"Uhh

The dagger struck the iron armor, and then slid away in an arc. Lana grabbed the thug's head and snapped it aside.

"Don't come, don't come here!" shouted a skinny thug wielding a broken knife against the cold wall.

There were four corpses lying on the ground beside him. Armed with bows and daggers, the men lurked around a corner and attacked the Shultolar squad.

However, their inferior weapons could not even leave a scratch on the iron armor. Before the thugs could react, the Shultolar team killed most of them.

"Surrender, or die. Griffith pulled out a hemp rope and shook it at the rest of the bastards.

The thug who had no way to escape clenched his teeth, and a pair of bright eyes stared at Griffith in front of him in the firelight. Then, with a dagger, the thug let out a shout, and lunged at Griffith.

"Huh!"

The sturdy-clad midshiprider flashed to the side with ease, grabbing the thug's slender arm and twisting it slightly. The little man screamed and fell to the ground.

"Where did you get all these imps?" Murat glanced at the thugs on the ground, "he doesn't look like he is twelve or thirteen years old." ”

"You can join the Slaughter Pack if you're over ten years old, and twelve or thirteen years old is not too young," Rana said as he rubbed his sword against the corpse, "but it's just a little smaller." ”

Griffith twisted the little man's hands behind his back, quickly tied them up and tied them in a dead knot, and then carried them out of the muddy water to Ophelia: "Is there anything you want to ask?"

"No~ It's all ambushes of this level, what's there to ask," Ophelia tilted her head, "Except for the first few teams of people who are stronger, the next few batches are just simple children!"

"Nobles' lackeys, I'm going to kill you, I'm going to kill you!" the little man screamed. Before he could shout, Griffith carried him back to him, his hands on his neck.

The shrill shouts of the little man who was still scolding suddenly disappeared. A powerful hand pressed against his neck, and the cold steel went straight to the marrow with the chill of death.

The corpse on the ground, a head that had been screwed to the back, was staring at this side with empty eyes.

Tremors passed down his hands. Griffith watched indifferently as the little man's teeth were rapidly pounding up and down, and then the thin body trembled as if he had malaria.

"We have this with us, it might be useful. Griffith put the little man down.

“Aye~!” The probationary knights, not surprisingly, agreed.

......

The Secotolar squad has gone deep into the sewers. According to the previous map estimates, there is no place for the Cook gang to hide.

"You have to attack immediately against mages," Ophelia scanned around vigilantly, she seemed to have good vision in the dark, "The opponent is a fallen mage, this kind of person may have special attack spells without systematic training, but defense is often not a strength. ”

"My dagger will kill him in the first place," Rana said, "and the space here is small, and the encounters are not too far apart." I'm not going to give him a chance to recite the incantation. ”

"Kill all the nobles' lackeys!" Suddenly, a roar came from the darkness, followed by the sound of chaotic footsteps stepping on the water.

"Oh, it's coming!" Ophelia bent her bow and shot an arrow like lightning. As soon as one person turned the corner in the darkness, he was shot through the eye and fell to the ground with his head on his back.

"Rush, kill!" a burly man armed with a huge axe and wearing chain mail rushed out surrounded by a group of minions large and small.

"Attack, watch out for the mages hiding in the crowd!" Griffins raised his spear and crucified one of the thugs to the ground, "Cooke in armor is here!"

The other midshippers immediately threw their daggers, threw spears or shot bows and arrows with agility. The thugs, armed with a variety of weapons, fell on the spot like a wheat field blown by a strong wind.

"Kill!" the strongest, and only armor-clad Cook Boss, slashed at him with two daggers and a large axe.

Griffith held his gun above his head and stabbed Cook in the left shoulder from the top of his shield.

The armour-piercing spearhead shredded the armor's defenses with a single blow, piercing Cook's muscular shoulders and exiting from behind.

"Oh~" Cook, who was screaming and fighting, suddenly stopped shouting, grabbed the head of the spear that pierced into the shoulder blade, and raised the axe to slash at Murat's shield.

Griffith's eyes were quick, and he spun the short gun in his hand. The pain exploded in splatters of flesh on his shoulders, and Cook shuddered as he slammed into his shield.

