NEC Chapter 76: The Guard Captain's Final Chapter

Paven had always been a clear-headed warrior with definite goals. From the moment he confirmed he couldn't escape, he had been planning his final strike.

After the guard captain deliberately attracted Knight Connor's attention, he leveraged the adrenaline surge to launch his life's last charge with unsteady steps.

While charging, he pulled out two more grenades.

Both knights retreated in unison, but what caught everyone completely off guard was that Paven's target was the wounded and captured Cloudmist Domain warriors lying on the ground.

Flames roared, shrapnel whistled, and the metal storm rapidly harvested these warriors' lives.

Paven's face bore a trace of resolute apology.

Sorry, though you are comrades, you know the lady's hiding place.

I don't know if you can withstand the enemy's temptation, bribery, and torture. I can't gamble on your integrity and will, so you must die!

As for himself...

I must also die to prevent any rescue they might launch.

"Clang!"

A collision without any flourish, using all remaining strength! The spent Paven was shattered by the recoil force, falling heavily at Knight Commander Connor's feet, his sword flying from his grip.

He struggled to lift his head, his blood-blurred vision meeting Connor's twisted and savage face, and that hysterical questioning.

"Why?"

Paven's lips, stained with bloody foam, moved slightly. Using his last breath, he softly uttered a few words.

"You... didn't... didn't you say... I was a dog..."

"Dogs... don't... betray their masters... do they..."

BOOM!!!

The adhesive bomb triggered, detonating all the thermal weapons Paven carried with him in a chain explosion that thundered across the plain.

Brilliant, blinding fireballs expanded in the air, roaring and rising into towering smoke clouds that shot skyward.

"Uncle Paven!"

Lady Frost let out a piercing cry, grabbed the anti-materiel rifle, and rushed toward the exit of the hiding place.

Attendant Linda grabbed hold of her but was dragged far away by Frost, frantically calling out, "Stop her, quickly stop her!"

The remaining two Cloudmist Domain warriors dared not offend the little lady, only trying to block her path with their bodies. In this chaos, Chen Mo stood up.

A surge of violent anger churned in his heart.

Scene after scene from his arrival on the Starry Continent, the blonde kid's persecution, the mercenary team's pursuit, the inhuman slaughter in villages and towns, the guard captain's blood-soaked charge across the plain, all swirled repeatedly in his mind, making his chest feel so blocked it might explode.

He also wanted to grab a weapon and go out to fight the enemy to the death.

But Paven stopped him.

Among Paven's repeated hand gestures was a section of their agreement, asking him to take Frost away.

Paven understood everyone in the team well. He knew Frost would go mad, and he also knew that due to status, no one else in the entire team could truly restrain this lady.

Only Chen Mo was different. He was an outsider, a foreign noble who held no fear of the little lady.

He could not only perform miraculous summons but had also gained unanimous recognition from team members through diligence and cleverness. Even the little lady looked at him with obvious girlish admiration.

If anyone was most likely to stop Lady Frost, it would definitely be this young man.

So he had desperately used hand signals to beg Chen Mo, pleading with him to stop that little girl.

Don't come over, go! Go! Leave quickly!

Chen Mo stepped forward, looking at the little lady whose face was streaked with tears and who desperately wanted to rush outside. Using all his strength, he delivered a heavy slap.

Hair flying, Frost was stunned by the blow.

She had probably never been slapped in her life.

Chen Mo sucked in a cold breath, imperceptibly hiding his painfully throbbing right hand behind his back, feeling his entire hand trembling slightly.

"Captain Paven is already dead. Do you want to go die too?"

Chen Mo raised his left hand, pressing his index finger to his temple and roaring, "Dying is easy. Take that gun in your hand and point it at your own head."

"One 'bang' and it's over!"

"All finished!!!"

"That's better than you rushing out, letting the enemy cut you into pieces, and betraying everyone left here."

Frost covered her cheek and looked at Chen Mo. This merciless scolding extinguished her impulse, leaving only bewilderment and enormous grievance.

She stood there dazed for a long while before suddenly squatting down with a "wah" and crying like a child.

Well, she was originally just a child!

Everyone present fell silent as cicadas, even professional Old Locke held his breath, not daring to make any sound.

Chen Mo stood quietly at the hiding place's ventilation opening, secretly rubbing his swollen right hand while looking up into the distance. After several minutes, the [Skylark] automatically returned, landing steadily on the platform outside the ventilation opening.

Chen Mo grabbed the [Skylark], stuffed it into his pack, and grimaced as he shouldered his backpack, "We're leaving!"

With the team reduced by more than half, Chen Mo decisively chose to abandon most supplies, even throwing away his own magical materials and cultivation potions, bringing only the platform, equipment, and small amounts of food and water.

Six people and one skeleton, guided by two fully charged micro-drones front and rear, stumbled eastward in their escape.

Zircon's Fifth Knight made an empirical error. From Captain Paven's preemptive ambush behavior, he judged that the opponent's hiding place must be within visual range of the decoy squad's escape route.

The death of prisoners cost him his information source, so he had to search himself.

After simple terrain observation, the Zircon knight chose to focus his search on two areas of low mountain forests within a three-kilometer radius. Continuously arriving troops formed dense formations and conducted dragnet searches.

On the perimeter, he arranged small numbers of light cavalry for dispersed patrols, mainly to prevent swift individuals from the target group from scattering and escaping.

The Cloudmist Domain remnant squad, never within his search range from the start, once again escaped Zircon's main force encirclement.

Relying on drone early warning, the team repeatedly avoided opponent patrols, hid in wetland shelters through the remaining daylight, then moved again under cover of darkness.

Throughout the journey, relying on Master Locke's continuous recovery spells, this mixed formation of old and weak struggled onward. Before dawn broke fully, they found another abandoned village backed against a hillside.

The village people had perhaps died or fled. After scouting twice with both drones and warriors, the squad wearily hid in this village.

At the village entrance, over a dozen corpses hung from a large tree, looking like they'd been there for quite some time.

The withered remains swayed in the wind, their hollow eye sockets gazing at the distant visitors.

Everyone found an inconspicuous earthen house, set up solar panels in hidden spots on the roof, and choked down some dry rations.

Chen Mo shared a room with the haggard-faced Old Locke, Linda shared with the absent-minded Frost, while the other two warriors took turns standing guard. The exhausted group fell into deep sleep.

This sleep lasted until the sun was high overhead.

When Chen Mo awoke, he felt somewhat dizzy and light-headed, as if walking on thick cotton padding.

He shook his head vigorously, walked out of the room, and found the others already awake. Old Locke and Linda were crouched beside Frost, chattering about something, while the little lady stared out the window with vacant eyes.

Hearing movement, several people turned around in unison.

The moment she saw Chen Mo, tears welled up in Lady Frost's eyes, her lips pressed tightly against her teeth, carving deep tooth marks.

Chen Mo wanted to comfort her but didn't know what to say.

He then grabbed a piece of dry food, stuffed it in his mouth, pushed open the door, and walked into the courtyard. Then he noticed something unusual.

"Where's the other person?"

[NEXT CHAPTER]