Chapter 13: Three Deadly Arrows
“Be careful! Something’s up with these things!” Young Commander Xiongxin said, looking at the ‘snowflakes’ covering the sky. The Sun Knight Regiment, true to their elite status, immediately became vigilant and prepared for defense.
These paper scraps were very light and showed no peculiarities. A knight thrust his spear at one, but it eerily dodged, as if any slight air movement could disrupt its trajectory.
“Don’t let these things get near Her Holiness the Holy Maiden!” Soon, a squad of cavalry surrounded the Holy Maiden. They all held up round shields and gripped their lances, eyes fixed on the sky.
“Damn, there are too many of these ghost things!” Endless paper figures danced randomly, attaching themselves to the soldiers and knights below.
The Holy Maiden’s eyes showed no panic, just calmly observing everything before her. Suddenly, the knights guarding her began to fight among themselves.
“Tom, what are you doing?!” An elite knight dodged a sudden attack.
“Jerry I can’t control my body!” Another knight said. In an instant, the square descended into chaos.
Young Commander Xiongxin tried to run over to protect the Holy Maiden but found himself blocked by more than ten subordinates. His contract object was the golden armor he wore, which gave him extremely powerful defense, known as the ‘Sun Shield’. The mysterious armor emitted a spiritual light that prevented the paper figures from approaching, so he wasn’t controlled. But at this moment, he was caught in a bitter fight. The elite of the Sun Knight Regiment had surrounded him, striking deadly blows. He was the enemy’s primary attack target.
“Damn it, a bunch of useless fools!” Xiongxin cursed angrily, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill his own men.
Commander Golden Lion Kieran, watching all this from a high building, finally moved. “Golden Fang, protect the Holy Maiden. I’ll go deal with the mastermind behind this.”
After giving orders to his contract lion, Kieran stepped onto the railing and leaped. The armor on his body burst with air currents, propelling him into flight. Below the Spirit God Realm, people couldn’t fly freely and had to rely on external forces, like flying contract beasts, or Kieran’s flying power armor. However, this armor was extremely expensive, with only Kieran in the entire Sun Knight Regiment wearing it, and its flight speed and duration were quite average.
Flying to the top of the Goddess Statue’s head, Kieran finally found the enemy. It was a woman completely wrapped in a black robe, with half her face exposed, showing seductive red lips. Behind her was a pair of snow-white wings, like angel wings, but upon closer inspection, the wings were not made of feathers, but layer upon layer of paper figures that could drag her in flight.
“Puppeteer! It really is you!” Kieran recognized his enemy, the 9th seat among the Night Lord’s 99 demons – the Puppeteer.
“Lord Golden Lion, why aren’t you protecting the Holy Maiden? Why come up here to find me?” the Puppeteer mocked.
“To catch thieves, first catch their king. Eliminating you will naturally break this paper demon magic!” Kieran didn’t want to trade words and directly threw a punch. His fist roared like a lion in a jungle sending the Puppeteer flying. The woman adjusted her posture in the air, using the power of her wings to stabilize. Then, thousands of paper dolls formed about a dozen angel-like monsters that fiercely attacked Kieran.
“Captain, these paper figures are afraid of flames,” Zhanyue said.
Cheng Lu immediately understood. His flame dagger unsheathed, curling up waves of flames as he charged out. He was much stronger than Zhanyue, not only higher in realm but also with much more combat experience. Soon, he had burned off the paper dolls on many Sun Knights.
Shortly after, another Sun Knight who could use flame power also regained his freedom and joined the battle. In an instant, the situation on the battlefield changed dramatically. Once they knew these things feared fire, everything became manageable.
Seeing the changes below, the Puppeteer knew her plan had failed. Blood Throat suddenly detonated a signal flare, indicating he couldn’t hold on any longer. Sun City’s defenses were extremely strong, and Blood Throat hadn’t been able to distract them for long. Once Eagle King Zhan Yunfei arrived, she would likely be in grave danger if surrounded by two powerful experts.
“Trying to run?” Kieran seemed to sense the opponent’s fear, putting more force into his fists, shattering the paper doll puppets in front of him with one punch.
Outside Sun City, on a distant high mountain, a one-eyed man took out a bow from behind him. He drew the bow to a full moon and shot three arrows in succession. These three arrows directly drained his power; he could only shoot these three life-taking arrows once a day. There was an eye growing on the tail feathers of these arrows, as if alive.
Sun City’s defense formation immediately sensed the approaching arrows, but while the defense formation was very effective against the Nightmare race, it was much less so against human methods. After being weakened by the defense formation, the three arrows were still ferocious.
Golden Lion Kieran felt his mind blur, sensing an approaching crisis. He roared angrily, his aura shaking space, a lion’s phantom image covering his body. He saw the incoming arrows. The first arrow went straight for Kieran, knocking him out of the sky with one shot. Although it couldn’t kill Kieran, it was enough. This arrow was to clear the way for the Puppeteer’s escape. The Puppeteer seized this opportunity to flee.
The second arrow went towards the lion Golden Fang. Golden Fang didn’t have Kieran’s level of protection and was directly blasted dozens of meters away by the arrow, leaving the Holy Maiden’s front unguarded.
The third arrow, also the strongest, went straight for the Holy Maiden. The power of this arrow was enough to level an area of ten meters radius.
“It’s over!” Zhanyue watched this divine arrow like heavenly punishment, fear welling up in his heart. The arrow meant to kill the Holy Maiden would undoubtedly obliterate him as a side effect. The safest place had become the most dangerous.
At this critical moment, the Holy Maiden finally moved. She grabbed Zhanyue’s wrist, and a mysterious formation appeared under her feet. As a crystal on the necklace around her neck shattered, the two of them instantly disappeared from the spot. This incomparable arrow hit nothing, only blasting a ten-meter crater where they had been.
“The Three Life-Taking Arrows... The 1st seat among the Night Lord’s 99 demons – Demon Bow Huoxing!” Eagle King Zhan Yunfei, who was rushing back, turned pale.
However, Huoxing didn’t rashly appear in the city. He was only here to cover Blood Throat and the Puppeteer’s retreat, and to see if there was a chance to kill the Holy Maiden. This was the Night Lord’s temporary arrangement.