Arcane Journey

Chapter 253 Iron Princess
"Princess, we can't make it in time..."

Teresa, the female battle mage holding a sharp sword, looked around panting, and muttered to herself, "We can't escape, hell, we're almost at Skull Rock Town... soon..."

Iron Princess remained silent, with her back to everyone, she calmly untied the mithril breastplate, threw it away, and treated the shocking wound.

Under the breastplate was a mass of bandages soaked in sweat and blood, fresh blood glistening in the already solidified and blackened blood.

After the wound was treated, she prevented anyone from supporting her, frowning, stood up from the rock with difficulty, and looked at the road winding up along the lush hill.

As far as she could see, the road was littered with discarded luggage, dead horses, and carts and carts pushed to the side of the road.

Behind her, at the end of the forest, a black column of smoke rose into the sky, and the screams and the louder killing cries drew nearer.

"They're killing the rear guard..."

Battle Mage Teresa wiped the blood and sweat off her face, "Princess, did you hear that? The orcs have caught up with the rear guard and are slaughtering them! We can't reach Skull Rock Town."

"Now we are the rear guard." Iron Princess raised the rune sword in her hand and said in a tired and hoarse voice, "It's our turn..."

Hearing these words, Teresa, who was determined, visibly flinched, and the purple dragon knights standing not far away also sighed heavily.

Iron Princess pulled the rein and turned around together with the steed beside her. Her horse was panting heavily and could barely lift its head.

"There is no way we can escape," she said calmly. "The magic is gone, the stamina is exhausted, and the horses are dying. Before we get to Skull Rock, they will catch up with us and kill us all." .”

"Then throw away everything and hide in the woods." Teresa avoided Princess Steel's eyes, "Princess, I swear in the name of the gods, I will definitely cover your escape. As long as everyone runs for their lives, maybe... Someone... can survive."

The Iron Princess didn't answer the Battle Mage's oath.

She looked at the mountain pass, shook her head, then looked at the road, and the tail of the long queue of refugees on the road. They were heading towards Skull Rock, the only refuge in the Stormhorn Mountains.

War mage Teresa understood the heart of the Iron Princess who had been with her day and night for more than half a year. She cursed angrily, got off her horse, and barely stood still with her long sword.

"dismount!"

She hammered her chest, pointing to her heart, and with a hoarse voice, shouted at the purple dragon knights and battle mages:

"See, it's still beating, as long as it's still there, block the way with everything you can find! What are you looking at? Your mother only gave birth to us once, and you can only die once! We are soldiers ! We are the rear guard! We must block the pursuers and hold them back..."

As he spoke, the Battle Mage fell silent.

"As long as we stop the pursuers, those people can escape to Skull Rock Town and pass through the mountains." Iron Princess helped her finish, "There are women and children among them, why are they so dazed? This is our Responsibility!"

She turned around slowly, and pointed at the purple dragon knights and battle mages one after another with the silvery luster and blood-stained rune sword. Without even the strength, she added softly:
"As the nobles of the kingdom, only you can decide your own responsibilities. Your families have always been the pillars of the kingdom, because your parents and grandfathers knew their responsibilities and fulfilled them, and you also know your responsibilities. When I leave this place, I won't look back to see who sneaked into the woods, who strided with me, I don't need to. Because I know you all did your best, if you get the chance to escape, please wish Cormier's future , there is still bright hope!"

She smiled slightly, inserted the sword into the crook of her arm, put on the mithril breastplate that Teresa handed over again, and buttoned it up, "We have only one task in front of us, and that's all, we must ensure that Cormyr still has a future." .”

The purple dragon knight and the battle mages looked at each other.

For a moment, the Iron Princess thought that this group of purple dragon knights and battle mages, composed of young nobles, would flee, and would urge the sweaty and exhausted horses to make a last desperate gallop, overtaking the ranks of refugees, and rushing towards the mountain pass and peace.

After all, most of them are on the battlefield for the first time, which is indeed too embarrassing for them.

But she was wrong...

"There are no cowards in the kingdom of Cormyr!"

