Volume 2: Funeral Song of Crows Chapter 9: Fighting Like a Mortal
Joshua stumbled across the fields holding his sister, who was not even ten years old.
There was an extremely hideous bite mark on his right arm, with blood soaking the entire sleeve. The cross-section of the bite mark was very irregular, and it did not look like it was caused by a creature with sharp teeth such as a wild beast.
The two men ran on the seedlings that had turned gray due to blight, raising a cloud of dust as they went along.
"Brother, are you still bleeding..."
His sister asked worriedly.
About an hour ago, in order to rescue his sister from the monster that was no longer his blacksmith master, Joshua was bitten off a large piece of flesh from his arm by the swollen zombie covered with hyphae and mildew.
He also took the opportunity to insert the red-hot iron from the forge into the monster's eye sockets. The monster's head was ignited from the inside, making a crackling sound like burning ferns.
Then he kicked over the stove, took advantage of the spreading fire to pull his frightened sister out.
The town was filled with screams and sticky, wet groans.
Countless zombies with swollen bodies, slow steps, and covered with mold and mycelium, were commanded by a group of weirdos wearing brown robes and strange pointed hats, and were hunting down the surviving residents. He and his sister hid in the shadows with bated breath, and took the opportunity when the zombies were attracted to the Holy Spirit Church in the center of the town, and slipped out from the path in the field.
"I've stopped long ago. Save some energy and stop talking."
Joshua said this, turning his head to look at the wound on his right arm with some uneasiness, and then his heart sank.
Mycelium that looked like some kind of white hair was growing slowly, and the flesh and blood on his wound that was exposed to the air seemed to have turned into some kind of fertile soil that was nourishing them, while blue-black mold spots began to spread on the intact skin around the wound.
From the moment Joshua was bitten, he began to feel something was wrong. The pain of the bite lasted only a short moment, and then turned into a strange itching sensation. He felt as if something was spreading along the wound into his flesh, taking root, and then growing.
Gradually, a strange feeling of hunger was emerging.
This made him swallow his saliva involuntarily whenever he talked to his sister.
Thinking back to those swollen zombies covered with hyphae and mildew, Joshua gritted his teeth and stopped.
"Brother, what's wrong? Is it safe here?"
The sister suddenly stopped and took a breath for a while, then asked curiously after her breathing stabilized.
"No, I just suddenly remembered that there is a Thorn Black Guard outpost over there. There must be a military doctor there who can help me treat my wound first."
As he spoke, he pointed to the other end of the field, and the girl's brows instantly lit up when she heard it.
"Okay then, let's go there now."
Joshua shook his head and said:
"No, we don't have time to waste now. We have to go to Thorn City and inform our Lord what happened in Red Spring Town."
"What should we do then?"
The younger sister asked anxiously. Thorn City is more than seventy or eighty kilometers away from here. It usually takes a while for them to go to Thorn City to buy things by carriage.
Joshua tried to make his expression look as natural as possible and said:
"So the best way now is for me to go to that sentry post to treat the wound first, and you go to Thorn City, so there won't be any delay."
"but……"
"Just keep going along this road and you will reach Thorn City. You've been there before, so you should still remember it, right? Don't worry, I'll come find you as soon as I treat your wound. Just wait for me in front of the store where we usually buy iron ingots."
Joshua didn't give the girl a chance to think. He gently patted her head with his good hand and smiled at her.
The girl hesitated for a long time and finally nodded.
"Let's go, don't delay."
After saying this, Joshua turned around and ran quickly to the other side . His sister looked at his back, hesitant for a while, then she spread her legs and ran along the road towards Thorn City.
There were naturally no Thorn Black Guard outposts in the direction Joshua mentioned, so he stopped after running about a kilometer.
Only after he looked back and saw that his sister had turned into a black dot on the road did he finally feel relieved.
Sitting down against a pile of weeds on the ridge of the field, he let out a long sigh of relief.
The itching sensation had spread to his entire right arm, and a small amount of white mycelium had gradually blossomed into a gorgeous cap. Although he didn't know when he would become a disgusting zombie , he didn't know how to stop it, so he just planned to have a good rest.
Leaning against the soft pile of weeds, Joshua soon fell into a deep sleep.
He didn't know how long it had been before he was awakened by a sticky sound.
"I thought you'd run farther."
