Chapter 473: The Tug and Pull of Conflict.

Chapter 473: The Tug and Pull of Conflict.

Clank! A loud metallic ringing sound resounded, prompting me to twist around to see what was going on, only for my vision to be blocked when my mana exuded out of my body like a cloud.

And you said our caution was unwarranted! I heard Ellaine shout through the mana mist before the metal-on-metal banging sounds continued. Sir Royce! You traitors!

Urk! I heard a man grunt before Falamm and Karlst shouted in unison, followed by the sound of the wind being sliced.

Meanwhile, my body began to morph, growing in size before I felt my true form return. To the sound of bone-chilling, raw moaning filled with pain, despair, and fear, I howled out as lightning gathered around my front legs before I slammed them down on the people behind me.

As the mist was blown away, I couldnt exactly take the time to assess the situation before me, as I had to snap my head right back to the sin heir as my skills warned me of three incoming projectiles. I twisted my body, avoiding two bone arrows, before knocking the last down with my tail. I howled once more, noticing three female demonkin having formed a bow each using the bones and tendons on their arms.

Demonkin of Lust.

Mistress KleaHatma! The three shouted, followed by the crackling of seven more in the back. The latter seven then kicked the spasming fire mages forward before they all produced bone bows with their bodies. Return her to us, human!

While the lust demonettes were nocking their bone arrows, the elementally-charged wrath demonkin grabbed the spasming fire mages and threw them at us. My skills immediately advised me to dodge them, and I understood why when I noticed the drugged humans and beastmen bloating up like balloons, deforming into grotesque creatures.

My shadow pack immediately jumped out of my shadow, forcing Midirn, Yorshka, Fargryneill, and Ellaine on their backs before quickly retreating back. On their dinosaurs, Krim-Slak and Grazlahta did the same and I quickly followed suit as well; meanwhile, Kushlekzar stood his ground, catalyst in hand.

Three water circles appeared in front of him, and while he didnt need to chant it still took time for the spells to materialize. In this time it took to manifest the magic, the thrown fire mages were nearly on top of the saurian priest, spasming so much I thought they were like the glitches I would see on malfunctioning PCs.

Just before the bloated mages reached Kushlekzar, Shayu and Beth swooped in and swung their wings, creating a gust of wind before freezing it with their breath attack. As the ice turned into a wall, a loud explosion erupted from beyond it, rocking the wall as I saw flames fly over it. A fire bomb? A human fire bomb? Though, to be honest, I was more surprised about my bafflement.

The explosion did create some massive cracks into the ice wall, weakening it enough for the next volley of bone arrows to penetrate them. Although the arrows themselves ended up stuck in the ice, they were able to shatter the defensive structure enough for the subsequent projectiles to fully fly through, forcing the wyvern twins to form their ice armor and cutting anything approaching down, buying just enough time for Kushlekzar to finish his cast of three [Water Magic Lv. 10] [Aqua Beam]s upward, creating something similar to a high-pressured aqua wall to completely drench the city.

Hraaah! As our group was splintered, I heard Ellaines voice echo out as metal contined to clash. I turned around, seeing her in her full rhytilic bodysuit armor, swinging her blue-glowing whipsword as she engaged the traitor knights.

With their faces covered, I couldnt see their emotions, but it was clear from Ellaines bated breathing that she was furious. As a fellow Artorian, Royce was actively insulting Ellaines romanticized version of knighthood, spitting on her ideals. A knight of Aurena, purposely betraying the Goddess he was meant to serve, went against everything she believed in.

Yet, in a pure clash of skill, the three knights clearly held the upper hand over her. Even without proper knowledge of swordsmanship, I could see the knights having no issue keeping up with Ellaines sword swings, blocking and parrying with no issue before retaliating. As holy knights, they even kept up with her casting. The only thing they had an issue dealing with was Ellaines demonic lust powers, as blades and flesh spawned and transformed, keeping her battle style hard to anticipate.

I had no reason to interrupt them when a fierce foe was appearing before me, so our party left them be while we reacted to the beastial cries of monsters. Wolves appeared! Yet, those sounds couldnt have come from them, as it sounded more like the same sounds the cardinals were making before we had to retreat for a moment Which proved me correct when I noticed houses being bulldozed by five massive, deformed creatures.

I couldnt even call them monsters like the beings my party had met in our adventure. No, this was similar to the deceased bodies of the troll shaman, that bandit leader, and even Davison. Eldritch monstrosities with figures that didnt feel or look natural, or maybe it was more accurate to call them tumors growing on their bodies like fungi.

