Brand had just rushed out of the room when the bone skeleton wearing red armor began to move with creaking sounds. It strained to twist half of its body, its movements gradually transitioning from slow to smooth.
At the same time, a few Wind Spirit Spiders crawled out of the ruins and returned to the young man's side. Brand found that four of them were left, but the messages conveyed by two of them clearly indicated that they had each found a corresponding target. Wind Spirit Spiders use Tonylu's Wind Language, and although Brand hadn't actually mastered this language, he seemed to understand their meaning—the items were not far from him.
(*Tonylu is the place where the Wind Elf King resides in Vorn's legends. The full name is Tonylu's Wind's End or Mountain of Storm Silence; a large number of Wind Elemental Beings gather here, forming different clans. Their language comes from the ancient Rune Language System, Wind Language Clan, one of the few remaining texts with magical power today. Therefore, Tonylu's Wind Language is also a compulsory course for Elemental Mages—especially Storm Envoys.)
This allowed him to ease up slightly. But with these small creatures' intelligence, they couldn't distinguish if the magic item they found was the Elemental Revelation Scroll he needed. Brand had to make the judgment himself.
There were two targets, one about thirty meters south and one about fifty meters west. Brand considered for a moment; the west side led to the exhibition room under the auction stage, which seemed a more likely possibility—retracting the previous route was unquestionably dangerous. As he pondered, he recalled two of the Wind Spirit Spiders to avoid inadvertently sending this card to the graveyard.
Meanwhile, two points of Soul Fire rekindled in the empty eye sockets of the Undead.
Brand realized he didn't have much time, and his current status was far from good. The Azure Light Piercing was lost among the rubble—he didn't have time to find it, Char was also missing, and his right arm was nearly broken—still devoid of feeling. Wind Spirit Spiders couldn't offer any assistance, and the Wind Queen's Ring was still in the charging state.
The fatigue from mana depletion faintly lingered, but thankfully his stamina was mostly intact, and his life wasn't compromised.
He stood shakily in the corridor, his thoughts racing. Curse crossbow arrows were of no help against the Undead, but perhaps there was another option—breaking through the second-floor window to escape to the crowded streets. However, this could not prevent the dreadful Undead from continuing to pursue him—life ripples were extremely sensitive to the Undead and wouldn't allow hiding among the crowd. Especially in open areas, he wouldn't have a chance to escape from the Crusader Executioner.
He spat; the Crusader Executioner wasn't entirely without weaknesses, but the absolute power difference left him helpless.
He could almost hear the sound of the Undead moving behind him again. Brand shook his head to dispel the thought and quickly advanced through the corridor lined with broken walls and remnants. Within a brief moment, the small auction hall had seemingly been hit by a storm. The previous skirmish irrevocably altered the terrain here. But at this moment, he wasn't concerned about that; if the Undead caught up to him, he didn't think he'd be able to flee ten meters.
"I need to come up with a plan."
He suddenly saw the remains of a skeleton soldier not far away, which should have been his doing not long ago. His heart stirred.
With a crunching sound, the giant skeleton clad in blood-colored armor had already stepped out of the room, holding a war axe. It hulked its massive body, its dry yellow ribs like bone swords sticking out from its spine, encircling a central burning flame. It only wore shoulder armor, a helmet, and simple armor leaves, as its bones were protected—its bone plates had been tempered by chaotic power and were tougher than ordinary metals.
It turned its head; the empty corridor was silent. It paused, the previous status of the life ripples indicating that the weak human was advancing along this corridor, but now that sense became barely perceptible.
Brand lay flat beside the remains of the skeleton soldier.
He exhaled gently and then held his breath; he tried to calm his heartbeat and slow his blood circulation as much as possible so he wouldn't be too conspicuous to the Undead. The Crusader Executioner indeed began to slow down, as Brand's life signs gradually weakened in its hazy vision. It felt confused; the residual deceitfulness in its instincts made it slow its pace.