As the night grew darker, the battle became fiercer. One by one, the police officers retreated in fear, realizing that their bullets were no match for the creatures they faced. They left their duty behind and fled the scene, leaving the civilians vulnerable to the monsters.
In the midst of chaos, Nico stood in the middle of the street, trembling as he held his sword tightly. The Night crawlers had surrounded him, and he knew that his time was up. He thought of Arman, who had already fallen, and wondered if this was the end of his own life too.
"An honorable death," said Nico, "it was not a bad way to go."
Just as a group of Night crawlers was about to attack him, Fergus revealed from invisibility behind and grabbed back Nico who was on the brink of fainting.
"Well done, Nico," Fergus said, and Nico asked weakly, "What do you mean?"
"We survived. They've come," Fergus replied, and as they looked up, dozens of knights descended from the sky. "I thought that piece of shit would never come."
The Defense Brigade from Knight Confederation London branch had arrived. Nico was taken aback as dozens of armored knights landed fiercely on the ground in front of him. They jumped from the rooftops building behind them. It seems all of them at least silver rank as they could jump and landed easily from that high. They stood in formation, thrusting their long swords into the advancing Night crawler.
The knights, under the leadership of someone Nico didn't know, wasted no time in launching an attack on the approaching enemy. Shot after shot rang out from their shooting swords, light after light from their cannon glowing in the night sky, then fell swiftly towards the ground, crashing into a group of night crawlers with a loud impact. The rest of the Night crawler which still alive got slashed and stabbed by the ground knight. Nico couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had never witnessed anything like this before.
"Are you late to wake up or what?" Fergus scolded Sir William which already landed behind them. "Might as well not have come, William."
"Better late than never. They are kind of hard to convince. Where are Sir Vallhein and the others?" Sir William asked.
"They're still inside," Nico answered with a weak and faint voice.
As the knights continued to advance and fight off the Night Crawlers, Sir William shouted, "We need help here! One guardian knight needs to heal Sir Nico!"
Nico watched in amazement as three Defense knights formed a human wall in front of them, their swords planted firmly in the ground. The swords suddenly bloomed, forming an impenetrable shield that protected them from any attacks. Nico felt safe, knowing that he was now surrounded by these brave warriors. One of the guardian knights then cast purification magic on Nico and warm light radiated from the sky falling upon Nico, healing his wound.
There were various types of knights that William brought with him, but the most impressive of them were the ones who could transform into dragons and breathe out flames like flamethrowers toward the Night crawlers.
"From this night on, the world will never be the same again. We have been exposed to normies across the world," Sir William said with a stern voice. "Our knights would show up on tomorrow morning news."
"That is the Confederation of Knights business," Fergus added. "For us, we should take care of our enemies first. We are facing the famous Famir."
"Famir!" Sir William exclaimed, startled. His voice trembled. "Has his iron thorn come out?"
"As far as I know, not yet," Fergus replied.
Nico looked at them, confused. "What's going on? Who is Famir?"
"That slicky green lizard who asking your sword before, Nico. He is their leader. According to our rank, he has power similar to golden knight rank."
"It means he has an ultimate skill that can destroy everything," Sir William added. "If he uses it, it will be the end of us."
Nico felt a chill run down his spine. "What can we do?"
"We have to find him and defeat him before he destroys us," Sir William said with determination. I need to tell the head division for precaution.
Sir William then moved forward, helping his comrade to kill the night crawler and ran to the leader that has the golden cape on his back.
They moved forward, with the knights bombarding the night crawler. Some of them were busy evacuating the citizens and some of them were headed toward the library where Famir was fighting with Sir Vallhein.
Nico couldn't help but feel grateful for the knights who had come to their aid. He knew that he would not have survived without them.
Nico's eyes were filled with sadness as he looked at Sir William, who had successfully told the leader about Famir and his iron thorn. "He still doesn't know that Arman has passed away," Nico said.
"It's better that he doesn't know. His fighting spirit will be disturbed if he does," replied Fergus.
Well, what Fergus said was right. Nico felt so depressed after seeing Arman dead with his own eyes.
"Hmm. Can you stand?" Fergus asked Nico which still sitting on the aspalt. "And where's your little friend?"
"He fainted on the roof," Nico answered.
"Fainted?" Fergus asked, surprised.
"He ran out of energy after shooting a lot earlier," Nico explained.
"In that case, what are you waiting for? Go find him and you both need to go far away. The Famir iron thorn will flatten all buildings around here. Be careful attack from below. I have to help them," Fergus said, slowly disappearing into the air.
"Wait what do you mean by below?" Nico asked but Fergus was already gone.
Nico didn't know what that iron thorn meant but what Nico knew he has to move now. Nico lifted his sword and went back into the building behind him.
Nico rushed through the corridors of the building, his heart racing with worry for Arfin. He knew that if anything happened to him, it would be his fault. He had brought Arfin to shoot on the rooftop and because of that Arfin fainted.
Nico got on the lift and ran to the place he left Arfin before. After turning a corner and saw Arfin still lying unconscious under the table, Nico hearts relieved. He ran towards him and knelt beside him.
"Arfin, wake up," Nico said, shaking him gently. "Come on, we need to get out of here."
Arfin slowly opened his eyes. "What happened?" he asked, looking around groggily.
"Oh my god, did i just fainted in the middle of this?" said Arfin in shock. "Hey. What happens with your thigh?"
"We need to go. Fergus said there is an iron thorn."
"What is iron thorn?"
Suddenly, the entire building shook violently. The ground around them suddenly experienced a powerful earthquake.
"Wait ... what's happening," said Nico in confusion.
As Nico walked to the edge of the building, behind the glass wall, he saw unprecedented scenery.
Suddenly, the ground cracked open everywhere. Gigantic green iron thorns emerged from the ground, rising up to tens of meters in the air, impaling anyone standing on them. Houses split and sink into the earth. Buildings collapsing.
The gigantic thorn began showing up on the library and spread unstoppable across the ground and started to come closer where Nico and Arfin was.
"Go Go GO!" Nico shouted and dragging Arfin along the way to rooftop.
As they came to the roof, Nico saw their building start to crumble. Their floor started to open in many places showing gigantic thorns. Fortunately near the edge of the building, the floor still intact and strong. Nico and Arfin ran as fast as they could to the edge. They jumped and screamed along the way, afraid falling down to the bottom of thorn pit below them.
After a blink of an eye, as far as the eye could see, all scenery around them filled with gigantic thorns rising up to the sky. With an attack like this, no civilian will survive.
"This is no way this is a Thorn. This is a pillar!" shouted Nico angrily as their building which was thirty meters high from the ground was still not safe.