Chapter 265 : We Will Be Together in the Heat of the Battlefield

KWAGWAGWANG!

—KIAAAAAAK!

The duke, smelling the sound of cannonballs exploding, the cries of the magical beasts, and the acrid smell of gunpowder, became a cold-headed commander and observed the situation.

Adrian's grotesque creatures, which had been blocking their approach like an iron wall, were falling one by one.

Also, the barricade surrounded by ice was also gradually collapsing.

The magical beasts were approaching the wall one by one.

The duke commanded.

"Fire the crossbows."

"Fire the crossbows!"

The adjutant relayed his order, and the soldiers faithfully carried it out.

"Fire!"

CHWAJAJAJANG!

Bolts the size of a person flew and pierced the magical beasts.

Linda's poison was applied to the tips.

"Load! Fire!"

CHWAJAJAJANG!

The bolts rained down.

A moment later, all of Adrian's monsters that had been blocking the path collapsed, and Monde, carrying Adrian, cut through the magical beasts and evacuated inside the wall.

Soon after, the ice barricade that had been blocking the wave collapsed, and a monster wave of overwhelming numbers rushed toward the wall.

"They're coming!"

BOOM!!

Even after killing and killing, there was no end to them.

The magical beasts that had finally reached the wall began to ram their bodies against the wall or climb it.

But this situation had already been foreseen.

It was just that the timing had been delayed thanks to Adrian's monsters holding out well.

The duke, without panicking, gave the order.

"Drop the cannonballs."

His adjutant relayed his order.

"Drop the cannonballs! Push the cannons back!"

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers took the cannonballs with Linda's poison embedded in them and began to drop them directly below the wall.

It was a tactic that could not be used with the usual cannonballs with explosion magic embedded in them.

Because if you dropped them right in front of the wall, the shock would be transmitted directly to the wall.

But this was poison, so there was no need to be so careful.

The magical beasts began to scream and fall in the green poisonous mist that exploded right in front of the wall.

—KIEEEEEK!

—KYAAAAAK!

—KURRRUK!

The corpses of the magical beasts piled up in front of the wall.

And the crossbows did not rest.

"Fire!"

CHWAJAJAJANG!

Linda's poison rose like a cloud, and the crossbows rained down.

Just as they were reducing the number of magical beasts.

"We're out of cannonballs!"

The prepared cannonballs had run out.

The poison that Linda had produced used the blood of A-rank magical beasts as an ingredient, so there was a limit to its quantity.

They had made as much as possible by drawing the blood of the magical beasts dealt with in the second wave, and they had put as much of it as possible into the cannonballs.

But it had run out in the face of the overwhelming numbers.

Soon, the green poisonous mist that had been covering the front of the wall like a mist cleared, and the magical beasts began to ram their bodies in earnest.

BOOM!

No matter how thick and sturdy the wall was, among them were not a few A-rank magical beasts that could easily break an ordinary wall, so the wall began to shake slightly.

BOOM!!

RUMBLE—

"Your Grace! Your orders!"

The duke opened his mouth.

His expression was still unchanged, and his tone was as blunt as ever.

"You remain here and command the top of the wall."

"Yes, sir!"

The duke handed over the command to his adjutant and then immediately got on the elevator.

The elevator slowly moved down the wall.

Even at that moment, the duke's expression was firm, and no change in expression was observed.

Thump.

The elevator arrived.

When the duke got off the elevator, in front of him, the knights of Tundra were waiting for him in an orderly fashion, lined up in rows.

Their gazes were as cold as a blue blade.

"..."

The duke looked over the knights once and then walked to the front of the wall without a word.

"Heok... heok... I-I almost died."

"Hahaha! Sir Monde. It seems the goddess of death doesn't like us very much! I thought I was a goner for sure this time."

"Are you laughing now?"

"Hahahat! Is there a reason not to? Today was the best day of my life. Didn't you see them smashing the magical beasts so coolly?"

"..."

There, Monde was sitting with his back against the wall, still catching his breath, and Adrian was patting his shoulder and laughing.

They were both covered in the blackish-red blood of the magical beasts, so they looked quite terrible.

When the duke stared at them blankly, Monde, who had belatedly noticed his appearance, hurriedly got up from his seat.

"Ah, Your Grace."

Adrian also tried to get up from his seat, following Monde, but his legs gave out and he collapsed.

Adrian laughed as he sat down.

"Hahat! I'm sorry, Your Grace. It seems my legs aren't listening to me. They're on strike for today."

"..."

The duke walked over to the two without a word.

Monde, who had been wondering why the duke had suddenly come down from the wall, finally grasped the situation after seeing the knights lined up behind him.

Monde grabbed the hilt of the sword at his waist and said with a suddenly serious face.

