Chapter 486 268: Something's Wrong With This Attendant

To accommodate this, the Griffin Knight would reduce the firing rate and corresponding power of the Griffin Feathers. The Knights being tested would also wear specific Armor. Afterward, professionals would be responsible for judging how many Griffin Feathers the participant failed to block, based on the feathers lodged in their Knight Armor.

A score would be assigned based on this data. Then, combined with their scores from other Trials, their final ranking would determine whether they were retained, reassigned, or eliminated.

While there were Knights who could block every single Griffin Feather, just as this unremarkable Attendant was doing, the level of difficulty was completely different.

First, those were protected Trials, whereas this was unprotected, real combat. Second, the Griffin Knight administering the Trial had no intention of killing anyone, while the Red-armored Knight, for reasons both professional and personal, genuinely wanted this Attendant dead.

The Red-armored Knight grew furious. He poured more Spiritual Power into his attack, and the Griffin Feathers became fiercer, more frenzied. The violent gale formed by the Spiritual Power felt like knives cutting at one's face.

'No matter how strong he is, he's just an Attendant!' he thought. 'What gives an Attendant the right to humiliate a Griffin Knight of the Griffin Knight Order!'

But it was useless. Amid the crowd's gasps and the Knights' astonished gazes, the unremarkable Attendant raised his Longsword and severed every Griffin Feather that flew toward him.

Among the crowd, all the guests stood frozen. The gentlemen were dumbfounded, while the ladies' eyes shone with excitement. These noble spectators were utterly captivated by the skill the Attendant displayed.

Claire used a Magic Card to keep the Knight on the ground barely clinging to life. When she looked up, she noticed that everyone around her was either standing on their tiptoes or craning their necks to look in one direction.

The society ladies who had just been chattering in her ear—insisting that Claire, a young lady of the Hestia Family, had no need to listen to an Attendant and heal this Knight—had all fallen silent. They stared in that direction, their expressions of shock bordering on stupor. Their mouths hung open so wide you could have fit a mushroom inside.

She followed their gazes, and her own was instantly captivated by the dazzling figure at the center of it all.

Sword and feathers danced in the air. The Attendant advanced into the wind, walking through a rain of flashing steel and feathers, his figure defiant.

Truthfully, even though the Attendant was fighting one of their own Griffin Knights, Claire was still stunned by the power displayed by the Attendant from Lancelot's Family.

As an Old Blood of the Hestia Family, she of course recognized this Red-armored Knight. She knew he was considered one of the top Law Enforcers at the Black Iron Tier.

Yet, facing this Attendant from Lancelot's Family, he hadn't revealed his Authority, Promise, or anything of the sort. He had stopped the Red-armored Knight's Griffin Feathers using only a sword. How could anyone not be shocked?

This was also why Claire had subconsciously agreed to the Attendant's request to heal the Griffin Knight who had been caught in the crossfire. Judging by her earlier actions toward Windsor Constantin at the auction house entrance, it was clear that Claire was not normally so agreeable.

"Look out!" A sudden warning came from beside her. It was the Griffin Knight who had been unconscious on the ground moments ago.

Claire jumped in alarm. The storm of Griffin Feathers was expanding, and a few strays were scattering in their direction.

Although the Griffin Knights responsible for maintaining order and security managed to block some, a few still slipped through the blind spots in their defense. One of them shot straight for Claire's face.

Claire couldn't react in time. Or rather, even if she had, it would have been useless. She was a Wizard, and one who had not yet formally reached the Entry Tier.

It was well-known that Wizards excelled at everything except for their physical constitution. Accustomed to a life of comfort, never having to perform manual labor, their physical fitness as members of the Old Race was only equivalent to that of an Olympic champion from the Outer Side. For the Old Race, whose bodies were constantly being refined by Spiritual Power, this was indeed considered quite weak.

So Claire could only watch as the feather-like arrow descended toward her beautiful face, as inescapable as a single drop of rain from the sky. The young ladies beside her shrieked, a sound she found terribly annoying.

