Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-70

Chapter 70: A Warrior’s Creed Is to Run Their Enemies Over Without Hesitation

In the middle of the blizzard that was getting heavy and heavier, the warhorses were marching forward. The team in front was pushing forward without slowing down at all. Right after they broke through waves of daemons, Joshua and his knights had finally broken through the Dark Tide. They approached closer to the center of the horde.

The monsters in that part of the Dark Tide had weaker bodies compared to the monsters with tougher hides and brute force. However, these monsters had more powerful magic than the monsters they encountered earlier on. Upon sensing the presence of the knights approaching them, those Berserk Daemons immediately opened their mouths or the other organs to gather energy. Aiming at their enemies, they unleashed waves of magic breath attacks to inflict damage on their enemies.

However, because they were currently in the north, most of these magic breath attacks were ice or water elemental attacks. There were not much thunder elemental attacks that could not be dodged so easily. Those magic breath attacks were not that fast to begin with, so the knights were able to dodge most of the attacks while riding on their warhorses. Even though they were hit a few times over while they were charging towards the monsters,the knights did not suffer much damage as they were protected by condensed Combat Aura shield and everyone was wearing heavy armor and holding shields.

“Run them over!”

Joshua ordered loudly and swung his left hand forward. The gigantic metallic lance suddenly disappeared, followed by a loud explosive sound in the front. An invisible shockwave was caught against the howling wind that was blowing in the opposite direction. Not only did a few magic breath attacks that were shot at Joshua disperse, the Berserk Daemons were penetrated and blown backward. Countless dark purplish liquid with the stench of blood was splattered across the ground and the stains dried and turned into crystalline materials.

After that, taking the opportunity of the brief moment he got by killing the daemon before him, Joshua finally had time to ask his Divine Armament about what she meant.

“Ying, what did you say just now?”

“Master, those monsters that you slew just now—they were Aragami.”

Within the silver greatsword, Ying was sending a message through Spirit Sense. Her voice sounded agitated, “There’s something wrong with the Dark Tide this time. There’s actually Aragami mixed among the daemons. More surprisingly, the daemons did not attack them!”

“Those are Aragami?”

Because he had not stopped slaughtering the daemons and pushed forward ever since he arrived on the battlefield, Joshua could only spare a little of his attention to recall the past and speak with his personal Divine Armament, “It felt like they’re not as strong as I thought they should be. I’ve never seen them before… I’ve no idea what their appearances look like… Furthermore, daemons would usually attack the Aragami.”

“This is just the first form of the Aragami. They seem like infants that were only born less than a month.”

Regarding that sort of question, Ying seemed to be extremely familiar with it. After all, every single detail about the Aragami had been carved into the core of her soul since the beginning. She was using Spirit Sense to speak in a clear voice, “They’ll need one to two years to grow into fully grown Aragami. By then, each of them would at least have the power level of a Silver tier… Meanwhile, the Aragami are intruders from the other world after all. Even the will of the Dark Forest would resist the existence of these monsters. The daemons and the Aragami aren’t on the same side. That’s a truth that is backed up with proof.”

“If that’s the case, it seems really odd then. After looking at the Dark Tide this round, other than the conspiracies of the Corrupted Black Dragon and the Pentashade Dragon, the shadow of Chaos must be somewhere there as well.”

Upon that conclusion, Joshua also understood the strange feeling that came across him all of a sudden—the description on the Azurite said [The Blood of Chaos, the Source of the Flame]. That was randomly pulled out of nowhere. By killing one Chaos daemon, the Azurite could provide a certain amount of recharge based on the kill.

So it seems like I can also get a quest reward without having the need to kill a Gold-tier daemon? No, that should be the only objective of the quest. It appears that the effects of the Azurite only applies to the holder. Those thoughts went through his mind. Joshua suddenly understood one thing he thought was unusual; the warrior was confident enough that he was currently the number one in the entire realm of Gold tier. There should not be anyone more powerful than he currently was. However, he would not dare to say that he could single-handedly take on more than a dozen Berserk Daemons or Aragami. That would be insanely challenging even for him. Cast aside the consideration of everything else, stamina exhaustion was more than enough to cripple any powerful beings in the entire world.

Meanwhile, according to the records, every time the Aragami breached the seals, the heir from a family of generations would enter the dimensional rift to suppress the monsters. So the amount of stress they would feel while engaging the Aragami would be the same with the amount of stress that Joshua and the knights were feeling right now. However, the heir could always succeed by the end of it. Thinking back on it, that must be because of the benefits that the Azurite had to offer. Therefore, Joshua’s ancestors could face so many Aragami all alone killing them one after another even though they were not as powerful as Joshua himself.

