Chapter 198: Tony
Four hours ago
Tony Celes was galloping on a muddy path, or more accurately, the horse was galloping, and the young Half-Dragon lad was merely doing his best to stay on its back.
Although he had long since outrun those terrifying monsters, he still frequently looked back, as if he might be devoured alive if he wasn’t careful; sweat dripped continuously down his face, which had more freckles than scales, wetting Tony’s blood-stained cloth clothes.
A large portion of the blood on his clothes was his own, but besides that, there was at least seven or eight other people’s, such as Village Chief Keaton, the Hai Deng family next door, Miss Luna, the apprentice Alchemist, and his father and younger brother…
He clumsily squeezed the mount beneath him with his legs, urging the rather dispirited old horse to pick up a little speed; the biting wind coming at him grew fiercer, and the sweat from Tony’s forehead slid into his eyes, then mixed with tears, bloodstains, and dust, scattering into the air.
“Why did those people turn into monsters? How did Little Raven get so strong? How is Father’s injury? How much longer until we reach the city? Are Old Hai Deng and the others still alive? What exactly is going on? What happened?”
Tony’s thoughts were hazy, causing him to almost fall headfirst from the horse’s back; heaven be praised, the two-thirds of his tail that remained managed to maintain his balance at the crucial moment, though it caused a nearly fainting pain, but at least it didn’t leave Tony in this godforsaken place.
Boke was an exceptionally reserved old horse; it would absolutely not stop to wait for its temporary owner to slowly climb back onto its back, a fact Tony knew well.
Moreover, given his current physical condition, whether he could climb back up by himself after falling was a debatable question.
The young Half-Dragon shook his head vigorously, trying to push the chaotic thoughts out of his mind, and hugged the old horse Boke’s neck tightly.
…
Game time AM 09:07
After repeatedly confirming the effects of Luminescence, Mo Tan and Yu Cheng left the chapel, preparing to leave the city to begin today’s treatments, because the former’s online time was quite erratic, so the two rarely wasted time when they were both online.
And just as they were leaving the south gate of Mida City, they suddenly heard a dense sound of hooves approaching from a distance…
“More refugees?” Yu Cheng sighed softly, and whispered behind Mo Tan, “Let’s go take a look; there are no seriously wounded in the camp right now, so a slight delay won’t matter.”
The latter slightly furrowed his brows and nodded, “Let’s go.”
Those Mutants couldn’t ride horses, nor could they pass through the temporary defense line established south of the infected civilian settlement, so the only people who could appear here on horseback were other Holy Knights or refugees, and the Holy Knights’ warhorses would not make such a string of hoofbeats, as if they had consumed a large amount of alcohol.
Two minutes later, they saw several low-level professionals approaching, clustered around a half-dead old horse, with a Half-Dragon covered in blood and missing a small section of his tail hanging on its back.
“Holy Maiden, Black Vatican!” A delicate-looking elven man waved from afar, then transformed into a nimble black panther and ran towards the two.
Yu Cheng quickly trotted to meet him, subconsciously reaching out to scratch the former’s chin, “Ai Mang, that person…”
“He’s exhausted and severely infected; he only said he was a civilian from Erbazi Village to the south, then he fainted; I just gave him emergency treatment and was about to go into the city to find you.” The elven druid Emang Blackleaf spoke quickly, then awkwardly shook his head, “Uh, Holy Maiden, you’re making me quite uncomfortable…”
Yu Cheng froze for a moment, then quickly retracted her hand, her face flushed as she whispered, “I… I’m sorry! I have cats at home, so I accidentally…”
“No, it’s fine, it was actually quite comfortable.” Ai Mang smiled and lifted his hind leg to scratch his ear, “But if you want to scratch an itch, I can just turn into human form.”
Mo Tan gave a dry laugh, “Alright, alright, let’s not talk about that for now, quickly get him down, I think that horse is about to die of exhaustion.”
