Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 28

Phantom Knights

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"They're Phantom Knights, and their level is even higher than myself. They fell under my command because these guys don't have Commander skills. Still, they're too good to be willing to listen to me. Giving them orders is like wasting my breath, the bastards just won't follow. They will also affect the teamwork of the entire battalion, so they didn't add up our strength at all, it's the opposite!"

"How many?"

"Ten. Is that too many for you?"

"Just right. I can summon exactly 10 Servants."

"Perfect. They're just a handful to me. They will surely take a hundred or two years off my lifespan if I keep up with them. Now follow me."

Domergor led me around the camp and headed to the backside. They don't even live inside the camp area?

We walked for a good distance before I finally saw a row of tents lined up near a cave. Brother walked to the middle of the tents and shouted: "Fall in!"

Then he ran back towards me.

I heard noises like metal piercing the air, then I saw a series of spears nailed themselves into the ground, along the path Domergor just ran through. The arms of the deadly weapons are still shaking.

Ten figures wearing full black heavy metal armors walked out of the tents. Each one of them is carrying two spears behind their backs, crossed. A bastard sword hangs on the waist. I can see thick shields attached to their arms too. Typical knight design.

They came and picked up their own spears (they carry three of them). One of them that looks like their leader, spoke to Domergor: "What do you want?"

"I came to introduce someone to you today. Come here buddy." He dragged me in front of him. "This one here is my sworn brother. Now I officially assign you as his Servants."

"Not a chance." That leader refused very flatly.

"Now don't give me that. I'm the boss of this place after all!"

"Boss? You, huh? You can't even defeat us. Listen, if you can even best one of us, we're all yours. Otherwise go back to wherever you came."

"You heard the man." Another knight cut in. "We don't listen to weaklings."

"Tell me the rules then." I walked up, angered. They're too arrogant!

"Oh, nice one. You got guts, I'll give you that. I'll try to make it fair for you. The weakest one of us, shall have a 1-on-1 duel with you, without using his horse. You can use your companions and skills and items all you like. You win the fight if you can chip off half of his HP. Don't get cocky. I'd bet you will be knocked out in one hit."

"Alright!" It doesn't really look good since they made it a lot easier for me. But I'm pretty sure I'd be dead in a blink of an eye if they didn't.

Brother took us to an open ground. He even gave me his armor to prevent me from getting one-shot easily. It got some impressive defense, just a tad too heavy so it may slow me down. I chose to wear it though.

As they said, their "weakest one" stood in front of me. However I can feel his actual strength is still out of my reach.

I summoned all of my companions at the very first moment, which surprised my opponent a little bit. Looks like he wasn't expecting to face so many targets.

Since there's only one enemy I didn't ask Phantom to Merge, but ordered him to disturb the knight instead. The charging knight suddenly fell onto the ground face-first. Ouch.

Lucky took the free chance and swiped his tail downward at the enemy's head.

The knight rolled aside, dodging it. I slashed at where the knight is about to end up, without success -- he bounced up right before he's about to reach my sword and cut at me. I immediately ducked while Phantom interfered and made his sword stray upward a bit.

Shoosh! Some of my hair went off.

I stepped back to avoid his following assault while Lucky charged at him. Lucky should be able to hold himself in up-front conflict.

Loong'er completed her spell matrix from nearby. A giant eight-diagram appeared below the knight's feet. I wonder if ancient Chinese spell would work against a western knight.

The outcome is comforting enough. Our enemy stumbled and almost fell down again. He stood up soon, however.

Loong'er explained: "This is a Gravity Matrix I learned from my father. He is now placed under double gravity and will be slowed. Attack him using your speed advantage!"

Slowed huh? Aha! He won't be hitting me if he can't even catch up! "Phiona! Use your fire and don't stop!"

She cast her signature dark flames around the knight. No matter how much defense he got, he'll be dead sooner or later.

"Night Shade! Lightnings!"

That's two magic damagers plus Lucky's physical attacks. Should be enough.

Before I can feel assured though, the knight drew one of his spears and threw it at Loong'er like a javelin. It hit Loong'er right in the center despite of Phantom's interference. With a painful howl, Loong'er died and revived where she was. Shoot, that damage is no joke!

