Chapter 886: The Escape of the Ice Ship
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Dragging their fatigued bodies, the lucky soldiers of the Black Nightmare Army quickly left the area.
They could still remember the first command, to conceal their identities and hurry towards Worchester. Even though such an expected, huge turn of events had occurred, they did not seem to have any other solution at the moment, other than to continue with the original plan.
The area surrounding Pearl Lake was empty, and there did not seem to be anyone around. There was not the least bit of trouble for them as they withdrew.
This was rather surprising to them.
"If it was really the Church that had blown up our tunnel, there should be people inspecting this region, right? There are many footprints on the ground, how is it... Where have all the members of the Church gone?"
No one could answer this question, and they did not have time to think much. Since the enemy had given them a chance to live, of course they were going to grab this opportunity and escape quickly, before disguising themselves as fleeing commoners, separating and surging towards Worchester.
As for where the members of the Church had gone...
A dozen or so miles north of Pearl Lake, under the clear afternoon sky, an ice ship hastily flew by.
"They can really fly."
Benjamin stood at the stern, glancing behind him as he spoke under his breath.
"Weren’t you hoping that they would give chase? You’ve even slowed down on purpose," the System emerged, speaking lazily, "if they don’t chase you, then how are the people buried underground supposed to escape?"
Benjamin held the ice railings and took a deep breath, saying nothing.
He only hoped that there would be enough people who had survived.
When he had hurried over to Pearl Lake, the tragic scene had almost cost him his sanity. However, it was still alright... The System had suddenly detected activity and life underground, and had told him. It was then that Benjamin had remembered, they had already prepared an escape tunnel beforehand.
If there were still people in the secret tunnel, then that meant that the Black Nightmare Army had not been destroyed!
This conclusion had caused Benjamin to heave a great sigh of relief, but at the same time, he had begun worrying about the problem of withdrawing. Without a doubt, the Church would have planned for Holy Knights to surround Pearl Lake with Holy Knights after the attack. It would have been too difficult for the survivors of the Black Nightmare Army to move.
Someone had to turn the attention of the Church for the lucky survivors to escape from the secret tunnel, and this person... Who, other than him, would be able to do it?
It was only because of that, that he had steered the ship in a very flashy manner to appear in front of Grant, before forcing a delay of time, attracting everyone’s attention to him, and finally turning to run. It was only then that a sliver of space could be opened for the Black Nightmare Army to move.
"How long are you going to run for?"
As Benjamin mulled, Grant’s voice suddenly rang out from behind the ice ship, not far away.
Following that voice were numerous light silks that flew at him quickly.
"Delay him for me," Benjamin was not startled; using his spiritual connection, he immediately summoned the water elemental sprite. The moment the sprite appeared, with its entire body glistening with blue light, it instantly blocked those few beams of limited light silks.
As for itself, it flew towards grant with a swoosh.
During the chase, Grant had flown the fastest, and had caught up with the ice ship quite a few times. However, Benjamin did not have the intention to fight him at all, and had immediately tossed the water elemental sprite over, forcing Grant on the offensive through a flurry of crazy attacks.
At approximately two minutes later, the water elemental sprite would be defeated by the collective attacks of Grant and the other bishops, so it would escape with a whoosh. As for the team of Church members who had been giving chase, they would have been delayed by that for quite some time, and needed to exert effort to be able to catch up again.
It was through this method that Benjamin had been able to drag the members of the Church behind him without being caught.
"Have you... thought of what to do?"
Morris pushed his wheelchair out, coming out from the cabin along with all the soldiers and mages, looking at the black sea of pursuing soldiers behind the ship in a rather nervous manner.
From the moment the tunnel had been blown up, to when Benjamin had begun luring the enemy away, he had stayed on the ship with the others. Benjamin did not have time to put them down; they could only watch everything happen from the sides, unable to do anything.
