"Puhahaha! Bring more booze! Having someone to chew on makes the drinks go down easy!"
The boisterous laughter and rough banter of the northerners echoed throughout the entire allied army camp.
Helen and Duke watched the northerners down drinks without tiring and mock endlessly, and they shook their heads in disbelief.
Duke glanced at Helen and said, "I ordered it based on your suggestion, but I didnʼt expect them to work this hard without a break."
Helen nodded in agreement. "Indeed. The Himonas forces are exceeding expectations, but Castro Pollock is holding out better than anticipated."
She had thought he would fall for the provocation quickly, but there had been no real response from Jupiter Castle so far.
Duke clicked his tongue. "It would be nice if they reacted soon. Some of the nobles were starting to complain about this taunting."
Even though they were the enemy, there were those grumbling that it tarnished the honor of noble blood.
Helenʼs expression darkened at his words.
'If thereʼs no reaction within the week, weʼll need to switch to another plan...ʼ
But just then—
Dong, dong, dong!
A massive drumbeat rang out, followed by the watchmenʼs shouts echoing across the camp.
"A Monster Wave is coming!"
Duke grinned and rose from his seat. "The Supreme Commander was right. Castro fell for the provocation after all."
Helen nodded at Dukeʼs words and picked up her Dragon Buster.
"This is where it gets important. Please handle the rear, Captain."
"Got it. Iʼll wish you luck."
Duke immediately left the tent and headed to the Black Sword Knight Orderʼs position, where they were already on standby.
The members of the Black Sword Knight Order, including the Highlander reinforcements dispatched there, were fully prepared for battle.
He shouted to the knights, "Alright! Letʼs go. Time to hunt some monsters!"
The Black Sword Knight Order had already faced several Monster Waves while following Zeke around.
Raising their morale, they followed Duke swiftly toward the rear where the Monster Wave had erupted.
As they moved, a Gate floating in the sky at the campʼs rear came into view.
Demon Realm monsters poured out of the Gate and advanced in a line toward the camp.
Farel quickly assessed the monsters and reported to Duke, "Captain, theyʼre mostly
Grade B and Grade C monsters."
Having dealt with Monster Waves repeatedly, the Black Sword Knight Order had their own system for grading monsters to handle them efficiently.
Grade A monsters were large, B and C were medium-sized, and D and below were small.
The absence of super-large Grade S or large Grade A monsters, filled only with medium ones, suggested the forces had been hastily assembled.
Duke divided the troops into squads based on Farelʼs report.
Klone, Farel, Felix, and Reina took command of each squad, with other Black Spirit Unit members as vice-commanders to support them.
The squad leaders charged toward the monsters with their teams.
"Haaah!"
Klone swung her mace, flashing with white light, at the oncoming monsters.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
That single blow sent several monsters flying.
Meanwhile, Farel and Felix directed the soldiers with textbook tactics to prevent the monsters from reaching the camp.
"Conserve arrows! Fire only when theyʼre in range! Soldiers, brace the palisades from below so they donʼt collapse!"
With the experienced Black Sword Knight Order leading the fight, the knights and soldiers from other families, who had been tense, began to handle the monsters steadily.
And at one point, a knight order charged at high speed toward the flank of the monster horde.
"Kill them all!"
The Himonas knights, who had been drinking and joking around, had reformed their ranks and begun sweeping through the monsters.
At their center, Grand Duke of the North Alicia Himonas swung her massive Fang-Wolf Sword, larger than her body, sending monsters flying like fallen leaves.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Seeing the Black Sword Knight Order and Himonas knights handle the surging monsters as if they had been waiting, the dark mages in the rear panicked.
'What... what is this?ʼ
Castro had urgently requested the Gate, summoning mostly medium monsters, but even that should have overwhelmed ordinary knight orders.
Yet they dominated without a hint of panic, leaving the dark mages even more flustered.
