Amber Sword

He even just froze there; if those little Demons in front of him hadn’t stupidly obeyed the Long-Horned Demon’s orders and turned away to besiege Brand, he’d probably have been rushed by them and hacked into mince by now. Luckily, a Knight behind him noticed that something was wrong with this Lord, yanked him back with one pull, and thus spared the Flame Temple from losing yet another high-level member here today.

"Impossible!"

Stephen finally seemed to react, shouting: "Martha above, the Fragment of the Flame Blade must be on him. So that’s it! He’s the chosen one!"

The poor Knight seemed to suddenly wake up, babbling incoherently as he yelled.

After Brand turned in midair, he had already locked onto his next target. He raised the Earth Sword in his hand, the Sword Blade flashing white. "Wait," but the Wind Queen called out to stop him: "Brand, right now you can Flash about sixty meters with one stroke. To get to the Gate you’ll need to do it at least twice more—have you thought this through?"

Brand was startled.

He’d actually been staring at his status interface the whole time; his Mana and stamina were both drained, but he could still barely manage to perform Flash Sword twice. Yet the Wind Queen’s next sentence completely made him give up that idea: "Since I can judge your Flash distance, they can do the same."

He had actually thought of this problem in that Instant as well. If he were locked again by the opponent’s Dimension Anchor, he could still use Wind Queen Nine Luminaries to break free—but after that? Would he have the strength left to perform Flash Sword one more time?

The status screen spelled it out clearly; Brand couldn’t conjure stamina and Mana out of thin air, unless he could catch his breath. But on this battlefield, where would that chance come from?

Fortunately, he hadn’t acted yet.

Brand couldn’t help feeling relieved—thank goodness the Wind Queen was with him. Truly worthy of a Sage from the Saint War; she had considered every angle in just an Instant.

At this moment his Charge Skill had already reached its peak. Brand felt his body start to fall. But finding a solution was actually simple; at the fastest speed, he pulled up his Skill bar and dumped all of Mavikart’s remaining Experience into it.

Flash Sword instantly leveled up again.

Flash Sword 5+1[entry-level] (Dragon Clan/Ancient): A special technique lets your Sword Blade deflect dimensions. Each Attack can ignore a certain distance in Space (100m).

As soon as Flash Sword reached level 5 its name immediately turned gray. This was just like his White Crow Swordsmanship back then. Brand knew this was because the Flash Sword Swordsmanship publicly available from the Holy Temple was itself incomplete, so he didn’t think too much of it and simply thrust forward with one Sword.

With one stroke, he appeared right beside that gigantic Teleportation Gate.

There were no little Demons near the Teleportation Gate, only three towering Long-Horned Demons. Brand suddenly Flashed above the middle Long-Horned Demon and slashed down at it with one Sword.

But that Long-Horned Demon seemed to have been expecting it. Its huge wolf-like head suddenly raised, and it lifted a hand toward the Void. With a sharp clang like metal striking metal, Brand felt like he’d hit a steel pipe instead.

He didn’t dare pause for even a moment, immediately using the momentum to roll backward, landing steadily not far from the three Long-Horned Demons.

He raised his head subconsciously.

Standing by the Flame Temple’s massive Teleportation Gate, he and those few Demons were as tiny as ants. From farther away he hadn’t felt it so keenly, but now that he was this close, the overwhelming pressure from the Flame Gate crashed down on him at once.

Even more suffocating was the River of Sulfur behind the Flame Gate, which was gradually becoming more and more real.

Brand couldn’t help spitting; that shock from before had already jarred his gums and drawn blood. But he wiped the corner of his mouth, promptly letting go of the noble lady and said, "Antitina, you okay?"

"Mm."

"I’ll try to draw them away from you. How much time do you need?"

"I... I don’t know. I’ll do my best." Antitina frowned as she stared at that gigantic Teleportation Gate; this was itself a half-Magic apparatus. But it wasn’t a complete Magic Device—the best way would be to find a Wizard to work with her, yet that was clearly impossible right now.

"You have five minutes."

Brand glanced back. The little Demons were turning around. Though those idiots were in complete disarray on their own, a few minutes would still be enough time for them to turn. The Knights of Lantoniyan were clearly not enough to stop this army.

Antitina, her face pale, nodded.

...

(PS: I’ve been in a dry spell for several days in a row; today I finally feel like I’m out of it. Ah, it’s so hard—begging for Monthly Tickets.) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) and cast recommendation tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)