"I will follow you."

Just as he was about to draw the blood-soaked sword again.

Thump.

The duke's hand stopped Monde's sword, which was about to come out.

Monde looked at the duke with a puzzled face.

The duke, still with an expressionless face, looked at Monde and said.

"You've worked hard."

"...!"

"Leave the rest to me."

The duke, who had confirmed that Monde had taken his hand off the hilt, turned his head and looked down at Adrian, who was sitting down.

"You've worked hard too. It was impressive."

Adrian smiled brightly.

"Thank you!"

The duke passed between the two and approached the wall.

He quietly placed his hand on the wall.

The noise was transmitted through his hand.

The struggles of the magical beasts, who were ramming their bodies against the other side, and the grotesque cries of the angry creatures were vividly transmitted.

The duke, who had been feeling the vibration for a moment, opened his mouth.

"Are you cold?"

The knights answered in one voice.

"No, sir!"

A faint light flashed from the duke's hand, which was placed on the wall.

A part of the wall in front of him began to slowly fade.

"We will be together in the heat of the battlefield."

The wall became completely transparent, and soon a passage connecting the inside and outside of the wall was created.

The magical beasts that had been ramming their bodies against the wall began to pour in.

—KRARARAK!

—GWAAAK!

—KUEEEEK!

The duke took a step toward the passage and said.

"Knights of Tundra."

As the duke swung the Turquoise Sword, Aurora, horizontally, the dozens of magical beasts that had been rushing into the open passage were all split in two.

CHWAAAK!

Blood splattered.

The Gray Lion ran on the red carpet decorated with the blood and corpses of the magical beasts and shouted.

"All troops, advance!"

"Waaaaaah!!!"

With the king of the north, the absolute ruler of the north who occupied one of the seats of the Eight-Bladed Masters, and the guardian knight who watched over the eternal winter, in the lead.

The knights of Tundra, who had been waiting, poured out of the wall like a wave and began to slaughter the magical beasts.

* * *

The battle took place in the darkness.

It couldn't be helped, since we were fighting, stuck in a pit where light barely reached.

A golden spear flashed, and a purple whip tore through the air.

Hud's spirits also diligently assisted.

Flames flew in the shape of animals, and a storm suddenly erupted, and water that could easily crush even a magical beast poured down.

But since it would be troublesome if we fell deeper in here, it seemed they were being careful not to let the ground collapse completely.

I also naturally joined in and swung my sword in a trance.

There was no need for words between us.

The combination of the three of us harmonized naturally.

When Schmidt pierced its chest with a golden spear, I would kick it to drive it deeper and then smash its head, and as soon as I stepped back, the earth that had risen at Hud's call would crush it.

When I cut it in half with my sword wrapped in Blue Flame, Hud would call down lightning on the cut surface and scorch it, and Schmidt would finish it by kicking it horizontally and splitting it into four.

When Hud clapped her hands and crushed it from the left and right, Schmidt and I would point our fingers and mock it.

And our terrifying attacks... the Snowman didn't even try to block them and just took them. Like a generous restaurant owner who doesn't discriminate against customers, it accepted and embraced everything.

We had torn, cut, crushed, and exploded its body, which was made of snow, dozens of times.

But every time, a blizzard would gather thickly in one spot as if it were compressed, and a moment later, it would be resurrected as if nothing had happened. To be precise, the snow would clump together and reconstruct itself into its original form.

Even if we interfered with the reconstruction process, there was no particular change.

I wondered if it was recovering with some strange magic that I didn't know, and I thought that if it continued to repeat and accumulate, at some point, it would no longer be able to recover.

So I had been pouring out a relentless attack.

But looking at it now, it didn't seem like it was recovering, but rather as if it hadn't taken any damage at all.

Then did the Snowman just take our attacks?

It did.

It really just took the beating like a fool and repeated the process of recovering.

As time went on, the side that was pouring out the attacks was getting tired, and the side that was getting beaten was still full of energy.

It was around this time that a sense of unease came to me and slapped me in the face.

Was it really you who was attacking?

"Wait."

I stopped all my attacks and looked at the creature that was resurrecting again, as if it weren't tired, and racked my brain.

The snowman was recovering at the same speed as before.

That meant that there was really no damage.

"Heok... heok... what is that."

"Hooo... hooo..."

In contrast, this side was catching its rough breath.

'Let's think.'

He was an S-rank magical beast.

And among them, a particularly intelligent one.

The fact that it used magic, despite being a magical beast, said it all.

And it wasn't just any magic.

A large-scale mental magic circle that could cover the entire valley.

It was a guy who had known that we would come all the way there and had drawn it in advance and was waiting.

A cunning guy.

