Chapter 90: Scared Me to Death

Just as Gawain had anticipated previously, depending solely on the collapse of the cliff and landmines everywhere would not be able to exterminate those monsters completely.

Of course, if he had greater depth, a bigger minefield, and explosive crystals with greater might, that wouldn’t be impossible to achieve. After all, those monsters did not have brains. As long as there were enough landmines, they were bound to straightforwardly step on all of them, and then fly into the skies together. However, since the conditions could not be fulfilled, then anything said was in vain.

There were still monsters — who by luck or, rather, by force — pushed through all the explosives then flew at them howling.

At this step, any hesitation and fear would have dissipated; the soldiers had long strained every nerve to the limit. The moment the command was given was when the glints and flashes of cold steel arose, and the inevitable hand-to-hand combat began.

The shouts of humans and roars of monsters merged into one.

This was their second time crossing swords.

The previous time had been at the Cecil territory which had now been incinerated by a dragon. The soldiers back then were draped in simple and shoddy steel equipment, using completely non-enchanted weapons against the almost impregnable aberrations with exceptional regenerative abilities, but this time, they were dressed in super gears left behind from the ancient civilization. They had shields for protection along with enchanted longswords and spears. On the other side, the enemy before them had been partially blown into shreds and pieces.

Although this was a simple and plain camp, the actual situation was way better than the previous time.

Once they were engaged with each other, some experienced veteran soldiers had realized this. The equipment on them was giving a good performance that went beyond imagination against the pressures caused by the aberrations. Humans were no longer inferior before the monsters and were instead able to fully fight them head-on. Therefore, after the lines swayed by that little bit, it instantly stabilized, and they even began to force those monsters that had run out of the minefield back in.

Sir Byron was even forced to yell from the back, “Do not go too forward! You must not cross the fence — beware of falling into the traps yourselves!”

Gawain hacked down an aberration whose entire body was charred from the explosions. He noticed that there was no more suspense to this battle. Even without his help, the camp’s soldiers under the lead of the two knights were enough to handle all the enemies.

So he let out a sigh of relief and was about to turn back to check on Rebecca. But just then, he suddenly noticed that a dozen aberrations on the eastern side of the battlefield had stopped in their steps of charging at the defense line. Those faceless gory titans seemed to have ‘smelled’ some scent that they suddenly lifted their heads at the same time and ‘looked’ towards a certain direction.

Following that, they actually dashed there, completely ignoring the defense troops surrounded by magical power right under their noses!

Gawain faltered for a moment before abruptly realizing what was in that direction — the tent housing the ‘dragon-egg rock ball’!

Had they sensed the aura of that ‘dragon egg’? The attraction of the ‘dragon egg’ to them was even greater than both living humans and magical power?!

These thoughts suddenly burst into Gawain’s mind, and this unexpected situation had also left him in a cold sweat. He immediately shouted to Rebecca, “Get your guards and follow!”

Then, without waiting for Rebecca to respond, he had taken to his heels and ran to the tent where the rock ball was kept.

There were, of course, soldiers keeping guard around the tent, but due to a shortage in manpower — coupled with the fact that aberrations should easily have been attracted to the collection of human and magical power auras — the majority of their combat capacity were concentrated at the defense line at the southwestern side of camp. Those left behind at the dragon egg’s tent were merely a small squad of militiamen, and they were new soldiers who’d just completed training. Given their combat ability, they definitely wouldn’t be able to stop those monsters.

Soon, those aberrations had cleared this not too long distance. The soldiers around the dragon egg’s tent had caught sight of this from afar and were in a fluster, attempting to form a battle line to face the enemies but appeared utterly disorderly.

A militiaman’s limbs trembled as he held his spear level, working hard to recall the few simple moves that he’d finally committed to memory with great effort in the last two days. Just then, a sound resembling fabric being ripped came from behind him.

This militiaman initially didn’t dare to shift his gaze away from those aberrations, but he could not help but feel tempted to look back. Ultimately, he wasn’t able to contain his curiosity about the sound behind him and swiftly glanced behind. The moment he turned back, his eyes were wide.

He saw that at ten-odd meters away, the tent’s portiere that was originally tied up had been torn open, and that huge rock ball with a diameter of about 1.5 meters was probing out from between the two portieres. In the next second, he then noticed that this ball was actually floating in the air.

Associating that as part of this rock ball’s strange characteristics, the militiaman instinctively gripped his weapon tighter at once. However, the rock ball had no intention of attracting the surrounding metals this time. It swayed side to side for a moment after squirming out of the tent, and then let out a scream with a metallic trill, “Damn, what is this?!”

It seemed to have ‘seen’ those aberrations that were currently hurtling towards itself.

The militiamen responsible for guarding the tent immediately noticed the activity of the rock ball then. The monsters that were rushing over from afar and this rock ball that was making weird noises behind them had these newly trained soldiers, who had just been armed recently, in a mess. Even their squad leader didn’t know how to cope with the current situation. Yet just then, they caught sight of a tall and big figure wrapped in a faint white glow speedily approaching from another direction.

