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This was a deserted manor. The former prosperity had disappeared, and the dilapidated walls spoke of the former richness and the present desolation. As far as the eye could see, the fertile fields had been covered by snow and withered weeds. Most of the low houses and granaries had collapsed, and the fences and walls were broken and damaged.
Ghouls and ferocious beasts wandered in the wilderness, as well as the terrible undead. This was the case in this terrible world. If the dead were not buried properly, they would turn into the terrible undead at night, carrying the longing for life and the hatred of the living, wandering in the wilderness forever.
It was still daytime, but there was a loud noise in the manor.
"Bang!" The sound of heavy objects hitting metal resounded in the empty manor, followed by the roars of beasts and the shouts of humans. "Come on! Beast! Have a taste of my power! "
"Be careful! Ah Fu! Don't be rash! "Another voice shouted." Teresa, it's heading towards you! "
"Got it!" A calm female voice responded, and then she shouted, "Frost!"
"Beautiful, now watch me! Divine Judgement! "A white light flashed, and the beast let out a painful roar.
Finally, the people could see the whole picture.
In the barren and dilapidated fields, there were three humans fighting a huge beast.
The leading human was wearing a full set of plate armor, holding a large square shield in one hand and a standard one-handed sword of a paladin in the other. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and sweat streaked across his forehead. The divine power of the God of Justice was constantly flashing, and he used his sword to hit his shield. "Come on! Beast! "
"Clang! Clang! Clang!" The sound of metal hitting metal made the monster very irritated.
A tall white wolf knight wearing chainmail and breastplate took the opportunity to attack the monster's right wing, and each of his attacks caused great damage to the monster.
"Laing, be careful of its poisonous stingers!" A little further away, a female Sorceress wearing a black leather outfit and holding a magic staff was moving while silently chanting an incantation.
The stones on the ground and the collapsed walls began to combine under the guidance of the sorceress's magic, gradually forming a two-meter-tall golem made of stone and wood. The surface of the golem was covered in thick frost, and under the sorceress's command, it staggered and rushed towards the monster.
The monster's full appearance was also displayed in front of the three.
It was a huge creature with the appearance of a lion. It had a ferocious face like a jackal, a fiery red mane, huge fangs, and wings full of spikes. The most special thing about it was its long tail with a barb at the end.
This monster was none other than the manticore that would make anyone turn pale at the mere mention of it!
Even among chaos creations, the manticore was extremely ferocious. Because of its inherent stubbornness and belligerence, the manticore would fight with any enemy for its territory. When faced with a giant eagle, a griffin, or even a dragon emperor that mistakenly entered its territory, the manticore's response was the same: it would roar and rush towards the enemy, engaging in a bloody and brutal battle until one of them died and the other survived. And if the enemy was not far stronger than itself, the manticore would usually win in such a battle. They would stand on the cliff and roar, declaring their strength and determination.
"Damn it, I didn't expect the manticore to be so difficult to deal with!" The paladin Al Frey carefully moved sideways, looking for an opportunity to attack.
The manticore was too agile. It could always easily dodge the paladin's attacks and immediately counterattack.
The paladin's professional characteristics were slow movements, low attack power, and good defense. In the face of the manticore's attacks, Al Frey was always in a situation where he could not exert his strength.
That was because the beast's tail was too annoying. The poisonous stinger soaked in green venom was always swaying around his head, constantly looking for an opportunity to pierce his helmet. When Al Frey's helmet was deformed and sent flying by the stinger, the paladin had to carefully retreat to the second line.
The manticore's venom was extremely lethal. Ordinary people would basically die if they were poisoned.
"Alf, do you want to withdraw?" Laing shouted from the side. He carefully avoided the stinger that was piercing towards him. Seeing the manticore spread its wings and was about to take off, Laing directly hit it back to the ground with a heavy hammer. "Don't force yourself. You have met the conditions for honorable retreat!"
Honorable retreat was one of the dogmas of the Church of Justice.
In response to the Sacred Warriors' tendency to be hot-blooded and die for the sake of justice, the God of Justice formulated this doctrine. When the enemy's strength was three times or more than that of the Sacred Warriors, retreating was not a shameful thing, but a glorious thing. It was called a glorious retreat.
Since this doctrine was announced, the death rate of paladins had been greatly reduced.
"No, I haven't used Divine Shield today!" Al Frey shouted.
"Well, as you wish." Laing stopped talking.