But just at that moment, the Griffin Knight on the ground suddenly leaped up, shoved Claire aside, and took the feather arrow in his back for her.

He let out a muffled grunt and fell to one knee as more blood began to flow. Claire was stunned.

But the Knight said, "Consider this my thanks for saving my life."

With that, he collapsed to the ground again. Claire frantically checked to see if he was breathing. Finding that he was still alive, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

More feather arrows began to spread, and panic erupted in the crowd. The Griffin Knights' faces turned grim. The speed and density of the Griffin Feathers were increasing, and they were gradually finding themselves unable to keep up.

This was precisely why they were so shocked by the figure at the center of the storm. The Attendant had been relentlessly cutting down feathers from the very beginning, all while steadily advancing. By the Griffin Knights' estimation, the Red-armored Knight himself wouldn't be able to sustain a Promise of this duration for much longer.

'Is this guy... even human?'

In truth, the Knights had their own technique for dealing with Griffin Feathers: using their own Promise to reflect them and cancel each other out.

However, this method was extremely risky; it would likely result in casualties on both sides. Furthermore, the Red-armored Knight was their captain. In the Templar Order, attacking a superior officer for anything less than a full-blown betrayal of the Order's laws would result in severe punishment.

This wasn't to say that protecting the Old Race of the Old Blood Clans wasn't a sufficient reason. In reality, it was just like the earlier incident with the Blood Control patrol: none of them wanted to be the first to stick their neck out.

The Red-armored Knight's Griffin Feathers were becoming uncontrollable. The violent gale seemed to squeeze all the air out of the auction hall. Seeing this, one Griffin Knight realized his captain had lost control and rushed outside to alert the patrolling Lion-eyed Knights.

The Red-armored Knight stared at Baron, the fierceness in his eyes twisting into venomous hatred.

He had never imagined he would be so thoroughly humiliated by a mere Attendant, in such a magnificent venue and in front of so many people!

The Red-armored Knight let out a low roar. With a wave of his hand, a sky-blotting torrent of feather arrows shot toward Baron at the center.

At this point, nothing else mattered. He had to kill this Attendant to redeem his honor! To redeem the honor of the Griffin Knight Order!

The feather arrows were like meteors streaking across the sky, moving at an unimaginable speed and letting out a sharp whistle as they pierced the air.

The Griffin Knights pulled Shields from their Storage Stones, leaping out from the crowd to form a line and shield the guests behind them.

The force of the feather arrows striking the Shields pushed them back. A few feathers shot through the gaps in their formation, only to be swiftly cut down by other Griffin Knights who leaped forward, swords drawn. The few that remained were blocked by the Attendants of the various Old Race families, using either their weapons or their own bodies.

The lead Knight yelled, "Fall back! Fall back! This is no place for you!"

But there were too many guests watching the battle. Even as they retreated in a frenzy, their lack of training made their movements chaotic. In an instant, three or four trampling incidents occurred.

The feather arrows heading for Claire were blocked by her family's Attendant. However, her position was diagonally opposite the epicenter of the expanding Griffin Feathers. In this spot, there was no peerless Attendant to block the barrage, nor were there enough Knight Guards to cut down the projectiles. Her own Attendant was merely a reserve, a Demon Hunter who had not even collected a full set of Command Spells.

Before long, the Attendant's stamina gave out, and he could no longer hold his ground. Finally, a feather pierced through his lower abdomen and exited from his right back. He collapsed to the ground. He wasn't dead, but he was grievously wounded.

And so, Claire was left completely exposed to the storm of feather arrows.

Another feather arrow flew at her face. 'I really have the worst luck,' Claire thought. It had all happened so suddenly that she didn't even have time to help the Knight on the ground and escape. She could only watch helplessly as the feather arrow shot toward her, its sharp gleam casting a deathly pallor over her exquisite face.

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