

The monster began to struggle, trying to break free of the metal chains binding it.

"Quickly, before his strength recovers, let's attack his vitals together!" shouted the adventurer wielding the mace.

He rushed forward and smashed the spikes of the mace into the monster's mouth, knocking the spikes off and shattering the scales near the monster's mouth.

The injury made it look even more ferocious, and then the adventurer's mace pounded down on the monster's head like a storm.

The knight joined the attack, dodging the monster's gaping maw while thrusting his sword at the spot on the monster's throat where the adventurer with the two-handed broadsword had previously left a wound. But even so, he did little damage.

The adventurer wielding a two-handed broadsword ran to its side and slashed at the junction of its wings and body, leaving white marks on its scales.

The other adventurers and soldiers couldn't get involved; the monster wasn't very big, but it was about three meters tall, and even one more person wouldn't be able to use its weapons properly.

Rhodes, standing not far away, felt uneasy. The pressure emanating from the monster was growing stronger. He had wanted to get closer and join the attack on the monster, but the crowd blocked him, and he could only watch from a distance.

He felt that if he used Shengxie, he would definitely be able to break through the monster's scales.

"Make way, let me try!" Rod shouted.

No one paid any attention to him, which made him a little embarrassed. He wanted to squeeze to the front, but he couldn't get in with Aya.

Rhodes' unease grew stronger. He felt he could no longer sit idly by and wait for his doom. He used the Mageball to pluck the damaged scales from its throat.

The monster roared, but it didn't know who had done it. Rhodes was in the crowd, and the adventurers blocked its view. The knight seized the opportunity and plunged his sword into that spot, finally drawing blood.

The magic power consumed to remove this scale was about the same as the magic power Rhodes had consumed throughout the day, but it was only about one-twentieth of his total magic power.

But thinking about it this way, all the magic combined could only remove twenty of its scales.

It seems that the conversion rate between the magic power and actual damage of the Mageball is not high. I must learn a powerful destruction spell when I have the chance in the future. I can't waste my vast magic power. Rhodes thought to himself.

He had a sudden inspiration. He took out the poisoned needle from the system space and used the mage ball to control it to stick it into the spot where the monster had lost its scales. After being pricked by the poisoned needle, the monster's needle strength immediately decreased.

Rhodes didn't expect a poisoned gold needle to kill it directly. Just a few dozen seconds later, the monster started struggling violently again.

The metal chain on its right was almost deformed from being pulled, as if it was about to break.

Rhodes fired a golden needle, which paralyzed it for a moment. This time, it seemed to have developed a resistance to the poison on the needle and returned to normal within seconds.

Upon seeing this, Rhodes decided not to waste any more poisoned needles. He then used a mage ball to pluck several scales from the monster's mouth, and under the attack of the adventurer wielding a spiked mace, its mouth instantly became covered in blood.

Everyone present breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly seeing a glimmer of hope for victory.

With a sharp "bang," the chain on the monster's right side was completely torn off. After freeing its right hand, its first reaction was not to attack the three people next to it, but to use its right hand to repeatedly pound the wall behind it that had previously emitted white light.

With each swing of the monster's hammer, Rhode felt the ground tremble. He tried to stop it with his magic orb, but after several attempts, he felt his magic power was almost depleted, and in fear, he quickly dispelled the spell.

After Rhodes was no longer there to stop them, the wall was quickly smashed to pieces by the monster. White light emanated from the broken wall and entered Aya's body next to Rhodes, causing Aya to collapse to the ground.

Rod quickly knelt down to check Aya's body and found that she was still breathing. After the wall broke, the monster's left hand and wings were also freed, leaving only its legs still bound by countless thick metal chains.

It turned its head and glared fiercely at Aya, who was lying on the ground, before starting to untie the restraints on its feet with its hands.

"Run, everyone! It's about to break free. Let's split up and run into the underground river; maybe a few of us can swim out!" the adventurer wielding the spiked hammer shouted. The three of them ran away from the monster after the wall broke.

After he shouted, everyone except the knight and a few soldiers who stayed behind to watch the monster ran towards the wall where the knight had been smashed.

Rod quickly picked up Aya and started running, using his Snow-Treading Without a Trace technique to run towards the nearest wooden door.

After the white light disappeared, the wooden door opened with a push. He had originally thought of escaping along the underground river, but then he remembered that there were piranhas in the river. He was afraid that if the water was deeper elsewhere, he would have to swim. And Aya didn't have the same invulnerability as him, so he had to give up the idea.

He carried Aya back the way he came, crossed the underground river, ran through the dark passage, and returned to the original hall. He carried Aya up and found that the white fog wall had completely dissipated. He then began to run away from the oppressive aura.

With so many people, that monster shouldn't chase us, right? If I were it, I would go to the underground river where there are the most people and kill those adventurers, especially those with two-handed broadswords and those with maces. Hopefully, by the time it runs out of the underground river, I will have already reached Ebony City, which is heavily guarded.

Rod carried Aya and ran as fast as he could. He breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the oppressive aura weakening, but he still ran with all his might, afraid of being caught by the monster. He wondered how Ella was doing; she had run towards another wooden door when they escaped earlier.

It was completely dark by then, and Rhodes, who was still running hard, didn't see a single wild animal on the road. He wondered if that monster, after being imprisoned for hundreds of years, would eat a meal after being released, or perhaps eat in a tomb before coming out.

While Rhode was in the cabin, Ella taught him how to navigate in the forest and told him the way to Ebony City. Rhode was a little hungry, but he didn't dare to stop and kept running.

He was running along a small river when he saw the water. He hesitated as he ran, wondering if he should stop and have a drink. Just as he was still hesitating, a very familiar-looking person emerged from the river.

It was the adventurer with the greatsword that he hadn't killed before. He climbed ashore and, by the faint moonlight, saw Rhodes running in the darkness.

He followed behind Rod and shouted, "I didn't expect you to come out too, what a coincidence! I barely escaped from the underground river, thank God for giving me the chance for revenge. This time, don't try to defeat me with any tricks."

The soaking wet adventurer ran a little faster than Rhodes, who was carrying Aya on his back. Rhodes was very annoyed to see the adventurer following behind him. He should have listened to Aya and just dealt with him directly.

He swam out of the underground river, so when that monster comes out later, won't it just happen to run into me?

As Rhodes was thinking about these things, he was suddenly startled, feeling the monster approaching him with a sense of oppression, which made him very irritable.

If this adventurer had caught up with me and gotten me entangled, all three of us would have been doomed if the monsters had come up. I really shouldn't have spared his life back then. My so-called kindness now seems to have been somewhat superfluous...