Ryder stayed calmly, waiting for the attack. He was sure it was going to come, and he also knew where it was going to come from.
Time slowly trickled away. Only a few seconds were left before it was going to be exactly five minutes.
"Now," Ryder muttered softly as he moved over to the side, only taking two steps.
As he stepped to the side, a person appeared before him as the sword was thrust forward. Fortunately, Ryder had moved on time, and the Sword passed through thin air, not hitting anything.
"You!"
High Duke Oris reacted hastily as he moved, catching the intruder.
Ryder gazed back at the man who was lying on the ground, caught by High Duke Oris.
"Good work High Duke Oris," Ryder said to High Duke Oris as he smiled.
Inside, his thoughts were different, though.
'If only you had moved before he attacked, I might have been fine last time,' he thought.
"He should be their Spirit General. I don't know what skill he used, but he was completely understandable before he attacked. I couldn't even feel him. How did you find out and move to the side?" High Duke Oris asked, confused.
"It's a skill I have. I felt danger, and I moved. I didn't know it was dangerous in this form," Ryder gave an excuse.
"So, this is their Spirit General, huh. They were trying the assassination plot while blaming us for breaking the rules?" Ryder asked as he gazed at the distance towards the female player whose face he couldn't see clearly.
He gazed back at the Spirit General they had pinned to the ground.
"You people are quite hypocrites, aren't you?" he asked as he stepped forward. The Moon Scythe was still in his hand.
He slashed down, stabbing the blade of the scythe in the Spirit General's chest.
"Argh!"
The Spirit General screamed in pain as the Scythe entered his body. His HP started decreasing slowly as he tried to break free.
Unfortunately, without the boost of the Golden Tower, he was too weak against High Duke Oris's mighty strength. He couldn't even move, let alone free himself.
All he could do was watch his HP decrease slowly.
It didn't take long before his HP reached zero altogether.
[Killed Third Spirit General]
[Curse of the Bracelet has been activated. You took help from someone to kill. No Exp awarded]
[Moon Scyth's stat absorption activated]
[Third Spirit General's stats absorbed: Strength]
"Spirit General's strength, who is almost comparable to High Dukes? Even though Moon Scythe only gave me a little fraction of his strength, it's not bad," Ryder muttered with an amused smile on his face.
[Moon Scythe's Skill Absorption successful]
"What? Skill absorption? I completely forgot about that. There was always a tiny chance to absorb the skills of enemies I killed. But it rarely worked because of such a low chance. Can't believe it worked," Ryder thought, amused to know that it was going to work.
He was going to get one random skill of this Spirit General? If it worked, he wanted to get the skill that helped the Spirit General sneak here. That could help him a lot. Unfortunately, he could only leave the selected skill to his luck which was often flawed.
[Skill absorbed: Invisible Aura]
[Skill Grade: Unique]
[Description; Using the invisible Aura makes the caster go invisible while simultaneously removing all his aura, making it impossible for him to be discovered]
[Skill effect Duration: The Skill last as long as the Mana of the user hasn't been depleted entirely]
[Mana Usage: Five Hundred per second]
[Skill Cooldown: One month]
"Such High Mana cost, cheh. This skill can't be used. My mana is really low already. I can't even use this skill for a few minutes."
Seeing the description of the skill, Ryder couldn't help but frown. He had received the skill he wanted. His luck was good in that department, but even after all that, he got disappointed in the end because of the high usage cost.
"High Duke Oris, do you know how many Spirit Generals they have in total?" He asked High Duke Oris.
"I don't know. They certainly won't disclose all their cards. This is called the war of deception. That side will certainly try to pretend to be weak to lead us to take a wrong step," High Duke Oris answered.
"Exactly. Throughout the war, we only saw Two Spirit Generals. They gave us the impression that they only had two spirit generals while scheming to use the third one to assassinate you. We can't be sure if they won't have one or two more for schemes like this," High Duke Mila chimed in.
High Duke Magna also came back after killing the First Spirit General.
"So they tried assassination. Can't say I'm surprised. These people are truly idiots," High Duke Magna said, sighing. "They truly don't know what's best for them. Did they really think the assassination of the Prince will make them win the war? They'll be wiped in the end anyway. They're just struggling about the death they themselves asked for."
'I don't think they intend to win the war. Their leader just wants to kill me, which will make her finish her quest. Too bad for her, I can never die. This war is my victory. The only question is how long I take to win this war,' Ryder thought, understanding the scheme of things.
"High Duke Magna, High Duke Oris. Are you all still scared to attack? I have another plan. How about we try that?" he asked.
"What scared. We're never scared. We're just cautious to protect our Empire," High Duke Magna retorted.
"What plan?" High Duke Oris asked, focusing on the second part of the plan.
"I have a skill which is similar to this guy. It can make me Invisible for a short time. Even though it is useless. I can't keep it active until I reach there, but I thought of a way to use it," Ryder replied.
"What way?" High Duke Oris asked, frowning.
"Teleportation to the enemy base. You can easily bring me there with your skills. I'm sure you're concerned about traps? You don't have to Teleport me right there. Take me right outside their camp. You can come back after that," Ryder said.
"Are you really asking me to run away while leading you there? No. We're going to win this war anyway. We don't have to risk anything, especially your life,"High Duke Oris answered.
"Why do you even want to end this war so fast that you're willing to risk your life? Don't take such a stupid decision in a war because of your naive youth! We all want the war to end fast but have patience!" High Duke Magna said, frowning.
"I have a reason of my own. Just listen to me. We can end this in one try. Look at their faces. I'm sure they only had three Spirit Warriors. They don't have anything else left now. They're paper tigers. Come with me to finish it fast," Ryder answered.
"If you don't want to leave me behind, you don't need to. You can always come with me and attack with full force! Keep them distracted while I go invisible to take out their princess! That way, you will have to leave me behind! You can create a distraction while giving me cover!" He added.
"But-"
"No, but! This is my command. Please let me fight this war the way I want to. Also, you say that I'm hasty because I want to win faster? No. I'm hasty because only by ending the war fast can I save my soldiers!" Ryder declared proudly.
Honestly, though, he was lying. He simply wanted to end the war fast so he could go back and relax a bit.
Even though he lied, his art of lying was so good that everyone believed it to be the truth.
The soldiers couldn't help but gaze at Ryder proudly.
The High Dukes, Dukes, and everyone at the lower level was amazed.
They were amazed. Ryder had so much care for the lower-ranked soldiers that he was willing to put his own life in danger while antagonizing the High Dukes in the process?
[Faith in the army of Demon Realm towards you has increased]
[The Demon Realm Army has become more loyal to you]
[Charm +50]
[Title Received: The leader who fooled his army]
'He what the heck is wrong with this system? I didn't fool anyone! This title is so misleading. I'm glad only I can see this title."
"Fine. If this is what you want, we would directly attack their base. We would keep everyone distracted while you attack their Princess," High Duke Oris said after leaving a deep sigh.
He didn't want to do it, but seeing the determination of Ryder, he found himself forced to do this.
The other High Dukes also agreed since High Duke Oris said so.
"That's better. Let's kill that girl," Ryder said, smiling while gazing in the direction of the enemy.
