Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

After all, she was a certified adventurer, so Ruth's cries soon ceased. Thinking of her friends and family being attacked by monsters, courage surged within her. She fought back her fear and opened her eyes, only to see Elsa's profile close at hand. The nun looked about her age, yet she was far more beautiful and refined. Her skin was fair and delicate, her eyebrows and lips distinct, and the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye was a perfect accent.

So close.

——Only then did she realize that she had been so rude as to hug the nun's neck tightly, with her lips almost touching the nun's face.

She quickly let go.

“I’m so sorry!!!…I didn’t mean to…!!”

"It's okay," Aisha said unconcernedly. "We've already left Weilin Town and are heading north. Do you think this is the right direction?"

Ruth's face was pale with a blush. She slowly turned her head and saw a scene she had never seen before - she was held by Elsa around the waist, as if flying high in the sky. She saw the birds being left far behind, and the high clouds in the sky slowly retreating. The dazzling sunlight seemed even hotter than usual.

The hurricane in the sky tore at her hair, making it almost impossible for her to open her eyes. She took several deep breaths and looked towards the ground. The ground was rapidly receding. The hills and trees were no longer what she recognized. Her pounding heart was drowned out by the sound of the wind, and she was completely dazed.

She suddenly understood why the president had such a compassionate look on his face towards her.

Ruth struggled to reconcile the image she saw from the sky with her memory, and stammered, "This...this direction is correct..."

"Okay, then, let's speed up."

"Eh?"

Still accelerating?

Ruth unconsciously put her arm around Elsa's shoulders again.

As he spoke, the feeling of weightlessness quickly came over him, the clouds flew away rapidly, and the flying birds turned into tiny dots.

bang——

A moment before landing, Ruth felt Elsa lift her hands, which slowed her falling speed a little, but even so, she almost vomited all her internal organs from her throat when she landed. Then came the dizziness caused by the sharp rise in blood pressure. She finally understood why the president insisted on giving her several bottles of life potion - without that stuff, no one could withstand such a tossing.

The shoes on both feet had been torn to pieces by the violent impact, leaving two long marks on the mud and grass in front of the pit.

Elsa didn't stop and ran across the plain, her pace getting faster and faster. From a distance, it looked like a black line passing across the plain, gradually raising dust.

The scenery in her vision flew backwards piece by piece, and the wind and waves hit her face, making her cheeks hurt. Ruth was already exhausted to the point of fainting. She mustered all her strength to find the right direction in the blurry vision. Perhaps because rescue was about to arrive, hope rose in Ruth's heart, supporting her from losing consciousness completely.

"It's... right ahead... just over the river..."

A small river stretched ahead, with rickety wooden bridges at both ends. Elsa rushed across without even looking, raising a string of splashes of water, and even the fish and shrimp in the river were brought to the shore, splashing non-stop.

Ruth: “Eh, eh eh eh?”

Why can this person run on water?

"Sister...you...is this magic?" Ruth's voice couldn't stop trembling, and she didn't know if it was because the wind was too strong.

"No."

Elsa really wanted to become a wizard and learn all kinds of gorgeous and powerful magic - but unfortunately, she tried many times and she couldn't learn it.

The reason is probably because her magic value is only 1.

As if sensing Ruth's confusion, Aisha explained, "As long as you're fast enough, you can run on water. Similarly, as long as you're strong enough, you can jump very high, just like flying. It's called flying with great strength."

"Is...is that so?"

Ruth felt like her brain was shutting down and she couldn't understand it.

"I saw."

The outline of a village appeared behind the rolling plains in the distance. Elsa saw the black body of the monster wreaking havoc in the village and her eyes narrowed slightly.

Hearing this, Ruth followed Elsa's gaze and looked over there, but she could not see anything clearly.

"It's normal that you can't see it. You have to look very hard to see it."

“I…I see???”

……

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3. Black beast

To the north of Weilin Town is a vast plain, connected to the large forest in the west and the rolling hills in the east. A winding river flows out of the forest and passes through the plain. More than a hundred miles downstream is the largest lord city in this area.

Merchants and adventurers would often travel along the river, so villages gradually began to appear along the riverbank, providing accommodation and food for passing merchants, or conducting some commodity trading.

