In the eyes of some people, barbarians: shiny faces, well-dressed, eight-pack abs, bold and rugged, full of martial virtues, true to their word, and repaying kindness, they are simply like walking hormones.
In fact, the barbarians in most historical periods were disheveled, skinny, in tattered clothes, unkempt, strong enough to be bandits, weak and humble, shameless, fearful of power but not moral, and had small etiquette but no great righteousness.
During World War I, the average height of German soldiers was only 166CM, the average height of French soldiers was even lower, and the average height of Chinese men in 2021 is 170CM. In other words, social productivity is the decisive factor that dominates height and physique. As long as meat, eggs and milk The supply is sufficient. In any sports, the Chinese are not inferior to other races, and their minds are even smarter.
Rhodes, who lived and grew up in that era, watched helplessly as his motherland returned to the top of the world step by step.
As the country’s national power grows, neighboring countries once again submit to majesty, just as their ancestors have done countless times.
Therefore, Rhodes couldn’t be more clear: “Barbarians fear power but not virtue. We must not be weak in dealing with them, otherwise they will surround us like wild dogs that have seen blood.”
With Rhodes’ firm support behind him, Alos’s mind gradually became firmer.
She directly rejected the unreasonable request of the murloc elder. Just behind the murloc elder, a strong murloc rushed out waving an iron fork to intimidate her.
Rhodes walked out from behind Alos, half-drawing his sword. He was more than half a head taller than the fish-man opposite. At this moment, he was looking down from a high position with cold eyes. The intimidating fish-man gradually lost his momentum.
Because it is obvious that he cannot be beaten and is just destined to die. How can he still have momentum?
At this time, the fishman elder was also hesitant to take action.
When its eyes fell on the trucks of the caravan, they were full of greed that could not be concealed. However, the human warriors around the caravan also put on their armor and walked out with weapons in hand at this moment.
Murlocs only have weapons, but they are far inferior to the completeness and sophistication of the weapons used by these humans.
“…We can retreat, but this person must come with us!” Finally, the fishman elder Hu En finally chose to take a step back, but he suddenly pointed at Rhodes with his webbed palm.
“It’s impossible. I can’t give up the soldiers who fight for me.” Yaros is not a fool. Of course, he can’t agree to this request of the fishman. He doesn’t even hesitate. Even if he hands over food, it will damage the morale of the caravan. If the caravan descends and is handed over without any reason, the morale of the caravan may immediately dissipate.
“He replaced the sausage and bacon with the meat of goblins and kobolds. He insulted us. Human, if you don’t hand him over, we can no longer cooperate. Your caravan will be attacked in the Blackwater Swamp in the future.” Endless attacks!”
Facing Elder Hu En’s accusation, Rhodes was stunned for a moment.
He really didn’t expect that these barbarian tribesmen could clearly tell the difference between meat. Well, it may be that the food unique to human civilization is too high-end for them, and the contrast with what they can eat normally is too sharp.
At this moment, Rhode’s back muscles tightened suddenly, because he knew that Gunnarser would kill him as long as he had the chance.
At this moment, Rhodes didn’t know Alos’s attitude. If Alos was purely trying to open up new business routes, then the threat of this swamp murloc would still be very threatening.
Clang.
This was the sound of a sharp sword being unsheathed. Rhodes was almost ready to turn around and block, while calling out to his Redwood Town soldiers for rescue.
However, the next moment, the bright sword light slashed past Rhodes.
Hu En, the fish-man with colorful scales, did not expect that the human in front of him would take action as soon as he asked, and that he would not leave any room when he unsheathed his sword. It subconsciously blocked it with the bone staff in its hand.
There was a soft sound, and the bone staff broke.
There was a commotion among the surrounding murlocs. The murloc elder Hu En took two steps back and was supported by his men behind him. However, a deep and long sword mark had been slashed diagonally on its chest, and there was green blood. flow.
“I won’t kill you this time because the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce abides by the rules of the transaction. From now on, it’s up to you to choose between war or cooperation, and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce can accept either.”
The situation at this moment is that Yaros is pointing his sword at the fishman diagonally. Next to him is Rhodes, who is pressing the hilt of the sword with one hand. Behind the two of them is a man who has lightly raised the warhammer in one hand, but was struck by Rui’er and Fa. The two men, one on the left and the other on the right, approached the pinned Gunnather.
The situation on the human side is very delicate, but the fishmen on the other side can’t see it. They just thought that the humans in front of them were ready to fight.
“Human, you will regret it. Then, let’s wait and see you again later.”
As the leader of the fish-man tribe, the injured Elder Hu En covered his chest with his webbed palms and retreated step by step into the darkness. This time, it chose to retreat.
But the relationship between the Blackwater Swamp Murloc Tribe and the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has naturally reached a freezing point.
