Chapter 258: Black Dragon Hellfire (1/2)

Despite being veteran Players, neither Edward nor Marni had encountered incomplete buffs.

Still, they had constantly encountered new and interesting things after becoming Players. Therefore, they were only curious about the incomplete buff for a moment and soon ignored it.

Then, they mobilized the troops before battle

—which actually was having the veterans who would be leading the frontline to encourage the newbies.

And amongst the husky-like newbies who were listening was Gerald, who from a certain perspective was an untamed wolf and looking confused.

“Just half a day ago, I was just a knight of the city watch who escorts nobility. Wasn’t I supposed to be Marni Wilf’s guardsman?’ Why am I culling wildlings in the blink of an eye? (Since most nonhumans lived in the Western Continent, many citizens in the Eastern Content had no idea what nonhumans were and as such held many weird prejudices, and consider anyone with beastlike features to be wildlings.)

And according to them, the enemies weren’t just a handful—but almost three hundred wildlings!

Not to mention that those were wildings that could easily defeat any ordinary guardsman without training!

And wasn’t there a hundred people here at best? And a lot of them seemed to have learned to fight just recently, and the way they held their weapons were simply inexperienced.

Why not pay to hire some mercenaries if they lacked numbers? With such stinginess, they would be wiped out even if they ran into wildlings that they outnumbered three to one in the wild, let alone conquer a wildling stronghold three times their size!

Despite Gerald’s growing respect towards the Church of Games after experiencing their teleportation skills, it mostly faded when he saw that the ragtag bunch of Players who looked ready to crumble at the sight of their enemy.

Gerald’s biased thinking starting from the first impression did not help either. In his perspective, the veteran Players who said things like ‘we are so awesome and it’s fine sparing the women and children of the Tigermen since there’s no EXP to be gained’ were no different from clowns.

Even funnier, the huskies around them really believed them. There was even a husky who raised his hand and asked ‘can I fight back if a woman or child attacked me?’

The former even put on a sincere look before answering. ‘Us sparing them is out of kindness, but if they provoke us or attack us, don’t say a word and kill them. The God of Games watches over you!’

Then, the husky who asked the question looked absolutely thrilled.

Wake up. You’re not even going to win against women or children with the way you’re holding that big lance!

It was not as if Gerald held lances in disdain. Being a knight himself, he knew how to use a lance and would admit that it is formidable, and would pierce the best armor plates made in Lancaster with enough momentum.

But that’s if they had a mount! How could anyone normal carry a three-meter-long lance unassisted into the battlefield! And there’s not even a sharp edge on that conical lance—so are you going to swing it like a stick or fool around without momentum, and use to stab the person in front of you?

***

Regardless of what Gerald was thinking, however, the battle was inevitable.

Being a first-rate Player (and an acknowledged errand-boy), Marni stood at the front, and was a more or less a carry.