'Too slow!'
In the end, even an elite soldier like Ophar struggled when fighting against two opponents who were individually stronger than him. But with the addition of that massive, house-sized bull that continued to charge him over and over again, it was only a matter of time before Ophar would slip.
And right now, he dodged the bull's charge again, thanking the high heavens for the monster slowing considerably down...
Only to realize that it slowed for a reason.
'Shit!'
Thump!
Right on the last step of its charge, the monster bull dug its hooves into the ground and swung its back to the side, striking Ophar out into the air with the full brunt of the kinetic force of its dash.
'Ugh...'
Blood filled Ophar's mouth.
No matter how much experience he had or how physically powerful he was, a strike like that...
A blunt attack of this sort was the perfect counter for his skin-tight barrier. And while the bull never actually touched the man, the flexible shield perfectly transmitted the force of the attack, sending Ophar soaring.
'Wait, this is good!'
Forcing himself to look for positives, Ophar twisted in the air and took a look around, making use of the elevated point of view to gauge the situation.
And it was quickly getting worse.
Some kind of human charged right into the gap that appeared in the center of both lines. And with some sort of magic, he cleared out entire swats of Ophar's soldiers, now standing with a stupid grin in the very middle of the bloody carnage on a scale much greater than anywhere else on the battlefield.
Ophar's face tensed up, his eyes squinted and his fists tightened.
He saw hundreds upon hundreds of minuscule, iron spikes powerlessly falling down just a few inches in front of his feet.
'What the hell was...'
"AAARGH!"
Somewhere behind, a seemingly hundred voices cried out in unison.
Ophar's eyes widened even further.
His barriers were of a much better grade than those of the ordinary soldiers. Even Golden Legion and its cavalry couldn't afford to equip regular soldiers with these state-of-the-art memories.
Doing so would upset the delicate balance of power the imperial family did its best to establish. A balance of power that kept the massive empire more or less cohesive.
And from the looks of things, while Ophar's barriers held... The same couldn't be said about the barriers of the men who stood behind him.
'That's a fucking weapon?!'
Gritting his teeth to overcome the exhaustion caused by his aura depleting at a worrying rate, Ophar waited without even the tiniest twitch for the man to move, to avert his eyes, even if only for a second.
And blinded by the confidence given to him by the powerful weapon in his hands, the young man looked away. Then, the rest of his body followed, along with the front of the gun that he now started to aim elsewhere.
'You are...' Ophar's eyes widened even further, adrenaline bursting in his veins.
For a moment, Major forgot about all the small injuries and wounds he sustained. He forgot about all the exhaustion, both the physical one of getting into battle right after a day and a half of a night of forced march and the mental one of riding for the last few minutes under a constant barrage of deadly spells.
In this one moment, none of that mattered. Yet, the very moment he rose up from his knees and leaned forth, ready to leap over the distance that separated him from this evil of evils...
BOOM!
Ophar's outer barrier scattered on the spot, his flow of mana unable to suffuse it with enough energy to keep it from shattering. And even before it could do that, whatever struck him exploded, filling the insides of his outer barrier with a hail of raging flames and sharp shards of red-hot metal.