316
Chapter 316
Clonne staggered from the Barbarian's attack but quickly regained her balance and shouted.
"Damn it! Hey, Felix! Cover me!"
Clonne charged in with her mace, her fighting spirit even more ferocious than the Barbarian's.
Felix followed Clonne and rushed toward the Barbarian.
WHOOSH!
As Clonne swung her mace, Felix thrust his sword from a blind spot.
Faced with attacks from both sides, the Barbarian couldn't respond properly and ended up taking the hits.
"ARGGHHH!"
The Barbarian let out a battle cry, but it was useless.
When it came to battle fury, Clonne was no less than an Orc. Her eyes had already rolled back.
"Die! Die! Die!"
She clung to the Barbarian and kept bringing her mace down on his head.
"URGHHHH..."
Even with his tough body, the Barbarian couldn't overcome Clonne's fury.
Finally, the Barbarian's eyes rolled back and he collapsed.
Clonne put her foot on the fallen Barbarian's chest, raised her mace, and shouted.
"I got one!"
THWACK!
Suddenly, something pierced Clonne's shoulder.
"Vice Captain!"
If Clonne hadn't twisted her body at that instant, her heart would have been pierced.
"Damn... What is this…?"
Her shoulder, pierced by the bullet, was turning black.
Felix tried to stop the black blood from flowing, but strangely, it wouldn't stop.
Clonne's face gradually turned pale.
CRASH!
To make matters worse, monsters broke through the stone wall and came over.
Since the Purple Knight-class knights were dealing with the Barbarians, Jorge, from the Delpoa Knights, led his subordinates in charging toward the monsters.
"Everyone, raise your shields!"
They used their sturdy shields to physically block the charging monsters.
Meanwhile, Arin launched fire magic at the monsters.
BOOM BOOM!
Through training with Arina, Arin's circle had grown, increasing her magic power and the number of spells she could use.
RUMBLE!
Jason's earth magic buried the charging monsters in mounds of dirt.
While Arin and Jason used magic, Zeros cast summoning magic from behind.
WHOOM!
A six-layered magic circle was summoned, and a flame giant appeared from within.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The flame giant led its massive body and breathed fire toward the rushing monsters.
WHOOSH!
All the monsters burned in the powerful breath of flames.
But then, something flew toward the mages.
PING!
A magic bullet pierced through the triple barrier and flew toward Zeros.
THUD!
Fortunately, due to the barrier, its trajectory was altered and only grazed his cheek before hitting the ground, but it could have taken his head clean off.
As Zeros' concentration scattered, the summoned flame giant's body became translucent and began to disappear.
"Oh, no..."
Zeros panicked as the flame giant's summoning was canceled after consuming large amounts of magic power.
His habit of summoning first when pressured had led to an inefficient battle strategy in actual combat.
Zeros regained his composure, gritted his teeth, squeezed out magic power, and attacked the incoming monsters.
Richmond and Bane were also setting up bone walls outside the autonomous district to block magical beasts from entering, but there were too many to block them all.
Though Bane used ice magic without rest and Richmond summoned undead, despite their efforts, monsters and magical beasts kept coming endlessly.
Additionally, they couldn't let their guard down against the magic bullets fired by Knight Killers from afar.
Even one hit would be fatal since it was impossible to heal from.
Decker, who was facing the Barbarians, saw the situation turning unfavorable and shouted to the knights.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
Decker tried to pull the knights back while being careful not to break formation, planning to defend from inside the west gate.
But then, magical beasts that had broken through the fence melted by acid solution showed themselves.
SCREECH!
The magical beasts charged toward the knights from the flank.
Diego tried to block the magical beasts while wielding his dual swords.
But then something rushed in and pushed away a magical beast with its body.
SHRIEK!
The magical beast screamed as it rolled on the ground with its body shattered.
Diego looked at the large figure standing before him.
'A, a Barbarian?'
The new Barbarians who appeared were different from those who broke through the west gate.
ROARRR!
But these Barbarians rushed toward the magical beasts rather than the knights, grabbing their sharp fangs with bare hands and breaking their necks by twisting their jaws.
Diego's jaw dropped as he watched three Barbarians turn the magical beasts into pulp.
"Good heavens yo..."
While the suddenly appearing Barbarians helped block the magical beasts attacking from the flank, the front line was still being pushed back.
As the Barbarian that Clonne had knocked down regained consciousness, five Barbarians began charging toward the Black Sword Knights.
While commanding the knights, Decker keenly felt the absence of Red Knight-class warriors.
'Now is not the time to regret such things. I will sacrifice my body to protect the knight order that Young Master Zeke created.'
With a determined face, Decker threw off his cape and charged toward the Barbarians with his sword.
WHOOSH!
A brilliant aura blade rose from his sword.
He took the stance of ‘Exploding Dragon Sword,’which could exert great power by burning even his life force.
"HAAAAAH!"
Just as Decker was about to swing his sword at the Barbarians, something struck down from the sky.
BOOM! BOOM!
A massive lightning bolt of light struck the monsters and magical beasts in front of the west gate.
CRACKLE!
The powerful lightning of light even sealed the movements of the charging Barbarians.
Decker was startled by the power of light.
'Could it be Lady Arina?'
But Arina, who was at Agamemnon Castle, couldn't have come here.
Decker looked up with confusion.
A knight wearing armor emanating holy energy and holding a shining sword was floating in the sky on a horned horse.
Bright light spread from the sword the knight was holding.
Decker's expression turned to disbelief when he saw the knight.
"No way. Young Master...!"
It was Zeke, whom he had practically raised since childhood.