This place is close to the center of the western province, and there is no threat of harassment from monsters or bandits. Even if a lone monster wanders here, it can be easily dealt with by the adventurers in the village and mercenaries hired by traveling merchants.

But in the past month, more and more witnesses have said that "those things" appeared on the plains.

Then, the victim appeared.

Monsters, monsters, demons, they have probably only started to appear in the last one or two months - adventurers from all over the world have their own names for those black creatures. Some say they are the remnants of the Demon King's army, some say they are messengers from the abyss, and some believe they are just ordinary monsters transformed.

Those monsters are ferocious, bloodthirsty and full of aggression.

At this time, more and more black creatures only the size of a human have gathered on the west side of the riverside plain. They are moving in one direction in a chaotic and disorderly manner, and look like a group of ants looking for food on the plain.

And in front of them, dozens of pitch-black creatures were howling and rushing towards the only human village there.

The outskirts of the village were lined with chevaux de frise and traps made of sharpened wood, but these things were of no use to the hordes of monsters. The black bodies rushed around, roaring. Some monsters were pierced by the sharp wood. After struggling for a few times, they started bleeding black blood and stopped moving. The monsters that came from behind crashed into their bodies. More and more monsters rushed over, squeezing and trampling on them, and soon crushed the wooden devices to pieces.

It's more than enough to deal with ordinary monsters, but it's not enough to face these monsters.

——There are too many of them.

The village's largest barrier is a two-layer wall made of logs, only two people high, with traps set underneath.

"Quick, quick! Attack! They're coming in!!"

There is a watchtower set up at regular intervals inside the wall. Hunters, adventurers proficient in archery, and mercenaries constantly shoot arrows or magic outside the wall from the watchtowers. They were originally just outsiders who came here to rest, but when they encountered such a thing, they became the backbone of the village.

A monster was pierced through the head by a flying ice spike and fell from the wall. It landed in a trap and was pierced through the body by the spikes. The monsters behind it continued to climb by stepping on its corpse. The pile of corpses became more and more, covering the spikes, and the traps were soon filled and became useless.

The black monster's claws were sharp and pointed. They penetrated the wood of the wall in one go and climbed up the crumbling wall. It was met with a spear piercing its neck by someone on the wall.

But more often than not, the untrained villagers, holding unpolished pitchforks in their hands, had trembling legs. They were already frightened by the dark monsters, and before they could launch an attack, they were bitten on the neck by the black monsters.

Some people were dragged outside the wall by the black monsters because they failed to pull back their spears in time. They were eaten up by several monsters that pounced on them without even being able to scream.

"They are about to rush in!"

Some people shouted in despair and retreated uncontrollably. Once a small gap appeared in the defense line, it would spread rapidly like a spark encountering weeds.

The brave adventurers and mercenaries charged forward with weapons in hand, forcibly repelling the monsters that crawled in. But at this moment, the corpse whose neck was bitten off crawled up at some point, dark blood vessels surging under his skin. He howled lowly and pounced on the others, biting them instinctively.

"Ahhh!!"

The screams were endless and the spurting blood dyed the ground red.

"He, he's crazy!! Drag him away!"

It was useless to drag him away. In the end, the "mad man" had his neck cut off by a knife. The mercenary holding the knife looked at the wound on his hand tremblingly. The black mark slowly spread from the wound on his hand like a spider web.

“Ahhhhh! This is a curse… a devil’s curse!!!”

The mercenary screamed in despair and fled like crazy, leaving the others, still frightened, looking at each other in dismay, and seeing the deep despair in each other's eyes.

"How long has it been?"

One of them asked dryly, swallowing.

"An hour... more..."

"I have no strength left..."

"I...my magic power is also running out..."

Among them was a warrior holding a sword and shield, a reliable and steady middle-aged man.

There were also magicians leaning on staffs and hunters using bows and arrows. They were originally a group of adventurers and residents of this village. They often went to Weilin Town to accept commissions and earn rewards. Today, they returned to the village to rest and encountered those monsters.

The battle has continued to this day. From the initial defense to the current stalemate, they have become as unsustainable as the village walls.

"I say... Ruth...should have found Weilin Town? Will support...come?"

"It will come. It will definitely come."

The warrior uncle's name was Thorne. He encouraged everyone firmly, but he himself was unsure.

They knew very well how far Weilin Town was from here.

