Chapter 479

The Black Demon King

Chapter 23: Holy Maiden of Helvetia

Episode 435: Heavy Infantry vs. Armor Knights (Part 1)

” — ‘Plasma Blaster’, launch!”

A raging torrent of purple lightning swooped down on the imminent Crusaders.

Firing the “Plasma Blaster” that stood with a colossal height of 50 meters above ground was like an incessant downpour of lightning from the heavens. To be more precise, the lightning strikes were obliterating the Armor Knights who were defending themselves with Tower Shields.

At the moment of impact, those who were swallowed up by the torrent of lightning would have to activate some sort of defensive martial arts to protect themselves. Unfortunately, no matter how heavily guarded the Armor Knights were, or how bombastically they claimed their defenses to be, they could not withstand the slashing and piercing of the sweltering heat and the torpedo attacks of the lightning strikes.

The lightning of destruction halted for a split second when striking the steel shields of the knights. However, the purple lightning bolts regained their momentum, devouring and annihilating the screaming lives without a trace.

The insidious yet scintillating purple lightning pierced through the land covered in thick snow with its tremendous latent heat. The vast land that was once covered with white had become singed by the formidable Plasma Blaster.

White steam was billowing from the surface of the vast land. The attack not only vaporized the snow, but also the wriggling white knights entirely. Even the Armor Knights, who had the greatest defensive power, could only withstand a split second under the attack. Mere infantrymen would be vaporized in nanoseconds by the furious lightning.

With the overwhelming destructive power, Kurono’s “Plasma Blaster” smoldered a deep hole in the Crusaders’ battlefield, just as it was intended.

“What a destructive power ….”

Witnessing the destructive power of the Plasma Blaster, Eliwood unintentionally muttered, just in time his own destructive spell slammed into the Tri-shield deployed by the enemy’s sorcerers unit, and the overlapping magic spells were eventually canceling each other out with a gigantic explosion.

Eliwood, the vice-captain of “Gladiator”, the 4th unit, was originally a veteran of the elite 1st Spada Army unit, the “Braveheart”, who reported directly to the King. Anyone from Spada would be able to guess his military history.

His power was truly formidable. It would not be an exaggeration at all that his power was comparable to at least level 5 of the adventurer’s rank. Moreover, it would be a nightmare to be his enemy.

I was glad we were on the same side. It was fortunate that he was trapped inside this barrier. Otherwise, there would be no telling the casualty he would bring to the battlefield. Feeling grateful for the fate bestowed upon him by the Black Gods, Eliwood finally took a step toward a journey of death as his sacrifice.

“— Attaaaaack!!”

Roaring a fearless war cry, the Spada heavy infantry lined up in the front row followed by the adventurers behind them.

Their starting point was not the passageway on the castle wall, but in front of the hole that had already been repaired. Of course, it should have been an unreachable place with no scaffolding. However, it was made accessible by the gigantic stairs the enemy deployed using Sanctuary to go over the wall.

The hole in the wall was about 15 meters above ground. If an adult ran, that distance could be covered in a blink of an eye.

There were less than 100 assault units in total, and because of this small number, they were able to quickly jump into the hole Kurono made. Fortunately, the snow along the trajectory of the “Plasma Blaster” had evaporated and exposed the soil beneath, which was easier to trek through. The giant Taurus that had been slumbering like a mound of snow became half exposed. It indicated the attack sent through a shockwave of intensely hot air.

However, what spoke louder than words regarding the destructive power of the weapon, was the track on the ground where the beam hit directly. It turned molten red like magma that swallowed every existence in its path.

The body armors of those that managed to escape a direct hit barely preserved their shape. However, they were smoldered and charred. They had become lifeless symbolism of the horror that had befallen that space.

The Crusaders were terrorized by that picture of hell created in a blink of an eye. However, in front of the Spada Army that roared their fierce war cry and raised their swords to attack, the Crusaders quickly snapped back to their senses. They could not afford to be stunned forever.

The wave of people in white started to move again. Though overwhelmingly small in number, they swallowed the enemy soldiers with their dauntless courage.

“Ahhhhh!”

With the spear in his right hand, Eliwood lunged at the Crusader soldiers that were gallantly trying to block his path. He pierced through two soldiers in one swift motion.

The scarlet spear “Vermilion Pilum” was exclusively created for the members of “Braveheart”. Similar to the helmet armor we were wearing, the spear was made from a composite alloy of almadite ore and Mythril. It could pierce through the body that was only protected by the thin chain mail like a piece of paper.

It did not have an additional ability to deploy magic attacks, but the purely spear-like swing made it the most reliable weapon in the fierce battlefield. The tip maintained its sharpness no matter how many enemies it pierced through. The handle was sturdy enough to withstand slashes and blows from enemy attacks.

At the same time as the bloody tip was pulled out of the soldier’s chest, a golden round shield, the “Golden Torus”, was thrust out with a swift motion. Along with a powerful step, the shield bashed at the corpses of the soldiers who had become mere obstacles.

