Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 329 - 41 Front and Rear Attack_1

Chapter 329: Chapter 41 Front and Rear Attack_1

Catherine pressed her lips together and reached out to grab the third potion, but she hesitated and chose to let it be. She turned her attention back to the colossal puppet that was steadily pursuing her. During Vivian’s attempt to clear the way, Catherine had been forced to retreat repeatedly under the puppet’s dominance. The puppet was now less than a hundred meters away, and if Catherine chose to hold her ground, she would be caught within a minute given the creature’s strides and speed.

"Move," Catherine gritted her teeth, hoisting the limp Vivian onto her back, she instructed the two maids, "Keep running as we planned. I’ll deal with it if it releases another Crystal Bomb."

"Sister, be careful ahead," a worried Annie cautioned, "There are still undead creatures. It’s very dangerous."

"More?" Catherine was momentarily taken aback. As she made her way forward at a quick pace, she turned her ear to listen for the sounds of the skeletons. But all she heard was the heavy footfalls of the puppet behind her and no sound of bones grinding against each other. But Annie couldn’t possibly be lying at this moment, so Catherine could only ask with confusion, "I don’t hear any. Are they not skeletons?"

"No, they are Wraiths," Annie pointed at herself, "like Annie."

Catherine clenched her fists. Wraiths, or Ghosts, were considered the most troublesome among the undead and a nightmare in the eyes of adventurers. These eerie undead could become intangible, making physical attacks extremely ineffective against them. However, the blades they wielded could fluctuate between matter and spirit. Even if the physical portion of their attack couldn’t penetrate a person’s defenses, the spectral part could reach into their soul and cause spiritual damage. Not only that, but they could also infiltrate the minds of the unstable, sending them into madness. On their previous adventure to Shining Forest, in the ruins of the old city of Briana, Catherine and her company had discovered hundreds of corpses. Their causes of death varied, but the general consensus had been that they had either been driven into madness and slaughtered each other, or they had died from the attacks that had mortally wounded their souls.

To deal with these peculiar undead, one would need either a weapon blessed with Sacred Blessing, or have the power to wield energy like a Demigod, using incredible energy to completely disperse them. Otherwise, if one were to rely on simple weapon combat, physical combatants would barely make a difference. To effectively eradicate Wraiths, one must be a priest of a deity possessing the Divine Duties of Life or Light. Their Divine Spells worked wonders against these undead, and a single Upper Rank priest could purify Wraiths in large swathes. Aside from priests, Mages adept in Light-attribute magic could also be effective. Although not as efficient as priests, they were significantly faster than physical combatants.

Vivian could theoretically do it, but she needed at least half an hour of rest to regain her physical strength, and there was simply not enough time. With these thoughts in mind, Catherine felt a splitting headache, torn between two unfavorable choices.

"Never mind, let’s turn back." With time ticking away, Catherine didn’t hesitate for more than a few seconds before making her decision. Carrying Vivian on her back, she tugged at the two sisters, "Let’s withdraw for now. Once we lose the puppet and Vivian wakes up, we can come back."

"But the puppet is blocking the way," The sisters didn’t hesitate and began running with Catherine, but their concerns remained, "Do we have to take it down first?"

"No need, the greatest weakness of this puppet is that it moves slower than a normal person," Catherine adjusted Vivian on her back, lifted her shield, and instructed, "I’ll go first and attract its attention. Meanwhile, you two take the opportunity to crawl under it. Once you get through, keep running. I’ll hold it back. Don’t worry, even with your injuries, you’re faster than it. I’ll catch up once you get some distance, so you don’t have to worry about getting separated."

"Thank you," Pansy gasped as she ran. Even though the wounds on their bodies had undergone rudimentary emergency treatment, they still left the two sisters somewhat weakened. Their run had started to take a toll on them, but even then, she forced out the question that troubled her most, "Why would you hold back the enemy for us in times like this? It’s completely illogical."

"That’s logical to you, not to me," Catherine smiled as she watched the puppet draw nearer, "Or rather, it’s logical to the City of Innocence, not to the outside world. Do you know why children brought up in the City of Innocence, such as yourselves, can’t survive in the outside world even if they leave? It’s because of these ’logical norms’ that hold you back. Now let’s go. I’m moving forward, remember to find a gap and run through."

