The Iron Cavalry Demon blew out scorching white steam from its twin nostrils. Even among the motley demons around it, its figure seemed extraordinarily towering, especially with those dark-red muscles like poured steel, brimming with explosive power. Just standing there, it emitted a suffocating sense of oppression.
"Hmm, my enemy..."
Its gaze slowly swept over the massive Chen Yu. Just as Chen Yu thought Ark was about to strike, the gaze shifted away from him and landed on the battle-ready Magical Creature Legion behind him.
Slimes, Poison-stinger Wasps, Gargoyles, subdrakes, Giant Boars... the demon’s eyes inspected these diverse creatures as if reviewing troops, finally settling on the only two humans in the legion positions, Glenn and Anna.
The Iron Cavalry Demon let out an admiring hiss: "Truly worthy to be my enemy, able to command such a vast legion of creatures with such a frail body. Excellent! You are worthy to be my adversary!"
He raised his lightning spear and pointed it at Glenn, his voice rumbling like thunder: "I am Ark, Demon of Tramplings! My enemy, state your name!"
Glenn shifted left and right, only to find the terrifying demon's gaze locked firmly on him. He pointed at himself in bewilderment, his voice trembling: "M-me?"
Ark frowned, sulfur flames dancing in his eyes: "You refuse to give me your name? Is this an insult to me?!"
"Ah?" Glenn swallowed hard. To be stared down by an advanced demon with such a terrifying aura left him under unprecedented pressure; his heart felt like it would burst out.
Ark was enraged; he felt deeply humiliated. Electric arcs on his lightning spear crackled.
"How dare you show such contempt! Demon Legion, march with me! Trample this place into charred earth!!"
"Wait, Ark."
Academician Vincent floated over from a distance, speaking calmly in fluent demonic tongue: "Your enemy stands before you, it is this Slime."
Ark's gaze swept past the mountain-sized purple Slime in front of him, then returned to Vincent. He narrowed the flame-lit eyes: "Little mage, Lord Casaric ordered me to wait in the Abyss. The orders I received did not include clearing out a single Magical Creature Lord for you."
He shook his lightning spear and pointed toward the faint outline of the Storm Fortress: "This is the White Horse Royal Capital. My spear screams; my iron hooves thirst. What I need is blood and war to be sated!"
Vincent shot him a warning look, his tone still calm: "Plans have changed, our identities are exposed. For now, eliminate this Slime..."
Before he could finish, a boulder-sized gel cannonball blazed with fierce flames and erupted from Chen Yu, tearing through the air and slamming into Ark. It exploded thunderously, the searing fire engulfing him instantly.
Princess Louisa's Arcane Missiles followed up, slicing into the explosion and triggering a chain of purple magic flashes and violent detonations inside.
"Boom! Boom!..."
Louisa stared intently at the churning flames and smoke below. When the blaze subsided, she saw Ark slowly lower the arm that had guarded him. He stood completely unharmed, without even a scorch mark.
To withstand flame damage and arcane bombardment with no magical equipment—just his flesh—meant his fire resistance and magic resistance had reached a terrifying level.
Ark looked forward again, his gaze locking onto Chen Yu, and nodded with satisfaction: "You're very good, but not enough."
"Magic resistance that high?" Chen Yu was a little surprised.
Now he was certain: this Iron Cavalry Demon was probably a rank above the present Extraordinary—maybe a level eleven being, one level higher than other Extradordinary present.
But the Magical Creature Legion stood behind him; he could not retreat.
Ark raised his lightning spear and was about to approach. Chen Yu's gel body suddenly contracted like a spring compressed to the extreme; the massive form launched forward with astonishing speed and collided head-on with Ark.
"Shatter!"
Ark only felt as if he had rammed into a full-speed charging dragon. The tremendous force made it impossible to keep his stance; he was thrown back like a wolf, crashing heavily onto the ground near the Abyss fissure and crushing a few low-tier demons that couldn't dodge, leaving the surrounding demonic soldiers stunned.
"How dare you ambush me?!"
