The Swordsman of Faerûn

William coughed on purpose, and said, "Well, Selena actually talked a lot, Ms. Brunhilde, your outfit is too conspicuous and not suitable for our infiltration plan. Maybe you should change your outfit to compare it is good."

Brunhilde laughed very happily, and she said: "Really? Then I have to find some equipment such as invisibility cloaks to wear. By the way, let me introduce myself, I am a top-level fighter, a first-class shooter, There are also good investigative abilities, please believe me, everyone, I will be a very reliable adventure partner."

Selena pointed at Brunhilde and asked William angrily: "Does she not understand what others refuse?"

William shook his head and said: "Selena, there is no way! We are really short of manpower now, and Ms. Brunhilde is indeed a great addition to the combat power. She will make our adventure operations safer. "

Selena is not an overly selfish little girl, she accepted Brunhilde after all, and kept pointing out Brunhilde's shortcomings like a little adult, like an old man in the adventure world. Same as seniors.

I have to say that the former boss of Angel Reef does have a lot of treasures. Brunhilde not only changed himself into an inconspicuous adventure outfit, but even changed Selena into a good adventure outfit.

Silent boots, a cloak with floating effects (not magic, but the characteristics of the material itself), a sharp matte short sword, a hand crossbow that shoots repeatedly, a large-capacity backpack, and an almost intelligent activation rope.

The little guy was completely overwhelmed and captured by Brunhilde's generosity. She changed into a "god costume" and soon became the closest follower of the Valkyrie.

When everyone gathered together, William and the others began to discuss the detailed plan of the rescue operation.

William asked, "Queen Shiko, can you send us straight into that skinchanger's lair?"

Shiko Manimo shook her head and said: "No! Olarion's closest friend, we have an agreement with the spirit world's skin-changers, we must never bring anyone into their lair, otherwise we will be greeted with a full blown Go to war. But Olarion can guide you."

Elminster nodded and said, "William, this is not a matter of the country of Olarion alone, but a major event that concerns the country of all spirit souls."

William nodded and said, "I understand, Queen Shikou. I am already very grateful that you can provide me with guiding information. Excuse me, do you have any reliable suggestions?"

Shiko Manimo said: "Your Excellency William, I think your rescue operations should start from the Shadow Realm, which will cover up your rescue intentions to the greatest extent."

So a rescue plan called Shadow Raid was established.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

The Shadow Plane is almost equivalent to the sister body of the Material Plane, and its natural scenery is almost the same as that of the Material Plane.It's just that the shadow plane is a magical transformation form, and all parts of it are constantly flowing to other planes.

As a result, the terrain of the Shadow Plane is constantly changing, and only a few special regional signs can barely maintain their general appearance.

The shadow plane always presents a gloomy taste, and all the colors in the environment are grayed out, just like the last lingering afterglow of dusk after the sun sets, except for black and white, you can hardly see any redundant colors.

The mountains here are black, the trees are black, the earth is light black, the water is dark black, the flowers and plants are gray black, and only the sky is gray white.

The Shadow Plane has no sun, but a dim moon for a few days each month.

Despite the lack of light, the Shadow Plane is inhabited by an abundance of flora, fauna, and humanoids.

Because the creatures here have been immersed in the shadows for a long time, their appearance and interior are basically distorted into another look. Cruelty and bloodthirsty are almost common problems of all shadow creatures.

When William and his party came to this dark world, they immediately felt the malice from the shadows.

Shadowhounds are the best hunting assistants of the Shadow Spirits. They always smell the traces of outsiders first, and then use secret and weird howls to remind hunters that prey from other dimensions has appeared.

Then came the vicious and insidious Sons of Darkness. These cunning guys are always good at killing infamously. It is much more dangerous than a serious halfling.

By the way, the Dark Ones like to live with the Shadowlings, just like halflings on the Material Plane like to settle next to humans, elves, and dwarves, but the Dark Ones are better at offering their loyalty to their neighbors, although Most of this loyalty is not very reliable.

When these small monsters with dry skin, gray eyes, and oversized pointed noses appeared near William and the others with a mouthful of ferocious rotten teeth, they couldn't help but make a weird "quack" laugh Voice.

