Patches ran far into the night, but with a spear and a large shield in his hands, he soon ran out of breath.
So, when he no longer saw the demihumans or the three unlucky souls, he stopped, crouched down, and gasped for air. He raised the back of his hand to wipe the fine beads of sweat from his bald head.
"Damn, I hope those three unlucky bastards can hold off those demihumans a little longer so I can escape... Still, who are those three guys? What's going on? They appeared here inexplicably..."
"Hey, hey, whatever they're doing, it just so happens they appear at this moment and provoke that group of demihumans. That means they're just unlucky. I can't blame them."
Patches chuckled to himself for a while, then suddenly heard the sound of hooves behind him.
He stifled his laugh, turned his head to look, and saw one of the three men from earlier, riding a horse and chasing after him.
Patches thought to himself, Turns out it's for me.
He quickly made a decision. He threw away his cumbersome spear and shield, spread his legs, and ran towards the nearby forest, hoping to get deep into the woods in one go so the other couldn't catch him on horseback.
Nidhogg had dealt with most of the demihumans, leaving the rest to Azan and Serpico. When he saw Patches suddenly turn and run, he summoned Torrent and gave chase all the way.
He saw that Patches was still trying to dive into the bushes and escape. Thinking that he had no suitable ranged weapon in hand, he simply took out the Nightrider Flail he had obtained earlier and threw it like a throwing weapon!
CLANG—!
The Nightrider Flail flew through the air, hitting Patches in the back of the head, knocking him down. He fell to the ground.
Nidhogg slowed his horse and slowly approached Patches.
Patches lay on the ground, crying out in pain, but his mind was racing.
He thought, This man doesn't want my life directly. It seems there's still room for negotiation. Whether I can escape tonight depends on whether my face and mouth can function properly.
So Patches got up, turned to Nidhogg, and looked surprised: "Ah, it's you! I thought a demihuman was chasing me. I was so shocked!"
"You too, throwing a flail without even looking. What if you hurt me? I was about to head to Stormveil Castle to bring you reinforcements. You almost killed a good guy!"
Patches spoke as if the facts were exactly as he claimed.
Nidhogg dismounted, recalled Torrent, and ignored his words, simply standing and waiting.
Patches saw that Nidhogg was ignoring him, so he tiptoed, trying to escape. But Nidhogg seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. As soon as he moved, Nidhogg drew his greatsword and pointed it at him.
"Hey, hey—" Patches didn't dare move. He just pointed at the greatsword in Nidhogg's hand. "You're bored doing this. You doubt me? I really was going to Stormveil City to call for help!"
"Put the sword down quickly. Alas, it's very hard to be a good person in this world, and you have to be misunderstood."
Nidhogg still paid no attention to Patches.
He waited a while and saw Azan and Serpico approaching.
The armor and weapons on their bodies were stained with the blood of demihumans, but they didn't seem to have suffered serious injuries.
Patches saw two more approaching, and his heart raced.
This man is a bit strange. He just ignores me. Now that all three are here, I can't escape. Am I going to be buried here tonight?
"Are you alright?" Nidhogg looked at them, still asking just in case.
Both Azan and Serpico shook their heads. Azan even flipped up his visor with slight excitement, raised his bloodstained double-headed iron rod, and said, "The remaining demihumans were killed by us."
Nidhogg nodded, then turned to Patches.
Patches was annoyed at being looked up and down by Nidhogg. He couldn't help but frown and ask, "What the hell do you want?"
"We saved your life. You should repay us a little, right?" Nidhogg said.
Patches was stunned, then said confidently, "I didn't need you to save me. I was just about to kill that group of demihumans. Where did I need you to do that? ... You're blackmailing me, aren't you?"
Even Azan and Serpico were amused by this for the first time.
Initially, they had seen Patches besieged by demihumans, looking pitiful and a little sorry for him. But now, there was no pity at all.
Nidhogg was the most experienced in dealing with Patches. He didn't say much. He simply raised his sword, placed it on Patches's neck, and said, "Well, say another word... Robbery!"
Seeing Nidhogg do this, Serpico didn't think much of it.
However, Azan was an old knight and felt a little sorry in his heart. But he thought Nidhogg probably wouldn't actually do it, and Patches was a bit of a slippery character, so he didn't say a word and waited to see what would happen.
Patches looked embarrassed: "If you can't blackmail, you immediately resort to robbery? That's too dull, really. How can you rob me?"
Nidhogg said without ceremony:
"I don't care if you're interested or not. Take everything on your body. Otherwise, don't blame me for doing it myself. I don't know if I'll be gentle or rough. I don't know if I'll scrape a layer of skin off you."
Seeing him like this, Patches understood that today he could only cut his losses and avoid disaster. So he reluctantly started to take things out from his person, producing a "Pickled Golden Bird's Claw."
Nidhogg didn't move his greatsword, but said, "You're sending out scraps?"
"Alas..." Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Patches sighed, quietly cursed "bad luck," and continued to pull all sorts of things from his body.
Later, there were so many that both Azan and Serpico were stunned. How could he hide so many things on his person?
Patches pulled out everything on his body, threw it on the ground, and then, ignoring Nidhogg's greatsword, suddenly crouched down and said rather pitifully:
"These are all my things. You can take them if you want. But it's a pity I'm so ruined... Alas, I have elderly and young at home, all expecting me to bring back food. I didn't expect this to happen tonight."
He also had a hot temper. Originally, he was a member of a thief gang that robbed everywhere, and then he turned into a merchant. He didn't expect to be set up in the best "robbery."
Of course, he hadn't lost his last glimmer of hope and was lying casually.
Serpico was also a smart man and certainly wouldn't believe Patches's nonsense.
Azan was hesitant, wavered for a while, and said to Nidhogg, "Why don't you just take his things?"
"Don't worry, I'll only take two things." Nidhogg took only the "Pickled Golden Bird's Claw" and another item, black like solidified lava.
Its name was "Maliketh's Shackle." He didn't understand how Patches had accidentally obtained such an artifact. Since he had accidentally encountered Patches, it meant Nidhogg had obtained it.
Seeing that Nidhogg had taken only two things and left the rest for him, Patches couldn't help but be overjoyed. He jumped up, smiled, and recovered:
"If you want to do business, why be so rough? Do you want anything else? For the sake of meeting you tonight, I'll give you a discount?"
Nidhogg waved his hand and said, "Although I haven't changed my mind, you can leave quickly. Otherwise, you'll lose more than these things later."
Patches was shocked.
He said nothing more, quickly gathered everything on the ground, returned to his path, picked up his spear and shield, and ran off without looking back. After a while, he vanished.
Serpico watched Patches disappear, then turned to Nidhogg, pointed at the "Maliketh's Shackle" in his hand, and said, "You were targeting this from the beginning, right? Is it important?"
"He is Patches the 'Untethered,' also known as Patches the 'Slimy,'" Nidhogg said. "If he speaks, you can believe at most half of it. Otherwise, you'll suffer a small loss if it's minor, and lose your life if it's major."
"However, he has good things in his hands. Now that I have this, if I'm right, I'll be able to use it soon."
Azan and Serpico nodded thoughtfully.
Nidhogg looked into the distance at the magnificent castle on the mountaintop—Stormveil Castle.
Even from this distance, one could intuitively see that it was much larger than Castle Morne.
Nidhogg pointed towards Stormveil Castle and said to Azan and Serpico:
"This is Stormveil Castle, where we are going. However, we have been traveling for so long and are in no hurry to rest. Let's first find a place to rest for a while."
They thought about it, both nodded in agreement, and began to look for a suitable place to spend the night.
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