Fantasy Lord: I Have a Moving Castle

The first snow fell, and sparse snowflakes drifted from the sky, immediately melting upon landing on his nose.

Char looked up at the sky, watched the continuous snowfall, felt the bits of chill on his face, and then shifted his attention back to the ground.

’It must be the onset of winter,’ he thought.

The past few days had grown much colder, and with the snow falling today, both he and Freyja had donned winter attire made from Demon Beast fur, much thicker than when they had first arrived. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

On the ground, the castle guards were clearing paths in every direction. Char and Freyja, each riding a Frost Crystal White Deer and a Floral Blue Leopard, advanced through the desolate forest, filled with the aura of death.

Because they had to accommodate the speed of the castle guards, both the Frost Crystal White Deer and the Floral Blue Leopard moved slowly.

Star Worms circled around Char and Freyja, now drawing a bit closer to Char, now to Freyja.

Fierce Sword Fireflies and Clover Mantis stayed close behind them, serving as a last line of defense, ensuring their safety.

A Night Helmeted Owl perched on a tree, watching the movements of Char and the others.

Perhaps due to resignation, or because of the example set by the Frost Crystal White Deer and the Rain Sound Kingfisher, the Night Helmeted Owl had noticeably adopted a domesticated stance during this period.

Seeing that the Night Helmeted Owl was behaving and had been confined in the Garden Secret Realm for a long time, clearly showing a desire to venture out, Char decided to bring it along on this expedition.

However, there was still some danger involved for the Night Helmeted Owl.

Judging by the path led by the Praying Light Sword, it was clear they were heading towards a lesser boss’ territory, where the density of the Undead was sure to be high, and their Strength formidable.

And the Night Helmeted Owl’s level was too low.

Its Challenge Level was only Level 2, making it the weakest member of their group (excluding the castle guards), even weaker than the Star Worms. If a massive battle broke out with numerous Undead, it could be inexplicably killed in the chaos.

After all, it was highly likely that many higher Challenge Level Undead would appear in such a melee.

However, those were extreme circumstances, and normally, the Night Helmeted Owl would not be in danger.

Just based on the Intermediate Combat Power alone, there were three among them, while the rest were mostly Levels 4 and 5 entities. With so many castle guards around, if danger were to arise under these circumstances, it would mean not only the Night Helmeted Owl was at risk, but also Char, Star Worms, Frost Crystal White Deer, Floral Blue Leopard, and even the Clover Mantis and Freyja.

Above them, the Thunder Night Dragon spotted an enemy and swiftly pounced, crushing the Undead’s skull with a dive, bursting its soul fire, then with a roll, sent several Undead flying.

The Undead didn’t even hit the ground before they had already fallen apart.

While the Thunder Night Dragon wouldn’t dare engage in close combat with strong, large-form Undead like the Thorny Bone Snake, it harbored no such fears against these "fragile" low-level Undead—their attacks couldn’t even breach its defenses.

The Thunder Night Dragon was like a general leading a charge, valiantly cutting through enemy lines alone, yet sending foes reeling in disarray.

The Praying Light Sword had also joined the fray, resembling a flying sword formed of Morning Light that darted through the trees, where few Undead could withstand its path, scattering apart, turning into heaps of bones.

However, this area was already another lesser boss’ territory, where the Undead had basically never been cleared, thus the density was quite high.

Even though the Thunder Night Dragon and Praying Light Sword, both possessing Intermediate Combat Power, continuously swept the periphery, some slipped through and targeted Char’s direction.

But they soon clashed head-on with the castle guard.

Against those transformed from birds or other flying creatures, the castle guard had no effective means, only able to shoot arrows, but the Iron Feather Archers were too few to mount an effective interception.

However, while the castle guard had no effective way to handle Flying Undead, it was different with those that could only run on the ground.

It was like hitting an invisible chain — many Undead stumbled, forced to stay and fight against the castle guards.

After two rounds of interception, very few Undead were able to advance, and without necessitating further action by anyone else, the Fierce Sword Fireflies merely waved its twin blades lightly, dispersing the flames circling it easily reducing the Undead to dry bones.

However, even though Thunder Night Dragon and Fierce Sword Fireflies appeared quite adept in their actions, Char’s expression was far from relaxed.

Along the way, they had encountered one group of Undead after another — while the Thunder Night Dragon and Fierce Sword Fireflies seemed unstoppable, that was only because they still had Strength. What would their performance be if they ran out of Strength?

In any case, Char had no plans originally to march straight up to the second lesser boss and defeat it while the iron was hot.

Such an undertaking was impossible, considering how long he had spent to eliminate the Thorny Bone Snake before.

Just clearing the minor creatures took days.

Now, proceeding without clearing the low-level Undead and weakening the lesser boss’s Strength, charging head-on even with the protection of three Intermediate Combat Powers, could still be very dangerous.

Today, his main objective was to gauge the Strength of this second lesser boss.

According to the information left by Kedel years ago, this Intermediate Undead’s Challenge Level was only Level 7, but with many years passed, it was impossible not to have improved, and the system map only showed the direction of the target, without displaying the Level before they actually confronted it.