Cthulhu Gonfalon Chapter 50

The foundations of four youngsters were very strong. Their outstanding mutual understanding and trust allowed them to show their full strengths. Despite the fact that their opponent was much stronger than them, they could still hang on for a while.

However, this didn't change the disparity between both sides' abilities. Moreover, as time passed by, the strength of the caster was constantly being consumed. Hence, the unfavorable side leaned more toward to them.

When the moon rose, they eventually reached their limits.

"My magic is almost used up." The priest suddenly said with a face drenched in sweats, "At most, I can display one or two restoration spells but there is no more than that."

Currently, the archer had used up all his arrows long time ago, as he could just rely on the arrows that he had picked up from the ground to continue fighting.

As for the shaman, the youngest one among four, his strength was also the weakest. He had consumed all of his magic power long ago. As he was completely drained out, he laid on the ground, breathing heavily like an ox. The magic power exhaustion had led to dizziness and headache, which made him unable to say a world. He just could only put on a wretched and bitter smile to let others know that he absolutely didn't have any strength left to escape.

The soldier forced a smile and said,: "Well, in this case, you two retreat. Wait for a chance in the future to get revenge on this old Bear for us."

They of course knew who he was talking about without saying a name.

The priest immediately outraged, shouting, "As a servant of the Lord of Glory (the master God of Hominin), how can I abandon my comrades to run away! You are looking down on me!"

"It is just a temporary retreat." The soldier reluctantly smiled, persuaded, "This is fighting. There will always be time that we have to attack, and there also will be time that we have to retreat. I let you retreat because I am sure you can bring other comrades out of this place alive. If that person is me, if I am the one to retreat, I would not have this confidence!"

The non-eloquent priest was left speechless. He just stubbornly shook his head, determined not to accept this.

While they were arguing, that giant bear was not naively waiting for them to finish their discussion, and when he saw with his own eyes that his enemies were distracted, he immediately increased his attacking power to hit the enemies strongly. Only in a while, he had knocked the priest and the man carrying shield flying out. There was even a crack on the solid shield. The priest himself didn't have enough time to send out his power, coughed intensely.

"This is too bad!" The soldier was frightened. He hastily swung up his sword with the intention of attracting the attention of the giant bear to buy some time for the archer to save the priest. At this moment, the giant bear had probably implemented his frantic scheme already. In a short time, his power increased tremendously; both of his claws brutally slammed down. Under the intense attack, even though the soldier was pretty responsive, immediately using his shield to defend, his shield was split in half. The remaining strength of his was not enough to help him stand steadily. Hence, he staggered several steps back and finally fell down to the ground.

As his body stumbled down to the ground, his heart sank as well.

Done!

The giant bear angrily growled, storming over toward him. The entire body of the soldier was in pain. He didn't even have the smallest strength to fight back, just could helplessly wait for death.

Right at this moment, a faint cold laughter was transmitted over from somewhere nearby. A gray silhouette went past the soldier dozens of steps in a second, blocked the giant bear in front of the soldier's body.

The giant bear furiously roared. Its four claws touched the ground as it flew forward. In a second, it appeared in front of them.

A glowing ray of a sword was waiting for it to come.

As the sword flashed up, blood splashed everywhere. The giant bear had lost its balance, hitting its head against the tree. The wound was burst open; blood was like a stream flowing out from the mouth of the wound.

Until this moment, the soldier was able to see the savior who had saved him and his comrade from being killed by the giant bear----he had a body of an ordinary man, a handsome face. But, there was a strange and overly perfect feeling between his eyebrows that made people feel that this man was more like a portrait or a statue than a living human being. This man was not tall. He was wearing a light black leather armor, carrying a pike on his black with blood still flowing out on the long sword in his hand. No matter it was the leather armor, the pike or the long sword, there was a faint light emitting out from them, shining the whole dark area. Just by a swift glance, people could tell these were powerful and precious enchanted weapons.

Pike, sword, assaulting. This savior was clearly a knight. But, he wasn't like any ordinary knights in heavy armors. He should have been tired fighting in this kind of heavy armor.

Although being able to launch an attack from such a far distance and kill this terrifying giant bear in one sword move, this mighty knight didn't shed a drop of sweat. His breathing didn't even have a hint of disorder. After releasing a long sigh, that man recovered his composure. He acted as if that frightening sight happening a moment ago had nothing to do with him. He just went around to take a look.

He acted as if the giant bear which had not completely stopped breathing was nothing; he used the thick fur of the giant bear to wipe out the bloodstains on his sword then put the sword back to its sheath. He didn't look back to this side but directly walked away.

Saving people and killing bear were absolutely not something worth mentioning to him.

"This.... Knight.... Please accept... our appreciation." The priest was the first one to get his mind together, restraining the throbbing pain in his chest, screaming out loud.

That black-armored knight stopped his steps but didn't turn back, waving his hands at them.

"All of you have done a good job. But you have to be more careful later on. Seek for advice from the senior group, learn some experience from them." He used a clear and strong voice to say, "Keep trying. Sooner or later, there will be one day all of you can strike out a sword move like that!"

After finished saying, he walked away, leaving behind lots of appreciation and dreams in all four adventurers. In the end, the giant bear was completely defeated.