Ark rose from the ground in fury, electric arcs on his spear flickering wildly and enveloping him. In the next moment his iron hooves reared, trampling everything in his path, charging even faster than before.
[Cavalry Charge]
Chen Yu felt the demon's silhouette instantly merge with surrounding lightning, becoming a blue-white streak of destructive electricity. In the blink of an eye it struck his massive gel body.
Dong!!!
The gel body rippled violently, forming a huge impact dent. Worse, the lightning-wreathed lance forcibly pierced through the outer gel defense and plunged deep inside.
He felt pain like never before.
[HP -30000]
Losing thirty thousand HP from a single hit startled Chen Yu. He immediately activated full blood drain.
[Devour Digestion]
[Life Drain]
[Thermal Recovery]
[Blood Recovery]
[Vampire's Touch]
His belly instantly became a bottomless black hole, frantically swallowing the charging Magical Tide creatures and scattered demon remnants. Vast life energy flowed in; his lost HP bounced back rapidly.
That was close—his wound nearly healed entirely.
But the attack revealed part of Ark's strength.
A single charge consumed thirty thousand of his HP; this guy's full power was likely far beyond Chen Yu's imagination.
And who knew if Ark had a hidden one-hit-kill move? What if one blow wiped his HP clean?
Across the field, Ark was pushed back a few steps by the restored-elasticity gel. Watching Chen Yu quickly return to form, Ark's expression grew serious.
"My enemy is indeed terrifying, unharmed..."
Vincent drifted over, casting several layers of magic shields around himself to block Louisa's opportunistic Arcane Missiles.
"Ark, time is short. Fall back to defense, our situation is not good!" he urged in demonic tongue.
As he spoke, Raven had already charged on horseback to aid Arthur. Two Frost Wolf Knights joined forces, forcing Dominic into a desperate retreat, his body covered with wounds leaking filthy, viscous black matter.
It seemed his body had long since perished, leaving behind only muck.
Samuel's situation was worse. He was no match for Yano; his enchanted gear shattered one piece after another under Yano's berserk assault, losing its luster.
He had clearly reached his limit, only able to block and dodge; deep gashes revealed bone in places, his golden armor dulled.
"This is troublesome..." Ark exhaled two heavy puffs of steam and his iron hooves launched, forcing him to turn back to support Dominic and Samuel.
Even if he was a level above the other Extradordinary present, letting the enemy slaughter their important forces and eventually surround him was not a smart choice.
Even the dumbest gluttonous demon in the Abyss could figure that out.
Demons were bloodthirsty, but not brainless.
Besides, that Slime was odd—he had to be cautious.
Ark's charge was swift; in a blink he raced to the rear battlefield, so fast that Chen Yu's hastily formed gel cannonballs couldn't even aim properly and exploded where Chen Yu had stood moments earlier, blowing several unlucky demons away.
"Mana siphon" was advantageous because it boosted gel resistance and multiplied magical potency, but its clear drawback was size. Being so large made it inflexible; once kited, his short reach meant he couldn't hit the enemy.
Short arms were a Slime's congenital flaw; even the Slime King couldn't fully avoid it.
Unless...
He cast a glance toward the Storm Fortress, then rolled his massive body, crushing demons underfoot as he thundered in pursuit.
By then, Ark had already reached Arthur and the others. After a flash of lightning, Raven and Arthur barely managed to parry Ark's charge together.
They were pushed back repeatedly by the impact, their legs gouging deep furrows in the scorched ground for tens of meters before they could halt.
"Arthur, I taught you this." Raven growled, prying the lightning spear away with his hunting blade as his body fell backward.
Arthur's soulfire flickered in his eyes as memories rose.
In fragmented recall he saw his father standing solemnly on the training grounds—he was younger then, with hair not yet as white as it had become.
His father watched him train silently, pride occasionally showing in his expression.
Arthur felt that that pride had been his greatest motivation through grueling training.
He also remembered Raven's teaching.
"If we ever ride into battle together and face an unbeatable foe, remember to charge forward—never look back. I'll be right behind you."