One was like a slimy mass of meat, oozing both blood and pus, as it crawled forward like a quick lizard. Another was a humanoid with an octopus head and a robe made from their pink skin. The third had transformed into a giant beetle with a hardened shell with spiky legs, jumping around like a leapfrog with a large gaping mouth underneath its body. The fourth victim looked like a lanky treant as their long, wood-like arms grew like a tree, while their mushroom head began spreading pollen. The last, though, was the most normal as it was simply a humanoid with large, overgrown claws, except for the fact that they had four heads.

The cardinals, although hostile to us, did not deserve this. This was an affront to life itself. There was nothingthat could excuse such an action. Even if I understood the ends justify the means when it came to surviving, I was so horrified by such a display that I could only feel indifferent to the existence of the demonkin. Their plight Hestia was concerned about? If their leaders were doing something like this, then I would severely question if Hestia could succeed in her lofty goals.

What a job.

To stop their advance, Kushlekzar ended his water wall spells and cast new magic from his hands, blasting a water jet at the deformed cardinals, only for two demonkin pairs to jump in front of the attack, blocking it simply with their body.

Mana absorption and adaptation, that was the demonic power of the envy demonkin. Born with high intelligence and wisdom growth at the cost of their physical stats, envy demonkin were BoleTarias best magician and magic defenders, simply because of their ability to absorb anything with mana like a sponge. They could then temporarily change their mana into that absorbed element, gaining the benefits of being elementally-aligned.

Similar to Hestias natural resistance to fire and weakness to water, this duality of traits would also apply to them. If they absorbed my mana, they would gain increasing defenses against my stygian powers but would be susceptible to holy attacks. Yet, this didnt make them immune, as they had to absorb a great amount of mana to tackle stronger mages, and even then, their bodies were normally too fragile to absorb it all without some kind of defense. These two did look like they were undefended, but they did manage to deal with this magic and expel it as a mana slime, similar to Asakas twilight slime.

When the water beam couldnt kill the demonkin pair, forcing Kushlekzar to abandon his offense and let the wyvern twins fly him away from the lust demonkins continued arrow barrage. Tasianna was forced to support them using her wind magic to deflect the projectiles, leaving the rest of us to handle the incoming army.

A full-on clash began as our forces engaged each other, with Midirn finally taking command while everybody began their attack. Without Hestias songs, the demonkin could fully unleash their powers to their fullest potential. Thankfully, some of her buffs were sharable without her [Idol] and they were still active

Twins group, long-range bombardment and projectile defense. Do not focus on group support, only target the enemy! Wolves, focus on mobility and battlefield safety and track that tamer down! Yorshka, Princess, with me, were diving with me! Midirn ordered, leaving Ellaine alone as she already committed to her role. Saurian warriors, break through the damn frontline for us!

Xohulotel, laruz! Krim-Slak and Grazlahta shouted as they charged with the dinosaur army, allowing many of the water golems to be obliterated by the wrath demonkin protecting everybody behind.

Through an initial briefing, Midirn explained his command lingo to us, allowing me to understand battlefield safety also meant any monsterized individuals had to be exterminated as well. The cardinals were my duty, in other words.

Mom and my fenrirs were already hard at work culling the wolf horde, who showed a newfound aggression they didnt have before. The cowardly wolves were growling and baring their teeth before my larger and clearly stronger ones, something their natural instincts would advise them against engaging with. As a tamer myself, I understood that skills could cajole them, but this still was pretty aggressive on their end, standing ground instead of fleeing.

As my shadow pack and I began the clean up, my eyes also wandered to the rest of the battlefield, especially to the sin heir who was commanding the archer group. His body was completely aflame yet he wasnt screaming in pain, probably a result of his affinity as I remembered the saurians call him a fire mage.

The offer still stands! His loud voice transmitted through the entire battlefield. Our feud is not with Loatryx or Kargryx, so retreat and we can keep it civil between us! Make your little princess back off and we can stop killing each other. Or, you can all die today and we can start tormenting Aurenas newest dog with your mutilated corpses!

Rejected! Midirn shouted before he crashed into the backline, now initiating a duel with the demonkin. Our princess demanded the Prince of Envys head and I, Midirn the [Black Bomber], shall deliver it to her! Now, move!

