Chapter 15 An Unforeseen Rescue

When Hessiana started yelling a string of curses, Hao Ren knew his previous guess was correct: this little bat-spirit hadn't been captured by accident at all, but should have allowed herself to be caught by these humans on purpose, for some reason. No matter what her purpose was, rashly disrupting it wasn't a wise move – because the fact that this troublemaker was here at this moment meant that all her actions were most likely for the sake of Vivian, who was sleeping here.

However, before Hao Ren could stop them, Madame Marie and the witches she led had already taken action. The plague swarm first disturbed the crowd and blocked off the surrounding square, then used the Land of Decay to disperse everyone standing around the pyre, followed by directly attacking the pyre and the guards beside it. Everything was proceeding according to plan. The Leta runes that had been laid in advance in various locations in the small square were now producing the expected effect, further amplifying the chaos. Various pre-set small spells erupted at the same time, and the soldiers around the square wearing simple exorcism amulets were knocked to the ground before they could even resist.

Hao Ren knew at this point that whatever Hessiana's plan was, it was completely ruined, and the witches' rescue plan had to continue. At the very least, he needed a chance to get in touch with Hessiana.

So he slapped Lily on the head: "Let's go!"

Lily ripped off her hood, revealing her wolf ears and sharp teeth. In the surrounding chaos, she unleashed her aura to the fullest and raised her head to let out a long howl: "Awoo – woof!"

The second half of the "woof" was drowned out by the crowd's terrified screams. The square was already a scene of wailing: "A werewolf! There's a werewolf here!" "Demons are here! Demons are here! The witches summoned demons!" "Run for your lives! Run for your lives! The werewolves and witches are attacking!!" "Quick, to the cathedral! To the church!"

Lily casually tossed aside a few passersby who were blocking her way because their legs had gone weak. Taking another step forward, the surrounding crowd scattered in an uproar: ordinary people's fear of werewolves far exceeded their fear of witches, because in the common knowledge of humans at this time, witches still had at least half their humanity, while werewolves were completely savage dark creatures. Many folk legends depicted werewolves as man-eating demons. In remote areas steeped in superstition, these impressions were deeply rooted.

Seeing this situation, Hao Ren could only shake his head: feudal superstition kills people. Have you ever seen such a cute werewolf?

If this were the twenty-first century, how many perverts would proactively lie down and let Lily eat them after seeing a beautiful girl to this extent...

While sighing, he strode onto the execution ground.

The square was already in chaos. The area where the commoners had gathered was shrouded in the plague swarm and the Land of Decay. At this moment, as long as their legs could still move, they were crying and screaming as they fled. The noble platform, however, was in a worse situation because it only had a narrow staircase. The gentlemen and ladies in gorgeous attire had completely lost their composure and were frantically crowding near the exit, screaming like madmen. Some had their wigs torn off, others had their coats ripped, and still others fell directly from the high steps, banging their heads and bleeding along the way. In their desperation, some even jumped from the platform and crawled away from the place.

The only ones who still maintained some semblance of order were the warrior monks and friars: they were specially trained to deal with supernatural forces. Even if they weren't as good as professional exorcists, they still had some courage and skill to confront them.

Several warrior monks held silver-plated longswords in front of the pyre, while two friars held silver crucifixes in one hand and scriptures in the other, summoning all their courage to loudly recite scriptures. In this era when supernatural forces hadn't completely disappeared from public view, humans' rudimentary magical skills could still have some effect. They were surrounded by a faint white barrier, struggling to withstand the first wave of the witches' attack.

However, after all, their will had been worn down by peaceful days, and their bodies had been hollowed out by hedonism. These guys, who had almost no practical experience, could only rely on the exorcism relics passed down from generation to generation to resist for a moment or two. When the witch Barnes put a monster emitting a scorched and foul stench on the field, these guys quickly collapsed completely.

Hao Ren walked to the pyre as if he were strolling in a courtyard. The swords of the guards struck his rigid shield, only causing a few sparks to fly. He knocked down the two seemingly burly guards with a few punches and kicks, and his eyes met with Hessiana, who was tied to the pyre.

Hessiana glared at the uninvited guest in front of her and opened her mouth to curse, but Hao Ren's words stopped everything she wanted to say: "Don't curse yet – I know you were deliberately caught. We messed up your plan, but now things can't be undone. Come with us first – for Vivian's sake."

