Chapter 45: Earth Puppet

Chapter 45: Earth Puppet

Translator: Translation NationEditor: Translation Nation

The effect of the fire wall was quite obvious, blocking the gnolls’ attack.

But this was just delaying the inevitable, and wouldn’t injure the gnolls.

As gnolls kept pouring in from the east side gap, the pressure on the adventurers and the garrison kept rising.

But the fire wall at least created a relatively narrow and confined space, making the gnolls unable to swarm them.

In these kinds of circumstances, humans had the advantage due to being stronger.

Gru, as the captain of the bramble team, was naturally very talented.

He blocked most of the frontline by himself, each swing of his great sword ending two or more gnolls!

His strength was quite astonishing!

The other adventurers were also doing their own parts.

They all had their own skills. It might be hard to display on the battlefield, but this kind of small area would actually maximize their abilities.

This was something Marvin had thought about.

Adventurers really couldn’t be used as an military troops, but they were quite efficient in small scale encounters.

Right now for example, they didn’t even need the garrison. The Lynx and the Bramble teams were able to stop the gnolls together.

But this kind of resistance was only temporary.

Because even though the adventurers were strong, they would eventually run out of stamina.　　

The gnolls had the numerical advantage.

If there was no way to lower their morale… The human side would be defeated.

‘You must make it!’

Anna pierced a gnoll’s heart with her sword and cast a quick glance toward the east.

...

Joey’s movements were very slow.

It was because even at this distance, quick movements might be noticed by that Sorcerer.

He didn’t plan to sneak attack that Sorcerer. That would be useless.

This guy had a faint barrier around him. This kind of barrier that could alter the path of an arrow was an archer’s bane.

And his eye of pain was an assassin’s nemesis.

These two things made that gnoll Sorcerer quite difficult to kill.

To succeed, Marvin and Joey needed to have perfect coordination!

Joey took a deep breath and firmly nocked an arrow on the bow!

The wind was unsettled.

However, the gnoll Sorcerer’s focus was completely locked on the battlefield.

He didn’t seem to have noticed the two planning a stealthy attack.

"Lucky…"

Joey aimed and finally, let go of the arrow.

Woosh!

Joey was exposed when the arrow shot through the air.

The Sorcerer's guards immediately noticed something wrong, but at that time, the arrow had already flown past them.

The Sorcerer was startled, stumbling back half a step, but shockingly found out that the arrow was not targeting him.

On the contrary, the arrow was shot at a crooked angle and landed in front of his feet.

‘Was that a really bad human archer?’

The Sorcerer's guards who were startled soon began to laugh at Joey’s aim.

But the Sorcerer suddenly let out a weird roar!

He found out that there was a rope tied at the end of the arrow!

The Sorcerer also noticed that not far from there, roughly 60 meters away, there was a silhouette crawling on the ground.

Marvin quickly recited an incantation!

That seemingly ordinary rope was actually alive, detaching itself from the arrow and quickly twisting itself around the Sorcerer’s legs!

Wishful Rope!

Even if it was only an uncommon item, if it was used cleverly during a battle, it could influence the outcome of the fight.

The Sorcerer turned pale with fear!

He mumbled a spell, trying to remove the binding rope.

But even though his casting speed was fast, Marvin was faster!

He pulled on the rope and chanted another incantation!

The rope immediately started shrinking!

The Sorcerer stumbled, fell on the ground and was dragged by its legs.

He arrived next to Marvin in less than two breaths.

The gnoll guards were startled, and a loud roar could be heard.

But it was already too late.

Joey had a relaxed smile on his face.

He drew his bow and started killing all the gnoll guards.

"It’s over."

He thought.

...

Marvin would never be lenient when facing a prey in his hands.

The gnoll Sorcerer reacted fast, but not as fast as Marvin’s twin daggers!

A caster this close to a ranger in a fight would only have one end, death.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Three dagger slashes broke the Sorcerer’s barrier into pieces. Marvin slashed one more time with enough strength to cut the Sorcerer's throat!

