Chapter 88 - Support 2
Centered on Plentel Castle, at the 12 o'clock position. Amid the dark thickets lay the corpses of countless magoils and knights from the 2nd Division.
And there, Silva and the iron magoil faced each other.
The massive Silva glanced at his bandaged arm and opened his mouth.
"You... time to pay your debt!"
At that moment, silver smoke billowed from Silva's body.
'Opening. Great Flame Emperor.'
Flames erupted from the hands of Silva, who wore his gauntlets.
Whoosh!
Heat radiated in all directions.
Silva had already hoisted a blaze as large as his own hulking frame above his head.
The 2nd Division knights grew spirited at the sight.
"That's Master Silva's Opening!"
Their faces flushed deeper as they spoke up.
"What incredible heat."
"Yeah, that could turn the bastard in front of us to ash."
Soon after.
"Raaargh!"
Silva let out a guttural roar and hurled the massive fireball at the magoil.
Boom!
Black smoke shrouded the magoil's body.
The knights all assumed the same thing.
That the magoil's body had melted away...
Whoosh...
As the smoke gradually cleared.
The knights' expressions darkened.
"No way..."
"To take Master Silva's Opening... and come out unscathed!"
Their eyes widened in shock.
Silva was a former Super Nova, boasting a sturdy build.
Yet despite his attack, the creature showed not even a minor scratch.
On the contrary, its iron body gleamed with a radiant silver light.
The magoil looked at Silva with a calm expression.
"Save the fire tricks for home."
With that, the magoil extended a hand toward Silva.
But its size began to grow larger.
'Mana of Strength.'
As Silva dodged to the right from the magoil's attack.
Swoosh.
A shadow emerged from the steel-gray magoil's hand, swiftly altering its path.
As expected, the target was still Silva.
Silva's eyes went wide at the massive hunk of metal closing in.
'A monster wielding two types of mana...!'
He had encountered monsters using either Mana of Strength or Mana of Agility plenty of times.
But he'd never seen one wield both simultaneously like this one.
Thud!!
The unexpected blow struck his head, sending Silva flying in an instant.
Crash!
The hulking Silva soared about 30 meters before crashing down.
The knights stared in stunned silence.
"Even Master Silva, who stands out for his size in the Bascon family...!"
"In one hit..."
Only then did the knights sense it.
The magoil's overwhelming power...
As the 2nd Division knights' morale plummeted.
Thud. Thud.
Footsteps echoed, and a surge of mana spread through the surroundings.
The knights whipped their heads toward the source of the mana, their eyes bulging.
"Captain!"
There stood Hipo, his entire body emanating white light, approaching with a far more aggressive glint in his eyes than before.
He clearly intended to repay the humiliation of being unhorsed.
"To dare tarnish my prestige...!"
Hipo scowled and charged at the magoil in a flash.
Swoosh.
His astonishing speed caught even the 2nd-grade monster magoil off guard.
"...!"
Hipo smirked at the magoil.
'Opening, Dance of Reserves.'
In that instant.
Hipo's red eyes flashed as he unleashed a flurry of swings with his crimson spear at the magoil.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...
The speed was incredible.
His movements were so fast they couldn't be followed with the naked eye.
It wasn't for nothing that "Dance of Reserves"—evoking a winged general—bore that name.
The spear slashed across the magoil's body, churning its insides.
Legs, knees, shoulders, neck, head...
It ravaged mercilessly.
In the blink of an eye, the magoil's body was sliced into dozens of pieces.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud...!
It was a ruthless assault.
Soon, the magoil's body lay scattered in dozens of chunks across the ground—so many that reassembling it would be impossible.
The knights watched in a daze.
"...!"
It was a sight hard to believe even seeing it with their own eyes.
"A realm beyond what the eye can track..."
"That's Captain Hipo's Opening, the mark of a spear master...!"
Hipo gazed coldly at the shattered magoil.
'That's the price for humiliating me.'
Swoosh. Click.
He twirled his spear in the air a couple times before sheathing it behind his back.
A smile crept across his face.
He felt refreshed inside.
As Hipo wore a satisfied expression.
Pffft!
Something struck him from behind.
It was the magoil.
Hipo collapsed to the ground in one blow and whipped his head around.
'H-how...?'
His eyes widened.
And for good reason.
The magoil had returned to its original form, as if nothing had happened.
He had shredded it mercilessly with multiple strikes, even infusing Mana of Strength.
No 2nd-grade monster could regenerate from that easily, he'd thought.
Yet it had exceeded his expectations.
The magoil looked down at the flustered Hipo.
"Human, that was a fine strike. Had you not resorted to tricks, I might have fallen for it."
In the split second Hipo swung his spear, the magoil had realized.
The attack was impossible to block.
So it had used its head.
It sent its core—like a heart—to one end, abandoning its shattered body and regenerating from the core.
With Hipo down, the 2nd Division knights' faces darkened.
Meanwhile, the stone magoils surged with momentum.
Thud! Thud!
Riding the wave, the magoil began assaulting the 2nd Division knights.
