518
Chapter 518
WHEEEEE!
After giving the retreat signal, he broke through the ice fragments blocking the rampart with other members and came out.
Surprisingly, beyond the temperature drop, a blizzard was raging around them.
Claire was startled.
"The weather suddenly...? How?"
Adnan frowned.
The fierce wind was unsettling.
It felt like being in the middle of the northern continent.
The problem was that the temperature kept dropping.
"The longer we stay, the more our bodies will freeze and we won't be able to move. We need to get inside quickly..."
Before Adnan could finish, something was felt approaching from behind.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The massive ground-shaking sound was chilling.
Tensely looking back, new monsters appeared through the bitter wind.
GRRRR-
A roar like that of a ferocious beast was heard.
Adnan immediately recognized what kind of monsters they were from that sound.
"Ice trolls. Troublesome ones have appeared."
They were ancient monsters that only appeared in sparsely populated highlands even on the northern continent.
Being monsters that lived in cold regions, unlike normal trolls, they had fur and thick fat layers that made them difficult to cut with swords.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The ice trolls shaking the ground fully revealed themselves through the wind.
But seeing their appearance, Adnan's face grew even more serious.
They were twice the size of the ice trolls he knew from the northern continent.
'Are these demons' monsters?'
Adnan drew his twin swords and said to Claire.
"While Bodmir and I hold them off, Captain Claire, continue ranged attacks from the outer wall with your unit."
Claire drew her crossbow and said.
"How can you two face those things? I'll provide cover too!"
Claire spoke energetically and fired multiple arrows from her crossbow at the ice troll.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Dozens of arrows instantly stuck into the ice troll's body.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
But the arrows couldn't properly damage the ice troll with its thick skin.
ROAAAAAAR!
The ice troll roared angrily while shaking off the arrows stuck all over its body.
Adnan shook his head while checking the ice troll and said.
"Arrows are useless against it. Rather, quickly going inside and requesting reinforcement from the knights would increase our survival chances."
Claire nodded at Adnan's cold but accurate judgment and led the other members.
"Retreat from here quickly! We'll help from afar!"
As Claire and other unit members withdrew, Adnan and Bodmir pointed their swords at the ice trolls.
"Whew, they're bigger than the ones we caught in the Ice Mountains before."
"We can only hope they're slower because of their size."
Adnan and Bodmir sprang forward simultaneously.
SWOOSH!
Adnan jumped up and swung his twin swords to distract the vision of the ice troll in front.
GRRRR!
The ice troll swung its ice club violently to catch Adnan.
WHOOSH!
Unfortunately, its speed wasn't much different from normal ice trolls.
Adnan changed directions in mid-air to distract its attention.
Meanwhile, Bodmir slid under the ice troll's feet and raised his bastard sword.
"HAAAAH!"
Bodmir swung his sword at the ice troll's Achilles tendon that was supporting its weight.
SWOOSH!
The Achilles tendon was cut at once by Bodmir's sword strike.
ROAAAR!
The ice troll lost balance for a moment and fell sideways, unable to support its weight.
RUMBLE!
But being a troll, its cut ankle would soon reattach.
So Adnan approached the fallen ice troll and immediately stabbed his twin swords into its eyes.
SQUELCH!
It wasn't enough to just stab the eyes ,the brain had to be destroyed to stop regeneration.
ROAAAAAR!
As the ice troll writhed in pain and tried to strike Adnan with its pot lid-sized hand.
Then Bodmir flew in and cut off the ice troll's arm.
SLASH!
Meanwhile, Adnan drove his twin swords deeper to destroy the ice troll's brain.
Soon the ice troll collapsed, unable to endure.
"Whew..."
They barely took down one ice troll with their combined efforts.
The problem was what came next.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Through the massive blizzard, an army of ice trolls began to surge forward.
Seeing this, Adnan and Bodmir drew their swords and pointed them at the monsters.
Highlanders destined to fight magical beasts and monsters always fought prepared to lose their lives at any moment.
"Well, let's go."
Just as Adnan and Bodmir, having steeled themselves, were about to charge at the ice trolls.
ROAAAAAR!
Suddenly one of the ice trolls that roared began attacking other ice trolls.
'What's happening?'
Adnan and Bodmir were taken aback when the ice trolls suddenly began fighting each other.
Among their confusion, they noticed something strange about the ice troll attacking its own kind ,its eyes had turned red.
ROAAAAAR!
It was attacking other ice trolls while letting out frenzied cries.
Bodmir said to Adnan.
"Don't know what's happening, but let's get up higher. We'll just be snacks for them if we stay here."
Adnan nodded at Bodmir's words and immediately turned back to climb the outer wall.
While impossible for regular knights to climb the nearly seamless outer wall, it wasn't difficult for the two Highlanders.
WHOOSH!
Adnan and Bodmir climbed onto the outer wall and surveyed their surroundings.
They saw strangers with red eyes emanating an unfamiliar energy.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
It was Titus and Ulina of the Three-Eyed clan.
Thanks to Zeke, they had awakened their true Three-Eyed power and were using their blood-eye ability to control the ice trolls and make them fight each other.
Adnan immediately realized the nature of the power Titus and Ulina were wielding.
'To think they had such power. Remarkable.'
While the two held back the approaching ice trolls, Bodmir and Adnan watched the battle situation from the wall.
Their jaws dropped.
"Insane..."
With Hades' barrier gone, tens of thousands of monsters from the gate were flooding toward Mycenae city.
It looked like a wave of monsters.
Adnan recalled a term used in ancient times to describe such a sight.
'Monster Wave.'
It truly described the monsters surging forward like waves.
The sheer volume of monsters pouring in was dizzying.
Then Zeros, the captain of the mage unit, flew through the air and landed on the outer wall.
