"I'm truly sorry...!" Following behind Duanmu Huai, Alisa looked embarrassed. "I really didn't mean to do that. I was just overly exhausted and then got startled..."
"Mm."
"Ah, no, I don't mean that. I'm not saying Sir Knight that you're ugly, it's just... it's just..."
Alisa struggled with "it's just" for a long time before finally saying in a low voice. "It's just... a bit frightening."
"It's fine, I'm used to it." Duanmu Huai was quite calm. Just as Alisa said, Duanmu Huai himself wasn't particularly ugly, but rather... very frightening.
He had a fierce and menacing appearance, looking exactly like a serial killer from Hollywood movies. To describe it, he had angry eyebrows and glaring eyes, with a leopard-like head and round eyes. He could play Zhang Fei or Li Kui without makeup, looking like someone who might kill you at any moment.
After all these years, Duanmu Huai had long gotten used to it. Tired, giving up, let it all be destroyed. After all, he was the type that even plastic surgeons said could only be made to look like the Hulk. What else could he do?
Just then, Duanmu Huai suddenly saw dust flying ahead. He stopped and looked forward, and soon several heat source signals appeared before his eyes. Hmm? This is...
Seeing the heat source signals before him, Duanmu Huai raised an eyebrow, then stood there and gestured to Alisa. "Hide behind me."
"Ah, yes." Hearing Duanmu Huai's command, Alisa obediently nodded and hid behind him. People in the real world were much more obedient than NPCs. When doing NPC protection missions, those idiots would run straight into enemies like they had no brains, and some would even trigger alarms, forcing a switch to pursuit mode... Those idiots couldn't have been doing it on purpose, could they?
While Duanmu Huai was thinking these idle thoughts, a squad of evil god cultists on horseback burst out from the dust ahead and came before him. Seeing the menacing power armor standing ready for battle, the evil god cultists were greatly shocked. However, when they saw Alisa behind Duanmu Huai, these cavalry immediately changed their approach.
"Kill him, capture the sacrifice!!" The leading evil god cultist suddenly drew his weapon and gave the order. Immediately after, the other evil god cultists also raised their weapons, spurred their horses, and charged toward them!
"Hmph!" Facing the enemies charging at him, Duanmu Huai snorted coldly, then stepped forward, raised his warhammer high, and swung it down forcefully at the front.
"Bang—————!!!" The lightning-flashing warhammer directly struck the head of the charging warhorse, immediately knocking the horse to the ground. The evil god cultist on its back screamed as he was thrown off, and Duanmu Huai finished him with a backhand strike.
"Haah!!!" At this moment, another evil god cultist came galloping from the side, shouting as he swung his sword down, striking Duanmu Huai's armor. However, his attack couldn't even leave a scratch on the power armor before being deflected.
Before the evil god cultist could do anything else, the massive steel warrior suddenly charged at him, instantly sending both the evil god cultist and his horse flying. For Duanmu Huai, these mere evil god cultists posed no threat at all.
Compared to Chaos demons, their attacks were like tickles. Therefore, Duanmu Huai didn't even need to dodge. He just stood in place like a steel fortress, blocking the cavalry's assault and directly knocking them to the ground.
In just the blink of an eye, a squad of evil god cultists was beaten to pieces by Duanmu Huai, almost completely wiped out. What the hell was this thing?
Watching his cavalry being defeated one by one by Duanmu Huai, the leading captain's face turned pale. Although this guy looked troublesome from the outside, he hadn't expected him to be this powerful. Even his subordinates were no match for him, and their attacks couldn't even leave the slightest mark on that sturdy armor!!
Could this thing be the monster summoned by the ritual? But why didn't it obey their commands? And why was he with the sacrifice? He was even protecting her? Had something gone wrong?
I must immediately return and notify the master!!
Thinking this, the captain turned and ran without hesitation. However, just as he turned around, everything went dark before his eyes. When he instinctively looked up at the sky, he happened to see a massive black shadow descending from above, crashing toward him.
"Boom!!!!" The earth trembled, and dust rose everywhere.
When Duanmu Huai emerged from the dust, only the corpses of the squad leader and his horse remained behind him. "I didn't expect these guys to pursue so quickly."
Duanmu Huai dropped the corpse in his hand and looked at the pale-faced Alisa beside him, remaining silent. He wasn't surprised by this development. After all, the Core Module could detect information related to the main storyline and teleport him nearby.
From this, it could be seen that this young girl should have some connection to this planet's main quest, and might even be related to the holy artifact. Well, protagonists... basically all follow the pattern of 'Heaven will bestow great responsibility upon this person, but first must make them suffer family destruction, physical disability, then add broken engagements and clan extermination...'
"We must leave here." Duanmu Huai spoke, while Alisa shook her head. "That's too difficult. The nearest city is nearly ten days' journey away. We could never evade the search of those evil god cultists..."
"That is indeed a problem." Duanmu Huai nodded, then had a thought. "By the way, are there any ruins or ancient sites around here?"
"...Ruins??"
(End of this chapter)