A purple dragon knight with a determined face drew out his sword, raised it high into the sky, and shouted: "The purple dragon knight is the sharpest sword in Cormyr. Soldiers! Tell me, what should we do now?!"

The sharp sword showed its sharp edge, angrily facing the sky, blinking a dazzling cold light in the pale sunlight.

The sun shone on the purple dragon knight and his dilapidated battle armor, as if there was an inspiring magical force pervading the army of more than a hundred people.

"Sweep away the evil!"

"Fight for the future of Cormier!!!"

"Fight for bright hope!!!"

"Fight for the Iron Princess!!!"

His words were like a sign, and the remaining purple dragon knights and battle mages raised their weapons in unison and shouted in unison.

Iron Princess jumped down from the rock and raised her sword, "Then come with me, fear is also a weapon, let us use fear to stab our sword into the enemy's chest!"

She turned around and began to run as fast as usual, when she staggered suddenly and almost fell to the ground.

She stubbornly refused Teresa's extended hand, clenched her trembling teeth, stomped her injured leg heavily, and then limped on.

The purple dragon knights and battle mages all followed behind the steel princess.

They found a suitable location, pushed a truck on the road, and quickly erected a barricade.

A temporary roadblock, not too high, and useless at all.

They didn't wait too long, and two panting and hobbled war horses rushed over, foaming from the corners of their mouths.

Only one horse has a rider on its back.

"be ready……"

The rider fell from the saddle and fell into the arms of a purple dragon knight, "Get ready, damn it...they are right behind..."

His steed snorted, took a few steps to the side, fell heavily on its side, straightened its neck, and let out a last long neigh.

"Princess……"

The ranger rider panted and turned his head. "Give me...give me a weapon. I lost my sword and animal companion..."

The Iron Princess looked at the black smoke rising into the sky, and tilted her head towards the ax leaning against the carriage.

The Ranger Rider picked up his weapon, his steps faltering a bit, his right trouser leg was already soaked with blood.

"Where are the others?" Battle Mage Teresa looked at the Ranger Knight.

"They were all killed." Ranger moaned, not forgetting to show her a smile:
"There is no one left in the entire army... Teresa, those are not ordinary orcs... they are the elite among the orcs... The one who is chasing us is the shadow wolf among the eight generals of the orcs."

Battle Mage Teresa spat, tore off her family's badge from her shoulder armor, and threw it into a bush beside her. The ranger beside her smiled ironically and wiped her badge clean on purpose.

"It doesn't matter if you throw it or not, Teresa, I say..."

His words stopped abruptly, and the enemy was already in sight, spreading over the top of the mountain.

This torrent of orcs was completely haphazardly dressed, ranging from warlock and shaman-style cloth armor to patchwork-cut leather armor and imposing plate armor.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!..."

Without warning, without warning, an angry roar broke the silence.

More than twenty beasts suddenly rushed out of the shadows. They had been carefully hiding behind the rolling hills or among the low bushes before.

In an instant, two battle mages and a purple dragon knight fell, and it was too late to even finish the spell.

The others were also caught in close combat with wild beasts, some of them were torn off their flesh, and some had their throats bitten.

In just a few seconds, more than a dozen people were seriously injured or died.

"Attack!" shouted the Ranger Rider.

Dragging his tired body, he took the lead and rushed towards a huge brown bear with totem marks tattooed all over his body.

This brown bear was biting a purple dragon knight with a tender face who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old.

The ranger rider's tomahawk whistled in the wind, hitting the brown bear's fur-protected throat at a clever angle, and its head was almost severed off.

The cries of pain, rage, and bloodlust continued, and were joined by new sounds—the shriek of arrows piercing the air and the crackling of magic.

The masters behind the beasts, orc rangers and shamans, also joined the fight.

Battle Mage Teresa cursed and jumped over the corpse of a soldier hugged by a dire wolf. The two guys were entangled to the death. He bit the soldier's throat tightly.

Teresa glanced over and found that several purple dragon knights were fighting with a lone enemy.

She found her target.

She raised the brilliant rune sword, moving so fast that people couldn't see her figure clearly, her long black hair was braided into a single braid, dancing like a snake behind her.

