### Chapter 111: Iron Bones Clash, bl**d Burns (Part 10)
The sky was a crimson hue, and the rain poured endlessly.
In the woods, the traces of flames were gradually covered and extinguished by the heavy rain. Raging black smoke mixed with white mist rose up, obscuring the distant signs of war in a haze of ash.
“Twenty-third…”
*Puff—*
Captain Gray pulled his black blade from the enemy’s chest, bl**d splattering everywhere. I lifted my foot and kicked the kneeling heretic a good five or six meters away, then shot out an ice spike, piercing through their skull. I turned back, and the thundering hooves of the horned horse were approaching from behind.
*“Hah—”*
I let out a long breath.
Finally, things were looking clearer…
I fished out a golden sphere from my pocket, gently squeezed it in my hand, and tossed it skyward—this was the medium ball Isaac had given me, flowing with the power of divine miracles, the Light of MaFa. Knights usually used it to communicate and inform our positions. After ascending, the golden orb shot a dazzling beam of light into the sky.
Soon, Safiros and a group of knights on their beasts arrived before me.
“The infernal fires have been nearly extinguished. Our people can move forward now. I have ordered the Faith Organization to prepare for us; once we pass through the forest, the rain will cease, and we will meet them on the west side of the woods…”
“The remaining heretics seem to have withdrawn from the woods. The situation in Alectine City could be dire… If the worst comes to be, the Third Knights Order could be trapped in the city, and we’ll be facing those heretics along with the newly spawned minions. Get ready.”
The captain of knights spoke softly, but the weight of his words hung heavy in the air. The knights remained silent as I mounted the beast, leading the charge towards the western side of the forest. They followed closely behind, weaving through the charred trees and swirling black ash, stepping over scattered flames—like unsheathed blades heading toward the distant city.
If the heretics have already breached the city…
What will happen to Beiyard and Barry…
Are they… still alive…
…………
*Clop clop clop clop clop…*
North of Alectine City, downstream of the canal, the muffled sound of beastly hooves echoed through the mud, rumbling forth.
One rider, two riders, ten, a hundred—Isaac led over six hundred elite cavalry emerging from the foothills, being the first to reach the outskirts of Alectine City. They lined up by the riverside, two kilometers from the city walls, as a bald knight with a fierce expression stood alongside the young bishop atop a hill, staring silently at the flaming city.
“…It’s breached.”
“I can’t hear the sounds of killing…”
“The city is in this state; the majority of the heretics must have gotten in. We seem to have arrived a bit late… Captain Williams…”
The night wind howled across the open plains, and the sky remained pitch black.
The gathering of hundreds under the thick night soon completed, and the knights, who had rested in the ruins of the town, felt no fatigue now. They arranged themselves into formation, gazing far at the infernal fires of Alectine City, their eyes burning with the same fiery fervor.
“…A bunch of ragtag fools who gained power from demons dare trample on the land of deities, slaughtering and tormenting the children of God! Even if they have ten thousand men, they are as easily swept away as loose sand and dust! We are the knights of the Judging Fist! Warriors baptized in bl**d and fire! This night, we shall exterminate this pack of rats, not letting them dare step onto the Western Continent again!”
Soon after, these six hundred knights charged into Alectine City with their first tentative assault.
The night wind howled, the flames of the city blazed fiercely, and the knights took advantage of the darkness to storm forward, their hooves echoing across the plain. The ground trembled slightly, and from the shadows, intermittent shouts could be heard.
On the broken walls, the first volley of flaming arrows shot up into the night, cutting across the dim, moonless sky, raining down upon the distant knights. Below, a golden glow erupted, as the clerics from the Faith Organization, led by the young bishop, cast the Sin Barrier, a gauzy light shield deflecting all incoming fire.
The golden brilliance lit up the darkened sky, intertwining with the surging flames, revealing the dark sea of human heads outside the city walls. The heretics, armed with long swords, roared excitedly at the charging knights. These people had no discipline, their formation as scattered as a sandbox, shouting chaotically like a band of village bumpkins. Yet the bloodlust emanating from them was not to be underestimated.
In the flickering light, the stench of bl**d began to spread; a giant beast stepped onto the bl**d-soaked ground. As they neared the city by just a few hundred meters, the waiting heretics erupted with a thunderous roar, their footfalls rustling through the dark, growing intense. The countless heads resembled an incoming tide, the roar of the crowd crescendoed as infernal fire ignited on each of them, merging into a sea of flames under the night sky, surging towards the knights!
“Prepare—”
At the front of the line, Isaac shouted, his hand raised high above his head before swinging it down decisively. The knight captain beside him saw the signal, and golden light erupted from his armor. A golden flare ascended slowly into the air, and in the next moment, countless glimmers lit up in front of the formation. The clerics of the Faith Organization, riding their massive beasts, invoked divine miracles; dozens of holy lances tore through the darkness, shrieking towards the heretics, stirring up waves of bl**d among them, and cries of agony echoed into the night.
“Retreat!”
