Chapter 345: From Exhaustion to Breakthrough (4)

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“>l!”

It started with Gula’s magic.

A red flaming ball was released from Gula’s palm and plunged into the swarm of flesh golems in a straight line, spreading damage with a booming sound upon impact. A cloud of smoke rose high in the air, and several flesh golems were caught up in it, their bodies torn apart and reduced to mere chunks of flesh.

The golems around them had suffered the collateral damage. Those which were half-destroyed or burned by the scattered flames began to fall down, but other golems soon stood to fill in their places.

Another Fireball was shot at the same spot, but it only caused the same amount of damage as the first shot, and other golems soon came to fill in the gaps.

“Isn’t this endless?”

Gula whined after the third shot of magic.

The total number of golems surrounding the imperial army’s position must have exceeded ten thousand, and even if Gula destroyed a dozen of them with one shot of her magic, the damage would have been negligible in the grand scheme of things.

Even so, Loren swung his greatsword, knowing that if they did not do this, they would not be able to move forward; several golems were cut into two right across the middle and fell to the ground after a white slash passed through them.

But the encampment was still far away.

Despite being attacked from the rear, the golems didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the presence of Loren’s group. They just continued to focus on moving forward slowly, and after cutting through a few more golems, Loren quietly clicked his tongue.

If there had been a gap, it would have been possible to force their way forward. But they couldn’t because as soon as one golem fell down, another would immediately fill the gap they left behind.

“Truly a wall of flesh, these guys!”

“This is annoying.”

A bullet gleaming with white light shot out from Lapis’ hand.

It was a beginner’s level offensive technique called >. The white bullet only shattered the head of one golem, and the golem whose head had been shattered continued walking as if nothing had happened.

“It seems a little damage won’t stop them.”

[‘Because they are created by magic!’]

Shayna’s voice echoed in the back of Loren’s mind.

The Energy Drain power of the King of Death was exercised, and the individuals whose power, or rather magic power, was sucked out of them fell down in succession and stopped moving without any external injuries. But other golems quickly filled in the gaps where they had been missing.

[‘The power of their number is amazing.’]

“This is not the time to be impressed.”

Switching to a backhand-grip, Loren thrust the tip of his greatsword into the ground and shouted.

“Burn them down! Fiamma Unga!”

Loren felt all of his power being drained from his body.

Then flames erupted from the blade of the sword in his hand, and the flames ran toward the golems swarming in front of him.

The flames, even more powerful than the magic Gula had unleashed, engulfed the golems, turning them into black charcoal rolling on the ground in the blink of an eye, but still leaving no space to move forward.

Loren, who had expended his own life-essence in order to use the power hidden in the greatsword, almost fell to his knees unwillingly as he felt a sense of powerlessness assailing his body. But he resisted and pulled the greatsword out of the ground, then changed his grip on its hilt and swung it forward again.

“Could it be that we won’t be able to advance unless we disable a large number of these golems?”

“Maybe so, but as long as Loren doesn’t give up, we’ll just have to keep trying.”

Lapis pulled out a small bottle from her luggage and hurled it over the heads of the golems.

Gula, who had taken Lapis’ intentions into account, cast a Fireball spell on the bottle in mid-air, which ignited the oil that was apparently inside, sending a rain of flames down on the golems’ heads.

The golems whose bodies caught fire did not immediately stop moving, but after burning for a while, they slowed down and collapsed on the spot.

Although they succeeded in setting fire to a wider area of golems compared to using only Fireball, the number of golems they were able to defeat was still too small considering the total number of the swarm.

“Ahh shit! You’re so annoying! Get out of my way!”

Loren’s greatsword, swung down through the wind, caught a golem’s body, and red flames erupted. The golem turned into a human-shaped torch, engulfing not only itself but also the golems ahead of it, but Loren’s attempt to move forward was blocked by the body of other golems.

With things like this, Loren thought that he had no choice but to move forward little by little, by forcing his way through. But, perhaps reading his thoughts, Lapis raised her voice to restrain him.

“Don’t do it, Loren! You will be crushed!”

If Loren forced his body into a space crowded with countless golems, he would only be crushed by the swarm; no matter how large and stubbornly strong Loren’s body was, it would not have the strength to push back against hundreds or thousands of golems.

Loren was beginning to think that what they were doing was futile, as they were unable to move forward, when he heard a faint human voice, albeit from quite far away.

