That girl, Andabella.
Once again, the image floated into Li De’s mind: the figure exuding scholarly air, with silver hair, silver eyes, and an ever-proud expression on her face.
And of course, that inescapable legendary cloak.
At this moment, the battlefield had reached its fever pitch.
Andabella, draped in the legendary Blood Cloak, held a slender longsword that, compared to the massive frame of the Behemoth, looked no more than a chopstick.
Yet it was precisely this toy-like longsword that left deep gashes in the Behemoth’s flesh with every stroke.
The Blood Cloak flapped fiercely in the night wind, and without any signs of casting, Andabella floated freely in the air as though the cloak itself were her wings.
Whoosh~
The Behemoth suddenly slashed out with its claw, unleashing a lethal strike at Andabella. It wanted to tear this annoying human to pieces!!
The towering muscles bulging from its arms contained the power to rend the earth itself. The air-tearing whoosh sounded like a devil’s scream.
Floating midair, Andabella’s expression didn’t change. Her body shifted sideways by a few meters, narrowly dodging the Behemoth’s razor-sharp and deadly attack. The gust of wind stirred up by the strike sent her silver hair fluttering.
In her hand, the narrow cross-shaped sword, half a palm wide and 1.2 blades long, rose in a clean upward slash.
The Blood Cloak behind her radiated a faint crimson glow. The blade of the sword shimmered with a hint of the same crimson energy. As she swung, the energy flowed like a stream of molten light, trailing a fiery tail as it pierced toward the Behemoth’s wrist.
Szzzt~
The Behemoth’s massive body gave it unmatched strength, but at the cost of flexibility. It failed to evade and was struck by the sword.
Beneath the crimson glow, skin tough enough to withstand siege crossbows tore like paper beneath her blade.
Pale golden blood sprayed like a fountain, instantly filling the air with the scent of iron and gore.
Even more bizarre, the Blood Cloak behind Andabella seemed to come alive at the sight of blood. It whipped forward and swept across the Behemoth’s wound.
In just a blink, all that remained of the wound was pale muscle, the blood had been completely devoured by the cloak.
Blood consumption, seductive and eerie.
The Behemoth let out an agonized roar. The searing pain that scraped his bones drove the golden creature into a frenzy, and its claw strikes became even faster.
It would rip this damned human to shreds! It swore it!!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The terrifying sound of air splitting felt like it could tear the sky apart, and the pointed-roof houses nearby collapsed like cut wheat under a sickle.
Wounded, the monstrous beast unleashed a brutal and indescribable ferocity, as though it alone could raze the entire city to the ground.
Seeing the Behemoth go berserk, Andabella didn’t continue attacking. Instead, she weaved skillfully through its barrage of strikes.
Now, anyone looking at the cloak behind her would notice, it had grown even more vivid after consuming the Behemoth’s blood. The red upon it seemed like dripping blood.
A crimson glow now radiated more brightly from Andabella’s body as if endless energy surged within her.
This legendary piece of equipment, crafted from the hides of three dragons, infused with dragon blood and the blood of a legendary demon, possessed powers unimaginable to outsiders.
Mighty and vicious, it was the girl’s sole reliance in her duel with the Behemoth.
From a distance, Li De watched the battle with a complicated expression.
Armor with a Transcendent ★ rating already carried six powerful traits. So just how powerful was this legendary cloak? Unfortunately, legendary equipment's properties were hidden from him, he couldn’t see more.
With curiosity rising in his heart, he opened Andabella’s status panel.
