Chapter 011: Dead End

At that moment, Leoport’s long sword became a torrent of blades, with combat energy swirling along its edge… His strength was indeed extraordinary—cold streams of combat energy surged forth, and in less than a moment, he knocked down all eleven remaining riders along with their horses.

Yet when he turned to look in Du Fan’s direction, he was so enraged that he almost spat out blood. Du Fan, along with Gaffield and Chenchen, had already mounted some of the Blood Armor Army’s spare horses. Though they hadn’t taken many, the rest had been slain by Du Fan in a single swing. By the time Leoport attacked, Du Fan and his companions had run far enough that they were nearly out of sight.

How could Leoport expect that his carefully planned strategy not only failed to help him but was instead used by his opponent against him? Ahead, Du Fan glanced back at Leoport and laughed loudly, “Prince Leoport, you’re truly skilled! You dealt with those twelve knights so quickly? I wonder how many more ambushers lie ahead for you. If they all attacked you at once, what are your chances of winning?”

Leoport’s face turned pale with rage. Glancing at the corpses of his subordinates at his feet, he gritted his teeth and said, “Du Fan! Even if I chase you to the ends of the earth, I will never let you go!” With that, his combat energy surged, and he rushed after Du Fan’s fleeing direction once again.

With these strong horses, Du Fan could flee at a decent speed. Whenever his horse grew exhausted, he would simply switch to another, so his pace never slowed. Still, Leoport was an unparalleled warrior. As he pursued, he had made up his mind: he must not let Du Fan and his companions survive!

Thus, with all his strength, the distance between the two grew smaller and smaller!

Watching Leoport chase after him, Du Fan frowned. All around was red land with no cover. He had no time to stop and recover his strength. If Leoport caught up, he would be no match at all.

If things continued like this, once his horses ran out of strength, it would be the end of him.

Du Fan pondered for a moment before suddenly deciding to slow down his horse. He turned to Leoport with a smile and said, “Your Highness Leoport, after my fight with Your Highness Garfield back then, we made a bet. How about we make one today?”

Leoport, who was chasing closely, originally didn’t want to talk, but he knew Du Fan was not easy to deal with. Since Du Fan had spoken now, there must be some scheme behind it. He didn’t dare to be careless either, so he slowed down slightly and said from afar, “Duke, what do you want? To bet on whether I can kill you?”

Du Fan shook his head and laughed. “No, no… Your Highness Leoport, back then in the forest outside Odinburg, I truly admired your archery skills! I’ve always wanted to have a proper competition with you if I got the chance. But fate didn’t allow it—instead of competing, we ended up in this situation. What a pity!”

Du Fan’s words were completely meaningless, serving no practical purpose.

Leoport merely snorted in response. He quickly sped up, rising dozens of meters in just a few leaps. At the same time, he swung his long sword sharply, and a flash of light appeared—followed by a “thud”—as the two horses behind him were cut in half!

Fortunately, these were warhorses trained rigorously by the Blood Armor Army. If they had been ordinary horses, they would likely have panicked in such a situation.

Leoport had planned to use his sword to scatter the horse herd, but he never expected the warhorses he had trained to be so strong. He wasn’t sure whether to feel frustrated or pleased.

Ahead, Du Fan laughed at this scene. He raised his hand slightly, and once the horses moved forward a bit, widening the distance between them, he turned back and said with a smirk, “Your Highness, are you interested in making a bet? I really admired your archery skills outside the forest back then. How about we have a shooting contest today to see who can kill the other? As for the stake, it would naturally be our own lives!”

With that, Du Fan took out an iron-reinforced bow from his storage ring along with a quiver of arrows. He drew back the bow and shot at Leoport.

You have to know that not everyone in the world has a storage ring. LeoPorter (Porter) is no match for Du Fan at this moment, so how could he find a bow and arrows to shoot at Du Fan? He could only feel his heart sink and charge forward even more fiercely!

Just then, with a “whoosh,” the bowstring snapped, and an arrow tipped with feathers shot toward LeoPorter (Porter)’s direction!

