The tavern was quiet. Every templar knight had stopped moving and were listening to the words of the commander. Each of their young faces were filled with excitement.
“We will charge!”
“We will die!”
“Hehe.” The commander laughed, stroked his thick beard, and wiped the stains of wine from his proud face.
“My strength was limited. I had been struck by countless swords and fell among the corpses like a dead dog. Haha, when I woke up I found myself at the temple. I found out after that the entire 5th legion died except me.”
“The Fir Knights let no one off. Every corpse was run through with a spear. Luckily, the one who stabbed me used a rapier. The knight’s rapier stabbed me through the eye, blinding me and penetrating my brain.”
1
“The emperor personally saved a dog like me. He asked if I wanted a reward.”
“I begged him to provide me with knights so that I could rebuild the 5th legion!”
“That’s why you kids are here right now, did you know that?”
“Do you know of any other way the Templar Knights could have recruited new knights so easily?”
“You brats have got shit luck. Do you think you youngsters are the greatest because of the recent battle?” The commander shook his head and continued to drink.
2
He spoke briefly but roughly, yet the faces of the young knights in the tavern were all shocked.
3
They excitedly discussed amongst each other.
“What I know is that, in the battle of Jackal valley, the 5th legion with only 1000 knights was enough to destroy 5000 Fir Knights and destroy three of their regiments.”
“The Fir Knights had been cleaning the battlefield when three templar regiments struck as quick as lightning, burying them all in Jackal valley.”
“The Fir Knights were the Southern Noble Alliance’s number one trump card. This battle crippled the backbone of the Southern Noble Alliance!”
“Those are our templar knights all right!”
“No one can surpass us. No one can stop us!”
“Even trapped in dire straits, we will hold our heads high and meet death head on.”
“Charge, charge, charge to meet death!”
The atmosphere of the tavern became lively once more, as the young knights faces became red by wine or their excitement.
The scene of the memory faded but their voices lingered in Zhen Jin’s ears.
Charge!
Charge!
Charge to the death!
Zhen Jin was bound by honor and rushed to fight without a second thought.
4
The monkey bear immediately stirred as it heard movement.
But it was sluggish due to its heavy injuries, by the time it turned its body, it saw the teenager midair!
Zhen Jin sprinted and jumped, his dagger flashing with cold light.
5
The bear was caught off guard as the dagger stabbed its remaining left eye.
In a split second it was blind.
“Roar!”
The bear flew into a rage as pain engulfed its blind eyes, it burst out completely, revealing its vicious and fierce nature.
The bear swung its arms fiercely and Zhen Jin was unable to dodge its attack.
He could only curl up his body and block with his arms to protect his face and chest.
Thump.
With a muffled sound, the youngster was flung away from the bear twice as fast as he had approached it.
He stiffly smashed into the cave wall, his arms broken from blocking the attack of the monkey bear. And because of how hard he hit the cave wall, his shoulder blade and back ribs suffered many fractures.
The impact also caused internal bleeding and organ damage.
Zhen Jin cried out and coughed out a mouthful of blood.
6
Sharp pain spread throughout his whole body as the teenager’s complexion turned deathly pale.
Even in such circumstances, he still felt power from the depths of his body.
This was the effect of the berserker potion!
As he coughed out blood again, Zhen Jin used his legs to push himself out of the crater in the wall.
“Kill!”
He snorted quietly and charged toward the bear once more.
In a flash a fierce wind whistled past his ears. He felt that he had broken through the limits of pain because as the pain increased, so did his excitement.
His arms were completely numb and seemed like thick noodles flying behind, as the teenager madly dashed forward.
The bear’s attack was no small matter, it had shattered the bones in the teenager’s arms, minced his flesh, and his body was barely holding together.
The bear went mad as it thrashed around the cave wildly,causing the ores to splatter about.
The small scattered ores hit Zhen Jin’s body, his complexion became dark.
He suddenly lowered his body, dodging the monkey bear’s claws, and charged as fast as he could!
He stepped on the cave wall and suddenly leaped into the air once more.
The bear did not sense it as it was already blind and filled with rage.
Zhen Jin timed his fall and used his right foot to stomp on the dagger in the bear’s eye.
Poof.
Blood and brains splattered out as the dagger pierced the bear’s brain, the only part of the dagger that remained outside the eye socket was it’s hilt.
Howl-!
The bear wailed in pain, the most pained wail it had ever let out in it’s entire life.
Using its beastly instinct and intuition, it grabbed Zhen Jin.
Its sharp claws heating up and turning red once more.
The sharp claws skewered Zhen Jin’s waist, impaling the youngster to the ground. The claws were strong enough to penetrate the hard rock of the cave wall.
The claws began to slice through Zhen Jin like a hot knife through butter.
Zhen Jin roared in pain as his intestines and flesh burned. At this moment, he completely felt the pain of the black leopards.
“My lord-! “ As the bitter fight played out before her eyes, Zi Di could not help but cry out in sorrow.
