Chapter 6 - Accidents

　　Neither Lucien, nor Gary, nor Correia heard the sounds of fighting, screaming, or running away. 　　The tall, robust, silent, and uncommonly strong high-ranking knight squire Hausen had just disappeared without a sound? 　　A coolness quickly rose from the soles of his feet and spread throughout his body, and Lucien's breathing became slightly ragged. 　　Tightly gripping the Sword of Radiance, Lucien quickly turned his head and looked behind him. 　　On the wall of the sewer on the other side, the green-colored moss flickered with a faint light, but the trackless Hausen made them look very eerie. 　　Suddenly, a scream rang out, and Lucien, who had just turned his head and was mentally tense, subconsciously looked over. 　　A huge human-like rat had already pounced Correia to the ground, its sharp claws pierced into his shoulder, breaking open the hard chainmail armor, blood flowed out, staining the silver-gray armor, its pair of red eyes, demonic inside seemed to contain a few points of mockery. 　　However, its wide-open mouth and rows of intimidating teeth bit down on Correia's long sword, which had been struck across in time. 　　As a high-ranking knight-servant, Correia saved his own life with the most standardized swordsmanship moves at the most dangerous time, while the shield he held in his left hand, swung out viciously, striking towards the abdomen of the huge rat. 　　The fear that had arisen was far less than the unknown, at least for Lucian, a red-eyed rat the size of a normal human, moving silently, was much easier to accept than "mysterious disappearance". 　　Taking a breath, Lucien didn't delay, and held his lightsaber towards the red-eyed rat to rescue Correia. 　　But at that moment, a low, beast-like growl issued from behind Lucien. 　　"Something happened to Gary too?!" As Lucien remembered Gary standing behind him, a sharp knight's longsword viciously chopped into Lucien's back. 　　The pale white light of the Holy Light Shield shook violently and dimmed a lot at once, while the huge impact caused Lucien to stand unsteadily, staggering to the side and taking a few consecutive steps forward. 　　The knight's longsword came after him and continuously chopped out, making Lucien unable to grasp his balance in his haste, making it difficult for him to even wield the Sword of Radiance, not to mention concentrating on rubbing the holy emblem and stimulating divine magic with spells. 　　Lucien dodged in panic, his mind shocked and confused, "Why is Gary attacking me?!" 　　The attack from the knight's longsword, again chopping from behind, if it wasn't Gary, then there was only one possibility, Gary was already dead! 　　The rhythm of the Knight Long Sword's attack was very well grasped, not giving Lucien a chance to stabilize his center of gravity at all, forcing Lucien to stumble towards the chamber. 　　But after Lucien was continuously chopped, he realized that he didn't receive any damage, and the panic in his heart gradually subsided, he had a Holy Light Shield, so why was he looking to regain his balance and fight him physically? 　　Thoughts flashed by, when the knight's long sword chopped again, Lucien obediently fell towards the ground, rolled over, and held the holy emblem with his left hand that had been prepared. 　　At this moment, Lucien finally saw clearly who exactly it was that attacked him. 　　It was indeed Gary, the calm and introverted Gary. 　　However, the muscles on his face had twisted, and his eyes were permeated with red light, as well as naked wildness. 　　"Could it be that the poison contained in that red-eyed rat has not been completely eliminated, and it is still capable of making people lose their reason and turn them into bloodthirsty beasts?" Lucien thought of this aspect as soon as he saw Gary's appearance, "But why am I fine and don't feel anything abnormal?!" 　　Lucien could not afford to ponder over this doubt and strangeness, focusing his mind, he touched the cross on the holy emblem with his left hand, and was about to open his mouth to recite the incantation. 　　The round shield wrapped in iron was swung out fiercely, striking the holy light shield and shaking it. 　　Although the shield strike didn't break the holy light shield, the shaking and impact that was transmitted caused Lucien's chest to choke, his breathing was not smooth, and the half-recited incantation was stuck in his throat. 　　The heavy blows of the shield one after another disrupted Lucien's breathing rhythm so frequently that he could no longer focus his mind. 　　As a squire who was expected to become a true knight, Gary had good, formal training in interrupting spell casting. 　　Of course, no matter if it was a priest, or a magician, or even any other spell caster, when they saw Lucien like this, they would all shake their heads and sigh, only a guy who hadn't even learned the most basic spell casting focus would be interrupted by a knight squire, in the place of any trainee priest or magical apprentice, with the first rank truth holy emblem and the holy light shield that had been energized, Gary would have been dead a long time ago. 　　When facing the same rank, the spell caster would always have the absolute advantage! 　　Lucien was agonizing over his inability to concentrate and inspire divine spells, while over there Correia was already getting more and more dangerous, it seemed that his hands and feet were starting to get weak, his right hand, which was gripping the longsword, was already being pressed so hard that it was pressed against his chest, and there was a faintly inaccessible shaking appearing in his wrist. 　　Fortunately, the humanoid giant rat that was entangled with him also seemed to have lost its strength, and was not as fierce as before. 　　Unable to recite the incantation, Lucien simply chopped the Sword of Radiance held in his right hand upwards, no longer deadlocked on inspiring divine spells. 　　After fighting with the red-eyed rat swarm, Lucien already had a certain understanding of the sharpness of this summoned lightsaber, it was definitely far superior to the knight's longsword held in Gary's hand. 　　Under the heavy blows of Gary's shield, Lucien's sword seemed to be swung haphazardly, unable to maintain stability and aim at Gary's vitals. 　　