Chapter 147 War Games
Chapter 147 War Games
“They’re surrounding us… this isn’t good.”
Alessandra raised her shield and mace, eyes blazing—eager, almost hungry to smash something’s skull in.
“Fall right!” Iryoku barked.
The group shifted instantly.
A second later, a pack of trolls burst out from behind them—massive, ugly, charging.
Then a huge tree trunk came crashing down where Iryoku had been standing moments earlier. The impact shook the ground violently. A troll emerged behind it, swinging the massive trunk like a weapon with brutal, inhuman strength.
Iryoku spun, hurled his harpoon, and—
CRACK!
Another troll dropped, the weapon buried cleanly in its forehead. Controlled. Efficient. Dead.
“Shit… I don’t like this,” he muttered, already scanning for the next threat.
At the front, Katherine hissed, “This might be the work of the so-called noble family that owns the castle.”
“Maybe,” Reika replied, staying tight on her flank. “We’re getting closer to them.”
Christina looked everywhere at once, nerves screaming beneath her skin. Flashes of her burning church and the dead children surged through her mind, fear tightening her chest until she almost broke down.
But every time her gaze drifted back to Iryoku, the dread eased.
She saw how he stood before danger without faltering—her Black God. The others moved with him, calm, coordinated, fearless. Fighting as one.
I am fearless… My God is with me. Nothing shall harm me, for He blessed me with His divinity… His power… His love…
She whispered the prayer so softly only the wind could hear.
Her eyes sharpened.
Her trembling stopped.
Her posture straightened.
I can do this.
The group began retreating, boots pounding against the dirt as two mixed packs—trolls and ogres—charged after them in a raging stampede.
Reika gathered magic into her palms, waiting for the monsters to clump closer. A dense sphere of fire spun between her fingers, growing hotter and brighter.
She smirked.
“Fire Storm.”
BOOOOM.
The fireball detonated mid-air, bursting into a rain of blazing fragments. Flames swallowed the charging beasts, turning the ground behind them into a hellish furnace. Screams. Burning flesh. Chaos.
“That’ll slow them down,” Reika said calmly.
“Girls—retreat!” Iryoku ordered, cutting down another troll at the front of the horde.
He glanced at Katherine. She nodded sharply.
They sprinted down the open path toward the castle. It was still far—too far—but there was no choice. The terrain around them was wide open, perfect for incoming projectiles.
Iryoku and Katherine kept their senses razor-sharp, ready for anything hurled their way.
A massive tree trunk suddenly came flying toward them with terrifying force.
“Left!” Katherine snapped.
The entire group shifted instantly, narrowly dodging the huge projectile as it crashed past them.
Behind them, the trolls and ogres finally pushed through the Fire Storm, though charred corpses—ogres and even a few trolls—littered the path.
Yumi nocked another arrow, then hesitated.
The massive castle gates far to the left… were wide open.
“Uh… those weren’t open before… were they?” she asked.
“That’s not a good sign,” Iryoku muttered.
They picked up the pace. Fortunately, all of them could maintain this speed for hours.
They neared the valley entrance, where the trees thickened and the castle began to fall behind them.
Yumi and Reika kited the horde with small, precise attacks.
Meanwhile, Orn flew overhead, screeching and unleashing sonic wing-blasts from his beak, keeping the monsters at bay.
Then—
Iryoku and the girls stopped abruptly.
A multitude of growls and heavy movement surged from the treeline ahead.
Creatures poured out from between the trunks.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
A demonic horde advanced toward them.
Imps. Goblins. Orcs. Minotaurs. Hulking, stomping, snorting beasts.
Above them, riding on the shoulders of massive minotaurs, were hunched, vulture-like shamans wrapped in rags. Collars of bone bit into their thin necks, and each carried a crude wooden staff crowned with humanoid skulls.
Iryoku and the girls froze for a heartbeat, eyes widening.
The vulture shamans raised their staffs, screeching in a guttural, ancient tongue. Dark energy gathered—condensed—into a massive black sphere.
“FUCK—move back!” Iryoku shouted. “Kat!”
Katherine darted in front of everyone, rapier gleaming, just as the monsters unleashed their attack.
“Parade!”
The black spell slammed into the ground before her—
She flicked her sword.
The spell stopped.
Then she stabbed forward in a blur, pouring her own power into it and hurling it back.
“Riposte!”
BOOOOOOM.
An explosion tore through the demon line—
—but as the smoke cleared, everyone froze.
A massive wall of dark energy stood before the horde, shielding nearly the entire army. The barrier shuddered, looking ready to crack—yet the ranks behind it only swelled as more demons flooded in. Only a few imps and goblins at the fringes had been obliterated.
The vulture shamans growled clearly commanding the advance.
Iryoku didn’t hesitate.
“Keep moving!”
They pulled back toward the castle.
“What do we do? They’re surrounding us,” Yumi said, eyes sharp.
“And that open castle looks like a damn invitation,” Reika muttered. “A trap. Definitely a trap.”
