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Chapter 26: Elite Withered Beast
"Will you scold me, Brandon?"
"No. Hurry up and come here. Watch your steps." While watching Roma who was acting cautious, Brandon couldn't help feeling both amused and exasperated. However, as he looked up, three Juvenile Withered Beasts had already appeared on the rock that he previously occupied with Roma. Glancing around, he saw that these bushy creatures had surrounded them from all sides in just a short while—now that the undead horde had been wiped out, they became the sole target in the canyon, especially the Lustrous Stinger that the future “Miss Merchant” was holding. The magical weapon seemed to attract these Golden Magic Tree minions like a candle in the dark.
And indeed, it was a candle in the dark.
Brandon could almost hear the Golden Magic Tree's thirst for magic screaming in his mind, but he dared not dwell on the issue—they were pressed for time and might encounter Treants, so they needed to leave this place before then. He turned to Freya, asking, "Can you hold on?"
Freya nodded.
"Then let's climb up from the other side. Hold your sword and be careful," he said, handing the girl's sword back to her. Although the Withered Beasts had occupied the high ground from this side, there were no bushy creatures in the opposite direction.
In reality, these animated plants weren't that fast, and their speed in climbing over rugged rocks was about the same as that of an average person's. However, they excelled in numbers, were familiar with the terrain, and possessed exceptional endurance and resilience. Brandon knew he had to find a way to stop these creatures.
He couldn't help but glance upwards.
Freya winced in pain as she placed her bloodied hand on the rocky wall. But she gritted her teeth, tored off a piece of cloth from her sleeve to wrap around her hand, and climbed up grabbing onto the sharpened rocks..
Witnessing the scene from behind, Brandon couldn't help but felt a sense of admiration. However, he didn't have much time. He took the Lustrous Stinger from Roma's hand, helped her climb up, then turned around to see two Juvenile Withered Beasts climbing up from below.
"Brandon, hurry up!" Roma shouted.
Freya's face turned pale with nervousness. She immediately lain on the rock and reached out her hand to him.
Brandon was not in the mood to respond. Those two monsters had no intelligence, they were already half-standing and were making threatening hisses towards the young man.
In a sense, the Withered Beasts couldn't be considered intelligent life forms. They were merely puppets of the Golden Magic Tree.
With a swift motion of his sword, a glow in the darkness made the two creatures recoil slightly, but just as Brandon was about to grab the future Valkyrie's hand, they growled deeply and lunged forward.
They are courting death!
Anger surged in Brandon's heart. Using his agility of 2.1 units, he pushed off the rock surface and flew over the heads of the two bushy monsters. As his feet touched the ground, his upper body already poised in the most standard attacking stance.
A horizontal slash.
Freya exclaimed in surprise. She had now just realised the huge gap between her and Brandon. Her talent wasn't outstanding, but her greatest pride was her ability to work harder and focus more than the average person; her first place in swordsmanship among the Buchi militia didn't necessarily indicate exceptional talent, as few noticed the hard work she put into it.
This was also why Marden admired her and made her the captain of the militia.
Yet her foundation of swordsmanship was merely solid, while Brandon’s seemed to be honed to perfection. If she had to describe it in one word, it would be 'clean.'
With one stroke, one head fell without the slightest mistake.
A circle of silver flames erupted from the Withered Beast’s severed neck, then it immediately collapsed into a pile of ash. The other Withered Beast let out a shrill scream and swung its claws over—indeed, Withered Beasts' claws were much longer than what most people had seen, but they rarely displayed this before attacking, leaving many unsuspecting victims. However, Brandon wasn't fooled.
Just kidding. He had fallen into the same trap once in the game, how could he fall into the same hole twice?
Therefore, he was already prepared for this. The moment he raised his sword, the Withered Beast’s claw hit the Lustrous Stinger and a silver spark burst forth. The Withered Beast backed off while bellowing. Though confused, how could Brandon let go of such a good opportunity to attack?
He stepped forward and thrusted his sword, the Elven Blade left a conspicuous silver trail. In fact, he had made similar aggressive moves countless times in the game and was quite familiar with them. However, it felt awkward because his physical attributes and skills were far from keeping up with it, especially the timing of his strikes was lacking by miles.
He thought, if it was an Iron Rank swordsman, it could have easily dodged his attacks, but unfortunately, The Juvenile Withered Beast didn't have that ability.
His sword pierced through its throat.
Hot silver flames rose from both sides of the leaf-shaped blade, and in an instant, the Withered Beast turned into a pile of ashes. Six golden orbs danced in the night sky, then merged into Brandon's chest.
To be honest, the effectiveness of 'purification' against undead and dark creatures exceeded Brandon's imagination, but he had never seen anything similar to this in the game, so he had no basis for comparison—
"Brandon, you're amazing!" Roma exclaimed in astonishment.
Freya was even more speechless, unable to utter a word. She had originally believed that Brandon was a militia member from Braggs, but thinking about it now, it must have been a lie. She wasn't stupid, how could a militia member be so skilled?