"Thud."

The gnoll’s neck was cut, but it sounded a bit weird.

‘Hold on…’

Marvin immediately felt something wrong!

‘This Sorcerer’s body…’

The next second, the gnoll Sorcerer started turning to dust. In an instant, it turned into a gnoll shaped earth puppet.

"Damnit!" Marvin cursed, "It’s actually an earth puppet! Fuckin’ Sorcerer! This was really crafty!"

Marvin hadn’t killed the gnoll Sorcerer!

This was only an earth puppet with the face of the Sorcerer!

The real Sorcerer was still hiding among the gnolls.

Joey saw this scene and was shocked.

But at this time, numerous killing voices could be heard from the back of the hill!

A gnoll adjutant riding a mutated aardwolf led another aggressive gnoll unit over there to kill!

Their target was Marvin!

‘We are screwed.’ This was what Joey thought at that moment.

...

"Joey! You go back first!" Marvin yelled.

He made a prompt decision at the critical moment and gave the order.

Marvin was in too deep. He couldn’t run away from the gnoll adjutant and his mutated aardwolf mount.

But Joey was far away, if he put his all in escaping, he might be able to escape and return to the camp.

The archer planned to turn away and run!

Since Masked Twin Blades said so, he wouldn’t stay there for no reason.

The plan had failed.

That gnoll Sorcerer was really too crafty.

But before he ran away, he pointed at the center of that new gnoll army!

A faint flickering ray of light appeared, and suddenly a big imprint consisting of two swords crossed landed on a short gnoll's body.

That was the true gnoll Sorcerer!

Joey had displayed his own strength.

This mark was enough for Marvin if he still wanted to carry on with the execution.

After doing that, the archer no longer hesitated and immediately fled.

Only Marvin was left, alone against more than sixty gnolls!

Along with three mutated aardwolves and one Sorcerer.

...

There seemed to be trouble in the camp.

The fire wall was gradually weakening and the burning fire was slowly reducing, increasing the pressure on the human group.

In fact, many adventurers had paid attention to the situation when Joey shot the arrow.

They shouted happily when Marvin successfully used the wishful rope to grab the gnoll Sorcerer.

They thought they had already won.

The gnolls were nothing more than a pack of mobs without their gnoll Sorcerer commanding them.

They definitely won!

But they hadn’t expected what happened next.

Even though it was far away and what happened was hard to see. But Joey turning around to flee along with another gnoll army emerging from the hill was bad news.

Masked Twin Blades failed!

This was what everyone thought.

The gnoll Sorcerer divided his army in two. The two previous attacks reckless attacks were nothing more than a bait

His goal was to force the humans’ trump card out.

And he was clearly successful.

The adventurers looked dispirited.

They caught sight of Marvin standing alone at the bottom of the hill and facing more than sixty gnolls.

Only someone of the 2nd rank with outstanding defensive melee abilities would have a chance of surviving this kind of siege.

Ranger? Even if it was an all-rounder type of class, they were probably unable to deal with that kind of situation.

Even if it was Masked Twin Blades, he would still be screwed!

Verne’s eyes looked everywhere, already thinking of a way to escape .

This mission had failed.

It wasn’t that the human side was too bad. Rather, the gnoll Sorcerer was too cunning.

But even if the adventurers had nearly given up, White River Valley’s garrison members had yet to give up!

They closely watched Marvin’s back and Andre roared on an impulse, "Rush out to save him!"

Bramble team’s captain unexpectedly nodded, "I agree."

He didn’t wish for anything to happen to Masked Twin Blades. If his daughter really had caught the plague… Maybe even a high level priest wouldn’t be able to cure her.

But at that time, Anna calmly said:

"Out of the question!"

"All of you defend this place."

"No one is allowed to set out."

Everyone looked at Anna, shocked.

Could she be planning on coldly watching Masked Twin Blades die in the mouth of a gnoll?

"Watch closely." Anna’s voice was somewhat excited.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don’t miss it."