Chapter 578
This Actually Works? (1)
The Atrodean Army’s 5th and 6th Legions were taken care of by Julien.
Meanwhile, the separately advancing 9th and 10th Legions were dealt with by half of the Ritanian army, led by Tennant and Parniel.
As for the 7th and 8th Legions, which had ambushed the allied forces at the start—
Just as Count Biphenbelt had predicted, they were confronted by the remaining half of the Ritanian army, led by Claude.
That was why Ghislain had the freedom to move independently and launch an assault on the Atrodean Army’s 4th and 2nd Legions.
Since the 7th and 8th Legions were positioned close to each other, they combined their forces to fight against the Ritanian army.
However, it was difficult for them to hold their ground.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
Gillian's axe relentlessly tore through the priests.
Two of them lunged at him, but he did not retreat a single step. No he overwhelmed them instead.
“Oh, Goddess!”
From behind Gillian, Piote continuously radiated divine power.
Chiiiiik!
“Kuhh…!”
The priests struggled as the surrounding divine power suppressed them.
Their strength had weakened, and their bodies were constantly seared by the sacred energy.
Under such conditions, they could not help but be pushed back while fighting against Gillian.
But Piote wasn't the only one hindering the priests.
“Odd!”
Ttak!
“Even!”
Ttak! Ttak!
A strange man, standing some distance away, kept hurling stones using magic. The rocks shot out from his sleeves at an impressive speed.
In the middle of battling a superhuman while restrained by divine power, the attacks weren't strong but the flying stones were an undeniable nuisance.
“You bastard!”
One of the priests eventually decided to eliminate the mage first. But before he could reach him—
Gillian’s axe slammed into his back.
Kwachik!
“Graaahhh!”
The priests were on the verge of losing their minds.
They couldn't fight properly with their focus constantly disrupted. On top of that, the divine power prevented their bodies from recovering.
“Odd! Even! Odd! Odd!”
The one throwing stones was Alfoi. He had realized that this seemingly childish magic was incredibly effective in battle.
In a fight against a superhuman, maintaining focus was more important than anything else.
However, there was no way someone like Alfoi could keep up with the speed of a superhuman.
He simply hurled stones at those engaged in combat.
And that included his own allies.
“Odd!”
Ttak!
In the middle of an intense fight, Gillian was suddenly struck on the head by a stone.
Since it wasn't a lethal attack, he had ignored it but the sheer annoyance of it was starting to get on his nerves.
“……”
“S-Sorry.”
A tense silence filled the air as Alfoi quickly backed away.
He figured it would be better to go and help someone else.
By then, the priests were already battered and exhausted.
It was the combined result of Gillian’s skills, Piote’s divine power, and Alfoi’s relentless pestering.
Kwachik!
“Guhh…”
In the end, the priests were slain, their throats cleaved by Gillian's axe.
The two priests on the other side were just as powerless.
That was because Belinda, who had inherited Annette's vision, was there.
Whirrrr!
Dozens of daggers moved swiftly, surrounding the approaching priest.
“W-What is this?”
The priest, trapped among the daggers, blinked in bewilderment.
Not only were the daggers flying around on their own, but every single one of them was emitting an Aura Blade.
He had no idea how he was supposed to deal with this.
Not that it mattered there was no need for him to fight back. The daggers moved on their own, mercilessly cutting him down.
Papapapapak!
“Gaaaah!”
The priest let out a scream. It felt like being surrounded and hacked apart by dozens of knights.
He tried desperately to escape, but brute strength alone wasn’t enough. His poor technique made it impossible for him to break free from Belinda’s skill.
Papapapapak!
The daggers relentlessly pursued and slashed at him. No matter how much energy he released or how desperately he swung at them, the daggers refused to be shaken off.
Annette, Belinda’s master and the Shadow Knights' Commander, had been Ritania Kingdom’s strongest warrior.
The technique she had used was overwhelmingly powerful on its own.
“Ughhh…”
In the end, the priest couldn’t even escape from the prison of daggers. He died, completely bloodied.
Having taken care of her opponent with ease, Belinda turned her head.
On the other side, Kaor and a group of knights were ganging up on another priest.
Seeing this, Belinda shook her head.
“I told you to just leave it to me.”
It had been Kaor who stubbornly insisted on handling one of them himself, claiming that this time he would definitely overcome his limits.
And yet, the man who had sworn to break through his limits was now attacking a priest like some back-alley gang, with his comrades swarming the target.
