Chapter 513 – Calm

“Declaring war? Kekekeke! How bold! Then let this lord see what you’re made of!”

Hearing Audreylinda’s furious roar of declaration, Kane’s expression grew even more excited. The knight with twisted tastes deliberately relaxed his posture to mock the already enraged Female Knight while loudly saying to Punk:

“Cyan, don’t interfere. This lord is going to properly teach this woman how to respect her seniors!”

After speaking, Kane showed no intention of waiting for Punk’s response. Standing calmly in place, the knight enveloped in Battle Aura held his Lance in his right hand while making an insulting gesture with his left hand toward the Female Knight in a thoroughly contemptuous manner.

“Despicable evil-doer! Claire, Lina, you two go rescue the innocent people first. I will make evil pay its price here.”

Seeing Kane’s arrogant and sinister smile, Audreylinda felt her volcanic rage had reached its peak. After hurriedly instructing the two apprentices behind her, the Female Knight gripped her sharp sword and Shield before bursting toward Kane with a Charge.

“Die, evil one!”

“Master-Level Combat Skill—Charge!”

“Kekekeke~ Well met!”

Seeing the Female Knight propelled by blue Battle Aura energy transform into a streak of light charging toward him, Kane also laughed heartily and activated the same Combat Skill against her:

“Master-Level Combat Skill—Charge!”

“BOOM”

Terrific shockwaves erupted in concentric rings where Kane’s Lance met Audreylinda’s Shield. However, these terrifying energies didn’t run rampant through the Arena. In an extremely short time, vast amounts of ice-blue Battle Aura perfectly enveloped Kane’s golden-yellow Battle Aura. As frost suddenly spread, the terrifying impact was actually neutralized by the crystallized icy energy.

“You still have mind to protect those ants when facing a powerful enemy?”

“Tch!”

viciously thrusting his Lance toward the Female Knight’s throat, Kane’s mocking voice sounded particularly piercing amid the noise of shattering space.

“BANG!!”

“Protecting the weak is a knight’s duty! A vile evil-doer will never understand the greatness of justice!”

Raising her ice-covered Shield before her, Audreylinda barely managed to parry Kane’s thrusting Lance. However, having expended considerable energy to neutralize the spreading shockwaves, the overextended Audreylinda was forced back several meters by Kane’s strike, while the Shortsword in her hand swung through empty air before her.

Just in this first exchange, Audreylinda had suffered no small disadvantage. But the pain from the impact affecting her Battle Aura also helped cool the rage that had clouded her mind moments earlier.

She had to admit the current Battlefield situation was highly unfavorable for her. In terms of pure frontal combat capability, without using certain trump cards… this level 17 knight Audreylinda wasn’t much weaker than Kane. But now she had to simultaneously guard against sudden attacks from Punk the spellcaster while diverting Battle Aura to protect the surrounding “innocent Nobles” from collateral damage. Under such multiple drains on her focus and Battle Aura, Audreylinda already sensed trouble after just one exchange.”Damn it, I need to hold on a little longer. Bartos is on his way. Even if we have to face another spellcaster, we’ll still have a fighting chance!”

Having never fought Punk before, Audreylinda was unaware that his spellcasting level had reached the terrifying height of level nineteen. The Female Knight was still naively hoping for reinforcements from Red Roy City’s true Kingdom Protector, “Bartos.” In her view, as long as she could hold out for another dozen seconds, she and Bartos joining forces would have an opportunity to eliminate the “evil” before her!

Therefore, now fully aware of what she needed to do, the Female Knight took deep breaths to suppress the surging rage within her. Audreylinda knew her explosive temper was a major character flaw. Usually, her “self-cultivation” and laid-back attitude were attempts to correct this shortcoming. Though she still occasionally lost her temper over minor matters, she had to admit that these anger management techniques proved somewhat useful in critical moments.

It was true that Audreylinda was a knight committed to justice, but she hadn’t reached the foolish level of many “religious fanatics” who would recklessly throw their lives away. Now gradually calming down, Audreylinda decided to focus all her energy on defense and evasion.

“What are you doing, Little Girl? Is your so-called punishment of evil just child’s play?”

Seeing that after their first exchange, Audreylinda hadn’t grown more enraged but instead calmed down, Kane found this hard to accept. Both he and Punk hoped to quickly deal with their current enemy. However, Audreylinda was, after all, a battle-hardened level seventeen wandering knight, and now she had entered a state of complete defensive evasion. Trying to instantly kill her in less than ten seconds… even with Punk and Kane working together, such a feat was impossible.

Moreover, they both had to carefully control their attack power to avoid harming “Smile” and the “Second Godchild”…

With Audreylinda’s wise choice, the situation once again became tricky.

Watching Audreylinda standing at a distance, taking deep, heavy breaths, Kane felt a throbbing pain in his temples. His constant taunting earlier was precisely to prevent the Female Knight from stalling for time like this. But… it turned out Kane’s provocation hadn’t been very effective. He’d never specifically studied how to insult people, and it had been quite an achievement to make the Female Knight charge forward in anger initially.

“Damn it, we must finish this woman within ten seconds, or we’ll be in real trouble today.”

Cold sweat on Kane’s forehead evaporated due to his Battle Aura as his mind raced. Simultaneously, Punk, who had been waiting for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow, was also deep in thought. Another powerful aura was drawing closer and closer. Time was of the essence for Punk and Kane!

As a wise man once said—many problems in the world aren’t necessarily difficult to solve. Often, what we lack is just a spark of inspiration!In fact, Punk was already considering how to protect “Smile” when he and Kane eventually clashed with the Female Knight and the Kingdom Protector. But just as the chaotic standoff reached an impasse, a faint voice suddenly caught the attention of both Punk and Kane.

“Hurry, Lina, press down on his artery! I still have one more potion to stop the bleeding!”

This voice, mixed among countless chaotic wails, could easily be detected by Master-Level experts with their keen hearing. Both Punk and Kane immediately recognized it—wasn’t this the voice of one of the two apprentices following Audreylinda?

(End of Chapter)