Six-Armed Serpent Demon

Page 21

Constance closed his notebook and books and stood up across the low table to face the visitor.

He didn't ask the two soldiers what they had discovered, but instead looked at the unconscious Clothair between them, frowned, and asked, "What happened to Clothair?"

He could call out the name of every soldier under his command at will.

"Sir, he has fallen into the water."

"We found two unusual things on the riverbank," Gundomel said helplessly. "You'll definitely need to take a look."

Upon hearing this, Cons smiled, but there was no smile in his eyes.

"It's not gold again, is it? If it is, you should wait for General Tanker to return and report to him. He'll definitely be more interested in this than I am."

Gundogan quickly shook his head.

“It’s not gold, it’s a magic wand,” he said, “and it’s the magic wand of the court sorcerer.”

Constance's smile faded.

"The magic wand of the mage Ur?"

"It should be. The name of the court monk is engraved on the staff."

Constance's tone became urgent: "Show me."

"It's tucked into Roger's left hip."

"Gondomer said."

He and Roger supported Clotilde on either side. Roger supported Clotilde's right arm, while Clotilde's wand on her left hip was pressed down by her body, preventing him from taking it. So he turned around and showed Cons a section of the wand from his belt.

Cons remained standing motionless behind the low table.

The slave servant standing between him and the three soldiers approached Roger and pulled a six-inch-long wand from his waist. The slave turned and walked to Cons's side, presenting the wand to his master.

As an arcane knight, Cons was no stranger to this magical item.

This fireball wand is badly worn at the head and shaft; the fireball magic within is almost used up, and it can only be used two or three more times at most.

"...It does indeed bear the name of Ur."

Constance stared at the wand and said calmly.

However, his inner peace was far less than his outward appearance suggested.

The sorcerer Ur was killed by the six-armed serpent demon. According to Tancred's testimony, the demon also stole his storage bag. Since this really is Ur's wand, it means the demon is near the camp!

"Pass the order."

As Constance fiddled with his wand, he said, "All soldiers in the camp, assemble immediately in the open area. Await my instructions."

The slave servant standing behind Gundomel received the order and quickly turned and left.

Roger, who had been silent all along, raised his head and exchanged a glance with Gundogmer.

Gundomel's hand, which had been supporting the unconscious Clothair's back, now slipped inside Clothair's cloak and silently pulled out another wand.

Cons grabbed the helmet and put it on his head.

“Well done, soldiers,” he said. “Your discovery is important, and I will reward you—”

Before he could finish speaking, the slave servant beside him suddenly roared, overturned the low table, and held it up to block Constance's way!

"Boom"

A surge of magical energy filled half the longhouse.

Even though Constance was hidden behind the low table, the magical aura emanating from him dimmed!

The fireball wand in his hand, the protective spells he carried, and the enchantments on his armor and weapons were all suppressed!

He was stunned to see that Clotilde across from him had already slid to the ground.

Roger was rapidly twisting and deforming beside him. Meanwhile, Gundogel grinned maliciously, straightened his back, and maintained the posture of raising his wand towards him.

Then came the second shot, and the third shot!

If it were a ray or a single-target magic attack, it would have already been blocked.

But this is a "dispelling spell" that has a wide-ranging effect!

Without thinking twice, Constance instinctively reached into his waistband to retrieve his dimensional bag.

The moment his hand reached into the pocket, he knew he'd made a mistake: the triple wand spell had been deactivated, temporarily turning the dimensional bag into a regular pocket. The scrolls, potions, and wand stored inside were all now irretrievable!

He quickly bent down and pulled one of the swords from the three soldiers' surrender into his hand.

A glance out of the corner of his eye swept past the feet of the slaves and servants, and a chill ran down his spine:

Under the glow of the campfire in the longhouse, Roger's humanoid shadow swayed and expanded on the mud wall, with six long arms and a huge snake tail bursting out of his body!

In the blink of an eye, Roger was gone, replaced by a serpent-like demon with its head reaching straight to the ceiling!

The snake's shadow approached like lightning.

His emerald-like vertical pupils met Cons's eyes, which were filled with shock and anger.

Six long, slender, and strong arms wielded the greatsword from above.

The adamantite demon-slaying greatsword descended from the sky, like a bolt of silver-blue lightning!

In the blink of an eye, the loyal slave servant screamed and rushed forward, holding up a low table, without even drawing his sword.

A flash of silver-blue sword light appeared, and a streak of blood splattered from the mud wall all the way to the ceiling.

The slave servants and table were torn in two, their internal organs scattered all over the floor.

At the same moment the slave servants went to their deaths, Constance rolled backward to avoid the silver-blue sword flash, his back slamming into the mud wall. His movements were as agile as a monkey; he grabbed the ventilation window and pulled hard. He tumbled out of the window and landed heavily in the mud outside.

Feeling the icy rain that had soaked him through, Constance breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Before he could even stand up, he heard a loud bang overhead.

Flying dirt and stones pounded against his helmet and back armor.

Constance, on all fours, glanced out of the corner of his eye and his heart skipped a beat: there was a huge hole in the mud wall, and half of the longhouse had collapsed!

The demon burst through the wall and lunged straight at him!

In a split second, Constance, drawing strength from who-knows-where, scrambled to his feet and sprinted along the longhouses towards the left side of the camp. That was where the soldiers' quarters were located, the area with the highest density of longhouses in the camp.

He ran while shouting, "Help!"

In theory, a wizard who has carefully prepared tactics against the enemy can defeat all opponents, but a wizard who is ambushed is a different story.

Cons is skilled in swordsmanship, but can only use the fifth-circle arcane spells at most.