After a moment, the black figures surrounding him retreated.
“Rodhart, do you know what your biggest weakness is?”
“…What is it?” Rhodes replied with a wry smile, looking at Arlos who was slowly sheathing his sword in front of him. He knew that he owed him a big favor this time.
“No matter what you do, you seem to be used to striving for the greatest benefit at the lowest cost. I don’t know how you developed this habit, but you should know that many times we can give up many costs to achieve a sufficiently important goal to ensure the final success.”
“Thank you for your advice, and thank you for helping me out this time.” The habit that Arlos mentioned was developed by Rhodes in his previous life.
Although he now knows that reality is not a game, the behavioral habits he has developed over the years still make Rhodes do this subconsciously sometimes.
For example, sometimes Rhodes would rather bear great danger himself than protect his army from great losses. This is a very un-noble and irrational approach. Of course, he also gained the high loyalty of his subordinates in a very short time.
“No need to thank me. I will deduct the money you secretly withheld from the two trucks of food from your employment commission. The reason why I will help you this time is that the talent you have shown along the way is far higher than the price you need me to pay.”
Alos has undoubtedly grasped the weakness in Rhode’s character. He pursues relative perfection in everything and is unwilling to bear losses.
Therefore, when he heard that the money would be deducted from the commission, Rhode’s mouth twitched, but he couldn’t say anything else, thinking that he was unlucky.
Originally thought that after experiencing the murloc siege, he could sleep well tonight, but near dawn, Raymond woke Rhode up again, saying that a huge creature was flying in the distance.
Work is like this. In case of emergencies, you have to get up and deal with emergencies even if it is uncomfortable.
Rhode quickly got up and put on armor again. When he walked out of the tent, Butler Alos and his personal female knight Rui’er had already come out. Gunnars was only slightly slower than Rhode, but this was normal because he was equipped with heavy armor.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“The night watchman discovered that a huge creature had landed in the distant sky. According to his observation, it was seven or eight blades high and thirty blades long!”
“Are you kidding me? Thirty blades long, a flying mountain?”
“Lord Alos, what should we do? Should we ignore it, or… go and take a look?” Gunnars asked Alos, who was lifting his leather gloves and moving his five fingers.
“Let’s go and take a look. The danger will not cease to exist just because you turn a blind eye to it. It’s useless to learn from the Dudu bird. Only by facing fear can you defeat it.”
The Dudu bird is a large crisscrossing bird in this world. When they encounter danger, they will stick their heads into the soil and expose their buttocks, so that they think the other party can’t see them. Therefore, people often see Dudu birds in the wild that have been eaten until only their heads are buried in the soil.
It gives people the feeling that it is not running for its life, but digging a grave for itself before it dies. The Styak people also use Dudu birds to make fun of those timid people.
“It makes sense to go for reconnaissance. If it is really a large flying creature, it is simply impossible for such a large caravan like us to escape its sight. It is wise to go and see what we are facing.”
Rod tightened his leather gloves, exhaled a breath of white mist, and said to Kress beside him:
“Kress, don’t go this time. Fatis and I can go. You two still need to practice riding skills.”
“Master, then you should be careful, and don’t rush forward when you encounter danger.”
“Got it.”
Rod and Fatis are the two best riders in Redwood Town. Arlos and Rui’er are also good riders. Among the five people traveling together, Gunnarsser has the worst riding skills.
“If you encounter danger, leave him behind. But this old guy should be carrying a light crossbow, be careful that he will plot against you from behind.”
When the sky was getting light, five people and five riders rushed out of the camp, broke into the forest, and headed southeast following the direction of the night watch soldiers.
Facing the biting cold wind that blew on his face like a knife, Rhode tried to lower his body as much as possible and squinted his eyes to reduce the area of force.
But it still didn’t feel good. Galloping in the forest was dangerous. If you were not careful and got caught by a vine or the horse stumbled, even an experienced knight might break his leg or even his neck.
Fortunately, the journey was not too long, and it didn’t take too long for everyone to reach the target location.
Before they arrived, they could already smell the blood coming with the wind. When they really arrived after passing through the obstruction of vision, what they saw in front of them was a blood-stained land like a slaughterhouse, full of corpses of dead swamp fishmen.
The blood and corpses, like a blood-colored carpet, spread to the deepest part of the forest, suggesting great horror.
“These corpses seem to be a little abnormal, and their bones seem to be gone.” Rui Er turned over and got off the horse, and gently kicked a fishman corpse not far away, like kicking a rag.
“Get off the horses, let’s go take a look.” Before coming out, all the horses had their mouths covered with cloth, making it difficult for them to neigh. So everyone led the horses and followed the bloodstains and corpses to the deepest part of the forest without making much noise.
