Chapter 182
Chapter 182
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 182
Chapter Title: Summit Decisive Battle (1)
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The king's roar echoed thunderously.
Whether because the voice itself was excessively massive or because of the intense emotion packed within it, even the Starburst mages burning with hatred flinched.
But there was no time to stand still.
The king's bellow had turned into a command, and at last, the army began to move.
“Advance!”
“Knights, take the lead!”
“Mages, provide support!”
In the rear, standing a bit separated from the other units, were about thirty figures—they were the mages.
The mage unit that the Giant King had gathered by issuing an emergency decree across the entire kingdom. Light flowed from their hands.
“Annihilate them!”
The spells manifesting from the mages' hands were varied. Some summoned fire, others lightning, and still others chilling frost.
If that magic struck as is, the regular soldiers and mages would suffer devastating losses.
Of course, they couldn't allow that.
“Hoo.”
After steadying her breath, Eloise extended her staff toward the incoming spells.
With that single motion, the staff imbued with omnipotent control over magic unleashed its power, bolstered by its formidable master's mana.
“Uh...”
“The magic...!?”
“What are you doing!? Fire properly!”
The oncoming flames, lightning, and frost began to lose their power and wander aimlessly. Some even reversed direction to strike their own allies.
The mage who had wrought this miracle, Eloise, lightly wiped her forehead with the hand not holding her staff.
Her hand was slick with sweat.
‘...This is tough.’
Unlike manipulating the spells cast by the Starburst mages, interfering with enemy spells was far more demanding.
Thus, even for her, controlling all those numerous spells at will was impossible.
She had merely disrupted them chaotically, allowing some to rebound toward the enemy on their own.
In any case, the disruption was a success.
With the enemy's initial attack fizzling out, the next chance to strike was theirs.
And Elder Latis did not miss that opportunity.
“Attack—!”
With a bloodcurdling shout, now it was the Starburst mages launching their magical assault.
Unlike the kingdom mages who had each cast different spells, they chanted the same incantation, pooling their power as one.
Flames.
The most destructive and powerful form of spell, one they couldn't recklessly use in the underground world due to risks of air depletion or explosions, now manifested.
The magical flames coalesced small above the mages' heads, then ballooned in size in an instant.
Before long, they had grown large enough to fill an entire room and shot toward the enemy.
“Dodge, dodge!”
“Don't break formation! Anyone who flees loses their head!”
Some soldiers collapsed or threw themselves aside, but far more raised their shields and held their ground.
This was the result of hellish training.
To withstand attacks from massive magic beasts—threats no individual could block—they had undergone training so grueling it could be said to shave away their sanity.
Shoulder to shoulder, trusting their comrades, never retreating even if death was certain.
However, that training now became poison.
“Aaah—!”
“It's hot!”
With a boom, the massive fireball slammed straight into the neatly aligned formation.
Rather than maintaining its shape, the fireball spread out in a fan just before impact, engulfing the entire front line. This was thanks to Eloise's momentary interference, altering its form.
The heat from these flames was so intense that the twenty or so soldiers at the forefront turned to ash in an instant.
They didn't even leave a single piece of corpse.
Those standing a bit farther back weren't safe either.
The immense heat radiating from the exploding fireball left them in a state so gruesome they'd envy those who burned to death immediately.
All exposed skin blistered and boiled, while their superheated armor began searing their bodies from the inside.
Hearing the sound of roasting meat from within their own armor—knowing it was their own flesh cooking—was an utterly horrific torment.
“M-My armor, get it off, hurry—!”
“Uwaaaah—!”
At least the knights didn't suffer such misery. Thanks to their innate anti-magic resistance, the magical flames and the heat they generated lost power the moment they touched the knights' bodies.
Those directly hit by the flames suffered only light burns—scant injury compared to the spell's might.
But another attack awaited them.
“Aim—!”
Arsen's knights.
Still green as knights since awakening not long ago, but seasoned enough as warriors, they calmly raised their heavy crossbows against the charging enemy knights without flinching.
Twelve in total.
“Fire!”
At the command, the crossbows unleashed their bolts.
Strings made from powerful magic beast byproducts, enhanced by embedded spells, propelled the bolts at lightning speed.
The kingdom knights had to face them without even recognizing what crossbows were or how the attack worked.
Regrettably, in a situation where they hadn't anticipated arrows flying, no one had the skill to stylishly block them.
“Gah!”
“My arm!”
The incoming bolts tore through the flesh and blood of the onrushing knights. With the front-line soldiers rolling on the ground engulfed in heat as shields, the damage was even greater.
Had there been no magic attack—if the knights had charged mixed among the soldiers—they couldn't have achieved such results.
But there was no time to celebrate landing a blow.
Only about a dozen knights were wounded or killed by the bolts; the survivors still outnumbered Arsen's knights by more than double.
Reno at the vanguard shouted.
“All of you, prioritize defense! Just focus on surviving!”
“We'll survive!”
The other knights and warriors echoed in chorus.
A shout to overcome the fear from the overwhelming numerical disadvantage and the despair of inevitable defeat.
Just before clash, Anon and Bazkal bellowed at full force.
“In the name of the whole body—!”
"I'll smash your skulls to pieces!"
At last, the two formations collided.
The dialogue of steel and blood began.
* * *
Amid the fierce battlefield, an oddly serene space existed.
Arsen and Nardork, the two mighty knights, slowly circled each other's lines clockwise, engaging in a subtle battle of distance—widening and closing it.
