Chapter 350: Chapter 364: Matriarch Appears
Among those who fought with the four male Zoel warriors, there were already winners and losers.
Unlike other duels that began with mutual probing, the battle between Kamoen and his kin started with a barrage of killing moves — simultaneous stabs, leaping upper slashes, double-stage downward stabs. These were moves that Dark Elves had practiced over and over in martial techniques schools, refined through the experience accumulated over several eras for the best countermeasures.
Every Zoel Elf knew how to counter these moves and what variations could follow, but this also meant that the duel became a competition of basic skills, where any movement less than precise or reaction less than swift would be quickly exploited by the opponent. After a few exchanges, the disparity in strength was clear, with Kamoen outclassing his opponent in every aspect.
The pursued Zoel Elf once again used a double-stage downward stab, forcing his opponent to defend with crossed swords pushing downward. This was the textbook response, which, although it left the defender unable to launch any effective counterattack, would prevent the attacker from continuing their assault.
But Kamoen’s opponent no longer wished to follow the textbook methods — Kamoen’s basic skills were much more solid, and continuing this by-the-book approach would leave him without a chance of victory.
This Dark Elf feigned a motion of pushing down with both swords, but one hand was a feint. As the weapons collided, he quickly retracted that hand, instead delivering a horizontal slash in hope that this unexpected counter would turn the tide of the unfavorable situation.
He immediately paid the price for his rash action. Kamoen keenly captured the enemy’s destabilized defense; he also changed his response, not retracting his weapon as usual but stabbing out again with the same posture.
In swordsmanship training, there’s a basic common sense: once a technique is executed to a certain degree, it cannot be altered. At this moment, both their attacks were in motion, and neither could return their sword to defend.
But Kamoen’s weapon was closer to the enemy’s body, easily breaking through the weak defense and opening a deep gash on the inside of the opponent’s thigh, unprotected by armor, all the while lowering his body to avoid the enemy’s severely misshapen horizontal slash due to the intense pain.
“If you haven’t reached the level of Trist Do’Urden, don’t try to defend against a double-stage downward stab with other methods,” Kamoen’s sword tip stopped in front of the opponent’s throat, who was now sitting on the ground, “Surrender, stop serving the Matriarchs, you mean nothing in their eyes.”
“I agree.” The Zoel warrior dropped his weapons, clutching his injured thigh tightly, “I can’t fight anymore, I beg you, in the name of kinship, don’t kill me…”
Kamoen nodded and turned to look at the other new friends who were still fighting. The Dwarf seemed about to finish off his opponent, who was already limping on one leg; Acheron was still engaged in a dangerous dance with his opponent, dueling with longswords — it looked like it would be a while before a victor emerged; Koula, who was fighting with the help of a mutagen, was at a disadvantage with several wounds on his body, but the poison on the Elves’ weapons seemed ineffective, as the Halfling’s movements were still very agile. Little Elothysia had silently moved to a perfect position for an ambush, ready to attack at any moment.
But just then, the enemy who had just declared his surrender saw a golden opportunity as Kamoen turned his back. The Zoel reached behind his waist with practiced hands, drew a cocked hand crossbow from a hidden pouch, and fired an arrow right at the back of Kamoen’s neck.
However, Kamoen, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, spun around instantaneously as the trigger was pulled, his cloak billowing high, wrapping around the crossbow arrow and obscuring it; the rapidly spinning sword blade lightly grazed the enemy’s neck, seemingly touching nothing, but blood erupted like a bursting volcano, staining an entire wall red.
“You… deceived… me…,” gasped the dying Zoel to his assassin. His strength ebbed away with his blood, his eyes rolled back, and he died.
“I simply took an extra precaution,” Kamoen explained to the corpse, sounding more like he was talking to himself.
Elsewhere, little Elystra finally found an opportune moment to thrust two Cold Iron Daggers into the back of the Dark Elf who was battling Koula. The Succubus Paladin’s opponent had already exhausted the power of their amulet, and Elothysia’s Broad Sword inflicted wounds of varying depths, as if ready to finish the enemy off at any moment.
Just then, Lancelot suddenly rose from the ground, his eyes intently fixed on the open window.
A Zoel Priestess appeared outside the window, dressed in lavish attire with a withered face—none other than Belmanis, the Matriarch they had previously seen under the statue of Cang Ye. She wore an extravagant spider-shaped headpiece, with long white hair coiled around the eight spider legs, and held a Serpent Head Whip in her hand, its five serpents all stretching their necks hungrily at those inside the room.
She didn’t rely on Levitation Skill but stood directly on the impressive Magic Carpet. Ordinary Zoel Elves could use family emblems (or similar magic-conducting items) to perform levitation, but that process required continuous concentration and left no room for distraction, whereas using magic items like a magic carpet obviously didn’t come with such restrictions.
Matriarch Belmanis had already completed a spell, and just as she showed her face outside the window, she swung her free hand. A powerful burst of negative energy erupted from her as the epicenter, spreading outward. Those engaged in battle felt as if invisible Great Swords and Battle Axes had struck them, leaving them all in a gravely injured state in an instant.
Lancelot hadn’t been unable to take action earlier, but the enemy floating outside the window was a bit too far, and he wasn’t confident in delivering a killing strike, so he told himself he had to endure a while longer.
The Human Knight and his companions, like the rest, were sent flying backward as though they too were hit by the surge of negative energy; however, the Zoel assailants flashed a gray light on their bodies, merely shaking slightly, clearly having prepared some sort of magic item in advance to defend against the Matriarch’s area attack.
Belmanis jumped into the room from the Magic Carpet, her hand already preparing another spell. The Matriarch was filled with fury; Kamoen was the greatest disgrace to her family, and after finally locating him, he had even managed to kill her own daughter, dealing another heavy blow to the family.
Now, she must kill Kamoen herself, the apostate who converted to worship Elystra; only then could she please the Spider Queen and prevent other families from daring to attack them, risking the wrath of the Goddess…
In her view, this assault had been successful and executed perfectly. The male warriors who died? They were merely expendable, just as an Archer might regret using too many arrows after victory.
But there was one variable she hadn’t accounted for, one particularly special being among Kamoen’s ‘helpers’.