My head was spinning.

What in the world was he up to, just taking the beating quietly?

To exhaust our stamina and then turn the tide at once? To launch a surprise attack when we were weakened?

Was he drawing a magic circle on the ground without me knowing?

Scrape—

I swept the ground, which was lightly covered with snow, with my foot.

There was no magic circle.

Or was it that the being in front of me was just a clone?

No, its presence was as clear as before. That couldn't be.

Then, why was it not attacking at all and just taking the beating?

The snowman, which had melted and flowed down from the heat of the flame that Hud had thrown, was being reconstructed from the lower half.

It was a grotesque sight.

It was as if the time of the snowman that had melted in the sun had been reversed.

Just then, the Heavenly Demon, who had been watching quietly, said as if throwing a word.

[Is it really true that he didn't attack at all?]

"..."

Thinking about it again, that was right.

The Snowman had just quietly taken the beating and hadn't even attempted an attack.

It had just been blowing a blizzard, like a waterwheel spinning in vain...

'Wait. A blizzard?'

My mind cleared.

The blizzard had not stopped from the beginning until now.

No, rather, hadn't it gotten a little stronger than before?

Come to think of it, his attack and recovery method was the blizzard.

The mental magic circle that had swallowed us had also been spread through the medium of the blizzard.

The blizzard was his whole body and his true form.

'I was careless.'

I had just thought of it as a blizzard blowing through an open hole.

'How foolish.'

If light couldn't get in, how could a blizzard?

I immediately closed my eyes and narrowed the range of my senses, which I had spread wide, around my body like another skin, and made them infinitely dense and sharp.

"...You son of a bitch."

It was no ordinary blizzard.

It was as if he had cut up mana into very small pieces like paper scraps and scattered them around.

Each and every tiny snowflake, which was barely visible, was the heinous mana of an S-rank magical beast.

What do you mean, he didn't attack?

He had been leading us to our deaths without a break from the beginning until now.

He had been slowly but surely drying us out from the inside.

It was even more effective because we were fighting in a sunken pit, so there was no place to escape.

And since we had been consuming our stamina while attacking him, our breathing had gradually become rough, so our condition must have been rapidly deteriorating.

To take the stage we had created and make it his own.

He had naturally taken control of the space without us even knowing.

I got goosebumps.

...I had no choice but to admit it.

He was the scariest magical beast I had ever met.

He was on a different level from the others.

Just then, Schmidt vomited blood.

Hud was surprised and said.

"Schmidt! What's wrong!"

I immediately created the wind of the Fleeting Shadow Steps to its extreme and scattered all the tiny particles that were approaching me, and then shouted.

"Hud! The blizzard is his whole body! Don't breathe it in! Don't touch it!"

"What?"

At those words, Hud immediately swung her arm from bottom to top.

Whoooosh!

A fierce wind raged and tried to spit out all the blizzard...

Swoosh!

The wind descended again.

The blizzard raged madly and refused the order.

It was as firm as a loyal servant serving only its master.

【You who have come from the land of hardship...】

The Snowman's voice was heard, mixed with the sound of the wind.

He was no longer pretending to be at a disadvantage.

Since he had been found out, he didn't care anymore and raged the blizzard to his heart's content.

In an instant, the pit of the abyss turned white.

【It is... your defeat...】

Hud also bent her waist and vomited blood.

—Hud!

—Are you okay?

I could hear the spirits worrying about her, mixed with the sound of the wind.

"Keuk...!"

A thick blizzard covered my vision.

The attacks didn't work.

Schmidt was on one knee, unable to fight, and Hud was also not in a good condition.

No matter how resistant to poison I was, perhaps because I had already inhaled too much.

I also felt my arms and legs losing strength, and my breathing became unstable.

For a moment, I felt dizzy and staggered, losing my balance.

The situation was desperate.

'Is this... the end?'

Grind—

I gripped the hilt of my sword as if it would break.

'No, it's not.'

That day.

I remembered what the Heavenly Demon had said.

[It's not the situation that creates the attitude. It's the attitude that changes the situation.]

[In any situation, choose the right attitude.]

Even if there was no immediate solution.

Even if the tide of the battle was overwhelmingly against me.

Even if I couldn't see any way to win.

But. And yet.

I don't give up.

I gathered my mind and forged it into a single sword.

I swung it and cut the image of the Snowman that had invaded my body.

I cut it up so much that I couldn't even find a trace of it.

I let the dirty remnants of him flow out from my fingertips.

"Hooo..."

I let out a long breath and calmly organized my breathing.

My head cleared, and my breathing became comfortable.

A sensation of having reached a new level that I didn't know wrapped around my whole body.

The deadly poison of the Snowman.

Overcome.