Chapter 13: Magic Net Synchronization

Bang!

A heavy, forceful collision.

The hobgoblin warlord displayed extraordinary combat skills and terrifying strength.

Fighting on foot against cavalry, he did not fall behind in the slightest.

"Move aside, watch me!" The Nott cavalryman following closely behind Zaranda kicked free of her stirrups and leaped from her galloping warhorse. Carrying the momentum of the charge, she slashed toward the hobgoblin warlord!

Boom!

Another head-on collision.

But this time, the hobgoblin warlord didn't gain the slightest advantage; he stumbled back four or five steps.

The Nott cavalryman, having transitioned from horse to foot, was similar in build to the hobgoblin warlord—thick and tall, with arms thicker than Gavin’s thighs. Standing on the ground, she was level with them while they sat on their warhorses.

Who else could it be but Nora, the "Kongming Barbie"?

Although Zaranda was the captain of the guard at Nott Castle, she was not its greatest combatant; Nora was, a level nine barbarian.

Mounted combat was not her specialty; foot combat was.

The moment she leaped from her horse, her eyes turned blood-red, and she entered the barbarian’s signature rage state. The contours of her muscles seemed to swell even further.

Giving the hobgoblin warlord no chance to recover, she stuck to one tactic from start to finish: relentlessly hacking and slashing with her great axe, fully utilizing the strength advantage of the barbarian rage.

The hobgoblin warlord could only passively parry, parry, and parry again.

He finally understood the grief and indignation felt by the enemies he had once defeated using his own strength advantage.

He could not change his tactics now, nor did he dare to; no one dared to take a barbarian’s rage-fueled attacks head-on, especially when their eyes were blinded.

The problem was that the enemy had no sense of honor and had no intention of fighting him one-on-one. Behind her was a line of charging cavalry.

While the raging barbarian kept him pinned down, they thrust spears imbued with the force of their charge into his body. It was only thanks to his sturdy plate armor that he managed to block most of the damage.

What the hobgoblin warlord feared most were the two battlefield spellcasters in the enemy cavalry unit. No one knew what spells they had memorized or what wands they carried. He wasn't too afraid of first or second-level attack spells, but he dreaded them casting binding spells to restrict his movement—that would be fatal.

Yet, until the moment of his death, the hobgoblin warlord never saw a spell from the Nott cavalry's battlefield casters.

In everyone's eyes, the hobgoblin warlord was already a trapped beast; Nora alone could wear him down to death, so why waste precious magic on him?

The battle had only just begun, and a series of fights awaited them.

When Nora arrived and engaged the hobgoblin warlord in a melee, Zaranda joined Gavin and led the majority of the Nott cavalry back into the fray, launching a ruthless pursuit of the fleeing hobgoblins.

Every one of these monsters eliminated meant one less potential threat to their upcoming mass retreat.

They had been chasing for less than a minute when Gavin felt his entire body shudder. His body, along with the surrounding air, entered a state of peculiar vibration, and magic power surged toward him from all directions.

"Weave attunement! You've unlocked your class template!?" Zaranda, riding side-by-side with Gavin, felt his abnormal state and asked in astonishment.

But recalling Gavin’s brilliant performance earlier—the number of goblins and hobgoblins he had knocked away or cut down along the way—everything seemed logical.

"Yeah!" Gavin, on the other hand, appeared very calm. After all, he was an experienced hand; he was not only familiar with this situation but also with the underlying rules of Weave attunement—the basic principles of class leveling.

Many professionals mistakenly believe that the amount of magic power they gain is proportional to the number of monsters they kill, and some evil beings even turn their claws toward innocent people.

In fact, this is a misunderstanding.

The leveling rules of Faerûn are very similar to the worship of gods; they can be viewed as a simplified version of a faith system operating within the Weave.

When a person’s actions interact with and influence other living beings in this world, a series of causal relationships is formed, causing the Weave to generate magic power that converges upon the individual.

In Elvish, this magic power is called "Law"; in Zhang You's terms, it's called "Experience Points." No matter how the name changes, it is the same thing.

By consuming this magic power and deepening their attunement with the Weave, warriors gain feats and attribute points that strengthen their souls and bodies, while mages and sorcerers gain more powerful magical capabilities.

Because he had the historical experience of his past life as a comparison, Gavin knew very well how many people he had influenced and changed by following Zaranda out on this sortie. Even as a supporting role to Zaranda, he had still gained a massive amount of experience points.

Especially regarding that hobgoblin warlord—it was entirely because of him that the warlord was successfully pinned down. He had a premonition that this final push of attunement magic didn't come from the few fleeing hobgoblins he had just killed, but because Nora had successfully finished off the warlord.

Sure enough, a roar of victory from Nora came from the other side. She held the hobgoblin warlord's head high, displaying it to the surrounding hobgoblin soldiers, further shattering their remaining morale and making them flee even faster.

"Aren't you going to perform your Weave attunement first?" Chasing down the fleeing hobgoblins was effortless for Zaranda, and she could spare the attention to care about Gavin's condition.

"What's the rush? It's not going anywhere. It won't be too late to do it after we've cleared them out." Gavin was surprisingly calm.

"Weave attunement isn't time-consuming; you just need to plan your class and feat selections in advance. The boost to combat effectiveness is quite significant," Zaranda suggested kindly.

"Do you think I need to do that to deal with these stragglers?"

"Indeed, you don't." Zaranda smiled and shook her head. "Gavin, your performance earlier makes me have to re-evaluate you. Such skillful offensive coordination is something even Nora and I would find difficult to achieve. How did you do it? I don't remember teaching you that!"

"Doesn't the Captain know that I am a rare genius in this world? There's a saying: 'self-taught'." Gavin cheekily joked. Rebirth was a big deal; even with his closest sister, Zaranda, he couldn't easily reveal his secrets—at least not yet.

"I think you're talking about your own thick skin!" Zaranda didn't press the issue. "Fine, when we're done, I'll help you carefully study your future career path. Don't take unnecessary detours like I did."

"Alright!" Gavin agreed perfunctorily. On this matter, he feared Zaranda wasn't as experienced as he was. He had suffered enough in his past life, but back then he had no choice; as a slave warrior, survival was paramount, and he had no energy to plan for the future. By the time he had the energy, many paths were already closed.

Moreover, Zaranda might not be able to spare the time. Every second from here on out was crucial for the soldiers and civilians of Nott Castle. They had to reach the outskirts of the Mier Forest as soon as possible to prevent these stragglers from regrouping and harrying them.

Their cavalry numbers were too small to wipe out all the goblins; at least half had fled into the surrounding wilderness, and some had even escaped all the way back to the Marching Mountains.

These stragglers would bring news of Nott Castle to other monster communities.