Hello, Arknights

Chapter 297: Sword Intentions; Rumors

Tianma was shivering from the cold. She moved with difficulty, her fingers felt pain and her shield almost slipped out of her hand. The source of this attack effect that seemed like a blunt weapon hitting her was just an opponent who was not too tall and a weapon that was not a giant sword.

Maria did not underestimate the enemy, but when the weapons collided, she clearly felt the pressure, and looking over the opponent's shoulder, she could see the second sword inserted not far behind him, which was another layer of pressure for her.

"Why does he only use one sword... Could it be that the second sword is a preparation for unexpected situations? But I can't handle it with just one sword..."

Also, the Originium technique that my aunt showed me before, which the Platinum Knight used in a melee, was clearly a white flame, so why did I feel frozen?

And he hasn't used the Originium technique yet!

The Platinum Knight pressed forward step by step. Xia Guang exhaled lightly. The moment he raised his hand and focused his eyes on her—

"Hah!" A bright white light suddenly burst out, temporarily dispelling the unknown cold, and charging with shield while the opponent's vision was unclear.

"Bang!" The armor hit the ground, and Tianma and his opponent fell heavily to the ground. Ling Dengxian did not avoid the dazzling light, but just felt the danger at the moment before being hit by the shield and barely dodged it, but because his reaction was too late, he failed to completely avoid it, so he could only minimize the extent of the injury.

"Maria!" A Kuranta woman in the stands reminded her to seize the opportunity. Xia Guang responded and immediately turned around and attacked with her shield. What she didn't expect was that the Platinum Knight didn't dodge.

She expected that the Platinum Knight would be able to dodge, but judging from the confrontation, he had no intention of dodging at all.

"...Compared to your sister, your strength is far inferior." The first time the Platinum Knight spoke, Xia Guang sensed a hint of familiarity, and while he was stunned, a counterattack came in an instant.

The dispelled chill climbed up to Xia Guang's fingertips again, and Xia Guang's movements became sluggish for a moment. The next moment, Ling Dengxian's heavy blow hit the shield that she had urgently used to defend. While knocking her back, he did not step back to seek safety. Instead, he rushed forward and grabbed her shield, pushing her to the edge of the field. When he found that the effect was not good, he let go and calmly used his weapon to deflect her counterattack.

Retreat, chop, block the charge, and turn to attack.

Xia Guang's counterattack was roughly within his expectations, but at the same time, he seemed to understand the degree of "toughness" that Big Mouth Mob evaluated. If he didn't use his full strength, he would not be able to defeat her in a short time, as she would quickly adapt to the intensity of the attack.

This is very similar to myself.

"The poor Flawed Light Knight was completely suppressed by the Platinum Knight on the battlefield! Is the prestige of the powerful family going to be humiliated today by the situation where the skills are inferior to the opponent? Especially when the Originium skills are similar!"

"Considering that the Platinum Knight hasn't even used the Originium technique yet, the pressure that little Lin Guang is facing may be greater than we thought! Audience friends! Whether you are offering flowers to the rise of a newcomer or cheering for the real Lin Guang's Jedi counterattack, don't treasure a few gold tickets and give them the most sincere shouts in your heart!"

Another wave of enthusiasm came with an unspeakable smell of money. Ling Dengxian looked back at the audience, feeling a little breathless and an urge to nausea surged in his heart.

It's obviously wooden armor, so it should be more breathable than iron armor...but why does it feel so sticky?

Until Maria's attack pulled him back into the game, he blocked her sword without difficulty, then concentrated his mind again and cut the snow from the ice field with one sword.

That kind of chill did not come from the white flame. Although the temperature of the white flame was low, it was not cold, but warm and gentle. This chill was not from the Originium skill, but from the "intention" he got from the Ursus moonlit ice field.

In other words, he didn't understand that at present he could only achieve the level of virtual empathy with this seemingly mysterious sword intent, that is, the enemy only "felt" the chill but was not physically frozen. There was also a distance limit, so it could only be regarded as an auxiliary means in a real fight, but in this knight arena, it seemed to be very applicable.

This was not a skill he had specially developed, but he had had this vague feeling of unhappiness ever since he left the ice field. Perhaps... once he explored it more deeply, he would be able to go from the virtual to the real, just like the legendary swordsman.

A sword of frost and snow appears on the ice field, standing alone in the cold river and splitting the desolate sky.

……

"Maria..."

"Aunt, I lost..." Maria hung her head in confusion. In the final confrontation, she realized that the gap between herself and her opponent was indeed huge, both in terms of skills and strength. The inexplicable chill only accelerated her defeat. Under such public opinion, she lost this highly anticipated game - she didn't know what the consequences would be.

"This failure is a lesson for you. It's not all bad. It will save you from forcing yourself every time. You have to understand that some gaps cannot be bridged by intensive training for a period of time... You seem to be worried about other things?"