Hessiana's expression instantly became extremely interesting. She lowered her voice: "How do you know that name? Who are you?"

"It's too chaotic here to explain," Hao Ren reached out and broke the silver-ringed shackles. "Anyway, I'm on your side, little bat."

As soon as Hessiana heard the words "little bat," she was shocked. She looked at Hao Ren as if she had seen a ghost: there were quite a few people in the older generation of Other that knew about her relationship with Vivian, but very few people could say the words "little bat." When the man in front of her mentioned Vivian, she was still suspicious, but now she only felt full of horror and vigilance: could this person be an old senior from the Shadow Sanctuary disguised to take her home?

Hao Ren didn't know what the little bat-spirit was thinking. He simply removed the shackles from her body and dragged her to Madame Marie: "The person has been rescued."

Madame Marie and the other witches were maintaining the plague swarm's blockade of the entire square. Seeing that Hao Ren had succeeded, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "Good, let's rush out now – the cathedral has already reacted. Once the formal orders of the monastic orders and warrior monks arrive, I'm afraid we won't be able to escape."

Dealing with the soldiers and friars in the square earlier had given Hao Ren the illusion that humans at this time had no fighting power against supernatural forces at all, but hearing Madame Marie's tense words, he realized: humans had never relied on personal courage to win against the challenges of supernatural forces. Numbers and tactics were what they were good at.

He wasn't afraid of fighting a bunch of medieval regulars to the death, but making too much trouble wasn't his original purpose in coming to this time, so after hearing Madame Marie's reminder, he immediately nodded and dragged Hessiana towards the exit of the square.

They charged out of the inner city and headed straight for the west gate. As a result, they ran into the city defense army that had already gathered. In a hurry, Lily simply tore down the entire city gate, then swung it around and roared "Starburst Cure-All Slash" at the human soldiers who were hastily forming their ranks.

Hessiana was mumbling all the way, things like "What a bunch of lunatics," "When did I ask you to rescue me," and "The plan I finally arranged." At this time, she seemed to finally notice Lily's existence (mainly because the werewolf girl carrying the city gate was too damn conspicuous), and the expression on her face became even more interesting: "There's even a wild werewolf... It's only been a few years since I've been out, has the outside world changed this much?"

The sight of a werewolf swinging a city gate and howling at them almost instantly paralyzed the human soldiers, but the loud scolding of a commander still managed to steady them. The soldiers in the front row raised their sturdy iron shields, while the soldiers in the back row placed their spears in the grooves at the top of the shields. Among the spears and shields, four iron tubes were also set up.

Matchlock guns.

"Hold! Hold!"

The human officer shouted loudly, waving his command sword. The flesh-and-blood barricade formed by the infantry became even tighter and more solid, just waiting for the werewolf's earth-shattering impact to arrive.

The matchlock guns were the first to fire, letting out deafening roars.

After a few bangs, a few specks of blood spurted out of Lily's body. The werewolf girl bared her teeth in pain, but still roared, "Werewolves are fearless!"

Then she threw the city gate forward and turned to run down a side path: "Only an idiot would fight you head-on!"

Hao Ren and the others also turned and went into another side path: this was Plan B...

The city gate made a piercing screech in the air. After hitting the ground, it stirred up a cloud of smoke and dust. The heavy gate continued to rush forward, dragging a trail of sparks, and had become a terrifying monster that could crush bones. Even the most steadfast soldiers couldn't remain indifferent in the face of this sight. The flesh-and-blood barricade, which had been so solid just a moment ago, immediately wavered and retreated. When the city gate finally stopped dragging its trail of sparks, it was less than half a meter away from the nearest soldier.

Several soldiers in the front row immediately collapsed.

The brave commander hadn't yet realized what had happened. He stared blankly in the direction where the "werewolf" had disappeared, muttering to himself, "Werewolves are fearless?"

There was a "fearless" werewolf, a grenade Ren who was carrying a bunch of explosives and had a rigid shield, plus a group of witches who had suffered almost no losses and a wizard. Such a powerful lineup could completely rampage through a remote city without a professional exorcist to guard it. Although they were subsequently blocked by small groups of patrol soldiers and warrior monks, Hao Ren and his group still managed to rush out of the west gate and successfully rendezvous with the witch Helen, who had been waiting outside the city gate for a long time.

Hao Ren glanced at Hessiana, who was following behind him. Sure enough, the little bat-spirit looked completely despondent...