Chapter 419 - Battle on Both Ends

"Hurry, lure those monsters over to the pond! Once the monsters are preoccupied with that guy and the treasure inside the pond, we'll escape!"

"..." Cecil just silently and tiredly watched as the people began dashing over to him.

He honestly didn't care what they did if they had only passed by, but he wasn't one to let others use him to their own convenience.

He silently erected a barrier around him and the pond before he went back to sleep.

The monsters that had now entered into the clearing quickly took notice of the Baphamet Clan members and immediately gave chase. They also took notice of the pond and as if Lady Luck was smiling upon the Baphamet Clan, the monsters paid more attention to the herb growing within the pond than them.

Just as they were about to bypass Cecil and go around the pond, the front most members of the group were immediately rebounded backwards after striking headfirst into Cecil's barrier.

"W-what the?!"

"F.u.c.k! That bastard, he erected a—"

"Enough talk! Break it down! It's just a barrier from one bastard!"

"Hurry!"

"AAHHHH!!"

With the monsters roaring and rushing at them in the background, the Baphamet Clan members desperately tried to break down Cecil's barrier. The young man himself was just leisurely taking a nap and disregarding the Baphamet Clan members' plight.

'You could have just asked for help,' Cecil thought quietly to himself.

*****

While the Baphamet Clan members had a run in with Cecil, over at Ren's side, Luke and the Empire's forces along with the monsters chasing after them had caught up.

"Dammit, do you people not know shame?! You're from the Empire and you don't have the moral integrity to keep us out of your stupid problems?!" Gina Omnae yelled.

"You should be honored that we've specifically come over to seek your help!" Luke growled back.

"Shameless!"

"Can't a fellow human help us in our plight?!"

"Not if you maliciously lured this ridiculously number of monsters over here! How do you even expect us to help?!" Karen yelled back at Luke.

"Enough running! It's time we fight!" Maximus Reggios declared. He turned around and flourished his great sword, sending a large storm at the monsters who were rushing at him.

"Alena, cover me!"

"B-brother!"

'This f.u.c.k.i.n.g idiot!' Luke inwardly cursed after he saw the Crown Prince stop next to Karen's group and sending an attack at the monsters chasing after them.

"This isn't the time, Prince Maximus!" Luke roared.

"Are you a coward?! I'm tired of running! Now that we have more people, why not just fight?!"

"Brother, wait—"

"Enough Alena! It's time we show these impudent monsters the wrath of the Machina Empire!"

"..."

"FORMATIONS! We're going to take these bastards down!���

The young soldiers and mages in the Empire's group roared in acknowledgement to their prince's orders and stopped running. The Empire's soldiers quickly got into battle formation with the warriors and knights in the vanguard while the mages and long-ranged attackers moved to the rear.

Seeing that Maximus was now fighting alongside Karen's knights, the Empire's soldiers, who were now in formation, began moving to reinforce the left flank of Karen's knights. Karen saw this but she still didn't feel grateful. They wouldn't be in this mess if they hadn't lured the monsters over in the first place.

'Hmph, at least you bastards have a conscience!' Karen thought before focusing her attention back to the battle at hand.

Once the Empire's forces got into position on the left side, they immediately began retaliating against the monsters.

Luke was already speechless at this point. Now that they didn't follow through with their original plan, he couldn't be the only one to run away. It'll only make him out as a coward now!

He clicked his tongue and pulled out his weapon, a gun-type weapon similar to the Silvaria Kingdom's weapons only that the model was different and he began shooting down the monsters from the back of the group.

Now that they were all forced onto the same boat, there was no way for Ren's group to even pull back now that the monsters had begun moving to surround them.

Ren was the first to spot Luke's unique weapon and he couldn't help but scoff at it.

'The efficiency and design is lacking compared to ours!"

Ren wasn't planning on using his rifle just yet, but he had to quickly reconsider that notion once the SS ranked Blaze Foxes caught up and entered the battle. Once the foxes arrived, they immediately began concentrating their attacks on the Empire's group who had always been their target.

