The sky was just beginning to brighten when a dark figure darted through the forest. He moved quickly, but without making much noise.
This figure was wearing a round top hat, a cloak, a swallow-tail coat, outdated trousers, and black leather boots. His face was hidden under the veil and the cloak, making it almost impossible to see his face. What could be seen were his turbid, blood-red eyes and those green-gray threads that covered his skin like worms.
"Heh heh heh, you think you can catch me with this little group?" The dark figure pulled out a pocket watch and laughed disdainfully. As the evil god's power continued to descend, more and more pustules appeared on his body. He could even feel the maggots crawling over his wounds.
However, none of this was important. He could feel that a powerful force was continuously entering his body. Every minute, every second, he felt that he was becoming stronger!
He suddenly felt that the oath he'd sworn to destroy the chaos was laughable. For more than a decade he'd worked so hard to rid the world of evil. Again and again he'd fought the cultists for the sake of justice, for the sake of protecting humanity.
Protecting humanity … Heh, I can't even protect the woman I love.
"Ahhhhh!" The searing pain in his body made him scream. Since he'd chosen to fall, he'd have to accept the corruption of the chaos and be transformed. It was an excruciating process. Even a Master Demonhunter with great endurance would go mad under the agony.
"Not yet!" Black blood sprayed from his mouth. He didn't even have time to wipe it off before he ran for his life into the depths of the forest. This was the critical moment of his transformation.
"Tsk, you still have to endure." The dark figure disappeared into the depths of the forest.
There were a lot of bright red bloodstains on the ground, which were left behind by another old demon hunter who came to pursue him. In the past, the two of them fought side by side to expel evil. Now that they had parted ways, there was a certain gap in strength between the two of them. Belt knew Grant's combat skills and habits very well. After the Fallen Hunter's strength had increased greatly, the old demon hunter was naturally no match for him and was tragically killed. However, Belt was in the midst of mutation and did not have the time to pursue his former companion who was seriously injured.
The snow continued to fall for days with no sign of stopping. Laing walked out of the town and walked alone in the world of ice and snow.
Nords was covered in dense forests. Most of them were cold coniferous forests. On a snowy day like this, the coniferous forests were filled with snow. So he had to be careful. The slightest movement could cause a lot of snow to fall from the trees and cause loud noises. Laing wasn't afraid, but he didn't want to get into trouble.
Step by step, he walked towards his destination. The forest was eerily quiet. Laing sighed deeply. The original forest wasn't like this.
The original forest was beautiful and full of vitality. But hundreds of years ago, when Chaos descended, mutated Orcs who were contaminated by Chaos appeared. Wherever the Orcs went, the trees would rot and wither. Animals would mutate and form new Chaos Orcs. The land and water sources would be polluted, stinking, and flowing backwards. Desertification would occur from time to time. Therefore, the Chaos Orcs and the Spellcasters who caused alchemy pollution were the two most hated creatures of the Druidic Order. As long as these creatures appeared in their sights, the Druidic Order wouldn't hesitate to kill them.
The Nords Kingdom was considered good. As the climate was too cold, even the Orcs didn't want to stay for long. In the southern Brittany or the Empire, the powerful Orc tribes were like maggots attached to the bones of the country. Wherever the Orc tribes went, not even a blade of grass would grow. They would kill everything that was alive. The Empire had already fought with the Orcs several times. Even the Emperor personally led the Royal Guards to battle with the Orcs in the forest near the capital.
Thanks to the Chaos Orcs, the forest had become a very dangerous place. Unless the safety of the forest was confirmed, there would be powerful Magic Beasts lurking in the depths of the forest. Most of the Lords stipulated that hunters couldn't enter the forest for more than two days on foot. Even so, one or two hunters would die in many towns every month.
Two hours after entering the forest, the corners of the Knight's mouth twitched. "A corpse?"