Although Du Fan now had less than 30% of his original strength and was by no means a match for LeoPorter (Porter), with this bow and a little bit of combat energy left, it wasn’t impossible for him to shoot.

So this arrow was shot with deadly intent!

LeoPorter (Porter) had seen Du Fan in action before and was already on guard. Seeing the arrow coming toward him, he suddenly stopped in his run and swung his sword backward. With a “clang,” the arrow was shattered into wood shavings…

LeoPorter (Porter) sneered and turned to charge forward again.

But doing so slowed him down, and the distance he had barely caught up on was lost again.

Du Fan hadn’t expected this single arrow to do much to LeoPorter (Porter), so he wasn’t too disappointed. He simply drew another arrow and kept shooting it in LeoPorter (Porter)’s direction.

The next dozen arrows, though none missed, pushed LeoPorter (Porter) further behind, until eventually, his figure was barely visible.

Yet Du Fan wasn’t very happy either. Those arrows had used up almost all his remaining combat energy, and such meager results were extremely disappointing.

With that thought, Du Fan stuffed the iron bow back into his storage ring and took out the few remaining magic scrolls, stuffing them into his sleeves. Then he glanced at Chenchen, who was weak in his arms, and whispered, “How are you now?”

Chenchen opened her blurred eyes and after a moment, said softly, “I won’t be able to recover anytime soon. The magic energy in my body is probably not enough to sustain my body anymore… I need rest… What happens next depends entirely on you!”

Du Fan nodded.

Chenchen smiled faintly, and suddenly a glow appeared around her. In less than a moment, she turned back into a cute little white cat.

But this time, the kitten was extremely weak, not even having the strength to open its eyes.

Du Fan shook his head, casually pulling Chenchen into his arms. He glanced at Garfield and said in a low voice, “Prince Garfield, what should we do now? This is your territory; I’m not familiar with it at all!”
Garfield watched as Chenchen transformed into a cat, but his expression remained unchanged. He simply smiled slightly and said, “If we’re away from the Southern Plains, this must be the Red Soil Plains within the Laney Empire… There’s nothing else on these Red Soil Plains except for some wandering tribes. If we can find one of these tribes and join them, we might not be able to escape Leopold’s pursuit, but at least we can hide for a while.”
At this point, a hint of disdain appeared on Garfield’s face. “If I weren’t completely powerless right now, how would I fear him? As long as I regain my strength, he’ll be doomed!”
Du Fan smiled bitterly inwardly. How could he not understand this logic? But if he understood it, how could Leopold not?
Unfortunately, this injury wasn’t like simply consuming combat energy or magic power. If it were just a matter of consumption, he could recover with plenty of magic potions and the like. But since this injury required gradual recovery, there was no other solution.
For the next half day, Du Fan and Garfield continued to race across the Red Soil Plains. A few more horses died from exhaustion, but it didn’t slow them down.
Leopold, on the other hand, kept chasing them relentlessly. But just as he got close, Du Fan would throw a magic scroll at him, forcing him to retreat. After three or four such incidents, Du Fan ran out of magic scrolls and had nothing left to throw, leaving him helpless as Leopold drew closer and closer.
Having been hit by Du Fan’s magic scrolls, Leopold was somewhat disheveled. So although he rushed forward aggressively, he still tried to maintain a distance. Eventually, after several attempts, he realized that Du Fan was only pretending to throw scrolls and actually hadn’t thrown any. He then grew confident, laughed wildly, and said, “Du Fan! Now that you’ve run out of magic scrolls, what can you do to me?”
He then swung a sword strike, cutting the last two horses Du Fan had left in half, bringing himself even closer.

Du Fan was feeling frustrated, not knowing what to do. But just then, he suddenly saw a gathering-like area on the plain ahead. The place was filled with leather tents connected tightly together. At the periphery, a group of warriors armed with spears stood on guard, looking alert as they saw horses approaching. Seeing this, Du Fan realized it must be the tribe Gaffield had mentioned. Truly, there’s always a way out… He couldn’t help but laugh, then exchanged a glance with Gaffield, and the two rode toward the tribe…