The man in the maroon robe and the strange pointed hat whom he had seen in the town before stood in front of him.
Seeing that he woke up, the man opened his mouth covered with festering scars and revealed a malicious smile.
Joshua looked around and saw about forty or fifty zombies wandering around, blocking all the directions he could possibly run in.
But even without these obstacles, there was no need for him to run. After waking up, his entire right arm was completely festering, and countless fungi grew out of the festering scars, covering his arm layer by layer like a shell.
But the strange thing is that he is still very conscious at the moment.
"I'm so lucky. I didn't expect to find two hosts who can carry the corrupt blessing of Lady Hungry and Corrupted in such a small town."
Host? Myself?
Joshua thought uneasily.
Although he didn't know what the Lady of Hungry and Corrupted or the Blessing of Corruption was, since the other party had surrounded him here with so many monsters but did not kill him, it was definitely not out of mercy.
Fortunately, he let his sister go first.
"Come to me, blessed one."
The man said, and with a buzzing sound that made Joshua dizzy, an "armored man" with fly wings on his back, maggots crawling in his eye sockets, and his body wrapped in a constantly wriggling sticky biomass armor landed beside him.
A dark green complex mark on the monster's chest kept flashing as if it had life.
Just one look at the monster made Joshua feel nauseous.
"Isn't it beautiful? You will be this perfect after you receive the blessing."
The man in the reddish-brown robe squatted next to him, looked at Joshua who looked like he was about to vomit, and said excitedly:
"Abandon your mortal body, embrace the power of the Moon Realm, and completely complete the sublimation of your life. You may not be used to it at first, but later you will definitely understand how merciful this is..."
The man opened his palm as he spoke, and a similarly intricate dark green mark appeared in mid-air.
Under Joshua's horrified gaze, the mark slowly floated towards his chest.
"No!"
“Feel this…”
"laugh……"
What exactly he wanted Joshua to feel, no one was destined to know.
Because the rest of his words were blocked in his throat forever by a bright silver crossbow arrow.
…………
"I'll be in charge of remote support here."
After shooting an arrow through the throat of the swollen church priest, Nezemal said indifferently to Kas behind him.
Hearing this, Cass's face showed an extremely strange expression.
After all, the last time he heard this voice say this, the other party was still a moon monster wearing the skin of Nezemal, and not long after that, it brought him an unforgettable nightmare memory.
Nezemar, who had no memory of this, continued:
"In an emergency, I will use the [Storm Buff] to strengthen my arrows to reinforce you. If..."
"Okay, okay...don't worry, I can handle it."
Hearing those familiar words, Cass drew the sword from behind and quickly interrupted her.
Cass glanced at Liz who was sitting on his shoulder. The witch jumped down consciously and flew to William's side with an unconvinced expression on her face.
But this was the only condition that Cas agreed to bring Liz out. When encountering any battle, she had to stay in the safest place.
"This is considered a practical training. Remember to control the scale of your power to the level of a master."
William on the side spoke up to remind him.
William did not intend to take action this time. A group of bloated zombies plus a blessed one, this configuration of enemies was just right for Cass to practice in actual combat, and by the way, he could also take a look at the results of his training in the meditation room some time ago.
Cass nodded, took a step forward with his sword in hand, and with a flash of lightning, he instantly appeared dozens of meters away.
His movements looked like he was running, but each step he took was a flash of dozens of meters. However, after running seven or eight steps, he had already appeared next to Joshua.
At this time, the blessed one was raising the flame-shaped sword in his hand and was about to cut off the boy's neck, but the Judgment Four in Kas's hand just broke through the space and flashed in front of the sword.
With a "clang" sound, Judgment Four blocked the knife.
The blessed one turned its head towards Cass, and only at this moment did it seem to be aware of the other's existence.
The muscles in Cass's arms bulged, and lightning as thick as a thumb climbed up the sword like a snake. A bolt of thunder instantly exploded at the place where the weapons of both parties met, and the violent shock wave blew the blessed person away.
Joshua, who had his eyes closed under the blade, thought he heard two loud thunderclaps.
The first sound exploded right next to his ears, almost deafening him, while the second sound seemed to come from far away, with a rumbling echo.
After a few seconds he opened his eyes and found that the scenery around him had changed for some reason. The tall swordsman who had just helped him block the sword was holding him and was turning back to explain something to a man in a brown robe.
