Chapter 54: Together with the King
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Instantly, Pierce and Drogba roared and led the charge on the enemies; the battle between the strongmen and the enemy officers began.
The strongmen, including Pierce and Drogba didn't have any energy, and their fighting techniques weren't as sophisticated as the enemy officers who had more experience in wars. They were no match to the enemy officers fighting one on one, but fortunately they had more men, as well as the help from the 'magic water' in the red and blue water bags. None of them were afraid of death, so their fighting style was made to literally perish along with the enemies. Oleg who was a one star warrior, so he was able to hold for a while; no one was sure who would emerge victorious in this battle.
However, casualties were unavoidable.
An enemy officer dodged the axe strike of a strongman, and sung his sword like a poisonous snake; it went through the tiny gaps between the pieces of armour and penetrated the strongman's stomach...
The strongman's body froze under that injury; it obvious that he wouldn't be able to live through it.
But before the enemy officer could laugh and pull out his sword, the officer was horrified to discover that the man he had severely wounded threw away the axe and locked him down with his arms. The strongman's clamping arms strangled him tightly, and the officer had a hard time to breathing. Before he could react at all, the wounded strongman shouted, "Hail King Alexander!" and viciously charged, aiming at the other enemy officers. In a series of gasps, the strongman shoved two other enemy officers who didn't have time to dodge, and all four of them fell into the river. Instantly, they were turned into piles of white bones by the human-eating water beasts that had gathered under the bridge.
The self-sacrificing strategy of the strongman had scared all of the other enemy officers.
"Breno!!!"
After seeing the strongman Breno fall to his death in the river, Pierce felt like someone had stabbed him in the heart. He didn't dodge and let one officer pierce him through his leg, and then he countered with a powerful smash. The smash had knocked the enemy's head into his chest.
The battle was getting more and more intense, and both parties had suffered casualties.
The autumn wind blew through the battlefield and echoed the solemn and tragic atmosphere in the sky.
These strongmen may have only been unremarkable and ordinary people, but they all shined with unparalleled glory following Breno's shout and decisive and tragic leap into the Zuli River.
The strongmen who were showered in blood had built a wall of flesh with their lives on this ancient stone bridge; even if they had to die, they would protect their kingdom and families behind their backs.
Under the shadow of blades and the flurry of blood.
The heroes' marching steps were firm and steady. Even if they were pierced by blades, even if their arms were chopped off, even if blood spurted in their helmets…they would never take a step back. They all yelled, "Hail the King!" as they charged into the enemies who were stronger than them. They didn't hesitate to block the way of the mocking enemies who possessed energy and wanted to slaughter them.
The intensity of the battle couldn't even be described. Eventually, the enemy officers were shaken by the murderous will of the opponents and didn't dare face the group of opponents who were weaker than them. They were scared and some of them turned around and tried to escape...
Numerous people stood on the defensive walls of Chambord silently as tears filled their eyes. Flames of anger were burning in everyone's eyes. Their blood was boiling uncontrollably and their hands which were holding weapons started trembling from anger. Some soldiers couldn't hold back anymore and roared as they glided down the rope that was hanging off of the defensive wall. They were willing to support their troops and families who had built that human wall!
Fei who was battling the three star warrior Landes witnessed all of that.
After seeing the strongman Breno jump into the river with the enemy, an unprecedented sadness filled his heart, as if he had lost a loved one. Fei felt something was burning in his body, and if he didn't relieve it soon, he would be burned into ashes...
Fei roared as he turned around.
The twenty two strongmen were brought out of the castle by him. Except for Breno who had already sacrificed his own life, Fei swore to himself to bring the twenty one strongmen back safely to Chambord.
Landes left four or five startling wounds on Fei's back as he turned around, but Fei didn't acknowledge him at all. The axe turned into a blade storm again in Fei's hand and chopped the remaining enemy officers into pieces. Fei shouted to the rest of the strongmen, "Retreat... Go back, go back to the castle! Warriors, our mission has been completed!"
However–
"We will stay together with the King–!"
It was a unanimous response from the strongmen; there was no hesitation. Some of them still had broken blades stuck in their bodies, shocking bloody holes in their armour, and were only able to stand up with the help of their companions. However, their decision was as firm as a mountain and none of them wanted to back off.
Fei was touched and anxious at the same time.
He struck horizontally to rip through the air and dodged Landes' snake-like sword that was stabbing directly at his head. Fei shouted, "Pierce, I command you as the king: bring my warriors back to Chambord right now! Don't disobey my order... Trust me, I have a way out of this."
Pierce lowered his head and avoided Fei's eyes.
As a soldier of the King's Guards, he had thousands of reasons to stay behind and fight alongside the king. If the king was as unstoppable as before, retreating was also an option. However, all of them could see that after the appearance of the enemy's three star warrior, Alexander couldn't battle as easily as before. Both of them were equally powerful, and none of them could defeat the other quickly. If they retreated right now, it meant that they would have left the King behind in an extremely dangerous situation... They would rather bleed and die on the battlefield than leave their King in danger.
After avoiding Fei's stare, Pierce and Drogba led the strongmen to drink the water in the water bags silently. Before the wounds on their bodies could recover properly, they reformed their awl 'V' formation and Pierce acted as the awl tip and led the charge.
"Your Majesty, the siege ladders and trebuchets have already been destroyed. We will stay behind, please return back to Chambord!" Pierce yelled as he charged.
Fei didn't say anything as he saw that.
He knew that in this situation, even if used his stats as the King, he wouldn't be able to command the stubborn warriors back to the castle. He changed up his fighting style and gave up any kind of defense. He also took on the self-sacrificing strategy, and aimed every strike at the vital points on Landes' body.
"Hahaha, you are cornered! This is useless, none of you can live!"
Landes' laughed. He had already saw their victory, so he didn't fight Fei with his full force. If he could drag out the battle with these fully armoured opponents, as time went on, they could exhaust the opponents with their number advantage.
Fei definitely understood Landes' plan.
He even saw the teams of enemies that were approaching the bridge carrying long bows and huge arrows in their quivers on the other side of the bank. Although they were still almost a mile away, his Barbarian instinct warned Fei about the great amount of threats those archers had.
However, Fei suddenly felt something much more threatening than those archers,causing his mind to become clouded. The terrifying feeling made him feel like he was the target of deadly snake who was sneaking up on him.
Fei had quickly identified the source of that threatening feeling–
On the tip of the south side of bridge, a black cloud of fog was slowly diffusing. A black figure was steadily moving inside the cloud of fog, and Fei who was experienced and had a clear understanding of magic under the Sorcerer Mode could clearly sense the strong and aggressive magical power field around that figure. It was beyond Fei's expectation; even under the assault of the most powerful boss he had faced in the Diablo World– Griswald, he didn't feel that threatened...
"It's a master mage... Far beyond a three star rank!"
Fei was shocked. Instantly, he knew that the real danger was about to arrive.
He didn't expect a super boss to hide in the enemy's troops. The situation turned from bad to worse. Once that figure in the black fog got closer than three hundred yards (m), which was the average magic coverage of spells, Fei and the strongmen wouldn't have any chance to escape.
What was even more daunting was that the appearance of such a mage meant that all the hard work they had put into this mission was wasted. A mage that was above three stars was over twenty times more threatening to Chambord than the six trebuchets.