Andabella Risel
Title:
City Lord of Risel City (Risel City reputation fixed at Worship)
Grand Scholar (Wisdom +50%, Reputation among human factions increased by one tier)
Treasure of Risel City (Charm +50%, Nolan Empire reputation increased by one tier)
Descendant of the Risel Empire (Gains Majesty trait: exerts powerful dominance over human beings of equal or lower level; reputation among high nobility raised to Esteemed)
Swordsmanship Master (Dexterity +100%, Strength +80%, swordsmanship mastery upgraded to Transcendent, all sword-type weapons upgraded to Expert)
Age: 26
Level: 14
Class: Sword of Risel (The most renowned sword unit of the Risel Empire, once boasted three legendary Great Swordmasters at its peak)
Bloodline: Risel Royal Bloodline (Unawakened)
Description: A descendant of the Risel royal family, she carries a powerful bloodline within her; a brilliant, proud scholar possessing knowledge far beyond common understanding; a Swordsmanship Master who inherited the elite techniques of the Sword of Risel, her mastery of the longsword has reached the level of a master.
One glance, and Li De was thoroughly stunned.
No wonder she carried the bloodline of a fallen imperial family. Her title list alone was astonishing, five in total.
Though only one of them was combat-related, the other four brought immense social influence. For a city lord, such titles were far more valuable than raw combat titles.
Andabella’s attributes might not even be inferior to Betty’s, royalty of the Northern Kingdom. Of course, that was assuming Betty had activated her own bloodline.
Boom~
In a burst of rage, the Behemoth forced the airborne Andabella into a moment of disarray.
After all, one was a Level 19 near-Transcendent lifeform, while the other was only Level 14.
Even wrapped in legendary gear, she merely had the ability to injure it, not truly contend head-on with a golden-ranked lifeform like a Behemoth.
Near a half-collapsed building in the distance, the hook-nosed officer with a stubbled face watched nervously as Andabella risked her life to hold off the Behemoth.
“City Lord Andabella! Most of the civilians have already evacuated, let’s go too!!”
Behind him, dozens of soldiers stared intently at Andabella, who was clearly beginning to falter as she selflessly kept the unstoppable beast occupied for their sake.
Hearing her subordinate’s voice, Andabella, who had been forcing herself to hold on, finally stopped insisting.
She began to fight while retreating.
Although the Behemoth continued to rampage, under Andabella’s nimble interference it had not managed to cause even greater destruction to the city.
This bought precious time for the civilians still fleeing.
Li De observed the battle from afar, his expression complex. After a moment of thought, he quietly followed under the cover of night.
In the depths of his pitch-black eyes flickered emotions imperceptible to others.
This uneven battle between vastly mismatched powers had stretched across the entire city. Andabella had been chased by the Behemoth from the western main battlefield all the way to the eastern wall facing Green City.
Along the way, wherever the Behemoth passed, spired towers collapsed, buildings of bluestone shattered, and streets turned to ruins.
The massive beast had become a true demon of destruction. Everything before it was reduced to rubble.
There was no one in the city capable of killing the Behemoth. Right now, Risel City belonged to the Behemoth.
And if the Behemoth’s assault had broken the city’s military, then the arrival of swarms of wyverns brought utter despair.
Risel City’s last remaining griffins failed to appear in this final battle. Clearly, the wyverns had rendered the once-proud aerial legion of Risel obsolete.
Now, the skies belonged to the wyverns.
With dragon wings lined with vicious barbs and mouths dripping with corrosive saliva, the wyverns covered the skies above East City.
The city guard, still desperately fighting to cover the civilian retreat, suffered an even crueler blow.
Each strike from a wyvern could kill multiple soldiers or civilians.
Without control of the skies, the army could only rely on ground troops with bows and crossbows. The mages had long since exhausted their mana in the prolonged conflict, barely able to cast a few spells now and then to support the troops.
The battle had reached such a state that Risel City was completely spent, out of ammunition, out of supplies. The difference in strength was simply too great.
The beastmen’s side fielded hundreds of thousands of warriors, not to mention thousands of shamans, five to six thousand wyverns, over ten thousand wolf cavalry, and, above all, a Level 19 Behemoth that no one could stop.
This wasn’t even a battle on the same level anymore. The only reason Risel had lasted this long was because the beastmen had been holding back.