Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 743

The sounds of fighting and killing faintly echoed from the city wall where the Red Net Beasts were being confronted. Finally, the Red Net Beast group had also begun their attack.

The battle continued, and Anwon Fortress was enveloped in a thick, bloody stench. Darkness was falling in the sky.

The suns in the void disappeared one by one, and the number of crescent moons gradually increased.

However, the wolf monsters did not stop their attacks for even a moment. Like beasts true to their instincts, they became even more frenzied.

As a result, the face of the military officer Han Li was escorting also grew darker. In just half a day, a third of the soldiers defending the city wall had been killed or wounded. In addition, more than twenty Cheondong Sanghoe [a merchant guild] guards had also died in battle.

Just then, a wolf signal—one long howl and two short howls—was heard from the rear of the Blue Wolf group. The mutated wolf monsters, which had suddenly disappeared after the attack on the city wall began, finally revealed themselves below the city wall.

These giant monsters easily leaped six or seven yards, and the arrows of ordinary soldiers were useless against them. The mutated monsters ascended the city wall like the wind.

*Kuwang!*

The monsters, without giving the soldiers on the city wall time to think, leaped over them with their bizarre bodies and ambushed them, flashing their sharp teeth.

In an instant, blood splattered everywhere, and the city wall, attacked by the mutated monsters, suffered heavy casualties.

On the section of the wall where Han Li was, several mutated monsters appeared, and in an instant, more than a dozen people were killed.

Seeing this, the military officer immediately ordered the Cheondong Sanghoe martial artists to fight and urged the ordinary soldiers to maintain their lines while dealing with the Blue Wolves.

As a result, a dozen martial artists, including Jang Gyu, rushed in at once, and they were able to control the situation.

“Hah!”

“Heeik!”

Suddenly, with the startled screams of nearby soldiers, two blue shadows leaped over the city wall like lightning and landed near the military officer.

One of them jumped towards the soldiers, causing chaos, and the other, unexpectedly, leaped towards the military officer, exuding a strong bloody smell.

Surprisingly, they knew that the man in armor was the commander and used a feint attack.

“Do you want to die!”

The giant Duso shouted and swung his spiked club. A strong wind sound came from the spiked club as it flew towards the giant mutated monster.

No matter how tough its body was compared to ordinary Blue Wolves, it would not be safe if it was hit by this giant’s attack.

Just as the mutated wolf monster’s head was about to be crushed by the spiked club, an amazing thing happened.

A faint blue light flashed from the wolf’s body, and suddenly, it twisted its body and its size was reduced by half.

“…….”

The spiked club grazed the wolf’s head and cut through the air. The blue wolf, flashing its jade-colored eyes, passed the giant at an incredible speed and revealed its claws towards the commander.

“It was a wolf demon beast!”

The military officer, seeing the strange change in the Blue Wolf, raised his voice. As his shoulder twitched, he drew the long sword he had been carrying at his waist.

The ring artifact on his hand emitted a white light, protecting him.

The wolf demon beast, which had changed to the size of a normal Blue Wolf, looked at the sword shadow transformed by the low-grade artifact with a mocking gaze. Then, it swung its two front paws in the air, emitting a blue light in the shape of claws.

*Kwang!*

The sword shadow shattered with a bang as soon as it touched the light emitted from the wolf’s claws, and the attack of the wolf’s claws made of blue light headed straight for the military officer.

The military officer raised his sword high with one hand and swung it, but his face had already turned ashen.

At that moment, a figure vaguely appeared in front of the military officer and jumped into the net of light emitted from the wolf’s claws.

Then, someone’s snorting sound was heard. As soon as he heard the sound, his vision blurred, and his heart sank. After that, one arm of the figure moved, and a golden light collided with the blue light in the shape of the wolf’s claws.

*Ku Kwakwang!*

A roar that seemed to shake the sky erupted, and the blue light in the shape of the wolf’s claws was torn to pieces and returned to nothingness.

The military officer was very pleased and then looked at the figure in front of him, who had become clear. He saw that it was Han Li, who was in charge of his escort.

Han Li slowly hid his golden fist in his sleeve and looked at the blue wolf demon beast floating in the air with an expressionless face.

The wolf demon beast looked at Han Li with surprised eyes, then bristled the blue fur on its back and feared him.

The demon beast did not recognize Han Li’s true cultivation, but its sensitive senses warned him that he was a dangerous person.

The giant Duso also struck the air with his spiked club and was startled when the wolf demon beast transformed, but he quickly turned his body and guarded against the demon beast.

As a result, the giant and Han Li ended up blocking the demon beast from the front and back, and other Cheondong Sanghoe martial artists nearby rushed over and surrounded the wolf demon beast.

The wolf demon beast looked around, then glanced at Han Li with a meaningful look. Then, it turned into a blue light and rushed towards the giant. Duso was surprised and swung his spiked club, but the wolf demon beast went over the giant and down the city wall.

All of the mutated wolf monsters that had been attacking together retreated, following that wolf, except for one that had been killed. However, Han Li just stood there and did not chase the wolf.

Although he had lost his magic power now, he had no intention of chasing after a low-grade demon beast that he would not have even glanced at before.

The military officer, who had survived death, finally came to his senses and thanked Han Li.

“I owe my life to you, Sir.”

Han Li just chuckled at those words and waved his hand.

“It was nothing. But it seems that wolf demon beasts have appeared in other places, and the situation looks bad.”

“That can’t be? How can there be so many demon beasts…”

The military officer paused and quickly turned his head towards the other city wall. Soon, his face turned pale.

On the nearby city wall, more than a thousand Blue Wolves had already crossed over and were slaughtering people. And on that city wall, wolf demon beasts with light shining from their bodies were floating.

