Chapter 52: Wolf riders invade
Fanny didn’t mince words and started for the door to Han Shuo’s room in a rush as soon as his voice had sounded. After Fanny had left, Han Shuo randomly flung off the bathrobe that had been wrapped around his body and quickly put on his clothes. He carefully put away the iron needles, dagger, crossbow, and bottles of medicine he’d bought over the past few days and finally left the room.
Adventurers’ darting bodies and merchant’s loudly calling voices were apparent all over the main street. These people had been drinking in their hotels or enjoying themselves in places of temptation, but they had all immediately left their rooms when they heard news of the wolf riders’ invasion and surged onto the main street.
Adventurers and mercenaries all lived their lives on the edge, living on the edge of a knife’s blade, and so were long used to such dangers. When they left their rooms, they all methodically organized their weapons and armor, congregating onto the South street according to the origin of the voices.
Han Shuo walked out from the room and realized that even the hotel owner had grabbed a longsword when he’d walked back to the front desk of the hotel. The owner was standing in front of the door with a fierce expression on his face. It seemed that the citizens of Drol were indeed fierce and valorous.
Fanny and the others were all standing in front of the door. All the students hastily put their belongings down in the room and hurriedly rushed out again. After the adventure to the Dark Forest, these young, sapling mages had learned how to be composed and self possessed, and didn’t cry out randomly in panic.
“Bryan, hurry and come over here. We must set out for South street immediately. Since orc wolf riders dare to invade the Empire’s town of Drol, we mustn’t let them succeed!” Lisa immediately raised her hand high and called out as soon as she saw Han Shuo appear, as if deathly afraid that Han Shuo wouldn’t be able to see her.
Apart from Fanny and the others in front of the hotel doors, a couple other adventurers and mercenaries had also formed into groups of three to five people. The necromancy students continued to walk out of their rooms. Each one was armed to the teeth and bristling with weaponry. Fanny counted heads shortly after Han Shuo had made his way toward Lisa’s side. When she discovered that they were all accounted for, she immediately shouted, “Follow me to South street and don’t get separated.”
Han Shuo followed behind Fanny on a main street crowded with figures, arriving at South street shortly thereafter. When they’d arrived, Han Shuo saw that almost a hundred adventurers and mercenaries were nearby. The old mage, Felix, and female elf, Blanche, that Han Shuo had seen last time were also there. Judging from the way things looked, they were acting as leaders. Felix was hovering in the air and was loudly shouting something.
“Eh, this old mage can hover in midair using levitation magic. It looks like he must be at least of the archmage level.” Gene exclaimed in shock after they’d arrived and started explaining to the students. “When a mage trains to a certain realm, he/she will be able to use levitation magic to fly. However, only mages who’ve reached the archmage level can cast levitation magic. Therefore, mages ,who can fly, are all without a doubt noble and exceedingly powerful characters.”
“Brave warriors of the Empire, the orcs’ wolf riders are moving towards the town of Drol. According to my observations, the wolf riders are moving in a formation of five hundred. As an encampment of the Empire, our town of Drol has zero tolerance for being trampled on by these savages. Warriors raise your weapons and give them a taste of the fury of the Empire’s warriors!” Felix hovered in midair and clutched an exquisite magic staff, embedded with sapphires, in his right hand, speaking loudly to raise morale.
“Eh, aren’t these the people from the necromancy major? Heh heh, fancy meeting you here.” Beacher’s voice suddenly sounded from the side at this moment. Han Shuo twisted his head to see that the light major students had all cast their eyes this way.
“Hello Master Beacher, to think we would run into you here. I trust that you have gained rich rewards from this time’s outing?” Gene nodded and smiled in greeting, asking his questions afterwards.
“Nothing much, no big rewards, just that the students have truly improved.” Beacher responded faintly with a smile.
Dull, thudding sounds, that originated from the south, sounded in the distance. Under the instructions of Felix and Blanche, the warriors had long since armed themselves and bristled with weaponry as they stood in the front. Mages, archers, and priests stood in the back, separated from the warriors by a distance of five to six meters. They had taken our their magic staffs and gazed intently towards the south with grave expressions.
Seeing that everyone had assumed their positions, Beacher and Gene didn’t waste time in furthering their idle chitchat, instead moving to stand with the mages. Although Han Shuo’s body had greatly improved, he wasn’t so dumb as to stand in the front and draw attention to himself. He too followed Fanny and stood with the mages.
Just as everyone had taken up their respective positions according to profession, dull, clopping sounds sounded like dull drums in the hearts of the assembled people. A concentrated, heavy sense of strong aura slowly found its way into everyone’s hearts. The wolf-riding orc wolf riders slowly materialized out of the flying dust cloud and into everyone’s vision.
A grave, killing aura immediately enveloped the entire town of Drol. The wolf riders immediately started charging forward as soon as they’d appeared, accompanied by sharp howls and screams. The longswords in their hands flashed with cold light, and the strong flare of aura from five hundred wolf riders charging in union immediately gave others a strong sense of oppression.
“Mages ready, release your magic on my mark!” Felix was relatively calm as he hovered in the air, gazing down on the wolf riders. He spoke calmly only when the wolf riders had truly started charging.
“Everyone be careful! Don’t let anything happen to you.” Fanny was also a bit nervous at this moment and she turned to give a few reminders to the students standing next to her. Just as Fanny was about to remind Han Shuo, she suddenly discovered that there was a type of numbing, cold severity in his eyes that were set in a face of calm. There was no panic at all. He gripped a sharp dagger in his hand, and a frigid aura slowly started emanating from the dagger.
Noticing Fanny’s gaze, Han Shuo’s concentration lapsed and the bone-piercing, frigidly cold aura that he had infused the dagger with as a result of guiding the magical yuan in his left hand into the dagger after activating the Mystical Glacial Spellfire suddenly faded away, without a trace.
“Is something the matter Master Fanny?” Han Shuo looked at Fanny and asked with an honest smile hanging on his face once again.
“No, nothing. You be careful!” Fanny looked at Han Shuo and responded in a bit of a weird tone.
At this moment, Fanny had finally realized that the honest, dumb smile that Han Shuo had worn on his face was merely his disguise. The calmness and composure that he had while facing danger was most likely Han Shuo’s true state.
Damnit, you lied to everyone. I’ll make you pay for that sooner or later. Fanny thought fiercely in her heart on one hand, and on the other surreptitiously appraised Han Shuo, suddenly feeling that a calmly serious Han Shuo had a very different quality to him.