The Paladin in the Abyss

Chapter 687: Chapter 711: Raid on the Demon

The half-elf with white hair and red eyes hesitated for a moment, slowly nodding, but then made three awkward hand signals indicating she would be unable to join the fight.

“Hmm… We’ll try to take down a few enemies quickly, so you can join in then, right?”

Tanya immediately nodded in agreement, raising three fingers, meaning she could join the battle when only three enemies were left.

“Very good,” Lancelot nodded. He rummaged through his dimensional bag at his waist, finally taking out a small clay jar and handing it to the elf priest, “Koula left few of these gadgets, we need to go to Mark City and ask her for more sometime… I’ll create a soundproof barrier in a bit, you throw this flash bomb, and everyone else will follow me in launching a surprise attack. Focus on taking down the same target quickly to let Tanya join the fight too. Everyone clear?”

As soon as Lancelot finished speaking, he swiftly covered Bruto’s mouth with his palm, preventing the dwarf, who had instinctively wanted to respond, from making any sound. Everyone else simply nodded silently, indicating they understood the battle plan.

“Very good.”

Lancelot released his hand from covering the dwarf’s mouth and wiped it on the cloak over the other’s armor, then gave Alamir a look, signaling that he could start.

Seeing this, the elf took a gentle breath, carefully twisted the lid of the small clay jar half a turn, waited for two heartbeats, then let go, letting the small clay jar drop freely through the bars.

A crisp sound emanated from below as the object hit the ground, and everyone couldn’t help but visualize a scene where the room’s enemies all simultaneously turned their heads to look at the source of the noise. In sync, Lancelot activated the Dharma Decree he had prepared in advance, enveloping the room below in a green luminous screen that blocked all sound, just before the clay jar could explode.

Almost simultaneously with the appearance of the soundproof barrier, the flash bomb Koula had left behind also burst into a dazzling bright light. Lancelot flipped the grate covering the exit, leaped down, and upon landing, rolled to clear space for his companions.

The moment he stood up, Lancelot quickly scanned his surroundings. It was a spacious stone hall, with bare walls and ceiling panels devoid of any decorations, a few haphazardly hewn huge stones being the only furniture in the room, as plain as a monastery and in stark contrast to Lord Wu’an’s ornately decorated temple.

Five massive demons were scattered around the room, three of whom, Bone Demons, were clearly affected by the bright light, flailing wildly with their hook sickle spears while stumbling backwards; whereas the two Ice Demons seemed unaffected. Though caught off guard, their insect-like heads turned swiftly toward Lancelot as soon as he appeared, their goose-egg-sized compound eyes fixated on the suddenly appearing human knight.

Lancelot was familiar with Ice Demons, having encountered them in an assassination attempt on Tijana during his return from Androlina. These 500-pound mantis-shaped assassins ranked even above Lust Demons in the hierarchy of the Nine Hells, and their strength fully matched their status. However, the two Ice Demons present were in extremely poor condition, their armor-like carapace riddled with collapses; one seemed to have lost an eye, its protruding mouthparts completely snapped off, while the other was missing an arm, waving a metal spear filled with notches in one hand.

Lancelot immediately fixed on his target, springing forward as if propelled by a coil, his longsword shimmering green as he lunged at the one-eyed Ice Demon. Despite his rapid speed, the two demons, not being blinded, still managed a clumsy response.

The enemy targeted by the human knight swiped his spear in front, while shifting his body diagonally backward, trying to counter the fierce charge of the knight. The Sword Blade clashed heavily with the spearhead, unleashing a cold, shrill screech; the force from the weapon revealed that the Ice Demon was still much stronger than Lancelot, although it was far less agile.

The human knight twisted his body bizarrely, suddenly moving like a boneless cloth doll, instantly flanking the Ice Demon. His longsword traced a dazzling arc, aiming for the lizard-like tail of his foe. The Ice Demon barely managed to twist its body in time, the Sword Blade nearly grazing its tail. Nonetheless, Lancelot had achieved his goal: compared to before, his opponent had almost completely turned around, exposing its back directly under a square gap in the ceiling from which a dwarf’s figure was just beginning to jump down.

Lancelot’s movements didn’t pause for a missed strike; his body and weapon spun rapidly, and almost instantly, he delivered another Horizontal Slash, but this time in the opposite direction, striking the spear thrust by the other Ice Demon. Despite wielding the weapon with only one hand, the contained force was immense; Lancelot managed to deflect the attack, but his own weapon was knocked in the opposite direction.

This outcome was within his expectations. The human knight adjusted his stance skillfully, reversing the direction of his longsword toward the original Ice Demon with even greater speed than before. This time, the foe couldn’t keep up with his moves, and the green-lit Frostslash solidly chopped down on its left upper limb. Lancelot almost heard the crack of shattering carapace and the enemy’s strange, shrill, non-human scream from the grip of his longsword.

As an insect-type demon, the Ice Demon’s carapace was essentially its skeleton, with soft muscle tissue underneath. Lancelot, having grown clearly stronger since their last encounter, severed the demon’s entire arm with one strike, and the momentum of his blade carried it forward, creating a huge gash on the side of the demon’s body.

The Ice Demon displayed the stubborn resilience of a high-rank fiend. Hormones erupted within its body, immediately reducing the pain from the severed limb to a negligible level. Its remaining arm grabbed the spear shaft near its tip and stabbed it like a dagger toward the abdomen of the nearby human knight.

Lancelot had truly underestimated his opponent’s life force, not expecting it to counterattack immediately after such severe damage, while his own weapon was still stuck in the opponent’s body, leaving no time to dodge. In that critical moment, he had no choice but to fully activate the Qingyuan Sword and Shield cultivation technique while trying to shift his body to avoid being stabbed in a vital organ.