Agnes spoke tightly, jaw set.
“Those spellcaster creatures can summon demons. One of them summoned the Weremammoth—an exalted demon—back at the capital.”
Iryoku clenched his jaw.
“They’ve got us cornered. The only path left is inside the castle.”
A beat.
“And if there’s an exalted—or stronger—demon here… it’ll be inside.”
“Most likely a demon general,” Katherine said. Her mind flickered back to Laila’s transformation—demonic power, command over lesser beasts. Then Raksha’latrex—the immortal Demon Queen. Katherine shook her head and forced the thought away. No. We would have felt a Demon-King-level presence the moment we entered the valley.
Everyone turned to Iryoku, waiting.
Alessandra spoke first.
“We’ll do what you decide.”
The others nodded—absolute trust.
“As long as we stay together,” Yumi added quietly. None of them wanted him going lone wolf again.
Iryoku grinned, eyes gleaming with reckless confidence.
“But what do they think? That we’re just going to walk into their trap?”
He glanced at Yumi and Reika.
The two exchanged a look. They already knew.
“Open a path,” Iryoku ordered. “Don’t burn everything—just enough to break through.”
Both nodded.
“First, we bait the barrier,” Reika whispered, smiling.
Yumi drew her bowstring back.
The arrowhead spun into a drill of compressed storm energy.
Reika sculpted a dense molten sphere with her hands—lava swirling inside like a burning heart.
The others mounted Rhogan, ready to charge the instant an opening appeared.
The air buzzed.
Magic hummed.
The demonic army roared.
“Piercing Arrow!” Yumi shouted.
She released.
The drill-like projectile screamed forward, ripping through the air. The vulture shamans screeched and slammed their staffs down in unison—an opaque wall of magic erupted in response.
Any demons caught outside the barrier were instantly shredded—crushed and torn apart like meat in a grinder.
Yumi’s arrow slammed into the shield—
GRRRRNNNND!
The drill spun harder, grinding against the barrier as cracks flashed across its surface.
“Molten Core!” Reika followed.
The burning sphere struck a heartbeat later—
KRA-BOOOOM!
Magma splashed and rained down, sizzling violently across the magical wall—and any stray monsters nearby.
The barrier flickered.
Reika unleashed a follow-up lightning storm—
a dome of electricity detonating over the shield, crackling and hammering without pause.
From the rear, ogres and trolls were already charging closer.
Time was almost gone.
Reika grinned sharply.
“Final strike!”
Yumi formed another arrow—but this time, Reika placed her hand over it, channeling power from the blue Return Stone.
Frost spiraled around the drill-shaped tip, condensing into a vicious, spinning spike of ice.
Wind howled.
The arrow compressed into a single devastating point.
Yumi exhaled.
Reika smirked.
Together—
“Piercing Frost—Arrow!!”
The shot launched like a cannon blast.
It hit the barrier while it was still buckling under lightning—
KRRRRAAAAAACK!!
The frost drill punched straight through.
The barrier shattered in an explosive shockwave.
Everything behind it—minotaurs, vulture shamans, goblins, imps—was obliterated.
Shredded. Frozen. Pulverized. Gone.
A wide, brutal corridor ripped open through the demonic army.
“GO!!” Iryoku roared.
Rhogan thundered forward like a divine rhino from hell—Katherine, Agnes, Aqua, Christina, and Alessandra already riding his back. Yumi and Reika vaulted up in one smooth motion as he charged.
Iryoku sprinted behind them—fast, feral, unstoppable—cutting through the cleared path before the demons could close it.
They had only seconds—
—but they took them.
The escape began.
Iryoku’s harpoon flicked through the air—
CRACK!
It split wind and skull alike, tearing into the surrounding creatures. Bodies flew apart—but there were too many.
Rhogan smashed ahead, hooves shaking the earth. The path they’d carved was already collapsing as the horde surged inward.
Yumi fired again.
Reika unleashed a barrage of spells.
Alessandra blasted the flanks with her magic cannon.
Orn dove from above, wings flashing as he carved through anything under his shadow.
Katherine fired her magic revolvers—heads bursting in precise, cold detonations.
The army pressed in from both sides, seconds from crushing them flat—
—but they broke through.
Barely.
Rhogan trampled a minotaur foolish enough to block the way—
THUD!
The massive body folded under his weight.
Iryoku sprinted after them, slashing down two creatures with twin daggers before hurling his harpoon forward again—this time toward the girls.
Alessandra, riding at Rhogan’s rear, reacted instantly.
The glowing rope snapped around her hand.
She yanked.
Iryoku was slingshotted forward—launched through the air—
He landed behind her, steadying himself with a grip on her arm.
Alessandra shot him a fierce grin.
He grinned back.
They were seconds from escaping when—
Everything slowed.
A cold, primal chill crawled up Iryoku’s spine.
He moved on instinct—without knowing where the danger came from.
If he were alone, he could dodge.
Run.
Survive.
But the girls were right in front of him.
He couldn’t—
Wouldn’t—
leave them...