The cry reached Zhen Jin’s ears allowing him to regain a trace of clarity amidst the sharp searing pain!
The claws had practically anchored his stomach to the ground.
At this moment, the monkey bear began to lean over, its bloody mouth right in front of Zhen Jin’s face!
7
At this critical moment, the teenager used all of his strength to twist his body to the limits.
The bear was blind, Zhen Jin smoothly evaded its attack.
With a thump, the bear’s head hit the ground, its teeth bit the dirt, spraying small stones and gravel about.
Since Zhen Jin’s arms were long broken, under this desperate situation the youngster’s only option was to bite the bear’s neck!
The bear’s neck had a terrible wound.
This was the heavy price paid not long before in the monkey bear’s fight against the lead scaled leopard.
There was no fur and the bone could be seen in the wound.
Zhen Jin leaned in and after a few bites he tore off a mouthful of flesh from the bear.
Although the wound had been bleeding, the bear ate ores to stop the blood. However, it now suffered the bites of Zhen Jin, which cut the arteries inside causing fresh blood to violently gush out, the blood flowing out even faster than before.
In a split second, blood was all over Zhen Jin’s face.
Zhen Jin closed his eyes as the blood flowed like a small waterfall, filling the air with a putrid hot fishy smell and having a hint of sweetness in its taste.
Zhen Jin was still desperately fighting as he constantly tore at the bear’s flesh.
As a result, large amounts of blood flowed into his throat, nearly choking the teenager.
But what was the point of breathing right now?!
The fight between the two parties had reached its most crucial moments.
Who will win and who will lose. Who will live and who will die?
Zhen Jin began to choke as his lungs filled with the monkey bear’s blood.
The bear mournfully roared in panic!
It couldn’t see the teenager, but it could still feel Zhen Jin‘s weak body. Zhen Jin was unexpectedly more vicious than any beast it had seen in its entire life!
Zi Di stared blankly as she watched man and beast tear at each other, her eyes despondent, her body shocked in place like a statue in awe.
The bear tried to pull out its claws and tear the youngster to pieces, but failed every time.
It knew it was at the limits of its power. After suffering wounds at the hand of the teenager, its strength quickly waned like an avalanche, it did not even have enough strength to pull out its claws.
8
Bang.
Finally, the bear fell to the ground motionless.
Its body was several times bigger than Zhen Jin, yet ultimately it was the loser.
Zhen Jin also fell to the ground and began to cough violently, vomiting chunks of flesh and blood repeatedly.
After spitting up flesh, the teenager could finally breathe.
His chest moved up and down as he gasped for breath like a drowning man who reached ashore.
9
After taking a breath several times, he began to cough out blood again.
He didn’t know if it was the bear’s blood or his own.
The teenager’s head began to feel dizzy.
He wanted to get up but failed.
The bear claws still pinned his bleeding waist to the ground. During the fight, the wound had been violently pulled apart, completely tearing it.
The claws burned his innards black as they oozed from the wound.
The teenager hit the ground with a plop.
“Hehehe…” He weakly laughed, looking at the bear’s corpse.
The laughter resembled the 5th legion commander’s.
Soon after, Zhen Jin's eyes gradually became lifeless and his laughter faded.
After a few breaths, his eyes lost their luster.
The berserker potion had worn off.
The youngster lost consciousness.
For a moment, whether it was human or bear all was still.
Notes
“So you survived that?”
“Hahaha, absolutely not!”
-excerpt from a bookworm, sun-cat, and a ½ green boi (from where? Tell me)
If you have read RI (book 1) you are probably aware of the infamous bear scene. Well fear not readers for this time it is the bear that is eaten! I mean sure it only cost Zhen Jin his guts and arms, but... still a win is a win.
Deus’ Notes
I have no clue how he survived that fight. The author went on to get the injuries so severe that he was unlikely to survive. A bit overkill imo. More importantly, why did the girl do literally nothing? Didn't she have a dagger as well? Couldn't have author allowed Zi Di to sneak up behind the monkey bear and help zhen jin kill it? Bad move imo, it makes her look completely useless other than in moments where her info dumps and magic are helpful. Another thing I could criticise is the random switching of flashbacks and actions. Hopefully he improves this bullshit. xD
(补刀: spear/knife) Technically it translates to bayonet or knife. However bayonets are basically knives on guns which turns them into spears so yea. (狗屎运: dumb luck really doesn’t fit) (不过还太年轻，刚刚那一场仗，算得了什么: i hate this sentence) (face are excited is literal translation) (义无反顾: idiom meaning honor does not allow one to glance back/duty-bound not to turn back
/
no surrender
/
to pursue justice with no second thoughts ) (cold light. Meaning ready to kill) This is the first appearance of “coughing blood” in this book, a classic chinese description to denote pain and battle. (血盆大口: bloody mouth wide open like a sacrificial bowl (idiom), ferocious mouth of beast of prey) ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i hate this sentence so much (wonderfully done, if i say so myself) This idiom is the author’s Mt Tai, I shit you not.