He demonkin was then punched back, prompting the lust demonkin to switch their attention to him, only for Fargryneill and Yorshka to take on the bone-archers and make them leave Midirn alone. This allowed Kushlekzar to unleash his full arsenal of spells in a way similar to Hestia, utilizing whatever spell he could use to inconvenience our enemies and either kill them or give our allies a chance to slay them; for example, three [Krakens Destruction] was enough to discombobulate the wrath demonkin frontline.

The physically weaker envy demonkin were then forced to come in to absorb his spells while the wrathies defended them, but under all this pressure, the two saurian warriors flourished. After all, even now, Kushlekzar kept creating more water dinosaurs and that meant more disposable bodies to protect his two friends.

[Lifetaker (35 kills)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]

While our front was starting to look better, I was starting to get more worried about Ellaine. She had been isolated in her three-way duel up until now, but a few lust demonkin actually managed to maneuver around, now attacking her in the name of Mistress KleaHatma. We had expected it, but due to our situation, it was becoming an issue. Our lack of numbers were showing right now.

[Uno, lead your the others behind us, now!] I ordered. [Mom, you stay. Shoyi, I need you now! Go!]

Midirn wanted the pack to take care of the tamer and the monsters, but I also had to take care of Ellaine. We needed to adapt. After all, all I needed here to mop up the tamer and his pets were the members I told to stay behind.

As my fenrirs departed, a giant blob of purple slime shot out of a ruined alleyway, dragging and consuming multiple wolves at once with its tentacles. As a rank C poison slime, Shoyi wasnt a good attacker and was quite vulnerable to piercing spells that could destroy its core, which was why I didnt like bringing it onto the surface. Shoyi was more useful as an ambusher.

Yet, this time its presence could benefit me quite a bit. Similar to Hestias [Hydra] spell, Shoyi was best used to eliminate weak enemies and debilitate stronger ones with its poison. Combine this with Moms experience fighting as a garm and her usage of our tool set to grab and drag the wolves into Shoyis body, it allowed us to clean up a number of threats on the field, even if it was slower than with my fenrirs.

While relying on these two, I challenged the five former cardinals, roaring as my body charged up with electricity. Using [Dark Tendrils], I slingshotted myself forward and used [Air Walk] and [Umbral Skip] to quickly maneuver around their wide attacks. If I had to, I would tank their strikes to give myself the momentum to strike.

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The treant-like cardinal howled, P-paain! from a small mouth on the top of his mushroom head as I bit into him. I felt sorry, even pity for causing this pain despite all the crimes he committed and helped commit. If their situation was anywhere similar to Wendell, then dying like this was the worst punishment. After all, they were all still alive to witness this horror they had become.

I attempted to finish him off, but the octopus-head cardinal began casting holy spells at me while grunting, Kill. Kill for master. A mind was needed to cast spells, regardless of their state. Since the others hadnt cast any spells, I believed this one was the octopus-head was the most dangerous right now.

I jumped onto a nearby roof to see what was happening, quickly recognizing a giant white glowing field surrounding this entire section of the city. Anything inside the barrier was covered by it, protecting and granting us this defensive buff.

It was Fleindia!

However, she shouldnt have been here. Her duty was to wait for a signal outside the city before engaging, but none of us could have called for her. How did she make it into the barrier? Wouldnt it preventIt didnt matter! Asking any more was counterproductive as I could ask the person herself, not to mention the sight of the sin heir blasting towards the epicenter of the holy field unnerved me.

As if he had rocket boosters on his feet, he flew over to Fleindias location, only for something like a black flash to descend on him, causing both to crash. I didnt know what was happening, so I immediately used [Umbral Skip] to teleport over, where I found Fleindia next to Rajah, Varya, and my students and Rhea?

[W-what are all of you doing here?] I asked, flabbergasted.

[Fleindia asked us to come here, Sensei!] Nishio answered.

Tatsuya nodded. [Fleindia said she was supposed to receive a message from the Knight-Commander before the beginning of the raid. A warning. If he didnt send one, then something happened to him and that the enemy had gotten to him first.]

Royce! I had a feeling he was lying, but yet

[So Fleindia asked us to help her enter the city,] Kyouya continued. [Snuck past all of you to get to the basilica with Rajahs [Mirror Image].]

[But the tunnels were also blocked by the damn barrier ] Asaka said with a grim face. [Its tough. Even a holy spell cant crack it, nor can my twilight stuff. At least I got the damn onnikai out Yikes, what a close call.]

[Indeed.]