A warrior without a limit to his stamina could get a lot of things done.

“My liege.”

The heavy breathing came not far from his back. Joshua did not turn his head around as he could tell from the heavy breathing that it was voice of one of the knights from the second formation. “A shrapnel from the explosion has wounded the foreleg of my mount. It seems that it can no longer hold on for long.”

The voice of that knight sounded very nervous. However, he became calm after a brief moment. His voice became firm and confident.

“I’ll stay right behind you.”

“I know what you mean.”

Without being swayed, the warrior shook his head and said, “With me around, such wound will not matter much at all.”

“None of you are falling behind.”

In order to handle most of the unexpected possibilities, Joshua had come ready equipped with many skills. He was no longer a newbie who had never step foot on a battlefield. His consideration was very thorough.

Just because the leg of his horse was wounded, that young knight decided to stay behind and die? Pfft! It would not be so easy for that knight to seek a glorious death!

The knight did not say a thing about it. Upon hearing what his liege had to say, that knight could only continue to ride on his horse charging forward into the heart of the battle. However, just like what he said, the pace of him riding on his horse had slowed down a lot. He had been keeping up with the frontline all the while since the battle started. Having no choice left, he could only switch positions with the other knights so that he could slowly move back to the rear of the formation.

Meanwhile, Joshua was almost done adjusting his breathing while he was slaughtering the daemons. He was getting ready to use his skill to support the knight who seemed to be wounded. Suddenly, the situation changed.

Initially, the entire sky was covered by dark clouds. There was an obvious and drastic change right in the middle of the dark sky. The clouds in the sky were being peeled off layer by layer by some sort of force. Then the clouds dispersed. By the end of it, a hole of a concentric circle shape that looked nearly perfect appeared right in the middle of the clouds. The magnificent scene of the sky and the beautiful stars were revealed right beyond the empty hole. The moonlight mixed with the starlight was shining down upon the land.

“That is…”

That was the essence of Glorious Strength! Gold tier!

Sensing the nature of the power in the sky, Joshua did not put his attention on the changes in the power later. Instead, he shouted, “Everyone, slow down. Power up on your Combat Aura defense.”

“Brace for impact!”

Listening to the command of their liege, the knights slowed down on their charging speed. Some of them lifted their shield, placing it in front of them while the others were increasing the intensity of their Combat Aura. Although they could not sense the wave of Glorious Strength, they were not blind either. After all, they were Silver-tier knights who had experienced so many battles involving magic. So they naturally knew what the change in the sky was all about.

A brief moment later, as expected by Joshua, there was slight trembling right in the middle of the circular hole among those gloomy clouds. The stars were shining brightly, and countless magical powers, guided by a powerful soul, were gathering above the reflections of the stars. They soon turned into white lights and rained down upon the world below them!

In an instant, a huge explosion and a blinding flash were seen from afar. It felt like a giant meteor crashing down to the ground. Even Joshua and his knights could see and sense the tremors on the ground very clearly. The hot air and impact that came from the source caused the endless wave of the Dark Tide to slow down a little. On the other hand, the knights were only affected a little since they had made preparation to defend themselves earlier on.

The moment was here!

“Everyone, the fortress is currently supporting us with everything they’ve got.”

With the intensity of their Combat Aura increased, Joshua gave his command as loud as he could. His voice could be heard thundering throughout the battlefield.

“We must not let them down—”

That was the moment where the knights had prepared themselves for. They adjusted their breathing pace accordingly. The red radiance that was initially blazing on only Joshua began to spread and fused with the radiance of the fifty knights. The radiance became so blinding and strong that it lit up the surroundings across the sky.

The radiance not only shrouded Joshua and the knights but also their warhorses. In fact, the radiance was fused together closer than ever. Because of that, the tremendous Combat Aura of the Gold-tier warrior was exhausted intensely until everyone had the unusual radiance throughout their entire bodies.

Having to cover fifty knights and their horses as well was a little much… Perhaps not.

The warrior sighed and revealed a wretched and wild smile on his face. “Listen to my command and charge forward with all you got. Charge!”

“Yes, my liege!”

Rallying wildly in the middle of the battlefield, the Ultimate Skill [Mastery:Stampede ¹ ] that originated from the centaur warriors blazed on!