“Who is that over there? Reinforcements?”

It seemed that an Empire soldier, who was in the middle of intercepting the golems, had noticed Loren’s group.

Wielding his greatsword in an effort to reduce the number of golems as much as possible, Loren responded by raising his voice in the direction of the soldier’s voice.

“We’re related to General Yuri!”

“General Yuri? General Yuri is alive and well! Can you get over here?”

“We’ll figure something out!”

Without any concrete ideas on how to do so, Loren cut down more golems.

The empty spaces left by the fallen golems kept being refilled with other golems, but Loren continued his attack, thinking that the more he defeated, the fewer golems the Empire army would have to intercept, and that defeating them would not be a waste of time.

“Someone’s coming from the outside!”

“Can’t you open the way? What about the magicians?”

“They ran out of energy in the first interception and are having a rest! Hey there! Be careful or the golems will…”

Loren’s face contorted as he heard someone scream.

Even if the golems did not attack, if someone was engulfed by the wave of golems moving forward, they would only be crushed or trampled.

Someone seemed to have been unlucky enough to be swamped, but there was no time to lament their misfortune; the golems continued to rush in, and the Empire troops were desperately trying to intercept them.

“Fuck! We’re running out of time!”

“If you’ve got time to whine, take out as many of them as you can!”

Loren thought that they had a last minute arrival in the fight. There was not much time left before the soldiers defending the position were decimated.

“Then we’re going to have to push ourselves a little bit.”

Loren gritted his teeth, then flipped the switch in his consciousness.

As he heard something click somewhere in his head and felt the power in his limbs rise sharply, Loren roared and swung his greatsword at the wall of flesh in front of him.

Several golems were cut in half with the first swing, and with a step forward, the blade of the greatsword was pulled back before smashing through the golems that had come to fill the open spaces.

“Loren?! You’re being reckless!”

“We have no choice but to go in now!”

Hearing the voices of Gula and Lapis, Loren took one more step forward.

As the golems were being cut down and dismembered by his blade, Loren stepped forward. The golems were cut into pieces without even being able to fill the gaps left by his attacks, which were much faster and more powerful than before.

Two walls of flame shot up from the ground in parallel as if to maintain the space that Loren had cut open, and Lapis and Gula ran after him in that space.

“I wonder if they’ll ever find out how many times, we’ve used magic?”

“I secretly set off a few spells myself, so even if they find out, the number won’t be too outrageous, right?”

“They’ll be suspicious!”

“No one would be foolishly honest enough to count the number of flame walls in such a confusing battle, I’m sure!”

The conversation between Lapis and Gula told Loren that they were following him.

Feeling that it was his job to keep clearing the way, Loren continued to swing his greatsword at such a speed that made it seem as if no golems were even there.

After attacking for the umpteenth time, Loren felt his consciousness wavering, but he managed to preserve thanks to the power Shayna had taken via Energy Drain and poured into him.

Secretly impressed by how useful his body had become, Loren continued to attack, but as he looked ahead, he saw a soldier waving his hand at the golems that were swarming around him.

“Heey! I didn’t think you’d make it through this… Hang in there! You’re almost there!”

The distance to the camp seemed to be less than a few more meters. However, the golems that were swarming around were not going to disappear once they reached the camp.

In order to reduce the number of golems as much as possible in his current state, Loren put more strength into his limbs and let out a roar that sounded like that of a beast from his throat.

At that moment, the blade of the greatsword in his hand burst into flames.

The roar and flame of the sword reverberate through the air, burning the golems that blocked their path, consuming their flesh and blood and turning them to charcoal, then to ash, in the blink of an eye.

“You’re being too reckless, Loren!”

“He probably can’t hear you! Anyway, he cleared the way.”

Loren was sure that he had been too reckless; he felt a sudden assault of weakness that almost made him fall over, but he felt people supporting him on both shoulders and carrying him.

Loren did not know how many golems he had killed with his last attack, but he could tell from the footsteps of the people supporting him that the path to the Empire army’s position had been cleared.

“Hey! He really made an opening!”

“Is he okay? Did he hurt himself?”

“This guy… Hey, call the General!”

“A breach has opened up! Wake up the magicians!”

Loren heard a flurry of voices, probably from the soldiers.

He was shaken violently and felt as if his entire body was being lifted, though the sensations were dim. But he had no energy to react to these sensations, and lost consciousness.

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