“Y-You bastards!”
The priest was flustered at the sheer number of knights charging at him.
Their equipment was so absurdly good that no matter how much he struck them, they wouldn’t die. He had heard rumors that Fenris warriors wore enchanted armor, but he hadn’t expected it to be this durable.
On top of that, every time he landed a hit, another knight immediately took over and pressed the attack.
At this rate, he would be the one to collapse from exhaustion first.
Kaor and his knights had actually taken down a priest using this method before.
Now, having grown stronger and gained more experience, they were applying even greater pressure.
At the front of the charge, Kaor shouted,
“Oi, oi, oi! Push harder! When I tell you to back off, get out of the way! As soon as he’s weakened, I’ll take him one-on-one! I’ll kill him and break through my limits today!”
Kaor had never forgotten the day he had accidentally drawn out his Aura Blade.
He believed that if he just kept pummeling this superhuman, it would eventually happen again.
That didn’t mean he was foolish enough to fight him in a fair one-on-one duel from the start.
That would get him killed.
His plan was simple wear the opponent down first, then challenge him once he was sufficiently weakened.
In short, he was thinking of taking a shortcut to climb over the wall.
Watching him, Belinda clicked her tongue.
"Looks like he’s going to fail at climbing the wall again."
Kaor enjoyed fighting, but he liked playing even more.
And since he always hoped for luck to be on his side, he kept failing to establish a solid foundation of his own.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
With the priests captured, the remaining troops stood no chance against the Ritania army.
Ting! Tiiing! Ting!
"Our weapons aren’t working!"
At the forefront of the Ritania army stood the soldiers of Fenris, who had been reinforced before the expedition. Like the Mobile Corps, they were all clad in Galvaniium armor.
Since the kingdom’s integrated forces were less well-equipped than them, the Fenris troops took the vanguard.
With their overwhelming defense, they pushed back the Atrodean army.
Only the magic units were barely holding their ground against the Ritania army, engaging in a fierce contest of power. This was only possible because Vanessa and the highly skilled mages had been strategically positioned across the battlefield.
And among them was someone who had made a new resolution that day.
"I’ll fight too!"
"Your Highness, it’s too dangerous. Besides, this is about killing people."
Skovan, the captain of the royal guards, blocked Elena as she tried to step forward wielding a massive war hammer.
Until now, Elena had only fought monsters. She had never taken a human life on a battlefield.
There were times when others had stopped her, but she herself had also deliberately avoided it.
However, through the war, she had gradually come to a realization.
"I’m a princess! If I run away instead of leading, who will ever follow me? Who will I be able to protect?"
"Your Highness… please…"
Skovan’s face twisted with distress. Why didn’t either of these siblings ever listen to reason?
Ricardo, who had become Skovan’s deputy after being knighted, also looked miserable.
"If the princess gets hurt, we’re all dead."
This was different from when all their forces had gathered to protect Elena. They weren’t just fighting simple Riftspawn.
Their enemies were human. They could think, adapt, and take advantage of the situation. That was why Skovan desperately wanted to keep Elena away from the battle.
A high-level knight could suddenly target her, or an assassin could attempt an ambush.
"Can’t you just watch from the sidelines, please?"
A princess’s usual role was to be a beautiful flower, adorning the royal family.
But Elena, who had grown up facing the harsh northern winds, had no intention of living that way.
For the people of Ferdium, battle was both their fate and their way of life. She, too, had inherited that spirit.
Her eyes shone as she continued.
"I’ve learned something from watching my father."
"And… what is that?"
"If you want to protect people, you must never run from danger. That’s why I’m going too."
With that, Elena gripped her hammer tightly and charged forward without hesitation.
Rachel flashed a bright smile at Skovan before chasing after Elena.
Skovan let out a sigh as he watched their retreating figures.
"Let's hurry and follow them."
"Ugh... Both the brother and the sister..."
"Don't overthink it. We've just got one more reckless person in the mix."
Suppressing their sighs, Elena's escort squad moved swiftly.
"Huuh, huuh..."
Elena took deep breaths as she faced the enemy soldiers ahead. Since their forces already had the upper hand, there was no significant danger in the immediate vicinity.
But stepping in to fight was an entirely different matter. Smashing people with a hammer was never going to be easy.
I can do this. I can do this.
She raised her hammer high. Yet, even as an enemy soldier charged toward her, she couldn't bring herself to swing it down.
"Die!"
Rather than attacking, she merely flinched at the overwhelming malice bearing down on her.