The sun had set. Under a tree not far away, an old Demon Hunter with his stomach cut open was sitting. The old Demon Hunter looked to be in his fifties. His ashen face and dried blood indicated that he had been dead for a long time. The silver sword that should have been on his back was missing, and the steel sword was broken and thrown aside. His abdomen had been sliced open and penetrated, and there were many fatal wounds on his chest. Under the faint moonlight, Laing noticed that even though he was dead, the old Demon Hunter was still holding a sharp knife in his hand. His leather clothes were torn in many places. It was obvious that he had gone through a fierce battle. Laing tried to get closer to see what was going on.
After a few steps, Laing felt that he had stepped on something, and there was a cracking sound.
Not good! There's a trap!
Dozens of sharpened wooden cones shot down from the snow-covered branches above. At the same time, there was the sound of snow falling on the ground. A cylindrical tree trunk, under the guidance of a branch, quickly swung down from a nearby tree and swung towards Laing's position.
Laing's originally gentle gaze became sharp, and he gripped the war hammer in his hand tightly.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The wooden spikes in the air shot towards him. With a flick of his right hand, Leon lifted his warhammer high above his head. Under Leon's movements, the long-handled warhammer spun in the air at an extremely fast speed. A whirlwind appeared in the cold forest, and the wooden spikes in the air were quickly knocked away. The danger from the air was eliminated.
Then, the Knight switched the war hammer to his left hand, and clenched his right hand into a fist. He punched directly at the tree trunk that was swinging towards him. With a loud bang, the tree trunk split into several pieces and fell to the ground.
"After being attacked, he escaped here with his life hanging by a thread. Even if he lost most of his mobility, he still hid here and waited for help. He even set up a trap, but in the end, he still died because of his severe injuries, right?" Laing checked the dead Demon Hunter and roughly guessed what happened.
"Escaped here with severe injuries, right?"
After the severely injured Demon Hunter escaped here, he set up a trap and hid here to rest, hoping for help. Maybe he shot a whistling arrow, maybe he didn't, but it didn't matter. The truth was that the unlucky Demon Hunter did not wait for help. With his severely injured body, he could not survive for more than two days in this world of ice and snow. He died in the cold due to excessive bleeding.
Death happened every day, and Laing was used to it. In his early years, he had seen his teammate's head bitten off by a bear spirit. Now, a cold corpse did not bring much shock to him. Out of courtesy, he buried the poor Demon Hunter hastily, and took the valuable items from him as his reward.
"???" 'This is …' Ryan noticed that the old Demon Hunter was protecting something in his arms.
After keeping the dozens of Gold Denars that the old Demon Hunter brought, Laing took out a pocket watch from the old Demon Hunter's arms.
Pocket watches were very precious in this world. They could not be made by non-dwarven or Empire military. Due to the nature of their profession, Demon Hunters valued time more, and most of them would spend a lot of money to buy a pocket watch.
Opening the pocket watch, there was a portrait of the old Demon Hunter's family. He, his wife, and his two children were all smiling widely at Laing.
Ryan took a deep breath and clenched his fists so hard that the bones in his palms made cracking sounds.
"Bernt!!! I'll catch you!!! "
"What? You mean a Fallen Hunter named Bernt is being hunted? " The merchant of the Empire, Olivier, was sitting in a carriage with his guards on horseback. They happened to meet a team of Paladins on a mission. Olivier immediately thought of the series of rumors he had heard earlier, so he grabbed one of the Paladins and asked.
The one he grabbed was a young Paladin in his twenties. There was a hint of arrogance between his eyebrows, unlike the leading Paladin, whose eyes were full of hardships. When the young Paladin saw that it was a merchant, his tone was not pleasant. "Yes, in order to hunt down this Fallen Hunter, we have lost the lives of several of our comrades. So please don't interfere with our mission, sir?"
As soon as he said this, Oliver also felt a little unhappy. The opposition between merchants and paladins was very obvious. Paladins hated merchants for being unscrupulous, slick, and unscrupulous in order to make money. Merchants hated paladins for their complicated rules and regulations and nosy style of doing things, which always cut off their source of income. It was also because of this reason that some shops and auction houses did not welcome paladins, and some paladins would rather hunt and mine than go to the shops to buy things.
