Elden Ring, building a legion of ashes

Chapter 73 The Hound's Fang

However, Xia Tong remained completely calm.

The radiant stone on the demi-human queen's staff in his hand had already lit up.

This is the moment we've been waiting for!

"Pyroxene Curve!"

Xia Tong suddenly swung her staff horizontally.

A huge pyroxene arc, spreading out in a fan shape, suddenly formed.

The crescent-shaped wave of magic swept out, instantly sealing off all the dodge space directly in front of Daryl.

To hit Xia Tong, he must first run into this magic!

Daryl had no choice but to forcefully twist his body, using the hound's pace to transform into smoke once more, and narrowly glide past the edge of the sapphire curve!

Although he dodged the magic, his attack rhythm was completely disrupted.

"I'm a melee mage!"

Darrell suddenly retreated, revealing an opening.

Xia Tong discarded his staff and switched to a sword, leaping high into the air.

His body twisted and turned in the air, like a raging lion!

Combat Technique - Lion Slash!

"Thump!!!"

The heavy Lion Greatsword, carrying immense force, slammed down on Darylwell's hastily raised hound fangs.

The stone slabs on the ground cracked instantly, and a cloud of dust suddenly rose up!

Darrell was knocked to his knees by the blow, his hand split open.

Just then, Blazer arrived.

"Well done, Xia Tong!"

His voice was deep and cold.

The royal greatsword in his hand was covered in a dazzling ice-blue frost, a secret royal ice combat technique.

The greatsword was thrust vertically downwards, aimed precisely at Darylwell's unsuspecting back.

Goodbye, old friend!

"Pfft!"

The greatsword pierced through the thick armor and flesh, pinning Daryl to the floor of the sealed prison.

The frost spread rapidly, freezing his life.

Darylwell twitched twice, then fell silent.

Looking at his former colleagues who were no longer moving.

Blazer slowly drew the royal greatsword.

He stood there for a long time, looking at the corpse, and then sighed softly.

……

The sealed prison, outside.

Blazer looked at Xia Tong, then tossed the hound, Longtooth, to him.

"This is a pretty good weapon; it might be useful to you."

"Also, this is for you."

Then, Blazer threw over a stone that emitted a faint white light.

That is—the faded forging stone [2].

This is exactly the material needed to enhance the Hound's Tooth, a special weapon.

"You are stronger than I imagined."

Blazer looked at Xia Tong with admiration:

"Not only are their close-combat reflexes outstanding, but they also possess surprisingly good magic skills."

"Nice to meet you, Wolf."

Xia Tong smiled as she put away her spoils.

"Brother Wolf?"

Blazer paused for a moment, then smiled smugly.

This was the first time he had ever heard someone call him so affectionately.

"If you want to further enhance this Hound's Tooth in the future, you can go to the road from Lienia to the city of Kalia."

"There lives a giant craftsman there, whose name is Iggy."

"Mention my name, and he'll give you a discount!"

"Thanks, Brother Wolf!"

Xia Tong's lips immediately curled into a wide grin.

Xia Tong remembered that she could buy a charm called "Kalia Badge" from Iji, which could reduce the mana cost of combat skills, and it was a good item.

"Xia Tong, perhaps we'll have a chance to meet again in the future."

After saying that, the half-wolf Blaze turned and left.

The tall, gray figure quickly disappeared into the shadows of the distant forest.

After a while, a long, faint wolf howl came from afar.

It seemed to be a farewell to Xia Tong.

Watching Wolf Brother walk further and further away, Xia Tong felt a sense of loss for some reason.

Caught between Lani and Two Fingers, Wolf must be in a tough spot.

As the shadow of "Godman", Blaze is essentially a half-wolf beast created by Twofingers specifically for Lany, not a naturally born creature.

It could be said that his mind contained two layers of instructions.

The surface command is unconditional loyalty, vowing to protect Lani to the death.

But the absolute command hidden at the very bottom was when he realized that Lani had betrayed Twofinger, which meant betraying the Supreme Will.

Wolf, acting as the shadow, would be forcibly taken over, driven mad by his two-finger assassin, and tasked with executing Lani.

This is a curse that guarantees death.

"But Wolf, you didn't betray Lani in the end."

Xia Tong certainly remembered it in the original ending of the game.

Even though his sanity had collapsed, even though he was driven mad by the curse, he never attacked Lani once.

He remained at the entrance of Lani's Magic Tower, clearing out the assassins sent by Twofinger.

In the end, in his madness, he only turned his sword on us, the faded ones!

Thinking of this, Xia Tong couldn't help but smile self-deprecatingly.

Xia Tong also waved the long-toothed hunting dog in her hand a few times.

After a long while, he sighed softly.

"The password! Not clever enough!"

Xia Tong was really envious of the Hound's Long Fang's excellent stats and built-in bleeding effect.

"Anyway, self-training and combat can also improve dexterity. At worst, I can just add one or two more points to dexterity. Hound tusks are still very useful."

Once the requirements for using the Hound's Tooth are met, it will perfectly replace the King's Straight Sword.

The lion greatsword on his back perfectly replaced the previous king's army greatsword.

In addition, there's the Demi-human Queen's Staff.

Xia Tong has almost completely upgraded his equipment.

He even learned several new spells from Teacher Seren, such as the Radiant Stone Curve and the Radiant Stone Magic Pebble.

Sigh, the tuition from Professor Seren is not cheap.

Learning these practical offensive spells almost depleted all of his rune savings, even with a discount from his teacher, Seren.

Teacher Se-ryeon is already very good.

Learning profound magical theories from her is free, but learning basic offensive spell models requires spending runes.

Because her magical avatar needs runes to maintain its existence.

"It's time to return to the ruins of Post Station Street."

Xia Tong rode the Torret towards the ruins of the post station street.

It was already broad daylight.

In fact, most of the time was spent traveling, and it only took a short time to actually deal with the hound knight Daryl.

"Just focus on learning magic here with Teacher Seren for the next few days, and maybe take a stroll around the nearby Monroe Caves while you're at it."

"If I remember correctly, that old friend should be there."

"And then there's Ingwell, the Knight of Lost Home, who was also a very powerful veteran in the early game."

"Because Little Red Riding Hood Rodrikica hasn't evolved into a Spirit Trainer yet, my ordinary ashes are almost useless when encountering powerful enemies."

……

three days later.

The river channel north of Lake Yaquil.

Xia Tong rode the Torret slowly forward.

The river was not deep, only just covering Toret's horses' hooves, making a splashing sound.

As I walked, the air around me suddenly became thick.

The once clear river water now appeared eerily blood-red, as if it had been infused with red ink.

Then, a hunched figure slowly crawled out from behind the dark rocks.

He wore a gray-brown thief's mask, and his exposed skin was as pale as a dead man's.

His eyes were surrounded by bulging veins, and his gaze was murky and manic, filled with a thirst for blood.

Xia Tong stared straight at him, and he stared straight at Xia Tong.

He slowly drew a short knife from his waist.

The thing looked like it was made from the sharp limbs of some unknown creature, with cruel serrations and blood grooves.

"The Faded One... has been looking for you for a long time... we are actually the same kind."

"However, I will offer your blood...to the king!"

"To be offered to the king?"

What kind of childish talk is this?

Xia Tong then realized that the king he was referring to was the Blood King—Monger.