The Spectral Knight immediately discovered the arrow’s flight and turned its horse silently. It raised its lance as the horse charged across the land, splitting the misty night apart and leaving dust behind it.

Brendel’s reaction was instant; he pushed the Nightsong Tiger away and rolled to his side. Three loud crashes resounded throughout the forest as the Spectral Knight smashed through with a vortex of air in front of it, destroying everything in its path.

The enemy thrust out its lance to clear the debris on it. A path as wide as ten feet had been gouged out, and both Brendel and the Nightsong Tiger had narrowly escaped its charge.

[Fuck, Vortex Strike?! Are you fucking kidding me? You used an ultimate skill right off the bat?!]

Brendel swiftly wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and got up immediately. He discovered the Spectral Knight had raised its right hand and acted on his foreboding feeling. The Vortex Strike had the same effect as the White Raven Sword Rave as an Area of Effect attack.

[If we didn’t escape in time that would be the end of us—]

The Nightsong Tiger was overwrought with frayed nerves as well. He had heard of rumors about how terrifying the Spectral Knight could be, but when he came to face it, he discovered that it was even beyond imagination.

He spat onto the ground, thinking to himself that he still had to fight like a greenhorn at his age. He suddenly realized he had not checked on Brendel, and immediately turned to his direction, fearing the worst, but the youth had a resolute face that did not seem to falter even after the frightening attack.

He took a deep breath.

“We can’t defeat it!” He shouted to Brendel. He was still a veteran mercenary, and he quickly gauged the difference between the enemy and their forces.

Brendel merely signaled him to be silent. His eyes trained onto the enemy carefully, studying the designs and patterns of the gothic armor. It was the crystallization of the old grandmasters in Vaunte’s history, and the armor was glimmering with faint light. Even the horse was wearing heavy metal armor and he would not be able to cut through it with a sword. The long lance that was pointing on the ground seemed to extend its length with a dazzling brightness, with the Spectral Knight gripping tightly onto it.

[The Spectral Knight’s Element type is causing my eyes to fail in discerning its length..]

When any profession reached the Gold-rank, they would more or less display their Element type, and while the Spectral Knight had not reached that level, it was an Elite creature that rivaled a Gold-ranked fighter.

The Nightsong Tiger got up to his feet in a rush to try and stop Brendel’s next action and pull him back. In his eyes, Brendel was utterly mad as they were completely not the match of the monster, and its prowess had gone beyond a normal Gold-rank fighter.

Brendel ignored his shouts and notched a silver bolt onto the crossbow, took aim, and released it.

The Bolt of Ice flew just across the Spectral Knight’s head and exploded onto a tree. A silver mist of ice slightly grazed the monster’s left shoulder and left a touch of frost on it.

Brendel blushed a little and coughed to hide his embarrassment. Due to his strained nerves, he had forgotten that he was merely proficient in the weapon in his current state, and no longer the expert warrior in the past.

Even so, the meager damage had actually caused the Spectral Knight to miss its marks by a centimeter. It had actually raised its lance to attack and a silver line of light swept across both their heads just after Brendel attacked it.

When the Nightsong Tiger quickly turned his head behind, he was in time to witness the trees’ crowns lopped off and falling down to leave behind the tall stumps. His mouth went wide and he nearly lost his ability to breath. This level of strength had gone beyond what he knew was normal and he wondered if the trees were actually packed with explosives instead.

Brendel saw that the Nightsong Tiger did not notice his problem with accuracy and relaxed a little. It would be a disastrous result if the mercenary commander suddenly tried to interfere with his actions at this point.

[Ten seconds. Using Vortex Strike two times in a row requires a great amount of Soul Fire, and he’s going to be on cooldown.]

He notched another bolt into his crossbow and extended the amount of time to aim.

The Nightsong Tiger had regained his senses and could only watched him helplessly as the youth half knelt like a statue without moving, while the Spectral Knight rode slowly towards the youth. It was akin to suicide in his eyes.

The second Bolt of Ice was released after three seconds and exploded around the Spectral Knight’s waist, causing the mist of ice to cover more than half of its body. Brendel confirmed the damage with the Window Stats in his eyes, and dealt 13 points of damage, as well as slowing the attack speed and recovery by 12.5%.

[The effects have not changed as compared to the game.]

Brendel sighed with relief as he noted the changes, while his hands did not stop reloading the bolts. Normal physical attacks were considerably weakened against Spectral Creatures, but weapons imbued with magic bypassed such defenses. If the twin Elementalists had higher levels, the effects could go up to 50% with a single strike.

