Chapter 64: The Attacked Outpost

  "What’s wrong?"

  Hearing the voice from outside, Alex immediately asked. This carriage, of course, didn’t have any advaeology like autopilot; the driver was a young man named Garriso by Crk. Garrison was a sharp kid. Because of his age, he hadn’t beeo the frontlines but was instead responsible fisti the rear, so he hadn’t been injured.

  Due to his quick wits and familiarity with the terrain, Crk had entrusted him with driving the carriage.

  "It’s like this, sir. The outpost... something seems... off..."

  "The outpost?"

  Alex raised an eyebrow at this and then pushed open the door to step out of the carriage, walking over to the driver’s side. Seeing Alex approach, the young man respectfully nodded and pointed ahead.

  "Sir, look over there..."

  Following Garrison’s dire, Alex quickly spotted the outpost not far down the hill. Acc to Crk, this outpost was the safest p the area, manned by fifty soldiers and a padin of the temple. It served as a critical e between Order’s Fortress and the Northern Alliance’s rear, usually bustling and heavily fortified.

  But now, it looked dipidated. The once-solid walls had several breaches, and bck smoke could be seen rising. This wasn’t just "something off"; it was clear that something was seriously wrong.

  "How could this happen? Could the outpost have been breached too?"

  With his Zerg-enhanced body, Alex’s vision was more thaimes that of a normal human, practically like having a built-in telescope. A quice was all he o grasp the situation at the outpost. The young driver, however, cked this ability; to him, the outpost was just a tiny bck dot. If it weren’t for his experieelling him that the smoke was ing from the outpost’s dire, he wouldn’t have suspected anything was wrong.

  But now, as he stared at that distant bck dot, Garrison grew increasingly uneasy.

  "It doesn’t make sense. Even if a pack of bck wolves attacked, the outpost should have had enough strength to hold them off. How could this happen...?"

  "I’ll go check it out."

  Alex interrupted the young man’s monologue, patting him on the shoulder before sing the surroundings.

  "Move the carriage to a safe spot first. I’ll iigate what’s going on there."

  "Yoing alone? Sir, wouldn’t it be...?"

  But befarrison could finish his sentence, he heard a soft "whoosh" by his ear. Wheuro look, he was shocked to find that Alex, who had been standing near him just moments ago, had vanished like a ghost.

  "...That’s seriously spooky."

  Looking at the y spot, Garrison patted his chest. If he hadn’t seen Alex’s eleportation-like abilities oy walls, he might have thought he had entered a legendary forest spirit host...

  Unaware of what was going through Garrison’s mind, Alex had already reached the gate of the outpost, his expression grave as he surveyed the se.

  If he had only suspected before, he was now almost certain that the outpost had fallen. The gates were wide open, with bloodstains all over the walls and ground. Scattered ons and charred corpses littered the area, clear evidence of a fierce battle.

  But what made Alex’s expression so serious wasn’t just that the outpost had been breached. It was the faint smell of sulfur lingering in the ashes on the ground.

  While bck wolves could breathe fire, their fmes were infused with magid left no st. In fact, there was only oype of fire that carried this distinctive sulfuric smell.

  Hellfire.

  In Alex’s memory, there was only one group of people on this ti who used such fire.

  Cultists.

  Specifically, followers of the Church of Doom. Acc to their "holy book," there was a detailed prophecy that the world would ultimately be ed aroyed by fmes. The followers of the Church of Doom were particurly fond of using fire to demonstrate their power and authority.

  Hellfire, with its primal, raging nature that could turhing to ashes, perfectly embodied the cultists' obsession with the fmes of destru. As a result, they learned how to summon this fire from the depths of hell to use in bat. The more skilled the cultist, the more adept they were at wielding this power.

  Why did Alex know this? Simple. Although he had a new body, rad’s memories were still inta his mind. As a cultist, that guy retty petent. Alex evehed a little secret from rad's memories—one could gauge a cultist’s strength by how strong the smell of hellfire was on them.

  Alex also learned from rad’s memories that some crazed high-ranking followers would even iheir bodies entirely with hellfire, usi teiques to bind its power. This allowed these high-ranking cultists to wield extremely powerful hellfire at will, and if they were losing a fight, they could self-destruct...

  The situation at the outpost struck Alex as strange. From the outside, it was clear the outpost had been violently attacked. It had faced a fierce assault right from the start.

  However, the interior of the outpost seemed retively undisturbed. Most of the rooms were intact, with only signs of a search having takehis indicated that after the outpost was breached, it quickly surrendered, and everyone was taken away...

  Hmm?

  Suddenly, Alex’s ear twitched, aurned his head to look at the wall beside him. His eyes began to ge, the deep brown irises shifting to a golden hue, with the pupils narrowing into vertical slits.

  This was another ability Alex had ied from the Zerg genes. With this ability, he could not only see in the dark with ease but also use a form of "infrared dete" to s for living beings. However, these abilities came with a downside—his eyes would iably transform into those of the Zerg when activated.

  This was hard to expin to others, so unless he was alone or in a dire situation, Alex preferred not to reveal his Zerg-derived powers.

  Soon, the world in Alex’s eyes began to shift. A vivid red color enveloped everything before dimming down. He quickly spotted a crimson figure oher side of the wall, poised in a battle stance.

  It was clear that whoever it was had sensed something and reparing to unch a surprise attack.

  A survivor? Or an intruder?

  Alex tightened his grip on his longsword, blinking as he retracted his gaze. Then, he reached out, firmly grasping his sword before sshing it forcefully against the wall!

  The brilliant sword light struck the stone wall like a battering ram, causing it to cave in and shatter. Simultaneously, Alex’s perception of the world began to shift.

  The flying debris suddenly seemed to slow down, turning zily in the air like snails moving across the sky. It reminded Alex of the "bullet time" ses in FPS games he used to py in his previous life.

  In fact, that was his inspiration—time manipution had many uses, and this was oeique he had developed.

  After all, in his past life, the ways to utilize time in games were practically endless!

  With a swift leap, Alex dashed through the brea the wall. He quickly spotted a figure retreating in a panic. Clearly, the person hadn’t anticipated that his oppo would ighe front door and iake down the wall.

  The figure raised a longsword, attempting to terattack. But unfortunately for him, in Alex’s perception, his movements were as slow as a crawling turtle.

  Before the figure could fully raise his sword, Alex’s Skybreaker Sword was already pressed against his neck.

  At that moment, time resumed its normal flow.

  "Crack... crack..."

  The shattered stones scattered across the ground, dust filling the air. The man struggled briefly, but before he could make another move, Alex got a clear look at his face, causing him to pause in surprise.

  "Knight ? Why is it you? What are you doing here?"

  (This chapter ends)

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