Chapter 214 - Guilty

Zaos decided to go on the offensive again in order to give his allies some more room to breathe, but in the end, it didn't change anything. They were forced to retreat since their manpower decreased and because the soldiers were charging toward him without carrying about their lives…

Before long, another group of soldiers fell down after getting hit by a bolt in the neck and then bleeding to death. Eventually, the enemy archers will be close enough to attack the mine where the others were, and that would be disastrous.

"Captain, we need to make these assholes fear death again," Zaos said.

"I do agree with you, but I have a feeling that this time, it is going to work," Erean said.

Erean began to cover Zaos since he already knew what was coming. Once they took a few backsteps and then the enemies in front of them were in a perfect line that was dozens of meters long, Zaos stepped forward and swung his sword.

The wave of magic energy flew in an arc and then began to cut the enemies like they were butter. While their steel shields were hard. They still were cut in half… the enemy only dispersed after at least sixteen soldiers were cut in half. For a moment, the enemies stopped, but just like Erean said, they charged toward Zaos with blood in their eyes. They weren't zombies like the ones the followers of the demon god could control, so it was hard to explain what motivated them that much.

Despite his attack, Zaos and the others had to retreat even faster than before because the enemies seemed even more bloodthirsty. Although Zaos could kill them with relative ease, they still were charging toward him.

"It seems someone put a bounty on your head… a big one," Erean said. "I think the soldier that kills you will gain more than just a few gold coins."

"It is rather disappointing to know that so many people died just because of a bounty in the last few minutes," Zaos said. "As if I would fall down to the likes of assassins and gold mongers."

Zaos was keeping his composure, but the truth was unavoidable. They were almost back at the mine, and barely-there hundred of the enemy soldiers had fallen to their traps and long-ranged attacks. Not to mention, only four were still alive from the ten that went with Zaos and Erean. Zaos and Erean were completely fine because the veteran soldier was focused on defending alone.

The number of rocks and bolts hitting the enemies decreased a lot since the start of the battle. Still, in the end, Zaos recognized that they lasted for much longer than expected. However, once the group returned to the starting point, Zaos realized why the attacks lasted until now. Some of those who were using crossbows were hit by the enemies. Zaos knew that it was bound to happen at some point, but he had forgotten about it since his hands were full.

Zaos felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown at him when he saw a few corpses of the kids who were supposed to reload the ammo boxes. Even Ameria and Noemi had arrow wounds in their bodies. Drannor tried to protect them.

"Oh, shit… Zaos, don't you think of…" Drannor said when he noticed the glow in Zaos's eyes changing, but he didn't have time to finish his sentence.

Zaos dashed toward the enemies down the mountain alone. Erean knew that something like that would happen at some point, but he didn't expect that it would happen so soon. Even though he was calm and methodical, Zaos wasn't the most cool-headed kid that he knew. To think that the dead bodies of kids he didn't know would make him go mad like that…

"No, it is probably the guilty…" Erean muttered and then said it. "Follow me, everyone! We can't retreat any longer! Those who have swords and want to protect their families follow me… Princess, please… don't follow us."

Drannor and the other guards followed Erean because the plan hadn't been as effective as they had envisioned. For a while, Noemi and Ameria stared at each other without knowing what to do. The same thing could be said to the reserve group that was the last line of defenses after the guards.

The cold rain of the storm probably had dulled their senses a little, just like the imminent fear of death. Still, then most of them changed their minds when a lightning bolt fell from the sky, and for some odd reason, the light of the phenomena made the kids' corpses stand out more than before. They clenched their teeth and felt a nod inside their stomach when they saw those die, but they couldn't spare even a single moment to mourn the deaths of those kids. Then they decided to mourn the losses just like Zaos did, fighting with all he had.

"Was it my fault?" Zaos asked himself while he was swinging his sword around mindlessly.

Did those kids die because he decided not to electrocute his enemies from above? That was the question that was bothering Zaos at the moment. Although he wasn't at his peak, he couldn't feel the weight behind the sword when he swung it around and then hit the enemies in front of him. He didn't feel anything, even when a bolt suddenly hit his left side. He just kept charging single-mindedly, the pain and the exhaustion weren't bothering him, but that question made his heart feel like it was being crushed…

Even amidst his rage, Zaos could tell that he was wasting his time hitting two enemies at a time, so instead of running using the common road down the mountain, he jumped from one road to the next one twenty meters below him. He decreased the damage of the fall by enhancing his legs with Earth magic. Since that worked surprisingly well, Zaos decided to jump to the middle of the enemy's camp.