. Chapter 134 The forest at night, the phantom horse between illusion and reality
The crescent moon hangs high, and the cold silver light gently sways down, as if a sacred shawl is wrapped over this dark land.
For people with travel experience, the silent night undoubtedly requires more attention than the daytime. Quite a few nocturnal monsters are cunning and clever by nature, and are particularly good at attacking travelers in the middle of the night. Even if you are not unlucky enough to bump into these guys, meeting a pack of wolves in the dark is definitely not a pleasant thing. Therefore, even a fully armed mercenary group or a large caravan will never dare to take it lightly at night, even if it is walking on a familiar path. It will definitely confirm the camping location again and again and make complete preparations.
There is an old saying among travelers who are away from home all year round, which is "don't enter the forest where you can't find it". The forest at night is far more dangerous than the plains or hills with good sight conditions. Unless there is no other choice, few people will be interested in using their own lives to challenge whether this ancient saying is correct.
This unknown jungle on the map belongs to the territory of a ferocious beast with a small reputation in the surrounding area. In a village dozens of miles away from here, a good hunter who was lucky enough to escape from it claimed that this beast looked like a tiger, but it was extremely large, with rare cream-colored fur and black m¨¢o. It has horizontal stripes, moves as fast as the wind, and seems to possess far more intelligence than ordinary animals. If he hadn't been blessed by a lucky woman and met a group of adventurers who generously extended a helping hand along the way, he might have died long ago. Even so, this group of powerful adventurers was not able to keep the evil white beast behind. It even injured two people and fled.
Afterwards, according to the analysis of experienced adventurers, this white tiger should not be an ordinary animal, but a rare and ferocious animal. Dire animals are larger, tougher, and more aggressive versions of regular animals. In wilderness survival illustrations, they often have a ferocious, prehistoric, or even demonic appearance. Thinking back carefully, this white tiger does have strange and abrupt gray-white bone spurs on several joints of its body. At this thought, these brave adventurers couldn't help but secretly sweat. If the ferocious white tiger really went crazy and fought hard at that time, even if they were lucky enough to kill the opponent, they would probably lose most of their team.
The nearby lords had mobilized their knights to try to encircle and suppress this beast, but they were easily avoided by it with the help of the geographical location, and ultimately achieved nothing. Fortunately, the ferocious tiger seemed to have no intention of coming out of the forest where there was plenty of food and risking an attack on humans. You know, according to the cases in the Dangerous Creatures Illustrated Book, this ferocious tiger can easily drag at least half a dozen knights to be buried with it even if it fights to the death. And if you can't contain it and let it escape, it will undoubtedly be more troublesome to hold a grudge from now on. Since there is no obvious actual threat, the lord is naturally unwilling to let his precious knights fight such a powerful monster to the end. As for hiring more powerful adventurers to eliminate the harm, the lord would have to take out a lot of golden coins from his pocket. Therefore, the matter was finally settled. Except for a few adventurers who went deep into the forest and planned to kill tigers to make a name for themselves, and disappeared without a trace, the lives of ordinary people in the territory were still ordinary.
Night, quiet jungle.
With an elegant and mighty pace, he walked lightly through the lush bushes. This ferocious white tiger in its prime carefully patrolled its territory. Tigers are the kings of the mountains and forests, not to mention the more tyrannical and ferocious tigers. Not to mention ordinary bears, leopards, and the like, even most of the magical beasts with higher intelligence would not be able to compete with the most powerful and violent animals if they really wanted to fight. Ever since it ventured into a mountain cave three years ago and killed a young foreign green dragon in a sneak attack, it had established its status as an absolute king in one fell swoop, and no opponent dared to challenge it.
However, tonight, this ferocious beast was keenly aware that there always seemed to be some unspeakable weirdness in the forest. It has discovered that many animals, including some prey that it considers more difficult even in its eyes, have begun to disperse and escape from somewhere for some reason. This sign is quite familiar to the ferocious white tiger. It is the scene of escaping from the claws of a predator that is too powerful to resist.
How can it be? As the saying goes, there is no room for two tigers in one mountain. Opponents that could pose such a threat have already been eliminated one by one by themselves. Could it be that, just like the little green dragon a few years ago, another powerful outsider came to his forest? The ferocious white tiger thought angrily as he followed the traces of the escaping animals and cautiously moved in the opposite direction towards the source. Although it does not have human intelligence, its hunting instinct passed down from ancient times tells it not to be careless at this moment. I think back then, if the sneak attack location had not been chosen well and it was unable to fly high in a mountain cave, the outcome between it and the young green dragon would still have been?It can be known.