That was Gawain who had activated his Knight Charge, and following behind Gawain was Rebecca and a small squad of clan soldiers.

Gawain had spotted the rock ball floating at the entrance of the tent from a distance. This bizarre scene almost made him stagger and crash in the midst of charging. Right after, he heard that rock ball let out an ear-piercing noise. “Help! Monsters! What’s happening!!”

So this thing could make sounds?!

Gawain was simply too occupied at this time to analyze what exactly that damned ‘dragon egg’ really was. He decided to give up on thinking in such an unduly strange situation. Following that, he suddenly put force in his legs. With a high jump, he launched one of the signature skills of a knight, Champion Slash.

His whole figure was bundled in a ball of blinding white in the air. Energy flames up to a thousand degree Celsius suddenly blazed on his longsword. Then, he landed like a comet shooting across the sky, ruthlessly hacking at the head of a monster.

This gory titan was fatally struck by the Champion Slash. It was instantly sliced down the middle into two. The two halves of its body didn’t even have time to completely separate before they were burned by the high temperature into scattered ashes. The remaining impact created by the slash continued to push forward, leaving a deep gully.

The aberrations in the vicinity had their senses disturbed by Gawain’s sudden and powerful energy. They hesitated for a while on the spot in slight confusion. Meanwhile, taking advantage of this opportunity, Gawain quickly yelled to the rock ball in the distance. “Quickly hide! There are monsters out here!”

“Damn it!” The rock ball let out a scream. “With just a tent that collapses with a puff, what use would hiding do?!”

Gawain suddenly dodged to the side, evading the sweeping sharp claws of an aberration, and then countered with a backhand thrust of his sword. At the same time, a fireball the size of a washbowl flew past less than half a meter from him and landed on another aberration who was attempting a sneak attack, causing half its body to lean back.

Gawain pushed his advantage and finished off this monster that had lost its balance. From the corner of his eyes, he saw that Rebecca had arrived at the border of the battlefield under the protection of the soldiers. She raised her left hand up high. Another huge fireball took shape in her hand. She then tossed this fireball up; with her two hands gripping her staff, she swung! With a thud, the fireball was sent flying. “Lord Ancestor! I’ll help you contain them!”

Young lady, there’s clearly a problem with that use of your fireball spell!

However, at the moment, Gawain had neither the time nor effort to ask Rebecca how exactly she had mastered her fireball spell because he noticed that the few aberrations running right in front were getting very close to the tent and the rock ball. A militiaman mustered up his courage and thrust his spear out in an attempt to stop the enemy but was struck by an arrow of chaotic energy released by another aberration far away. His entire person flew from the blow. However, there was still a faint glow remaining on his shield, so he was unlikely to be dead.

That rock ball floating in the air less than half a meter from the ground made a fuss out of fright. It darted around rapidly, trying to avoid those aberrations rushing in from all directions. However, before enemies in numbers tenfold of the original, the available space for it to dodge became less and less. Finally, when there was really nowhere to hide, this rock ball was forced to release a scream mixed with a metallic trill; it then raised the height it was floating at to ten-odd meters…

Gawain thought this rascal was about to fly away directly, but it lost its momentum after flying partway and landed like a falling meteorite.

With a loud ‘boom’, a monster right beneath the rock ball was smashed just like that. This aberration who was more than unlucky didn’t even have the time to make a sound before it was pounded into the ground. The newly made pit was even sunk in by at least a meter.

Just like when it had attracted the three soldiers previously, even Gawain’s push had not been able to make this rock ball budge by an inch. This was its true weight.

Don’t mention Gawain faltering, even the rock ball itself was stunned.

But the monsters around were not about to go linger. They could only sense the prey right before their eyes. Therefore, once the rock ball landed, they lunged forward again.

The rock ball let out a scream again and attempted to re-launch itself into the sky, failing once more and smashing an enemy into the ground a second time.

Gawain shook the Sword of Pioneers in his hand. He suddenly felt that there seemed to be no need for him to rush over so urgently to save the day.

Even if it was really doomsday, this crazy egg might not even be in trouble…

The soldiers who’d rushed over and militiamen who remained around the tent could only watch this amusing scene with odd looks. That rock ball (suspected dragon egg) shrieked in fear as it crushed each and every one of the invading monsters dead on the ground. Whereas the brainless aberrations lined up like calabash children saving grandpa</anno>, throwing themselves forward one after another. Until when there were only the last three monsters left, Gawain suddenly took note that the rock ball’s ‘take-off’ height was less than two meters. He immediately unsheathed his sword and went forward, clearing off the final enemies.

The rock ball that had killed a dozen aberrations then slowly floated out of the pile of monsters. It was only ten-odd centimeters above the ground now, evidently worn out. After confirming that there were no longer any enemies left, it finally heaved a sigh of relief. “Damn, that scared me to death…”

Gawain: “…”

Footnotes:

Reference to the plot of TV series Calabash Brothers where seven children went in succession to save their grandfather but were all caught

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