After a long while, the overwhelmed soldier couldn't bear any more, loudly said, "I've decided! After we come back, I have to continue studying diligently and training assiduously to quickly reach the day I am able to display that sword's move!'

"I also have to try hard to practice asceticism. I want to be like him, helping more people like the way he selflessly helped us!" The priest held his emblem tight. His heart was full of compassion and touching feeling.

"I also have to try hard! If I don't put enough effort, I will not enough qualification to repay his favor!" The archer smilingly said, "Not repaying life savior's favor is not my style!"

Lastly, the shaman who was lying on the tree branch and out of breath, spoke up, "I.... I also have to try hard!"

Four of them looked at each other then looked back at themselves. Although they were very struggling, light could be seen in their eyes.

"If these four rascals don't die, they will probably accomplish big things in the future." Lei was very silent on his way back. After returning the camping site, he didn't hurry to rest but said in a low tone, "I can see that they are very talented!"

"How do feel when others are grateful to you for saving them?" Sui Xiong smilingly asked.

Lei though for a while then shook his head, "It is a little bit boring. However, meeting these four youngsters isn't counted as wasting my time."

After finished talking, he covered his body with the blanket, laid down and slept.

Sui Xiong was floating in the air. As he was staring at that "dead asleep" appearance, he couldn't help but smile.

He once again displayed the Eye of The Camp Appraisal. Lei's body was still red. But the color was a lot lighter than the last one. It was no longer ferocious but on the contrary, it was a bit milder.

On the second day, they smoothly got out of the Ash Rock Mountain Range, entering the Gold Coin Federation.

The Gold Coin Federation was located on the main surface in the west dominant country. This country was founded by trading. It was known as the country of the businessmen at the beginning. They did business with the Orcs from the Wildness Empire, with the Ancient Wood Desolate Marsh's Scale Tribe, with the Fish Orcs in the vast sea. They even went through thousand miles by sea to the South to set up business with the Thunder Dukedom, with the Mystique Tower Federation and the Dhaka Association. Since the Northwest Four Towns had developed, their business partners also expanded to the group of settled and comfortably off pioneers in the Ash Forest and the barren mountain border.

This country was made of dozens small and big noblemen, which had same positions. . In fact, in this country, if a merchant had the same wealth as a Baron's, he would be treated like a baron. If he had the same wealth as a viscount's, he would be regarded as a viscount. If he had the same wealth as an earl's, he would become an earl. If he had the same wealth as a marquis', he would definitely be taken as a marquis.

----A duke was impossible because this country didn't have duke.

In this country, from top to bottom, people were full of thirst for wealth. This had created countless adventurers and exploiters, as well as numerous villains who ripped commoners off with tons of taxations which put them through indescribable hardships. Rhodes was in charge of forming a group of exploiters from those commoners. That group was mostly made up by two people.

However, Rhodes's exploiter recruitment happened in the North of the Gold Coin Federation, while Sui Xiong and Lei were in the East of the Gold Coin Federation, which was very far away from that.

After entering the Gold Coin Federation, the living condition here was much better than in the Ash Rock mountain range. That night, Lei laughed heartily as he finally got to sleep in the bed. Sui Xiong took advantage of this chance to irrigate the chicken stock spirit into him as well as discuss about the "contentment" moral principle.

It was unknown whether it was because his mood was good or because he actually felt it, this time, Lei didn't retort, just laughed, then went to sleep peacefully.

But on the second day, when he saw the dried corpses of people being starved to death, he couldn't help but furrow his brows.

"The Lord of this place isn't well qualified for his position." He said.

Sui Xiong also shook his head silently. He knew the production level of this world was similar to Europe's in the Middle Ages. People being starved to death were unavoidable. Yet, when he saw the dried corpses of starved people, he was still uncomfortable as before.

The jellyfish slowly flew toward the dried up corpses, swung up its tentacles. A blue and white ice light descended; turned these remains, whose were from those had been through countless extreme hardships when alive, into tiny ice crumbs. These tiny ice crumbs melted into the ground eventually.

Their spirits had already left long time ago. Even if it were a Great God, he could only help them bury their corpses properly.

Starving corpses appeared again after a session of road.

This time, Lei's brows were furrowed more tightly. He looked around. When he saw lush paddy-fields, his eyes beamed an angry look.

"The soil here is clearly not bad. Not to mention there are forests and mountain ranges nearby, so how can so many people be starved to death like this?!"

"By the look of this place, it is seems the Lord might have some problems..." As Sui Xiong looked at those buried starving people, he said with a low voice, "Why don't we do some investigations?"

"What's good with the investigation?" Lei laughed grimly, retorted, "If the result of the investigation proves that the Lord that rules this place is a brutal person, do Highness Hollow Mask perhaps want to punish him personally? First, let me clarify this. I will not provoke all the noblemen due to this reason with a master who wants to make things right. I am not a madman!"

"You even dare to provoke a God. What else don't you dare to do?"

"Provoking all the noblemen is much more troublesome than provoking a God..."

As they were talking, they slowly reached a river in the forest. While Lei was finding a way to cross the river, he heard screams for help again....

Chapter end