Time seemed to have slowed down. At the moment when Joshua had charged up to his full strength and unleashed the Ultimate Skill, the red radiance that looked like the color of blood began to spread across the entire formation like a large light beam. Translucent airwaves were stirred around intensely. The strong air pressure instantly surged across everyone’s body and shielded around them like a layer of invisible protective barrier.

Shoof—

Like a blast of air, or even faster than the speed of winds, the rectangular formation of the knights that were as firm and solid as steel instantly speeded up forward. Their speed had somewhat reached the limit already. They clashed with the front row of the daemons that turned around and charged at them because of the explosion that happened earlier on.

However, unexpectedly, the impact of the air pressure around the charging knights had already caused havoc across those daemons. The impact of the running horses clashing with the daemons was much more lethal than that—in an instant, blood and bones were flying all over the place. The miserable screeching of the daemons was echoing throughout the surroundings!

Under the crunching sound of the bones, the daemons that were charging towards Joshua and his knights were crushed over like being run over by a metallic fortress. Their flesh was splattered across the battlefield and their broken bones were crushed further and scattering into the surroundings. Their remaining parts that were scattered into the surroundings were then trampled in the mud. The horde of daemons had just suffered a great loss in numbers.

The first layer, second, third, fourth… Under the intense impact from the charging strike, the daemons’ countless layers of defense were torn apart easily. The toughness of their bodies was like of paper. They were easily crushed by the impact of the charging strike from Joshua and his knights. In the meantime, the knights in their formation charged forward with the howling wind, making their way straight towards the fortress.

“Rawgh!!!”

They had crossed over thousands of meters in just an instant. Other than Joshua, none of the knights could react to the situation. They were just focusing on unleashing their Combat Aura to maintain the red radiance surrounding them. An accident was bound to happen sooner or later. Not long after, not far from the direction where Joshua and the knights were charging towards, a few gigantic shadows emerged and blocked them! They looked as firm as the mountains!

Among those Berserk Daemons, there were a bear, a wolf, a giant snake and a deer. However, they had one thing in common. Each of them was shrouded by dark purplish mist. Their eyes were glittering bright like the purplish-blue stars in the sky. That was the most obvious trait of one undergoing a ‘Dragon’s Berserk’.

Could that be the pinnacle of the Silver tier after undergoing two Berserk processes?

“There’s no need to slow down! Charge!”

Sensing that some of them were slowing down a little because of fear, Joshua shouted out and gave his command again, After that, he revealed a wretched smile on his face and patted his horse’s belly.

“Black!”

The black horse which had the blood of a dragon coursing through its veins seemed to have a spiritual connection with Joshua. It seemed to understand what its master meant. Along with countless red lights gushing into its body, it neighed and hissed. After that, the muscles across its entire body began to swell and expand. It seemed that the horse was activating its berserk mode now. Its movement speed became much faster after that.

So, a Silver tier at its peak—

The dark red radiance slowly engulfed the blade of the silver greatsword and the metallic lance. They looked like they were blazing in flames reflecting the radiance across them like the complexion of red crystals. In the meantime, Joshua had entered his purest explosive battle mode. He was charging like explosive lava. The muscles across his body expanded and swelled insanely. He looked extremely intimidating and scary at the moment. His aura was unmatchable in the battlefield.

The daemons that went through Dragon’s Berserk were charging at the warrior in black armor showing not even the slightest fear in them. That would mean those daemons had already completely gone berserk. Those monsters no longer had any emotion called fear. They were swinging their claws, their teeth, their horns and their tails towards their enemies at the same time. They were so worked up to crush the tiny humans before them into piles of meat right now.

Trash!

Slash—

The blade blazing with red radiance flashed across the monsters. The monsters stopped as if time had been frozen. The knights charged forward like there were no obstacles in front of them. They charged out of the daemons that attempted to surround them up. Right after the charged passed the horde, blood oozed out from the throat of the giant bear intensely all of a sudden. Meanwhile, the black body of the giant snake was sliced into four parts where each part was still wiggling on the ground. At the same time, the colossal deer’s head fell off onto the ground as it died on the spot.

The giant wolf that was approximately three meters tall was the only one left. It was then pierced by the lance that Joshua was holding. Its eyes popped out because of the impact of the strike. It was skewed on the tip of the lance Joshua was holding up towards the air with an intensely stunned expression on its face before it died.

Not far before them was the spot where the corpses blocked the city gates.

“My liege! Do we charge on? The wall is just right before us!”

“Of course!”

Following the brief conversation, the knights that were engulfed in the red radiance disregarded every single obstacle right before them as they charged on. Under the support of their Combat Aura, they violated the rule of gravity and charged onto the gray wall of the city—vertically!