Thoughts flashing, Arthur abandoned defense, hoisted his knight's sword high, his gaze revealing unprecedented resolve.
[Judgment]
The knight's sword burning with deathfire cleaved through every obstacle and struck Ark's arm, breaking his defense and leaving an abyssal wound.
What irritated Ark more was the accumulation of a deathly force within him; it seemed if this continued, the undead knight might actually kill him.
Why were the undead here all so strange?
Whenever Arthur swung his sword, Ark wanted to act, but Raven would always intervene.
Their tacit cooperation didn't last long before Ark's more violent power swept them apart.
At the same time Dominic and Ellen had encircled them.
"Vincent, save me!" Samuel roared from the other side, narrowly avoiding a strike and tumbling backward.
Yano beat his bat-like wings and charged relentlessly at the battered Samuel.
Vincent's face hardened as he raised his staff and chanted.
[Blade Wall]
An invisible force rose like two massive gates before Samuel. The edges of the field were razor-sharp, spinning rapidly into a merciless meat grinder that would shred anything trying to pass.
Unexpectedly, a Gargoyle shadow detached from Yano's body and flattened itself to the ground, sliding silently through a seam in the Blade Wall.
After crossing the barrier, the shadow rose upright and reconstituted into a towering Gargoyle silhouette, high above it raised a pitch-black greatsword and swung it hard at Samuel.
The greatsword descended, shattering Samuel's layered magic shields. Blood spouted like a fountain.
Samuel—the knight once famed for wealth and equipment, nicknamed Golden Dawson—was cut cleanly in two.
He groaned, not giving up on escape. His upper half continued backward on momentum, and behind him stood an arcane gate Vincent had prepared.
If he reached the arcane... he could live...
A final glimmer of hope flickered in Samuel's eyes.
Before he could exhale, Yano's true body appeared like a specter directly in front of the arcane gate.
"Sorry, I know a bit of Stealth too."
The knight's sword drew, and a head fell.
Samuel Dawson, commander of the Sixth Legion, died in the most final way.
But that act thoroughly enraged Ark, who had just been forced back by Raven and Arthur.
"Roar!"
Ark bellowed. He retrieved his lightning spear, changed direction, and barreled toward Yano with frenzied speed, hoisting his iron hoof high, which burned with hellfire.
[Trample]
Yano had only time to fuse back with the returning Gargoyle shadow and lift his pitch-black greatsword to block.
Crack...
The greatsword snapped on impact, and the Gargoyle form was stomped into the hard earth, creating a pit meters wide.
Even the stone-like skin couldn't withstand the furious trampling; its black chest tore open, and Yano lay in the pit, barely breathing.
Ark raised his iron hoof, ready to deliver a second stomp.
Chen Yu rolled forward in a hurry. His massive form slammed into Ark, knocking him back dozens of meters before stopping.
"How dare you bully my knight."
Chen Yu shrank back to his usual size. One Slime impact knocked Ark back again several steps.
Faced with the agile, bouncing Slime, Ark at times couldn't counter; his attacks missed repeatedly and he opened his maw in irritation.
[Lightning Breath]
Dazzling blue-white lightning blasted out in a cone, enveloping Chen Yu.
Continuous high-intensity electric strikes shaved nearly five thousand HP per second from Chen Yu; in a few seconds he lost fifty to sixty thousand HP.
A rich surge of natural aura sprouted within him. The remaining Life Droplets quickly nourished the gel, instantly replenishing the lost HP.
Ark's pupils contracted, a flicker of doubt crossing his eyes.
He didn't intend to tangle further with this unkillable Slime. He turned and charged toward Arthur, who was locked in fierce combat with Dominic and Ellen.
This cunning demon had clearly identified Chen Yu's weakness and planned to use his high mobility to defeat them one by one.
But this time Chen Yu did not pursue.
He turned and looked toward the gray-mist-covered horizon.
There, a pitch-black figure was flapping its wings and drawing closer.
It seemed to have noticed the state of the battlefield and suddenly gave an excited cry.
"Ka! Fall! Your loyal Minister Bran returns with the crown!"