The Baleful Shadow tumbled across the ground, rolling several times before it finally managed to steady itself and stop.
The werewolf looked up and saw Nolan in front of it, the girl held in one arm and the Claymore raised in the other.
Three of them. Quite the scene.
Nolan swept his gaze across the area and felt his luck was pretty good. The moment he returned, he was already helping Ranni draw some of the pressure away.
These werewolves looked quite similar to Blaidd, but he did not mistake them for him.
The weapons they carried made their identity obvious.
Baleful Shadows.
They were half-wolf assassins under the Two Fingers.
As for how many Baleful Shadows there really were, or whether they and Blaidd could be considered kin, that was still unclear for now.
But one thing was beyond question. They were Ranni's enemies.
For Nolan, that was all he needed to know.
After that brief exchange just now, Nolan had already realized that these Baleful Shadows were indeed somewhat weaker than Blaidd. Even so, the weapons they used posed an enormous threat even to Demigods.
Nolan fixed his eyes on the crimson-black flames burning along the Claymore. Within them lay the power of death.
Since they had come to deal with Ranni, these blades could at the very least kill a Demigod's soul.
Nolan sized them up, and the Baleful Shadows showed no fear. They were only surprised by the strength of this Carian Knight.
A hero not inferior to a Demigod. They had never encountered anyone like him during their earlier reconnaissance.
The Baleful Shadow soon lost patience. It raised its Claymore with a motion as light as a willow branch stirred by the wind, and a low, threatening voice rang out.
"You Graceless Ones, recalled by the Fingers, why do you follow a rebel and betray the Greater Will?"
"The Greater Will. Can the Fingers really speak for Him?" Nolan met its gaze without the slightest retreat, lifting his Claymore as he shot back.
The moment he asked that question, Nolan clearly felt the figure opposite him go quiet for an instant.
Perhaps the half-wolf assassin had never seriously thought about such a question before.
People took it for granted that the Fingers was the mouthpiece of the Greater Will. It had all but become an unquestioned consensus.
But compared with thinking about why Nolan would say such a thing, they were far more used to obeying orders. They had no interest in digging into the truth.
"Heresy. Kill!"
A dull boom exploded through the air, followed by heavy footsteps crashing down like thunder.
Already prepared, Nolan used Bloodhound's Step and instantly vanished more than ten meters away.
He saw the spot where he had just been standing shattered by a Claymore strike. Three Blackflame blades crossed together, stirring up wave after wave of violent air pressure. A fierce wind howled past, whipping his long hair into the air.
He released Melina, leaving behind only a blurred afterimage as he shot forward.
Using the jagged stones jutting from the ground as footholds, he appeared behind one of the enemies in the blink of an eye and raised the Claymore high overhead.
The Baleful Shadow sensed the danger and turned its head at once, only to see the smoke-wreathed Claymore coming down in a plain, direct slash.
Death!?
The half-wolf assassin did not even have time to be shocked before the Claymore fell and split its body cleanly in two.
The other two assassins did not spend even a moment mourning their fallen companion. With a slight twist of their wrists, their blades shifted angle, and they kicked off the ground and lunged forward at once.
Nolan tapped the ground lightly, his whole body gliding backward with effortless ease. After landing, he took several more steps in quick succession.
Every step was filled with precise control and subtle technique, keeping the distance between himself and his enemies exactly where he wanted it.
The half-wolf assassins chased after him without pause.
They lowered their bodies like starving wolves, all four limbs touching the ground except for the hand gripping the sword, and sprinted forward.
In an instant, the Baleful Shadows seemed to turn into wild beasts and were suddenly right in front of him.
They paid no attention to the chunks of flesh from the companion they had just been hacked apart, nor were they shaken by Nolan's earlier strike.
The instinct to kill had completely swallowed the minds of these beasts, stripping away every other thought and hesitation.
Their Claymores dragged beside them, and the speed of their movement sent up brilliant crimson-black flames.
Nolan narrowed his eyes slightly.
As killers, these things were pure to the extreme. They knew neither pity nor fear.
He had killed one quickly through surprise, but if all three had fought him together, they still would have posed a real threat.
Since they had been sent out to assassinate a Demigod, of course they were not weak.
Relying on his superior physical abilities, Nolan had already seen through the attack trajectories of the two Baleful Shadows before either of them fully committed.
As the blade of the Sword of Death slashed over, the force of the wind stirred Melina's hair. She saw Nolan raise his Claymore and meet blade with blade.
Boom!!
A shockwave burst violently from the center of their clash. The impact hurled broken stones from the ground into the air like a brief rain of gravel.
Then, after that fleeting exchange, the three swords slid past one another with a sharp, ringing clash.
Seeing this, the two Baleful Assassins quickly retreated two steps. They seemed able to sense exactly what the other was thinking.
Almost at the same moment, they both lowered their bodies and sprinted off to opposite sides.
Nolan locked his gaze onto one of the Baleful Shadows, the Claymore in his hand sweeping through the air again and again.
Under his control, the soul magic of Dark Souls was reconstructed in an instant.
Soul power curved like a Glintstone Arc, flashing with a strange light as it turned into wave after wave of razor-sharp sword energy and shot outward.
The Baleful Shadow blocked with Destined Death, yet it was still driven back again and again, stumbling as it struggled to hold its ground.
The other Baleful Shadow had already rushed to Nolan's right. It raised its Claymore overhead, leaped high into the air, and brought it down in a plunging slash.
Nolan glanced at it, then reached toward the half-wolf in midair, his left palm thrusting out from near his right shoulder.
Soul Stream!
Vast blue soul power surged from his palm like a roaring flood and instantly swallowed that beastlike body whole.
By the time the dazzling blue pillar of light finally faded, that Baleful Shadow was simply gone, as though it had never existed at all, leaving only empty space behind.
"There's one more," Melina warned at once.
Nolan had naturally sensed the monster closing in as well. He let out a breath.
The Baleful Shadow that had been forced back just now moved across the ground in a smooth arc, almost as if it were sliding.
In the blink of an eye, the half-wolf assassin was behind Nolan, Claymore raised as it lunged forward in a lightning-fast thrust.
Nolan turned around. Melina saw only a single flash of sword light.
The charging Baleful Shadow jerked to a stop. Its body split smoothly into two halves, then crashed heavily to the ground.
"Let's go. Ranni is waiting for us."
Before Melina could react, Nolan was already in front of her, sweeping her up into his arms.
Torrent answered the call at once. But just as the two of them and the horse neared the Mage Tower, they felt a bone-piercing chill.
A huge figure covered in wounds fell from the sky, kicking up a cloud of dust.
It was a Flying Dragon!