"What now, Dominic?"
On the city wall, the Assassin Master Ellen looked down at the Arevalo family knights rapidly retreating through the breach below, a sense of unwillingness in his heart.
Dominic's eyes flickered for a moment before he decisively said, "Temporarily abandon the fortress defense, pursue! We cannot let them escape!"
The Slime Kingdom's Magical Creature Legion was already powerful enough. If the Arevalo Knight Regiment successfully escaped and merged with them, the future threat they posed would grow even larger.
Even if it meant allowing the Magical Tides to flood into the fortress, he had to seize this opportunity to settle everything completely.
Ellen was inwardly shocked. "Are you insane? If we abandon the fortress defense, wouldn't that tell all the knights and soldiers that we simply don't care about the threat of the Magical Tides, that we don't care about the civilians behind us?!"
The fundamental purpose of the Border Corps' existence was to resist the Magical Tides and protect the kingdom's border. This was the oath every knight and soldier swore when joining the Corps, the duty they regarded as their honor.
Abandoning the defense was equivalent to making them tear up their own faith and vows with their own hands, which would inevitably arouse suspicion and resistance from the knights under their command, and could even lead to the legion splitting apart.
Dominic, however, said calmly, "We can't worry about that now. This is the best chance to completely eradicate the Arevalo family and severely cripple the Magical Creature Legion. We absolutely cannot let it slip."
"Warriors fighting for glory, the Magical Creature Legion and the traitors are in rout! Please immediately follow me to pursue the enemy! This is an order, and it brooks no delay!"
As soon as these words were spoken, an uproar immediately erupted on the city wall.
"But, Commander Dominic, behind us is the Golden Tassel Plain. If we abandon the defense, the Magical Tides..."
"For the sake of the kingdom and the innocent civilians, we cannot leave the walls at this time!"
"Commander Dominic..."
Voices of doubt and dissuasion rose one after another.
"Enough!" Dominic coldly shouted to stop them. Then, his expression softened slightly as he explained, "Pursuing the Magical Creature Legion does not mean abandoning the fortress. After the Sixth Legion, militia groups from various major nobles are already on their way."
He pointed towards the rear of the fortress. "We will temporarily hand over the task of resisting the Magical Tides to them. We have a more important mission, which is to completely eliminate these enemies threatening the sovereign state!"
His gaze swept over the crowd. "The Third Contingent stays behind, garrison the city walls, and receive the noble militias arriving later. Everyone else, pursue with me immediately! This is a military order!"
"Yes!!" Although most soldiers still had doubts in their hearts, their long-term military training and instinct to obey orders made them choose to carry it out upon hearing a clear command.
The situation was urgent, and there was no time for them to think too much. They hurriedly ran down the city wall, searching for remaining usable horses amidst the monster-infested stables.
However, not all knights blindly obeyed Dominic's command. Some knights who already harbored suspicions towards Dominic and the recent strange atmosphere within the legion recalled Alice's previous public accusations against Dominic.
Doubt arose in their hearts. They quietly broke away from the formation, hiding in corners of the city wall or damaged towers.
Within the Border Corps, especially among the knight class, there was no strict superior-subordinate relationship. The legion's organization was relatively loose, and knights mostly ranked each other based on strength, seniority, and family prestige.
According to the legal principles of the White Horse Kingdom, knights should follow the principle of equality. They had the right to refuse to carry out a transfer order if they deemed it unreasonable—of course, this required bearing the corresponding consequences, and they would inevitably face Dominic's settling of accounts afterwards.
These knights who chose to stay no longer trusted Dominic. They decided to secretly remain and defend the fortress, relying on the remaining defensive works and the sporadic reinforcements arriving, doing their utmost to prevent the Magical Tides from flooding in.
Behind them were their hometowns and loved ones. They absolutely could not retreat half a step!
"Ellen, you go provide support first. I'll be there shortly." Dominic glanced at the knight regiment regrouping below the city wall. He had no time to deal with the disobedient knights for now.
He leaped, jumping directly down from the city wall breach dozens of meters high.
"Thud!!!"
Whether it was the slow-moving Arcane Ancient Trees or the Ripper Artillery Emplacements that required large numbers of Beetles to drag, they all severely slowed down the entire legion's retreat speed, leaving the entire army with no advantage when facing the pursuit of the enemy's elite cavalry.
