Clione staggered from the barbarian's attack but quickly regained her balance and stood up, shouting.
"Damn it! Hey, Felix! Cover me!"
Clione charged at the barbarian with her mace, her ferocity even more savage than his own.
Felix followed close behind and rushed toward the barbarian as well.
Whoosh!
As Clione swung her mace, Felix thrust his sword into the blind spot.
With attacks coming from both sides, the barbarian couldn't respond properly and took a hit.
"Graaaah!"
The barbarian let out a battle cry, but it was useless.
When it came to battle madness, Clione was no slouch compared to an ork. Her eyes were already spinning wildly.
"Die! Die! Die!"
She latched onto the barbarian and kept smashing his head with her mace.
"Grooo..."
Even a barbarian with his tough body couldn't withstand Clione's frenzy.
Finally, the barbarian rolled his eyes back and collapsed.
Clione placed her foot on the fallen barbarian's chest, raised her mace high, and shouted. "I've got one!" Thud!
In that instant, something pierced through Clione's shoulder.
"Vice Captain!"
Clione had twisted her body at the last moment, or her heart would have been skewered.
"Fuck... what the hell is this..."
The shoulder where the bullet had pierced was turning black.
Felix tried to staunch the flowing black blood, but strangely, it didn't stop.
Clione's face gradually paled.
Boom!
To make matters worse, monsters smashed through the stone barrier and surged over it.
The purple-rank knights were busy dealing with the barbarians, so Jorge, from the Delphoa Knight Order, led his subordinates and charged toward the monsters.
"Everyone, raise your shields!"
They blocked the charging monsters with their sturdy shields, bracing themselves.
In the meantime, Arin unleashed fire magic at the monsters.
Boom boom boom!
Thanks to her training with Arina, Arin's circle had grown, increasing her mana capacity and the number of spells she could cast.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Jason's earth magic buried the charging monsters in mounds of dirt.
While Arin and Jason cast their spells, Xeros activated a summoning magic from the rear.
Whoooong!
A six-layered magic circle appeared, and a flame giant emerged from within it.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The flame giant lumbered forward with its massive body and spewed flames at the horde of monsters.
Roar!
The powerful breath of flame set all the monsters ablaze.
But then, something flew toward the mages.
Crack!
A magic bullet pierced the triple barrier and headed straight for Xeros.
Thwack!
Fortunately, the barrier had deflected its trajectory, grazing his cheek and embedding in the ground, but it had nearly blown his head off.
As Xeros's concentration broke, the summoned flame giant's body turned translucent and began to fade.
"Th-this..."
The summoning of the flame giant, which had consumed a massive amount of mana, was released, leaving Xeros flustered.
In the heat of the moment, his habit of summoning first proved inefficient in real combat.
Xeros pulled himself together, gritted his teeth, and squeezed out more mana to attack the incoming monsters.
Richmond and Bane were also erecting bone walls outside the autonomous district to block the magical beasts, but there were too many to hold back entirely.
Bane kept casting ice magic nonstop, and Richmond summoned undead, but despite their efforts, the monsters and magical beasts kept pouring in endlessly.
On top of that, the magic bullets from the distant Knight Killers could not be ignored.
A single hit would prove fatal, as healing was impossible.
Decker, who had been fighting the barbarians, saw the situation turning against them and shouted to the knights.
"Retreat! Fall back!"
Decker carefully commanded the knights to withdraw without breaking formation, aiming to defend from inside the west gate.
But at that moment, magical beasts that had melted through the iron fence with acidic fluid broke through and appeared.
Caw!
The magical beasts charged at the knights from the side.
Diego swung his dual swords to block the magical beasts.
But then, something intervened and shoved the magical beast aside with its body.
Squeal!
The magical beast let out a screech as its body shattered and it rolled on the ground.
Diego stared at the hulking figure that had positioned itself in front of him.
'B-barbar... barbarian?'
These were new barbarians, not the ones who had breached the west gate.
Graaaah!
But these barbarians charged not at the knights, but at the magical beasts, grabbing their sharp fangs with bare hands and twisting their jaws to snap their necks.
Seeing the three barbarians turning the magical beasts into pulp, Diego's mouth fell open.
"My God..."
Thanks to the sudden arrival of the barbarians, they managed to block the magical beasts from the flank, but the front was still being pushed back.
Even the barbarian Clione had taken down was regaining consciousness, and now five barbarians were charging toward the Black Sword Knights.
Decker commanded the knight order, acutely feeling the absence of the redrank knights.
'This isn't the time to lament that. I'll stake my life to protect the knight order Young Master Zeke created.'
With a resolute expression, Decker threw off his cloak, gripped his sword, and charged at the barbarians.
Whoooong!
A vivid aura blade rose from his sword.
He assumed the rider form of the "Dragon Cleave Sword," which could burn even his life force for immense power.
"Haaah!"
As Decker swung his sword at the barbarians, something struck from the sky.
Boom boom boom boom!
A massive bolt of light struck the monsters and magical beasts in front of the west gate.
Crackle crackle!
The powerful lightning infused with light even halted the charging barbarians.
Decker was startled by the power of the light.
'Could it be Lady Arina?'
But Arina was in Agamemnon Castle; she couldn't have come here.
Decker looked up in confusion.
A knight clad in armor radiating holy energy, wielding a shining sword, floated in the sky atop a horned horse.
A brilliant light emanated from the sword the knight held.
Decker looked at the knight in disbelief.
"N-no way. Young Master...!"
It was Zeke, whom he had practically raised since childhood.
