Chapter 294 Hero, I Am Not

"That brat! Where are his balls when they are needed?!" Cameron exclaimed angrily. "How dare he just left like a coward?!"

Angered, Cameron's Mana overwhelmed the air surrounding him. Some of the soldiers near him, despite being a member of the Royal Army, even trembled upon being exposed to his Mana pressure.

All of the five Princes were talented. Amongst them, in terms of raw power, Cameron was second only to Edward.

He had three Grand Circles on top of being a Fifth Circle Mage, so his Mana pressure could definitely overwhelm some of the soldiers, who were mostly Fifth Circle Mages with two Grand Circles or Early Stage Blue Core Knights.

"To think Edward chose to scurry away from a mere possible danger... What a shock," Aldrich muttered to himself with a frown. "He has failed to see what I can see, and it is his loss this time."

Shaking his head helplessly, Aldrich lifted his hand. Cameron immediately calmed himself down upon seeing it, and the other Princes nodded their head in understanding.

Making a hand gesture to order the soldiers to fill up the space Edward's soldiers had left behind, Aldrich looked at Goap carefully. Goap smiled at him in ridicule, but he didn't feel anything about it.

Aldrich had never considered Demons sentient. He treated whatever they did as something like what nature did—something what they were designed to do.

Even though they barked at him, he would never consider it as their way to express their hate towards him. That was just what they were, and thus he couldn't care less about them.

Aldrich treated Goap no different from the other Demons, so whatever Goap did or what he was capable of, Aldrich would never put his words into account.

That was the reason why he had refused Goap's magnanimous offer. In his mind, Goap was no different from an animal who had just learnt how to speak a human language, but already tried to act smart.

"Look at how confident this human with his ability." Goap sneered in amusement as he looked at Aldrich.

... That, unfortunately, was just his misconception.

"Aldrich, how we should proceed?" Cameron rode his horse closer to Aldrich's. "Now that we have lost 4,000 people, we can no longer use the same strategy."

"I am very aware of that, my younger brother, Cameron." Aldrich put his hand in front of Cameron. "I have been thinking about the best way to defeat that Monster, and the best way I can think of is to focus on attacking it."

"... You can't be serious, can you?" Cameron looked at Aldrich in bewilderment. "What are we going to do with these bastards surrounding us." He gestured at the Low and Middle Class Demons.

"What Royal Brother Aldrich means is, we should join our forces and focus on eliminating that creature."

Receiving a response that didn't come from Aldrich, Cameron turned around to see the person who had just spoken. It was a brown haired, handsome young man with a fair complexion, and a tall stature—his brother, Dwight Draconart Braxtein.

The Fourth Prince rode his horse close to Cameron's as Cameron quirked his eyebrow. Cameron, however, wasn't showing his displeasure towards Dwight's presence; he was merely curious about what Dwight had meant.

"Elaborate. You know I am not as smart as you and Aldrich."

"It is not that hard to understand, Brother. Brother Aldrich has just said we should do what we have done earlier, but way more organized—y'know combining our power to overwhelm that bastard while also killing these bastards."

This time, instead of Dwight, a blond haired young man with sharp eyes and a cocky smile eternally etched on his face was the one who answered Cameron's request. He was the Second Prince, Brenton Brasenheart Braxtein.

He was the most unruly and problematic Prince, but had the second highest probability to succeed the throne after Aldrich. He inherited many of Anthony's traits, except for discipline.

"Is that correct, Aldrich?" Cameron looked at Aldrich for confirmation.

"That is definitely correct..." Aldrich nodded his head lightly as he glanced at Brenton who had ridden his horse beside him. "I want us to make a Barrier around our soldiers, so we can fight that thing without worrying about getting hit."

"To do that, we need to combine our Mana and Qi," added Dwight. "In other words, we are going to fight that creature with a Mass Formation."

"Which makes me curious how we will manage," Brenton remarked as he glanced at Aldrich. "I have no idea that any of us has learnt anything about it."

At that, Aldrich smiled lightly. "You don't have to worry—this is what has always made me better than the rest of you." Extending his hand forward, he continued, "I have always been prepared."

As soon as the soldiers under his lead saw his hand gesture, they immediately moved to their designated position. None of them looked confused about what they should do as they had practiced it together for a few days.

Aldrich, whose knowledge regarding anything related to Magic, had prepared himself for times like this, so he had made the Legions he led learn the Formation for the last three days.