'Communication with headquarters is cut off, and Thermo Gate is stalled, so we opened the Gate here, but damn it...ʼ
To open the Gate here, they had temporarily closed the one at Thermo Gate, isolating their forces there.
Especially for the undead, closing the Gate cut off the demonic energy from the Demon Realm, preventing them from maintaining their power.
The plan had been to release monsters in the rear to sow chaos, then close the Gate and redirect mana to Thermo Gate—but everything had gone wrong.
At that moment, Alicia swung her Fang-Wolf Sword and charged toward the Gate.
"There they are! Target those mage bastards!"
Alicia grabbed the iron ball-spiked rod, which she had slung beside her warhorse.
She had thrown a few experimentally to provoke Jupiter, and finding them satisfying, she had brought more.
She hurled the iron ball-spiked rod with all her might toward the altar where the mages were.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The iron ball sliced through the air at high speed toward the altar.
Her aim had improved since the first throw, and it landed precisely on top of the altar.
"Dodge!"
The mages leaped in alarm from the altar.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
The single iron ball from Alicia completely demolished the altar.
Seeing the result, Alicia grinned and shouted excitedly, "Did you see that? Dead on with one shot!"
The Himonas knights roared in cheers at Aliciaʼs hit and pressed the attack even harder.
From the rear, Duke observed the battlefield, heightening his qi sense to scan the situation.
Then he sensed an ominous energy rippling in the sky.
'This is...ʼ
It was the aura of a High-Rank Demonkind that Zeke had warned about earlier.
Duke shouted to Xeros, the chief mage of the Black Sword Knight Order who was on standby, "Xeros! Calculate the coordinates where Iʼll launch my sword strike!" Duke unleashed his Gale Technique and leaped into the air.
He then fired a sword strike straight toward the rippling energy.
Kwa-kwa-kwa!
The powerful sword strike, infused with gale force, flew toward the High-Rank Demonkindʼs summoning point.
Whoooong!
Dukeʼs strike was nullified, and the summoned demonkind began to slowly reveal itself.
It had a lion-like face and a grotesque body resembling a massive insect.
But the power it emanated was on par with a Black Knightʼs aura.
Just before the High-Rank Demonkind fully summoned, Xeros and his subordinate mages below raised their staves and completed their spell.
Kiiiiing—
With a sharp sound, overlapping magic circles of white light appeared on the High-Rank Demonkindʼs body.
As the summoning finished, the magic circles activated, binding the demonkind and preventing movement.
Pajijijijik!
White light burst from the circles every time the demonkind tried to move.
It was a trap magic designed by the light mage Arina and Hades specifically for HighRank Demonkind.
The trap exploited the longer summoning time for High-Rank Demonkind: a qi-sensitive Black Knight pinpointed the coordinates, and mages pre-installed trap magic there to seal the demonkindʼs movements upon arrival.
Zeke had come up with the idea, Arina and Hades designed the circles, and this was the first real combat test for Duke and Xeros—but Dukeʼs judgment had hit perfectly.
Kaaaaak!
Duke raised his sword in midair as the High-Rank Demonkind roared, trapped and immobile. "Stay right there!"
Whoooong!
The power of the Gale Technique gathered in Dukeʼs sword.
And in an instant, Dukeʼs body turned into a single streak of wind.
Chwaaaaaak—
It was the moment the ultimate technique of Duke Draker, the Knight of the Gale who once shook the entire continent, reappeared on the continent.
Chwaaaaaak—
The High-Rank Demonkind struck by Dukeʼs ultimate technique plummeted to the ground, spilling blue blood.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
Even defenseless and trapped, it had taken the Black Knightʼs ultimate head-on, yet it still clung to life.
Kee-ee-ee-eek!
Surprisingly, the High-Rank Demonkind rose immediately and reached out to the nearby monsters, devouring them indiscriminately.
Kwadududuk!
As it consumed the monsters, the wounds from Duke healed at an astonishing speed.
