Chapter 186 : Chapter 186
Chapter 186
“It’s a trap! It’s clear they set a trap!”
The story of monsters setting a trap to ambush humans had never been heard anywhere. A story that had never even appeared in history. Moreover, those things were currently moving in groups with different species.
“These crazy bastards!”
Kelvin quickly blew the retreat horn and rushed forward first to open an escape route. The dwarf-made armor defended against most of the poison darts, but some of the endlessly flying darts pierced the knights' bodies.
The poison from the darts couldn't kill an Expert-grade knight, but it could restrict their movements. And in a situation where they were surrounded on all sides by an immense number, these small restrictions were fatal.
“Break through, no matter what! In a wedge formation!”
Kelvin endlessly blamed himself for the result of ignoring the uneasy feeling that had remained in a corner of his heart.
In the battle with the monsters that had suddenly filled the surroundings, several knights could no longer move and collapsed to the ground.
The monsters, dominated by barbaric instinct rather than reason, continuously trampled on the faces and torsos of the fallen knights, and soon the knights’ faces and torsos collapsed without a proper shape.
“Aaaaaaaah! These sons of bitches!”
Kelvin, seeing his falling members, let out a scream full of rage. He was cutting down everything that blocked his way, but no matter how many monsters he cut down, there seemed to be no end to them, as if they had swarmed from somewhere unseen during reconnaissance.
“We have to break through! Break through, no matter what!”
Perhaps thanks to the indomitable will of Kelvin, who was screaming in desperation, and the personnel next to him, an escape route was finally opened.
The knights following Kelvin had to move as quickly as possible behind him, without even time to recover the bodies of their comrades.
After swinging their swords madly for a long time, the 2nd Knight Division finally returned to the safe zone. The monsters, seeing the well-established defensive formation, turned their bodies as if they were human and disappeared.
Kelvin and the knights, who had set foot in the safe zone fortified with defensive equipment, structures, and a large number of soldiers, were a complete mess.
“Commander Kelvin! What is this!”
Kelvin, who usually always approached and joked with them when he saw them, did not react to the words of the approaching officer. He just turned his body with a blank expression.
“Why… is this all there is. Where did everyone else go?”
Out of the 200 knights, only about 160 seemed to have returned to the temporary formation. A staggering 40 members had become monster food without even being able to return.
The faces of the members who had been laughing and chatting just a moment ago came to Kelvin’s mind one by one.
Kelly, Heidler, Delpian. They were people he had talked to just a few hours ago.
“…I should have at least recovered their bodies… their bodies….”
Embraga grabbed Kelvin, who was walking out of the formation with blank eyes, and barely calmed him down. Even after some more time had passed, the light did not easily return to Kelvin’s eyes.
“Get a grip, Commander. What will you do if you break down like this? There are still 160 members who are only looking at you, Commander. It’s the same for the other troops here.”
Kelvin had never officially commanded troops in such a position, so he was feeling for the first time what it was like to lose his own people as a leader.
A shock of a different dimension from losing a single team member when he was simply a team leader was striking him.
“They will swarm again soon. If we stay like this, everyone here will die too.”
“…!”
At Embraga’s calm voice, which had grasped the current situation, Kelvin’s mind snapped back. Right, now was not the time to be mourning the deaths of his comrades. He had to save all the remaining people.
“Have you contacted the Commander?”
“The messenger has already departed.”
“What are the available defensive assets?”
From then on, Kelvin’s instructions followed quickly. The various experiences he had seen and heard by my side had naturally become a part of him, and his commands were as natural as flowing water.
“We have to create a low ground here. If they swarm in like this, the damage could become uncontrollably large.”
They were in a situation where the concentration of defense was low as they were expanding the defensive area.
At a time like this, if a large group of monsters like the one from before swept down at once, the defensive line could be breached.
“We will hold out here at all costs until reinforcements arrive from the second line. The injured knights will recover as much as possible in the rear, and we will defend in shifts of 50.”
It was good for 100 people to hold out at once, but they could reach their physical limits. Although they were makeshift defensive structures, they were all made by dwarves. They could hold out to a considerable extent.
“Commander! They’re coming!”
As soon as the words were out, the monster wave was starting in an instant.
The ones rushing in from the front were small monsters like goblins, and behind them, monsters like Uruks, ogres, and trolls were following in a line.
Even an ogre was a monster that was not easy to kill unless you were Superior-grade, and now there were at least 20 of them coming down towards the formation.
“Prepare the anti-monster ballistae for firing!”
The ballistae, specially made by the dwarves to target ogres, took a direct aim at the ogres’ heads.
“If you don’t blow their heads off, it’s not effective! You have to hit their heads, no matter what!”
Although they were shooters who had been trained for a long time, it was not an easy task to accurately stick an arrow in the heads of the fast-moving creatures.
“Fire at a distance of 400. Currently 450!”
“450!”
With the call and response, the shooters swallowed dryly.
440, 430, 420, 410
The ogres got closer and closer.
400,
The moment the ogres approached the pre-drawn line, the ballista arrows flew into the sky all at once.
Pew!
The arrows that flew with a whoosh pierced various parts of the ogres’ bodies.
“Kuoook-er!”
Since the arrows were thick and made of silver, delaying wound regeneration, the ogres hit by the arrows screamed in pain.