He knew that Royal Army rarely used a Formation in battle—they were strong enough to not need it—so he had predicted none of them knew anything about Mass Formation, and it had been on spot.

When he saw how well the soldiers under his lead organized themselves after the days he had spent teaching them the Mass Formation, he smiled in satisfaction.

He very much enjoyed the baffled look the other Legions gave his Legions as they wondered how his Legions could assume the Formation they had never learnt in the Royal Army.

"Very well, brothers. You can tell your soldiers to fill the remaining space." Aldrich smiled as he looked at his brothers one by one. "For those who are not needed in the Formation... Let's use them as a distraction."

The other Princes weren't actually very happy hearing Aldrich's decision to use their soldiers who weren't a part of the Formation as a distraction, but they didn't say anything about it.

They understood their current situation well: winning the fight against the Obelisk Master who had finally shown himself was more important than thinking about their throne succession war.

Furthermore, they also didn't care that much towards the soldiers. They had been seeing them as their contribution points for all this time—the more of them remained, the higher the points.

Given the current situation, as long as they won the fight, they would completely get rid of Edward, their greatest obstacle to succeed the throne.

Edward had, after all, left the battlefield after deeming the battle unwinnable, so if they could prove him wrong, all of them would be appreciated greatly by their father.

As long as Edward's loss became a sure thing, it was a win-win for all of them.

"Oh, you have finally gotten into a Formation." Goap looked at the Royal Army positioning themselves in a lotus like Formation in disinterest. "I'm tired of waiting, so can I kill you now?"

"I don't know if you are just ignorant or overestimating yourself, but you should have prevented us from getting into a Formation while you can," Aldrich replied calmly.

"As you wish!" Shrugging lightly, Goap gestured at his subordinates.

The Demons, who had been merely watching the Five Princes had their discussion for the past minutes due to Goap's instruction, dashed at the soldiers to disrupt the Formation.

Even before they managed to attack any of the soldiers inside the formation however, those who weren't a part of the Formation immediately blocked them in their way.

A fierce fight immediately broke between the hundreds or so Mages and Knights and the Demons trying to disrupt the Formation. The Mages and Knights held their ground very well, but it was easy to see how overwhelmed they were.

Fighting thousands of Demons with just that many people, after all, was by no means easy. That, however, was their job—to protect the soldiers in the Formation—so they had to prevail.

There was some time before the Formation was activated, so they had to hold on until that time.

Their fate had been sealed the moment they became distractions—they knew it, and it made them fight more vigorously. They were fully determined to let their fellows finish the Formation, so they fought to the best they could.

They didn't want their death to be in vain.

The soldiers inside the Formation still focused on combining their Mana and Qi, but they couldn't help gritting their teeth as they looked at their fellows outside the Formation.

Many of them were indignant at the fact that they had to sacrifice their fellows to win the fight, but because of that indignation, the process of activating the Formation was faster.

Hum!

"For the Kingdom!"

As the giant Barrier rose up to the air, covering those inside the Formation, the soldiers outside the Formation shouted in elation. Raising their hand to the air, all of them immediately exploded themselves to bring the Demons around them down with them.

Boom! Boom!

The soldiers inside the Barrier saw the scene in detail, and they could only grit their teeth as they properly witnessed the honourable sacrifice their fellows had made.

"For our fallen comrades!"

"Uwohh!!!"

Warcry immediately filled the battlefield once again, making Aldrich, who was in the lead of the Formation smile. Pointing his sword at Goap as soon as the Barrier fully isolated them from the outside world, he ordered the Mages to launch their Spells.

Countless of explosive spheres were sent outside the Barrier, at Goap. Said Demon still remained calm in spite of that; he merely swiped the air to cancel all of the Spells launched at him.

The soldiers' eyes darkened at Goap's showcase of power, but Aldrich merely quirked his eyebrow at that. Raising his hand once again, he instructed the Knights to attack this time.

Whoosh!

The Knights sent their Qi Blades at Goap this time, but once again, Goap merely swiped the air to cancel all of the Qi Blades. Bewildered everyone turned to Aldrich to ask what they should do next.

"Aldrich!"

"Your Highness!"

"Bloody hell, are you okay, Brother?!"

As they turned to him however, they found that Goap didn't only cancel the Qi Blades earlier, but also send something that managed to pierce Aldrich's chest.

The chaos began afterwards.