While it grabbed and devoured a massive twin ogre in one bite to recover stamina, a deafening roar cut through the air from behind.
Kwadudududuk!
Aliciaʼs thrown iron ball embedded precisely in the High-Rank Demonkindʼs tough back shell.
Kiaaaak!
Caught off guard while feeding, the High-Rank Demonkind screamed and rolled on the ground.
In that moment, Alicia leaped into the air, raising her Fang-Wolf Sword and plunging toward the demonkind.
"Haaah!"
She swung down with momentum to cleave it in two.
Kwaduduk!
But just as the blade neared, the demonkind shed its shell, slipping out like a snake and dodging Aliciaʼs sword.
Krr-r-r—
Shedding its insect form, the High-Rank Demonkind now resembled a shriveled, pathetic grotesque humanoid with wrinkled skin.
The grotesque form tried to convey its will via telepathy.
—...Humans... how dare you, we of the great Demon Realm...
The High-Rank Demonkind fumbled its words, but Alicia had no intention of waiting.
Uninterested, she charged straight in and swung her Fang-Wolf Sword at it.
Whoooong—
Once she relied solely on brute force, but after swordsmanship guidance from the Sword King, her movements had become far more fluid.
Chwaaaaaak—
With supple motion, she sealed the demonkindʼs movements and severed its legs in one stroke.
Thud!
Even without its shell, twice the size of a human, it crashed loudly to the ground.
Desperate, the High-Rank Demonkind muttered something in the Demon Realm tongue, but Alicia ignored it completely and rushed in to behead it.
Kwaduk!
The demonkindʼs head was cleanly severed by Aliciaʼs Fang-Wolf Sword.
But then, something astonishing happened.
Kudududuk—
The blade of the Fang-Wolf Sword suddenly gaped open like a wolfʼs maw, swallowing the severed head and body in one gulp.
"Huh?"
Alicia, seeing this for the first time, froze in surprise.
Normally, exhausted demonkind in the Phenomenal World reversed-summoned back to the Demon Realm, as their true bodies remained there.
But the Fang-Wolf Sword, infused with the Wolf Kingʼs power, devoured the soul contained in the summoned body, annihilating even the original in the Demon Realm.
Whoooong—
Having cleanly consumed the High-Rank Demonkind, the Fang-Wolf Sword returned to its original form.
Alicia didnʼt fully understand what happened, but feeling the Fang-Wolf Swordʼs power more vividly than before, she narrowed her eyes.
'The Wolf King Fenrir from legend was a wolf that devoured monsters. Could those monsters have been demonkind?ʼ
A wolf that grew stronger by devouring monsters. Then this Fang-Wolf Sword would grow stronger by consuming demonkind.
She hadnʼt known of this function before, as she couldnʼt fully draw out the Fang-Wolf Swordʼs power.
Through training with the Sword King, uniting sword and mind, the Fang-Wolf Swordʼs true power had revealed itself.
Learning of its new ability, Alicia grinned.
"Thanks to Zeke Draker, Iʼve discovered something good."
The dark mages maintaining the Gate panicked as their hastily summoned High-Rank Demonkind fell in an instant, preparing to flee the battlefield.
'M-monsters...ʼ
The treaty between Narak and Jupiter meant nothing to them.
As the dark mages opened a Gate to escape the field—
Pajijijijik!
A surge of electricity crackled from the Gate.
Mana backflow hit, and the dark mages spewed blood, collapsing on the spot.
"Keheok!"
In their blurring vision, a figure approached.
Tss-tss-tss—
A man in Draker uniform emerged from a halo of light.
The Narak dark mages muttered the manʼs name in trembling voices of fear. "Z-Zek..."
Pajijijijik!
In that instant, a fierce bolt of light swept through, reducing the dark mages to ashes.
The Knight of Salvation, Zeke Draker, had appeared on the battlefield.