"Pfft—"
"Quick, move! I can't control myself!"
Kamisato Ayato flew backward. In his line of sight, a massive figure clad in crimson armor was rapidly charging towards him.
The figure swung its arm downwards, and the crimson greatsword in its hand, wider than Kamisato Ayato's thigh, slashed straight at him.
As the greatsword approached, Kamisato Ayato felt goosebumps erupt all over his body. His intuition told him it would be best not to be struck by this greatsword.
"Soukai Kanka!"
Water elements rapidly gathered around Kamisato Ayato's entire body, causing him to glow with a light blue radiance.
Then, light burst forth, and after leaving a light blue afterimage in his original spot, Kamisato Ayato instantly teleported a distance forward.
"Bang!"
Ordovis's greatsword slashed into the water afterimage, shattering it completely without any pause.
The blade of the greatsword was stained with some water, the only trace of the afterimage's existence. After splitting the afterimage, the greatsword heavily struck the ground.
"Boom!"
A deafening roar echoed, and the ground began to tremble. Cracks spread from beside Ordovis far into the distance, and the entire ground looked as if it had just experienced a violent earthquake, left in shattered pieces.
"Cough... cough, cough!"
The rising dust momentarily disoriented Kamisato Ayato. He brushed away the sand in front of him with one hand while carefully retreating.
However, the shattered ground made his retreat somewhat unsteady, which couldn't help but make Kamisato Ayato secretly alarmed by the immense power of that previous strike.
If he hadn't dodged in time, he would have been bedridden for at least half a year, even if he didn't die from that blow.
"Whoosh—"
Just as Kamisato Ayato was looking around warily, a strong gust of wind came from somewhere in the smoke.
"Clatter!"
The strong wind blew, making the shattered sand and stones on the ground clatter, and also dispersing the dust that filled the air.
Lowering his arm that had been shielding him from the dust, a massive figure appeared in Kamisato Ayato's line of sight.
The figure wore a helmet with twin axe blades and full crimson steel armor. In one hand, he held an oval, horned shield larger than a doorway, and in the other, a greatsword nearly as long as a person's height.
Undoubtedly, this was the fellow who had just "ambushed" Kamisato Ayato.
But these peculiar outfits weren't what caught Kamisato Ayato's attention the most. What truly made him unable to look away was the gradually contracting, massive gular sac beneath the crimson knight's chin.
Although the gular sac was already contracting, it still bulged down to the knight's chest, like a frog's chin growing on a human.
Ordovis turned his head, his gular sac contracting and causing gusts of wind. In a short while, all the stirred-up sand and dust were blown away, leaving only the ravaged ground.
"Ha... haha, sorry, if I told you I didn't mean it just now, and simply couldn't control myself, would you believe me?"
Feeling Kamisato Ayato's gaze, Ordovis plunged his greatsword into a crack in the ground and scratched his head, a bit awkwardly.
Hearing this, Kamisato Ayato turned to look at the huge crater in front of Ordovis, which had instantly made the formerly flat ground uneven.
"Gulp!"
Unconsciously swallowing, Kamisato Ayato nodded and said, "I believe you didn't mean it!"
If this guy had meant it, he should have pursued him directly just now, instead of just standing here in the wind.
"Haha, I like people like you, Ordovis."
"Kamisato Ayato."
Kamisato Ayato's hand was completely gripped by Ordovis's iron gauntlet.
Looking up at Ordovis, who was half a body taller than him, Kamisato Ayato couldn't help but wonder what kind of body lay beneath that armor.
"From the looks of it, I don't need to waste any more words explaining, right?" As Kamisato Ayato and Ordovis shook hands, Ember approached.
Seeing the two shake hands and make peace, Ember breathed a sigh of relief. He had been genuinely afraid that Kamisato Ayato might misunderstand.
Otherwise, such a good insider would be lost.
"My King, Ordovis, what happened here?"
Ordovis's massive commotion naturally attracted the attention of others. Siluria felt the ground shake and ran over, holding her tree spear horizontally.
"Nothing much, someone just had a drink," Ember waved his hand, telling Siluria not to worry.
Hearing this, Kamisato Ayato silently put his milk tea back into his long sleeve.
Damn it, he never would have imagined that a Crucible Knight's taboo was drinking!
"My apologies, it seems our flaw has caused you trouble, Siluria." Siluria understood what had just happened as soon as she heard this.
She propped up her great tree spear and apologized to Kamisato Ayato.
"Kamisato Ayato. A flaw? Please, what exactly happened just now?" Kamisato Ayato heard Siluria's words and felt a bit confused.
In his opinion, Ordovis was merely overly vigilant. So vigilant that he would attack anyone who entered.
While this could indeed be troublesome in normal times, in the current situation where they were planning such a scheme, a little vigilance was always good.
"Well, that's a long story. Please, Kamisato Ayato, remember one thing: when we are nearby, try not to drink anything."
"Even if you really have to drink, please give us a heads-up beforehand, otherwise, a scene like this will occur," Siluria said, pointing at the cracks in the ground with her tree spear.
"I... I will." Kamisato Ayato immediately nodded. He had already secretly decided in his heart that as long as a Crucible Knight was present, even if there was free milk tea, he would walk around it!
"That's good. Kamisato Ayato, you should be thankful that only Ordovis saw your actions just now, otherwise..."
Ember patted Kamisato Ayato's shoulder and then pointed behind him.
Kamisato Ayato looked in the direction Ember pointed and saw a gradually gathering crowd. The most conspicuous among them were the remaining eleven Crucible Knights.
Kamisato Ayato's mouth twitched. He really had to be thankful. If he had been seen drinking milk tea by all those Crucible Knights, Kamisato Ayato would probably be a puddle of flesh by now.
"Do they not need to drink water normally?" Kamisato Ayato leaned close to Ember and whispered a complaint.
"That's a good question. Do you know why they became like this?" Ember heard Kamisato Ayato's complaint, nodded, and asked.
"I'm all ears." Kamisato Ayato cocked his head, feigning an attentive posture.
"Because they spent all their drinking time fighting! Not only that, they don't let others drink either," Ember said, shrugging helplessly.
The grace of The Lands Between is preserved in the form of dew drops. Therefore, the best way to use the grace in battle is to drink the collected dew drops.
Once these dew drops enter the body, they quickly take effect. They can instantly restore injuries, immediately boost spirits, and some even compress the life force within the body to the extreme, turning oneself into a walking bomb... Dew drops are undoubtedly the combat secret weapon of the Tarnished and even all people in The Lands Between. Thus, during long battles, the Crucible Knights developed an almost instinctive action.
That is, upon seeing someone make a motion to drink dew drops, they would instantly unleash their power to interrupt the act of drinking dew drops.
This was undoubtedly a divine skill in the former The Lands Between. Countless enemies died before the Crucible Knights, their flasks of holy water still full of blessed dew drops.
Because they knew that drinking dew drops was giving the Crucible Knights an opportunity to attack them.
But the key is that The Lands Between is not the same The Lands Between it once was, and this combat divine skill of the Crucible Knights has undoubtedly become a huge problem.
Habits formed over hundreds and thousands of years of battle are hard to break, at least the current Crucible Knights haven't broken them.
So when interacting with them, remember one thing: do not drink anything, not even milk tea!
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