Divine Shield and Holy Light were known as one of the paladins' two greatest defensive skills. Al Frey, who had advanced from a paladin to a temple guard, could use Divine Shield once a day. The divine power from the God of Justice would bless him for a short period of time (about six seconds) to continue fighting in a state of being basically invincible.
Although Divine Shield was not invincible in the absolute sense, it was enough to deal with the manticore.
The manticore pounced on Laing, splashing a lot of dust and snowflakes. Laing rolled away easily, and then rushed forward, hitting the manticore's front claw with his hammer, and then immediately dodging the manticore's poisonous stinger pursuit.
"Ice Spear!" Teresa immediately condensed a long ice spear in the air. The ice spear pierced through the air, whistling directly toward the manticore.
The manticore dodged quickly, and taking advantage of this opportunity, the ice golem immediately hugged it.
Laing saw this and began to accumulate power.
The manticore struggled with all its strength, its sharp teeth and claws quickly tore the golem summoned by Teresa into pieces. Its slender tail swung wildly, and the poisonous stinger at the end of the tail could pierce a hole in the surface of the golem with every hit, sending debris flying everywhere.
Soon, the golem's arm and head were damaged, and it looked like it was about to lose control of the manticore.
But this was enough.
"Frost Nova!!" The Sorceress shouted, and the interior of the ice golem suddenly spewed out a large amount of frost mist. The manticore was frozen by the bone-chilling mist and screamed endlessly. It struggled to break free from the control of the golem, but under the control of the Sorceress, the golem held the manticore tightly and did not let go.
Gradually, the manticore's body became stiff, and the golem completely turned back into stone and wood under the manticore's fierce attacks.
"Divine Shock!" The Paladin's long sword emitted a white glow, and Alfred Frey struck with all his strength, leaving a huge wound on the manticore's back.
Then, Laing attacked. The warhammer in the hands of the White Wolf Knight burst out with a golden light, and hit the manticore's head heavily.
Skull Smash!
"Ow ow ow!" At the critical moment, the manticore, which had sensed the extreme danger, finally managed to break free from its frozen state. It turned its head, and with the help of the white wolf knight's great strength, it pounced towards Alfreid. The venomous stinger on its tail flew over its head, directly stabbing towards the Saint Samurai's skull.
The old force was gone, and the new force had not been born, and the Paladin itself was not a nimble profession, so Alfred Frey immediately launched a divine spell.
A golden ring wrapped around Alfred Frey, and countless flashing golden runes revolved around the Paladin. The manticore's fierce attack was completely blocked by this mysterious energy, and no matter how hard it tried, it could not break through the outer golden protective energy.
With the protection of the Divine Shield, Alfred Frey immediately used a desperate fighting style. Every move of the Paladin was a life-or-death struggle, and he did not mind that his moves were full of openings. Every time he waved his long sword, it left a deep wound on the manticore's body. Soon, the manticore's movements slowed down due to excessive blood loss and injuries, and it entered a state of dying.
Laing chuckled in his heart.
The Divine Shield was so rogue. When the Divine Shield was in a state of invincibility, the Paladin would maximize the value of the Divine Shield through this fighting style, so many people jokingly called the Paladin in this state "Long Live Charge."
There was no need for him to make a move, because the battle was over.
Teresa rushed over, and the sorceress stood outside the manticore's maximum attack range and stretched out her staff to release a terrible frost. The monster was slowly frozen into a whole ice sculpture. Alfred Frey first cut off the manticore's head with his sword, and Laing also arrived. With a wave of his psionic blade, the manticore's tail was also separated from its body.
"Done! We kept this thing's body intact, and Ms. Ditinda should pay us a good price! "Laing laughed.
"Let's call it a day!" The golden ring around Alfred Frey also disappeared, and the Paladin put away his sword with a smile, put the shield behind him, and stretched. "I haven't seen you for many years, Laing. I didn't expect you to have become so strong."
"How can I be your friend if I'm not strong?" Laing complained casually, and then put away his war hammer. "But you've become very strong too, Alfred."
"Of course, if I'm not strong, how can I live up to the name of 'Sledgehammer' Laing's friend?" Alfred Frey laughed.
The two men looked at each other and felt a deep tacit understanding between them.
Only the sorceress, who was standing on the side, rolled her eyes, thinking that these two men were not disgusting to brag about each other.
