Chapter 618: Act 361 – Requiem XI
After the fireball, swarms of lesser demons began to move out from the edge of the portal. These creatures, barely the height of human children and glowing with a fiery red hue, hardly constituted an army; yet their sheer numbers filled the air like a crimson sea, overwhelming. Brendel, holding Antinna, raised his head to see an ominous, dense mass of dark red, as if red paint had spilled over a green palette and rolled back up again.
Countless lesser demons flapped their fleshy wings as they stumbled and flew up to dozens of meters high, transforming the battlefield into something vertical, like a sudden tsunami crashing down. In an instant, the ground and sky were filled with locust-like figures darting toward them.
The noble daughter gasped, her breath nearly stopping as her fingertips turned white from gripping Brendel’s shoulder tightly. In the blink of an eye, the swarm of lesser demons crashed down like a massive wave, causing her to shut her eyes in fear and turn her head toward Brendel’s chest.
“Prepare for battle!” Brendel roared.
The knights raised their heads, ready to face the first wave of assault. “Long live the kingdom!” “Long live Erluin!” Someone shouted, though their voices appeared faint amidst the sea of screams.
But inside every heart, there was a surge of emotion.
This was a shared dream of a hero in everyone’s heart—a dream belonging to men and women alike. Reality had locked their steps, yet until that moment truly arrived, everyone could laugh loudly, cry freely, and shout unhindered—
In a situation where life and death had lost their meaning, any reservations were merely the most sincere emotional outpouring. The knights were prepared to sacrifice their lives for their homeland, even if just for a moment of brilliant glory; it could become eternal.
Life and death had long been dismissed; now they only needed to discern victory from defeat with their blades, and that thought was the sole focus in everyone’s minds. As the colossal wave crashed down, every individual instinctively held their breath, when a thunderous roar suddenly erupted behind them:
“I, the Law of Power, demand!”
The old wizard Gherlok, with his hair and beard standing on end, stepped forward, extending his fingers toward the void. “Stand down!” He roared, and a transparent halo radiated from him in all directions. However, upon closer inspection, it wasn’t light; it was the water-like spray being pushed away.
As the spray came close, the lesser demons that had been flapping their wings to soar suddenly found themselves struck by an invisible, immense hand, screaming as they tumbled backward. Some were flung hundreds of meters away, crashing into the metallic platform of the portal, their brains splattering.
It was as if a dragon had unleashed its breath, and the entire sky fell silent.
“Charge forward!” Taking the opportunity, Brendel swung his sword forward, roaring as he initiated the charge. The sword he raised cut through the rain, creating an arcing spray of water. With a downward slash, the very pressure of the blade pushed the rainwater aside, forming a gust that swept into the dense formation of the lesser demons.
The first row of demons met the impact like a hammer, their forward momentum halted. Their heads and chests visibly contorted, bizarrely pressing backward and folding, exploding into a mass of pink mist within moments. A tremendous bang echoed as the first three rows of lesser demons turned into a bloody mist beneath Brendel’s half-arc strike, while even more of their kin were swept away by the sword pressure.
Then, the full force of the sword pressure unleashed, unleashing countless invisible blades in a storm-like explosion that filled the air with severed limbs and the shouts of innumerable screams.
The power of this one blow left a perfect circle cleared within a thirty-meter radius, with at least twenty lesser demons reduced to chunks of flesh, while the numbers of severed limbs and corpses were immeasurable.
The knights had no time to celebrate as they rushed into the newly cleared space, but at the same moment, the entire force was enveloped by the overwhelming tide of lesser demons.
Dozens of lesser demons surrounded a knight of Lantonrand, clawing and biting at his armors, trying to bind and savage him. The knight fought back vigorously, thrusting his sword backward to stab a demon trying to crawl onto his back, but more captured his arm, making his actions increasingly cumbersome. Finally, after killing three or four lesser demons, one pulled off his helmet and clawed his face.
The knight screamed in agony, immediately tilting from his horse. In an instant, he was dragged down by countless hands; a terrible scream broke out before the demons dismembered him, even tearing the poor warhorse apart.
