The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 202: Shadow Locks & Bane

Kafni naturally knew what she was facing.

War deity’s Three Hundred Chevaliers of the Red Knight with bloody armor.

(TN: I have changed the translation from Heroes of the Red Knight to Chevaliers of the Red Knight, which is last seen in Chapter 68.)

The chevalier in blood-covered armor was one of them.

Every chevalier had fought to the death on the fiercest battlefield. They were sheltered by the war deity and regained their physical bodies after death, becoming a walking “war” symbol.

Of course, that was a more euphemized narration.

Simply put, they had become the war deity’s mercenary.

“Chevalier” was the easiest upright deity’s envoy to be summoned.

As long as they meet the ritual needs of the Red Knight, the chevalier would be available to enter the mortal world. The Red Knight’s priests also spread the ritual of summoning “chevalier” to spread wars in any peaceful environment.

“…Tsk.” Kafni pursed her lips, slightly annoyed.

I could have reminded Annan to summon a chevalier too.

There were two relatively rare materials to conduct “Ritual: Chevalier Summoning,” which was “an upcoming Transcended war” and “Novice Influence: Breath of War.” All the remaining materials were things that could be bought from the ordinary people’s market:

For example, sword blades that were once stained with blood and rust, armor soaked with the air of the battlefield, the complete skull of a horse, and a tube of veteran’s blood.

Novice influence was something that chaos spells would produce, and the war itself was the ritual area. There was almost no need to spend money on it. Even mortals could use curse vessels with “war” elements to replace them for the summoning.

The only limitation was that you could no longer summon the chevalier if the “opponent side of the war” had successfully summoned it.

This was the measure that Red Knight utilized to encourage the public to summon his chevalier.

The side that summoned the chevalier must start a war within one day. If they summoned the chevalier but only relied on it to make the opponent surrender for greater benefits, that would be deemed as a betrayal to the war deity.

If the summoning side chose to retreat and didn’t initiate a war, then the chevalier would attack them in return. Therefore, the chevalier’s overseeing role gave them another name, “Red Knight’s Governor.”

With that, it made sense for Annan not to summon a chevalier. After all, they were on the defensive side, unable to confirm if the opponents were Transcended.

“What a pity.” Kafni opened her eyes slightly, clenching her hands subconsciously.

The red aura representing strength and courage flickered violently in her eyes. By harnessing the spiritual power, countless shadow tentacles emerged from the shadow pool projected in front of her.

Kafni knew the chevalier well. She naturally knew that the safest battle strategy was to restrict the direct charge attacks coming from the chevalier.

A chevalier who couldn’t perform a direct charge attack was tantamount to an ordinary Silver Rank Swordsman without special abilities.

But for Kafni, utilizing this strategy also restricted her options.

Kafni’s tentacles could only be summoned from the shadow cast by her.

It occurred that Kafni was utilizing her “last resort.”

After she unfolded her clothes, every corner of the shadow projected from the light source manifested the tentacles as she willed, no matter if it was on the air or the ground!

At this time, the chevalier had already rushed to the middle of the shadow pool.

His armor screeched ferociously like a living thing.

Those tentacles seemed incapable of reacting to this attack at first glance.

The chevalier with bloody armor was like a scarlet torrent, galloping like a comet!

But at the next moment, countless tentacles shot out from the shadows, binding the chevalier in an instant!

All the tentacles came from behind him, firmly locking his neck, chest, arms, and the head and feet of the heavily armored horse under him!

There were more than forty tentacles, each of which was at the thickness of a finger.

The tentacles halted the chevalier’s [Charge] and put him in place!

The bloody armored knight was like a giant insect trying to break free from the spider web. It struggled fanatically.

But as Kafni’s eyes were fully opened, the red shimmers in her eyes grew more rose!

In addition to the tentacles protruding from the ground behind the chevalier, tentacles also appeared from thin air, attacking in all directions.

Each of these tentacles had the thickness of an adult man’s forearm. They slowly tightened the sturdy knight, producing squeaks at the armor. His limbs and head were all twisted to a deadlock.

“Ugh—” Even the deity’s envoy, chevalier, couldn’t help but groan in a low voice under the overwhelming force.

The crimson red light circulated fiercely on his body. The tentacles made a crunching sound. For a while, the two were in a stalemate. However, as the tentacle count slowly added up, Kafni gradually gained the upper hand in the brawl.

Soon enough, the chevalier was dragged off his horse.

He immediately reached out and grabbed onto the surrounding ground and walls, trying to break away from the tentacles. Unfortunately, the walls were fragile, as if they were tofu. As he held tightly onto the wall, pieces of walls were torn down. It didn’t stop him from being dragged away by the tentacles.

Up until the knight was dragged to the center of the shadow…

Countless tentacles emerged from thin air in all directions, grabbing every space on the chevalier!

The tentacles lifted him high off the ground instantly, robbing away his chance to gain a footing on the ground.

Without support from the ground, the knight became helpless in the air.

He was about to be slowly torn apart by tentacles in the air.

Suddenly, there was a gunshot.

A bullet shattered the waist lamp behind Kafni!

At that moment, the shadow in front of Kafni disappeared instantly.

The dozens of tentacles tied to the chevalier’s body disappeared like bubbles.

The chevalier exerted his strength and resisted the dragging forces from the remaining tentacles. In the end, he fell to the ground, albeit in a sorry state. He staggered as he climbed up the ground. Obviously, he had suffered a significant amount of injury.

Kafni immediately looked in the direction where the gunfire sounded.

It was a melancholy man with a weird helmet armed with thirteen lenses, which covered his eyes.

He was carrying a long and gray gun that was shaped like a sniper rifle.

“Oh, we have Greysmith’s envoy too?” Kafni frowned.

Greysmith was a false deity, also known as the “deity of remembrance and despair.” What faced Kafni at that moment was his envoy, Bane.

Their attacks were ineffective to the living, but they played the role of intercepting and harassing the opponent best.

Bane could attack all non-sentient things and could only be defeated by similar things with that property.

In other words, he would be immune to all close-contact attacks and almost all direct spells. He would be immune to slashes and bow attacks but vulnerable to guns and crossbows.

At this moment, two tentacles popped out of Kafni’s skirt and hurled Kafni away gently.

With that, Kafni dodged away from the bloody light stream the chevalier sent over.

“…Tsk.” Kafni couldn’t help but smack her lips.

For her, the current situation was a bit troublesome.

Neither she nor Bane could hurt each other.

Worse still, Bane had shattered Kafni’s lamp.

Without the shadow’s aid, it would be challenging to face two Silver Ranks simultaneously.

All of a sudden…

“Your Royal Highness Kafni, we’re here!” The Child’s uplifting voice sounded.

—Players had come online.