Chương 43

I watched as the arrow put a massive crack in the wall, taking large chunks off it. And then a second one, right after, opened a passage. It wasn't large. It could probably hold four or five men shoulder to shoulder. But now the army of the undead and of the traitorous humans was making its way to the passage that had been opened.

"Feels very Lord of the Rings, doesn't it?" Langdon commented fleetingly. Then he brought the stone in front of his face and said, "Fire at will on the enemies on foot. Focus on the cavalry. Casters, hold your fire. Save mana."

"Dude, why are you telling them to save mana?" I said, looking at Langdon.

"And did you know Bryce would do this? We could have had dozens of breaches in the wall."

"She has a very angry face," he said, touching the lens of his glasses.

"I think she hates that we killed all her siege monsters. Now, look." Langdon pointed, and the giant army of the undead in the distance — illuminated by the full moon — opened up, and about two hundred riders, men and undead alike, came riding skeletal horses toward the breach.

"Bryce is more powerful than you think. Well, you saw what she can do," Langdon commented.

"You'd probably be dead if she had used that arrow at close range."

"Thanks, man," I said.

"What are you getting at?"

"Bryce is very good at fighting. And the man that you see at the head of the charge there is Tim."

"How do you know this?"

"I met Bryce on the second day. She brought me the offer that the Sorvos Empire made her, saying that we could kill all of you and become immortal." That was news to me, and I looked with wide eyes at Langdon.

"Anyways," Langdon commented, straining his neck to take a better look.

"She is a brute, and her tactics are brutish. Now, she created a breach. She is letting the cavalry charge, because she thinks that we don't have a reply to that, right? It's as if a cavalry charge isn't—" Langdon just scoffed and then said, "Long spears out. Bring the oil." The battlefield was partially illuminated by the carcasses of the Corpse Mounds still on fire. Apparently, fire was very effective against the undead, and it was still eating through the corpses as if they were dry wood. Layer by layer.

Langdon had a mix of humans — tall and short, old and young — hold incredibly long, possibly thirty-foot lances that they planted on the ground.

"Langdon," I said, "have you lost your mind? Those are not going to stop—" Then the people threw the spheres of oil about fifty feet ahead. And a few casters lit them up, creating a wall of fire before the spears. But I was looking at how fast the man at the head of the charge was going, already past the first flaming Corpse Mound. At which point I heard, "John, it's time." I turned toward Regulus, who was looking straight at me with his giant lion face.

"What? Time for what?"

"Who do you think is going to take care of their main mounted fighter, the one who wields a long spear?" Langdon said with a scoff. Before I could understand what was happening, Regulus took the back of my armor between his teeth and slung me over his shoulders. I could barely get on top of him when I asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know if they have mind-reading powers," Langdon smiled.

"I have mind-reading defenses, but I don't like my plans being spoiled by a little mental manipulation. Good luck."

"What—" I was about to shout, when Regulus simply jumped off the wall.

"Fuck!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, and I saw that together with me on the saddle wasn't my team — it was Zosma. In her hands was a long staff made of solid metal that must have weighed like eighty pounds. It was as long as a barbell, taller than her. As soon as Regulus softened the impact — and I almost headbutted the back of the giant lion's head — Zosma dismounted and said, "I'll help them on the ground. Husband, do not disappoint me."

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"Who do you take me for?" And that said, Regulus broke into a crazy run against Bryce's subordinate.

"Sir John, are you ready?" I ignored him calling me sir, and I just said, "I guess." I saw that Tim was on a skeletal horse that had black bones and ran way faster than any of the other undead horses there. We were seconds from meeting head to head, and I could see, under his helmet, a smile in my direction. I had never jousted in my entire life, and I wasn't going to start now. I rose to my feet on the saddle, holding Regulus's mane with one hand, and closed my eyes while holding the glaive with the other.

I saw Tim's spear gather a ball of dark mana at its tip. But right when we would have speared each other, I jumped.

"What the—" I slashed with my glaive mid-air, and I unsaddled the man. We both fell and tangled on the ground, rolling wildly as we avoided the charge of the rest of his army behind him. Then, as they went past us — with Regulus tearing and slashing at Tim's mount — I faced the man. He was tall and imposing. So much that I said out loud, "Why are you motherfuckers all fucking tall? This doesn't look good."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Tim shouted at me, holding his chest.