In the blink of an eye, five orc corpses were already stepping on her feet, and another orc shaman fell down in front of her, clutching her ribs.

Her icy gaze locked on a grinning gray orc.

And in the next moment, the orc shouted and rushed over.

This orc is very powerful, Teresa has to admit it.

As can be seen from the huge scar on his face, he has been battle-tested.

Seeing that their leader was going to attack in person, all the orc members gathered here scattered in horror, looking for other enemies.

This gave Teresa a chance.

Battle Mage Teresa's speed is still outrageously fast.

Again and again her runeblade broke through the orc's defenses.

The enemy had already been hit by her more than once, if not for the heavy armor that saved him, he would have been killed already.

She had to find a way to hit the gap between the enemy's arm and torso.

The gray-skinned orc swung one handaxe over his head as the other slammed down.

Teresa dodged to the side and was intentionally cut in the thigh. With a muffled grunt, she stumbled back, as if she would fall down at any moment.

"Ha! Cormyr has finally started to promote the soldiers who are useless. It's really gratifying." On the ferocious face of the orc, there was a contemptuous smile, "I can kill you if I can make you bleed!"

Incredible things happened.

Battle Mage Teresa suddenly jumped up, pointed at the orc, and opened her mouth to roar at the same time, making a roar like a wild beast.

The orc leader hurriedly crossed his axes in front of him to protect himself, but what shocked him was that the Battle Mage ignored the wound on his leg and stepped directly on his axe, as light as if he was actively using his hands to fight for him. She puts up a foothold.

In a blink of an eye, the Battle Mage's sword pierced the orc's neck through the gap in his armor, and with a forceful wring of his hands, blood gushed out of the severed artery.

On the other side, a group of orcs divided the Iron Princess into an independent battlefield.

"Little girl, I don't know how you survived until now." One of the orcs, who was the biggest and most heavily armored, seemed to be the leader and grinned coldly: "Today, we will correct this mistake."

They each showed their weapons, battle axes, heavy swords, and cold and dark poisoned daggers.

Iron Princess also laughed, and she showed a cold sneer.

The orcs who approached seemed a little confused by her reaction, but the leader seemed to understand something, and laughed heartily, "So it's the princess of the Kingdom of Cormyr!"

"Cut off her head and offer it to the Great Sage!" said another orc.

Great Sage of the Stormhorn Mountains.

Needless to say, Iron Princess raised her rune sword, arcane energy radiated like a halo, and there was nowhere to hide.

The orcs were all hit hard and staggered back, shocked and terrified.

The orc who seemed to be a rogue was shaken out of his hand with a dagger, and managed to maintain his balance, but the stronger orcs quickly stabilized their footsteps and charged again with their weapons.

Iron Princess smiled coldly, and a light blue halo radiated from her. The orcs were all frozen in ice and locked in place.

Immediately afterwards, she lightly danced the rune sword, summoning a huge fireball to bombard the place where the orcs gathered.

The remnants of mana left by the previous shock of arcane energy made the flames burn even more vigorously. The six orc shamans hadn't finished their preparations yet, they howled and turned into firemen in an instant, and were burned to death in painful convulsions. ash.

The other ten people were a little farther away, and fortunately, the whole body was left behind after facing the Iron Princess.

The frost and fire dissipated, and the surviving orcs continued to move forward, but they had obviously become more cautious.

A cone-shaped ice mist spewed out, and the orcs struggled as if they were stuck in a quagmire.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

Four fireballs were fired, killing four orcs on the spot, and then another arcane blast, Iron Princess casually let the enemies fall one by one.

There are ten left.

Six are dying, and four are still uninjured.

She flicked her sword lightly, and the arcane energy from the Fairy Wilds gushed out from her silvery blade, and no one could stand except her.

Beads of sweat rolled from her forehead, strands of hair sticking to her pale cheeks.

When she lowered her hands, there were no orcs in sight that could move.

To be precise, there is one left.

The orc's chest was still heaving slowly under the torn armor, while his body twitched and trembled unceasingly.