[4 more bolts left.]

“There’s actually an effect?” The Nightsong Tiger’s experience also allowed him to perceive the difference as the Spectral Knight slowed down.

“Stop stating the obvious.” Brendel heard his mutterings and snapped at him. He was annoyed at the mercenary for causing him to have a harder time.

“But my lord! We are still not his match even if you slow him down—“

“And?” Brendel started to move back as the Spectral Knight rode towards him.

“We should leave this place. Compared to this monster, I would rather fight with the Black Disciples!”

Brendel could not be bothered with his yells and threw a bundle of magic bolts at him. The Nightsong commander received it with a questioning look: “What are these for?”

“Are you here to help me or drag me down?” The Nightsong Tiger’s face turned slightly red, but he kept grumbling in his heart about his lord being an hopeless idiot or a fearless fool. However, he was a renowned mercenary and would rather obey than to disregard his orders.

Brendel shot out his third bolt and missed, but his fourth bolt struck the Spectral Knight’s right shoulder and turned his armor to be covered with a thick layer of ice, and was even more effective the previous bolt, causing it to now move slower by thirty percent. The Nightsong Tiger was secretly delighted to see that the enemy to be affected, but Brendel quickly called for him to retreat to the location of their planned ambush.

The Nightsong Tiger’s eyes nearly popped out when he saw that the Spectral Knight suddenly began to accelerate in spite of its rigid movements. It was almost comical to look at, but he felt like his blood was turning to ice because he was convinced that it was going to do the very first strike that it did again.

However, it was merely a Charge skill and not a combined Vortex Strike with a Charge skill.

Brendel also used his Charge skill.

The human and the undead streaked across the forest. It was a surreal sight where two lines were drawn across a canvas filled with trees, continuously extending themselves while time seemed to stop. Brendel fled in a manner that made use of quick twists and turns, while the Spectral Knight was forced to follow him in an awkward manner because of its mount.

When Brendel finally stopped, the Nightsong Tiger who had ran in a straight line nearly found himself at a loss for words.

“My lord, that’s—” The Nightsong Tiger shouted to Brendel who was considerably close to him.

“The Charge skill. It’s a technique that all knights should learn.” Brendel glanced at him: “As a Mercenary of Lopes, surely you would know this at least.”

“No, my lord, I want to ask how did you know that it would use a Charge skill at that moment.”

“Oh? When I was at the Orrgesh region, my primary job was to fight against Spectral Knights. Did I not mention this before?” Brendel quipped.

The truth was Brendel was also quite afraid as he felt his heart beating loudly all the way to his throat. The Spectral Knight had traveled a ridiculous amount of distance during its first attack and they were nearly a hundred meters apart from each other, but it had been reduced to no more than fifty meters.

[The error of margin is no more than a meter..] Brendel peeped behind him. Beneath the Spectral Knight’s mask laid two white flames for its eyes and it looked directly at him, seemingly puzzled as to who the intruder was.

Brendel shuddered slightly. He found that he was relying purely on instinct rather than experience because the enemy was much faster than he expected.

================ Amandina’s POV =============

Amandina gasped softly when she saw the two lines charging across the forest. The mercenaries behind her were completely silent and taken in by the sight where Brendel seemed to always stay one step ahead at turning at the best possible moment, as if he had eyes behind his back who constantly kept watch of the Spectral Knight. The chase only lasted for a few seconds, but they recognized the significant amount of danger that Brendel was in.

Romaine bit her lips as she watched with excited eyes at Brendel’s escape.

“If every Highland Knight youth in Karsuk is capable of such feats, then Aouine would be one of the strongest kingdom!” Amandina drew in a deep breath: “My lord.. You’re a liar—“

================= Brendel’s POV ==================

But Brendel was not in an optimistic position like she thought. The Spectral Knight’s Soul Fire was being replenished again, and the Vortex Strike was not only the trump card that it had. He quickly signaled to the Nightsong Tiger and they made their way to the mountain’s valley, where they would gain a greater advantage because the sharp rocks affected the Spectral Knight’s horse.

“Nightsong Tiger.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Prepare to use the Bolts of Wind.”

“What?”

Brendel pointed to the Spectral Knight’s horse, and the Nightsong Tiger quickly understood after a short pause. Even though the latter kept rejecting the idea to fight with the monster, he found himself ready to engage it.