High Praise
High Praise
The Knight Order had sortied into the forest.
Unsurprisingly, word spread fastest through the community where players gathered.
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[These guys are finally coming into the forest.]
Look at that thick-as-hell armor, damn.
How much did the armor alone cost?
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[Didn't they normally just wear chainmail? Suddenly it's full plate.]
[↳ Given the location, looks like they geared as defensively as possible.]
[Now that I look, the shields are stupid thick too lol.]
[↳ Guess they heard the news about shields getting split by a double-edged axe.]
[↳ Well, they sure as hell look out for their own lives.]
[↳ So if it were you, wouldn't you wanna look after the one life you've got?]
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[Looks like about 150 of them.]
150 pure knights, damn.
If you add the players joining in, Yor's probably done for now...
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[Finally the balance kind of matches.]
[↳ lmao is this what you call matching? The power gap is freaking enormous.]
[But the numbers seem kind of small, all things considered.]
[↳ Is 150 people small;;]
[↳ I mean, normally when a subjugation squad opens, thousands of soldiers and hundreds of knights swarm in.]
[↳ Can't help it 'cause it's the forest. If they swarmed in anyway the damage would only get worse from the monsters around them.]
[↳ Instead, looks like they hand-picked elites. Judging by the gear, their support is loaded up too.]
[↳ Ah, got it.]
Naturally, all sorts of chatter flew back and forth in the community.
A raid was always a massive event, and this time even the boss itself was unusual.
An NPC who had lazed around and messed about on stream countless times had suddenly been designated as a boss.
Plenty of players weren't happy about the situation, but there was nothing to be done.
Because the situation had already unfolded. It's hard to swim against a current that's already flowing.
A few players clung to thread-thin hopes, but most were already envisioning his end.
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[Forget everything else, Demon's Saga fanboys hyped about getting a hundred mil, upvote lmao.]
Starting with me lmao.
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[Upvote lol.]
[Those streamer chicks must be grinning ear to ear at the stream-worthy moment lol.]
[You absolute bastards, do you really have to make money that badly?]
In the end, the majority of players were simply looking to enjoy the festival called a raid.
*
The morning of Day 6 dawned.
And that day, even the air felt different. How to put it... it was more stifling and murkier for no real reason.
When people gather, heat naturally builds up and things tend to get hotter.
Even more so on a sweltering summer day like this.
Maybe it was just my mood, but my mood had been none too good since that morning.
And that gut feeling wasn't wrong.
Thud—thu-thud—
Because as time passed, an ominous sound began to echo from deep within the forest.
The clanking clatter of iron striking iron, and the tramp of hundreds of military boots marching in lockstep.
And even a mix of different voices heard here and there.
"Oh, hell..."
I could tell at a glance.
The Knight Order had finally entered this forest.
First, while frowning deeply, I carefully moved my steps toward where they were.
I had to know the enemy's strength before I could do anything, after all.
I made sure to move along the treetops as stealthily as possible.
'Damn, that's a fucking disgusting number of them.'
And indeed, confirming their strength, they were disgustingly many.
Of course I'd expected they'd be numerous, but seeing it before my eyes put it on a whole different level.
The patterns engraved on their steel armor made it obvious at a glance that they were the Knight Order.
One more point stood out.
They were all moving in five-man squads.
One carried a massive shield, while the other four each held a sword. As if the five were a single body.
The sight looked somewhat ridiculous, but not something to take lightly.
At a glance it looked disgustingly hard to punch through.
To make matters worse, at some distance away from the Knight Order, a crowd of Otherworlders had also gathered.
Some were walking at ease without tension, and there were streamers too.
A vibe of having come to watch a fight rather than to fight it.
"Found him!"
"He's over there!"
As I was following that train of thought, the ones who'd spotted me shouted, pointing this way.
I wasn't particularly fazed.
Being up a tree didn't completely hide my form either.
And from the start, over there numbered hundreds of pairs of eyes.
"...Tch."
Clicking my tongue, I lunged straight at them. I had to clash first and size them up.
I dropped toward one of the knights, already poised for a thrust.
"Incoming!"
"Ready shields!"
Regrettably, the bastard braced in time.
Of the five, one raised a shield and the other four hid behind it.
Boom—!
"Urk!"
The moment the spear-tip bearing Sword Aura crashed into the shield, the knight's face twisted sharply.
Shield or not, the impact was heavy indeed.
But that was all; the shield neither broke nor was pushed any further. A steel shield was too thick to penetrate with a single crude spear, and behind it, five knights were bracing.
To make matters worse, continuing the attack any further was difficult. The instant the single spear thrust ended, four swords leaped out and attacked me.