Holding the sword, Iron Princess felt a bone-piercing pleasure welling up in her heart. She stepped slowly, limping, but resolutely across the piles of corpses, and came to the only survivor.

The orc coughed again and again, and dark red blood spewed out from his mouth with fangs.

There were burn marks all over his body, and the molten iron from the armor rolled over his skin until it was embedded in his body.

This must be very painful, she thought coldly.

Then, with a savage cry, the rune blade sank deep between the gap between the orc's neck and shoulder armor.

Blood spurted out, dyeing her hands bright red.

The dying orc wanted to struggle, but she slammed her foot on his head firmly, even if his life was about to end, she wanted him to watch his enemy die.

The battle was short and fierce. After repelling the first wave of attacks, less than half of their hundred-man team survived.

The orcs didn't give them a chance to breathe. The second wave of horses and wolf cavalry rushed over, followed by the third wave, and the fourth wave...

After a while, only Steel Princess was left standing. Most of them were dead. The few survivors were either seriously injured and dying, or completely lost the ability to stand up.

The orcs surrounded her.

"Come on!" She yelled ferociously, shaking her blood-stained hair, "What are you waiting for? Don't try to capture me alive! I am the Iron Princess of the Kingdom of Cormyr!"

Bloodstained from head to toe, the Iron Princess refused Battlemage Theresa's request for her mercy.

She raised her sword, turned around abruptly, the ribbon binding her long brown-red hair slipped, and her messy hair spread out, covering half of her face, like a devil from hell, the arrogant orc troops backed away in fright.

The entire battlefield fell into a dead silence.

"woo woo woo woo!……"

The silence was finally broken by a blast of horns, the sound was enough to freeze blood and make hair stand on end.

"woo woo woo woo!……"

The battle horn sounded again, the distance was already closer, and the rhythm became more passionate.

From the shadows of the forest, hundreds of orcs rushed out.

Their sophisticated equipment is comparable to that of a fully armed purple dragon knight, and they all hold huge weapons that look heavier than armored humans.

A torrent of flesh and blood composed of orcs rolled in under the leadership of an orc leader.

"A bunch of trash, get the hell out of here!"

roared the orc leader, all armored and brandishing a monstrous ax that howled with thirst for blood.

The armor on his shoulders seemed to be made of huge tusks, and between the shoulder plate and the gauntlets, there was a patch of tattooed brown skin.

The orcs surrounding Iron Princess made way for him.

A bang.

The Iron Princess' blade struck the orc leader's ax handle.

The orc pushed her hard, and she staggered back.

Immediately afterwards, the giant ax slashed straight down from above. The Iron Princess raised her sword to parry, but she didn't intend to fight recklessly. Instead, she used her exquisite swordsmanship to lower her center of gravity along with the force, and then moved forward quickly. Skimming close to the leader of the orcs, at the same time picking a thorn in the backhand.

The orc leader snorted, surprised that the human could leave a wound on the inside of his arm.

"This is my first blood in this battle," the orc roared in Common Tongue. "Well done, Human, and you will die with honor."

"But you won't." Iron Princess took a few steps back, brandishing the sharp sword in her hand, and taunted without showing any weakness.

The furious orc leader let out a low growl, and was about to rush over again.

"Put down your sword, little lady." A calm voice interrupted the battle.

An orc banner with a wolf's head on it moved out of the dense forest.

Two elite orc warriors, surrounded by a cloth-robed, slightly short orc shaman with black hair braided and gold and silver jewelry inlaid in many places on his body, slowly appeared.

Riding a snow-white warg, he stepped out from among the cowering orcs. The wolf snorted, shook its head violently, and vigorously scraped up the blood-stained sandy ground.

"Put down your sword, woman."

The orc shaman repeated that he has a pair of wise eyes, bright and energetic, not dull and full of tyrannical colors like other orcs.

In his hand, he held a bone-shaped totem artifact, engraved with patterns of giant wolf spirits, and the end of the bone stick was inlaid with these emerald green leaves.

The Iron Princess let out a horrific laugh and wiped her face with her cuff, sweat, dust and blood mixed together.