Murat blocked the blow and slammed forward. Cook was instantly knocked to the ground, and even his axe fell into the sewage.

Griffith drew his spear and stabbed it into Cook's gaping mouth.

"Woooooo But his hands were tied, and his mouth was stuffed with rags, and he could only make muffled sounds.

Cook, who was more than two meters tall, had already been pierced through his throat by the head of a gun.

"Did you see him use his abilities?" Rana asked, stabbing through a thug who rushed at him.

"Nope. Everyone shook their heads together.

The 12 members of the Cook gang who launched the counterattack were annihilated without causing any damage to the Huttorals.

"Be vigilant, it's not over yet," Griffiths pulled the rope and dragged the sturdy little man to the front, "you go ahead and see if there are any survivors inside." ”

The little man who was gagged was pushed to the front. Griffith patted him on the shoulder with the cold blade, "This is your chance to stay alive and lead the way ahead." ”

Until now, the figure of the fallen mage has not appeared. Such a danger in the shadows made the Shotorals even more vigilant.

Finally, on a dry platform in the sewers, the Shultolars spotted two figures huddled together. In the faint light, Griffith and the others could barely see the gorgeous costumes and trembling bodies of the two of them.

"We're midshipmen of the Guard, and we're here to save you," Ophelia cried out behind Griffith, "Baron, Baroness, is that you? ”

The couple who hugged each other continued to tremble, and the baron himself raised his head and looked at the five rescuers in iron armor: "Yes, I am." ”

"Ha, that's great," Ophelia sighed, "are you hurt, can you move?"

"I ...... Our feet were frostbitten," the baron trembled even more, not knowing whether it was because of fear or excitement, "the fallen mage did it. ”

"Keep walking, go to the baron," Griffith patted the little man on the shoulder.

There were no traps around the baroness, but their ankles were shackled to the ground by silver-white shackles.

"It's ice, shackles made of frozen ice," Rana said, looking up as he observed, "give me the torch." ”

Two torches were handed over, and Rana and Midianmaia carefully thawed at the baroness' ankles. Others were on guard around them.

"What about the fallen mage?" asked Griffith.

"He locked us up and left, going inside," Baron Caen hugged his wife, his expression relaxed slightly, "Earlier, the gangsters tried to dig a way to escape, I don't know if they succeeded. ”

"It shouldn't have worked," Griffith pointed in the direction in which Cook and the others had fallen, "and we killed their boss." ”

"Shhhhhhhh

The scene immediately fell silent. From the dark sewers came the sound of a rope, as if something was moving in this direction.

Several bright torches appeared in the passageway, and the light of the fire illuminated a patch of bright yellow armor. The two teams of city defenders hurriedly ran towards this side.

"Hey, guys, you're late!" Ophelia cried triumphantly, "but the rat is still in the hole." ”

"Sergeant Rex of the City Defense Force has come to report, Commander Cody has asked us to accept your command," the city defense team led by the team saluted the Shotlals.

"Very well, we're short of manpower," Griffith and Ophelia looked at each other, "arrange for a few men to take the baroness and the captives and withdraw first, while the rest go in with us to capture the fallen mage." ”

At this moment, a fierce and violent aura spread from the darkness.

"Beasts, not exactly, mixed with human breath," Ophelia sniffed in some surprise, "or some kind of dark magic artifact." It's in that darkness. ”

Two fiery red lights appeared in the darkness, like torches, with a fishy smell.

"What is this?fireball?" Rana looked at it for a moment, but didn't think it was like it.

Two clusters of red light flickered from time to time, slowly approaching the crowd faintly. The blood-red core is like a pupil.

"Mouse!" Ophelia suddenly shouted, and with a bent bow she shot an arrow at the red light.

Before everyone could understand what was happening, the red light suddenly flashed to the side of the wall, and then rushed towards the soldiers.

A giant black rat, larger than a mountain bear, opened its bloody mouth and bit off the head of a city defense soldier in one bite.

Without being reminded, everyone present smashed at the giant rat with all the weapons they could find.

