Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1186 - 298: New Friend

Chapter 1186: Chapter 298: New Friend

Blocking the feather arrow aimed at Ava, Catherine, who hung in the air, didn’t pause for a moment, and immediately targeted the commander who had just been exposed under heavy armor. She initiated the Charge of Fearlessness, disregarding the numerous enemies protecting the opponent. Raising her shield in front of her, she descended in a straight line from the sky toward her target. The commander grunted heavily and hoisted the gigantic warhammer in his hand, which weighed at least a hundred kilograms. Once swung, the wind it generated was enough to send chills down one’s spine.

The speed of a knight’s Charge of Fearlessness was always extremely fast. Often by the time you saw the knight start, he would have already appeared in front of you, the process in between seeming to magically disappear from your sight—of course, this was merely a visual illusion caused by the speed. At such speed, opponents often couldn’t react in time and could only watch helplessly as the enemy charged in front of them. However, this time was different. The commander was once a commander of the Neville Federation, which had long locked the Falar Empire as its hypothetical enemy and had developed various counter-strategies against the Falar Empire’s numerous knights—these strategies had even become instinctual to them. Therefore, as soon as Catherine’s gaze shifted towards him, the commander had already begun to retract his warhammer behind him to gather strength. As soon as Catherine initiated the Charge of Fearlessness, his warhammer also swung out, timing it perfectly to meet the Magicsteel Shield raised in front of her shoulder.

A piercing clang of metal resounded, yet the enemy commander’s eyes twitched, and he let out a light "Hmm." In his perception, not only was the sound of the impact much fainter than expected, but the force of the impact was also much less than anticipated. The high speed of the knight’s Charge and their heavily equipped stature normally produced an extraordinarily shocking impact, and the warhammer hitting the giant shield should also have created an immense shock. However, this time, the force he felt was unexpectedly light, which was far from normal.

Indeed, it was not normal because Catherine had canceled the skill halfway through the charge, merely gliding in front of the enemy by inertia. This process clearly could not compare to the impact force produced by a complete charge, so it was not surprising that the enemy found it odd. Long before, when they were deep in the marsh battling the Marsh Stalkers within Pannis’s Inherent Psychic Domain, Catherine had witnessed Nellie’s Phantom suddenly cancel the Charge of Fearlessness, then use the inertia and airborne body adjustment to turn the latter half of the Charge into an arc, ambushing the enemy from the side. It was as if a new door had opened for the young girl, and since then, she had frequently attempted similar tactics, but she found that such maneuvers demanded high control over one’s body and quick reflexes, which she did not yet possess. However, the persistent female knight still found a new path. After continuous trials, she eventually could cancel the skill midway through the charge, allowing herself more room to respond quickly at high speed.

Thus, amid the enemy commander’s puzzled sounds, Catherine let out a light laugh, easily knocked back along the same path by his warhammer, flying backward just above the ground. During her retreat, she even waved the knight sword in her hand at the enemy commander, as if waving goodbye.

"Oh, Blessing of Denia," Lina covered her face from a distance and groaned, "I told you not to learn from Pannis. Look at what you’ve become, big sister; you didn’t use to provoke enemies like this."

"Thanks for helping," it seemed she heard Lina’s words. The knight girl blushed but still persisted with her last provocation, turning around and slashing downward at an angle with all her might.

The girl had deliberately canceled the skill because before the collision, she cleverly adjusted the angle of her shield to propel herself in the desired direction. Therefore, when her sword struck, she had already landed in front of two archers dubbed number five and six. The two archers now had severe headaches. Everything had happened too fast. By the time Catherine had left Ava’s side and confirmed that their assault target wasn’t themselves, two ghouls had drawn their bows again, ready to snipe the airborne girl. Having lived together for many years and gone through tactical coordination training, they clearly understood their best response was to continue their previous task and eliminate the intruder swiftly. Their reaction was correct, yet as they were about to fully draw their bows, Catherine flew back. Initially, the two Legendary Rank ghouls could have chosen to dodge, counterattack, or even draw their weapons to withstand the blow robustly, but now there was no time for anything. In a panic, they released the bowstrings haphazardly, no longer caring where the arrows went. They hastily infused Aggression into their metal bows, positioning them against Catherine’s diagonal slash while swiftly retreating to escape the range of the slash.

