◈ 682. [STAGE 40] Conditions of a hero (2)
The breath hit directly on the shield.
Quaaaaa!
The steel frame, nails, and screws that held the shield in place melted in an instant, and Thorkel desperately held on, holding on to the handle of the shield with both hands.
“Aaaaaah-!”
There was no damage because the ultimate skill was activated, but the pain was vivid. The black flames swirled around Thorkell so violently that it seemed as if he could eat his entire body.
But Thorkell endured.
That’s because I was used to the pain.
When I actually got hit with the black flame that I was afraid of, it was no different from any other flame. Hot and bitter and- that’s it.
“Is this the end…?”
The corner of Thorkell’s mouth rose as the flames burned his entire body.
His life was suffering.
Now, even if it gets hot and sore for a few more seconds, I can endure it for as long as I can!
Kwagwagwagwagwang!
The breath, which hit Thorkell’s strong shield and split into several branches, tore apart and burned the southern plains.
The split breath stems continued to run, twisting their bodies like living snakes.
Even though Thorkell was the first to stop them and split them up, they still attacked the Crossroads persistently, as if they had some ego.
Thus the second line of defense.
Skilled shield warriors holding ice shields were waiting here.
The king of the Aryan Kingdom equipped with the Perennial Snow, the warriors of the Aryan Kingdom equipped with the Millennium Snow, and veterans of the World Defense Front.
And Evangeline, who activated her own special equipment – the ice spirit in the family shield.
Wearing the divine power armor that the priests had put on them, they raised their shields and prepared to guard at the ricochet point predicted by the wizards and alchemists in advance.
“…?!”
At this time, something unexpected happened to everyone.
I predicted the path of the ricocheted breath after elaborately testing and verifying it several times.
The broken breath stems stretched out in the wrong direction and flew in.
Although errors are bound to occur in actual combat, the actual trajectory drawn by the breath stem had a shockingly large error compared to the prediction.
All the heroes holding shields were embarrassed.
Malice –
The breath stems fluttering with tongues of flame flew into an orbit that completely avoided the deployment of the shield heroes, as if each had the will to destroy humanity.
And
“I can see everything!”
Evangeline moved first, her green eyes flashing.
Ugh!
Evangeline ran forward and launched her body in line with the trajectory of the largest breath stem and raised her shield.
In addition to the original ice spirit that resided in the shield, an additional ice spirit had been temporarily enchanted by the spiritists.
Dazzling ice formed on Evangeline’s shield, and split breath stems struck down on top of it.
‘Pfft! ‘It’s worth it!’
The ice was being used up quickly, but it was worth holding on for now. Evangeline turned around.
‘But the others…!’
It was then. A loud voice rang out from the front.
“Change formation according to my instructions!”
It was Thorkell.
The helmet he wore, Nightmare Slayer – [Original Sin], was spitting out ferocious magical energy.
This equipment, forged from the Goblin God King’s magical core, began to demonstrate its original abilities as Thorkell accepted the darkness.
Leadership ability.
War Commander: Allows you to maximize your capabilities as a war commander.
Even without saying a word, the battlefield layout in Thorkell’s mind was shared with all the heroes of the second line of defense.
“…!”
“Ugh-”
“Run!”
Among those left here, there is not a single one who is a veteran.
All of them carried out at least ten operations, and all of them were warriors who defeated more than a hundred monsters.
Once the field commander shared the desired layout, everyone was moving forward.
The split breath stems twisted their bodies arbitrarily and tried to escape the defense line, but the shield warriors all reached a position to block them.
“eww…!”
And Miller Ariane too.
Although he lacks experience in fighting monsters, he is determined to save his country.
“Aaaah!”
He succeeded in catching the end of the breath stem that was trying to escape from his side with his shield.
bang!
Kwaaaaang!
Oh my gosh!
The dispersed and split breath stems reached the ice caps and millennium caps.
Even the ice that was brought from the top of the world could not hold up and began to melt.