Rana threw his knives in a flash of lightning. However, the blade directly deflected after hitting the black and shiny fur, and did not cause any damage.

The attacked giant rat burst into the crowd like lightning, knocking a squad of city defenders to pieces.

Murat swung her shield and slammed into the rat that scurried past her.

“DUANG！”

The unspeakable fluctuations spread, and the soldiers in the vicinity all stumbled. The giant rat was also knocked to the ground, its fiery red eyes glazed over.

Griffith endured his vertigo and stepped forward with his gun and stabbed hard at the red eye.

"Squeak!" the giant rat let out a scream like a normal mouse, and the long tail of a crocodile's tail swept over.

Griffith only felt like he flew out of the clouds, crashing into the cold wall and unable to move for a moment.

Midianmaia roared, swinging the shovel in her hand and thrust it into the other eye. The blood-red eyeballs burst open on the spot.

The giant rat, which had lost its eyes, began to swing its huge tail in a rage, snarling as it opened its bloody mouth.

Midianmaia and Rana rushed up and grabbed the rat to pinn it to the ground. But this monster was far more powerful than the two of them, and it shook them off in the blink of an eye. Murat was quick-eyed, and at the moment when the two were thrown away, he slammed his shield into the door of the giant rat.

Another vertiginous wave came, and the strong giant rat was sluggish again.

Ophelia froze, drew a feathered arrow engraved with a fiery pattern from her quiver, and shot it into the giant rat's mouth. After shooting the arrow, Ophelia rolled on the ground with her head in her hands.

"Spread out!"

Before the others could react, the giant rat's mouth burst open. Sharp fangs mixed with flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the city defense troops who couldn't dodge fell on the spot.

"Kill it!" Murat was closest to the monster, but miraculously the first to stand up. He glanced at the sticky flesh and broken teeth, and drew his sword and stabbed it at the still twitching giant rat.

"Phew~ The fur of this thing is a good thing," Murat spun the sword into the giant rat's head, "Hey, Griffith, is he still alive?

"I, I'm finally back alive in the capital of the world......" Ophelia stood up from the sewage and flesh in embarrassment, and wiped a handful of face armor that had been covered with something unknown, "I'm not here to fight this kind of!"

Before the other Huttorals could burst out laughing, the dead rat's abdomen suddenly began to wriggle violently, like a naughty child hiding under the quilt.

"Murat, get out of the way!"

The giant rat's belly exploded, and countless rats, large and small, splattered out of it. Each of them stared at the scarlet eyes and lunged at the people present.

Screams and roars rang out, and all the still standing Shotolars swung their weapons frantically and slammed them at the rats that poured out of the black pressure.

"Bang!" the first little mouse that was killed exploded, and a cloud of white cold air came out. The surrounding sewage was immediately frozen into hard ice. The dense little mice exploded into a white ice mist piece by piece.

"Oops~ Oops!" Ophelia watched as a cloud of ice mist burst open, sticking to the gap in her visor to obscure her vision. Immediately afterward, she went to consciousness before she understood what was happening.

......

One by one, the wounded were carried out of the sewers on stretchers.

Whether it was Shultolar or the city defenders, their clothes and armor were covered with a thick layer of flesh and sludge, which was frozen so hard that it stuck to them.

"Five Shitolrals were wounded, twenty-five city defenders were killed, one was wounded, and thirteen were wounded. The on-site commander Cody reported to Chief Heinz with a black line on his face, "I'm sorry that although I rescued the Baroness, I also let Your Excellency's Secolal elite fight such a bad battle. ”

"They've suffered losses but they're all alive," Heinz Wilhelm, the commander of the Armored Cavalry, spread his hands, "don't talk about these useless things, send your city defense troops down quickly, and be sure to catch this damn mage." ”

Not far from them, a ruined Ophelia limped towards the pool on the far corner. One of the city guards tried to come up and help her, but was refused.

"How's the Cadet Knight's injury?" a medical officer asked the apparently female Shotoral.

Ophelia swung her arms with difficulty, then pointed to her frozen visor. The medical officer frowned at the frozen filth, shook his head, and walked away.