The Blaze Foxes who had already rushed straight for the Empire's forces were forcing away the other monsters under their control and these monsters naturally began attacking the other groups around them.

The pressure on the Empire grew exponential now that they were facing these SS-ranked monsters, but with the other monsters diverting their attention and attacking the other groups, the pressure on them didn't alleviate in the slightest.

With the dense amount of monsters rushing at them from all sides, the groups in the coalition of forces were forced to bundle up closer to each other, giving the vanguards less room to maneuver and swing their blades to attack. They could only continue to defend themselves and leave the attacking to their long-ranged comrades at this point.

"R-Ren, what do we do? We're being surrounded and pushed back!" Xin asked worriedly. She didn't let up on her attacks though and continued to shoot at the monsters that were now everywhere.

Due to Ren's group being mostly ranged attackers, they were placed in the center of the group with Cecilia's priests and supported the other teams who were fighting head-on with the monsters.

Ren was soon able to notice that no matter how many monsters they struck down, it seemed as if more would just take their place. He then noticed that there were actually monsters rushing at them from afar.

It was most likely due to the loud noises that ensued because of their chaotic battle, but other monster groups within the vicinity of their location were rushing over to fill in the places of the monsters that their groups had just killed.

"...This is bad... We'll be overwhelmed at this rate..." Ren said with a frown. He pulled out his magi-tech rifle and immediately began firing at every monster within his line of sight.

Unlike the power of the magi-tech guns he handed out to everyone in his group, the rifle's power was much stronger. The mana bullets that were fired from the rifle pierced through several of the monsters that were within Ren's line of fire.

After firing a few piercing rounds, Ren quickly tapped on one of the button on his rifle's stock before firing at the monsters. This time, the mana bullets that were fired began exploding upon impact with the monsters instead of piercing through them.

This was a unique function limited to only Ren's rifle since it was something that was personally crafted by both him and his Master. Ren had the bright idea of applying his Master's attribute granting technique onto the weapon so that in any given situation, he would be able to grant attributes to the mana bullet he fired.

Whether the attribute would be that of a homing, piercing, or exploding projectile, it was all there for him and all he needed to do was press a button and switch the attributes to whatever he needed.

Luke had already taken note of Ren's rifle and felt rather envious. Compared to the one he was using, their power and utility were oceans apart. It was like the difference between the earth and the sky.

Since Ren would always pull down his hood when in a fight because he didn't want his vision to be limited, Luke was able to get a good look at his face, and he felt that Ren seemed to be somewhat familiar.

The thought that the owner of the unique magi-tech rifle was his rival from back in the Artificer Guild totally didn't cross his mind. He couldn't help but curse inwardly as he was quite jealous. Luke didn't want to acknowledge that there was actually some kind of faction out there which was far ahead of them in artificing.

Of course, Luke was right and wrong at the same time. The Silvaria Kingdom couldn't be said to be an all-powerful magi-tech nation just yet. This was because their understanding of artificing and magi-tech was still too limited and many of their up-and-coming artificers were still learning.

Ren's Rifle was just a unique existence crafted by 2 artificer prodigies whose ideas were far ahead of anyone else present in this era.

'If only I could get my hands on it...but first off, I have to somehow get out of here and survive! Once the monsters overrun these fools, I'll just come back and pick it up from his corpse!'

Even in their dire situation, Luke was still looking for a way to escape with his group. He didn't need to bring away all of the people with him, only those who came with him and were his trusted subordinates. His Crown Prince Maximus was now immersed in the battle and had dragged his sister and everyone else into it with him so Luke abandoned any thoughts of cooperating with them.

'Tsk, these stupid foxes have their attacks concentrated on us... it'll make things a bit hard...'

With the Blaze Foxes concentrating their attacks on the group, it naturally didn't give them any leeway to think about anything else. The obvious and only sensible reaction in their current situation was to defend and attack.

It was only Luke who had the mind to think about escaping even in their current situation. He looked at the Crown Prince and his people who were ardently fighting back against the monsters.

'Idiots!'