Pillar of Yita

But behind him, two sand lizards and the knights on their backs emerged from the mist to the left and right. With two sharp whistles of ’whoosh, whoosh’, the sand lizard knights raised their hands, and two claw spears, trailing ropes, arced through the air toward him. Fang Hong had been alert and leapt forward, but was still struck head-on.

It turned out that they had already predicted his actions—being at a level over 30 against a level over 20, the outcome was inevitable. With a dull ’crack’, Fang Hong felt a tremendous force hit him from behind, almost knocking him off his feet. The claw spear hit the magic guided reactor on his back, but luckily it just pierced the shell.

Before Fang Hong could issue a command, Miss Tata’s voice rang out: ”Slash!” A gracefully shaped swordsman descended from the sky, slicing down to sever the rope connected to the claw spear. After cutting the rope, the female swordsman stepped back, with dots of silver light appearing on her body, and with Fang Hong, transformed into a beam of silver light, entered a light gate.

The light gate opened again over a hundred feet away, releasing silver light and re-forming into two individuals—or rather, one person and a construct.

Only then did Fang Hong look back and see that the sand raiders’ spear-throwing device was different from his own. They weren’t using a hand crossbow, but rather a cylindrical crossbow machine mounted on the sand lizard’s saddle, with a crystal column inserted into one end of the handle, connected to a magic-guided reactor behind them by a leather tube. Each shot required the sand raiders to pull a lever, releasing billows of white steam from various vents for cooling.

There is a relatively long cooling time.

This thought flashed through his mind.

”Thanks, Miss Tata.”

”No problem, Mr. Knight.” Ever since they entered the city, Miss Fairy had remained quiet, while taking care of the slumbering Nini. It wasn’t until her Mr. Knight was in danger that she spoke for the first time.

Fang Hong also breathed a sigh of relief, grateful to have Miss Tata. If it were someone else, they probably wouldn’t have had time to summon a construct in that earlier situation. Operating a construct requires maintaining focus, and if the sand raiders retracted the rope, he’d be pulled over and unable to maintain his concentration.

After teleporting over thirty meters, less than sixty meters remained, and it would take time for the sand raiders to catch up again. Once Fang Hong got back on his feet, he immediately started running. Soon, he and Miss Tata had covered half the distance again. But within the mist behind them, more and more lizard knights were emerging.

The opponent raised the crossbow machine in their hand once more, aiming.

This time, Fang Hong learned his lesson and didn’t try any tricky maneuvers, finally understanding what a level disparity meant. He thought his reactions were swift, but to the opponent, it looked like he was moving at a tortoise’s pace. He directly handed control over to Miss Tata, and as the throwing spear approached, the Energy Angel quickly completed a second teleport with him.

With this teleport, Fang Hong truly entered the ambush zone. A huge weight lifted from his heart. He looked up but couldn’t spot Ye Hua’s silhouette. Only after a moment did he realize that if he could easily see the Ranger King’s position, how could they ambush the King of the Sand Thief?

”Stop looking,” Ye Hua’s voice rang out again: ”I’m on the tower in front of you to the right. Don’t look over here, focus on your own safety first.”

Fang Hong nodded, glancing back to see more and more sand lizard knights emerging from the thin mist. They formed a line that nearly blocked the road. In that direction, Fang Hong finally saw the tall figure of the King of the Sand Thief. He wore attire similar to other sand raiders, but his mount was evidently larger than the average sand lizard.

Fang Hong even knew the name of that sand lizard—Kevin Shar—rumored to be the king of all sand lizards in this desert. It had lived for two hundred and fourteen years and was once the mount of the previous King of the Sand Thief. Mahazar killed that king and gained everything he had, including it.

Seeing their prey suddenly stop, the sand raiders hesitated, feeling a rising sense of wariness mixed with surprise.

However, their caution seemed too late.

At that moment, a faint, low humming sound seemed to emerge in the air, a strange, haunting tone lingering at everyone’s ears, like an illusion.

But before that hum, people first saw the birth of a dusk-like azure light. It was actually a shadow of an arrow, appearing silently in everyone’s sight, embedding in their vision before anyone could react.

At that moment, the arrow with its flickering cold tip was no more than a hundred feet from the King of the Sand Thief. Mahazar’s face hadn’t even registered a look of shock yet.

Then came a piercing shrill sound, sharp enough to cut through eardrums, piercing the air like an awl. It formed a thin, white cone of air before the arrow.

The sharp vibration made everyone instinctively cover their ears and lower their heads—almost as a reflex—while the feather arrow shot past overhead, directly at Mahazar.

But at the very moment, a bolt of lightning descended from the clouds, striking Ye Hua’s arrow directly. Amidst the flying sparks, the arrow wasn’t shattered but merely deflected slightly, carrying a bundle of branching lightning past Mahazar’s side, piercing the chest of a sand thief knight, then another three, before suddenly embedding into the ground.