The giant’s spear rushed toward Jie’s chest with frightening speed.
Swoosh!
Jie threw himself down the slope to avoid the spear.
The giant stretched the spear not toward where Jie had jumped but in another direction.
An agility that was unexpected for such a heavy build.
In the spot where the spear landed, Riki was standing with his sword drawn.
“You fight like someone who isn’t a warrior.”
“What can I do about my fighting style?”
The image of Riki blocking the giant’s attack faded and disappeared.
Riki’s voice felt like it was coming from all directions around the giant.
In the meantime, Jie was targeting the giant’s legs with a sword enveloped in mana.
When faced with such a large opponent, it’s daunting to figure out how to fight.
Having experience from the battle in Raden, Jie persistently targeted the giant’s legs.
However, the giant seemed to be much more meticulous about his defense compared to ordinary skeletons.
The giant’s shield felt as thick as the massive iron gates of a castle.
Jie had already targeted the shield more than twenty times.
Not a light probing strike, but attacks that put all his strength behind them.
If Jie focused on the giant’s lower body, Riki took care of the upper body.
Riki kept drawing the giant’s attention, causing it to become vulnerable in defense, but the effect was minimal.
“It’s futile to keep banging at my shield with your strength.”
“That may be true. But with this, you’ll find it hard to use one arm.”
To block Jie’s attacks effectively, the giant had lowered one of its arms.
Using a spear with one hand is quite inconvenient.
“That’s true.”
Whoosh!
The giant swung its shield toward Jie.
As the sudden attack came, Jie leapt away, but this was a steep mountain slope.
He had no choice but to roll down from that position.
The giant, having readjusted its shield to its arm, took a deep breath.
“Haa!”
The giant’s chest and cheeks swelled up, and it began to expel flames.
“Whaaa!”
The flames spread quickly in all directions, tracking down where Riki was hiding.
The giant’s spear shot out toward that direction with fierce speed.
Clang!
“If you don’t dodge, you’ll be in danger!”
Upon the giant’s warning, Riki turned around to see a fire arrow flying toward him.
Swoosh!
“Hmm?”
The fire arrow pierced Riki’s back and embedded itself in the giant’s left shoulder.
“Sorry about that. That’s my fire.”
The giant turned its head toward the sound and found Riki standing there.
“You’re quite a troublesome one.”
Just by the power Riki had shown so far, he was certainly strong, but it felt like something was lacking.
The attacks felt too light to erase that impression.
“Well then, I’m all warmed up. Shall we go at it properly?”
“What?”
For the first time, the giant wore a look of clear confusion.
Riki was right in front of its eyes, but the voice came from behind.
Riki drew his sword and leaped into the air.
He deftly dodged the spear thrust by the giant and delivered a swift strike.
Swoosh! Slash!
Riki’s attack came from the right, but the wound appeared on the left as well.
“It’s magic.”
“We are the Knight Order created to combat magic swordsmen.”
The giant held on to its spear and once again began to target Riki.
Although Riki had managed to inflict a wound, it didn’t seem very deep.
Crunch!
The giant snapped its spear in half.
“Magic meets magic.”
Sticking the broken spearhead into the ground caused the surrounding earth to upheave, and several columns of fire began to erupt.
Just when Jie thought he had seen this same technique somewhere.
The giant charged at Riki with its spear raised.
The split spear was aiming at Riki with much greater power than before.
“Pursue!”
At the giant’s command, the soaring fire columns lunged toward Riki.
The pillars of fire moved as if they were alive, freely attacking with ferocity.
I could no longer just watch, so I drew Last Ape.
While Riki was certainly holding his own against the giant, I noticed something odd as I continued to observe.
Though he seemed to be in control, Riki was trying to avoid a frontal battle as much as possible.
Using magic to create illusions and aiming for openings, but he only landed a lethal blow once at the beginning.
After that, his attacks didn’t seem very formidable.
Crackle! Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck down directly above the giant’s head.
“Hey? Sorcerer, step aside. This is a duel of holy warriors!”
“But I’m wielding a sword too. Am I not a warrior?”
I responded while lifting up Last Ape.
“What nonsense is this? You’re barehanded!”
It was as if the giant couldn’t see the Last Ape in my hand.
“You can’t see this?”
“Correct.”
I transformed the shape of Last Ape into that of a spear.
“Pursue!”
Fire pillars shot toward me from all directions, but I unfurled my shield to block them.
Due to the geographic conditions, I couldn’t use large area techniques.