"Ahem, well, we've finished the kill, and the manticore has fallen. It's getting late, so let's go back, Laing? Alfred … Frey? "Teresa tried to look as pleasant as possible.
Although the sorceress did not like the Paladin, Alfred Frey was Laing's good friend and childhood playmate, so she felt that it was necessary to pretend to be nice.
"Speaking of which, Laing, it's really … surprising that you would ask me to do this." Alfred Frey sat directly on the ground, panting. "This … is good, you've fulfilled one of my wishes."
"One of your wishes?"
"Well, actually, when we entered the city, this Ms. Nora had already stopped us on the street once." Alfred Frey laughed self-deprecatingly. "But she couldn't pay the fee, even though we had already given her our bottom line, so even though it was very sad, we had to tell her that we couldn't do it. You know, Laing, the manticore is not the kind of ghoul or goblin that we can easily deal with. We can't risk our lives to do something that doesn't cost us anything."
"The children surrounded us, begging us to help Ms. Nora, but we couldn't do anything. It was a really uncomfortable feeling." Alfred Frey said with flagging interest, "Sometimes I think, as Paladins, shouldn't we help the weak and root out the strong and help the weak? But I've encountered this kind of thing several times. "
"Oh, Alfred, you have to know that human power is limited and precious." Laing saw this and sat down. The man looked at the dim yellow sky and sighed. "If justice doesn't require a price, then is justice itself worthless? If you don't respect order, then is there any meaning to the existence of order? "
"I know that, and if we don't talk about the price, the power of the Paladins can easily be used by people with bad intentions …" Alfred Frey quickly recovered. He got up and wiped the snow and mud under his body, regaining his cheerful expression. "It's about time, let's go back!"
"You guys go back first! I still have something to deal with. "Laing said that he still had something to do." It's my personal matter, you guys don't have to get involved. "
"Your personal matter? What do you have to do in this deserted manor at night? " Theresa was very puzzled. Her beautiful face was full of curiosity. "And why do you want to be alone? Didn't we agree to face it together? "
"This is different. This is my personal matter. I need some private space, okay?" Ryan shook his head. Obviously, he didn't want the two of them to continue participating in this.
"You …"
"Alright, alright, Madam Trovic. Since Laing doesn't want us to participate, let's go back first!" Frey stepped in to resolve the situation. The paladin's words gave the sorceress a way out. Teresa looked at Laing a little unwillingly and said, "Then, are you coming back for dinner tonight?"
"No, thanks." Laing shook his head and walked towards the depths of the manor. The sorceress had no choice but to use her spatial ring to put away the manticore's carcass and return to Mjoden Haven with the paladin.
The interior of the manor was very dilapidated. It was obvious that after the manor was abandoned, there were very few bandits or scavengers who came to visit. Perhaps due to the manticore's presence, Laing walked through a small path uphill towards the ruined manor.
Such manors were very common in Nord. A typical manor would have a large house or castle surrounded by fields, farmhouses, pastures and woodlands. Most of the time, the manor was self-sufficient. Some of the remaining daily necessities could be traded with other manors to make up for what they lacked. Usually, a manor would have ten or more tenants to provide for the manor owner's livelihood and production.
Depending on the situation, some tenants would have more shares and partial property rights, while others were no different from serfs. Not only did they have to pay seventy to eighty percent of the harvest, they were also responsible for arranging and taking care of the manor owner's daily life and living conditions.
Emperor Charlemagne was born as a tenant. The founder of the Human Empire had herded cows, farmed, chopped firewood and forked dung when he was young. The great Human Empire was not ashamed of it. Instead, it was proud of it. The story of how he rose from a tenant to an emperor had deeply inspired generations of poor farmers to bravely embark on the path of adventure.
However, the manor in front of Laing was severely damaged. There were large holes in the door and walls, and the roof had completely collapsed. He could vaguely see the smashed furniture and floorboards on the second floor. Snow had also fallen into the interior of the manor.
"It really fits the definition of a deserted manor. Ms. Nola will have to spend a lot of effort to move in again." Laing snorted.
As a matter of fact, as long as they cleared out the monsters and ensured their safety, Nola could rebuild the manor with the help of the Church of Life. As for the tenants … There were plenty of farmers who could not survive without land. It would not be difficult to recruit some tenants as long as they could fill their stomachs and not freeze to death.
That was not the point. The point was … the ruins of the ancient saint were here!
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