75: Chapter 75 An Unexpected Encounter

Richard patted Morpheus on the shoulder and said,

"So the further in we go, the greater the harvest, but also the greater the risk. Every one of us must remain cautious."

He stood up, placed the horned helmet on his head, hung the dwarven roaring battleaxe on his left hip, and shouldered the halberd on his right.

Richard glanced at his teammates. Cecilia had already put on her helmet and veil, her kite shield propped up in front of her, and the others were also fully prepared.

"Move out!"

A curved circular boulevard separated the entrance of the third ring from the second ring.

The black patterns on the white stone slabs were no longer like fine capillaries here, but black veins as thick as arms.

Radiating outward from the center of the city, stepping on them, one could sometimes feel an extremely faint vibration, as if something was slowly flowing deep beneath the stone slabs.

In the morning light, the buildings of the Ring of Arcane Research revealed even more bizarre details than when viewed from afar yesterday.

Those twisted curves and sharp angles were not random designs, but some deliberately constructed geometric magic circle.

Unexpectedly, before long, an explosive rumbling sound came from ahead.

Richard and the others realized that someone was clearly fighting!

The muffled sound of exploding flames, the shriek of clashing metal, the low growl of some beast, and the sounds of fighting interspersed within.

Richard raised his left fist in a stop gesture, and the team immediately dispersed, moving forward quickly along the shadows of the ruined buildings.

Black Cat slipped into the half-collapsed doorframe of an abandoned laboratory.

A few seconds later, she poked her head out of a broken window on the second floor, making a series of rapid gestures in sign language.

Ahead, high ground, take cover, multiple people fighting.

Richard led the others up a broken stone staircase on the side of the laboratory to the second floor. Everyone lowered their bodies and looked down from the ruined window.

Below was a relatively open plaza, and in the exact center of the plaza stood that windowless black tower.

The tower's body was completely encased in pitch-black metal, its surface as smooth as polished obsidian.

The entire tower did not reflect any light in the morning sun; instead, it absorbed all the surrounding light like a sponge, making the air around the tower look darker than elsewhere.

Directly in front of the tower's base was a massive black door embedded in the metal wall, without any handles, keyholes, or hinges, with only an extremely thin outline marking the door's boundary.

At this moment, the door was still intact; no one had entered yet.

On the plaza, the Silver Leaf Sentinels and Gray's temporary team were locked in a fierce battle with another group.

This group of people were all heavily built, wearing typical dark pirate attire.

Some wore leather vests studded with rivets, while others were shirtless, revealing full-back tattoos.

The ones rushing at the very front brandished cutlasses and hatchets. Their blade work was crude but heavy, with every strike aiming for vital spots—not some refined school of swordsmanship, but rich in practical combat experience.

Holding the line behind them was a tall, bald, tattooed man dual-wielding cutlasses.

On his bald head was tattooed a red lobster claw extending from the back of his head to his forehead, and on each of his wrists were several loops of bracelets strung with shark teeth.

Standing beside him was an Ogre taller than an adult, with grayish-green skin and a mouth full of jagged fangs, holding a giant flail made of a boulder bound with an anchor chain.

At the Ogre's feet crouched five or six giant hyenas.

These were no ordinary hyenas, but giant hyenas modified by some kind of alchemy or magic. They were close to the size of a small horse, with thick saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths and two burning magical flames in their eye sockets.

Black Cat withdrew her gaze from the edge of the windowsill and lowered her voice to say, "People from the Pirate Council."

"Men of the Gluttony Pirate King, Kimmeron?" Richard asked.

"Should be. I remember those demonized hyenas are one of their signatures."

Black Cat tapped her finger twice on the trigger guard of her hand crossbow, her brow furrowed.

"This crowd doesn't follow rules and is ruthless. That bald guy is probably a captain-level figure under the Gluttony King."

On the plaza below, the bald pirate deflected an incoming arrow with one blade and pointed the other toward the half-elf Selan, roaring:

"You courting-death fools! I already said our boss, the Gluttony King, has claimed this entire tower!"

"It's still not too late for you to beat it... Once my boss comes out of the inner ring, none of you will leave alive!"

As he spoke, the Ogre cooperated by letting out a low growl, and the giant hyenas began to trot anxiously around the battle lines of both sides, leaving a ring of smoking paw prints.

Selan's expression was cold, and he did not take a single step back. This was his confidence as a Silver-grade Adventurer.

He stood side-by-side with Vera at the very front of the Silver Leaf Sentinels' line, their two longswords already unsheathed, with a faint sword light flowing over the blades.

His voice was not loud, but it was highly penetrating, each word crystal clear:

"Heh, this island is not the private domain of the Pirate Council, nor is it your territory."

"Anyone can come, anyone can enter. Either step aside, or... we will step over your corpses."

Before his voice had fully faded, he made an extremely subtle gesture with his left hand. The five Archers of the Silver Leaf Sentinels simultaneously drew their bowstrings to the maximum, five arrowheads aligning perfectly at the bald pirate's chest.

The Treant of the Warlock Evelyn rose from the cracks in the floor tiles, swinging its thick branch-arms to smash toward the Ogre.

The Ogre swung his flail to meet it. The boulder smashed into the Treant's branches, exploding into a shower of wood chips and Mars, and the Treant took half a step back but immediately pressed forward again.

A rain of arrows from the half-elf Archers followed closely, covering the entire pirate line.

Three or four pirates and several giant hyenas were struck by the arrows.

The giant hyenas let out shrill howling, and instead of normal red blood, a dark green viscous liquid seeped from their wounds.

The bald pirate personally led several cutlass-wielders to rush toward Selan.

The cutlasses drew two intersecting arcs in the air, but Selan and Vera's sword dance had already begun.

The siblings' longswords wove an impenetrable silver net of swords in front of the bald pirate's dual-blade offensive.

The clashing of cutlasses and longswords was as dense as heavy rain beating on a roof, with sparks exploding continuously between the two sides.

The bald pirate's strength was clearly superior; every slash of his dual blades forced Selan back half a step, but the coordination between Selan and Vera was too seamless.

When the brother parried, the sister would thrust; when the sister blocked, the brother would slash.

The bald pirate gained no advantage within a dozen moves; instead, a tricky upward slash from Vera sliced open the leather armor on his left forearm, dark red blood dripping onto the ground from his wrist.

Taking this opportunity, Durin, the dwarf from Gray's team, charged into the hyena pack swinging his Warhammer, smashing down a giant hyena that was lunging at the Halfling scholar, its dog head completely caved in.

He then smashed twice more, sending a hyena that was trying to flank them rolling away in a wail.