Pillar of Yita

The strange constructs had excellent accuracy, almost hitting a crystal monster every couple of shots, causing the enemies to hesitate momentarily despite their relentless advance.

Time Reflection observed the constructs, noticing that with each round of shooting, they would pull back a long lever on the Magic Guided Gun, manually rotate the chamber, eject the shell, and proceed to the next round of firing.

After six rounds, it would stand the gun upright, extract the chamber, and start reloading in a fluid and effortless manner, as if it weren’t a construct in control.

But rather a real person.

Time Reflection was momentarily stunned.

Which guild do they belong to?

Were they sent by ’Twilight’?

He only knew that Twilight was the largest guild in Nogness and was also one of Flor’s Descendants collaborators here, but unlike typical grand guilds, Twilight members rarely acted arrogantly and mainly operated around the Outer Islands, seldom clashing with others.

To outsiders, Twilight’s members seemed somewhat mysterious, just as these individuals appeared mysterious before him.

Time Reflection wanted to ask, but no sound came out at the moment.

At this moment, the pale blue phantom finally broke through the defense and approached them, but three constructs suddenly aligned their Magic Guided Guns, stepped back a half-step, and placed their mechanical arms on a cylindrical Magic Guided Conductor at their side.

Time Reflection initially didn’t understand what it was, but now he saw clearly—it was a scabbard.

Could they also engage in close combat?

Before he could even finish the thought, his vision blurred as the crystal creatures charging at the young man suddenly toppled over in twisted positions.

Their upper and lower bodies separated and crashed to the ground, shattering like glass.

The three constructs simultaneously sheathed their swords.

Time Reflection’s mouth gaped open.

???

”Brother Ade, there are monsters over here too, they’ve surrounded us!”

Another voice came through, also a girl’s voice, seemingly younger than the previous one.

”Tianlan, watch that direction.”

The young man replied briefly.

Time Reflection seemed to finally come to his senses.

His awareness was gradually returning, and he only just realized that the fight hadn’t driven the creatures back, quite the opposite—they were growing in number.

Their figures appeared in every branching path within the cavern, on the steep rocks, within the shadows, countless and shadowy.

The young man, looking at this scene, was clearly troubled too.

”They let us come over deliberately; it’s a trap.”

”It seems the journal wasn’t wrong, these things have advanced intelligence, and if they don’t, something must be commanding them from behind.”

”I don’t think they’re that advanced, Ade.”

A deep voice came over, and Time Reflection watched in surprise as a majestic big Catfolk appeared within his vision.

He was a Lion Paladin, wielding a two-handed sword and standing guard in front of the young man.

The big cat turned his head and said:

”Their level of coordination is low, probably just basic intelligence, understanding only instinctive combat.”

”I agree, Mr. Big Cat, it means something is commanding them from behind.” The young man replied.

”It’s Lion, young chap.”

The two were speaking words that Time Reflection couldn’t understand, but he at least comprehended the Lion Paladin’s actions as he gripped his sword with one hand and extended his paw, with its pad facing forward:

A golden ripple spread out from him in all directions, forming a wall of light that stopped all the approaching crystal monsters.

And from that further, golden hexagonal wall of light, spears of light extended, stabbing at the creatures.

While these spears weren’t enough to kill them, they made these low-intelligence monsters hesitate, and the blue phantoms stopped at the edge of the light wall.

Divine Barrier.

Time Reflection recognized the spell, but Divine Barrier didn’t have an offensive effect, and as he paused for a moment, a term roughly came to mind—a Knight of Virtue.

In this era, finding true knights was increasingly rare, those who adhered to the knightly adage were called truly noble knights.

And a Knight of Virtue stood as a paragon among them.

”This spell will confuse them for a while,” the big cat maintained his stance with his right paw raised, speaking again: ”But we don’t have much time, Ade, decide quickly.”

”We still have a chance to break through now, but if we advance further, retreating will be difficult.”

The young man turned back, arriving beside Time Reflection:

”Are you alright?”

Time Reflection weakly nodded.

He opened his mouth to ask if the others were reinforcements and how the camp was faring, but was too weak to articulate.

The young man held him, asking:

”We’ve lost our map, you should have a map of these tunnels, right?”

Time Reflection still felt groggy, finding the young man’s face familiar, yet couldn’t recall where he had seen him before.

Fang Hong evidently lacked any intimidating aura, yet his plain, somewhat delicate face had a certain friendliness.

He glanced back at Reed, the big cat nodded—losing the map was an acceptable way to put it. If one had never had one, losing could also be a form.