Although the shadow hounds are more sincere to their shadow spirit masters, they cooperate more skillfully with the sons of darkness. With a few weird howls, the sons of darkness created a lot of dark fog, making these who can obstruct the sight Miasma spread around William and the others.

William took a deep breath of the foggy air, but he inhaled a mouthful of coke powder.

The monsters circled around William and his group. These guys from the shadow world kept testing the defense loopholes of William and the others. Sometimes they approached silently and then moved away, and sometimes they approached with a louder sound on purpose, and then swaggered leave.

This kind of temptation of being far and near is undoubtedly a terrible psychological oppression and suffering for most of the besieged with limited vision.

But William and the others were not disturbed by such small tricks. Almost every one of them can be regarded as an elite who has experienced many battles, even the weakest link-the little thief Selina , that is also a cunning character who can get along like a fish in water in the chaotic and chaotic crawling city of Jiaoyan Hell, and darkness is also her best protective color.

The first to launch a surprise attack was the Shadow Hound. This kind of black dog monster has teeth that can crush steel armor. When it bit William's ankle almost silently, what he ushered in was terrible kick.

William, who has regained his real body, is more terrifying than Brunhilde imagined, and the strength that penetrates the brain makes the Shadowhound burp silently.

Compared to William's ease, the battles of others seemed a bit flustered. Although Brunhilde, Dove, and Elminster also repelled the sneaking Shadowhounds, Brunhi, who had the best record among them, De, only slightly injured the opponent.

Only the enemy Selena faced was not the Shadowhound, but the Son of Darkness holding a dagger.These insidious little men regarded Selena as the prey they wanted to win. They attacked Selena's legs with thrown daggers, trying to paralyze her ability to move. Silent footsteps approached Selena's flank.

Selena is more capable than everyone (including her companions and opponents) imagined. She first used a somersault to avoid the enemy's throwing attack, and she also grabbed the thrown dagger with her leather gloved hands , and throw them back in reverse.

Selena didn't expect her back throw to win the battle, it was just a means she used to draw the enemy's attention. With the help of the silent boots under her feet, she quietly left her original position and sneaked into the black mist like a ghost. middle.

For Selena, it is the easiest thing to identify the enemy and the enemy. She is almost the same size as the children of darkness with her lowered figure. Target.

When a son of darkness passed by Selena, the matte dagger in the little thief's hand cut off the opponent's neck with just a touch.And this little monster who was caught off guard finally realized before he died that the guy with a weird figure beside him was indeed not his own kind.

When a Dark Child dies, his body explodes into a black cloud of shadow force, blinding all surrounding creatures (if they need to use eyes to see).

Before William and the others entered the Shadow Plane, they had already focused on understanding the intelligence of most of the monsters here, so she closed her eyes in time, which made the Son of Darkness' counterattack at the end of her life useless.

The real hunting target of the Sons of Darkness is actually on Selena. For them, an opponent of similar size is undoubtedly easier to deal with. Whether it is capture alive or assassination, it is easier to do. Of course they I still hope to capture this target, after all, flesh and blood creatures from the main material plane seem to be more interesting to play with.

It's just that when the three most agile children of darkness touched the position where Selena should be, they found that their prey had disappeared, and one of the unlucky ones accidentally fell into the trap set by the girl in advance. Like a mousetrap device, the poisoned teeth tore through the tough, calf-like skin of the Dark One, causing the poor little monster to scream before it was slain by two cruel companions. wiped the neck.

Killing those of the same kind that have been affected by injuries is the hunting law that most of the children of darkness follow.

However, after the two sons of darkness realized that something was wrong, after cutting off the same kind that was in the way, they were about to use the cover of darkness that erupted when their companions died to change their positions and escape from the current dangerous position. They killed directly on the spot.

The dark mist formed by charcoal powder can't perfectly cover the figure, but the power of shadow that erupts one after another makes the surrounding environment more and more difficult to see.

It didn't take long for the Sons of Darkness to realize that something was wrong, and their numbers were rapidly decreasing.A cautious Son of Darkness specifically avoided an approaching "companion", and then a piercing crossbow bolt chased it, wounding it, but not killing it immediately, and the little monster immediately screamed.

"Be careful! There is a hostile creature lurking among us! It is killing us!"