They were the same beings as the wolf demon beast that had jumped at the military officer.

Not only Han Li and the military officer, but also the surrounding Cheondong Sanghoe people and ordinary soldiers were watching it clearly.

People who saw the defense line being breached and the wolf monsters madly crossing the city wall felt heavy-hearted, and everyone had similar thoughts.

‘Is Anwon Fortress going to fall!’

While the soldiers defending the rest of the city wall were all losing their will in despair, suddenly a whistle was heard, and hundreds of sturdy martial artists appeared on the city wall.

They were wearing various bone-made armors and were shining light from their colorful swords. They were all people with low-grade artifacts [magical tools].

As the martial artists jumped onto the city wall, the Blue Wolves were cut in half with a single blow, like sheep meeting a pack of tigers.

The mutated monsters managed to hold out for a while, but they were eventually torn to pieces by the martial artists’ joint attacks.

Just as the wolf demon beasts in the air were about to attack in anger, a dozen martial artists flew up first and tried to surround the demon beasts.

*Auwoooo!*

At that time, a long roar echoed from behind the demon beast group. Hearing that sound, the wolf demon beasts hesitated for a moment, then changed direction and flew away, without engaging in any battle with the martial artists.

Of course, the Blue Wolves that remained on the city wall also heard the roar and rushed to jump down the city wall. As a result, more than half of the Blue Wolves succeeded in escaping.

Not only here, but also on the city walls in other directions, the wolf demon beasts stopped their attacks and slowly retreated, and thus the first day of the reconnaissance battle was over.

Both monsters and humans suffered casualties during the battle, but if you had to compare, it could be said that the monsters, with over ten thousand dead, were pushed back.

However, while the number of human casualties was small, they had consumed a large amount of arrows and defensive gear, so it was difficult to judge which side was superior.

By now, seven full moons had risen in the sky, and the moonlight illuminated the blue-furred wolf corpses below the city wall. Then, from the distant monster group, the sound of wolves howling at the moon was constantly heard.

The wolf howls that echoed at night were filled with a pitiful and desolate energy instead of a bloodthirsty madness. The enormous number of wolves gradually moved away under the bright moonlight and eventually disappeared from view.

Only then did the soldiers who had been fighting all day on the city wall relax and collapse onto the blood-soaked floor.

It was only natural that even the martial artists who had professionally trained their bodies were tired and took a rest after constantly wielding their weapons.

“This place is not yet a place to rest, so everyone get up. Soon, soldiers will come to replace us. We have won the first battle, so unless something else happens, we will be able to rest for two days. Now, cheer up and get up and go home to rest properly. If the wolf pack suddenly attacks, can you fight in this state!”

Commander Cho urged the soldiers without relaxing his guard. The soldiers and Cheondong Sanghoe people were delighted at the prospect of returning to rest soon and barely managed to get up.

Han Li was lost in thought as he watched the wolf pack retreating into black dots in the distance.

“Thanks to Brother Han, we were able to drive back the wolf demon beasts. If not, we would have been in the same situation as the other city walls.”

Jang Gyu said, walking towards him with a smile. He was holding a golden dagger in one hand and wearing blood-soaked armor.

“No, it was just luck that the wolf pack happened to retreat.”

“If Brother Han hadn’t stepped in, even if Anwon Fortress’s ‘Spirit Squad’ had come to support us, most of us would have died. It’s a good thing Brother Han was here; otherwise, what would have happened if someone else had faced the wolf demon beast alone? Even if I had used the Golden Jade Sword, I wouldn’t have had a 30% chance of winning against the wolf demon beast.”

Jang Gyu smiled wryly, took out an elaborately crafted scabbard, carefully put the dagger in it, and put it in his pocket. Han Li unconsciously looked at the artifact.

He already knew that ‘artifacts’ were a kind of magical tool designed by cultivators for martial artists, and that they could use the power of spirit stones without the need for magic power in the body by using triggering devices such as ring-shaped spirit rings and bracelet-shaped spirit bracelets.

The power of the artifacts was usable, but since they only borrowed the power of spirit stones, it was difficult for ordinary martial artists to use them in long battles due to the high consumption of spirit stones.

However, the power of the artifacts was only about the level of the highest-grade magic tools, so they could not be compared to high-level cultivators who used real treasures.

Therefore, true high-level martial artists did not even look at artifacts and showed a similar path to demon race cultivators by utilizing the powerful physical strength they had gained through training.

Han Li was reviewing the data related to artifacts when he was startled by what Jang Gyu said hesitantly.

“Brother Han, it seems you haven’t only mastered the Vajra Body Technique up to the 3rd level.”

“What do you mean, Brother Jang?”

Han Li asked back, his eyes shining at the scarred giant’s words.

“No, I just thought that it would be impossible to drive back the wolf demon beast with the Vajra Body Technique at the 3rd level. It seems you are a person with great ambition.”

Jang Gyu said meaningfully and then turned around and walked away. He did not seem to have any intention of questioning further. Han Li looked at the scarred giant’s back and raised the corners of his mouth.

‘There’s a hidden meaning in his words.’

Soon, Anwon Fortress soldiers and young men followed another low-ranking military officer and climbed onto the city wall. Finally, the first group of people who had fought in the battle, including the Cheondong Sanghoe guards, were able to retreat.

They were assigned to a stone building near the plaza where they had gathered before the battle, instead of returning to the inn.

Most of the people fell asleep as soon as they entered their rooms.

Han Li was not tired at all, but he had no intention of going outside in this chaotic situation, so he sat on the bed and meditated, silently practicing the Vajra Body Technique.

And so, one night passed safely.