Episode 562
“Hahaha! Bring more drinks! With someone to chew out, the booze just goes down easier!”
The entire allied camp echoed with the boisterous laughter and rough banter of the Northerners.
Helen and Duke watched the Northerners drink and jeer tirelessly, shaking their heads in disbelief.
Duke turned to Helen. “I followed your advice, but I didn’t expect them to keep at it so relentlessly.”
Helen nodded in agreement. “Indeed. The Himonas side is performing beyond expectations, but Castro Pollock is holding out better than anticipated.”
They had expected a quick reaction from Jupiter Castle, but there had been little response so far.
Duke clicked his tongue. “It would be nice if they reacted soon. Some of the nobles are starting to grumble about this provocation.”
Despite being enemies, some were displeased about tarnishing the honor of noble adversaries.
Helen’s expression darkened at his words. ‘If there’s no response by the end of this week, we’ll need another plan…’
Just then, a deep drumbeat resonated through the camp, followed by a sentry’s urgent shout.
“A monster wave is coming!”
Duke grinned as he stood up. “The commander was right. Castro finally took the bait.”
Helen nodded, grabbing her Dragon Buster. “This is where it counts. Please take charge of the rear.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
Duke swiftly exited the tent and headed to the Black Sword Knights’ camp, where the Highlanders and all the knights were already prepared.
He called out to them, “Let’s go! Time to hunt some monsters!”
The Black Sword Knights, having faced several monster waves before, followed Duke with rising morale, moving quickly to the rear where the wave was approaching.
As they moved, they saw the gate hovering in the sky at the rear of the camp, spewing out demonic monsters in a steady stream.
Farrell quickly assessed the monsters and reported to Duke, “Commander, most are B and C-grade monsters.”
The Black Sword Knights, experienced in dealing with monster waves, had developed a system to efficiently categorize and handle the threats: A-grade for large monsters, B and C for medium, and D and below for small ones.
The absence of S-grade or A-grade monsters suggested a hastily assembled force.
Duke listened to Farrell and organized the troops into squads. Cloné, Farrell, Felix, and Reina took charge of each squad, with other Black Spirit members supporting them.
The squad leaders led their troops into battle against the monsters.
“Haaah!”
Cloné swung her mace, gleaming with white light, at the oncoming monsters.
Boom!
With a single strike, several monsters were sent flying.
Meanwhile, Farrell and Felix employed classic tactics to prevent the monsters from breaching the camp.
“Conserve your arrows! Fire when they’re in range! Soldiers, brace the barricades!”
With the experienced Black Sword Knights leading the charge, the other knights and soldiers from various families were able to engage the monsters more confidently.
Suddenly, a squad of knights charged at the monster horde’s flank with impressive speed.
“Kill them all!”
The Himonas knights, who had been drinking and carousing, had quickly formed ranks and were now cutting through the monsters.
At the center of their formation, Northern Duke Alicia wielded her massive sword, sending monsters flying like leaves.
Boom!
The Black Sword Knights and Himonas Knights, seemingly waiting for this moment, overwhelmed the monsters, leaving the dark mages at the rear in shock.
‘What the…’
Castro Pollock had hastily requested the gate, summoning mostly medium-sized monsters, which should have been more than enough to overwhelm a typical knight order.
Yet, the knights were handling the monsters with ease, leaving the dark mages bewildered.
‘Communication with headquarters is down, and the Thermo Gate is stalled, so we opened this gate, but damn it…’
To open the gate here, they had temporarily closed the Thermo Gate, isolating their forces there.
Especially for the undead, closing the gate meant they couldn’t draw on demonic energy, rendering them powerless.
The plan had been to unleash chaos with the monsters, close the gate, and redirect power to the Thermo Gate, but everything had gone awry.
At that moment, Alicia charged towards the gate, swinging her massive sword.
“There they are! Target those mages!”
Alicia grabbed a spiked iron ball from her horse’s side.
She had tested it as a provocation against Jupiter and found it quite effective, so she had brought a few along.
She hurled the spiked ball with all her might at the mages’ altar.
Boom!
The iron ball flew through the air, landing squarely on the altar.
“Get out of the way!”
The mages leapt from the altar in panic.
Boom!
With a single throw, Alicia had obliterated the altar.
Watching this, Alicia grinned and shouted triumphantly, “Did you see that? A perfect hit!”
The Himonas knights cheered at Alicia’s success and pressed their attack even harder.
Duke, observing from the rear, heightened his senses to survey the battlefield.
He noticed a strange energy stirring in the air.
‘This is…’
It was the presence of a high-ranking demon, just as Zeke had warned.
Duke called out to Zeros, the Black Sword Knights’ magic division leader, who was on standby.
“Zeros! Calculate the coordinates where I’ll strike!”
Duke leapt into the air, unleashing a powerful wind slash towards the source of the disturbance.
Boom!
The wind-infused strike flew towards the spot where the high-ranking demon was being summoned.
Whoosh!