"You insane motherfucker." He uncorked a potion and drank from it. Then he pointed his spear at me and said, "Oh, man. After I kill you, I'm gonna bring your head back to Bryce. She's gonna get so wet for it."

"Holy shit, dude. Gross," I replied.

"What kind of fucked-up couple are you?"

"I mean, we allied with the undead, right? You gotta be a little freaky." I took a deep breath, and then I just charged forward, ignoring what the man was saying. I wasn't gonna be distracted by his nonsense. Or mine. Yet, before I was in range to strike, I simply threw the lance at Tim, using Heroic Throw. The man's eyes widened. And I saw dark mana cover his body and create an afterimage as he dodged to the side.

"Fuck! You fucking freak. How can you throw that powerfully? What do you have on your arm that—""Recall Lance." I activated my Skill. And as the motes of light came back to me, Tim ran at me, bearing his own spear and saying, "You think you can—""Dispel." I said the word out loud. And the motes of light reformed the Lance of the Hero, which came shooting at high speed toward me. Or better — toward where I had sidestepped, at Tim's back.

The lance clipped him — he managed to make it a glancing blow only — as it pierced the dark mana and the armor that he was wearing. It made him spin and fall to the ground. I grabbed the lance midair, and I tried to slash at his head with the glaive, wanting to split it in two like a watermelon. But through the Sphere of Intuition, I saw that, even from the ground, he thrust a spear into the void — and a dark portal opened and reopened right behind my neck.

I turned, dodging it, but I lost my momentum, and Tim was already up.

"Ah, dude. You know, this is interesting," he said. And I saw that, in the distance, the rest of the army was charging down while the defenders on the walls shot bolts from bows and ballistas at them.

"I was only a B-rank anything at the test, but the Sorvos Empire sponsored me an S-rank skill. Pretty crazy, huh? Wanna see it again?" Tim simply stabbed the spear upward, as if he was just raising his arm. And I saw a portal appear right close to my side. I walked forward, dodging the spear. And Tim frowned as I slashed with my glaive at him. He was forced to use the dark shaft of his spear to parry the blow. The weird wood didn't even nick at my slash.

"Bryce keeps saying that you're a weak piece of shit who gets lucky. But, you know, she's a woman. I think that you're actually strong," Tim said.

"Which is gonna make killing you even better for my followers. Following Bryce as her underling is not really giving me the best storyline, if I have to be honest. So I need a little bump in viewership." A second spear suddenly appeared in Tim's hand. And two portals appeared, facing me. One from behind, and one from the side. The two portals were scary. But I closed my eyes, and I became scarier. I dodged with ease, and I made my way to Tim with my eyes closed.

"What's your problem? Why are your eyes—" Before he could answer, through the Sphere of Intuition, I kept my senses on the tips of both spears, seeing that he was putting one through the portal and waiting with the other one. I saw where the spear portal appeared. It was a smart positioning. It was right in front of me. So it would make sense that I would have to step back. But I could get a feeling of how strong those thrusts were. And I just slashed.

Tim had already plunged with the spear through the portal, and the momentum brought him forward. There was a ball of dark mana on it. But his eyes told me everything I needed to know. His head rolled right after my armor tanked the spear. I flew several feet back, and I growled from the pain. What the fuck was on that spear? I thought, holding my chest. Thankfully, the Armor of Raziel had taken the brunt of it. It was scratched on its white scales, but nothing more. I kissed my hand and then patted the armor.

You're the fucking best. Then something happened. Instead of falling forward, I saw the dark mana rushing into the cut neck of Tim. And the head, which should have been lifeless, just said, "God damn it. I hope that the undead dick is still gonna work." I turned to the head, and I saw that its eyes had become fully black. There was no more iris or pupil anymore. And now that the helmet had rolled away, it revealed a short blond cut on the man. He looked like a model from Abercrombie.

His body picked the head up and placed it back on the neck. But it didn't stick. He frowned and said, "Oh, look at this." Then the head just started floating in front of me. I looked at the man's body, which now had one of the tags a monster would have. [Dullahan - Level 20 (Boss)] I turned to see that Regulus had just finished shredding the last of the horse — when the bones flew under Regulus's feet and rose once again as a gigantic stallion, as big as Regulus.

"Fuck me," I muttered.

"Don't tempt me," Tim replied, in a chilling laugh that echoed through the space around us.