Though confident that they could handle the slim humanoid monster with multiple heads, they made the choice that they shouldn’t have to challenge them or attract their attention. All three of them sneaked to the front of the metal gates of the inner ward through the poison gas and the flowers from the swamps, and this time Jianmen did not use an incense stick, instead, he took out two folded paper sigils, stuck them on the gap between the gates, then conjured his meat cleaver.

“I thought you’re gonna do some high magic lock picking, but it always ends up with the big sword huh?” Josephine Wong chuckled.

“Yeah, who needs the small lockpick tools when you’ve got a big sword?” Jianmen chanted a few words, then placed the cleaver’s edge upon the sigils, then gently knocked on the spine of the blade.

“Tzzzk” flares, spark and smoke came from the thin gap between the gates as if someone just used a welding tool on the metal gates. And after a few seconds, the gates slowly swung open, making a high pitched metal scratching sound.

“Okay. Let’s be quick.” Jianmen nodded.

Just when the team of three were about to enter the inner ward through the now open gates, one of the giant, slim humanoid monsters with three heads turned around and looked to the position of the metal gates. Then, it proceeded to the position of the metal gates, and found the team of three walking towards the front gate of the main castle building.

The three heads on the humanoid monster’s body let out a loud screech at the same time, and it burst through the gates and lunged at them from behind, its arms extended forward trying to grab Glenda Grimes and Jianmen, the eyes on all three heads lit up in a pale blue light, its crooked teeth exposed and its tongues twirling in their ugly foul mouths as if it was about to bite down on a human body like a hamburger.

Neither of the hands of the humanoid monster was able to grab onto anything, as its middle head had a close contact with the sole of Jianmen’s right shoe, its middle forehead, to be precise. The middle forehead caved in, its middle neck was curved backwards and the skin on its middle throat was ripped apart from how violent the motion was.

The monster’s body was thrown back by the kick and it tumbled on the ground, then a crescent shaped orange and golden energy blade was released by the swing of Jianmen’s meat cleaver shot at its three necks. The monster raised its two arms trying to block this attack, but the energy blade just sliced through them before it separated the three heads from the shoulder.

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“Clank!” “Clank!” “Clank!” Just like a stereotypical magical castle in movies, some metal statues and empty armors walked away from the positions on the walls and the pillars and started charging at them with their weapons raised and pointed.

“Oh God, how cliche’.” Jianmen sighed.

“It must be still trendy when they built it.” Josephine Wong smiled.

Glenda Grimes jabbed her rapier forward, and a green energy blade shot from the tip of her sword aiming at one of the moving armors’ face. The energy blade pierced through the helmet entirely and knocked it off from the shoulder. But the armor still continued its charge with its poleaxe in its gauntlets aiming at her.

“Looks like the energy core is not in the helmet.” Jianmen leapt to the side, kicked one of the charging armors on the left greave and tripped it onto the floor. The helmet banged on the ground and rolled on the floor, but the armor still climbed up and tried to attack Jianmen with its great sword.

“Go! Ignore them!” Josephine Wong bypassed a stone statue and an armor and continued her way towards the main gate.

“You go! I’ll handle them.” Jianmen said to Glenda Grimes as he kicked the helmetless armor in the cuirass, then grabbed its greatsword by the blade and bashed its right shoulder with the pommel: “Go! Break in or find the traces of the others!”

Glenda Grimes nodded: “Be careful!” Then she surrounded herself with an intense wall of wind and launched herself at the front gate of the main castle building without looking back.

Jianmen threw the greatsword at a stone statue with a human body and an eagle head, the long blade impaled the chest armor right at the spot of the Hellinger family crest. The energy infused on the blade rushed into that statue’s body and exploded from the inside, blowing it to thousands of pieces.

An armor charged at Jianmen with a long spear and a forked brutal spearhead, while a stone statue with a lion head and a horse body leapt in the air with its spiked stone maul held up high. Jianmen stepped to the side with the meat cleaver in his hand, the armor tried to adjust the direction of its spear but it was not able to as Jianmen had already grabbed onto the front part of the spear shaft. Then Jianmen kicked the armor in its right greave, making it lose its center of gravity and then threw the armor up in the air right at the stone statue.

“Bang!” The stone statue had to use its stone maul to bash the armor from the side in an attempt to move it out of its way. But Jianmen had already swung his cleaver from low to high from his position on the ground. After a flash of orange and golden light, the statue and the armor were sliced up from the center, then exploded into smithereens.

Two gargoyle statues lunged at Jianmen from the sky, but Jianmen just picked up an armor’s greatsword from the ground and tossed it in the air. Then he bashed the pommel using his meat cleaver, launching it into the air.

The greatsword split into two halves from the central axis, each half aiming at one gargoyle statue. The two statues did not get a chance to dodge at all, and were impaled in the air.

Jianmen turned around and took a look at the broken pieces around him and he noticed that the shredded armors and stone statues were moving on the ground as if they were alive, and piece by piece, they started growing back to their former shapes.