So, I thought about narrowing the range and increasing the power.
Having forcibly compressed it while practicing with the shield, I decided to compress the lightning as well.
The blue lightning grew closer to a yellow hue each time it was compressed.
Yellow lightning gathered at the tip of Last Ape, which had transformed.
“Fire.”
Whoosh!
The silently shot lightning pierced through the giant’s shield.
“Ah….”
The giant’s left arm was cleanly severed below the shoulder.
“I will definitely learn your name next time we meet!”
I compressed lightning to shoot at the fleeing giant, but by then, it was already very far away.
As the giant disappeared, the surrounding undead began to retreat as well.
I didn’t chase after the retreating undead.
After all, they would continue to appear as long as there was a commander and officers overseeing them.
When we returned to the encampment, the place was quite a mess.
To find out what had happened, Melorna began to look around the encampment.
In the meantime, we returned to the tent we had been staying in and took a break.
“You seemed to have struggled quite a bit.”
When I asked, Riki looked around and quietly replied.
“It’s due to the aftereffects of the magic sword.”
“That thing from before?”
“The lethal blow I dealt to that guy was thanks to the magic sword.”
Though I had been observing the battle, I hadn’t seen him draw the magic sword.
“Did you draw the magic sword?”
“Just for a moment, when necessary.”
He said he could only use the magic sword once a day.
If he wanted to use it more, he needed more training.
Later, Jie returned and asked why the encampment was like this.
Melorna, who had gone to check on the situation, had not yet returned.
“So, where is Iwaf?”
After a while, Melorna returned carrying Iwaf.
“What happened?”
“The Undead Legion attacked the encampment.”
Melorna reported the situation at the encampment after hearing about it.
She said that while a battle was raging at the front of the encampment, a commander and soldiers from the undead launched an attack.
Fortunately, it seemed there weren’t many of them, so there was no major damage.
Iwaf had fought alone against the undead commander and fell exhausted, that’s all.
“If it had been night, I could have killed him, but the sun rose.”
“Then you should get stronger even during the day.”
Riki nonchalantly replied to Iwaf, mixing in some joking tone.
Melorna laid Iwaf down on the bed and called for me quietly.
“Um, it seems someone from the military command is looking for you?”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t recall any reason why someone from the military command would be looking for me.
The representative of the Knight Order was, after all, Leon of the First Knight Order.
If they’re looking for me, it must be quite urgent.
I followed Melorna to the tent where the military command was.
It was a modest tent not much different from the one we were staying in.
Upon entering, a demon with a helmet was talking to a soldier.
“Just wait outside.”
As we entered, the demon dismissed the soldier he was speaking with.
“You’re from the Knight Order, right?”
“Yes. I am Ririan from the Second Knight Order.”
“I’m Ron, the commander.”
After a brief introduction, we sat down.
“May I ask why you were looking for me?”
“You may have already heard, but there was an attack on the encampment.”
They likely didn’t call me just to share the reports with Melorna and Iwaf.
“The thing is, we’re planning an attack as well.”
“Where?”
Ron took out a command baton and pointed to a location on the map.
“It’s one of the cities we lost in the initial aerial assault.”
“Do you want us to go?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then, who will defend the encampment?”
The Knight Order is the core force of the imperial army.
It would be necessary to face the commander of the undead legion, which is not something regular soldiers can handle.
“The Knight Orders coming to support us are a total of four; we’ve decided to send two of them.”
The commander of the military does not have the authority to mobilize the Knight Orders.
This decision must have come from discussions with the leaders of the Knight Orders.
It seems quite reckless, but it might not be such a bad idea.
It’s better than waiting anxiously for the enemy to attack.
After resting until evening, Leon and Alex arrived with their members at the encampment around lunchtime.
Frey arrived a little later than that.
A brief meeting was held in Leon’s tent.
“I will go myself.”
Alex volunteered, but Leon shook his head in opposition.
“Isn’t there the only healer among your members?”
“Then let me at least be put into another team alone.”
“The leader cannot leave his post.”
Leon spoke while looking at me and Frey.
It seemed the teams that would go out on the attack were already predetermined.
“Us two?”
“Seems that way. Then the old man can sit this one out.”
Noticing something, Alex nodded his head.
“This attack will consist of the Second and Seventh Knight Orders.”
Leon looked at Frey with an expression of significant expectation.
Afterward, Frey and I moved to a corner of the training ground to discuss.
“Indeed, we need a strategy.”
Frey began to sketch the city we would attack in the dirt with her sword, deep in thought.
