"Ready your weapons!" Lonz alerted the knights, his voice desperate, as they didn't have a moment left to spare. The monstrous horde surged towards them at full force, their flesh twisting and churning with molten lava. The horde would be upon the knights in a flash.
"Leader..." The knights called out to Lonz while hesitation flickered in their eyes. Their comrades were turned into monsters in front of their own eyes. The uniforms they wore were melting into their flesh, which had turned into magma, as they rushed to attack their own friends and brothers in arms. Everything that had happened filled the knights with chilling dread in their hearts. They were clearly unwilling to fight against their own, even though they had turned into monsters.
Lonz saw the hesitation of the knights and he could feel it echo in his own heart. But there was no time for sentimentality right now. He clenched his jaw, closed his eyes, and let out a breath. "Hoooh..." When his eyes opened, it was filled with resolve.
With heavy but swift steps, he charged towards the monsters. "Attack!" he ordered his knights as he lead the charge against the magma monsters. Leading the knights, he was the first one to attack one of his own, who were devoid of any characteristics from their former selves.
"Attack!" Although they were still hesitant, the knights followed their leader and started attacking the monsters. Their hands trembling, they struck down their brothers with their weapons, but were being pushed back.
Seeing this, Lonz cried out once again, "Knights! Let's free our brothers from their torment! Let us give them peace!" Although short, this speech gave the knights a new motivation to fight. "HOOOAHH" The knights, with their newfound motivation and a war cry, began pushing the monsters back.
In mere minutes, the entrance of the high-level started to look like a battlefield. The three cadets were also giving it their all in the battlefield. The monsters were quite easy to deal with as it seemed they were mindless, only attacking. The knights didn't even have to use any
A monster lunged at Cadell to attack him, but he perfectly dodged the attack and struck the monster with his short sword. His sword cleanly cut the monster into two halves, after which it turned into ash. Two more monsters rushed towards him. With a breath, he also rushed towards one, and swiftly ducked down as the monster splashed out lava at him with it's hand. Closing the distance, he cut the monster with his sword.
The other one had already caught up to him and it threw a swipe at Cadell, leaving him no time to even catch a breath. With a swift movement, he dodged the swipe and stabbed its head with the dagger in his left hand. His stabbed finished the monster off, after which it turned to ash and floated away with the wind. 'Isn't this a bit to easy...' As he thought, a splash of lava came flying towards him.
Widening his eyes, he moved his body as fast as he could and barely dodged the lava. Readying his weapons, he turned to where the lava came from. To his amazement, he found Valentina surrounded by monsters as she was smacking away at one with her great hammer, which caused the lava from it's body to fly everywhere.
Clearly her great hammer was ineffective against these monsters due to their nature. But as she was surrounded by monsters, she didn't even have enough time to switch to her bariche. She could only keep defending and attacking with her great hammer to ensure the monsters didn't reach her.
With a sigh, Cadell rushed towards Valentina, putting away his dagger and grabbing the great sword she had given him with his left hand. He reached the monsters surrounding her and slashed their backs with his short sword. "Val!" He cried out as he threw the great sword towards her.
"Thanks!" Valentina parried a monster with her great hammer before dropping it on the ground. Then, she swiftly grabbed the great sword which came flying towards her and slashed the monster, turning it into ashes. Smiling widely with her sharp teeth visible, she started killing the monsters one after another. "Finally!"
But even though she had the great sword now, the monsters surrounding her had grown too large for her to handle alone. Even with Cadell handling some from the back, they were quickly becoming overwhelmed. "AAGH" Valentina clenched her teeth as a monster jumped at her. She blocked it's attack with her great sword and pushed the monster away, which staggered other monsters too. Using this chance, she killed some monsters with her slash. But she was too slow with her heavy weapon to react to another monsters attack at that time.
The monster jumped at her from her back to strike her with it's magma claws. As the claws were about to strike, a whip came down towards the monster's head, killing it in an instant. Valentina smiled, "Thank you!"
Ouida smiled back at her. "Save it for later. Let's deal with this first!" The three cadets quickly took care of the monsters surrounding them by working together. As they had shared a dangerous experience together before too, their teamwork was top notch. They were as efficient as the knights in dealing with the monsters.
Scenes like this were on display all over the battlefield. The knights were also working together and they kept on killing the monsters, who were being summoned continuously through the burning cracks in the ground left by the tendrils before.
Even though the monsters continued to spawn, the knights took care of them easily. With their morale through the roof, they were too focused on the battle before them. Everyone was so focused, they didn't notice the sky above them getting darker with each monster they killed.