The Arevalo family Knight Team, which had been covering the rear of the Magical Creature Legion earlier, had already surpassed them thanks to their warhorses' speed and were now further ahead.
Now, the Magical Creature Legion was about to directly face the elite knight regiment catching up from behind.
"Beet, intercept." Chen Yu ordered through the Gel Network.
Army Commander Beet took to the air, commanding the Poison-stinger Wasp swarms of the Blood Legion to counterattack. Countless dark red Shaped Blood Orbs poured down like a torrential rain towards the knight regiment pursuing from behind, attempting to slow their charging speed.
Faced with this overwhelming blood orb attack, the knight regiment's forward-positioned Academician Vincent just glanced at it indifferently, then raised the staff in his hand.
[Wall of Force]
Arcane light flashed. Complex magic patterns spread out of thin air above the knight regiment, then faded into the air.
The blood orbs colliding with this invisible area were like hitting a transparent wall. They either exploded on the spot, their blood energy absorbed by the wall of force, or were directly deflected, flying to either side, completely unable to harm the knight regiment below.
Celeste, carrying Princess Louisa, flew past from the flank, trying to find an attack opportunity.
Louisa leaned down, her gaze grave as she looked at Vincent below, simultaneously communicating with Chen Yu in the legion through the Gel Network: "Be careful, Academician Vincent is from the court mages..."
Before she could finish, the staff in Vincent's hand once again lit up with dazzling arcane brilliance. His entire body slowly levitated, lifted by mana.
[Multiple Projection]
His figure blurred for a moment. Immediately after, three magical projections identical to his main body appeared simultaneously in three directions: north, west, and south.
These four "Vincents" precisely surrounded the retreating Magical Creature Legion and the Arevalo Knight Regiment.
They simultaneously raised their staffs, chanting ancient and obscure incantations in low voices. Four pale purple magic rays shot from the tips of their staffs, converging high above.
[Anti-Magic Barrier]
Blinding light erupted from the center where the rays converged. A pale purple magic barrier rapidly descended, covering the battlefield below.
"Gah!"
Celeste's soaring figure suddenly stalled. She felt the magical elements around her instantly become sluggish, difficult to manipulate. Her transformation spell was severely disrupted, uncontrollably shifting from a giant eagle back to human form mid-air, holding Louisa as they plummeted.
Even Louisa, trying to cast a spell within the barrier, could feel a distinct sluggishness. Mana manipulation became difficult, and incantation chanting seemed slowed by an invisible force.
It took her half a second longer than usual to summon a thick magical vine to catch them, slowly lowering them onto Peachy's back below.
Holding her still-palpitating chest, she warned Chen Yu: "It's an Anti-Magic Barrier. Within the barrier's range, the operation of magic formations will be disrupted or even fail. Conventional magical attacks and protections will also be weakened."
"Be careful, they're about to launch an all-out attack."
As she expected, the legion mages accompanying the knight regiment received the signal the moment the barrier descended and immediately began chanting in unison.
Fireballs, ice spikes, wind blades, holy light arrows... Spells of various attributes rained down like hailstones upon the Magical Creature Legion within the barrier.
"Anti-magic field?" Chen Yu looked up at the pale purple barrier covering the sky above. His round body bounced slightly, somewhat puzzled.
But the problem was, the Magical Creature Legion wasn't using magic formations either.
The Kingdom's Shield looked like a magic formation, but it was actually a formation from the Xu Xuan Heaven. Its energy source and operational principles were fundamentally different from the traditional magic formations of this world.
Vincent floated in mid-air, looking down at the Magical Creature Legion within the barrier, quietly waiting, as if he could already see them discovering their defensive barrier had failed and falling into chaos.
But right then, an unexpected scene occurred. From the center of the Magical Creature Legion, several dazzling silver light beams actually shot skyward.
A sudden energy barrier unfolded before the legion, blocking all the magical attacks poured forth by the knight regiment's mages.
The anti-magic had failed?!
The composure and confidence on Academician Vincent's face instantly froze, his expression becoming confused.
The old mage's knowledge and cultivation told him this scene before his eyes was impossible.
But reality was right there, forcing him to believe.
This Magical Creature Legion was far more peculiar than he had imagined.