The druid, transformed into a panther, rolled his eyes in a very human-like manner, “More accurately, it’s about to be choked to death; that Half-Dragon was practically locking himself onto the horse’s neck; if he hadn’t held on so tightly, he probably would have arrived half an hour earlier.”
Mo Tan looked with horror at the old horse that had been choked for several hours, feeling a bit flustered.
A moment later, the young Half-Dragon, who had been tightly gripping the horse’s neck even in his unconsciousness, was finally taken down by several people (…), and a tall Beastman warrior carefully laid him on the ground.
Old horse Boke was panting heavily nearby, his tongue hanging out.
“The injuries are a bit severe, but his physical condition is quite good, hmm, he should be able to recover most of it before the next ‘Mutation point’.” Yu Cheng knelt beside the severely injured patient who had traveled a long distance, and quickly made a professional judgment.
After this period of adaptation, she was already able to accurately assess a patient’s injuries using the common knowledge within the Innocent World; this level of skill was difficult for even other players with higher medical foundations to achieve, but for Yu Cheng, it was not too difficult.
Mo Tan, standing behind her, smiled, then stepped over to the old horse that was busy flicking its tongue, “I’ll handle this one.”
…
A while later, the Half-Dragon finally regained consciousness under Yu Cheng’s continuous divine healing, and although his physical condition was still not optimistic, his originally pale face had regained some color.
“Ugh! I feel like I’m going to die of exhaustion.” He mumbled groggily, then suddenly opened his eyes wide and exclaimed, “Monsters! The village!”
Yu Cheng was startled by his sudden shout, and after two seconds of stunned, she softly said, “Don’t worry, it’s safe here. The village you just mentioned is…”
“I remember, I saw Mida City, I succeeded, I… How long have I been unconscious? Ouch!” The Half-Dragon said as he struggled to stand up, but accidentally pulled at the no longer numb wound on his tail.
Mo Tan also walked over from the side at this point, squatting in front of him and saying in a deep voice, “Don’t worry, you’ve been unconscious for at most twenty minutes, now calm down and tell us what happened.”
“Alright, alright.” The other party nodded, and after a moment of silence, whispered, “My name is Tony, Tony Celes, and I am a resident of Erbazi Village to the south. A few days ago, a monster that had wandered from somewhere appeared there and attacked the civilians. Although the Alchemist of the village led everyone to kill it, last night… thirty-odd people in the village also turned into such monsters. Only I escaped, everyone else is still in the village, please save them, please go save them!”
He excitedly grabbed Mo Tan’s wrist, his eyes wide with fury as he shouted.
“We know what those monsters are.” Mo Tan sighed, then silently calculated the time, shaking his head somewhat helplessly, “But Tony, I think if it happened last night, then your village might already… I’m sorry, it might already be too late.”
A small, ordinary village experiencing dozens of Mutants could basically be considered a complete disaster; perhaps the theoretical strength of those Mutants wasn’t particularly terrifying, but even so, they were not something ordinary people, who had not received any basic training and were extremely prone to panic, could deal with.
Yu Cheng opened her mouth beside him, but ultimately said nothing; after all, the two had encountered many such incidents in the past few days…
But the young man named Tony quickly shook his head and shouted, “It’s not like that! I know those monsters are terrifying, but… but Miss Luna is an excellent Alchemist! When I left, many people had already hidden in her workshop with her help; there are many powerful tools there, everyone will definitely be able to hold on, so please, please send people to save them!”
“Ah, please don’t move, your wound will tear open.” Yu Cheng used another enhanced Healing Prayer on Tony, then turned to Mo Tan and said, “Let’s think of a way…”
The latter nodded slightly, “If it’s possible, I don’t intend to stand by and watch them die, but this matter still needs to be discussed with Tairo. Let’s get Tony to a walkable state as soon as possible, and we’ll return to the city quickly.”
…
Half an hour later, Yu Cheng and Mo Tan helped the limping Tony to the city’s western outpost; during this time, they had already learned most of the situation from Tony.
