Chapter 551: The Fearless (2/2)
Lao Dao's agonizing cry reverberated throughout the city and made listeners' hair stand on their ends. It sounded so heartrending and real that the listeners thought that the spear had jabbed into their own flesh.
Lao Dao rounded his eyes, squeezing two eyeballs until they were about to pop out of their sockets at any moment. The unimaginable pain rendered his body twitch uncontrollably as it thrust and throbbed with each fit of spasm.
The dark one wrenched Lao Dao's left arm off his body as he would to a twig on a branch. The crisp sound of bone snapping out of joints made the listeners' hearts skipped a beat.
”Well, well, looks like the so-called humanity is nothing but bullsh*t! Now, your right arm.” As the dark one spoke, he reached out for Lao Dao's right arm. Jan Si didn't hesitate this time, as he immediately punched his right arm and severed it from his body.
”Now, let him go!” Jan Si shouted.
”Not bad! Haha! Now, it's the left leg.”
”Captain, don't do it!” Da Qiang rushed to Jan Si and embraced him to prevent him from harming himself further.
”Buzz off!” Jan Si pushed him away and then threw his head back as he shouted. ”Listen, everyone! Today is the day that my friends and I die for the City of Apollo. However, as long as you see another fellow human still standing, you know that these worms will not defeat us all! My son and my brothers will carry out my unfinished task and fight with these SOBs till they are all dead!”
After he had spoken his last words, Jan Si severed his left leg without any hesitation.
The dark one furrowed his brows after hearing Jan Si's dying words: his plan to demoralize the humans had failed. With a leg and an arm missing, even the strongest human soldier would not pose any threat to the dark one. He figured that if he couldn't dispirit the humans, he might as well teach them to fear.
The dark one then pulled the bone spear out of Lao Dao's body and let him free fall from a hundred feet above, head first.
Da Qiang wanted to save his friend from the fall, but the dark one was already on his way to him. The citizens who were watching the fight covered their eyes to avert the gruesome view. Jan Si also closed his eyes with regret. He shouldn't have come out of the bunker; he shouldn't have led his comrades to their deaths.
KOM!
People thought that since even Jan Si could not overcome the dark one, Da Qiang would stand no chance at all. However, after the impact, it was the dark one who had been sent flying backward. However, it was not Da Qiang whom the dark one had come in contact with; it was someone else. No one could see who that was, other than just an elusive shadow of a man. The shadowy figure not only delivered a blow to the dark one, but also saved Lao Dao from the fall.
The dark one gathered himself and started to scan the new opponent, quickly finding out that something was amiss. The readings indicated that the shadowy figure was just an ordinary human, although the blow he had received suggested otherwise.
Einherjar!
”Einherjar… He is an Einherjar! The gods finally answered our prayers!”
”That's him, that's the new Einherjar that had been saving other cities!”
Hearing the commotion, Jan Si opened his eyes, and then heaved a long sigh of relief. However little he could do, he had done all he could to protect the human world; and now someone abler could finally finish what he had started.
”Well, well... An Einherjar...Finally!” The dark one didn't attack the new opponent right away. Instead, it tried to drag out the conversation while he waited for his partner, the centipede Zerg to come to his aid.
The Einherjar shot the dark on a cold glance. Wang Tong's glare made the latter feel like as if his mind was as naked as a newborn child, and twice as vulnerable. Feeling naked, the dark one refrained from making any more devious plans in his mind. Running out of tricks, it ordered the centipede Zerg to attack, as the latter shot out thousands of lightning tendrils at the Einherjar. Meanwhile, the dark one also charged at his opponent with abandon.
The Zerg and the dark one landed their blows on the Einherjar at the same time, and after two consecutive explosions, all three figures disappeared, leaving only a plume of smoke behind.
Suddenly, the centipede Zerg felt a powerful force coming from behind, and it was dealt a blow squarely at the back. The dark one was much faster, and therefore was able to launch himself to a higher elevation and evade the blow.
Despite being slower, the centipede Zerg had an exceptional defense. It was able to pick itself up even after a deadly blow from an Einherjar.
”Give up now, human! Or we will kill everyone inside of this building!” The dark one and the giant Zergs found a roof of an apartment building. The centipede had already charged up his hundreds of claws with lightning, ready to kill all the innocent people in the building.
Taking human hostages was an old trick of the dark ones.
