NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 450
While the showdown between Kurt and Duke Newgoros was taking place…
The rest of the party wasn’t just standing around watching.
Though they couldn’t intervene in a master-level battle, the entrance to the underground prison was swarming with knights entangled in chaotic combat.
Due to Albert’s betrayal, the Imperial Knight Order was divided into two factions.
Albert and the Holy Sword Knight Order who sided with him.
And the other knights who remained loyal to the Emperor.
The Holy Sword Knight Order wasn’t small in number, but the knights prepared by the Emperor far outnumbered them.
Even though an entire knight order had defected, the remaining forces were nearly double that of the Holy Sword Knight Order. In fact, the number of knights deployed in this operation was equivalent to three out of the Empire’s eleven knight orders.
The Holy Sword Knight Order fought fiercely, even turning their swords against their former comrades for their beliefs, but the overwhelming difference in numbers was insurmountable.
Just as the Holy Sword Knight Order was on the verge of defeat despite Albert’s resolve, Mari and her group joined the battlefield.
Pew!
An arrow shot by Mari flew toward a knight pressuring a Holy Sword Knight.
“Fool! A mere arrow without mana! Did you think it would hit in this chaos? An Imperial knight doesn’t fall for blind arrows!”
Clang!
Yet, the knight easily sliced the arrow in half with his sword, despite the surprise attack.
But Mari’s aim wasn’t to pierce him from the start.
[Ta-da! A gift of dust!]
“W-what!? A spirit!? Ugh! Sand in my helmet!”
The Imperial knight, thinking Mari’s arrow was ordinary, deflected it with his sword, but the real trick was the earth spirit clinging to the arrow.
Though its power wasn’t great, the sudden dust storm inside his helmet was enough to fluster the knight.
Mari, still a novice mana user, had devised this technique over the past week to conserve mana while fighting.
Though it lacked killing power compared to mana-infused arrows, it disrupted the enemy’s formation with unconventional tactics.
In a one-on-one fight, it might have been a cheap trick, but in this chaotic melee, there were plenty to finish the job once Mari blinded her target.
“I owe you one! Thanks, elf girl!”
The knight Mari helped regained his footing, overpowered his opponent, and thanked her.
Karina was also charging through the battlefield, taking on Imperial knights.
Clang! Clang!
Her twin hand axes, always strapped to her thighs.
The opposing knight raised his sword to block her axe throw, but the sheer weight of the axe made him stagger.
Before he could recover…
“Hyup!!”
Crash!!
A battle axe the size of a child’s torso came crashing down.
His sloppy defense meant nothing.
“Ugh…”
Her battle axe shattered his guard in a single strike, leaving only a crumpled longsword and an armored knight on the ground.
As Karina retrieved her hand axe and charged toward her next target, a flaming arrow shot toward her.
“Gahh!”
The arrow struck a knight trying to ambush her.
The knight, now on fire, writhed in pain, while Karina crushed his helmet with her hand axe.
Serena, who had shot the flaming arrow, scolded Karina in an angry voice.
“Hey! Be careful!”
“You’d cover my back anyway, so why bother?”
“W-what!? Am I your babysitter!?”
Blushing, Serena downed some strong liquor to regain her composure.
…
…
…
Not only the original Kurt party members were fighting fiercely in the chaos.
Swoosh
Slash
“Gah!”
Slash-slash
Unlike knights who emit mana to protect themselves or imbue their weapons with aura, Arisa suppressed her mana to erase her presence.
Even in this chaotic melee, she moved unnoticed among high-level mana users, stabbing knights between their armor plates to incapacitate them.
Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“…Not yet. I won’t fall to this level!”
“A mage! There’s a high-level mage among them! This is… a Wizard! Everyone, be careful… Gah!”
Liche, unleashing relentless powerful offensive spells, showed none of her usual gentleness.
Casting multiple attack spells simultaneously, she demonstrated why the Holy Kingdom had once been so wary of Wizards.
“Damn it! Mages! What are you doing!? Hurry and unleash your spells! We’ll match their firepower!”
“I’ve been chanting since earlier… The spell isn’t completing! Someone keeps dispelling my magic!”
“What!? How in this chaos!?”
“…As long as I’m here, I won’t let anyone be hurt by your magic.”
With Daria persistently disrupting the enemy mages’ casting, the battlefield became a one-sided magic barrage.
Liche, a natural-born Wizard, and Daria, who had honed her dispelling skills to counter such Wizards, combined their powers to dominate the battlefield.
“Damn it! Target the mage and the nun! If we take them down, we can easily overwhelm them with our numbers!”
“You can’t reach them!”
“What? Move! I don’t want to cut down an unarmed woman!”
“No need. Hah!”
Thud!
“Guh, guh… How can a bare fist pierce steel armor and deliver such impact…?”
“It’s a technique called Iron Fist. A human fist, trained to its limits, can surpass steel, you know?”
“…That’s absurd.”
“It’s possible for Yuri Blossom, the Fist Princess of Astram!”
“I’ve never heard of…”
“Of course not. I just made it up.”
“Seriously…”
Even Yuri Blossom took down a knight head-on.
But though she managed to defeat one careless knight, holding off the knights targeting Liche and Daria alone was too much.
“I was going to spare you since you look like a noble’s daughter!”
“Kyaah!”
Thud!
“Huh? Ah! Charl! Thank you!”
Nods
“I’m here too!”
“Aila!”
But Yuri wasn’t alone in protecting them.
Charl, Liche’s golem guardian, and Aila, the Holy Kingdom’s paladin.
Their true strength shone not in defeating enemies, but in protecting others.
Charl, created to guard the Ancient Empire’s Imperial Palace and protect the royal family.
Aila, who had long partnered with Daria to guard the Holy Kingdom’s special agents.
The two held off the knights targeting Liche and Daria with an ironclad defense.
…
…
…
Meanwhile, even in their numerically disadvantaged position, some were cutting through the Emperor’s knights like fish in water.
“Hahaha! Weak! Weak! Is there no knight who can stop Louis!? Show me your spirit, knights!”
Crash!
“Guh…! So you’re the vice-captain of the Holy Sword Knight Order…!”
Louis, the vice-captain of the Holy Sword Knight Order, was one such fighter.
He swung his sword like a wild wolf, cutting through the Emperor’s knights alone.
“Haha! We meet again!”
“Hey! You’re… the Lizardman from Astram!”
And Kirsh, the Lizardman champion.
Though overshadowed by Kurt and only second in the village’s power rankings, that was only because Kurt was an outlier.
Kirsh was a powerhouse who might one day reach transcendence.
He swung his spear with a different flair than Kurt, overwhelming knights with a vigor that matched Louis.
“How about a bet? Let’s see who can take down more knights, loser buys drinks!”
“That sounds fun! Don’t regret it, Imperial drinks are pricey!”
“No problem! If I lose, I’ll just ask my friends to cover me!”
“Ah! I often get drinks from my fellow knights too!”
Thus, Louis and Kirsh, who had coincidentally met, heatedly swung their weapons.
And so, the tide of the battlefield…
Shifted in their favor.