Her Gravity Matrix broke without her support and she no longer has the time to prepare again so she began to use Skill Counter Matrix, which will reflect 25% of the enemy's skill damage back to himself. It doesn't work against normal attacks but is enough to make sure he doesn't use his deadly skills very often.

"Watch out!"

That was from Phiona. I ducked my head in time, another spear pierced my hair again.

"Phiona! Switch to focused fire!"

"On it!"

A giant flame pillar erupted from under the knight. He hopped around to avoid it but the pillar kept following. It's a special skill only known to Phoenixes, which is quite powerful and easy to hit. The only problem is the caster cannot move or use other skills during the process, or it will be interrupted.

The knight rushed here and there without breaking out of our encirclement. He soon realized he needs to take me out first and ran straight at me, ignoring everyone else.

Well of course I'm not standing here and let you hit me! I hopped onto Night Shade. There's no way you can outrun a Nightmare.

He didn't. He just threw his last spear at us. It didn't hit me but skillfully pierced Night Shade, killing him. Now it's my turn to crash onto the ground headlong.

I heard the sound of wind as I crawled back up. I turned to see the knight getting knocked flying by Lucky's timely tail swipe.

He maneuvered his body in mid-air and performed a perfect landing, before charging at me again. I jumped onto Night Shade again (who just revived). Gotta RUN!

Phiona gave up her flame pillar and swooped down. The knight dodged her claws with a nice land slide, and jumped out of Lucky's claws with another front-flip. Loong'er joined them trying to stop him as well, but didn't hold very long before she was finished off, with her low HP after revival. I won't be summoning her any time soon.

I jumped down from Night Shade and ordered Phantom to merge. Which means the knight will recover his full speed and dexterity. But at least I can [Blink] away from his attacks now.

I performed a jump slash and instantly [Blink]'d to his back to avoid his attack. Yet he didn't hesitate one bit before he wielded his sword in a half circle, aimed at me. This is not good. He'll definitely kill me if I keep dodging around.

Oh right, I can go invisible!

I [Blink]'d behind him again and activated my cloak's effect. Ha, let's see how you hit something you can't even see.

Losing his target, the knight looked around for a while and stood still. Night Shade charged and headbutted at him, forcing him to give up his plan to hear my location out using his senses. When I go invisible, other players can still see my red name. But an NPC cannot.

Now I'll just get away from his assault and let my companions finish the job. Lucky is the only one who can engage in close combat without getting maimed. His level is too low though, after all the fight his HP bar is almost empty. The good side is Phiona and Night Shade's supportive attacks are pretty effective. Since I'm safe myself, I asked Phantom to disturb his movement again. Now this is my favorite tactic when I want to annoy someone.

The fight continued on for another 20 minutes without any notable result.

The enemy suddenly roared, and his armor scattered on the ground. A black bat creature fluttered out of the armor, circled around and then charged at me.

Oh crap. Bats locate their enemies with their ultrasonic. My cloak won't work now!

But knowing that fact will not help with my situation. Lucky came fast behind and bit at the bat, who just swiftly avoided Lucky's maw, but was still scratched by a following claw attack. It landed on the ground and turned into a wicked looking woman who's wearing a loose robe.

Wait, woman??

I'm still confused at this "batwoman" when she cut me using her dagger. Arrrgh! That damage is no lower than the bastard sword, it emptied my HP bar again!

Seeing me getting attacked, Lucky and Phiona quickly arrived. Almost at the same time as I was hurt, Lucky managed to sink his fangs into the woman's body. Phiona's flame hit her too, just one second later.

With my team's current health I'm sure we're a wipe. She didn't finish me off though, she just turned back into a bat and flew away instead.

"I lost."

"Huh?" Now I'm more confused.

"My health is below half now. You won." Without saying anything else, she moved back to collect her armor.

"What was with that bat just now?" I asked her.

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I think I confused "knight" "rider" and "cavalry", since they can be represented with the same Chinese word.

The phantom knights are just a group wearing heavy knight armors who ride horses into combat. So I guess Knight would be good enough.

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