"What else can we do? Shake them off, their numbers are too big, it’s impossible to fight them head on," Benjamin’s tone of voice was still rather calm, causing Morris and the others to feel much reassured.
As he spoke, the water elemental sprite had completed its mission once again, flying back in its escape quickly and slipping immediately into his space of consciousness to rest. After a few minutes of preparation, it would once again go off to delay Grant’s pursuit.
"But... how are we going to shake them off?" Suddenly, the soldier tasked to take care of the Princess seemed to think of something, and became uneasy once again, "They had done something to the Princess. No matter how we run, they would know our location, right?"
The moment his words came out, everyone’s eyes swiftly fell upon the unconscious Princess in the soldier’s arms.
"Kill her! Avenge our fallen brothers!"
A few soldiers who had already been agitated yelled out quickly.
Morris hurriedly advised them, "That is inappropriate, you cannot do things so impulsively..."
"What use is there to keep her around? It was because of her that the location of the tunnel was compromised. If we continue to keep her with us now, we might never be able to shake off the members of the Church!"
"Right! Kill her!"
"What Princess, she’s only the Church’s puppet, we cannot keep her!"
The incident of the tunnels being blown up had already affected these soldiers greatly, now all the more so, because the cause of it was right in front of them. They could not help but become somewhat riled up due to the atmospheres of both incidents aggravating each other.
Someone even ran towards the soldier who was taking care of the Princess and stretched his hand out, wanting to end the Princess’ life with his bare hands.
"Enough! Everyone, stop it!"
Benjamin immediately spoke aloud, stopping everyone.
The soldiers were startled, and took a few steps back. The chaos instantly calmed down.
"Even with her alive, I can still shake the members of the Church off. You don’t have to worry about this," Benjamin took a deep breath, surveying the people around him as he spoke slowly, "I know you are all very angry now, but killing her will not solve anything. To vent your anger on a person who is unable to defend herself is an expression of incapability, and she is not the person we should be angry at."
Saying thus, he turned around, pointing at the black sea of pursuing soldiers behind the ice ship.
"Do you see? They are the culprits who have caused everything," Benjamin pointed at the group of Church members, and faced the soldiers, stating in a steadfast manner, "This is not yet the time for you to make noise. I hope you will put this anger away and use it where you should!"
"And that, is what a qualified fighter would be able to do."
All of the soldiers quietened down.
They looked at the pursuing soldiers of the Church, and gave the sleeping Princess a few more glances. Finally, after a long silence, they nodding at Benjamin. Benjamin nodded back at them. Thus, without saying anything, they turned around and trudged back into the cabin with heavy footsteps.
Morris looked at their backs, and gave a long sigh.
After that, he turned to look at Benjamin, "I’m very thankful that you have not lost your wits due to this huge loss."
"I’ve come from a place where I had nothing. This small blow is nothing," Benjamin took a deep breath, shaking his head and saying, "Anyway, the loss is not as bad as it seems, we still have a chance."
Morris was rather surprised. "Are you saying... that you still plan to follow the original plan?"
Benjamin nodded.
"Or perhaps we should reconsider," Morris advised, "No matter how many people can escape from the secret tunnel, the army machinery, materials, rations in the warehouses... I’m afraid they would not have made it. Without that, it would definitely be very difficult for us to defend Worchester. Perhaps we should hide back in the shadows once more and continue to use the accumulated force of guerilla attacks, and wait for an opportunity."
"There is nowhere else to hide," Benjamin’s expression did not change. "The Mountains of Magic beasts, the underground tunnels... Where else in the Kingdom of Helius would the Church be incapable of searching? There is no use in hiding again. What we have before us is the limits of our guerilla attacks. We have come to a time where we should be fighting head on now."
"But, would we be able to fight?"
Benjamin looked again at the pursuing soldiers, who had once again closed in, and looked again at Grant’s increasingly large figure, nodding.
"...Don’t worry, we still have a trump card."