System: You killed a Taotie (soldier beast). +100 points!
System: You killed a Taotie (soldier beast). +100 points!
System Warning: Repeated kill threshold reached. You have slain 200 Taotie (soldier beasts). Further kills of this class will no longer grant rewards. Please select a new target class.
"???"
Fenric, mid‑swing, froze for half a heartbeat. Upper limit? Seriously?
No new chime.
So it’s real. Two hundred soldier beasts and the faucet shuts off? I was planning to farm at least two hundred thousand points today! He glanced at his current total—barely twenty thousand. Miserly dog of a system...
Time to change my approach.
He drove a boot into the churned blood‑mud, used the recoil, and sprang. Stone shattered underfoot. One bound carried him back to the wall.
If kills didn’t pay, there was no reason to keep brawling under the wall—not unless he shifted to higher‑tier targets.
The moment Fenric landed, heads turned. Awe shone in the eyes of the wall troops. The man who had just leapt alone into a sea of man‑eating beasts and returned at leisure—how else to name him but God of War?
If not for the ongoing battle, they would already be chanting his name.
But the fight wasn’t done. Taotie had breached in scattered points along the wallwalk. Men were falling.
Across the battlement, Commander Lin Mei was locked in melee with one that had forced its way up.
Fenric didn’t hesitate.
Points or no points—he still owed that girl a life.
He vaulted gaps between crenels—three strides, a leap, and he was there just as the enraged Taotie lunged. Lin Mei shifted to evade—
—and a strong hand closed at her waist.
"Let me." The low voice at her ear was steady, unhurried.
Lin Mei’s raised blade stilled. Shock melted into an odd calm. Though the beast filled her vision, she suddenly felt no fear.
He came.
Steel whispered. Shusui carved a black arc.
Puff!
The Taotie was butchered mid‑charge. Fenric followed with a kick; the carcass tumbled, never brushing Lin Mei’s sleeve.
"I told you to rest once you were up," he said, brow creasing. "You’re exhausted. Why are you still forcing it?"
The Crane Army commander—who could stare down regiments—lowered her head like a junior caught sneaking out of formation. "The Taotie climbed up... the soldiers were in danger..."
Her lieutenant stared, slack‑jawed. Commander Lin? Acting like... that?
Fenric’s tone left no room to argue. "Go to General Shaw and recover. Anything that gets up here—I’ll handle it."
Lin Mei was spent. After a breath she nodded obediently. "Then... be careful."
"Mm. Go. I’ll speak with the General shortly."
He turned and sprinted down the wall toward the next breach.
Lin Mei lingered a moment, eyes following his broad back, expression dazed.
"Commander," her lieutenant whispered, "Sir Fenric is... already gone."
Color rushed to Lin Mei’s cheeks. "We’re reporting to the General. Rest, then redeploy," she said briskly—and marched off.
"Sir Fenric Is Mighty!"
Taotie that made it over the parapet didn’t last long. Wherever Fenric went, bodies fell. By the time he severed the last beast prowling the wallwalk, the defenders broke into cheers that rolled like thunder.
"Sir Fenric is mighty!"
"Sir Fenric is mighty!"
"Sir Fenric is mighty!"
The chant spread section by section.
From the command tower, General Shaw, Strategist Lau, and the assembled commanders watched.
"This man... truly unmatched," General Shaw breathed. "He earns the title God of War."
Strategist Lau nodded. "And that black blade is no ordinary steel. Nothing stands before it."
General Shaw heard the implication but only smiled faintly. A battlefield isn’t the place to ask to borrow another man’s lifeblood weapon.
"Either way," he said, "if Sir Fenric hadn’t been here today, the outcome could have gone very differently."
At that, Lin Mei’s lips curved—soft, unguarded, as though she had been praised.
General Shaw glanced her way and added deliberately, "Commander Lin, I saw what happened. Sir Fenric risked everything to pull you out. That’s a debt of life. When this battle ends, you will thank him properly."
Lin Mei bowed her head. "Yes, General."
Strategist Lau’s smile deepened. "Commander, men like Sir Fenric are rare. If he could be brought into the Order, it would greatly strengthen us."
General Shaw’s brows rose. "I doubt he’d accept."
"Not necessarily." Strategist Lau flicked a meaningful glance at Lin Mei. "Perhaps Commander Lin should extend the invitation."
"..."
Lin Mei flushed scarlet.
Even a dense soldier could hear the undertone.