"I'm sorry, Lord William. The situation was urgent. I didn't have time to guide the power through movements as you said."
"It's okay. Saving lives is important, but we should try to avoid this kind of situation in the future."
The swordsman nodded gratefully, then put Joshua down and said:
"Don't worry little one, you are safe now."
After saying this, he took a step forward with his sword in hand and disappeared from the spot again, leaving behind only a trail of afterimage flashing with lightning.
Joshua looked in the direction the swordsman ran, and immediately saw the pile of weeds where he had been leaning against to rest a few hundred meters away.
So the two thunders I heard just now were actually one? Did the swordsman bring me here in an instant?
Before Joshua could think about how the other party did it, a familiar voice brought his thoughts back to reality.
"elder brother!"
Joshua turned around and saw his sister crying and throwing herself into his arms.
"Wow... I thought I would never see you again."
"It's okay, it's okay, I'm here..."
Joshua said soothingly as he patted his sister's back with his good hand.
After seeing this scene, Nazemar, who was standing by, frowned subconsciously.
After hesitating for a while, she put down the crossbow in her hand, stood up and walked to the brother and sister.
For the battle not far away, the long-range support of the crossbow is actually not even dispensable.
"Don't hug me, your brother has a serious edema infection."
Nezemare said coldly, and then she pulled the girl out of Joshua's arms.
Then, she ignored the girl's glare at her and chanted the spell softly, and the faint green light of [Healing Hands] lit up on her hands.
…………
"To channel the power of authority through human action is the most effective way to counter the influence of mythical echoes on the mind."
As he took each step, Cass recalled the words William taught him during training.
As the one who holds the power of the God King Oka, Cass actually doesn't need to go through the trouble of rushing over to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the monster. He can even just stand on the ridge of the field and use a glance to attract the thunder in the sky to kill the monster.
Just like he had sent the young man to a safe place in an instant before, he could do a short-distance space-tearing flash like this with just a thought.
But William would not allow him to do so.
"For mortals, ideas must be put into action to become reality. Even magic casters need to construct spells to guide magic power to accomplish miracles. If you are used to solving problems with just a glance or a thought, your spirit will subtly resonate with Oka, the God King in the Black Water Mythology, and eventually lose yourself in power, gradually lose your personality and become a disaster."
"So what should I do?"
Cass asked during training.
"Fight like a mortal. Fight the same way you did before you gained power."
William replied.
"I don't understand, do you want me to give up using that power?"
"Of course not. But you cannot regard this authority as a part of yourself. Instead, you should regard it as an external force, just like the sword in your hand and the armor on your body. You should guide the authority with your actions, not with your thoughts. Only in this way can you truly tame this arrogant power."
Authority often requires a lot of self-imposed limitations to prevent the user from losing their way. In the Golden Calendar, such extraordinary people were called "Oath-Bound Ones". They would even swear an oath that could result in their own death to restrain their arrogance.
That's why he needs to run, and then use his authority to shorten the process. That's why he needs to wrap the sword with thunder first, and then use the sword to attack the enemy.
Being able to reach your goal directly with just your thoughts is the realm of God.
That's too arrogant and too boring.
Only those who learn how to take the long way around are mortals.
As he took the last step, Cass flashed in front of the blessed one, the Judgment in his hand was surrounded by thunder, and he stabbed the opponent's throat with a heavy sword.
The other party opened its mouth as if expected, and countless flies flew out of its mouth. From a distance, it looked like a thick black mist with a buzzing sound was sprayed out.
Cass was instantly submerged in the endless black fog.
Liz, who had been watching the fight not far away, let out a loud scream, and then she looked at William beside her with a nervous expression.
William also sighed.
"Tsk, you still can't control it?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a few silver lightning flashes appeared faintly in the black mist, and then became more and more dazzling, finally becoming so dazzling that people had to look away.
Those flying flies and insects were instantly turned into powder in the dazzling lightning, and then the blessed one turned into a charred skeleton in the dance of thunder.
Then the lightning extended into a dense lightning net and spread out. Dozens of swollen zombies around were turned into charcoal and fell to the ground at the first sight.
After the lightning net dissipated, only Cass was left standing there, and a large circle of land centered on him turned into broken scorched earth.
The sword in his hand stuck into the ground.