"Yes... Aunt, what the host just said... Will it have an impact on my sisters..."

"Worry about that? I think you should first worry about the consequences of not learning your lesson..."

"What's wrong, aunt..." Maria, who suddenly realized the problem, immediately covered her mouth and didn't say the name, but it was obvious that she had made this half-elder a little unhappy when she didn't notice this before.

"Maria--"

"Sister Zofia, someone is coming!" Tianma, who was about to hide and defend himself, noticed a figure approaching and quickly diverted his aunt's attention.

"That's okay. You guys are busy. I won't disturb you." Seeing this, Ling Dengxian knew it was not the time to visit, so he turned around and left.

"Come back!" Maria caught up with him and stopped him, putting him between herself and Zofia. She looked up and found that he didn't seem to be a stranger. "Eh? White Dove?"

"No... voice, are you, are you the Platinum Knight?!" The next moment Maria realized another key point - why she felt that the voice of the Platinum Knight was familiar.

Ling Dengxian smiled apologetically: "Just kidding, Miss Maria, I was very aggressive in the match just now. I came to see if you are seriously injured. I hope it won't affect your next match."

“It’s really you… How did you do it? I saw you didn’t use any Originium skills. Why do my fingers feel frozen…” Maria was eager to know what the problem was.

"It's a kind of auxiliary ability. I'm not very stable when using it, but using Bai Yan to compete with you is a bit... Anyway, it's a bit offensive. However, I don't plan to continue the individual competition next time. I should be able to enter the special championship if I can get some points in the last melee."

"...You don't have to worry about qualifying for the special tournament..." Maria felt a little disappointed.

"Maria, who is he?" Sofia had never seen Ling Dengxian, and felt a little confused when she saw the two of them talking.

"Ah, Bai Ge, this is my aunt...sister Zofia. Sister Zofia, this is Bai Ge, your former colleague and the Platinum Knight on the field just now."

"Um... I'm not very good at learning Casimir language. What did you say just now, 'sister'?" Ling Dengxian's language processing system was slightly stressed. He leaned close to Maria and whispered, "Also, isn't your sister Margaret?"

"Hello Mr. White Dove, I'm Zofia, Maria and Margaret's older sister. I'm not a direct relative, but a half-elder." Zofia used her eyes to warn Maria to choose her words.

But Maria didn't notice her expression, and answered honestly in the same low voice: "Sister Sofia is actually our aunt according to seniority, but she is not much older than my sister and me. She thinks that I call her old and she minds it very much... But I got used to calling her that when I was a child and I can't change it in a short time..."

"Maria!" But Zofia's hearing was not bad at all.

The latter shuddered and almost shrank into a ball, hiding behind Ling Dengxian. Zofia also changed the subject to him and frowned, "So you are Lin Guang's colleague...former colleague. I heard her say that she used to work in a pharmaceutical company. Why did you come to Casimir to be a competitive knight?"

"Ms. Zofia..."

"Wait a minute," maybe it was psychological effect, Zofia felt a little uncomfortable when hearing "Madam", "Can you change your address?"

"...Ms. Zofia, our island's specialty is mineralogy." Ling Dengxian said briefly.

"…The problem of infected people?"

The beautiful Kuranta pondered for a moment: "Then you should also go to the Supervisory Commission. They have complete records of the accident. What's the matter with coming to the Knights' Competition?"

"...Yes, but Miss Zofia, I think you should be aware of this problem," Ling Dengxian put away his smile and pointed at his feet. "This knight competition has many hidden problems of infected people through other means and channels, which we outsiders have no way of knowing."

"I am just here to understand the situation... I am not here to make a fortune. By entering the special tournament, I can get to know more."

"……What……"

Hearing the noise behind him, Ling Dengxian felt confused. He turned around and found Maria with her head down with an unknown expression on her face.

"Miss Maria?"

"You came here because you understand the situation... My sister also came back for the infected... Then I seem to be a little redundant, ah... Hahaha..."

Ling Dengxian had a question mark on his head and looked at Zofia to ask what was going on. Maria scratched her head, turned away with a gloomy expression.

"What's up with her?"

Zofia shook her head: "It's better to let her think about it. It's just a small problem. It will be more helpful for her to figure it out herself."

"After all, we can't help her with everything."

After leaving the competition venue, Ling Dengxian discovered that there seemed to be a lot more people reading newspapers on the street today, and they were talking about it in a lively manner. Out of curiosity, he quietly crept behind people and peeked at the content: Red Wine Newspaper... What are these rumor makers doing again?

"A rising star in the arena, the illegitimate son of the Linguang family?!"

"The origin of the white flame and the light of the Linguang family!"

"It seems that the Platinum Knight visits the Lin Guang family to recognize his ancestry?!"

Ling Dengxian felt that his brain was confused by this wave of information.

When I looked up again, I found Maria not far away holding a newspaper in deathly silence.