During this, Nardork spoke first.
“Your mage friends over there aren't what they used to be.”
“They still seem better than yours.”
“Well... with no preserved magical techniques to speak of, what choice do they have?”
“If they figured out things about this mountain summit, maybe they coaxed or tortured the captives? Could've extracted magic from them.”
“Not much to know, apparently. They're young ones—can't help it if they don't know.”
As they chatted, a few knights targeted Arsen's rear.
Likely to aid the king while earning merit by slaying the enemy leader. But blocking them was Naraekal's job alone.
“Eek!”
As Naraekal whistled past perilously close to his face, the knight attempting to ambush Arsen hastily retreated.
Seeing this, Arsen clicked his tongue lightly.
‘Tch, missed.’
Thanks to accelerating his thought speed to the extreme, Arsen could engage in a mind game with Nardork while simultaneously controlling Naraekal.
But lacking full focus, his precision suffered—he could force retreats, but killing outright was difficult.
At that moment, Nardork tsked and waved his hand.
“Fall back.”
“Y-Your Majesty.”
“Do I look like I'll lose?”
That single remark sufficed.
The knight retreated as if to say he dared not doubt the king. Glancing at the battlefield behind the retreating knight, Arsen's face soured ever so slightly.
‘This isn't good...’
There, another magic duel was unfolding.
Eloise had erected a barrier of thorny vines encircling the formation, and the enemy was trying to burn through it.
After several clashes of fire and frost, frost emerged victorious.
Now, the frost-covered thorny vines wrapped the entire formation in a circle, shrinking their attack perimeter and turning the fight into a prolonged war.
But despite such valiant efforts, the battle's tide turned against them.
A fight where the enemy outnumbered them five-to-one including regular soldiers—it was inevitable.
They held by maintaining a defensive formation, but exhaustion would spell certain defeat.
‘I need to win here.’
Nardork's stance was bizarre.
He merely dangled his two axes, swinging them alternately, yet no opening appeared for Arsen to exploit.
Each time he raised and lowered one, the bear-form Jin he rode would widen or close the gap, the odd rhythm disrupting Arsen's breathing.
It meant mastery not just in combat techniques, but in handling his Jin as well.
Even knowing time was against him, Arsen conversed to find even a tiny gap—to start the duel on favorable terms.
In fights between masters, an early minor advantage could decide victory.
“Looks like you've reached the Grand Knight realm.”
“Grand Knight?”
“Knights who’ve absorbed essence. Playing dumb?”
“Who knows... it just sort of happened...”
As he trailed off, the black lion kicked off the ground.
Focused on talking, Nardork had momentarily closed the distance—hard to counter instantly with hand movements.
Arsen pierced that gap precisely, seizing first strike.
‘Opening!’
At a distance where the black lion's charge would be instantaneous, Arsen's spear spun with a roar as it thrust.
The drill spear that had shattered every obstacle thus far—this mighty relic struck like a hunting serpent at the foe's neck.
But in that instant,
Nardork gripped one axe short.
“Ha! Big noise!”
Clang—a thunderous clash of axe and spear.
Amid the screech of grinding metal, Isht's spear wailed, but Nardork's expression remained calm.
A spear that shattered all it touched or at least tore hands apart failed to show its prowess before the Giant King's axe.
“Ng...!”
Acknowledging his ambush's failure, Arsen leaped back swiftly to regroup his disrupted momentum.
But Nardork didn't miss the opening, counterattacking immediately.
As he blocked with the short-gripped left axe, he swung the right axe with full might.
‘Coming at this range?’
With his colossal height and matching long arms, the Giant King's axe reach exceeded imagination.
Arsen had retreated to a distance where even his spear thrust wouldn't connect—yet the Giant King's axe casually encompassed Arsen's head.
Crisis surged; Arsen's hair stood on end.
‘It'll hit!’
He tilted his head and arched his back; wind whistled over his head.
Fortunate quick dodge—the axe merely grazed his helmet, splitting it in half.
No time to bid farewell to the treasured relic unearthed from Narbik ruins that had journeyed with him.
The Giant King, regripping his left axe long, pressed the second attack.
This targeted the torso—hard to fatally wound, but reliable to land, notoriously tough to evade.
Arsen angled his spear to block while launching his body airborne to deflect the impact.
Then, collision.
“Guh...!”
A car-crash roar. Arsen on the black lion flew back several meters.
Throwing himself backward deflected the shock; taking it grounded would have pulverized him.
‘What power!’
Inhuman strength, suspiciously like a specialty.
Even for a massive high knight, overwhelming Arsen—a high knight, no, a step higher—was abnormal.
Shaking his numb hand open and closed from the blow, Nardork across from him burst laughing.
“First foe in ages not dropping in one hit—nice! Let's see if you take another!”
This time charging personally, Nardork's bear took abrupt steps forward.
Fast for its bulk, but inferior to Arsen's black lion.
Especially in burst speed—outclassed—so Arsen sidestepped leisurely to flank. Then, one of Nardork's axes glowed.
“Come here!”
The light's effect was clear. An unidentified force from the axe began pulling Arsen.
Precisely, his armor, weapons, and Jin.
Earth science made its nature obvious.
‘Magnetism!’
Far beyond the wind axe he'd given Bazkal.
Against knights in metal armor and arms, what ability could be more efficient?
No time to think—Nardork raised his axe toward the magnetically dragged Arsen.
And swung down to cleave his target.
“Take this!”