CH 198

Translator: Master of Djinn

As the two divisions approached the monsters, attacking with no holds barred, the monsters that had gathered at the center tried to firmly withstand the onslaught while maintaining their frontlines. However, after a while, the monster forces slowly began to disintegrate.

No matter how strong and overwhelming an army they were, their collapsed frontlines would need a good while to recover.

To add to that, there were still the Knights Order and the Storm Troopers fiercely attacking their rear, and the rangers provided support. The assault seemed to be coming from all directions, surrounding the monster forces.

At last, as the monsters felt the attacking force’s intention to eliminate every one of them, the monsters began rushing towards the center. They knew, with all certainty, that if they could capture Iron, the heart of the Mobile Field Army, they would be able to win the battle.

And so the battle became a fight to kill or save Iron’s life.

Kwooong!

-Die!!

-Shriek!

The manticore and imoogi roared as they ran towards Iron. Seeing this, Two Moons and Thunder used their bodies to stop their advance. They wanted to give Iron, who was being attacked by monsters from all directions, a moment of reprieve, no matter how small.

But blocking the imoogi’s terrifying attack, with all his crazy growth, was not something Two Moons could do.

-Buuuuu!

The imoogi’s attack pushed the owl back some distance, causing the owl to look as if his self-pride had been damaged. Looking royally ticked off, the owl let loose some beams of light, but with the imoogi’s thick shell, it was like water off its back.

“It’s really become a monster now”, thought Iron, watching the imoogi with a wry smile on his face.[1]

The imoogi had developed tremendously, almost as much as he had.

Although there were some restrictions to its body, its humongous size that could never be cut by a weapon was a completely different story. It could push back the entire field army with its body, destroying their frontlines. At this stage, it was much stronger than when he first met the manticore.

On the other hand, that clever bastard, the manticore, was only playing assist to the imoogi at the moment, and not consuming much strength. Iron was sure that if the imoogi got hit while attacking him, the manticore would finish him off completely instead.

Thinking about the manticore planning to kill him no matter what, Iron ground his teeth.

‘Time… We still need time.’

The 21st and 23rd Corps were attacking in a wing formation, putting pressure on the monsters, while the 22nd Corp had crossed the lines and moved to provide all-out support for Iron. Hundreds of airships and drakes took control of the air space all at once, ready to help Iron at any time.

But still, they needed time.

In addition, even though the monsters’ lines had been mowed down, since they had always had the advantage of numbers, the Mobile Field Army still needed a bit more time to completely cut them down.

“Huff…”

It was a fight to the last with the bastards that had been a pain in the neck to them until now.

In this situation, where he didn’t even know if he would walk out alive, Iron’s lips held a smile. His entire body ached, and one could hear his bones creak every time he moved, but his sword was still as clean as ever. His aura blade too was now even more distinct.

Holding  the frosty aura blade that had sparks of lightning coming out of it, Iron gathered all the strength he had left.

At the same time, black mist began coming out of the imoogi’s body.

“….Battle qi? This crazy….”

The imoogi’s entire body was surrounded by battle qi, with not a gap to be found.

While the battle qi was not yet able to take shape like the manticore’s, the enormous qi that surface was threatening enough.

‘The speed of advancing is too fast.’

Iron felt a sense of alarm at how fast the imoogi was advancing. The imoogi could not learn his techniques, but battle qi was different. Contaminated battle qi made from mana formed using void energy was a tactic exclusive to the manticore. But now the imoogi had learned it in such a short time.

As if to prove Iron’s thoughts, up in the sky, the manticore’s face contorted in displeasure.

It could see that at the moment, the imoogi was on the same level as it was, but with time, the imoogi had more possibility of getting stronger than it did.

‘I have to kill it here.’

‘I’ll kill it once I see a chance.’

Both Iron and the manticore had the same thought as they looked at the imoogi.

From the perspective of the Mobile Field Army, even if they won the battle, as long as the imoogi survived, it would most likely assemble an army of giant worms again afterwards. They could never ignore something that could become an immense threat to the southeastern region that they had to stabilize and make safe.