This warning from the Son of Darkness not only did not bring the expected warning to its companions, but instead opened a Pandora's box.The Sons of Darkness will never be merciful to killing their companions. When they heard the warning, they unceremoniously attacked all the short figures around them.

Indiscriminate killing, although this makes Selena's fish in troubled waters difficult and dangerous, she has fought against a difficult dwarf three times, this is an opponent who is good at using machetes and daggers, Selina Na tried her best, but she still couldn't completely suppress the opponent, and she also narrowly escaped death several times.

But more children of darkness died at the hands of their companions. Even after killing each other, they realized that their opponents were allies, and the children of darkness didn't have the slightest thought of keeping their hands. They still harvested the heads of the losers. .

This is the Son of Darkness, a typical representative of humanoid intelligent creatures in the shadow plane, cruel, bloodthirsty, and advocating embracing death.

Selena finally killed the Son of Darkness who was entangled with her by virtue of her equipment. Of course, she also paid the price. One palm was pierced by the opponent's dagger, and a machete was cut on her shoulder.

If it wasn't for Selena's dagger being sharp enough, if it wasn't for the activation rope secretly entangled one of the opponent's legs, making the child of darkness involuntarily slow down for a while at the most critical moment, Selena's best ending would be the same. It's just dying with the other party.

After all the Dark Sons who were still alive consciously killed a companion, they finally stopped unnecessary killing. They quietly left the battlefield, leaving only the shadow hounds who were not very smart and continued to besiege William and the others.

The Shadowhounds are indeed more difficult than imagined. Except for William, the others can't even find an effective way to kill them for the time being, because these dogs can only be regarded as medium-sized guys among dogs, but they are far stronger than ordinary people imagine. (Both strength and constitution are 18+), and they are sensitive in movement, and their bite force is super amazing (biting attack can be regarded as +4 magic damage), they are simply born devil muscle dogs.

Even with Brunhilde's fighting power, a hammer slammed on the Shadowhound's body, it could only smash those muscle balls into a roll, and then get up as if nothing had happened and continue to walk around, waiting for an opportunity to launch the next wave of raids.

Four shadow hounds had already fallen beside William. When the fifth shadow hound faced him again, the big dog finally showed a little hesitation. It stared at William from a distance and whined.

William suddenly turned his eyes to the darkness on the other side, his eyes suddenly became serious, and the mastiff, taking advantage of William's distraction, suddenly rushed up and bit William's calf with its mouth open.

Unexpectedly, William turned around and slapped the cunning Shadowhound on the forehead, killing it on the spot, and then William strode into the darkness, completely ignoring the surrounding fog.

Because at this time Selena has fallen into the greatest crisis in her life, and she has encountered the most terrifying enemy——Shadow.

Shadow spirits are humanoid creatures that live in the depths of the Shadow Plane. They are attached to darkness and shadows. Their appearance is similar to that of humans, but they have gray skin and black eyes shining like crows.

Shadow spirits are cold, evil, and ruthless by nature. Their thirst for power is almost as famous as their disregard (or emphasis) on death. Anything cruel they do is to reap death, whether it is the enemy's or their own. Death is something that the shadow spirits are proud of.

Legend has it that the shadow spirits serve an ancient evil god-Naira. Of course, people are always more willing to mention his other name, the Raven Queen.

There are two main versions of the origin of the Raven Queen. One is: the Raven Queen was once a mortal warlock who died of a plague. A god of death called Naraku was attracted by the pure soul of the Raven Queen and forcibly killed her. He married her as his wife and gave her real name Naira.

In order to accommodate this "beautiful" wife, Naraku built a magnificent palace in the deepest part of the Shadow Plane, and created a unique kind of creature—the Shadow Spirit as the servant of the Raven Queen.

Another version is that the Raven Queen was once a beloved Elven Queen of old, and when a civil war among the elves, the War of the Crown, broke out, the Raven Queen used the souls and magic of her people to temporarily elevate herself to The position of the gods, Corellon Larissian, the leader of the gods who helped the elves at a critical moment, defeated the rebellious elf goddess Aluoshi, who later became the spider queen Rose.

When rewarding meritorious deeds after the war, the Raven Queen received the priesthood of Aluoshi as a reward.From then on, the Raven Queen has the title of "Weaver of Destiny".And the elves loyal to the Raven Queen, the ancestors of the elves who were later called the Shadow Spirits, wanted to follow the Raven Queen to enter the kingdom of the elves—the kingdom of Avandor.