Decker unconsciously shed tears of joy as he watched Zeke emanating holy light.
WHOOSH!
A curtain of light descended upon those at the west gate, and warm light seeped in.
A bright halo of light also seeped into Clonne's wound where she had been hit by the Knight Killer's bullet.
Then the black blood flowing from the wound gradually turned red, and the wound began to heal.
"Huh? I'm fine now?"
As the bleeding somewhat stopped, Clonne jumped up and rotated her shoulder.
She faced the Barbarians with her mace.
"You bastards! Come at me again!"
Just as Clonne, showing remarkable recovery, was about to charge at the Barbarians again.
THUD!
Zeke appeared before the Barbarians holding Roland.
Clonne was surprised to see Zeke's sudden appearance.
“Captain!"
Zeke raised his hand to signal Clonne to wait.
Then he put away Roland and drew out the Giant Hunter.
As he concentrated his spirit power, powerful light flowed from the Giant Hunter.
The Barbarians sensed Zeke's extraordinary energy and stepped back.
But Zeke instead charged forward and mercilessly struck the Barbarians with the Giant Hunter.
THWACK!
The Giant Hunter, which had even taken down Giant Soldiers, needed no explanation for its effectiveness.
Even the Barbarians' bodies, which could block aura and magic, couldn't withstand the Giant Hunter's strike and collapsed.
THUD!
Zeke took out Roland again and cast Recovery on the fallen Barbarians.
WHOOSH!
Recovery's light seeped into the Barbarians.
Feeling the brainwashing power disappear, Zeke immediately cast Healing.
The unconscious Barbarians opened their eyes wide and jumped up simultaneously.
"ROARRR!"
The Barbarians who were freed from their berserk state roared and looked around with blank faces.
"Where is this?"
Other Barbarians approached them.
"Were you captured too?"
"You too?"
The three who came with Zeke were from the Mohican tribe, and the five who just regained consciousness were from the Rock tribe.
The five Barbarians recognized Zeke right away.
"Big Bro Slice-Slice Zeke!"
It seemed he was remembered as ‘Big Bro Slice-Slice Zeke’among the Barbarians.
For now, Zeke nodded in acknowledgment.
"That's right. Slice Slice It's brother Zeke. I'll explain the situation later, but first I need your help."
Although they didn't know what was going on, the Barbarians agreed since Zeke was the only familiar face.
"Alright. Wel help since it's brother Zeke."
The Rock Tribe was known to be the most prideful among the Barbarians, but they were favorable towards Zeke who had caught the Nine-Headed Dragon.
When Zeke appeared, the situation at the West Gate was quickly resolved.
Decker assessed the situation and reorganized the knights' formation to take command again.
"Everyone! Form a tight formation!"
Following Decker's orders, the shield unit and knights formed a tight formation to face the incoming monsters.
Zeke dealt with the beasts in the rear alongside the now-alert Barbarians.
"ROARRR!"
The Barbarians let out battle cries as they grabbed the beasts and threw them.
Zeke activated his Sacred Light technique and shot arrows of light to eliminate the beasts.
But then he received messages from Richmond and Bane.
'M-Master! Strange things are coming!'
'Ugh! My power was insufficient to stop them! Please forgive me, Master!'
Instead of responding to Richmond and Bane's frantic messages, Zeke used his dragon eyes to look beyond the wasteland.
In the distance, he could see a group of troops kicking up dust as they rushed toward the West Gate.
Zeke sensed powerful demonic energy from them.
WOOOONG!
'What's that?'
The massive demonic energy was causing powerful resonance that shook the earth.
Within that energy, Zeke felt the power of the Herald of Blood and Madness.
'Could there be another demon's seal like what Adnan found?'
If there was a demon's seal that could create dimensional rifts and raise demonic energy, it could give endless power to the beasts.
Zeke, who had risen into the sky again, came down to the ground and cast Sacred Light buffs on the Barbarians before unleashing a golden barrier and striking the ground with his sword.
RUMBLE!
Instantly, a massive earthen wall appeared in front of Zeke and the Barbarians, with a moat forming in front of it.
Zeke was gradually mastering the use of the Elemental Sword.
'So I can do this now too.'
Though precise control was still difficult, it was made satisfactorily enough. As Zeke stood on the earthen wall watching the approaching enemies, something flew toward him.
WHOOSH!
A black spear pierced through the air toward Zeke.
The moment Zeke noticed it and raised Roland to deflect the spear, it exploded.
BOOM!
Fragments from the exploded spear scattered everywhere.
Zeke, who was most exposed to the danger, took no damage thanks to Hersion's automatic shield and dragon scale armor.
As the dust cloud settled, something jumped onto the earthen wall and swung a sword at Zeke.
CLANG!
A black bastard sword clashed with Roland.
Through the dust cloud appeared a black knight wearing dark armor from head to toe.
Though similar in appearance to the Empire's Meins seen before, the energy they emanated was completely different.
Zeke's eyebrows twitched at the power he felt through the black knight's sword.
'This power nearly matches Balrog's.'
WOONG!
Zeke and the black knight pushed each other's swords away and stepped back.
Immediately, a dark red aura blade rose from the black knight's sword.
Seeing the black aura blade concentrated with demonic energy, Zeke focused power into Roland.
WOONG!
A blade of light imbued with Sacred Light's power surged from Zeke's sword.
But behind that black knight, dozens more similar black knights were climbing over the earthen wall.
THUD!
All dozens of black knights charged forward wielding bastard swords imbued with demonic energy.
The Barbarians waiting below let out battle cries and rushed at them.
ROARRR!
The Barbarians charged toward the black knights with their shoulders forward.
CRASH!