And about three ogres rolled on the ground with their heads pierced. They had thought they would subdue about one, but three was a great start.
While the ballistae were reloading, the already approaching monsters and the first line of soldiers, including the knights, were engaged in a fierce close-quarters battle.
“Spearmen, aim for the space between their armpits!”
As Kelvin, who had personally taken a spear and pierced an Uruk’s armpit, shouted fiercely, the skilled soldiers properly thrust their long spears into the space between the Uruks’ armpits.
“Kwooooar!”
Unlike the Uruks that had previously raided the continent, who spoke and were highly intelligent, the Uruks in the current monster wave were not intelligent monsters.
“These guys don’t seem to be able to use that thing called ‘ghostly fire’.”
“You mean they’re different from the ones that attacked last time.”
The continent these days was full of things that couldn’t be understood. The sudden appearance of monsters was one thing, but everything was a jumble.
“Second row, loading complete!”
As the ballistae were reloaded, another giant arrow split the sky. Perhaps because of what had happened a moment ago, the ogres also threw their bodies to avoid the flying arrows, so the arrow fired by the second row could only take down one ogre.
“Knight order, front and rear rows, switch!”
The knights who had been holding off the monsters at the front line for a long time retreated to the second line to regroup, while the knights in the second line blocked the front.
The elite soldiers and knights, each a match for a hundred, were holding off the numerous monsters well, but they were not enough to block all the monsters that were gradually seeping through.
Eventually, monsters began to invade the temporary formation one by one, squeezing through the small gaps.
The soldiers who were on standby inside the formation were holding out well by blocking them, but the dwarf-made makeshift structures were also reaching their durability limits.
“Survive, no matter what! Block them!”
Kelvin’s desperate cry, not wanting to lose any more of his subordinates, echoed throughout the formation. Holding on, getting up, cutting, blocking, the battle continued almost instinctively.
The knights and soldiers, as if they were on some kind of drug, got up even after being injured and swung the weapons in their hands. If a comrade fell, they would pull the fallen comrade up, and even if they rolled on the ground, they would get up like a roly-poly doll.
Even though they held out so tenaciously, the number of swarming monsters showed no signs of decreasing.
“I don’t think we can hold on much longer.”
Kelvin thought that this place might be his end.
“Commander…! What are you doing!?”
Embraga shouted, but Kelvin had already jumped over the makeshift defensive position and into the center of the swarming monsters.
Woooooong!
The moment a sword cry that vibrated the surroundings was heard, a white light from among the monsters swallowed the surroundings.
[Lumentia Swordsmanship. Manov’s Form. Annihilation]
The light swallowed everything around it. And where the light disappeared, the monsters had also disappeared. A considerable range of monsters around Kelvin had disappeared as if they had melted.
With that single attack, Kelvin also looked very tired. However, thanks to that, the defending knights and soldiers found some breathing room.
“Regroup quickly! Repair the barrier and reload the defensive weapons!”
Kelvin’s roar struck the eardrums of those present like a thunderbolt.
‘My liege… I think this is it for me.’
He had wanted to be with me until the very last moment, but it seemed it would be difficult to keep the promise he had made to himself. In fact, he had used up too much stamina with the previous blow.
He was cutting down the swarming enemy quickly, but his speed was rapidly slowing down.
“Commander!”
Just then, Embraga jumped down from the barrier.
“Hey, you punk! If you die too, who’s going to command!”
“It’ll work out somehow!”
“There’s a limit to bullshit! Get back up here, quick!”
Kelvin shouted, but Embraga just stuck close to Kelvin’s side and swung his sword like a madman.
“Honestly… none of them listen….”
Kelvin let out a light sigh and gripped his sword tightly.
“Alright, let’s try to survive!”
While Kelvin and Embraga were swinging their swords for dear life, the defensive formation was somewhat re-established. And the retreat signal was given to the two of them.
“Get up here, quick!”
The two of them, without anyone having to go first, threw their bodies to try and get inside the formation.
Just as they were throwing their bodies to return inside the formation, a giant rock flew towards Kelvin’s torso. Kelvin, seeing the rock several times larger than himself, gritted his teeth and raised his aura.
Kwaaaaaang!
A moment later, the rock exploded, and Kelvin was slammed to the ground.
“Commander!”
Embraga, who had returned inside the formation, shouted, but Kelvin didn’t have the strength to get up easily. The force of the rock from a moment ago was that strong, so the shock was not easily dissipating.
“Cyclops…!”
Perhaps there was a soldier with a high level of knowledge inside the formation, as the name of a monster from ancient texts came out of his mouth.
“How could even something like that….”
The soldiers, at the sudden appearance of the monster, swallowed dryly without realizing it. And the monsters had soon completely covered the area around Kelvin, who had not been able to return to the formation.
Everything was filled with despair, and the giant rock of the cyclops flew in as if to smash the formation.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
Several soldiers were turned to mush by the giant rock. And the defensive formation was completely smashed.
“Ah….”
A soldier who had been fighting with hope until just a moment ago fell into despair without realizing it and sat down on the spot. Even the soldiers who were trying to fight until the end felt despair at this moment.
Just at that moment, when everything was heading for the worst. The soldiers discovered a golden wave erupting above the monsters’ heads.
“Ah…!”
It was the same exclamation, but in a completely different exclamation, close to admiration, a storm of golden aura covered the enemy.