However, in fact, neither she nor Roma had even begun to learn swordsmanship. They did not understand the true measure of a swordsman's skill was based on the balance of speed, strength, and technique. In reality, Brandon's speed and strength were far from outstanding, but when it came to technique—due to past experience, he could just barely execute many techniques that lower-ranked swordsmen never thought of.
But this actually didn't matter because many techniques were just empty shells without corresponding levels of strength, like the mid-air movement that he had done earlier that took advantage of the Withered Beast's lack of agility. If he had faced someone else, he would never use that move casually.
For real, wouldn't he just become a target in the air without the ‘the element’ of transformation?
However, Brandon wasn't in the mood to enjoy the astonishment of the two beauties. He had already noticed that more Withered Beasts were climbing up, so he quickly gestured to Freya and Roma to continue upward, while he instinctively glanced at the ashes of the two Withered Beasts. It was like a gamer’s instinct, which was funny to say—he just wanted to see if there were any more item drops.
But of course, there were none.
It seemed that there were some differences from the game after all. Didn’t the Withered Beasts typically drop 1-2 copper coins? He couldn't help but shake his head, then turned to grab onto the rock wall and climb up.
The agility of The Juvenile Withered Beast was 1.2 units. Although the adult body had far superior strength and endurance compared to creatures of the same level, its agility was only two-thirds of the juvenile body. Brandon’s was at 2.1 units and Freya, being a trained militia member, her agility wouldn't be lower than 1.2 units. Among the three of them, only Roma was slightly inferior, but with Brandon and Freya's help, her speed wouldn't be much slower.
So the three of them climbed up along the sharp rocks, gradually distancing themselves from the bushy monsters. However, the latter were relentless, and continued chasing and evading for several more minutes.
At this point, the advantage of endurance came into play. Besides Brandon, who remained composed, Freya was already starting to breathe heavily. As for Roma, her face had long turned as white as paper, but when Brandon offered to carry her, she adamantly refused.
Brandon couldn't help but look back. The monsters were still trailing behind about tens of metres away. Fortunately, their lack of intelligence prevented them from outflanking them, otherwise they would have been out of luck long ago. But even so, this wasn't a sustainable solution. Getting caught up was only a matter of time, especially since The Juvenile Withered Beast had a physique of 3 units, higher than Brandon's.
He couldn't help but glance upwards at the distant cliff. Luckily, they weren't far now.
But at that moment, Roma gasped, "Brandon, look over there—!"
Our protagonist subconsciously turned his head, squinting his eyes. He saw a gigantic Withered Beast, about three metres tall, emerging from a crack in the rocks ahead, striding towards them.
Oh my god! An elite unit, it’s a patrol leader! If they had encountered such a thing in the game, Brandon would probably have been ecstatic, but now he only felt the urge to curse. This thing was an evolved version of the Withered Beast after sharing the blood of the Golden Magic Tree. Not only was its physique and strength outstanding, its agility of 1.7 units was also not inferior.
"Freya, Roma, go to the other side of the cliff. There are grappling hooks in the backpack. As long as you find a way to climb up, these low-level minions won't be able to catch up for a while!" He decisively took off the backpack and threw it toward Roma. Since he was the only man here, he naturally had to take on the responsibility of holding the line.
In the game, although male and female players were equal, as a basic online etiquette, most of the time, men took the initiative to take on the rearguard tasks in a team. Therefore, at this moment, Brandon made the decision almost without thinking.
"I'll go with you," Freya said.
Brandon glanced at her and saw the seriousness on the future Valkyrie's face. Knowing that he would not be able to persuade her, he nodded. However, he indeed needed a helper. At least Freya could excel in this role, unlike Roma who was often lazy in militia training and aspired to be a merchant.
"Roma, go quickly. We're counting on you."
"Yeah, Brandon!" Of course Miss Merchant understood. While clutching Brandon's backpack tightly, she nodded vigorously, then turned to run in that direction.
The Elite Withered Beast leaped forward and appeared before them, while the group of Withered Beasts in the distance was about forty metres away. Brandon and Freya exchanged glances, made a quick estimate, and realised they had about thirty seconds to end this battle.
"Its claws are three metres long. Watch out for its attack range, let's stand a bit apart. Also, it will shoot out thorns from its body, which are poisonous, so avoid frontal attacks—"
Freya nervously gripped her sword and took a deep breath. Although she didn't know why Brandon knew all this, she was sure he wouldn't deceive her, so she tried to keep calm and nodded.
Brandon clenched his fists, feeling somewhat stiff; the paralysis toxin was already taking effect. He opened the panel to see that his agility had dropped by 0.1 unit. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but look at the Elite Withered Beast, feeling a bit mournful. In the game, Elite Withered Beasts, as patrol leaders, only dropped money and it was around ten silver coins, so there couldn’t be no benefit at all, right?
Thinking back, that didn't seem impossible.
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