Chapter 46: On the Road

From the Aurelia Pinehold base, heading south for about 200 kilometers, the entire area is covered in sandstorms. With the flight speed of the Double-Headed Vulture, it would take approximately three hours to fly out of this range.

If a player were to walk, it would take about two days, assuming they didn't encounter any dangerous enemies or extreme weather conditions.

Now, with two Seven Knights IV units, the players could travel with more ease. The movement speed of the two Seven Knights IV was slower than the Double-Headed Vulture, moving at about 30 kilometers per hour.

However, the benefit was that as long as someone controlled the direction, the others could do whatever they wanted inside the spacious Seven Knights IV, whether it was training or learning.

Since Leon and Victor were the summoners of the Seven Knights IV, they were not allowed to touch the controls, as the other players would become suspicious and wonder if they had somehow taken control of the units.

Thus, the task of controlling the direction fell to Lady Ember, Lynn, and two other players. One of the players was Lady Ember’ junior, named Caden Emberhart.

The other was a wind-element dual-class player named Arden Vale, a blonde youth. He was the only one among all the players who could fly.

According to Victor, Arden Vale had already taken the first step towards something significant and was just a final push away.

The four players took turns controlling the two Seven Knights IV units. After about seven hours, they finally exited the sandstorm area.

After exiting, Lady Ember stood atop the Seven Knights IV unit—Adrian Solis—and took out a map. She looked up at the sky to locate their position.

Only then did the Seven Knights IV units change direction and head due north. The players, who had been resting inside the internal cabin of the Seven Knights IV, were now called to the surface. They could no longer stay inside the cabin to rest. From now on, they needed to stay alert atop the Seven Knights IV and be ready to enter battle at any time.

This arrangement turned out to be quite necessary. Less than half an hour after leaving the sandstorm zone, they encountered their first wave of attacks.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

They were attacked by a group of raggedly dressed humans. They looked similar to the residents of Aurelia Pinehold, with the same grayish-white skin, but their bodies were noticeably shorter, and they carried weapons like metal spears and curved blades.

Leon noticed that the curved blades in their hands resembled the ones he had found earlier. However, these were clearly made entirely of metal, unlike the ones forged from wild boar tusks.

There were only about forty of these humans. They had initially been hiding underground, and when the Seven Knights IV units passed, they jumped out, trying to climb onto the units.

These humans were clearly natives of the Storm Archipelago. They knew well the strengths and weaknesses of the Seven Knights IV units. When they jumped out, they immediately rushed to the underside of the Seven Knights IV, where the units had a blind spot in their attacks. From there, they could attack the units' limbs without being hit by the main weapons.

The players were unaware of this at first, and by the time they realized something was wrong, the enemies had been attacking for quite a while. The players had no choice but to stop the Seven Knights IV and jump down to fight.

As they engaged in battle with these humans, the players realized that they were quite formidable, with strength around Lv0 (8 stars), roughly equivalent to Leon’s level. Moreover, they were numerous and coordinated well with each other, causing the players to struggle initially.

Leon, however, wasn't one of the players having the most difficulty. From the beginning, the path he had chosen—Death Reaper—focused more on melee combat than magic, so over the past few years, he hadn’t neglected his combat reflexes.

Even after changing paths, he hadn’t let his combat training fall behind. Additionally, he had been training his spear techniques recently, so when facing two or three enemies, even if he couldn’t win quickly, he wouldn’t be defeated.

In fact, when Leon first jumped down, he managed to stab one of the enemies with a direct thrust, knocking the person to the ground. It seemed that person wouldn’t survive.

As she observed the chaotic battle below the Seven Knights IV unit, Lady Ember furrowed her brow and shouted, “Hold the enemies off! I’m going to use a big move.”

Upon hearing this, Leon's spear movements became even faster, managing to hold off at least four nearby enemies.

If anyone had been paying attention, they would have noticed that Lady Ember, standing atop the Seven Knights IV—Adrian Solis—was slowly levitating. Adrian Solis' eyes shot out two beams of incandescent light, turning Lady Ember’s entire body red.

As her body underwent this transformation, Lady Ember floated higher and higher until she reached about 20 meters above the ground. Then, she raised her right hand high, spreading her palm slightly before clenching it into a fist, saying to the ground, “Blazing Meteor.”

As soon as Lady Ember spoke, her fist emitted a blinding white light. A gigantic fist-shaped shadow fell to the ground like a meteor, causing a shockwave centered around the Seven Knights IV—Adrian Solis.

At that moment, all Leon heard was a loud boom, and he felt the ground tremble. It even seemed like something underground had exploded.

The shaking stopped abruptly. When Leon looked up, he found that the enemies in front of him had fallen to the ground. Compared to him, they seemed to be in worse shape. Their bodies were red, and blood was streaming from their eyes as if they had suffered severe injuries.

Leon knew this was an opportunity not to be missed. If he gave them a chance to recover, it would be a disaster. So, without hesitation, he thrust his spear forward, stabbing the four downed enemies in front of him, killing them one by one.

Since Leon acted, the other players naturally didn’t miss the opportunity either. By the time Lady Ember landed back atop the Seven Knights IV—Adrian Solis, the enemies on the ground had been wiped out.

Jumping down from Adrian Solis, Lady Ember meticulously inspected the corpses on the ground.

Afterward, with a serious expression, Lady Ember said, “I didn’t expect them to have reached this area already. We need to pick up the pace.”

Then, she turned to Victor and said, “Check if these corpses are of any use. If they are, deal with them. We can’t rely on ourselves for every battle from now on. We need to conserve our strength.”

Victor nodded and gestured for Leon to come over. The two began examining the corpses, and they quickly made a determination. Out of the forty or so corpses, about ten could be reanimated as ordinary undead.