On the other hand, from the manticore’s perspective, it had to gather its power and kill Iron, but the imoogi had to die now, no matter the circumstances. If Iron got a serious injury, but there was also a chance to kill the imoogi, the manticore would choose to kill the imoogi. That was the extent to which the imoogi’s growing trend was extraordinary, causing great worry.

But what the two could think of, the imoogi could definitely realize too.  Maybe it was due to its repeated advancements, it sensed the subtle turn in the battle, and began thinking of how to play it safe and save its head.

These three master-level creatures watched each other carefully as they continued the battle.

But Iron remained the one with the most unfavorable conditions in the fight. At some point, the monsters that had gathered at the center had begun running towards Iron.

-Buu… Buuuu…..

Two Moons was unable to hold off the monsters’ attack anymore, and became smaller before being recalled. Instead, Phoenix and Thunder flew up to take its place and protect Iron.

But, as expected, the two divine beasts could not withstand the joint attack of the manticore and imoogi and were also recalled.

Only Baep-sae remained.

“Huff… can you hold on?”

-Tweet!

Baep-sae replied to Iron’s question in a voice that seemed to be weakened. It flapped its small wings, causing a white light to glow around its wings as it eliminated the  void energy. Somehow, Baep-sae had advanced to a level where it could emit divine energy just by fluttering its wings.

Every time it had amplified great quantities of divine power, the divine power covering its body had also made it advance.

-That little piece of shit is always the problem!

The manticore’s face twisted, looking at Baep-sae’s impact.

Due to Baep-sae’s actions, the monsters who were covered in void energy began to lose their strength and weaken.

Baep-sae had now progressed from just expelling void energy to being able to debuff the unclean creatures.

-Kkieeek!

The imoogi resisted the weakening of its strength, and charged towards Iron. Meanwhile, as if it could no longer drag things on, the manticore also flew straight down from the sky, and as it dropped, it released thousands of thorns that twisted around in a storm of void energy. To worsen things, both the manticore and imoogi widened their mouths at the same time.

“Stand strong!”

-Tweet!

Upon hearing Iron, Baep-sae replied while wringing out every last drop of divine power it had and amplifying it. In an instant, all that power formed a colossal shield of light that stopped the black and purple beams that had been fired by the imoogi and manticore.

Kwooong!

As the three masters clashed with all their might, it caused a raging storm around them, and created giant shock waves. At some point a mana wavelength had been formed, while lightning was emitted as the void energy and divine power collided. The shockwave sent the surrounding monsters flying, and the 22nd Corps airship and drake troops were not exempted either, as the shockwave also swept them back.

As masters fought, how could those who were not masters dare to step foot on their fighting turf?

Inside all that commotion, Iron, the imoogi and the manticore continued to fight, entangling each other. Thousands of thorns continued to rain down as if to scorch the earth, while the imoogi plowed through the ground to reach Iron.

Iron continued to withstand their attacks, dodging as best as he could.

-Twee… Tweet…

Baep-sae gave one last cry as it reached its limits and was recalled.

The manticore, smart as it was, had persistently aimed for Baep-sae who had been focused on amplifying the divine powers. As such, Baep-sae had worn itself out while also sustaining internal injuries.

With all the divine beasts recalled, all that remained was him and his trusty sword that had come a long way with him.

“Let’s tough this out,” Iron said to the sword that couldn’t even hear him, as he made an aura blade.

Shards from the imoogi’s shell flew at Iron from all directions, while, just as before, the manticore’s thorns continued to come from above him, all surrounding him.

None of his divine beasts remained, and his aura had also bottomed out.

As for the divine powers he had used endlessly before, he could no longer use it because it would hurt his body.

In this situation, the only thing he could trust in now was his bruised and wounded body and his sword.

-Vwoong!

At the sword’s cry, Iron turned his surprised eyes to stare at his hands. When he didn’t know if this would be his last moments, the sword was telling him to believe in himself.

Feeling as if all that was left in the world was just he ana his sword, Iron clutched the hilt with both hands and braced himself.

“……let’s do this.”

With the thorns and shards that had been moving at speed invisible to the eye suddenly moving slowly to his eyes, Iron began speaking to his sword.

“You can do this, right?”

Vwoong!