Swish—swoosh—!
I quickly pulled my body back. Fortunately, the blades never touched my body.
Their sword strikes were certainly sharp, but they seemed to have a fixed range.
It looked as though they were determined never to step beyond that shield.
Extremely defensive movements.
That would clearly make catching me difficult for them, but it didn't matter one bit. Because right now, there were a great many knights here.
Sure enough, while I was dealing with one squad, other knights were slowly creeping in my direction. Slowly, as if turtles were encircling.
"Hoh, his looks really are as outstanding as they said... Why did a child like that have to be born with Demon's Blood..."
"Oi, who taught you to babble during a mission? Get a grip. The target is no human, but a Demon Seed."
"Ah, yes. M-my apologies."
At times I could faintly hear the knights talking among themselves.
Regardless, I kept frowning. Because the present situation felt desperately stifling.
I had to make some kind of move before that encirclement completed.
One thing I now understood: I couldn't punch through that shield with simple attacks alone.
So then, my answer was simple.
'I just hit harder.'
A truly brutish method, but at the same time, the most effective method as well.
Right now wasn't the time to aim for a war of attrition. The enemy was not alone but hundreds.
In terms of stamina, I was the one on a tight clock.
Thwock—
So I pierced my own fingertip. Along with a faint pain, blood soaked into the spear-blade. Henceforth, this blood would protect the edge, making it sharper and harder than Sword Aura.
"The fiend is using his ability!"
"Confirmed! Ready the Holy Water!"
So I drove the spear toward the shield once more.
By then, they had finished preparing too. They pulled out Holy Water from somewhere and splashed it straight onto the shield.
To waste precious Holy Water so carelessly like that... I almost felt it was a bit of a waste, but the effect was remarkably superb.
Because the moment it touched the shield, the blood began to drip and slide right off.
As if purifying something wicked, the Demonic Energy within the blood evaporated rapidly.
In the end, this attack stopped halfway, having barely dug into the shield.
This time I couldn't hold back the curse.
"Shit, you fight like absolute fucking bastards."
The numbers were an insane mismatch, and even my attacks weren't landing properly.
It was an extremely cautious and also methodical display. Literally the feeling of a colossal authority bearing down on me.
If attacks wouldn't land, my only option was one. To flee.
"The fiend is trying to flee!"
"Block him!"
As expected, the quick-witted knights tried to tighten the encirclement even faster.
A tower shield as tall as me blocked my path ahead.
But there was something those bastards hadn't guessed: I still had one decent card left to play.
I used Seere's arm at my waist. What I wanted: that irritating greatshield before my eyes.
Even though using it once imposed a ten-minute cooldown, making it unsuitable for a large-scale battle like this,
stabbing at a gap in the foe's guard to carve out an opening for escape—that much was fully possible.
"What!?"
"Dammit, of all times!"
The one squad, now shieldless, panicked.
I discarded the shield that had been teleported to my waist, then swung my weapon toward the five knights.
Shraaaak—!
"Urk!"
With a chilling sound, the knights suffered wounds large and small.
At a glance, none of them had taken grievous injury.
Partly because I'd attacked five people while off-balance, but also because the opponents were all clad in thick armor.
However, I'd managed to secure enough of an opening to flee.
"Seize him!"
"Yes sir!"
Thus I broke through the knights and began to flee. As I hurried my feet, I asked myself:
'Where should I go?'
The answer was fixed. First, I had to head for the Deep Layer.
Of course, the Knight Order was not merely standing by idle, watching me flee.
They had begun to chase me diligently in their five-man squads.
Yet the distance hardly closed at all.
From the start, I was the faster one, plus chasing in full armor was too much for them.
Swish—! Swoosh—!
Instead, arrows came flying from time to time. But none of those arrows managed to strike my body.
Partly because aiming was hard in a forest, and partly because loosing a bow while running required considerable skill.
Good. In this sort of situation, I could escape.
...Setting aside for the moment what I'd have to do after entering the Deep Layer.
But there was one thing I'd overlooked as well: among the opponents, there was one person who could catch up to me.
"!"
Abruptly, a chilling sensation crawled down my spine.
The alarm bell in my head began to ring loudly. I stopped fleeing mid-step and looked back.
Shing—slash—!
A single sword was hurtling toward me at a ferocious speed. One refined, clean strike.
I hastily twisted my body and blocked the opponent's attack with my spear.
Craaang—!
Along with a heavy pressure, the opponent's face came into view.
The one who, even when I'd attacked, had quietly observed and issued orders.
A man with blond hair who looked to be in his early thirties.
"You shall not escape from this place."
The Fourth Knight Commander looked at me and spoke.