It was different from fighting monsters. The madness of the battlefield was hard for even her to endure.
Her body froze instinctively. As expected, crushing a person until they were nothing more than a mangled mess wasn't something she could do easily.
Slash!
Rachel swiftly approached from the side and cut down the enemy soldier. Having already faced the fear of death due to her illness, she adapted quickly to such situations.
Skovan stepped forward and spoke to Elena.
"Your Highness, please retreat. Leave this to us."
"Tch..."
Elena grit her teeth. Everyone was fighting so hard, yet she was the only one paralyzed by fear.
Even Rachel was moving so boldly.
"I can do it too!"
Spurred by a childish stubbornness, she insisted on holding her ground.
Even though their forces were overwhelming the enemy, it was impossible to avoid casualties.
Unlike the Fenris troops, the kingdom’s soldiers lacked Galvaniium armor.
‘If I fight, I can protect at least one more person!’
Searching for a way, she glared at the enemy soldiers and pictured Ghislain’s face.
"That’s my brother. That’s my brother."
Wait was that too much?
Visualizing her annoying brother did make it feel easier to hit something. But even then, the thought of killing someone left a prick of guilt.
"Ugh, forget it just go!"
Shaking off her doubts, she squeezed her eyes shut and charged forward.
"Yaaaaaah!"
She leaped straight into the cluster of enemy soldiers and swung her hammer down.
BOOOOOM!
"...."
Silence blanketed the battlefield.
A massive crater had been carved into the ground. The enemy soldiers recoiled in sheer terror.
With a single swing of her hammer, several of them had been reduced to nothing.
"Haaah! Haaah!"
Elena gasped for breath, her face flushed red. Her heart felt like it was about to burst.
Looking down at the flattened corpses embedded into the earth, a wave of nausea hit her.
She clenched her teeth and endured it. Since things had already come to this, she decided not to think about anything else anymore.
The first time was hard, but the second time wouldn't be.
Now, all that was left was to charge forward.
"Yaaaaahhh!"
She shut her eyes and dashed forward, wildly swinging her hammer. Rachel ran beside her, keeping pace.
Skovan and Ricardo hurriedly chased after Elena.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Elena charged ahead like an enraged bull. With every step she took, a path burst open.
"Aaaaargh!"
"A monster! A monster has appeared!"
"S-Stop her!"
The Atrodean soldiers scrambled back in terror.
The skilled ones were either already engaged in battle or had been killed. The ordinary soldiers had no way to stop Elena’s monstrous strength.
Seeing the straight path she carved through the enemy, the soldiers of Ritania erupted in cheers.
"Yaaaaaah!"
"As expected of the princess!"
"Princess of Destruction! Princess of Destruction!"
A princess standing at the very frontlines while displaying overwhelming destructive power at that.
With Ritania’s forces already holding the upper hand, their morale skyrocketed.
"Follow the princess! Crush the enemy!"
The soldiers moved as one, charging after Elena.
Everyone was fulfilling their roles well.
The indebted Kane, the problem solver Max, the unexpectedly recruited Duggly squad members, and all the others who had joined Ritania’s army for their own reasons.
With everyone doing their part, the war was not difficult.
In the end, they annihilated the Atrodean army with overwhelming force. Even the enemy commanders had been taken prisoner before they knew it.
And just like that, the battle was over or so they all thought.
But there are always fools who cause trouble no matter where you go.
"Hey! Everyone, step aside! I'm taking him on one-on-one!"
The battle had ended, and Ritania had emerged victorious. Yet, one priest of the Atrodean army was still alive.
Beaten to a pulp, the priest was covered in wounds and panting heavily.
And just as exhausted, Kaor shouted for everyone to move back.
In the end, no one could resist Kaor’s stubborn insistence, and they stepped aside. Before long, the two of them stood alone, encircled by the Ritanian army.
Kaor lifted his head and took a deep breath.
"Whew, so this is how the lord must have felt."
Ghislain had fought in quite a few one-on-one duels. Every time, everyone had stood by and watched like this.
It felt incredibly satisfying. Weren't they all looking at him with admiration?
In reality, their expressions were filled with exasperation, but Kaor failed to notice.
Kaor lazily gestured his sword toward the injured priest.
"Let's settle this, just the two of us. If you win, I'll let you go."
It was about time he overcame this wall. The priest before him was the perfect prey.
Kaor smirked arrogantly.
The people around him frowned at his pointless challenge.