As Iron watched the sword vibrate in his hands upon hearing him, he smiled.

At some point, without him knowing, the remaining aura had been completely sucked into the sword and formed an aura curtain.

Seeing the shards and thorns being intercepted by the aura curtain, the imoogi charged at Iron with all his might. Iron stared calmly at the oncoming imoogi as he spoke to his sword again.

“This is good. With just you… with you, I think I can tough this out, like an iron wall.”

Iron’s sword again vibrated in response, becoming thickly covered with an aura blade. The sword, also encased in cold aura and blinding lightning, seemed to take on Iron’s steel-like nature and gave off an sword qi that was impregnable, just like an iron wall.

This was a sword qi that only a sword with divine energy could have.[2]

-Kkieeek!

Iron clenched his teeth as he endured the imoogi’s attack that clashed with his sword’s qi.

Crack!

The imoogi’s onslaught pushed Iron back, leaving a large hollow in the ground as he moved. Infusing his sword with all the power he had left, he  continued to maintain the aura surrounding his sword. But he eventually reached his limit. Unable to endure the imoogi’s full-scale attack any longer, Iron was thus flung backwards.

“Cough!”

Now completely without strength, Iron vomited blood while rolling a few times, before barely standing up by leaning on his sword. But standing was all he could manage to do. In his current state, Iron was so weak that he wouldn’t even be able to kill a goblin. And the imoogi had no intention of missing this golden opportunity.

But right at that instant, the manticore who had been watching for the right opening launched a surprise attack at the imoogi.

Iron was already in no position to continue fighting. Once it disposed of the imoogi, then it would be able to take over the entire southeast.

Finally having achieved the moment it had patiently waited so long for and beginning to see the light of victory, the imoogi, who had poured all his strength into attacking Iron, was unable to properly defend the manticore’s attack, leaving itself open to damage.

-Kkieeek!

Having been seriously injured, the imoogi squirmed in pain. Seeing the imoogi in such a state, the manticore roared excitedly.

-I… I! I am the victor!

As the manticore roared to celebrate its victory, it let loose another storm of thorns at Iron who had barely stood up, and then turned to open its mouth, intending to finish off the wounded imoogi.

But it could only turn again to look in Iron’s direction, unable to finish killing the imoogi.

-These…. these vermin!

The manticore, unable to finish with it started, glared at the humans who had stopped the thorns it had sent flying towards Iron.

They had completely stalled every one of those thorns.

All the corps commanders, with their full 6th stage power,  had gathered around Iron to protect him. Somewhere along the line, all the monsters that had gathered before had been dispersed and were running away. While the manticore had been fighting, the Mobile Field Army had been smashing through the ranks of the monster army.

-You filthy worms! To hell with you all!

With an expression of urgency on its face, the manticore attacked the corps commanders who were running towards it.

No matter how much energy it had consumed, a master was still a master. Even as the commanders attacked the manticore with full strength, it still overwhelmed them.

However, it was still unable to put an end to Iron as it had wished, as even the great worms had gathered unbeknown to manticore, and attacked it with their mouths wide open.

The imoogi was quickly recovering its strength, and Iron’s pallid face was also regaining its color. Seeing this, the manticore raked together all the strength it had left. It had decided to make a gamble with its life at stake, seeing that there would be no other opportunity.

“Hold on!”

The other two commanders nodded their heads at Ariel’s bark, and focused all their strength.

The giant worms fearlessly stopped the thorns the manticore had sent towards the imoogi, while the commanders blocked those coming towards Iron. Saeriden shattered most of the thorns using his Lion Sword Technique, and Ariel used her sword, fast as a crashing meteor, to completely disintegrate the fragments of the thorns that were flying in every direction. Kardro used his defensive sword technique to eliminate any remaining thorns.

However, having been on the receiving end of an attack from the master-level manticore, there was no way they could remain unharmed.

With only one attack, all three commanders, despite being at 6th stage, threw up blood as they collapsed.

The great worms and the giant worms too had received fatal injuries, with most already dead.

The manticore looked on at the carnage with a satisfied expression. As it once again set out to conclude the battle, one of its legs got caught in a giant mouth.

Crush!