With two snaps, the hastily defended metal bows obviously couldn’t withstand the knight sword filled with strength and Aggression. Catherine’s long sword passed through the two bows without any delay, drawing a semicircle in the air, then retracting to her side, only then did the bows in the hands of number five and six burst apart with a bang, directly breaking into two pieces. Fortunately, both had retreated quickly enough that only one of their arms sustained a wound deep enough to half-cut a bone. Given the ghoul’s constitution, no blood flowed from the wounded area, nor did it significantly affect their combat ability, but the two archers, having lost their bows, clearly posed no threat to Ava or themselves for the time being. After confirming this, Catherine didn’t hesitate for even a second. The Charge of Fearlessness activated again, and she rushed again to the airborne girl’s side, timely blocking a barrage of attack magic from behind the enemy’s lines.

From the first time the two archers drew their bows and shot the arrows, to the moment Catherine reappeared beside Ava, it had been no more than five seconds, until the final syllable of Lina’s teasing reproach was uttered. However, the next moment, the priestess stopped her jesting and suddenly increased her volume, shouting, "Ava, turn around, look below."

The time they had spent together had fostered in Ava an almost absolute trust in the girls, so even amid the chaos, she immediately obeyed Lina’s command, turned around, and looked diagonally downward. At that moment, Ava was still recklessly emitting the Light of Destruction, which, unfortunately, targeted eight ghouls carrying Giant Tower Shields from their completely unguarded backs.

It wasn’t quite right to say they were unguarded since behind the vanguard of eight ghouls, four more closely followed. When Ava charged into the middle of the group, they were mentally prepared for an attack from behind, so as the Light Techniques surged, the four ghouls immediately raised their Aggression Shields to meet the attack, blocking all that was aimed at the vanguard. However, this did not affect the outcome, because Lina’s order soon reached everyone’s ears, "Those with shields, go down and fight them, uh, just make sure not to hit the big sister, or I’ll get beaten up afterwards."

Though the end of the order resumed the priestess’s frustrating nature, Ava still clearly caught the first part. She didn’t wait for Lina’s confusing latter half; the light in her eyes suddenly dimmed, the Light Techniques ceased, and she, like a meteor, streaked a curve towards the shield-bearing ghouls. The four guard ghouls swung their weapons attempting to intercept the girl from the air, but they forgot that she was not fighting alone — Catherine was by her side. Catherine had her Charge of Fearlessness ready to go once again, and its fierce impact, under the unprepared state of the four ghouls, opened an unobstructed path for Ava’s passing.

Chaos finally ensued, and the row of eight ghouls in front, not being actual members of the military, instinctively turned to face the attack, disrupting the shield formation and completely halting their advance.

The Commander’s eyebrows furrowed tightly under his helmet at the sight before him, which was not what he wanted to see. If by now the vanguard had forcefully broken through the barricade, covering all enemies within their attack range, he would have been pleased to see a chaotic battle as it meant each girl would have had to confront several attackers at once. However, in the current scenario, even though more individuals were attacking the girls, only two were being targeted, and they were the most troublesome two, as for the others... The Commander glanced at Freya, who stood still, her gaze fixated on him with a peculiar smile, seemingly preparing something behind his back. He then looked at Vivian, who seemed utterly oblivious to the situation, absorbed in her world, drawing on the ground and continuously smashing crystal bottles, and finally, his gaze rested on Lina, who from afar swung her Warhammer enthusiastically cheering for the fight, oblivious to her actual thoughts. For the first time, he had a premonition that this battle would not proceed as smoothly as he had imagined. However, he was not the only one with a contingency plan; confident of victory, he still calmly raised his Warhammer and roared, "Everyone, prioritize surrounding and eliminating the internal enemies at the fastest pace possible, regardless of the cost."

"Ava, come back." Less than five seconds after the Commander’s order, Lina also issued an order, her hands each clutching a goblin crossbow. Amidst the shining crystals, two crossbow bolts shot forth, forcing the two enemies entangling Ava to step back in defense. In the frenzy, Ava hesitated for less than a second before ignoring her attackers behind her, emotionlessly running back as Catherine reluctantly blocked all attacks for her, swiftly retreating back to the entrance of the barricade.

"The fastest pace, huh? Seems a bit late." At this moment, the last voice the Commander wanted to hear belonged to Freya, finally ringing out. The princess gracefully lifted her skirt to curtsy and said, "Let me introduce a new friend to everyone."