"Whew~!" Ophelia came to the pool at the corner of the street, picked up a bucket of water and poured it on herself, turning around and resting against the corner of the wall.

A group of city guards ran past her, toward the entrance to the sewers where the battle had just ended.

Ophelia, who looked physically and mentally exhausted, looked at the soldiers passing by, and struggled to her feet and walked lonely down the secluded alley.

"Where are you going?" a somewhat familiar silent voice sounded from behind.

Ophelia turned her head and saw Griffith, also in disarray, standing not far behind her.

Ophelia spread her hands helplessly, pointing to the face armor that froze the ice.

Griffith walked over completely indifferently and came to Ophelia's side and continued to walk forward with her: "What do you think?

"The fallen mage hiding in the sewers has such a powerful magician, and he is also very skilled in ice magic. He has such strength, why didn't he use it with the Cook gang in the first place?"

Ophelia couldn't seem to answer the question, she just walked in silence. Seeing that she was silent, Griffith continued:

"Even if he has such strength, there is no possibility of letting us go after causing such a large number of casualties. The next to deal with him are regular knights and grand knights.

"In the case of losing the demon, he will only end up with a dead end.

"In that case, why don't you take hostages and break out with the Cook gang while you still have the strength you have left?"

Ophelia stopped where she was, looking up at Griffith, who had taken off his helmet.

Nearby residents and city guards have gathered at the entrance near the sewer. The two looked at each other in a silent alley.

Ophelia lowered her right hand and gently stroked Griffith's sunken and torn breastplate, like a girl caressing her boyfriend's strong chest.

"That's not good~" Ophelia said in an unfamiliar voice, "The old cat has already caught the mouse but won't eat it, aren't you afraid that the mouse will bite back?"

White frost spread through Griffith's breastplate wound at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, Griffith grabbed Ophelia's wrist with a lightning snap and flipped it over with a "click".

"Ah——!h

Griffith reached out and tore off the loose iron helmet, looking at the fallen female mage with a face full of pain.

"I'll give you a minute to convince me not to break your neck," Griffith grabbed the mage's hands above her head and pressed them to the ground, pressing her knees against her chest.

The appearance of the female mage who was crushed under him was beyond Griffith's expectations. Her face was rounded, with short brown hair, her facial features were not pretty but quite upright, her eyes were full of life, and she did not have the sinister aura of learning ice and black magic.

"Kill me, stooge of the nobility," the mage looked at Griffith without fear, "you kill me, and thousands of brave men will come forward to overthrow this deranged world!"

"I have no interest in your life. Your mental power is weak, you are not a professionally trained mage, how did you manage to master both frost magic and demonized rats at the same time?" Griffith asked as if he hadn't heard her.

"......" the female mage was stunned for a moment, "I have a ring that I can use a few low-level ice spells every once in a while. The control of the demon was given by someone else, and the connection with it is imprinted on my soul. Ring...... I hung a rope on my chest. ”

Griffith held the female mage's hand as she took off her iron armor and fumbled for you inside her clothes.

The mage turned her head away from Griffith's eyes, "This is the only thing I'm worthwhile, take this and let me go, right?"

"I have no interest in your life," Griffith retrieved a pale bone ring from the mage and looked at it curiously, "Let's go, cut off your spiritual connection to this ring, give up ownership, and tell me the name of the person who gave you the demon." ”

There seemed to be an invisible barrier on the bone ring, making Griffith's consciousness untouchable.

"Okay. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, endless whispers suddenly poured out from the bone ring, enveloping Griffith's brain. The whispers seemed to be calling for something, but no matter how much you listened, you couldn't hear it clearly.

A jumble of information rolled through the midshipman's head, and he didn't even understand what was going on before he fell to the ground with a thud, his whole body convulsing.

"Phew, lackey!" the mage struggled to break free from under Griffith, kicking him hard.

The female mage silently looked at Griffith, who was twitching on the ground, and suddenly snatched back the ring in his hand and held it in the palm of his hand, and said viciously: "Fool, after you disconnect from me, the will of the Lord of the Rings can crush your head. I won't give it to you, lackey! This is our hope for the overthrow of the old world, our power, my power!

"My ......

"Baby!"