But their lives were more important. No matter what, Paladins were at least reasonable. Who knew if he would still be alive if he met the Fallen Hunter? Olivier suppressed his anger and spread out his hands to show his goodwill. He said, "So, are you planning to go through the forest in front? If you don't mind, let's go together. We can take care of each other along the way. "
"Who wants to go with someone like you —" The young Paladin was interrupted halfway by the leading Paladin. The leading Paladin looked to be in his fifties. His blond hair was almost white, and his face was rough. He had a one-handed sword on his waist and a shield on his back. The golden pattern on his helmet showed that he should be the leader. "Okay, Alex, be polite. Have you forgotten the rules that my bishop gave us?"
"Of … of course not." The young Paladin stopped talking.
"Unfortunately, sir, we are just patrolling nearby. We have no intention of entering the forest." The older Paladin shook his head and motioned for the young Paladin named Alex to shut up. "Sir, please go ahead."
After that, the team of Paladins left in another direction.
A guard looked at the forest covered in snow in front of him and swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He turned back and asked, "Boss, shall we continue?"
Olivier looked at the road that extended into the forest and was finally swallowed by the endless forest. He gritted his teeth. "Let's go! We can't delay any longer! "
"Yes, sir!"
Olivier and the others finally entered the forest. The sound of the carriage wheels rang in the quiet forest. When the wheels hit a small stone, Olivier felt his heart tremble.
So dark, so dark. Sitting in the carriage. The Empire merchant looked around uneasily. He only felt that there was something swimming in the dark forest.
A deep sense of uneasiness shrouded the merchant and his guards. Olivier took out a pendant made of pure gold from his chest and prayed silently.
"Goddess of Wealth, please give me peace. Goddess of Wealth, please give me peace."
Most of the merchants believed in the Goddess of Wealth, but most of them were false believers and pan-believers. False believers only told others that they believed in this God, and when they needed to pray, they prayed without sincerity. Pan-Believers were similar, but they prayed more often.
A long period of prayer seemed to have some effect. They traveled smoothly for three hours and entered the depths of the forest. At this time, the strength of the horses and the guards had reached a critical point. They decided to take a break.
"I'll go get some ice." A guard took an iron pot and planned to go to the nearby river to get some ice to boil and make soup.
What he didn't expect was that the guard hadn't returned even after half an hour.
Olivier gradually felt that something was wrong. The merchant sat against a tree, holding a kettle with warm water that had just boiled not long ago. He held a piece of bacon in his other hand. After looking in the direction of the river again, the merchant asked one of the guards anxiously, "Focker? Why hasn't Meyer come back after so long? "
The guard named Focker shook his head violently. "I don't know, boss, I —"
"Neighhhh!!!" The neighing of the horses interrupted the conversation, followed by a slight tremor in the ground.
Dong, dong, dong, dong ~
When they heard the sound, their expressions changed drastically. Focker instinctively threw away the ladle that he was holding and grabbed the hilt of his sword. Olivier even scrambled to hide behind his bodyguard. He did not care that his fur coat was stained with snow and mud. His face turned pale as he looked at the direction where the sound came from. He could feel his heart beating faster and faster.
Dong, dong, dong ~
"Roar, roar, roar, roar!" A small warhound appeared in front of them. This warhound was very ugly, and its face was covered with all kinds of terrible scars. Its mouth was wide open, revealing white sharp teeth, and disgusting saliva was slowly dripping down from them.
"Chaos War Hound, it's the Orc War Hound!" Focker screamed. He grabbed the crossbow on his back and pulled the trigger at the war hound.
"Swoosh ~" An arrow flew through the cold air and penetrated the war hound's skull. The war hound howled in pain. Its charging body trembled, and it died on the way.
"Good!" Oliver clenched his fists and shouted. But before he could finish his words, more than a dozen battle hounds rushed over. Without hesitation, they knocked away the corpses of the battle hounds. Their blood-red eyes were filled with a thirst for blood, which made one tremble in fear.
They were Orcs, terrifying Orcs. They were the Orcs that could stop children from crying anywhere on the continent. They were known as the "Gangrene of the Earth" and "Calamity"!
The Orcs were here!
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