Chapter 530: 468 Reiger’s Plan
"Swoosh!"
Above the endless grasslands, a small sun had suddenly appeared without any warning, intruding into this pleasant scenery and shattering its tranquility.
"Whoo—"
With a gentle yet forceful exhale, the flames that formed the sun gradually faded, revealing a swordsman in their midst.
"Click..."
The swordsman first re-sheathed his black blade, then gently set down the girl in his arms, who had yet to recover from the shock.
"We should be safe here, right?" Reiger’s extraordinary aura disappeared as if he had returned from the extraordinary back to the mundane, saying, "Even the Tusk Clan, without knowing our location, wouldn’t be able to find us here immediately."
Saying so, Reiger looked towards Altoria whom he had just put down and asked.
"So, are you okay?"
This question, however, did not immediately elicit an answer.
All the while, Altoria was still staring blankly at Reiger, taking a long time to come to her senses.
"What’s wrong?" Reiger furrowed his brows, raised his hand, and waved it in front of Altoria, saying, "You’re not scared silly, are you?"
"...You’re the one scared silly." Finally, Altoria regained her senses and looked at Reiger with complex eyes, adding, "So we’ve escaped now?"
"More or less." Reiger always felt Altoria’s attitude was a bit strange but since he could not figure out why, he only said, "Although I wanted to test that pup’s capabilities further, given how things have turned out, retreating for now isn’t unacceptable."
Upon hearing this, Altoria’s look towards Reiger grew even more complex.
"It’s my fault." The fairy girl said somewhat despondently, "If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have forsaken an advantageous situation to choose retreat."
In the recent battle, Reiger had clearly had the upper hand; continuing the fight might have indeed brought victory.
Defeating the chief of the Tusk Clan, the strongest warrior hailed as Hero by the fairies of Fairy Country, would have been a remarkable achievement and honor.
Yet because of herself, Reiger had to give up the fight and choose to retreat, a fact that really discouraged Altoria.
However, Reiger did not see it that way.
"I was the one who brought you into that battlefield. If not for me, you wouldn’t have faced such danger. As such, it is only right for me to take responsibility for your safety," Reiger said very calmly, neither arrogantly nor rashly, "Besides, do you really think if the fight continued, I would have won?"
At these words, Altoria grew puzzled.
"Isn’t that the case?"
Altoria was sure she had not misseen; during that battle, Reiger had indeed had the upper hand.
If he could just keep suppressing Woodworth like that, once Woodworth could no longer defend, Reiger would potentially seize the victory and defeat the chief of the Tusk Clan.
Thinking in such a naive way was Altoria’s mistake.
"Though I managed to momentarily suppress that pup using the twelve continuous sword forms of ’Daytime Breath’, even with persisting in that way, I would not have secured the ultimate victory," Reiger shook his head, revealing this to Altoria.
"No matter how many times I chopped or slashed him, his defensive layer remained completely intact and unshaken."
"That means, from start to finish, I didn’t even injure him, not to mention breaking through his defenses."
"His kind of defense isn’t a technique but rather some kind of mysterious power that’s always present. Unless I find a way around it, at most, I can only draw with that pup, but winning is definitely out of the question."
Otherwise, Reiger wouldn’t have chosen to retreat.
Though he enjoyed intense and thrilling scenarios, continuously failing to break through his opponent’s shell was getting a bit tiresome. Moreover, considering Altoria was really not in a state to continue staying there at the time, Reiger simply took her and withdrew together.
He had pretty much confirmed it.
"To defeat that pup, I need to figure out how to break through his protective layer first," Reiger said, "Otherwise, even if I encounter him again, the outcome will still be indecisive."
Altoria nodded somewhat understandingly.
"That might be some major fairy species protection," Altoria said to Reiger, "Fairies are naturally mysterious creatures, sometimes they grant others their blessing so that they may obtain particular abilities."
Reiger nodded.
Fairy blessings were not something rare; at least, that was the case in this world.
For instance, take the legendary King Arthur of Britain, the undefeated Knight King who boasted the Lake Fairy’s blessing, which enabled him to walk on water with ease.
Altoria too had a special blessing from being a Paradise Fairy, which was a protective power capable of blessing life, safeguarding individuals from various impurities.
Just now, this silly fairy girl had been unaffected by Reiger’s time Magic, probably due to this kind of blessing.
It was normal for Devo, belonging to the Tusk Clan, to have some kind of major fairy-like power protection wrapped around him.
"In the original story, didn’t that protective layer even withstand the full force of the Holy Spear?"