As the dark one thought that his ruse had worked, he saw a golden blade appear in the Einherjar's hand, a sign that he was not going to give up the fight yet.
The dark one didn't waste any time as he ordered the centipede to start killing the hostages. As the centipede threw a flurry of lightning balls at the building below him, people screamed and ran out of their home. However, some civilians were slower than the others.
KOM!
The lightning balls landed on the building, and the impact shook the ground like an earthquake. As everyone thought that all souls in that building were lost, they were surprised to find out that the building didn't seem to have received any damage. A golden shield expanded itself over the entire building and protected it from the blast.
The development had alarmed the dark one. He knew this Einherjar was much powerful than he had thought. Being smarter than an average Zerg, his first thought was to run away.
The centipede Zerg charged at the Einherjar to cover for the dark one while he escaped. Having blocked an attack from the giant centipede, the Einherjar counterattacked with his golden blade, cutting through the centipede's hard shell like butter and through its body, continuing to hew right at the back of the escaping dark one.
Sensing the incoming attack, the dark one dodged to the side. However, the blade also changed its course and veered toward the direction of the dark one.
KOM!
Both the Zerg and the dark one's body fell from the sky. Seeing the enemy killed, the citizens of Apollo rushed out of their covers to meet their savior. In an instant, the empty streets were crowded with people and the city was filled with cheers.
Praise and fame had always belonged to the strongest. But, had the people already forgotten about the soldiers who were willing to die for them? The answer was no.
Da Qiang helped Jan Si to his feet. Seeing the corpse of their best friends, they felt dead inside. The two shambled to Lao Dao, who had been tortured beyond description. In the best case, he would survive in a permanent vegetable state, in which every living breath meant punishment.
”Da Qiang, help your brother, will you?” Jan Si said calmly.
Da Qiang gritted his teeth, trying to fight off the instability in his hands. ”Lao Dao, I will see you soon.” Da Qiang said as he plunged the tip of his spear toward the heart of his friend.
KOM!
A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and knocked the spear to a side.
The din had caught everyone's attention, and the public finally remembered the real hero who had risked their lives for them. The heartrending scene they saw had taken away the joy in their hearts and filled it with sorrow and regret.
Da Qiang threw his head back and shouted to the sky, ”Who do you think you are? If you are so mighty, why didn't you come earlier?”
”Da Qiang!” Jan Si urged the other to stop the insolence toward the Einherjar.
”Let me finish! Why will these Einherjars allow the Zergs to ravage the land and the people in the first place? My brother is dying, and I have to finish him off. Why? Why? WHY?” Tears poured out from Da Qiang's eyes; he couldn't muster enough courage to do it again.
”Shut up, Da Qiang! He is the last Einherjar that dares to stand up for us. He is different from the others.” Jan Si explained.
”Captain, I know... I know... But, look at Lao Dao! Look at HIM!”
Death was not a terrifying thing to a warrior; the condition that Lao Dao was in was much worse than death.
Floating in the air, the Einherjar opened up his arms as a beam of white light was cast onto the three soldiers. Jan Si was the first one to feel that something had happened to him as he started to feel his legs and arms again.
Da Qiang shouted out in surprise: ”Captain, your leg!”
Suddenly, the dying Lao Dao sprung back to life as he puked out a large blob of dark blood. After that, he heaved a deep sigh and then said, ”It's choking me to death!”
The white light didn't fade away for about ten minutes; during that time, the center of the beam where the light was most intense focused on Lao Dao. When he was brought back from the verge of death, everyone cheered for the miracle.
Unable to suppress the overwhelming joy, Da Qiang kowtowed to the Einherjar, banging his head hard on the ground until his forehead started to bleed.
The mysterious Einherjar didn't disappear like he would after he had saved the other cities, Instead, he flew to the ground with his golden sword and announced in a booming voice, ”In the name of Valhalla, I anoint you the knight of the Bloodsworn.”
Jan Si regraded the golden blade in the most dignified manner; he knew this was a solemn duty that he was about to accept. And then, he slowly reached out to the blade.
The crowd cheered. Jan Si was no longer the personal guard of a craven lord as he embraced his new identity: the knight of the Bloodsworn. In this time of hardship, humans needed the spirit of bravery and gallantry more than ever.
Watching the development from afar, the overweight city lord Si Ke knew that his days as the commander of the Apollo City were numbered.