At Isaac’s command, a second flare shot up, and like arrows released from their bows, the elite cavalry swiftly turned direction. Before the heretics could close in, they took a wide turn in the plains, disappearing into the distance amid the rumbling hooves.
The sudden retreat of the Church Knights left the heretics flummoxed. Their combat spirit had been soaring, and many had boasted about how they’d take down a few knights from the First Knights Order. However, just as they were about to engage and close in on them, the knights retreated at the last moment. The heretics watched the knights’ silhouettes gradually fade into the night, their charging steps slowed down, and someone in the crowd voiced in confusion, “What’s going on…?”
“Hey! Come back and fight us! Knights!”
Then another yelled excitedly, “They’ve retreated! They ran away! Hahaha! Look at those Church elite knights! As soon as they see our numbers, they flee without a fight!”
“Pff—! Anyone from the Western Continent is a coward!”
But before the cheering could escalate across the plains, a blinding golden light erupted where the knights had once been, like a massive fist cleaving through the darkness, sweeping forth with clouds of dust, crashing right into the front lines of the heretics. It blasted through them, leaving a gruesome trail of bl**d and flesh. The clamor of their shouts silenced in an instant.
Then, louder jeers erupted.
“You bunch of cowards! If you have the guts, fight head-on with us! Why are you running—”
“I’m going to swallow you whole!”
In the distance, Isaac led his knights, regrouping a kilometer away in the plains. He could hear the thunderous insults from the other side, smirking disdainfully, with flames seemingly erupting from his eyes.
“A bunch of petty scoundrels…”
He turned to ask the young bishop beside him, “Did you see what just happened?”
“The north city wall is swarmed with heretics. Glancing over, I didn’t spot a single knight standing. But the number of heretics outside is less than expected, and those on the walls seem pretty disorganized. It looks like they weren’t ready for a fight; the city must have been breached not long ago, and they might still be battling inside…”
Isaac nodded at this.
“Vice-Captain, you’re the expert at warfare. We only have six hundred men—what should we do now? Should we wait for the Pope’s troops to arrive, or…”
“Let’s regroup and continue to charge.”
Isaac turned his beast’s head and headed toward the knight formation: “If there’s urban combat going on in the city and it’s hard to breach, let’s exhaust them from the outside, wear down their numbers and fighting spirit, and force them to split their forces. We can keep some of them outside, which will significantly lighten the pressure on the Third Knights Order.”
“Before the Pope’s troops arrive, we must avoid direct confrontation with those rats. They mostly consist of unreasonable madmen who fear nothing, even charging at our heavy cavalry without hesitation; once we clash, it’ll be an endless cycle. Although the power of demons is despicable, it’s not to be underestimated.”
The bald Pope Knight stepped before the elite riders, gazing at the warriors’ high spirits, a wild smile creeping on his lips as he said in a low voice, “What we need to do now is to relentlessly attack and h*rass. With every charge, we’ll tear a piece of flesh from the demons. When the time is right, we’ll deliver the fatal blow!”
Soon after, the warriors of the First Knights Order launched their second charge.
The plains erupted in dust, their iron hooves thundered loudly; over six hundred elite riders surged toward the heretics like a kn*fe piercing through the night, unstoppable. The fervent shouts again rang out from outside the city. Huge fireballs rained down from the city walls like meteors, smashing into the knights’ formation, but once again, the Sin Barrier held, blocking them effectively. The intense explosions resonated through the night sky, illuminating the land with searing light.
The charge remained a mere show, and as a flurry of holy lances whipped up a storm toward the crowd, dismembered limbs and bl**d soared high. Isaac hurled two radiant punches toward the city below, and the knights surged away once more.
This time, the heretics chased out even further, their jeers growing louder, but no matter what, they couldn’t catch up to the beast’s pace. Instead, they were devastated by the incoming second volley of holy lances, left to watch the knights’ backs fade into the night once again.
In the subsequent third and fourth waves of charge, the heretics’ counterattacks became unprecedentedly fierce. Countless fireballs shot down from the walls; it seemed multiple third-stage heretics were mixed in among them, and during the fourth charge, the Sin Barrier even showed signs of cracking.
Infernal fire ignited across the plains as the heretics huddled at the city’s edge, and Isaac’s elite cavalry found it increasingly difficult to gain the upper hand. By the end of the fourth charge, a thick white mist suddenly rose over Alectine City.
“That’s…”
Isaac squinted at the city shrouded in mist, deeply furrowing his brows.
But in the next moment, the sounds of battle erupted from the edges of the distant woods.
The familiar sound of iron hooves echoed on the ground. Amid the sparse firelight, a handful of heretics stumbled from the woods, only to be hit by ice spikes, collapsing to the ground. The Golden Armored Knights charged out from the western edge of the woods, with a petite young woman leading the way, carrying a pitch-black case on her back. She casually unleashed ice mist that dispatched a nearby heretic engulfed in infernal flames, then lifted her gaze toward the distant Alectine City.
She saw it!
Her heart raced violently.