As the ferocious white tiger gradually advanced, it could sense that there were fewer and fewer animals around it. In the end, it became almost a complete vacuum. Upon noticing this scene, even the arrogant and ferocious white tiger couldn't help but feel a sinking heart. You must know that even when it is hunting by itself, those little guys who climb the trees and burrow underground will not turn around and run away. The flying birds may not even move. This invisible sense of oppression made it unable to help but lower its body, using the nearby dense bushes to completely hide itself, and observe secretly.
Suddenly, a burst of complex emotions without any reason filled the heart of this violent beast. It was an emotion derived from ancient terror, as if the natural enemy of his own race was approaching step by step. The ferocious white tiger's body trembled, and almost its first reaction was to turn around and flee desperately. After a few steps, its pride as the king of the forest stopped the overwhelming fear in its body, and it stopped with difficulty. pace. But even so, the ferocious white tiger's body seemed like a marionette with its string broken, unable to control it freely, and could only stand motionless in place.
The instinct of the ferocious animal made the white tiger vaguely aware of something, and he turned his head with difficulty to look behind him. It knew very well in its heart that the source of all this fear was rapidly approaching.
In the dark forest, a tall jet-black horse-shaped creature suddenly flashed out quietly. It has a black head and body, a gray mane and tail, and disembodied smoke-colored hooves. Its shape is illusory and illusory, and it does not seem to be a completely real thing. This mysterious creature that looks like a horse moves extremely fast. Even if an ordinary horse runs wildly, it can only be 20/30 times faster. Especially when it is running in this dense forest, its speed does not slow down at all, and even more so when it lands. Not a speck of dust, no sound at all. If one hadn't looked closely, one could see that there was a saddle, bits and reins attached to the monster's back, and a knight shrouded in shadow was sitting on it. Those who saw it would probably only doubt what they were seeing. See if it is the legendary "ominous omen".
If there are knowledgeable adventurers here, they may be able to identify that this horse-shaped creature is the exclusive mount created by magicians using mysterious magic for long-distance travel - the Phantom Pony.
The Phantom Pony is not a real living creature, but a magical effect formed by the three poles of the "Creation" sub-school of the Conjuration Department, one of the eight schools of magic. This jet-black horse is not an alien creature summoned by a summoning spell, nor is it a projection, but a semi-real existence directly created by the true shape of the shadow. Due to the effect of magic, no matter how powerful an animal is, once it approaches, it will generate incomparable fear in the deepest heart, and will reflexively avoid it.
??According to the caster's own spellcasting ability, the effect of the spell and the duration of its existence vary greatly. Even if the phantom pony created by ordinary magicians is much faster than a horse, it is only faster; and the more powerful mentors can even make the phantom pony survive on sand, mud, swamps and even water. Running at full speed without difficulty; if the same spell is used in the hands of a master, this semi-real black horse can even fly freely in the air, and its speed is comparable to that of a giant dragon.
Although compared with a real mount, the phantom horse that is just a magic horse is quite fragile and will dissipate after receiving a certain amount of damage. It is difficult to survive for a long time in a fierce battle, but if it is just for movement, The extremely fast phantom horse can almost be said to be the best choice besides the dragon. After all, teleporting at every turn is too much of a luxury even for magicians.
The knight on the back of the phantom horse is wearing a dark blue robe, which is difficult to distinguish in the dark night, almost blending in with the shadowy mount under his crotch. When the source of fear passed behind the bushes beside the ferocious white tiger who could not move, the knight turned his head slightly and glanced, a trace of surprise flashed in his deep eyes. However, casually getting rid of this beast with a small reputation and winning honors did not seem to be the purpose of this mysterious knight's trip. After a casual glance, he turned back and made no move.
In just a few breaths, the phantom pony disappeared from the sight of the ferocious white tiger. It was only then that the proud king of the forest felt his body again. His front feet gave way and he couldn't help but fall to the ground. After several strenuous attempts, the ferocious white tiger finally propped up his limp body and ran away in the opposite direction of the phantom colt without hesitation. For the next few days, it did not dare to leave the cave to hunt.
Even though they are just animals, they also know very well what kind of opponents they can afford to offend and what kinds of opponents they cannot afford to offend.
The forest is turbulent tonight, with the sounds of small animals escaping in panic everywhere. On the contrary, those demons with higher intelligenceAlthough the magical beasts - Pik Jing, Bone-faced Beast, Owl Bear, etc., are not at the top of the forest food chain in terms of combat power, they perform better than the ferocious white tiger, and they seem not to be affected by the Phantom at all. Affected by the horse, he just looked at the large number of animals running around with suspicion.
As quickly as the darkness came, not long after, the knight driving the phantom pony had already passed through the large forest and climbed to a higher hill.
At this moment, the first touch of fish belly white has appeared in the eastern sky. It's going to be dawn. On the edge of a steep cliff on the horizon, the white castle is particularly eye-catching.