A Core Ship From The Start - Chapter 249 - Chapter 249: Chapter 199: Enter _1

Chapter 249: Chapter 199: Enter _1

“Sir Knight, are all princesses like this?”

Walking beside Duanmu Huai, Lorena asked him in a low voice, as she looked towards the enthusiastic Mistelina who was marching ahead.

Duanmu Huai, of course, understood why Lorena would ask this question. Mistelina’s personality was so similar to Ann’s, except she didn’t have Ann’s intense curiosity. Besides that, once she made up her mind, it was hard to change it, and she could be quite obstinate at times – similar to Ann.

These two would surely get along if they ever met.

In fact, seeing Melfy, who was walking beside Mistelina looking sullen, reminded Duanmu Huai of Greiya who used to accompany Ann.

They are all pitiful.

But having said that, there are truly many princesses in our squad.

Duanmu Huai glanced at Bambi, who was perched on his shoulder and curiously looking around at the surrounding scenery, then looked at Mistelina and Melfy in front of him, and then remembered Ann and Greiya, who were not present. He felt like renaming his battle group The Princess Alliance. Perhaps Lorena would approve of that name, since it sounded much better than The Pink Bunnies or such.

However, Duanmu Huai found The Pink Bunnies to be much more amusing.

Incidentally, Mistelina shared a different belief of her Forest Clan’s legends. According to her, the Golden Tree was not the creator of everything but merely an avatar. The actual creator of this world was an entity called the Mother of the Earth.

The Mother of the Earth was so-called because it would sprout enormous hands from the earth. The forest witches were able to convey supreme commands through these fingers. Those fingers, seen by the Forest Clan, were the fingers of the deity, or the fingers of the Mother of the Earth.

The Forest Clan seems to have their own understanding of the Mother of the Earth. They believe that she has gone mad and is unable to communicate. However, Mistelina disagreed – she thought that they should try and talk to the Mother of the Earth regardless. According to her, the consequences of taking no action would be worse.

However, due to the unfortunate outcome of the previous expedition, the Forest Clan generally opposed this proposal. And now there were not many of them left. Another expedition might lead to the extinction of their clan. It was therefore that Mistelina, upon discovering Duanmu Huai and his companions who possessed great power, decided to venture to the Golden Tree with them to negotiate with the Mother of the Earth.

Along the way, they encountered many soldiers clad in armor, who appeared to be the troops of the Golden Clan. Even though they looked perfectly normal, as soon as they spotted Duanmu Huai and his crew, they would immediately launch an uncontested attack.

But to Duanmu Huai, these attacks were merely drizzles. He had even considered capturing some soldiers for information. However, these soldiers seemed to have lost their senses and could only roar and howl like beasts – Mistelina explained that they were cursed, trapped between life and death. Although their bodies could not die completely, their souls had been utterly shattered in cycles of destruction, leaving them as half-crazed beings acting solely on instinct.

Immortality doesn’t mean your spirit can survive.

Now it seemed these undying beings had lost their sanity, leaving only hatred for intruders.

Of course, those soldiers would never be able to block the way of Duanmu Huai and his companions. Their strongest warrior could not even withstand a single hammer blow from Duanmu, let alone the forces Ogis and Lorena wielded that could easily crush them.

Even Bambi and Audrey were more active when encountering these soldiers. Bambi would call upon a large group of bats to obstruct the soldiers’ vision, then Audrey would raise her hand, firing black feathers like arrows at the soldiers.

Although the attack was not very powerful, it was sufficient to deal with the low-ranking soldiers.

After all, Audrey’s attack was AOE.

On the other hand, Melfy and Mistelina had also joined the battle. Though Melfy’s contribution was quite limited due to her small size. Her movements were nimble like a mouse in the crowd – she periodically drew her thin sword and stabbed towards the enemies around her, but how much damage she could cause was uncertain.

Mistelina, however, used a different fighting style that surprised Duanmu Huai a bit.

She wielded a shield in her right hand and a longsword in her left, fighting her opponents by the book. To put it simply, Mistelina looked more like an experienced warrior than a princess.

