Chapter 514 – Losing Composure

“You~ know~ what”

Kane no longer stared at the Female Knight’s furious expression. Slightly turning his head, his bloodthirsty gaze fell unabashedly upon the two knight apprentices—Claire and Lina—tending to the wounded in the distance. Simultaneously, his voice, which had maintained a sinister smile, now carried a bizarre, bloodthirsty tone.

“This lord~ loves dealing with fools from the good-aligned factions the most, and what this lord~ enjoys most is witnessing the despair in the eyes of those ‘champions of justice’ when they’re powerless. That magnificent indignation, that unbelievable fury, that sorrow deeper than heartbreak… that is the most delectable spiritual feast in the world!”

Declaring his evil intentions without restraint, without any warning, Kane suddenly twisted his lance, and the Battle Aura radiating from it erupted into a blinding brilliance.

It was a glow of slaughter—within the golden, flowing radiance lay nothing but terrifying killing intent.

“Whoosh!”

Accompanied by a laser-like afterimage that vanished in an instant and the continuous sonic boom tearing through the air, Kane abruptly unleashed a Combat Skill aimed directly at Claire, who was still attending to the wounded:

“Master-Level Combat Skill—Charge!”

“For you ‘champions of justice,’ a mentor who can’t protect their own apprentices is the most incompetent, right? So now… are you still a capable righteous knight or not?”

“Despicable! Shameless!”

Witnessing Kane suddenly target her apprentice with his lance, Audreylinda’s eyes instantly reddened. Only then did she realize what a grave mistake it had been to keep her apprentices by her side for training at all times. Faced with unscrupulous powerhouses like Kane and Punk, Claire and Lina—who had come to the battlefield to aid the surviving Nobles—were now in immense danger.

At that moment, Claire had just separated from Lina and was jogging toward another bleeding casualty. The anxious youth remained completely unaware that he was fully exposed to Kane’s lance tip. Without interception, in less than a tenth of a second, the talented young knight would be shredded to pieces by the energy-laden lance.

“Boom!!”

“Waaah!”

With no time to react, Claire, still oblivious to what was happening, was violently hurled away by a terrifying shockwave. In his original spot, Audreylinda, shield in hand, was channeling her Battle Aura, desperately resisting Kane’s assault.

“You will not lay a hand on my apprentice, you vile scoundrel!”

At the critical moment, Audreylinda also unleashed a “Charge.” Overexerting her Battle Aura, the Female Knight barely managed to intercept the gleaming golden lance before it could pierce Claire. Now, even with immense peril, Audreylinda could no longer afford to solely focus on defense, evasion, and stalling for time!

Just as Kane had said, she was a Lawful good-aligned knight. It was utterly impossible for Audreylinda to stand by and watch her apprentice be slain.Even if it meant putting herself in grave danger, Audreylinda would desperately shield her apprentice. She had brought her apprentice here to treat the wounded, but now… it was undoubtedly a huge mistake made by the Female Knight without thinking it through. Because of this, if Claire or Lina were to die here, Audreylinda would never forgive herself.

Knowing how to provoke enemies in combat is an essential skill that all professionals must seriously study, especially in one-on-one duels. An enraged, frenzied enemy is always much easier to deal with than a rational, calm powerhouse. So, in Kane’s view, as long as he could infuriate the enemy and force them to confront him head-on, he was more than willing to slaughter the weaklings the enemy sought to protect.

Now, Kane’s plan had undoubtedly succeeded. Although he hadn’t killed Claire to drive the Female Knight into madness, Audreylinda was already furious to the extreme upon seeing her apprentice attacked. As a “righteous knight” who habitually charged recklessly without regard for consequences when enraged, Audreylinda had long abandoned her rational plan to stall for time. All the Female Knight wanted now was to use every ounce of her strength to chop the evilly laughing Kane into pieces.

“Evil, face judgment!”

With a ferocious roar like a mother beast whose young had been attacked, Audreylinda’s azure-shortsword suddenly seemed to transform into thousands of strands of blue rain. All the dense, silk-like Battle Aura slashes shot toward Kane almost simultaneously.

“Kekekeke, splendid move!”

Kane’s movements were just as swift. The Lance in his hands seemed to pierce the reflection of stars in mid-air as he swung it, countless golden points of light weaving into a large net at the tip of his Lance, moving so fast that even afterimages were invisible.

As the golden network of light clashed head-on with the azure silk, a terrifying storm instantly turned the ground beneath the two combatants into powder. The remnants of Battle Aura, scattered like sparks, riddled the originally ornate Arena Hall with holes in mere seconds, while the high-frequency vibrating noise ruptured the eardrums of every ordinary person present, causing them to bleed.

“Fortunately, it seems things haven’t taken the worst turn yet.”

Standing at a distance and calmly watching Kane and Audreylinda turn into two nearly indiscernible afterimages colliding fiercely, Punk slowly gathered a faint purple glow in his hand.

Punk couldn’t really intervene much in Kane’s fight, primarily because he wasn’t familiar with Kane’s combat style and hidden cards. Without sufficient tacit understanding, many buff spells that increase a teammate’s strength or speed couldn’t be cast recklessly. After all, suddenly faster footsteps or abruptly increased strength could often disorient or even throw off a focused combat professional. Recklessly casting buff or debuff spells might not aid an ally but could backfire instead.

However, even if hastily casting auxiliary spells wasn’t appropriate, Punk still had better ways to speed up the resolution of Audreylinda.Based on Punk’s experience, when dealing with powerful figures from the good-aligned camp, targeting those important to them often yielded twice the result with half the effort in terms of disruption. Therefore, Punk’s current focus wasn’t on the Female Knight who appeared to have let her guard down against him, but rather… Lina, who was still standing quite far from the Female Knight.

It had to be said that in terms of cunning and ruthlessness, Punk and Kane had unwittingly arrived at the same idea.

Especially since Punk had just witnessed how Audreylinda fell into such a frenzied rage after Claire was attacked—how could a wise spellcaster overlook such an obvious weakness in the enemy?

Thus, without even needing time to think, Punk, with his spell prepared, directly ignored the Female Knight who was locked in fierce combat with Kane. The target of his “Velocity Kinetic Cone”… was unmistakably aimed at the young knight apprentice—Lina, who was covering her ears and struggling to endure the noise and vibration storm.

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(End of Chapter)