The Raven Queen obliviously agreed to the request of these loyal followers, and then they held a great magic ceremony, trying to open a road to the kingdom of Arvandor through the Fairy Wilderness.

Unfortunately, this ritual was used by a group of evil mages, who tried to absorb the souls of the shamans for their own purposes.

This led to a magical catastrophe that sent the Raven Queen and the Shadowlings to the Shadowfall, and the mages became Nagapa (a terrifying magical monster).

Regardless of the origin of the Raven Queen, it is undeniable that the Raven Queen takes care of his most loyal follower—the Shadow Spirit.

These local residents of the shadow plane rule the entire shadow world. When these elites who advocate killing and death appear, despair is the only emotion their enemies have.

A ghost appeared in front of Selina, it was a scary guy wielding a long thorn chain, he suddenly appeared like a ghost, and then disappeared suddenly, in this short period of time, Selina was captured by that The elusive enemy left three cruel wounds on her body, which were caused by the thorn chain attack. The thorn blade tore the skin of Selena's legs and back, scraping off a large amount of flesh and blood.

But the terrible pain enough to make people crazy did not destroy Selena's nerves and will. She still calmly put the dagger in front of her neck, and let the enemy's attempt to scrape her neck artery and throat come to an end. null.

Of course, if the fight continues like this, Selina's ending is basically doomed. It is absolutely impossible for her to survive the next round under the hands of that shadow spirit on her own.

Fortunately, Selena is not fighting alone.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

Adventurers are more advocating teamwork. The reason is that we always encounter various problems during the adventure, and no one can guarantee that they can overcome all problems omnipotently.

This requires adventurers to consider the difficulties they will encounter during the adventure as much as possible when forming a team, and then try to choose suitable partners.

However, for most adventure teams, combatants are always the most indispensable, but they are also the most scarce.The "least lacking" mentioned here refers to those junior adventurers, but when an adventurer is just fledgling, he basically participates in adventures as the most junior combatants.

They have no experience, no skills, but only enthusiasm, desire and longing for an adventurous life, and some unrealistic fantasies.

It can even be said that any stronger farmer with an iron sword or spear can be regarded as a combatant among adventurers.

Such adventurers can be found almost everywhere, and they are generally the most basic fighters that exist as cannon fodder and consumables.

The so-called "scarcity" refers to those full-time combat masters. Most of them have experienced countless adventures, and they are the lucky ones who have survived step by step from the most elementary adventurers. Such veterans have rich adventure experience and strong martial arts. Or be good at killing enemies, or be able to fight the most dangerous enemies, or be good at supporting a threatened partner.

Such fighters are treasures like Dinghaishenzhen in every adventure team.

William is undoubtedly the number one combat force in the entire rescue team, the backbone of everyone.Almost the moment Selena encountered the ghost, even though he didn't see, hear or hear the real situation, he had already predicted the fatal crisis facing the girl in advance.

When the ghostly spiked chain warrior suddenly appeared in Selina's sight again, the deadly spiked chain had swept towards the bloody little thief again, and at this moment Selena had already lost the ability to dodge or even protect herself. The severe pain and the massive loss of blood made her almost exhausted to the extreme.

Just when Selena watched desperately and stubbornly that the deadly thorn chain was about to wrap around her fragile neck, and the only palm that could be raised to block it, and then strangled her, she suddenly felt a tightness on the back of her neck. , A strong and big hand grabbed her neck and shoulder blades, lifted Selena up like a little chicken, and easily avoided the winding of the thorn chain.

Even the big hand still had enough strength to flick the little finger at the end of the spiked chain, as if playfully teasing the opponent.

But the shadow spirit who was holding the thorn chain to attack immediately changed drastically. After the thorn chain was flicked, it burst out from the end one after another, like a runaway python, making it difficult to control. Not only was the proficient spiked chain warrior unable to deliver the next two blows, but he almost injured himself because of the loss of control of the spiked chain.

Just as the Shadow Spirit Spiked Chain Warrior gathered his weapon in embarrassment, a faint light of a knife flashed from the corner of his eye, slashed across his neck soundlessly, slammed his head, and then disappeared into the mist middle.