However, in the face of this sunlight-like longsword, Gary did not act like a beast that had lost its mind, instead, he hurriedly blocked the knight's longsword forward. 　　It seemed that he did not dare to dodge away, once he pulled away from Lucien, facing the First Ring Divine Art, even for a formal, bloodline power-inspired knight, it was very dangerous, and if he was not careful, he would be seriously injured or even die. 　　The Sword of Radiance chopped on top of the knight's longsword, but there was no crisp ringing sound of metal clashing. 　　Without a sound, the knight's long sword broke into two halves like a piece of wood, but at this time, Gary had already retrieved the round shield in front of his body. 　　Deep scratches appeared on the round shield, almost splitting in half. 　　Lucien was about to take advantage of the opportunity to counterattack, but the Sword of Radiance, which had already dimmed a lot, crumbled all at once at this time, and pieces of light flew off in all directions. 　　The Sword of Radiance, which had begun to lose its power from the time it chopped through the wall with the magic trap, had finally exhausted everything and could not be maintained. 　　Lucien froze for a moment, while Gary went to seize this opportunity and swung his round shield out fiercely, striking heavily on the holy light shield that had also become thin and dull, shield fragments flew all over the sky, and the holy light shield shimmered and shook for a moment before disappearing directly. 　　Lucien's biggest dependence on the holy light shield was completely shattered after withstanding the continuous attacks. 　　Not having time to reflect on all the mistakes he made because he was too inexperienced in battle or not calm enough, Lucien rubbed the cross on the holy emblem and desperately focused his mind, reciting the incantation. 　　"S...... cough." 　　The short syllable was only half uttered when Gary's long-prepared punch landed hard on Lucian's abdomen, causing Lucian to curl up like a shrimp and a thick acidic feeling to appear in his throat. 　　Interrupting Lucien's recitation of the incantation, Gary's other hand slowed down and snapped around Lucien's neck, closing in hard. 　　Lucien's right hand wrenched Gary's five fingers with a deadly grip, but as a high-ranking knight squire, Gary, even after such a long battle, with his physical strength and energy severely depleted, still had a very large advantage in strength when facing an ordinary person like Lucien. 　　Breathing became more and more difficult, his neck was in abnormal pain, Lucien's eyes went black for a while, while the left hand that held the holy emblem was fixed in front of his chest by Gary's other hand, which by the way, also firmly pressed Lucien's entire body down. 　　Homura's beastly gasps rang in Lucien's ears, and the cool touch of the gauntlet traveled from his skin to Lucien's brain, causing the increasingly fuzzy consciousness of Lucien to snap out of it for a little while. 　　The soul drifted and produced a marvelous sense of spectatorship, Lucien's desire to survive erupted, and the spirit felt like it had broken through a certain boundary, spreading out like seawater. 　　And at this time, Gary's right hand that was holding Lucien's neck, all of a sudden became much more powerless, just like Correia and the humanoid giant rat over there that were whacking, biting, and hacking each other to the point of exhaustion, allowing Lucien to gain a precious chance to breathe. 　　It was strange to see Gary's sudden powerlessness, and the power disappeared more and more, but Lucien learned a valuable lesson from earlier, and didn't bother to froth and fret, as well as being surprised and puzzled, and the spirit that spread out focused and touched towards the Holy Emblem of Truth. 　　As soon as he touched it, Lucien's spirit shook as if he had entered an ocean of holy light, and peculiar patterns consisting of lines, circles, triangles, squares, and crosses magnified countless times appeared in Lucien's senses, seemingly carrying deep mysteries. 　　Upon a careful feeling, Lucien realized that the cross smelled of Benjamin, an indescribable smell. 　　Lucien curiously touched the cross, and its suddenly went berserk, as if violated, and one of the strange patterns around it fiercely lit up, light coalescing, majestic and terrifying. 　　Startled Lucien hurriedly retracted his spiritual senses, but was still slightly slow, a white pillar of light shot out from the holy emblem and grazed the edge of Lucien's spirit, making Lucien nauseous and regurgitated, his headache as if it was going to crack, and at his nostrils two cool, fishy, rusty-smelling liquids flowed out steeply. 　　The pillar of light shot out, drawing power from the surroundings, getting bigger and bigger, as if Gary sensed a great danger, he panicked and dodged to the side, but at such a close distance, he couldn't dodge even if he reacted fast enough, the pillar of clean white light vaporized his right hand along with part of his shoulder completely, while the wound was scorched black, without half of the blood flowing out. 　　"It's possible to inspire divine magic without using incantations and mojo?" This was the first thought that flashed through Lucien's mind, and then he scrambled to the side and rolled away, fearing that Gary would still have the strength to fight after taking this blow. 　　It was only after this roll that Lucien realized that he had the same, strangely sore and weak arms and legs, with no strength, and then looked over at Gary as he rolled. 　　"This is?!" Lucien uttered in surprise as the scene he saw was completely unexpected. 　　Gary was lying on the ground, his eyes half-open, nearly dying, but the distorted face and the red light from his eyes disappeared. 　　And in the surroundings, the streaks of demonic red blood left behind by those red-eyed rats after they were killed had, at some point, evaporated into a faint red mist that filled the entire secret room and the nearby sewers. 　　Inside the secret room, the strange, humanoid plant was stretching its branches and leaves in the light red blood mist, looking very cozy. 　　The battle on the other side had taken an even more unimaginable turn, and the one who was fighting Correia to the death was not some giant rat, but Hausen, the silent Hausen. 　　Their knight swords plunged into each other.