The heroes also let out screams as they suffered burns even beyond their divine power armor due to the terrible heat.
But for now, I have succeeded in holding on.
Tsk-
tsk-tsk!
Disperse again.
The breath stems hit by the ice shields tore my body to pieces once more.
Running north, burning the remaining fields, split into small pieces like raindrops.
To the final wall of royalties.
To the Crossroads-
“Ready-!”
And a third defense line was formed in front of the castle wall.
The wizards and alchemists stood behind the prepared artifacts and prepared for defense with determined faces.
Lily shouted, stretching her hands forward.
“Activate all artifacts!”
Geeeeee!
All defense artifacts remaining in the fortress city were activated at once.
Like an umbrella unfolding, the flesh unfolds from the pole and the curtain unfolds.
The barricade was assembled and the barrier resonated and deployed. Kwajik
on top
! bang! Kwagwagwagwang-!
Thin pieces of breath that cracked and splintered into hundreds and thousands of strands fell like heavy rain.
As they passed through the first and second defense lines, Breath’s momentum was noticeably weakened. But it still had the power to end royalties.
The barricade burned and shattered, and the barrier held for a moment before being torn apart. All artifacts eventually collapsed.
The breath stems flew into Inse, twisting their bodies as if they were happy to have broken through his last resistance.
But no.
Because the real final resistance was waiting.
Gooooooo…!
All wizards belonging to the World Defense Front were preparing a joint magic.
The caster is Jupiter Junior.
“….”
Junior, who was looking towards the city with worried eyes, lightly turned his body and focused his gaze on the thousands of fireworks pouring down towards him.
A vivid blue light was scattered from Junior’s eyes that closed and opened.
The magic to be used this time was not lightning or wind.
Junior’s original attributes.
water!
Whoa!
The large magic circle drawn at the feet of the wizards resonated. All the magic amplifiers possessed by the fortress city were activated targeting Junior.
Junior vigorously raised his staff.
The next moment
, wow!
A wall of water of enormous height and thickness was created and rose up in front of the Crossroads wall.
Breath split into thousands of pieces and rained down on top of it.
Patter-patter!
Cheeeeeeeek…!
The black salts persistently dug into the extremely thick wall of water, but they were split into too small pieces.
The breath stems that were unable to break through were extinguished one by one within the wall of water.
“…I’m blocking it.”
Hope appeared on everyone’s faces.
“If I can just hold on like this…!”
“You can really stop it!”
It seemed that way.
The first step was Thorkel, the second was warriors with ice shields, the third was wizards and alchemists… This strategy of dispersing and neutralizing the evil dragon’s breath in stages seemed to be working well.
However, the limit came quickly.
Kugugoogung!
“?!”
Thorkell was holding up, but the ground around him was not.
“What…”
The entire ground on which Thorkel and [Solid Superstition] rested melted.
It continued to receive the black dragon’s breath.
Efforts were made in advance to harden the ground and equip the floor with heat dissipation equipment, but they ultimately lost their meaning in the face of the overwhelming fire.
The molten ground plunged downward and Thorkell tried to maintain his position, but it was impossible.
The entire shield tilted and Thorkell fell.
In the meantime, Thorkell desperately tried to raise his shield, but the breath was already pouring backwards through Thorkell, twisting his huge body.
The warriors of the second line of defense all widened their eyes.
The shield warriors all rushed to the center at the same time without any prior agreement. And they tried to overlap the ice shield together.
But it was nonsense to begin with.
Even the breath that Thorkel received and dispersed in the first line was received by the second line of defense, causing the shields to melt and the heroes to suffer burns.
And now it was a direct hit.
The millennium theories that were thrust in front of the main stream of pouring breath could not withstand even for a moment and all melted away.
The spirits enchanted on Evangeline’s shield screamed horribly and all burned.
Both the Shield Warriors and Evangeline’s divine power armor disappeared without leaving a trace, and they all screamed and were thrown in all directions.
“No way!”