The six-armed serpent demon's extremely high magic resistance makes it virtually immune to all offensive and defensive magic that can be cast at its level.

Not to mention that he didn't even have time to cast the spell.

He didn't even have time to cast an instant spell. If he slowed down even slightly, he would be chopped into mincemeat!

Jungle hunter Tusu was also running in the rain.

Tusu became suspicious when he saw the pair of emerald green vertical pupils. He quietly followed the three southern soldiers to the vicinity of the deputy general's longhouse, found a sheltered eave, and watched them hand over their weapons and enter the longhouse.

Then he saw the leader of the Southerners jump out of the window and run out, followed by the snake-bodied woman he could never forget in his dreams!

In that instant, all the waiting and confusion gained meaning.

With bloodshot eyes and clenched teeth, Tusu chased after the direction in which the six-armed snake demon had disappeared.

Cons ran wildly, splashing water everywhere he went.

He rushed to a longhouse and immediately turned and ran along the mud wall. Before he could even think about whether he had shaken off the demon behind him, he heard the sound of scales scraping against something hard above his head.

Constance didn't even have time to look up; he gritted his teeth and continued running through the longhouses, twisting and turning.

But in a flash of lightning, he clearly saw the reflection of a six-armed human-snake figure on the roof reflected on the ground—she was leaping over the roof and chasing after him along the longhouse wall!

Seeing the lights on in a longhouse ahead, I ignored everything and plunged into the rain curtain hanging from the eaves.

They rushed inside only to discover that the longhouse was actually a stable.

The four grooms were sitting around the fire pit warming themselves when Constance rushed into the longhouse, and they were all stunned and at a loss for what to do.

Conseil's Pegasus, however, saw him and snorted happily at its master.

It thought its owner was taking it out to play.

Cons is a descendant of the Pegasus Knights of Nimbro and also owns his own beloved horse, Uti, pure white. Pegasus cannot speak, but their intelligence is comparable to that of humans, and they are as mischievous as children. If he hadn't come to the Sanlachi Mountains, where lightning strikes year-round, Cons would probably have ridden it up for a spin in the sky every day.

A groom stammered, "General..."

"Take off immediately!"

Before the coachman could even stand up to pay his respects, Constable dashed past them like a whirlwind, yelling as he lunged at Pegasus. He didn't even have time to grab the saddle; he leaped straight onto Pegasus's back.

"Fly faster!" Cons called his horse's name, "Uti, hurry—"

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly heard a loud bang and saw a flash of silver-blue light.

His eyes were blood red.

Amid gasps of alarm, Emma Uti coughed up blood from her neck, staining Constance's entire body red. She fell to her side, pinning Constance's leg down with her.

The stable longhouse was half-collapsed, mud walls and roof in one side, and a six-armed demonic figure, enveloped in a chilling wind and rain, rushed in.

The grooms roared "Protect the general!" and swarmed forward.

Constance's ears were ringing, he couldn't hear anything, and all he could vaguely see was the beautiful horse's head rolling off its neck into the haystack.

He roared in despair, his eyes and mouth filled with the blood of his beloved horse.

In the blink of an eye, the six-armed serpent demon hurled its sword through the ventilation window, slaying the winged horse, bursting through the wall, and killing four people with four consecutive sword strikes.

When I looked at Cons again, I found him stumbling and rushing out of the longhouse gate.

With a surge of power from her serpentine tail, she swam after him. As she passed the corpse of the Pegasus, she casually pulled out the Spellbreaker Mand, which was stuck in the ground.

Pegasus are magical creatures, capable of freely casting spell-like abilities to detect good and evil, making them the best mounts for paladins. It was precisely because of this that she was able to unleash the full power of this anti-magic greatsword, decapitating it with a single blow.

His emerald-like vertical pupils stared at the desperately struggling back of the fugitive in front of him.

Cons ran wildly in the rain, panting heavily.

The torrential rain washed away the blood from his body.

Only by actually facing the six-armed serpent demon can one truly feel her terror.

That's a real monster.

With immense strength and lightning-fast speed, coupled with a whirlwind of six consecutive sword strikes, he is practically a living meat grinder of war!

And this real monster has already set its sights on him.

He was running so hard his lungs felt like they were going to explode, and his right ankle, which had been pressed down by Wu Ti, was throbbing with pain.

He kept changing direction between the longhouses, limping toward the parade ground between the camps.

Constance had not originally planned to go to the parade ground, even though he had previously ordered the soldiers to assemble there.

The standard-issue swords of the Samarachi soldiers are medium-length broadswords, which are far too disadvantageous against the six-armed serpent demon's exceptionally long reach and its six six-foot-long greatswords.

Going to the parade ground where the soldiers are assembled now is tantamount to letting them risk their lives for nothing.

But there was no other way.

He needs time.

Just give him a few seconds, enough time to cast a spell!

We're almost there. Just past the last longhouse ahead, and we'll reach the flat parade ground. Through the wind and rain, the coughs and complaints of the assembled soldiers can be faintly heard.

"Spear!"

With his last breath, Constance roared, his voice cracking and barely audible in the heavy rain.

He continued to roar, hoping they would hear him and prepare: "Prepare your spears!"

He continued running desperately toward the playground.

Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a dark figure huddled under the eaves of the longhouse ahead. It seemed to be a person. The person was holding a thin stick, the tip of which gleamed coldly.

Cons paused slightly: That seemed to be... a spear?

Just then, he keenly sensed that dense raindrops suddenly flew from behind him and forward, pounding against his back armor, and many water droplets flew over his shoulders and into the darkness ahead.