However, Eliwood didn’t swing the shield just to get rid of the corpses that were in the way. He was deflecting the fireball attacks from the enemy sorcerers’ unit that swooped down like an eagle attacking its prey.

“Whoa! It’s warm!!”

Unscathed heavy infantry were pushing through the blasts and fumes.

Eliwood wasn’t the only one to handle the influx of the fire magic attacks. The heavy infantry pulled out their shields in unison as the Ignis Sagita were being fired at them all at once, and successfully guarded themselves without breaking their formation. They managed to push through the enemy’s heavy fire.

Cooperation and each individual ability were crucial for the survival of this heavy infantry. They held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other to attack the enemy and protect themselves at the same time.

The heavy infantry was equipped with round shields from the founding nation of Spada. The style of holding a spear in the right hand and a shield in the left hand was typical.

Though large, if the shield was held in one hand, they could not protect the right half of their bodies with just the spear in the right hand. To protect this opening, each of them held the shield a little bit to the left. That way, it helped protect the right side of their comrades on their left. However, the soldier standing at the rightmost end of the line did not have any protection on his right. Therefore, someone with the most ability was assigned at that position. Moreover, to strengthen the defense of the right side of the body to some extent, the person in charge of the rightmost position was equipped with a special gauntlet, the “Right Hand Glory”, and a large shoulder plate on the right. And hence, the gauntlet symbolized how powerful the wearer was. As the name suggested, he held glory in his right hand.

That lustrous golden honor was on Eliwood’s right arm.

“Don’t worry about small fry, proceed!”

To stop the successive enemy attacks, the scarlet heavy infantry cut their way through the enemy soldiers and literally opened a bloody path.

The red spears crushed the white line of spears held at the ready when they clashed with each other. The spears of the two armies collided with each other in a fierce spear match. However, it was obvious that the Spada army was as good as being declared the winner due to the inherent high quality of their equipment.

Although they were overwhelmingly outnumbered, their abilities and fighting spirits of the knights of Spada pushed away the enemy and advanced fiercely.

“Move aside, petty soldiers! Let us the “4th Unit of the Helvetian Armor Knights” stop them!”

Even amid a maelstrom of bellows and screams, they still came forward.

The infantrymen scattered hurriedly and could not maintain their spearhead formation. Then a new army with silvery-white full plate armor emerged.

“Look, that’s the general’s escort! If we can go past him, taking her head is within our grasps!”

The Armor Knights that were deployed around Linfelt to guard her came forward to prevent the assault. In fact, it was safer and more secure for us to fight those knights farther away, rather than right in front of the escort.

With such a large number of people, even if they moved further away, countless infantry and sorcerers unit could still cover the defense. There was not much of an inconvenience, even though we were moving. Our opponent might think their defense was enough —. However, our side was prepared to go on a suicide mission to slaughter our target at all cost. Their defensive formation appeared to have a lot of weak points where we could break through with just one blow. That one blow should be enough to take care of that weak maiden.

For us to reach that point, we absolutely had to break through the “4th Unit of the Helvetian Armor Knights” in front of us. The assault operation was about to face the greatest obstacle.

“Don’t falter! Keep pushing forward! Ignis Charge!”

“Don’t yield, force the enemy back! Ice Break!”

Both sides were armed with shields and long-handled spears. The red heavy infantry and the white Armor Knights clashed with each other and attacked with their refined martial arts.

The red spears were blazing with flames. The white Halberds were frozen with frosts. Violent shock waves resulted from the clashing between contradictory energies of fire and ice.

“— Ugh! What an absurd power! These stupid barbarians!”

A man who appeared to be the leader of the Armor Knights shouted provokingly.

The blazing blow delivered by the Spada disrupted the organized Armor Knights. Some soldiers were faltering with severe burn marks on their magnificent silvery-white full plate armors, while dodging the firey attacks. Some less fortunate soldiers who could not dodge had black holes through their chests.

Spada’s most elite heavy infantry had proven that their abilities surpassed those of the Crusader’s Armor Knights.

“Defend the line! Go over the corpses and push forward!”

However, they were overwhelmingly outnumbered.

The number of enemies defeated with a single blaze was not small. Even so, some of our soldiers had fallen victim to the blades of frozen air. Due to the small number, one dead soldier caused a fatal impact on the whole army.

Originally, the reserve heavy infantry at the back of the line would push forward to fill the gap and maintain formation. Unfortunately, only adventurers desperate to protect themselves were left to fall in. Protecting their backs was already more than they could handle.

Ideally, there should have been support attacks from the rearguard around this moment …. However, neither arrows nor fireballs attacks were nowhere in sight. Even Kurono could not have been able to provide the perfect support for himself. Rather, he might have been obliterating the sorcerers since none were attacking at this point.

He had done good enough work. The rearguard team left near the wall would have to do their best to protect themselves.

Eliwood came to a clear decision not to use abusive language to boost his troops’ morale. The only thing that illuminated his heart within those steel-like muscles was the fighting spirit.

“There are only a small number of enemies. Don’t let anyone pass! Crush them all!!”