Seeing Zeke emitting sacred light, Decker shed tears of emotion without realizing it.
Whoooong!
A veil of light descended over those at the west gate, warm light seeping into them.
Even the wound on Clione, who had collapsed from the Knight Killer's bullet, was enveloped in a halo of light.
The black blood flowing from the wound gradually turned red, and the injury began to heal.
"Huh? I'm fine now?"
As the bleeding slowed, Clione jumped up and rotated her shoulder.
She grabbed her mace and faced the barbarians.
"You bastards! Come at me again!"
Just as Clione, displaying her astonishing recovery, was about to charge at the barbarians again.
Thud!
Zeke, wielding Roland, appeared in front of the barbarians.
Clione was startled by Zeke's sudden appearance.
"My lord!"
Zeke raised his hand, signaling Clione to wait a moment.
He sheathed Roland and drew the Giant-Slayer.
Focusing his spiritual power, a powerful light flowed from the Giant-Slayer.
The barbarians sensed Zeke's extraordinary aura and hesitated, stepping back.
But Zeke charged forward instead, mercilessly striking the barbarians with the Giant-Slayer.
Thwack!
The weapon that had felled even colossus engines had an undeniable effect.
Even the barbarians' bodies, which resisted aura and magic, crumbled under the GiantSlayer's blows.
Thud!
Zeke drew Roland again and cast Recovery on the fallen barbarians.
Whoooong!
The light of Recovery seeped into the barbarians.
As the brainwashing lifted, Zeke immediately cast healing.
The unconscious barbarians snapped their eyes open and jumped to their feet simultaneously.
"Graaaah!"
The berserk state lifted, the barbarians roared in battle cries, then looked around with blank expressions.
"Where the hell are we?"
Other barbarians approached them.
"You got caught too?"
"You too?"
The three who came with Zeke were from the Mohakin Tribe, and the five who had just regained their senses were from the Rock Tribe.
The five barbarians immediately recognized Zeke.
"Snip-Snip Big Bro Zeke!"
Among the barbarians, he seemed to be remembered as "Snip-Snip Zeke." Zeke nodded in agreement for now.
"Yeah. Snip-Snip Zeke. I'll explain the situation later, but first, I need your help."
Though unsure of the details, the barbarians agreed since Zeke was the only familiar face.
"Got it. We'll help since it's you, Zeke."
Even the prideful Rock Tribe barbarians were favorable toward Zeke, who had slain the nine-headed dragon.
With Zeke's arrival, the situation at the west gate was sorted out in an instant.
Decker assessed the situation, reorganized the knights' formation, and resumed command.
"All hands! Form close-order formation!"
At Decker's command, the shield unit and knight order formed a tight formation to face the incoming monsters.
Zeke joined the recovered barbarians to handle the magical beasts in the rear.
"Graaaah!"
The barbarians roared battle cries, grabbed the magical beasts, and hurled them aside.
Zeke activated Sacred Radiance Technique and shot arrows of light to dispatch the magical beasts.
But then, contact came from Richmond and Bane.
'M-my lord! Something strange is heading this way!'
'Ugh! My power was insufficient to block them! Forgive me, my lord!'
At the urgent messages from Richmond and Bane, Zeke looked beyond the wasteland with his Dragon Eye instead of replying.
In the distance, a group was kicking up dust as it raced toward the west gate.
Zeke sensed powerful demonic energy from them.
Whoooong!
'What is that?'
The massive demonic energy was causing a powerful resonance that shook the earth.
Zeke felt the power of the Harbinger of Blood and Madness within that aura.
'Could it be another demon token that Adnan discovered?'
If there was a demon token capable of creating dimensional rifts and generating demonic energy, it could infuse the magical beasts with infinite power.
Zeke rose into the sky again, then descended to the ground, buffing the barbarians with Sacred Radiance Technique before unleashing Chamber of Metal Power and striking the ground with his sword.
Rumble rumble rumble!
In an instant, a massive earthen wall rose before Zeke and the barbarians, with a moat forming in front of it.
Zeke was gradually mastering the use of Elemental Sword.
'So even this is possible now.'
Precise control was still difficult, but it was satisfactory enough. He climbed the earthen wall and looked at the approaching enemies when something flew toward him.
Whoosh!
A black spear pierced the air toward Zeke.
Zeke noticed it and swung Roland to deflect the spear, but it exploded at that moment.
Boom boom boom boom!
Fragments from the exploding spear scattered everywhere.
Zeke, the most exposed to danger, took no damage thanks to Hercion's auto-shield and Dragon Scale Armor.
As the dust cloud settled, something leaped onto the earthen wall and swung a sword at Zeke.
Clang!
A black bastard sword clashed with Roland.
Through the dust, a black knight in full black armor revealed himself.
His appearance was similar to the empire's demonoids from before, but the aura he exuded was entirely different.
Zeke furrowed his brow at the power he felt from the black knight through their clashing swords.
'It's on par with a balrog.' Thud!
Zeke and the black knight pushed against each other's swords and retreated.
Immediately, a blood-crimson aura blade surged from the black knight's sword.
Seeing the black aura blade condensed with demonic energy, Zeke focused his power on Roland.
Whoooong!
A blade of light infused with Sacred Radiance Technique rose from Zeke's sword.
But then, dozens of black knights with similar appearances climbed over the earthen wall.
Thud!
The dozens of black knights, all wielding bastard swords infused with demonic energy, charged forward.
At that, the barbarians waiting below roared battle cries and rushed at them.
Graaaah!
The barbarians lowered their shoulders and charged at the black knights.
Boom!