Wilden had never counted how many times he had swung his sword.
Everything done during battle, other than victory, was unnecessary.
Including counting kills.
When facing these endless, weak enemies, no weapon was more efficient than the dual swords in his hands.
It was a simple truth: when swinging with both hands alternately, it could cause double the damage of other weapons.
He looked back during a lull in the killing.
His height, two or even three heads taller than most people present, allowed him to see the end of the group at a glance.
The Soldier saw Mia catch up, with a wall of fire as her background.
Relieved, he turned his head and, in one fluid motion, swept his straight sword horizontally, cutting three Clanrats in half.
He saw a bridge ahead, spanning a waterway flowing through the residential area.
Importantly, there were no Ratmen on the other side of the bridge for the moment.
A warrior’s instinct told him that this would surely be a contested point.
These…
um…
Colorless?
After a few seconds of thought, Wilden created a word to describe the civilians following him.
In the process, two more Ratmen became ghosts under his sword.
Mia had said that this was not The Lands Between.
Obviously, the people living here had never seen the appearance of the Erdtree, never knew what grace was, and were different from the ‘Tarnished’ who had lost their grace.
So using the term ‘Colorless’ to describe them, Wilden felt it was very fitting.
These Colorless civilians following him might be able to escape through that bridge.
But he also knew that these Skaven would not give up.
He thought while swinging his sword.
Was that Ratman that had just been hacked to death seemingly larger than the others?
And it was wearing armor?
Never mind, it was irrelevant.
Wilden, serving as the most effective spearhead for the group, arrived at the bridge; by this time, he was already bathed in the blood of the Ratmen.
“Cross the bridge!” he shouted coldly, ensuring his hoarse voice reached the ears of the citizens who were following closely behind him, hacking away amidst the swarm of Ratmen.
“Cross the bridge!
Hurry, cross the bridge!” The men spontaneously relayed Wilden’s words, and the group further quickened their pace.
The Ratmen could not stop these humans wreathed in golden light.
They discovered with horror that the short swords and daggers in the hands of the Slave Rats and Clanrats could barely kill these humans; whether caused by weapons or simple bites, any wounds inflicted healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Even sloppy slashes failed to cut open wounds on these humans.
And those citizens, who had previously been cowering under the claws and fangs of the Ratmen, easily smashed the heads of the Ratmen with the wooden clubs in their hands and severed their necks with scavenged short blades.
Grace of the Erdtree gave them almost endless vitality, while Golden Vow caused strength to surge within them, making their bodies far tougher than that of an ordinary Soldier.
The Ratmen and the citizens were locked in a melee.
The people unleashed their endless fury upon the Ratmen who had invaded their city and slaughtered humans.
The corpses of the Ratmen had become a filthy carpet, covering the entire street, and the heroic citizens trampled upon them, viewing this as the reward for their courage.
In that instant, a ridiculous thought was born in the minds of all the Ratmen blocking the citizens: humans were invincible.
Row after row of panicked Ratmen jumped into the waterways on both sides of the bridge.
Wilden stopped and stood at the side of the bridge.
There were always a few stray Ratmen attempting to slip through, and Wilden would not allow them to jump into the midst of the elderly and weak walking in the center of the group.
Furthermore, he had to wait for Mia to catch up before they would move forward together.
“Cross the bridge quickly!” someone else shouted.
The humans had already trampled the Ratmen blocking their path underfoot, and they could also see the street on the other side of the bridge.
The humans were much more orderly than the Ratmen; the citizens, messy but orderly, quickly ran across the narrow stone bridge.
Mia had already spotted Wilden, and she realized that this indicated the people at the very front were temporarily safe.
But behind her, that wall of fire had lasted less than ten seconds.
The moment it vanished, the churning mass of rats surged forward.
“Go!” Five seconds after the last civilian’s foot stepped onto the bridge, Mia brushed past Wilden.
The two of them ran side by side toward the other side of the bridge.
But just as they had stepped onto the stone bridge, in the middle of the bridge, a large hand covered in fur suddenly reached out from the edge, followed by another, and then a massive rat head.
That head was almost as big as the entire body of a dog; it belonged to a Rat Ogre.
It was a mutant monster created by the Ratmen using their evil technology.
After it climbed onto the bridge, it stood upright, using its hands and feet like a giant ape, and even in this posture, it was still a head taller than Wilden.
If it stood fully straight, it would certainly be three meters tall.
This monster was a pure collection of the strongest muscles and the most violent rage.