Chapter 172 – Battle for Dominance (11)
Kakakakakang―!
A dazzling flash of light burst forth along with the clash of swords.
The aura swords of the two knights flashed like lightning, cutting through everything in their path with terrifying force.
Lochter swallowed a groan inwardly.
Every attack was blocked by an invisible shield, and the frost blade froze further with every clash.
The sa was true for the sword.
Lochter discarded his broken weapon.
For the first ti in his practiced swordsmanship, he felt a wall. Though it was a setback, he remained silent, as Arthur had already warned him.
He could see the confidence brimming in Lyon.
"That look in your eyes, the one that looks down on your opponent—I always told you that would lead to carelessness, didn’t I?"
"Still caught up in delusions, I see. Do I still look like a re vice-captain to you?"
"You do realize you’re still just a loser who’s never beaten , right?"
"Shut up!"
A white breath escaped into the freezing air.
A sharp wind sliced through the frozen atmosphere.
Lochter’s red aura cracked the ground, while Lyon’s blue aura froze everything around them.
The surrounding soldiers hesitated and backed away from the intense battle between the monsters before them.
Only the lieutenants remained, watching the fight closely. It seed they were waiting for an opportunity to drive their swords into Lochter’s back.
Their expressions were calm.
They had complete faith in Lyon’s abilities.
"Kraaaang!!!"
"...!"
Just then, a beast’s roar erupted from behind them. When Lochter turned, he saw a massive creature tearing through the formation of cavalry like a boulder crashing through.
A beast with black fur—no, a demonic beast.
At its ferocious roar, the warhorses neighed in terror and began to go wild.
"It's the Guardian of Ordor!"
The shamans recognized it imdiately. The beast guarding the final gate of the Ghost Forest.
As the demonic beast Keros erged, orders ca through the communication channel from Kal.
[Three of you, hunt the Guardian. The rest, keep Lily Base in check.]
Even if they only stalled for ti, they would win this battle.
Lochter could never defeat Lyon.
At Kal’s command, three of the five lieutenants imdiately leapt toward Keros.
The swords they drew glowed faintly.
Bega, the Magic Swords.
One of the signature artifacts of the Mage Tower Alliance, temporarily amplifying the wielder's aura. Since it contained magical power, it was particularly effective against demonic beasts.
As the three four-star knights circled Keros, their blades slashed into its massive body, drawing blood.
"Kaaaah!"
Keros opened its jaws wide and spewed black flas in all directions.
A wide-range attack. Black flas.
"Guaaaagh!"
So of the cavalry were engulfed in the flas, burning alive. One of the lieutenants at the front imdiately activated a bracelet and chanted a spell.
Pazzzzt—
A transparent shield materialized, pushing back the black flas.
The other two did the sa.
Protected by the shields, the lieutenants broke through the flas and unleashed a barrage of sword strikes.
Keros screeched and retreated as wounds from the magic swords multiplied.
The cavalry, regaining formation, thrust their spears at the beast.
The black-furred demon was quickly drenched in red.
Keros' blood soaked the earth.
So did the blood of the humans fighting it.
In an instant, the battlefield was painted crimson.
Shortly after, as the blood dried, dark smoke began to rise from the ground.
But in the hazy visibility, no one noticed the change in the terrain.
"Up there!"
The shamans pointed toward a rocky outcrop.
A woman stood tall, her long hair billowing in the wind.
Lily Base.
Holding a pendant in both hands, she softly chanted an incantation.
At the sight, the shamans prepared their attack magic.
Guarding the four shamans were two lieutenants and a heavily armored shield-bearer.
Leaving the shield-bearer behind, the lieutenants moved like lightning to intercept Lily.
Drawing their Bega magic swords and maintaining their shields, they climbed the rocky slope.
Ssssss—
An eerie black curse magic rained down upon Lily from above.
"Die!"
Just as the knights’ fierce attacks were about to strike Lily from below—
Flash—!
A golden radiance exploded in midair.
The Siren’s Hymn.
The curse magic disintegrated upon contact with the hymn, and the shamans coughed up blood and collapsed.
At the sa ti, the lieutenants ground their teeth at the figure standing in front of the witch.
Alex Marcia.
Their highest-priority elimination target had appeared.
Hoo—
Clutching a dagger, Alex let out a long breath.
Then, he snapped his eyes open.
Bang—!
The first Burst Strike fired.
His dagger shot forward like a bullet.
His body, fused with the Heart of the Immortal, creaked ominously.
A mad strike infused with the force of Burst Strike.
A brutal smash was unleashed.
Boom! Boom!
"Kugh!"
"...Ack!"
Two swings.
The mont Alex’s dagger clashed with the magic swords, the lieutenants lost their grip, their weapons knocked away as they were sent crashing down the rocks.
