City of Sin (Yanyu Jiangnan)

A Mishap

The feeling of passing through a planar portal was about the same as any other. One’s consciousness blanked for a brief moment, before glitching back into existence. It felt longer than usual, though, but then again they’d crossed an immeasurable distance in a mere few seconds.

Archeron men were waiting at the other side, having built a reconnaissance base and set up a Lighthouse of Time to guide those who came afterwards. In the vast and chaotic currents of time and space, the Lighthouse of Time would provide a stable position to lock on to, preventing the traveller from losing their way to a deviation in the teleportation route that was set up on short notice.

According to the information Richard had acquired, the base wasn’t particularly large. Even including the natives they’d subjugated there weren’t more than fifty people present, and the place was barely larger than an adventuring party’s camp. Seventeen of the Archerons sent out in the original party had survived, having explored less than fifty kilometres out. It could be said that they were still rather clueless about the plane’s situation.

However, the coordinates of every stable plane were extremely precious. Once the plane was completely conquered, it would result in a large fortune and innumerable resources. Gaton only had one unconquered lesser plane himself, so Richard didn’t exactly have a choice.

Richard was already quite satisfied with lodging at a relatively safe vase, with men who’d arrived beforehand and were already familiar with the environment. Many of the initial dangers involved in planar travel had already been avoided.

A burst of dazzling white light appeared in Richard’s sight. It blinded and hurt him, taking away the colourful lights that had pervaded his vision upto that point. There were no dazzling lights when he regained vision, however; he instead saw a cloudy sky, with trees and mountains around. A gentle breeze blew past his face, telling Richard that a whole new world had opened up ahead of him.

Outside of the purple flora, everything present looked quite the same as Norland. It was unknown whether it was due to a particular season or it was normal all year round, but the mountain range that stretched endlessly under the azure sky was covered in various shades of purple that exuded vitality.

However, there was barely any time for Richard to admire the scenery of the plane. A strong sense of danger suddenly welled up in his heart, and the sharp whistle of the wind suddenly rang in his ears. A cry rang out, and from the corner of his eye Richard saw Waterflower charging towards him.

Waterflower pinned Richard to the ground, and an arrow whizzed past them right after to bury itself right next to his cheek. The strong winds hurt his eyes, the arrow still making a disturbing hum as it vibrated in the earth.

Although this was a close shave with death, Richard was a lot calmer this time. Enemy attack! That was the first thing that came to his mind.

“Follow me!” Waterflower said stiffly. She leapt up like a cheetah, her figure constantly switching between paths. She took a winding path as she charged towards a tree not far away. Richard flipped onto his feet as well, swiftly running alongside her.

A novice knight was running as well, not far from them. However, he’d barely taken a few steps before some arrows whizzed by and pinned him down. A sharp whistle rang in the air as a hatched flew over, burying itself into his back. The knight shouted in agony before collapsing to the ground.

It was only then that Richard managed to distinguish between the various sounds he heard in his ear. Murderous screams echoed from every direction, making it clear that they had been surrounded. Incessant howls of agony rang out from the jungle, many of them from voices he was familiar with. The ones he didn’t recognise sounded foreign and strange; they had to be from the enemies.

Richard rapidly took note of his surroundings. This was a sparse forest, a mixture of various trees and shrubs. There was only the occasional bulky tree that seemed old, with agile soldiers running amongst them. They took cover behind the trees and bushes, inching closer to their location.

Just from their movements Richard could tell that all of these enemies were level 5 or higher. They were familiar with battle in the woods, with a large number of archers amongst them. The only good news was that there were no signs of magic yet.

As he was looking at all this, Richard jumped towards the large tree that Waterflower had found. Once he was under cover, the young lady leapt forward like a wolf, charging towards the approaching enemies in the depths of the jungle with extraordinary agility. He was quite confident in her ability to deal with multiple lower-level opponents in a forest environment.

Surely enough, endless shrieks soon echoed around the area. Waterflower was like a true wolf hiding in the woods, pouncing from fallen enemy to enemy.

Richard composed himself, quickly buffing himself with a magical shield and stone skin. He then began to make his own way towards the most intense part of the battle.

He heard Gangdor snarl right ahead of him, following which the huge figure charged through two trees that were bound closely together. The hanging vines didn’t hinder the brute in the least, falling to the ground one after the other as if they were cut off by sharp blades. With more than half of his upper body already bared, the long arrow stuck into his back was quite noticeable.

However, all of Gangdor’s body was radiating with vengeance. It was evident that the arrow wouldn’t affect his might in battle, as he wielded an unknown’s tree trunk that was even thicker than his arm. The trunk was coloured a sticky red and white, blood and brain matter all over it.

There were unsettling movements in the shadows surrounding them. The enemies were cautiously closing in on them, but neither that nor the injuries seemed to affect the part giant’s fighting spirit. On the contrary, it only made him more ferocious. He took large strides forward, brandishing the large trunk in his hand. His heavy footsteps shook the ground relentlessly, while his snarls reverberated in the jungle, “You lowly creatures! Get yourselves out here and face your deaths! Don’t think these toothpicks of trees will save you, I can smell your stink from kilometres away! Look at this axe in my…”

Gangdor’s voice came to a halt. He looked at the tree trunk in his hand, unsure as to how he should continue. All their weapons were transported together in a chest when they teleported, cutting down on the mana required to run the formation. His axe wasn’t in his hand right now, instead packed tightly into the chest.

However, it was evident that the slaughter was more important than his warcry. Gangdor only paused for a moment, before continuing with his roar, “No weapon in my hand can handle the hunger! Shudder, you lowly creatures!”

*Whoosh!* The response Gangdor got was an arrow, shot forth towards him from behind. However, he displayed an agility not befitting of his build. In a flash he’d leapt to the side, easily dodging it. The trunk in his hands flew out into the jungle, ruthlessly smashing into a half-exposed archer.

The cracking of bones rang out, and the archer’s body instantly distorted. The man couldn’t even manage a groan before collapsing. Gangdor looked around for another weapon, but not finding anything he resorted to tearing down a nearby tree and holding it in his hand.

The commotion of battle suddenly grew intense in another direction. Four knights tightly encircled Flowsand to protect her, continuing to retreat. They weren’t armed well, with only one of them having a shield in hand while the others had to make do with longswords and axes. Sharp arrows rained down on them from the jungle, leaving all of the knights injured. However, their bodies were all shining with a faint radiance. Every time the tip of an arrow touched this glow, it came to a halt like it had fallen into water. The force of the arrows was halved at minimum.

Range Shield was a spell common to clerics and mages, one of the most practical of the elementary spellbook. Even in an unfavourable situation Flowsand appeared calm and collected. Although she was on the move as well, she was casting spells cleanly on the knights, one by one. The spells replenished their shields, and healed those who’d suffered more serious injuries. Although she was casting elementary spells, they were shot out one after the other. It was like she had inexhaustible power.

A burst of laughter suddenly echoed from the woods opposite Flowsand, sounding like grinding metal. A voice rang out, saying the same thing again and again. The cleric immediately cast a language proficiency spell, hearing what the other party had to say:

“Foreign invaders, you’ve landed in the hands of Sir Kojo. Don’t even think of putting up a struggle! I’ll kill all of you, and hang your bodies in front of the baron’s castle to show everyone in the lands how invaders end up! Hahahahaha!”