In short, a few days ago, a Mutant wandered into the small village called Erbazi, then attacked the civilians there. However, because an apprentice Alchemist named Luna calmly organized a defense, the villagers eventually killed the monster, but…
Last night, dozens of civilians who had been severely wounded in the previous battle unexpectedly turned into identical monsters. Of course, “unexpectedly” here refers to the local people; Mo Tan and Yu Cheng, who had considerable research on the mechanism of Mutant appearance, knew very well that this was undoubtedly caused by the Plague + extreme weakness.
However, this also showed that the people in Tony’s village were generally healthier, otherwise, the first batch of mutations wouldn’t have appeared until last night, and the main reason was still the previous Mutant attack.
In any case, the people who turned into monsters quickly killed the nearest living beings, then began to rampage through the village. Finally, the Alchemist used some magical tools to temporarily drive back the monsters, covering most of the villagers as they hid in her workshop. At that time, Tony, who was in the best physical condition, rode the old blacksmith Hai Deng’s thin horse to the nearest large city, Mida City, for help.
Although the Alchemist named Luna gave Tony some small tools before he left, he still suffered serious injuries when he rushed out of the village; it was a miracle that he arrived here alive.
Incidentally, Tony had worked as a carpentry apprentice in Mida City for a while, so he would often teach the village children to make small toys themselves, thus earning the Epic title of ‘Teacher Tony’ at a young age.
Of course, this young Half-Dragon was just an ordinary carpenter and did not make a living by dyeing hair and cutting it…
Well, he occasionally cut hair and trimmed beards for everyone in the village, but that was just a hobby, just a hobby.
“I probably know seven or eight ‘Teacher Tonys’ myself.” Mo Tan clicked his tongue, his expression particularly strange, “It could already become a race.”
Yu Cheng covered her mouth and chuckled, “Me too, almost.”
“Ah, Tony is a very common name~” The Half-Dragon lad turned to Mo Tan, who was supporting him, and grinned, “But the ‘Teacher’ part is just what the kids say.”
Mo Tan just shrugged; he hadn’t expected the other party to understand this ancient Epic meme.
“Later, I’ll ask the two of you to help persuade Tairo.” Tony, limping forward with Mo Tan’s help, whispered, “I am the last hope of the entire village.”
Just then, Tairo, who had heard of Yu Cheng’s arrival, rushed out from the temporary training ground to greet them.
“Holy Maiden.” He first bowed to Yu Cheng, then looked at Tony and saluted him like a Knight, “Hello, Mr. Tony, the Knights who returned from outside the city have told me the situation, your will is admirable.”
Tony’s face lit up, and he quickly said, “Knight, since you already know the situation, can you please send…”
“I’m afraid not.” Tairo shook his head, saying in a deep voice, “We will have to wait until evening at the earliest to send a Knight squad to support your village.”
Mo Tan sighed, “I knew it…”
“Evening?” Tony immediately widened his eyes and shouted, “We can’t wait that long! Miss Luna said her magic tools can only last until around noon at the latest. If no one goes to help by then, everyone will be finished, everyone will die!”
A look of pain appeared on Tairo’s face, but he still said firmly, “I’m sorry, but our manpower has been severely insufficient these past two days. Currently, there are less than forty Knights in the city, including myself, and none of them are in peak condition. If we divide our combat power further, once we encounter a large-scale Mutant attack, the Holy… Mida City could very likely face danger!”
“How could this be!” Tony murmured, his face ashen, his eyes filled with pain and anxiety, “How could this be…”
“More than one village nearby has encountered danger.” Mo Tan gently patted his shoulder and said with a bitter smile, “In the past few days, the city has dispatched a large number of Knight squads to assist people in situations similar to yours, so manpower is indeed very tight now, but…”
He glanced at the grim-faced Tairo.
“I think we’re still far from our limit; we can try a little harder.”
Chapter 195: End