The demon began to materialize, its form grotesque—a lion-like face with a massive insect-like body.
Yet its aura was as formidable as that of the Black Knights.
Just before the demon fully emerged, Zeros and his mages activated their spell, staffs raised.
A sharp sound accompanied the appearance of a white magic circle, binding the demon.
Crackle!
Every time the demon tried to move, the magic circle emitted a blinding light.
It was a trap spell designed by Arina and Hades, light mages, specifically for high-ranking demons.
The strategy was to use the long summoning time of high-ranking demons to their advantage. A skilled Black Knight would pinpoint the summoning location, allowing mages to set a trap that immobilized the demon upon arrival.
Zeke had conceived the idea, Arina and Hades had crafted the magic circle, and Duke and Zeros were executing it for the first time in battle, with Duke’s judgment proving spot-on.
Screech!
The demon, trapped and unable to move, let out a hideous cry as Duke raised his sword in the air.
“Stay right there!”
Whoosh!
The power of the wind gathered around Duke’s sword.
In an instant, Duke became a whirlwind.
Slash!
It was the moment when Duke Draker, the legendary Wind Knight, revealed his ultimate technique to the continent once more.
Slash!
The high-ranking demon, struck by Duke’s ultimate move, bled blue as it plummeted to the ground.
Boom!
Even caught in a trap and hit by the Black Knight’s ultimate attack, the demon still clung to life.
Screech!
Amazingly, the demon rose and immediately began devouring nearby monsters to heal itself.
Crunch!
As it consumed the monsters, its wounds from Duke’s attack rapidly healed.
Just as it was about to swallow a massive twin ogre whole, a thunderous noise split the air.
Crunch!
Alicia’s spiked iron ball struck the demon’s tough carapace with precision.
Screech!
Caught off guard while feeding, the demon howled in pain and rolled across the ground.
In that instant, Alicia leaped into the air, her sword raised high, and charged at the high-ranking demon with fierce determination.
“Haahhh!”
She swung her sword down with the intent to cleave the demon in two.
Crash!
But just as her blade was about to strike, the demon shed its outer shell and slipped away, narrowly avoiding Alicia’s attack.
Grrrr—
The demon, now free of its insect-like form, appeared as a shriveled, unimpressive creature.
Attempting to communicate its will through telepathy, the demon began to speak.
—…Humans… how dare you, against the great realm of…
The demon struggled to articulate its thoughts, but Alicia had no intention of waiting around.
Without a hint of curiosity, she charged forward, swinging her sword at the demon once more.
Whoosh—
In the past, she might have relied solely on brute strength, but after training with the Sword King, her movements had become much more fluid.
Slash—
With graceful precision, she cut off the demon’s leg, effectively immobilizing it.
Thud!
Even without its shell, the demon was twice the size of a human, and it fell to the ground with a heavy crash.
The demon, now desperate, muttered something in the language of the demon realm, but Alicia paid it no mind. She swiftly moved in and severed its head.
Crash!
The demon’s head was cleanly cut off by Alicia’s sword.
And then, something astonishing happened.
Crunch—
The blade of her sword opened wide like a wolf’s maw and devoured the demon’s head and body in an instant.
“Huh?”
Alicia was taken aback, having never seen her sword behave this way before.
Typically, when a demon’s power is exhausted in the physical realm, it is re-summoned back to the demon realm, as its true form remains there.
However, the sword, imbued with the power of the Wolf King, consumed the soul contained within the summoned demon’s body, obliterating its true form in the demon realm.
Hum—
The sword, having devoured the demon completely, returned to its original form.
Though Alicia didn’t fully understand what had happened, she could feel the sword’s power more vividly than before, and she narrowed her eyes.
‘The Wolf King Fenrir was a legendary wolf that devoured monsters. Could those monsters have been demons?’
A wolf that grows stronger with each monster it consumes. If so, this sword would only become more powerful with each demon it devoured.
Until now, she hadn’t been able to fully harness the sword’s power, unaware of this ability.
Through her training with the Sword King, she had become one with the sword, revealing its true strength.
Alicia grinned, realizing the sword’s newfound ability.
“Thanks to Zeke Draker, I’ve discovered something valuable.”
The dark sorcerers maintaining the gate were thrown into disarray as their summoned high-ranking demon was swiftly defeated, and they began to prepare for retreat.
‘Monsters…’
The treaty between Narak and Jupiter was of no concern to them.
Just as the dark sorcerers attempted to open a gate to escape the battlefield—
Crackle!
A surge of electricity erupted from the gate.
With the magic backfiring, the sorcerers coughed up blood and collapsed on the spot.
“Ughhh!”
Through their blurred vision, they saw someone approaching.
Step, step—
A man in a Draker uniform emerged from the light.
The dark sorcerers of Narak whispered his name in fear.
“Z-Zeke Drak—”
Crackle!
In that moment, a powerful bolt of light swept through, reducing the sorcerers to ashes.
Zeke Draker, the knight of salvation, had arrived on the battlefield.