However, the deeper we went, the more we observed, the more strange and bizarre the situation was!
More and more fishmen corpses appeared in front of us. Some of them were like the one Rui Er found, with no bones on their bodies, as if their bones had jumped out of their bodies from the wounds. Some of them had died not long ago, but they seemed to have been dead for a long time and were seriously decayed. Some fishmen died in battles with other fishmen. When they died in battle, the weapons in their hands still pierced each other’s chests.
Among them, Rhodes found the strong fishman who had confronted him not long ago. Although fishmen looked similar in the eyes of humans, this guy had a cross scar on his face, so Rhodes recognized it at a glance.
“Looking at this number, there will be no more swamp fishmen in the future.”
“Don’t be so optimistic. No one knows whether the monster is “full”. If not, we will be the next meal.”
Finally, after tying up the horses and accelerating forward alone, about twenty minutes later, in front of a cave, the five saw the last battle, or the last massacre.
That was the last fifty or so swamp fishmen, and their opponent was only one person, or rather, only one person.
This pale-faced man, wearing a black and red cloak, was holding the neck of the colorful-scaled fishman elder Hu En with one hand, letting the other’s blood, which was obviously highly toxic, flow through his skin.
At this moment, the last fifty or so swamp fishmen were wailing and fighting to the death. It was not that they were extremely loyal and wanted to save their elders, but that they were surrounded by a large group of skeletons, zombies, and ghosts flying around, and they could not rush out at all, even if they wanted to escape.
With the power of one person, he destroyed a clan.
The blackwater swamp fishmen, who once gave everyone in the caravan a headache and even fear, were all killed by one person in less than two hours.
“Don’t, don’t kill anymore. I’ll give you the scales of my ancestors…”
“No need, I already know where they are. You, just become part of my power.” With such a smile and whisper, it was unknown what the pale-faced man did. Elder Huen in front of him quickly turned into a pool of corrosive liquid and fell to the ground with a rustling sound. However, the next moment, a group of dark purple soul energy bodies condensed and appeared in front of the man. After being watched for a while, he put it into the ring on his left hand.
At this time, the fishman tribe in the Blackwater Swamp had been completely destroyed. The man raised his hand, and the flying ghosts at the scene gathered and flew back to his left hand ring as if they were summoned, while the skeletons and zombies that had fought with the fishman before returned to dust and fell to the ground.
“Shadow Brand Ring!? I didn’t expect that this treasure was also found again.” In the forest, Rhodes and Arlos were close, so he heard her subconscious whisper after being greatly shocked.
Others may have heard it, but no one cared about it the next moment, because after killing all the fishmen, the man turned around and moved his eyes to the hiding place of the crowd.
“Do you come out by yourself, or do I invite you out?”
Facing such an unimaginable strong man, she had to face him even if she didn’t want to. Alos exhaled lightly, and then she walked out first, followed by Rui’er, Fatis, Rhodes, and Gunnarsser.
“Who are you?”
“Merchants who are trying to open up a trade route from Styak to Hoffman and Sims Royal Court came to investigate because they found something unusual.” Alos had been neither humble nor arrogant until this moment. She looked at the man opposite calmly and replied like this.
“Well, I hate being peeped into my secrets. So you…”
Just when the middle-aged man had almost raised the palm with the ring on it and was about to swing it, he suddenly paused.
Rhodes noticed that Arlos, who was standing in front of everyone, subconsciously made a strange pose, as if a sword would suddenly appear in her hand, although the sword she usually used was hanging on her waist.
“… Forget it, my dark energy is now exhausted anyway. Even if I kill you, it will not benefit me at all.”
Suddenly, he put away his hand that was about to fall, and the middle-aged man pulled the black and red cloak on his body, and the whole person turned into black gas and bats scattered all over the sky, flying and spreading, and quickly disappeared.
The necromancer has two kinds of magic power, one is the same magic power as ordinary mages, and the other is dark magic energy, and the latter is the main basis for the necromancer to summon and control the undead. In ancient history, many powerful mages also fell into depravity because they could not resist this temptation, but no one can deny the power of the necromancer and dark magic.
“Ah!”
Accompanied by a low groan, the people who escaped death looked up and saw a huge bone dragon with seven or eight blades high and thirty blades long appearing in the air. It carried the middle-aged man and a short-haired girl in a black robe holding a wooden box in both hands, and flew through the air.
It is obvious that the necromancer has got what he wanted.
“Famous hero Giovanni, this guy has not been killed by the Chosen One Arantir? I was scared to death. I thought I was going to be killed by this guy. The ghost tribe’s early first-mover advantage and rolling advantage are too strong.”
Looking at the bone dragon flying through the air and quickly going away, Rhodes thought to himself.