Finally, Miller Arian screamed and thrust his arm holding the ice cap in front of Breath, but he
could not hold on for even a second and all the ice cap melted, and one of Miller Arian’s arms also turned to ash.
Miller Arian, who was thrown out, did not feel any pain from his burnt arm and cooked body and looked back toward the castle wall.
“Restart-!”
Gritting her teeth, Lily activated the emergency magic power source.
The artifacts that were down due to discharge were once again emitting light and functioning, but in front of Breath, they lost the power to resist and all of the current flowed out, causing the lights to go out again.
“Hold on…!”
Junior gritted his teeth and tried to compress the wall of water to fight the breath, but as the main stream of breath came together, the wall of water could not hold on even for a moment and evaporated, creating a large hole.
Everything from the 1st line of defense to the 3rd line of defense was destroyed.
All of this happened in just a few seconds.
“….”
Watching the breath break through the last defense and get closer, Junior felt as if the world had slowed down for a moment.
When the first breath passed through the city, 30% of the city was burned.
After that, the breath, whose output steadily increased, was fired at a much closer distance than before. This time, Crossroads will be completely destroyed.
Should I be praised for surviving this long against such a powerful attack from such a powerful enemy?
‘no.’
In Junior’s mind in a world that has slowed down… the days he spent in this city passed by.
‘I don’t like it.’
Meeting a lot of people.
Reconciling, forgiving, hating, understanding, and… getting to know each other again.
The days I recorded so as not to forget.
Everything turns to ashes.
Junior’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. She finally realized the truth.
That he loved this city.
I loved all the harsh days I lived in this city.
‘Anyone is fine….’
Junior closed his eyes tightly.
‘Protect this city….’
That was then.
“Stop it!”
A familiar female voice was heard from above the castle wall.
“Skylian-!”
“…?!”
Everyone camped in front of the castle wall opened their eyes in shock.
Next, a long, black figure flew up from the top of the castle wall and shot straight at Breath.
A long oriental-style dragon with a fluttering catfish whisker riding on a black cloud-like energy.
It was the Black Dragon’s Sunlin Skeyrian.
Dongryong, who took off his ridiculously large glasses, grinned and threw himself forward.
《As instructed.》
Darkness spewed out like fog from the whole body of Skeyrian, who spun his long snake-like body in the air in front of the castle wall.
The Skylian took a defensive stance with its body covered in darkness.
The next moment, the pouring breath and darkness collided.
Whoa!
In front of the Night Bringer’s breath, all of the scales covering the Skalian’s body shattered into pieces and water rained down in all directions…
Scream!
New scales immediately sprouted underneath them.
《Wow! It’s hot! “Father, I think you’re a little angry?!”
The Skarian screamed and burned black in front of the breath, but ultimately succeeded in defending himself.
As expected from the breath defense method originally arranged by Ash, it was able to withstand a direct hit from the Night Bringer’s breath.
“….”
Everyone is bewildered with their mouths open at this sudden invasion of the rescue army.
Next, a large lizard-like dragon slowly appeared on top of the castle wall and quickly came down to the bottom of the castle wall.
It was Parekhian, the black dragon’s claw. And on top of it was a woman with light purple hair who seemed like I hadn’t seen her in a long time.
“As expected…”
After getting down below the castle wall.
Violet, who was crossing her legs above Parekhian and raising her high-quality fedora with her fingertips, muttered as she adjusted her form in a needlessly solemn manner.
“Heroes appear last.”
She was dressed extravagantly than ever before.
Wearing a well-pressed brown suit and a luxurious leather coat. Gold thread decoration and dazzling jewels all over the body.
“….”
The world is in such a state. Where on earth did they go and decorate themselves like that?
As everyone looked at them in astonishment, Violet scratched the back of her head, looking at each other with a embarrassed expression.
“The gambler who came last year didn’t die and came again…”
“Uh…”
Among the wizards.
The members of the gambling club, who had joined in order to add even a little magical power to the joint magic, all pointed and shouted at Violet.
“Where did you go and now are you coming back, you idiot!”
