Chapter 762

Chapter Twenty-Six: A Gentle Breeze

…?

How…

Young Knight Barry couldn’t react immediately. He didn’t understand what had happened. The splattering blood stained his face, making the already dark vision appear crimson. The familiar, warm yet pungent stench of blood filled his nostrils. Barry instinctively closed his mouth and raised his hand to shield his eyes.

His brain spun from weakness and lack of oxygen. His ears were still ringing with persistent sharp buzzes. He felt the person on top of him collapse to one side limply. In his dazed state, Barry saw through the blood-stained fingers that the fallen person’s head had been severed. Blood gushed out from the neck wound as if from a fountain.

Thump…

Thump.

Barry could hear his heart pounding at this moment.

The person was dead…

“Cough… Cough!”

Thick bloody phlegm choked his throat. He coughed as he struggled to crawl through the mud, kicking away the corpse pinning half of his body. He crawled two meters in a disheveled manner. His head remained in a daze. Using his elbows to support himself on the ground, he subconsciously raised his head, gasping for breath, wide-eyed and startled, looking around.

Then, he saw a thin silhouette wrapped in a gray cloak a few meters away, standing among the trampled grass. With one hand, he gripped the neck of the last pursuer and lifted him from the mud.

“Uh… Huh…”

The man seemed to want to beg for mercy but couldn’t speak. His eyes bulged like those of his companions just moments ago.

The sudden appearance of the gray cloak seemed to intend to lift him off the ground directly. But due to height limitations, even with his right arm raised high above his head, the pursuer’s feet still dragged helplessly on the ground. No one would find this scene amusing. The man, who was much larger and more robust than the gray cloak, appeared in Barry’s eyes like a chick caught by an eagle. Despite his desperate struggles, he couldn’t break free from the slender, seemingly delicate hand, which looked like it belonged to a woman or a child. His expression twisted in the next moment.

Crack!

With a clear and dull bone snap, the man’s neck was easily snapped. His head drooped lifelessly, like a dead dog, and was thrown several meters away, landing in a muddy puddle between the grass, twitching until it stopped moving.

Who…

A child…

Barry’s mind went blank.

He saw the gray cloak turn his head and look at him.

That glance made Barry’s hair stand on end.

The wide hood was blown up by the night wind, revealing a strange, fox-like mask with a grinning face. Blood drops stained the protruding fox mouth, gleaming menacingly in the darkness. Underneath the eye sockets, which seemed like black holes, faintly flickered cold, emotionless, bloodthirsty red eyes.

Barry did not know how to meet that gaze.

He felt as if his scalp was about to explode. At that moment, he suddenly felt as weak and insignificant as a lowly ant that could be crushed at will.

He froze, stunned by the gray cloak’s glance, sitting paralyzed in the mud. He couldn’t remember to run, his legs soft and trembling like a sieve. His mind produced no reaction, even his exhaled breaths trembled. It seemed as if what stood before him was not a person, but a vicious, terrifying monster, a monster from the abyss that devoured people.

There was no escape…

Barry slowly closed his eyes.

If this person wants to kill me…

No matter what, I am going to die…

There is no room to struggle…

Forget it…

It’s better to die here…

Despair filled his heart as he closed his eyes, waiting for death to come. However, seconds later, he heard the sound of footsteps fading away, followed by a dull thud. The noise startled Barry, causing him to open his eyes again. In his line of sight, there was dirt flying everywhere ahead, and a figure launched into the sky like a cannonball.

“Flying… Flying…”

Flying…

The gray cloak was flying… He flew away…

He spared me…

Why didn’t he kill me…

Confused thoughts flashed through his mind. Barry sat on the ground for a long time, until he saw the figure land in the manor where they had previously fought. Soon after, he faintly heard screams coming from there. Barry listened to the sound, suddenly remembering something. He scrambled to his feet, clutching his bleeding, mud-streaked hands,

His hand, he did not choose to continue fleeing, but limped and staggered back.

Running all the way to his fallen comrade’s side, disregarding the pain of his injuries, he knelt down with a “thud.”

“Wu… Wuwu…”

In the darkness, came the stifled, painful sobs of this young man.

The comrade was already dead.

Through blurred eyes filled with tears, he saw him lying on the ground, eyes wide open and staring, face pale as iron, tongue protruding, and two rows of tears still wet mixed with mud on his cheeks.

The one who had killed him lay not far away, in a pool of blood, with a deep wound that exposed bone, staining half of his clothes dark red. He lay there motionless, but…

There seemed to be a faint breath.

Barry looked at him, his gloomy expression instantly turning fierce and enraged.

“Ugh ah ah ah—”

He roared and charged forward, picking up the long sword dropped by the other person, and crazily hacking at his face and body, blood and flesh flying everywhere, blood splashing into his mouth. Barry didn’t care; he recalled how he had once crazily killed an apostate, feeling rage and sorrow. Suddenly, he felt some of that fury return.

Until he hacked the other person until he was unrecognizable, until his arm trembled and went numb, unable to wield the sword or grip the hilt, he finally stopped, panting.

Clang—

In a daze, he threw the sword aside, spat out some phlegm, and stumbled back to his comrade, sitting beside the corpse. He tried to tidy his sleeves, but his hands were shaking uncontrollably, unable to do so no matter how hard he tried. Barry wanted to close his eyes, but the eyeballs were too prominent, making it impossible.

“Why…”

“Why aaaahhh!!”

Barry screamed in anguish, looking up to the sky, holding back tears for a long time before they finally fell down his cheeks.

The chilly night wind blew through the grass.

……

When the corner of a gray cloak reappeared beside him, the knight named Barry had already fainted, lying on top of his dead comrade, tear marks on his face, tightly hugging the corpse as if afraid of losing him again.

“…Huh—”

I looked at him, unconscious, frowning under my mask, unable to hold back a sigh.

A dirty body, tattered clothes, a gaunt and haggard face, like that of a dead man.

I remembered seeing him last time in the infirmary, the boy was also in such a wretched state, but then his face radiated full of spirit and hope for the future.

He is no longer like that now…

Thankfully.

I arrived just in time.

Shaking off the bloodstains from my hands, I turned around and looked around carefully, listening intently for a while. After confirming that everyone nearby had been killed, I tilted my head in thought, then squatted down to check Barry’s injuries. Seeing no major issues, I took out my water flask and let him drink some water. The dazed Barry drank several large gulps. I didn’t dare let him drink too much and used the remaining water to clean his palm wound, wrapping it with a corner of the cloak. Then, lifting him up, I carried him over my shoulder.

Lightweight…

He must have suffered a lot.

Alright…

What should I do next?

I felt troubled.

For now, let’s leave here first…

I carried him again, leaping high into the air, and returned to the estate in a few steps, standing on the highest wooden board of the scaffolding. Removing my hood, I gazed at the distant city lit up by lights, pondering whether to take him back to care for him or find a new place outside the city.

This wasn’t difficult for me.

But before I could decide, suddenly, I saw a figure, furtive and clumsy, slowly climbing over from a distant hillside, illuminated faintly by the thin moonlight in the pitch-black night.

…Hmm?

I was slightly stunned.

It seems to be coming this way…

She stumbled and fell, rolling down the hillside with a “clatter,” dropping whatever she was holding. She seemed to have fallen badly, taking a long time to get up again.

“Pfft.”

I couldn’t help but exhale.

It’s clear that it’s a woman…

I roughly knew who she was.