It turned out that it was William who realized the danger of the shadow spirit and began to let go of his hands and feet to release his true lethality. The Qiushui knife, which came and went suddenly, was undoubtedly the best death harvesting artifact in this fog that blocked his vision.

But all this happened to Selena as if in a dream. The powerful big hand held her, not only dragging her back from the brink of death, but also an endless stream of blood in the palm of her hand. There was a warm current, which made the seriously injured and dying girl feel like she was soaking in a hot spring, her whole body was numb, and there was also a sense of itching and comfort.

The girl who fell into a trance felt an inexplicable tiredness hit her heart. She really wanted to fall asleep, but she tried to open her eyelids against the tiredness. She was worried that if she closed her eyes, she might never wake up again. coming.

The girl just wanted to have another look at the world, at the man who saved her and her people from the nightmare of hell.

It's a real pity that I can't continue to follow in the footsteps of His Excellency William.

Selena was feeling annoyed, but she heard a heart-warming words in her ear: "Sleep if you want to sleep, after all, you have lost too much blood, even if you replenish your vitality, it can't make up for the lack of body fluids , sleep and recover faster."

Then Selena yawned deeply, and finally closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep. At this moment, all the wounds on her body had disappeared, only the broken armor and the blood stains left on it, Still talking about the pain the girl has suffered.

William held the sleeping Selena in his arms with one hand, and stretched out his other hand, but grabbed the speeding Autumn Knife in his hand. He quickly walked back to the old mage and others, and said: " Come with me! We have to transfer immediately, the people here are very hostile to us, and they are gathering here in large numbers."

After speaking, William chose a direction and turned his head to go. Brunhilde immediately followed without thinking. Elminster and Dove looked at each other, but there was some hesitation.

The old mage sighed: "I am the one who understands the shadows best. William's reckless departure can easily lead us astray."

Dove shrugged and said, "Even if we go astray, it's better than we split up."

Elminster said helplessly: "Of course I know that, I just complained, I'm an old bone, can't I really get rid of that kid! Sigh! I will definitely be tough later on!" Give him a few reprimands before that little bastard takes all of us into the ditch."

Dove is the one who knows the old mage best. Of course, she knows that Elminster's temper has not diminished with age, but the problem of pursuing perfectionism has become more and more serious.

Of course, this is not the case in the eyes of outsiders. Many people who are familiar with Elminster feel that this strange old man has become more easy-going, but in fact, it is the old mage who has a relatively indifferent view of most unimportant things. up.

When the two followed William and Brunhilde, the old mage wanted to talk to William several times, but it was a pity that William didn't give him a chance to speak.

They kept shuttling through the misty and rugged land, but William, as the leader leading the way, turned eastward and westward like a hooded man, leading the way in a confusing way. So much so that the old mage who followed the slippery legs became more and more angry. He really wanted to jump up and knock William hard on the forehead, and then scold this mindless idiot, or turn him into a toad all day.

But gradually, the old mage discovered something was wrong. As an old fritter who was used to wandering around the planes, the old mage knew a lot about the abilities of shadow spirits. These guys who walk in the shadows are very good at hunting and hunting. However, now that William and his party have been fleeing for a long time, they have not seen a ghost chasing soldiers, which is a very surprising thing.

Therefore, as the few people kept running, the anger in Elminster's heart began to dissipate, but the inexplicable doubts gradually increased. He really wanted to ask how William escaped from the pursuit of the ghost.

When William and the others came to a pile of rocks, William stopped abruptly and motioned for others to stop too.

The old mage, Dove, and Brunhilde who stopped were all breathing heavily and heavily. The long-term running made them exhausted a lot of energy, but all three of them were strong endurance masters. Dove, who is best at trekking in the wild, is mainly the ranger profession, but is the weakest of the three.

And running all the way, William's breathing was almost undisturbed from the beginning to the end, which made several people couldn't help calling this guy's abnormal physical strength.

After they stopped for a while to breathe, they basically calmed down their breathing, and recovered a lot of their exhausted energy.

After a brief break, Brunhilde was the first to ask, "William, why did we stop?"

William sighed and said, "Running around, we still couldn't avoid the enemy's encirclement in the end."