Hes here.

I turned my head around while my students raised their weapons. The sin heir of envy had made it to us.

Midirn? That was you, no? You couldnt have died, right? Yorshka? Fargryneill? I gulped. The lack of sound was unnerving me far more than usual. It felt even hard to sniff with this person standing before me. A being almost as strong as Vifi.

Wiping some dust from his coat, the sin heir grinned as he flaunted his flaming arm replacing the one Yorshka ripped off from him. [More preparations? I can see the degree youve put into this plan of yours! I have to commend you! You took out their cardinals in a flash! I must applaud you, I really must! After all, if you were an ally, I would have invited you to anything you wanted to eat but I so love it when the plans of my enemies fall apart. That sweet, succulent feeling is lingering in my chest! Ahaha.]

I walked forward, blocking his sight from my allies. This little incident really ruined the plan Fleindia was supposed to be involved in, yet, it was also a stroke of luck. If she wasnt here, we would have all lost, right here, right now. I mean, I had an idea they might have tried to defend themselves since they knew about Hestias songs now, but such a large silence field? Even Rheas silence field was just enough for a room.

Meaning, we had to protect Fleindia at all cost.

[I do appreciate you all bringin the little Saintess to us. Killing her will certainly end this entire debacle with a snap! Aha, remember this, BoleTaria has prepared for this for years! If you thought you could bring it all down so easily, then think again. If it werent for the traitor, things would have probably avalanched into your defeat earlier But I actually like proper competition fighting back instead of the lukewarm reception of the Empire. They are already burning, yet they dont even know Regardless, time to end this.]

[Yeah!] To my surprise, Daichi shouted from the back of the group. He charged forward, raising his staff into the airWait, what was he doing here? [You think this will end now? Sure, it will!]

[ My goodness, I guess you children must have been mad. A madness caused by fear and anger, no? Well, let me apologize to all of you for this. We truly didnt want to involve any of you here.] He bowed like a showman.

Kohaku clicked her tongue. [Pah! You mean, you apologize to us. You dont care about the process of kidnapping people to your world only to abuse them!]

[Of course, not. Why would I? All of you are humans as well ] He glared at us with these two furious eyes, grimacing at us to convey his feeling. [Well, time to die now. Goodbye, give Ilsaphone my greet]

Just as he was about to declare our death, the man froze in place before snapping his body out of the way of a red arrow piercing through the ground. He stumbled back, eyes glaring at the projectile disappearing into the sky like a lightning bolt, only for his expression to distort into rage. He snarled with his nostrils flared.

[Red. Voltaic. Traitor, you!] He finally said, looking at the ground. [You dare]

[Did you think we would come here without any reinforcement of our own to help us out, you bastard?!] Tatsuya shouted as his human form morphed into his werewolf form. [Were the fucking distraction! Rajah, you can dispel it now!]

And with that command, the figures of both Rajah and Varya suddenly disappeared as if they were never there before. Yet, I still felt twoNo, there were actually four signals. Seeing my students before me had baffled me to the point I didnt double check my [Detection Sensor], leaving me unaware there were actually more people below us?

Wait

Like a thunderbolt awakening that light bulb in my head, the ground broke apart as a giant hammer suddenly flew out of it, slamming into the demonkin and slinging him backward while a giant metal humanoid jumped in front of us.

[Grimnir!] I shouted, causing the suit of armor to turn around to give me a thumbs up. His face was obstructed by a giant horned helmet, yet I could recognize the wearer due to the hammer. That was Grimnirs blasthammer!

Furthermore, another surprise came when a red lightning shot out of the ground, completely collapsing it. We all fell into the mud tunnel, barely recovering from the amount of dust around us. When it finally disappeared, there, standing on top was a single woman with a glowing metal arm, holding up a red lightning halberd.

She turned around and smirked.

It was Vifi.

[ Im giving you a basket of donuts after we crush them!]

She grinned and turned around, placing the halberd on her shoulder before showing us a thumbs up with her back shown to us. In the middle of this night, her red lightning was like a signal fire, demanding us to rally around our Warbringer!

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A note from AbyssRaven

Well, first, thank you very much for reading the chapter, so let's get down to business, like Vifi just did. Book 3 of the official book release is finally out on Amazon and Audible! As you guys might suspect from the book's cover, yes, it is an adaptation to the web series's cover I've been using for 3 whole years now! Look at the fire guy staring down at Hestia as she fulfills the Promise of her life!

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