HPDBC Chapter 228: Brutal Skirmish
Chapter 228: Brutal Skirmish
'Faster!'
He could feel the Animus within his body churning, surging towards his arms and blade, rapidly building in power as he stood ahead of unit nine and Cil, who watched the arrows and Asura with shocked eyes as they descended towards them in droves.
'Faster, damn it!' Asura cursed at himself as his body struggled to gather enough power, and his Animus condensed.
Cynthia, the royal knight leading their unit, spread her arms and cast a huge barrier of ice in the sky. However, the arrows seemed to have a strange piercing power, easily penetrating the wall. But she slowed them down.
"HOLY...!"
One knight let out a scream as the arrows were about to land.
It was almost upon them now.
Just then, Asura's eyes shone as he raised his sword into the air.
A serpentine head.
A flat neck.
An arching body.
A ridged spine.
Scales shining like a rainbow.
An ethereal tail.
His sword transformed into a beam of black lightning. A massive arc of lightning stretched over fifty feet tall, arcing through the air as the arrows neared their targets.
Asura, along with everyone else, watched as the arrows came down with no hope of dodging them.
But when his eyes met the tip of the first arrow, a wild grin spread across his face.
At that very instant, he swung his blade down with all his might.
The next moment, the huge net of black lightning followed his blades, movement, the lightning still attached to his blade, as it destroyed the arrows and created an arc in the ground before expanding into a dome, protecting him and Unit Nine from the arrows.
Once the dust had settled, everyone stared with gaping mouths at the now-decimated arrows and the man standing on the other side of the ruined ground.
Asura's grin grew even wider. As he stared at the stunned soldiers, his red eyes shone and cracked with lightning, but his breathing seemed to become rough.
While the Royal Knights protected the other units, he and Cynthia protected unit nine, thanks to his lightning storm. Once the attack finished, he cut his lightning off as the dome collapsed on the ground, filling the air with smoke.
Asura walked out, panting heavily as the sword in his hand turned back to normal.
"What are you all waiting for? We need to get in range to counterattack!"
He yelled before taking a deep breath, trying to calm down his two raging heartbeats and the Animus now surging through them.
'That was close,' He thought.
If it weren't for his sword and Animus, their unit and Unit Nine would have been in tatters. Cynthia's ice wall couldn't stop all the arrows alone.
Asura ignored his frantic heartbeats and the desperate eyes that looked at him, still in shock, and led his group forward as Cynthia grabbed her greatsword and charged forward in her black plate armour, giving him a cute wink before closing her helmet visor.
"Your Lordship! I shall be your sword!"
'Who is your lord?' Asura blinked in confusion before shaking his head as he moved forward and prepared himself to face the horde of incoming monsters.
"Lead the way then."
They exclaimed at the same time.
"Alright then, these two idiots are fine; let's help the others..." Cynthia's cold voice trailed off. She had noticed something during the barrage and the following fight.
It was Asura's unusual magic power and density.
She realised his true power but remained silent as Vela's knight.
Thus, keeping her future husband's information secret was vital to her. However, if something happened to him, it could prove dangerous, so she played safe by taking the lead of this group.
Because it was only the initial skirmish, Vela didn't march with the unit like Asura but stood beside the strongest knights because of her status. Although she complained, it was just how they did things.
"These monsters aren't enough!" Cynthia yelled, and it was true.
Even though it was a new arrival, they had expected the second tier and not the third, which they had a higher chance of survival, to be eradicated, which made her worry for her fellow knights and the rest of her students in Unit Nine.
The monsters weren't strong but barely met the level of a threat to Cynthia, but the information gained from scouts, the enemy should have various stage four and five monsters under their control, so seeing nothing above stage three caused her to become concerned.
'Only the scouts were wrong, or something worse is coming.'
Cynthia held her longsword tight in her hand as her magic swirled around her blade, turning it into a pillar of ice.
"Watch out!" Asura roared at Cil, who glanced at the back. A beast jumped through the whirlwind and grabbed her shoulder, slamming her to the ground.
Asura gritted his teeth. He rushed forward to help Cil, who had frozen in fear with the sharp claws on her back, his blade slicing the monster in half while placing his hands on her chest, the slight bumps irrelevant as he tried to close her wound.
"Don't worry about me," Cil said as a beautiful figure emerged from the air.
"Asura! Unit Nine! The enemy has attacked the east! Their target isn't the capital but the coast! They are heading to Vilsheim!"
Cynthia informed with a distressed and exhausted expression, "We have to protect the coast!"
He looked back and shook his head. The enemy outsmarted them, and he realised why, but because he was too excited to fight, he forgot. The existence of the traitors, not just old men but many students whom he didn't even know the names of, betrayed the kingdom too easily.
"Synthia, where is Vela?"
"She headed to the east with Barbatos and half the units."
"Did Lorem leave too?"
"No, she took command and is leading Units seven, eight and ten against the village."
"Understood. Can you heal her chest?"
Although Unit Nine had suffered a few casualties, the enemy still had hundreds of soldiers and knights inside the village walls.
"Let's go!"
He didn't allow them to waste time thinking about anything.
Asura drew his blade and rushed forward, his magic power flowing through his arms, legs and blade as he moved towards the distant village with a shocking speed.
"Your lordship!"
"We're coming!"
A roar echoed behind him as Unit Nine followed, with Akkrum and Bella staking the front, a couple of coyotes at their sides.
Asura grinned and shook his head in disbelief as he ran forward. Glancing at the arrows and projectiles flying at him and Unit Nine, he burst forward instead of waiting for them, leaving a trail of wind and lightning.
Because he could feel the heat from Lorem's magic, since the others rushed to the east, she could now unleash her magic freely without worrying.