Hipo scowled at the sight.
'Was it my arrogance that tripped me up...?'
Blood sprayed from the knights' heads under the magoil's stone fists.
"Urgh!"
"Nngh..."
As Hipo watched his subordinates die one by one before his eyes, he bowed his head.
Guilt washed over him.
Had he not let his guard down, this wouldn't have happened.
Thud.
The fallen Hipo clenched one fist and slammed it into the ground.
'Damn it...'
Thud. Thud.
The sounds were all monster attacks, the ground soaked with knights' blood.
Stab! Stab!
Then.
Swoosh—swoosh—swoosh—
The sound of a sword swinging rang out several times.
Three magoils' heads shot into the air.
The severed heads spun clockwise, spraying black blood.
Hipo stared in bewilderment.
"...!"
It was as if a skilled knight was swinging a sword amid the magoil horde.
But his vision held only magoils.
No sword-wielding knight in sight.
An unbelievable, eerie scene.
As if possessed by a ghost.
Swoosh—swoosh—swoosh—
It happened again, leaving even the 2nd Division knights unable to hide their shock.
"M-monster heads..."
"What's going on...?"
The monsters' heads were falling off on their own—it was only natural to be stunned.
Meanwhile, Bin, wearing the transparent helmet Quinae, kept a calm expression.
'They look like they've seen a ghost.'
Bin glanced at the knights before refocusing on the battle.
Swoosh.
He closed in invisibly in an instant and severed a magoil's neck.
'Hitting vitals has never been this easy...'
An invisible body that evaded the enemy's sight.
That made all the difference.
Even pressing the blade to its neck, the foe couldn't defend.
Quinae hid his presence completely.
Vitals were child's play to target.
However, wielding two superior weapons drained a tremendous amount of mana.
'Gotta end this quick. Alright...'
Bin's gaze shifted to the iron magoil.
Swoosh.
He dashed toward it in a flash.
As expected, it hadn't detected his movement.
Bin swung Luminare at its neck.
Shiiiing!
A black sword wind surged toward its neck.
Swoosh.
The magoil sensed something touch its neck and thrust a fist toward the approach vector.
Thud!
Astonishing reflexes.
The magoil retreated swiftly, shadow trailing.
Any other monster would have been cleaved.
But this was a 2nd-grade monster ranked for its high defense.
It wasn't that easy to bisect in one stroke.
No wonder Silva and Hipo had struggled.
Feeling no pain from the fist, Bin grew puzzled.
A chill ran through him as he looked down, his eyes flashing.
"Skull..."
Indeed.
Codic had taken the magoil's attack instead.
His skull was cracked all over.
As if it might shatter at a squeeze.
He muttered in a feeble voice.
"M-my lord. Thank you... for everything."
'It's a pity I can't behold my lord's visage one last time...'
Bin scowled.
No matter how much nonsense it spouted.
It was a loyal retainer who gave everything for him.
His blood began to boil.
"Don't talk nonsense..."
"......"
They'd spent a long time together.
His emotions were a tangled mess.
Meanwhile, the magoil clutched its bleeding black neck with one hand, scanning the surroundings.
It seemed somewhat startled by the invisible attack.
"Some coward playing tricks... Think your petty schemes can cut me down?"
"......"
"Keep enduring to the end. I'll make you end up like that one too."
The magoil's gaze turned to the exhausted Hipo.
Bin fixed the iron magoil with a fierce glare.
Swoosh.
With that sound, Bin appeared before the magoil.
'In that case...'
As the creature said, swinging his sword again would just prompt it to shift its core and form a new body.
He needed overwhelming power to crush it in a single strike.
Bin stood before the magoil, eyes blazing with confidence.
'How about this?'
Soon.
Whoosh.
Black flames erupted before the magoil's eyes.
Before it could even react in surprise.
The flames engulfed its face.
"Grrraaah..."
The black fire melted the steel-gray magoil's face.
It tried to shift the core in its head.
But its thoughts had already ground to a halt.
"...!"
In that moment.
Thud!
The massive magoil collapsed.
Hipo, watching it all, swallowed hard.
Gulp.
"...!"
It was a vicious black flame.
It had melted a 2nd-grade monster with ironclad defenses in one go.
No need to say more.
Soon.
Thud.
The magoil's core dropped from the air.
Bin lifted Codic and positioned its mouth beneath the falling core.
Codic eyed the core and murmured.
"A last supper, perhaps...?"
The moment the magoil's core entered Codic's mouth.
A thick magi erupted from Codic's body.
The cracks in his skull sealed, soon covered in iron.
He faced forward in his original spirited form.
Clack! Clack! "My lord, power overflows. Please take good care of this new body from now on."
Bin turned to Codic.
He recognized the familiar aura immediately.
The energy of the magoil he'd just felled.
Seeing Codic recovered, Bin finally smiled.
'Good...'
Meanwhile, the knights recoiled in shock at the ominous aura emanating from Codic in the air.
"That aura... a 2nd-grade monster?!"