Crack—
Even though the dagger was given by Dorneth Gader, it couldn't withstand the force and cracked before snapping apart.
Three of Alex’s fingers broke.
Thankfully, his thumb and index finger, needed to pull the trigger, remained intact.
Summoning The Ring of Blood, Alex imdiately prepared his second Burst Strike.
The arrow swelled in size in an instant.
His target—the shaman unit.
"Tch!"
The recoil hit him hard, but he gritted his teeth and pulled the bowstring taut.
"This much... I can endure."
Thump—!
The massive arrow, imbued with penetration power, shot toward the shamans.
The shield-bearer raised a massive shield to block it—
But it was useless.
Puuck!
The arrow pierced the shield and went straight through the shield-bearer's skull.
Though the arrow was stopped, Alex didn’t care.
The mont the shield-bearer crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut, so of the corpses strewn around the shamans began to stir.
"...Kughh!"
One of the shamans clutched his throat and collapsed.
A throwing dagger was embedded precisely in his neck.
"Now!"
As Karl gave the signal, five figures who had been hiding beneath the corpses suddenly charged at the shamans.
Still weakened by The Siren’s Hymn, the shamans failed to cast a proper spell in ti.
With their guards eliminated and an ambush following imdiately, the shamans collapsed as their hearts were pierced by daggers.
Their blood gushed onto the ground.
Vwoooom!
The earth, which had been slowly changing, now visibly darkened.
Only then did the surroundings realize the shift.
The first to notice were the lieutenants who had been knocked down while trying to suppress Lily.
"...What is this?!"
They staggered, glancing at the darkened ground as they searched for their lost magic swords.
But then—
Boom—!
A massive shockwave erupted from above.
A chilling sensation ran down their spines.
Danger!
But before one of them could react—
A massive fist filled his vision.
Alex’s fist.
He didn’t even have ti to blink.
It was too fast.
The third Burst Strike.
Alex's body shot forward like lightning, his punch exploding like a bomb.
Boom!
The lieutenant's head burst apart.
A perfect ambush.
Yet, at the sa ti, Alex felt a searing pain in his stomach.
A four-star knight was indeed different.
While one fell, another had stabbed Alex in the gut with his secondary sword.
"Kraaaagh!"
"Tch! You crazy bastard!"
I wrapped my arms around him without hesitation.
Even as the embedded sword drove deeper into my gut, I ignored it. Instead, I tightened my grip, swelling every muscle in my body.
I clenched my teeth so hard I thought they would shatter.
And then, I unleashed my fourth Burst Strike.
Kill. Him.
"Graaagh!"
"Ggaaahhh!"
A howling scream tore through the battlefield.
And beneath it—
Crack—!
The sickening sound of bones twisting and breaking.
His spine snapped, his waist crushed.
A mont later, his arms fell limp, his head slumped forward, and I let his ruined body drop to the ground, gasping for breath.
I had crushed him completely.
Of course, my own shoulder hadn’t co out unscathed.
I yanked the sword from my stomach and collapsed on the spot.
At the sa ti, the recoil of Burst Strike engulfed my body. Using it repeatedly had taken its toll.
I coughed up blood.
The world spun around .
"Ku...kugh! Reto..."
[Ten breaths. Do not move.]
The Ring of Desire began glowing a deep crimson.
A cool sensation washed over , the pain dulling as my wounds started to heal.
My muscles trembled violently, as if screaming in protest.
"Shit... even after getting stronger, I’m still just a damn zombie."
Moving was impossible.
I gritted my teeth and reassessed the situation.
Two of the five lieutenants were dead.
Four Burst Strikes used.
I had to conserve my remaining strength.
And then—
[Kaaaaaaaahhhh—!!!!]
A witch’s scream pierced my mind.
For a brief mont, the world stopped.
Everyone standing on the darkened ground froze mid-movent, then staggered and collapsed.
Using Donecolint’s Pendant as a dium, Lily had unleashed a wide-area curse.
Swamp of Horrors.
Dark energy wrapped around the cursed, weighing their bodies down.
A debuff curse that slowed both aura and physical movent.
Vwoooom!
At the sa ti, flashes of pale light erupted within the cursed zone.
Myself, Lochter, Karl’s squad, and Keros.
Mystic glyphs glowed from our bodies.
The witch’s blessing.
The glyphs repelled the curse’s effects, shielding us.
"It’s working."
[It’s working.]
Lily’s timing and Reto’s signal were perfectly synchronized.
I snapped my eyes open and slowly pushed myself up.
Then, scanning my surroundings, I moved forward.
"Kraaaaang!"
"Stop him!"
"We’ve got them! Move quickly!"