"It would be great if there was teleportation magic..." Mage Winnie bit her lip lightly and sobbed in fear. She was the youngest in their team, having just turned sixteen.

"But there are no high-level mages in Weilin Town." Hunter Xi Ze stated the cruel fact calmly.

"Run! The monster is coming! The monster is coming!!"

A scream suddenly appeared behind them. When they turned around, they saw an unbelievable scene.

The monsters flooded over the wall like a tide, rushing in one after another. The watchtower was easily climbed, and the person on it was soon pierced through the chest by a claw, and the blood mist dissipated in the air.

——In another direction, the wall was breached.

"It's over..."

The faces of several people changed drastically. Now they could not care about anything else and had no choice but to escape.

"Hurry up! It will be too late if we don't leave now!"

Thorne gripped the square shield tightly, roared, and rushed forward. The heavy iron curtain of shield slammed into the monster's body, blocking the monster's attack. Then he turned the square shield to the side and pierced the monster's throat with the sharp straight sword.

The monster's blood stained his hands black, and the slippery touch made it almost impossible for him to hold the weapon in his hand.

……

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4. One-Punch Nun

Winnie chanted the spell loudly and quickly, "...the fireworks of blessing, burn!"

She used up her last bit of magic to throw out balls of flaming fire, igniting the wall behind her and slowing the monster down as much as possible. A roar echoed, and Caesar fired an arrow, accurately piercing the head of the monster that was charging from the side. Then, protecting the exhausted Winnie, he kept up with the warriors.

They narrowly escaped danger and rushed to a low mud house, where Thorne cut the door lock with a single blow.

"Hurry! Hide first!" He stood at the door, letting Winnie and Caesar go in first before he followed them into the house and closed the door behind him.

There are monsters everywhere outside, and there is definitely no chance of breaking out. The only way to survive is to hide until the support from Weilin Town arrives.

“I didn’t follow…”

Thorne leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. He looked up at the room. There were simple tables and chairs, and a bed made of stone bricks with thatch. At the other end was a thatched nest for animals, but the owner was not there now - whether he could not come back or was not at home, no one knew.

"Xize, watch over here. I'll look for any weapons I can use."

Thorne said, holding his shoulder and limping further into the house - he was injured, and his sword was blunt, with notches all over the blade, not as good as a sharper axe.

Screams echoed from outside the house, one after another. Caesar used a dagger as a bolt. Suddenly, there was a loud noise outside the door, as if something had hit the door. Caesar quickly stepped back two steps to increase the distance, drew out the last arrow, put it on the string, held his breath, and aimed at the door.

Through the crack in the door, he could see a black shadow slowly sliding by, and Caesar swallowed nervously.

Soon, the shadow left. Caesar waited for a while without any movement, then he slowly put down his bow and gasped for breath.

"What should we do now?"

Winnie was holding two empty bottles upside down, tilting her head back and licking the little bit of blue potion from the bottle mouth with her small pink tongue, trying to recover as much magic power as possible.

"If I had known earlier, I would have prepared a few more bottles of medicine..."

She was very upset. She had only come home to visit. This was usually a safe area. Who could have known something like this would happen?

"I don't know about Mom and Dad... Hey, uncle, what's wrong with you?"

She walked towards the inner room with her staff, only to find Thorne leaning against the wall with a look of pain on his face, clutching his right arm tightly. A deep black scar on his arm was shocking, and it was unknown when the injury occurred. Black bloodstains spread from the wound up and down his arm like a spider web, and there was even something wriggling as if trying to drill out from deep within the muscle, making the wound bulge high.

Winnie was stunned and stood there at a loss.

"Uncle... what's wrong with you? Let me help you take a look..."

"Don't come over!" Thorne shouted at Winnie who wanted to get closer. He struggled to look at her, then looked at the black wound on his arm, his face showing pain. "I feel... this thing is very wrong... Do you remember the guy who attacked the mercenary just now? His neck was bitten through, but..."

But then he resurrected and attacked others like a cursed undead.

Thorne and Winnie were silent.

"The mercenary was right. This is the 'Devil's Curse'." Caesar appeared behind Winnie at some point, staring at Thorne's arm with a serious look, and walked towards Thorne step by step. "Thorne, you can't wait for it to get worse. You have to cut it off."

"Is it too late?" Thorne's forehead was covered with sweat and his eyes were a little cloudy.