In a flash, Catherine had reached a point less than ten meters from the foot of the giant puppet. With one forceful stomp, she sped into the puppet’s attack range. The puppet’s sensors detected an intruder had entered within its effective range, and instinctively it lifted its leg, one with a circumference of nearly eighty centimeters, and brought it down hard on Catherine’s position. After battling with the puppet for a few minutes, Catherine had grown used to its style of close combat. Taking a sidestep, she pressed her shield against her side and the ground, angling it at seventy-five degrees to the earth with the top of the shield extending slightly beyond the metal foot of the puppet.

The puppet tried to stomp heavily, but its foot slipped on the smooth, inclined shield and changed direction. The downward force was cleverly deflected sideways, causing the puppet to lose balance as if it had stepped on thin air. It swayed in place for a while before it was stable again. Throughout this, the maid sisters didn’t stop their approach. As the puppet lifted its leg and the metal foot came down, the two girls had already slipped through the gap that Catherine had fought for, getting behind the puppet.

"Keep running, don’t stop." Catherine fully utilized her agility. She turned around, placing herself between the puppet and the two sisters, blocking the puppet from chasing them.

In fact, considering a knight’s mobility, if it was only Catherine, or even if she had Vivian on her back, this puppet wouldn’t pose much of a threat. Catherine wouldn’t even need to directly engage the puppet in combat. She can just keep moving around it, continually forcing it to turn in place, with no chance to launch an effective attack on her. This is a flaw that the goblin designers were unable to resolve thousands of years ago.

However, Catherine couldn’t do that now. She had already revealed how the puppet determines its targets. In battle, the puppet prioritizes chasing the target directly in front of it, and when there is more than one frontal target, it will prioritize attacking the nearest one. If Catherine dared to stay behind the puppet’s back or flank, where it’s harder for the puppet to attack, the puppet would change its target to the maid sisters who were trying to run away. They wouldn’t be able to survive even a couple of crystal bomb attacks from the puppet. If the puppet launched a bomb at them, they’d either be severely injured or killed instantly.

"Hey, I’m here." Even though she knew it wouldn’t help, Catherine couldn’t help shouting out. She lifted her shield and smashed it hard against the puppet’s shin. The metal puppet barely flinched at this attack, its upper body leaning forward. It drew back its arm, punching the ground and causing the vicinity to shake violently. But Catherine, the intended target of this punch, quickly backstepped before it landed, calmly watching as the punch missed her by less than 50 centimeters.

With a dull ’clink’, Catherine swung her sword against the puppet’s arm even though she knew it was futile, leaving a white mark on the metallic surface. The puppet seemed to get irritated by this, and from the elbow of the arm it had punched the ground with, it suddenly launched a dozen or so metallic spikes, almost two meters long. These spikes covered a wide range, like a metallic cage aiming to restrict Catherine’s movements. However, having previously had bitter experiences with such sudden attacks, Catherine had prepared herself well. She held her shield high above her head and quickly retreated a couple of steps, dodging the metallic spikes.

When the puppet’s trick failed to hit its mark, it fell to one knee, and a hollow black hole opened abruptly at the knee joint of its bent leg. Seeing such a strange reaction for the first time, Catherine stayed alert, her muscles tense, ready to dodge in any direction at any moment.

"Puff." A yellowish-brown liquid sprayed from the puppet’s opened knee joint. This is one of the hidden attack methods of the Legion and War Puppet—the sprayed liquid had no effect on metals but was highly corrosive to flesh. If one were sprayed head-on, one could become a bloody skeleton in a matter of seconds.

"Tsk..." Catherine let out an annoyed sound. She had been startled into a cold sweat by the puppet’s sudden assault. If it wasn’t for her crisis awareness that had led her to shield her head and dodge in time, she could have been hit by the liquid, which would have seriously wounded her.

"I’m done playing with you." Catherine tightened the rope that tied Vivian to her back. She swung an ineffective sword at the puppet in frustration and turned to chase after the maid sisters. But to her horror, the maid sisters, who should have run far away, were running back from the distance and frequently looking back.

"Why are you coming back?" Catherine asked in surprise. Didn’t I tell you to keep running forward and never stop?"

"Can’t... can’t run anymore..." The maid sisters answered breathlessly, "In front... in front... there are undead in front."

Catherine’s face turned pale. She carefully looked beyond the maid sisters and sure enough, behind them, a large number of blurry, semi-transparent figures were floating and chasing after the sisters. The blurry figures maintained the shape of goblins, and the sounds they made were an incomprehensible mixture of noises. It was like a curse that made people feel dizzy. (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote and recommend it on qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)