Within the cursed zone, Keros was locked in battle with three lieutenants.
Cavalryn rushed to assist, but the mont they stepped onto the blackened earth, their bodies faltered, toppling helplessly to the ground.
Neither horses nor soldiers, burdened by heavy armor, could move easily within the area.
Only those who wielded mana were still capable of fighting.
"Kill him!"
"Kurrrrng!"
The three lieutenants, wielding Bega Magic Swords, closed in on the bloodied Keros, aiming to finish him off.
Though their movents had slowed due to the curse, they still had strength left.
But their advantage was short-lived.
"Watch your backs!"
Karl’s squad, having finished off the shamans, rushed in to support Keros.
The tide of battle shifted.
Keros, alongside five three-star assassins, pressed the three elite knights into a frantic defense.
Perhaps due to the curse’s lingering effects, the knights were struggling, barely able to hold their ground.
"I won’t be needed here, then?"
"No. We have it under control."
"You sure? You look half-dead."
"I was, a mont ago. But I’m fine now."
I extended my hand, and Karl pulled out a dagger from his coat.
Not an ordinary dagger.
A cursed dagger, imbued with Lily’s sorcery.
Karl and I each took a blade and moved as one.
We had roughly two minutes left.
I glanced at Lily—her lips were tightly pressed together, her expression strained.
Suppressing the aura of multiple five-star and four-star warriors with a wide-range curse… even with a dium, she couldn’t maintain it much longer.
"So far, everything is going according to plan."
Now, all that was left—Was the hunt.
Karl and I gripped our cursed daggers tightly and stealthily closed in on Lyon Martrein.
Boom!!
A massive shockwave erupted as the ground began to freeze.
Lyon was unleashing his hidden power.
"...Kugh!"
His frozen blade shattered into shards of ice.
***
Lochter tumbled across the frozen battlefield, rolling across the pale, lifeless ground.
Ahead of him lay shattered sword hilts, littering the ground like discarded relics.
Only one sword remained intact.
Lochter gritted his teeth and used it to push himself up.
"Gugh!"
He coughed up a mouthful of blood, his stomach easing slightly.
His fingers had gone numb.
Countless wounds covered his limbs, face, and torso. His skin had frozen to the point where no more blood seeped from his cuts.
Though he tried to push the cold away with his aura, his body continued to stiffen.
His senses dulled.
Every movent felt like his frozen flesh was peeling away.
The pain was excruciating.
But Lochter still ran toward Lyon.
Lyon was just as desperate.
Klang—!
"You bastard!"
"Kraaaaah!"
Lochter swung his sword wildly, clinging to Lyon with reckless abandon.
Lyon, trying to escape the cursed zone, found his movents hindered by Lochter’s relentless pursuit.
Truthfully, Lyon had awaited this mont for a long ti.
To surpass Wiley Gris and Lochter.
To be recognized as Tobaron’s greatest knight.
But now—
All he wanted was to get out of here.
The mont the wide-area curse was unleashed, he knew sothing had gone terribly wrong.
There were no allies in sight.
Clang!
Lochter’s sword struck Lyon’s transparent shield—and shattered.
His last remaining weapon.
Lyon drove his Frost Blade into Lochter’s chest like a thunderbolt.
The blade sank into his shoulder.
Lochter gripped the frost-covered sword with both hands, holding on desperately. His face paled, his skin turning an icy blue.
It was the perfect opportunity to kill Lochter.
Lyon, montarily forgetting his urgency, smirked.
"Foolish."
"Didn’t I tell you not to let your guard down?"
At that mont—
A long shadow stretched across the ground.
Lyon turned instinctively, raising his shield.
Clang!
Sparks flew as a dagger bounced off the shield.
A thrown dagger.
An assassin was charging toward him.
In the instant his attention shifted—
Thunk—
"…?"
A dagger buried itself deep in his side.
When?!
Lyon turned his head.
A familiar face.
A bloodied Alex Marcia, looking up at him with a twisted expression.
"Hah… got you, you bastard."
The fifth Burst Strike.
The dagger embedded in Lyon’s body scread—and began absorbing the energy of the ground.
The curse gathered into the blade.
A phenonon of curse layering.
Lyon staggered.
His body beca impossibly heavy.
Even breathing was a struggle.
He couldn’t even grip his sword anymore.
His fingers trembled as he let go of the Frost Blade.
Behind him, Lochter gripped the fallen sword, aiming it at him.
Alex held him in a death grip.
And an assassin was lunging for his throat.
The worst possible scenario.
Then, he recalled his master’s command.
[Death for death.]
Lyon clenched sothing in his hand.
A Terremor—
A wide-area mana bomb, gifted by the Mage Tower Alliance.
Click—
It activated.
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