"My sword is valuable, and I will not lose it, Orc!" she cried.
"You want to take it away, unless you break my finger! I am the Iron Princess of Cormyr, what are you waiting for?"

"I am satisfied with your glory, Iron Princess of the Kingdom of Cormyr."

The orc shaman leaned over slightly, his demeanor naturally revealed a polite temperament, and the common language of the mainland was also extremely standard.

He raised one hand in a gesture of attack toward his subordinates.

As the orc shaman lowered his arm, a huge fireball fell from the sky.

"Boom!"

The fireball exploded, and the scorching flames raged, causing panic among the orc troops.

A figure also slammed into Princess Steel's icy eyes and blocked her.

He was dusty and dusty, and his short boots were covered with dust and blood. He faced the glare of the sun and blocked the orc and the Iron Princess, leaving only her tall and straight back.

The familiar figure in sight gradually blurred Princess Steel's eyes.

Shards of ice fell from the sky, killing five orcs on the spot, and the rest were seriously injured.

The ground after the scuffle had already been soaked in blood. Every step he took, he would leave a shallow footprint. The depth of each footprint was exactly the same, and the distance between each step was exactly the same.

He danced lightly with his arm holding the staff, and a group of orcs caught off guard were frozen into ice sculptures, and then a fireball fell down, blasting a piece of ice slag.

The orc was like an ant in a hot pot, backing away in a panic.

After appeasing the mount, the orc shaman held up the totem magic weapon and responded coldly.

However, what shocked him was that a mysterious energy seeping from the void suddenly caused him to disappear into the main material world with his mount.

"Roar!"

The orc leader roared, brandished his battle axe, and rushed towards the opponent with an unstoppable momentum.

More than a dozen black tentacles condensed from shadow energy broke through the ground, flexibly wrapping around the two thighs of the orc leader.

The paralyzing effect attached to the highly condensed shadow energy made the burly orc leader freeze in mid-air, giving up any struggle.

With the slight swing of the staff, the two groups of tentacles exerted force in opposite directions, and the leader of the orcs was mercilessly torn in half amidst the heart-piercing wailing.

Blood rained down, and the remaining orc troops were completely scared out of their wits.

The Iron Princess saw him step over the bisected body of the orc leader, maintaining the pattern at a steady pace, killing a dozen orcs with each strike.

A series of destructive magics composed of frost, fire, and lightning poured out from his dancing staff and shot into the crowd of howling and fleeing orcs.

The orc crossbowmen and shamans in the distance tried to fight back. The roaring crossbow arrows and magic were all isolated one meter away, and then they responded with more violent counterattacks.

In the one-sided bombardment, until the last orc was killed, the figure that kept going forward without turning around was suddenly wrapped in the energy of the teleportation circle and disappeared.

In just a moment, with the buzzing sound from the magic circle, the body of the orc shaman fell to the ground, together with his warg, twitched a few times, and fell into a pool of blood that flickered in the dim light, gone live.

Princess Steel's heart was locked tightly, her hands began to lose control, she kept shaking and threw away the long sword she was holding tightly, and stared blankly at the figure who had turned around and walked towards her.

He shook his head and lowered his hood, revealing a familiar face that combined the best of human and elf.

His eyes were as clear as water, and the bottom of his eyes was a bottomless black. His slightly raised lips, with a smile as light as a mist, made her feel very cordial.

"Hesaiah, the Iron Princess of Cormyr."

He stretched out his right hand that had just outlined countless destruction spells, gently stroked her face, and said softly, "According to your request, I have never forgotten you."

With his caring question, Princess Iron and Steel's originally strong heart was instantly broken.

All of a sudden, all the grievances came to her heart, her throat was so choked that she couldn't speak, she just felt her nose sore, and hot tears dripped down from her eyes.

She threw herself into his arms, buried her head in his warm chest, her shoulders trembled, and she let out a low and forbearing whimper, like a helpless child, lonely and helpless.

She tried her best to control the tears in her eyes, but the more she suppressed, the more turbulent the tears became.

…………

(End of this chapter)