The Amber Sword

Chapter 16 – Bucce’s guards

(TL: There are three grades of army here. The highest grade currently is the Kingdom’s army, then the Guards, then the militia. It’s kind of hard to spot the differences, so there might be some mistakes here and there from me. Just know that the people Brendel is about to meet are the ‘Guards’ which is considered as a formal army compared to the militia. And if you are able to think of better middle-ages terms to replace ‘Guards’, feel free to comment.)

Brendel dodged sideways and allowed the skeleton to pass by him. He had nearly forgotten about the skeleton in the ‘Room of Solitude’. But he was no longer injured like before and his hand was already on the sword’s hilt.

A flash of light streaked across the passageway as the body of the ‘Thorn of Light’ glimmered with white light. The skeleton’s upper body flew into the air. Brendel watched the remaining bones gradually turn into dust. The ‘Thorn of Light’ was indeed a Holy sword as it even had a ‘Purification’ effect.

One golden light entered into Brendel’s chest.

Weapons with the ‘Purification’ effect did double damage to undead, which was no wonder why Brendel did not feel any resistance when he cleaved the skeleton into two. It was like a hot knife cutting through butter.

[A divine weapon.]

Brendel instantly graded this sword. Well, although it was not really one, it was just as good under his current situation.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Ryan. But I agree with your suggestions.”

……………………………………………………

When Brendel reached the farmhouse, it had already turned into a sea of flames. The burning structure was like a scene from the movies, and there were occasional sounds of the building collapsing from within, but he did not see the undead army chasing Freya and Irene.

Conversely, he only saw the newly raised undead running away from the flames. These fiery flames are the natural enemy of these undead, and their weak Soul Fire were trembling from the strong light. They were almost close to being purified into ashes.

The building’s flames were not blue. In the game, the Madara’s armies would only use the cold Soul Fire, and thus this was certainly not done by the undead here. Could have Freya and Irene set the fire? He shook his head as he did not think they would be so decisive.

He suddenly turned to a direction from his sharp senses, and happened to see a platoon of skeleton soldiers moving quickly to somewhere. He squinted as he saw a pulsating darkness from them. Was there a necromancer nearby?

He pulled out the sword with the ‘Thorn of Light’ shimmering lightly. He advanced into that direction, and the blundering skeletons that came into contact with him quickly turned into 7 XP.

But before the youth was able to approach, he suddenly heard a loud crash from the corner in front. Countless bone fragments and chainmail rings rained everywhere, and two or three skeletons hurtled through the air into the nearby fire.

Brendel got startled.

That was probably a Grade 1 strength. Who was the person behind the sea of flames? Human? Fortress Riedon’s Kingdom army? But they did not appear here in history.

He subconsciously took a defensive posture, and coincidentally saw a squadron of riders as they emerged from the flames. There were like an unstoppable torrent that rushed out, and the leader of the riders rode towards him. He raised his long sword and the riders reined their horses and neatly formed together.

“Who are you?” A rider asked coldly. His voice appeared to be a young man. But there was a momentary pause from him. Brendel could not see his expression, but he felt as if the young man knew him.

[No, to be more precise he knew the former Brendel.]

There were whispers amongst the riders from behind him:

“I’m betting that’s a militia.”

“I know him.”

“But you are not wrong, he’s merely a militia.”

Brendel frowned. When he gradually adjusted to the bright light, he finally saw the attire of these men clearly. A blue woolen coat, dragonscale armor, shining white steel helmet and a knight’s sword. There was the silver white background with black pine leaves symbol on the shoulder as well.

Bucce’s regular army.

“Brendel, why are you here?” The leader of the riders changed into a tone of superiority.

“I have the same question.” Brendel searched through his memories and found this person’s name: Bretton. He was also a Bruglas citizen, and he had shown excellent promise in the militia training and recruited into the regular army. He was later sent to Bucce’s border to train……..

However, this was just how it looked on paper. No matter how good Bretton was, he could not have been better than the former Brendel who was the best swordsman in their batch. The truth was Bretton had a father who was a local offical who spoke up for him, and he naturally had a smooth transition from then onwards.

The current Brendel knew the enmity between them, no, it could not really be described as enmity. At most they looked down on each other.

And as expected, Bretton followed up with: “This militia over here, I’m ordering you as the vice captain of the Bucce’s regular army to immediately report to me why you have appeared in this area?

The bunch of knights immediately snickered, as they knew Bretton just wanted to find a bit of trouble with this fellow from his hometown. Report or whatever, that was just an excuse.

Brendel raised his head, with the flames from the burning wreck reflected in his eyes.

TL: Please inform me of any Engrish mistakes.