Brendel watched as the lesser demons clung to the knight’s dismembered limbs, their faces smeared with blood as they turned toward him, making him feel nauseated. Though he had seen such scenes in the game, they were products of “harmony,” unlike the gruesomely vivid display before him now.
However, being battle-hardened, his boiling rage overshadowed any feelings of disgust. With one hand protecting the pale Antinna, he raised his right hand, and with a flash of his sword, he cut down three demons lunging at him into seven or eight bloody pieces.
The foul-smelling rain of blood mingled with the downpour, splashing onto them; droplets of blood and bits of flesh landed on Antinna, making her gasp in disgust, nearly retching, though she hurriedly covered her mouth.
“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” Brendel asked urgently.
“I’m fine,” Antinna feebly shook her head. “Lord, please be careful.”
“I know.”
“Look over there!” someone screamed.
Brendel looked up to see several hill-like beasts crashing through the crimson sea, their massive bodies appearing as if built from tightly packed muscle. With three enormous heads bobbing up and down, each exposing a scarlet tongue, these monsters tore down from a nearby hill, plowing directly into the dense formation of lesser demons, sending them flying or trampling them into mush without a second thought.
Hellhounds.
Behind them were more hellhounds, resembling a school of sharks merging into a crimson ocean, their towering backs parting the waves like dorsal fins.
Brendel’s heart sank. The demons reacted even faster than he had anticipated. He suddenly realized he had underestimated these creatures—calculating their battle strength using the level of his own era was a mistake, as they seemed even more formidable than in the game.
“Tighten formation! Watch out for their breath!” Brendel had to shout the warning. “Charles!”
“I understand, my lord!”
The young wizard, shielded by several knights, held his staff with his left hand while pointing forward with his right—magic triangle forward, “Dragon Strike!” With a loud boom, a net of light expanded before Charles, a brilliant white center shooting forth a beam of azure light that arced over the rain curtain, drawing a slightly curved line toward the horizon.
The beam struck a hellhound squarely in the head, piercing it and obliterating part of its brainstem and spinal cord. The other end of the light spear shot through, the tremendous force sending the beast tumbling backward, its body landing amidst the lesser demons, crushing numerous beneath it.
The two lesser hellhounds could not evade and were reduced to ashes as well.
The azure beam surged forward, unstoppable.
+5029 EXP
+1209 EXP
+1215 EXP
Brendel’s retina displayed glowing green numbers that flickered rapidly. This total was more than he had expected, yet it wasn’t a good sign—it indicated that the hellhounds were of a much higher grade than he had imagined. In all honesty, encountering demons was a late-game challenge, at which point hellhounds were mere fodder; he had never truly considered their strength.
But now it was evident they possessed at least upper-middle-tier power.
These were indeed sixth-tier units of this age.
Charles shifted his direction and cast Dragon Strike again. This time, the demons had learned their lesson, and the effect was minimal, eliminating only one hellhound. In the time it took to cast twice, the enormous beasts were already closing in on them.
The first to face the threat was Brendel. A hellhound barreled through the lesser demons toward him as if mad, its three massive mouths ready to bite his shoulder and head. If Brendel hesitated for even a moment, it would be his end.
But before it could snap its jaws, he adeptly crouched, as if anticipating its attack; the creature lunged empty-mouthed.
When it bit at the air, Brendel had already dodged beneath its head, releasing the elbow of Antinna with his left hand to deliver a swift strike to the hellhound’s neck.
Hellhounds were not the same as lesser hellhounds; they had taken much longer to evolve into this leadership position, and their battlefield experience far surpassed their lower-tier counterparts. Once Brendel slipped beneath its belly, it quickly reacted, lowering its head to unleash its breath.
If it had been an ordinary warrior, they might have been struck. But facing Brendel, the young lord was even more familiar with the creature than it was with itself. He elbowed upward, completely redirecting the hellhound’s breath.
The creature whimpered as it spewed forth, nearly retching it back down. The pain left the hellhound too weak to counterattack, and seizing the opportunity, Brendel stood up, heaving the massive beast upward while his right hand swung the Sword of the Earth, directly cleaving it in two.
……(To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, please consider supporting it on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