"Sir Adnan! Glad you're safe. Thank goodness."
Zeros, who had been firing sniper spells from the tower, looked quite tired.
He looked at Bodmir and Adnan and said.
"The number of monsters is beyond imagination."
For Adnan too, this was the largest number he'd seen since the beast horde that attacked the Forest of the Forgotten.
Back then, they were able to hold out thanks to the power of high-table members like the Story Hermit and Manga.
No matter how well-trained, it was impossible for ordinary humans alone to stop such a force of monsters.
Adnan clenched his jaw while searching for a solution.
'We must hold out at least until Sir Zeke arrives.'
They were able to stop the beasts in the Forest of the Forgotten with Zeke's power.
Though the numbers were greater now, there was a vague belief that they could stop this if Zeke came.
'The problem is that monster waves are coming from all four directions of the city.'
Even for the experienced Bodmir and Adnan, it was impossible to defend all four cardinal directions.
As Adnan's concerns deepened.
RUMBLE!
Dark clouds gathered in the sky above the north gate, and massive lightning bolts of light began striking down.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Simultaneously, huge heavenly thunder roared and swept away all the monsters rushing toward the north gate.
Adnan was startled.
"Has Sir Zeke arrived?"
Zeros shook his head at those words.
"No. Lady Arina is guarding that area."
Arina, effectively the strongest mage in Zeke's faction, was firmly defending the north gate.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
This time, a massive gust of wind arose at the east gate.
Duke, who had regained his Black Knight powers, was blowing away the monsters attacking the east gate with wind techniques.
Any monsters that broke through the wind were instantly cut down by Black Corps members wearing enhancement suits.
At the west gate, Hades used magic to stop the monsters' movements, while assassins from Ishtar and Salmak led by Yelin dealt with those climbing up.
'Incredible.'
It was an army with tremendous combat power for a city garrison.
This level seemed to far surpass the military might of any ordinary kingdom.
Zeros spoke to Bodmir and Adnan who were watching in amazement.
"The south gate is the problem. While geographically advantageous for defense, its defensive power itself is the weakest."
Adnan asked Zeros.
"How many troops remain?"
"We have the barbarian unit waiting below and more Three-Eyed clan members like them."
The barbarians and Three-Eyed clan members had strong powers but no one except Zeke could properly handle them, so they were kept on standby.
Adnan's eyes flashed at Zeros' words.
"If they're Three-Eyed clan members, can they disrupt monsters like those two?"
"Yes, while those two have the strongest power, other clan members can use the power as well."
Finally, a plan had formed in Adnan's head.
"Good. Zeros, please instruct the Three-Eyed clan to distract the monsters when I give the signal."
Zeros was startled by those words.
"You're not planning to go down there, are you?"
Adnan nodded.
"From what I observed earlier, the south gate has uneven terrain with many places to hide. If we don't confront them head-on, we can handle those creatures."
Bodmir nodded at those words and stood beside Adnan. Adnan continued speaking.
"Please take me to the Barbarian leader. I know some of their language, so I'll try to get their cooperation."
* * *
'This place...'
Entering the cavern, Zeke surveyed the interior with sunken eyes.
In the middle of the dark cavern stood a massive pillar emanating an ominous energy.
He had sensed something before entering, so it must have served some purpose, but with the destruction of the other world, the pillar seemed dormant, cut off from its magical power supply.
But Zeke remained cautious, approaching the pillar while maintaining his guard.
'If he hid Abel, it would be here.'
That's when it happened.
SWOOSH!
A tentacle stretched out toward Zeke from the darkness.
WHISH!
The shadow blade moved, cutting the tentacle before it could reach Zeke.
HISS!
Acidic liquid dripped from the severed surface of the tentacle.
Soon the tentacle fell limply to the floor with a thud.
'Is this its final struggle?'
Zeke used shadows to clear away the fallen tentacle and approached the bottom of the pillar.
Below the pillar, organic matter resembling tumors had formed something like a nest.
Though it was pulsating, it seemed to be dying as the chaos entity disappeared.
When Zeke approached, several tentacles rose up, but like before, the shadow blades cut them all down.
Getting closer to examine the grotesque nest, surprisingly, there were traces of something sharp having cut through it.
'This is...?'
Looking at the cut marks, they appeared to have been made from the outside rather than the inside.
In other words, someone from the outside had come here and tampered with this nest.
'Could it be the Abyss?'
Zeke raised shadows to spread apart the split nest walls and entered inside.
The inside of the organic nest was like being in the belly of a massive creature, filled with disgusting flesh masses and tentacles.
Zeke went inside to investigate traces of the external intruder.
Then Zeke discovered something inside.
A sarcophagus wrapped in tentacles lay in the center.
'Is that it?'
Abel Draker had taken critical damage when hit in the heart by the adamantium dagger Zeke had thrown.
And Chaos had tried to heal Abel Draker with its power and hand him over to the Abyss.
That sarcophagus was likely the healing place.
Zeke extended shadows to examine the sarcophagus.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Shadow blades cut away the tentacles and organic matter connected to the sarcophagus and brought it before Zeke.
He reached out his hand while looking at the sarcophagus.
'Abel, let's end our ill-fated relationship here.'
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Zeke's martial energy forcibly twisted open the tightly sealed sarcophagus.
CRASH!
With a thunderous sound, the sarcophagus opened.
Gripping Ascalon, Zeke watched the inside of the sarcophagus while maintaining his guard.
But contrary to expectations, nothing happened, and instead something fell limply toward the floor from inside the sarcophagus.
THUD!
What fell with a loud noise was the limp corpse of a man.
'What's this?'
Zeke raised shadows to turn over the sprawled corpse.
He could immediately identify who it was.
None other than Abel Draker.