Nightmare's Call

Soon, three patrolling soldiers in black armor slowly emerged in the arched tunnel. Sensing the approach of Lin Sheng, the three charged at him unannounced like a herd of angry bulls.

Amid the muffled stomping of footsteps, the first soldier lunged at Lin Sheng with the sword coming down at his chest from above. Lin Sheng dodged aside. With the sweep of his hand, he clamped the soldier’s neck with the crook of his elbow and forcefully twisted the opponent’s head with his other hand. The soldier’s neck snapped with a fatally loud crack as the skull was twirled in a one-eighty rotation, and the soldier instantly lost his strength and dropped dead on the ground.

Wasting no time, Lin Sheng grabbed the soldier’s sword and swung it up in front of his body, just in time to parry the incoming attack of two more soldiers. His speed was too quick for his opponents to catch up. He had made three moves while they only made one. And this key difference always gave Lin Sheng an edge.

With their attack deflected, a soldier slammed down his iron shield at Lin Sheng. But Lin Sheng bounced backward ahead of time, nimbly swinging his sword around and sliced through the wrist of the two soldiers. Their hands, together with their swords, instantly dropped to the ground.

Again, Lin Sheng took another step back, thwarting the shield attack of the two before he launched his fiery riposte. As the sacred power rapidly surged in him with a faint white light glowing on his shoulders, he slammed on the two black shields. The great force of the impact shattered the bones of the hands that held the shields and sent the two armored soldiers flying out. Immediately, Lin Sheng lunged forward and slashed the throats of the two soldiers in the flash of the sword. As the two soldiers dropped dead on the ground, two streaks of blackline appeared and quickly vanished into his chest.

Lin Sheng briefly sorted the information. Apart from the intemperate indulgence and senseless blabs in the memories, and the addition of another soul to his collections, everything else was just a mosaic of chaos.

He handily took the gear from the soldiers and put them on. These soldiers had a similar build as Lin Sheng, so the armor fit snugly on him. Equipping with the heavy armor, he intended to travel in the opposite direction until he reached the end of the tunnel. Soon, he came before a crumbled section of the tunnel where the path had been entirely blocked off by the collapsed walls. He went up and lightly jabbed the crumbled walls using his sword. The walls were too thick, and it would waste him too much effort and time to clear them up now. Earlier, he had tried but did not find any other exit. With the only way out sealed off before him, Lin Sheng had no choice but to turn around and make his way back to the dungeon. While he was at it, he might as well finish off the freaking fat dude, he thought.

Following the direction from where he came, Lin Sheng had quickly made it back to the corner. There, he rested for a while. He took off again and arrived at the deepest part of the dungeon.

As the gray fog was getting thicker, visibility quickly dropped from ten meters to four. Lin Sheng slowed down, firmly clenching the sword in his hands and making as little sound as possible under his feet. Instead of changing into the long metal boots, he preferred to wear his sneakers, which made little to no noise when walking on rough, hard surfaces. Lin Sheng kept a posture where his armor, sword, and shield would not scrape or collide with each other and made noises.

As he threaded ahead, a two-meter massive shadow began to appear. Despite shrouded in the fog, Lin Sheng could still make out the black arm on its arms. It was the dark fat due.

Lin Sheng halted his steps and carefully inched forward. It was not long before he found the wooden shield, body armor, and the black cloth bag that he had left behind after he died earlier. He picked up the wooden shield and the black cloth bag and kept the cloth bag in the pocket of his workout suit. When this was done, he moved his gaze upward on the tall shadow up ahead, tightly clutching the sword in his hands and edging forward quietly. He was getting close.

Six meters, five meters, four meters, three meters... An energy burst within him as Lin Sheng stomped his feet hard on the ground.

“Charge!

“Trample!

“Sacred shield!”

Lin Sheng instantly burst out in a pounding attack of Sacred Shield Tyrant. Holding the sword close to the edge of the shield, his body lit up in sacred light and slightly swelled while a purple pattern appeared on his forehead as he focused all his strength in the sword.

With a quick lunge, he pounded on the back of the dark fat dude like a ferocious lion. The tip of the sword glowing in white light penetrated the back of the fat dude with an overwhelming force. The fat dude growled in pain and spun around abruptly. His fist that wore a spiked arm armor pounded down like a gigantic column of stone.

Lin Sheng drew his sword as he ducked sideways, cleverly slipping past the side of the fat dude and coming behind his back. Again, his sword burst out in white light as he used all his strength thrusting the sword back into the very same wound he had inflicted earlier in the back of his opponent. This time, the sword had penetrated without much difficulty, with half of the blade buried in the flesh.

The fat dude roared vehemently in pain. He tilted his head up and pounded his fist back at Lin Sheng. As there was no need to spin around, the incoming blow came too quick and too late for Lin Sheng to duck. He was forced to let go of the sword and brace for the assault.

The fist sent a heavy blow on the shield, denting the wooden surface and sending pieces of the wood chips flying off in all directions. In his bracing posture, the energy forced Lin Sheng to slid several meters backward on his feet and left two burnt-mark trails behind on the ground.

Immediately, the fat dude followed up with a second strike before Lin Sheng had time to catch his breath. This time, Lin Sheng was squatting on one knee, which was now bleeding. He braced the shield in front of his body, taking the violent force of the blow in its entirety.

Lin Sheng roared furiously and quickly rolled aside, just managed to give the incoming fist a miss. He then surged to his feet and lunged aside before launching himself in the air to grab the hilt of the sword that was still half-buried in the back of the opponent. The fat dude immediately swung his fist in a backward motion, but Lin Sheng used the exposed portion of the blade to deflect the attack. The blade took the brunt of the blow and slit across his back along the waist, nearly severing the fat dude in half. That was the fat dude’s own doing. Lin Sheng had only cleverly leveraged on his opponent’s strength. The sword broke and, together with Lin Sheng, were flung out onto the iron gate of one of the prison cells.

The fat dude wailed in pain, pressing his hand on the massive cut in his waist as black blood and gray mist oozing out uncontrollably from the wound. He knelt on the ground and burst out in a yowl of anger as he struggled to get back to his feet.

Vomiting blood from his mouth, Lin Sheng began to stagger back to his feet, his face stolid. As his body armor had taken the brunt of the force, and also the fact that he was only flung away, not taking the hit directly, he had only cracked some bones and minor hemorrhage. His condition was not severe.

Lin Sheng held the broken sword in his hand and stared deadly at the fat dude. He then grabbed the hilt with both hands in a charging stance of Sacred Shield Tyrant. “Instead of endlessly wandering around here, let us kill our way out of here!” Lin Sheng raised his sword and cocked his body like a ferocious leopard. “Let there be sacred light! Kill!” With all his strength concentrated at one point, the edge of his body began to glow in white light.

“Charge!

“Trample!

“Sacred shield!”

He hollered angrily like a lion on its last breath and lunged out at his enemy. At the same time on the ground, the half-dead fat dude roared back, lifting his fists in the air in meeting Lin Sheng.