But her attack method…

“Huff!!”

As a furious soldier swung his war hammer at Mistelina, she saw the opportunity, took a step forward, and swiftly swung her shield. With a heavy blow, she sent the incoming war hammer flying. Seizing the opportunity when the soldier lost balance, she swiftly swung her longsword, severing his head from his body.

“Well done.”

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai nodded in approval. No matter how you look at it, Mistelina was a qualified warrior. More surprising was her superb technique: accurately locating the point of attack, disrupting it, and killing the opponent when they lost balance.

However, Duanmu Huai himself didn’t need that technique.

Despite Mistelina’s brilliant technique, Duanmu Huai still subscribed to the view that more force would overcome anything. If he should ever encounter an enemy where such a method was needed, he doubted whether he could apply it. Mistelina was a girl. Despite the inherent difference in brute strength, she made up for it by relying on speed and response.

But his own response was… well…

He speculated that if he followed Mistelina’s method, the enemy might already have struck him several times before he had swung his shield. Or, he might have swung his shield to defend, not succeeding, and gotten killed by the enemy’s sword… Yes, Duanmu Huai thought the latter possibility was more likely.

So, just take the hammer and smash it directly. It’s simple and easy.

“Fortunately, this is just a small trick.”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s compliment, Mistelina responded with a smile. Then she looked forward – the soldier from before had completely turned to ashes and disappeared. However, Mistelina’s expression didn’t seem to get any better.

To think that they would resurrect. What a tragic fate…

“You know?”

“People from the exploration party brought back notes that wrote about it.”

Mistelina shook her head as she recalled the content.

“In their notes, they wrote how the enemy they had taken down with so much effort the day before would resurrect the next day. This deeply disheartened them, and the morale of the team gradually decreased. Eventually, they lost the will to fight when they saw the enemy..”

At this point, Mistelina’s voice fell, her head dropping with hidden sorrow.

“I can understand their feelings, had we known it would be like this, we should have been more careful back then.”

Not that you could blame the expedition party. Any normal person wouldn’t think that the enemy they killed themselves would resurrect on the spot overnight.

And just like that, the previous expedition party seemed to clean up the battlefield very sincerely, clearing the way for the backup forces behind them, and then moved on. In fact, they probably never thought it was possible for the enemies to resurrect on the spot. By the time the explorers discovered this, they were trapped in the deep part of the borderzones with no way out.

“According to the records, they split into two factions at that time. One faction believed they should continue to explore to investigate the cause of all this, while the other faction believed they should retreat…”

“But in the end it looked like the former had the upper hand?”

“There was no choice.”

Mistelina sighed.

“At that time, almost half of the exploration party members had been sacrificed. If they wanted to go back the way they came, not only would they lose the remaining half, but they might also end up with nothing. Since it was like this, why not take the risk and move forward? They might find some useful clues…”

“I think it would be best to stop here for today.”

Duanmu Huai halted and surveyed their surroundings. They had traveled a long way, passing through checkpoints, and had now arrived at the foot of the city. It was already dusk, and the surrounding was filled with a storm. It was not suitable to proceed. Fortunately, there were a few dilapidated houses not far ahead, so Duanmu Huai quickly set one as their target.

“Let’s rest there for the night, and then continue our journey.”

Everyone agreed, so under Duanmu Huai’s leadership, they arrived in front of the dilapidated house.

However, to their surprise, as they were about to enter the house, a voice suddenly rang out.

“Who’s that?”

Huh? Someone’s here?

Upon hearing this, everyone was startled. They looked into the house to see a woman curled up in a corner. Beside her was a burning pile of wood, and she sat there, uneasily curling up into a ball, glaring at Duanmu Huai and the others.

There was someone living here?

Upon seeing the woman, Duanmu Huai was also taken aback. However, he quickly collected himself and nodded at her.

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“Hello, we are travelers passing by. We were hoping to stay here for the night…We hope that would be alright.”

“………Yes.”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s inquiry, the woman nodded her head.

“Feel free to do so. After all, I’m just a passerby.”

Then she responded with these words.