Chapter 926: The Penultimate Debut
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"What, what is that?"
A few soldiers of the royal army raised their heads to look, only to suddenly see a cluster of black shadows leaping towards them. At that instant, before they even had time to react, they felt pain in their chests before losing consciousness, collapsing straight to the ground.
Within a short span of time, soldiers who had collapsed this way had increased to almost a hundred.
The royal army was shocked and panicked. However, it was only then that they could roughly see what that cluster of black shadows looked like clearly. Blood dripped from their sharp claws, as strong and powerful wings flapped behind them. Meanwhile, those eagle eyes were continuously scanning through the crowds of people, as though searching for its next target.
There was no mistake. That was a griffin.
Also, it seemed that this was not the only one.
Approximately twenty or so adult griffins had suddenly appeared in the airspace above the Town of Crewe. No one in the royal army knew where they had emerged from, but they could clearly see that this flight of griffins had already snatched close to a hundred lives by flying low and skimming over them just now.
What was going on?
Most people were dumbfounded. Of course, the emotion that they were feeling even more was horror. The power and greatness of griffins were self-evident; almost everyone had heard stories about various merchants’ caravans being attacked by griffins, with no survivors left. Today, its image had been carved into all hearts. For most of the people in the Kingdom of Helius, seeing a griffin was like seeing the grim reaper; that horrifying feeling was instinctive.
This battle had been going well... Why would a flight of griffins appear?
However, when this batch of griffins dove down once more, taking away the lives of another stretch of soldiers, they saw an even more unimaginable sight.
There were humans sitting on the griffins.
They wore armor and wielded heavy hammers in their hands. Nevertheless, those men looked rather young, with the icon of the Academy of Magic drawn on their breastplates. Brandishing their hammers with one hand and the other holding onto the head of the griffin, their entire bodies seemed to be bringing a strange force field with them, causing people to shiver involuntarily.
Yet, the griffins that they were riding underneath were like the most obedient of war horses. They did not seem unwilling in the least bit.
The soldiers of the royal army were struck dumb.
They felt as though they were dreaming, seeing things that were completely impossible to be seen. However, when those sharp claws continuously flitted over the crowds of people, they knew, as they watched the fresh blood of their comrades in arms spurt out unceasingly, that a nightmare had descended amongst mankind.
"Run quick, quickly!"
A secret wave of spiritual energy swept over them, magnifying the fear in the hearts of the soldiers. Finally, their survival instincts overpowered their military orders. These soldiers could no longer stand it; one by one, they threw off their armor and fled for their lives.
There were close to a hundred thousand men in the royal army. The troops in front had immediately dispersed due to the appearance of the griffin cavalry, but the people at the back did not even know what had happened in front. Because of that, with a few people fleeing towards the back as even more people were pressing forward, the entire army instantly fell into a disarray once more. Some Holy Knights even drew their long swords, slashing and executing those deserters on the spot.
Of course, it was impossible for those in the sky not to have noticed how chaotic it had become below them.
"Psychic powers that control Magical Creatures... You can bring yourselves to do such things, aren’t you afraid of encountering God’s condemnation?" During a gap in the battle between the mages and priests, a bishop looked at the mages in front and shouted in a righteous and severe tone of voice.
"You’re out of your mind." Lara rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Both parties had been plunged into a chaotic battle. The priests still had the upper hand by borrowing the advantage of having more men, and overpowered the mages. However, because they had forcefully promoted too many priests, their average combat ability was just too weak. There were even some who were dragging them down, so they were still unable to claim an overwhelming advantage.
Furthermore, the skirmish in the air between Grant and Miles seemed to have entered a temporary state of cease-fire. Miles stopped on another roof, his body crouching down low as he panted nonstop. Meanwhile, Grant was in the air, holding the shield to deflect the series of unceasing attacks. By then, he was also sweating heavily.
After the griffin cavalry had appeared, Grant’s face looked uglier and uglier.
He tried to take some times out and shoot a few limited light silks to kill those griffins. However, the moment he made any other movements, Miles would leap over immediately, either to block the light silks with his body or to attack continuously, forcing him to have no way to cast his spells in their aid. He could only watch the royal army lose out on their advantage bit by bit.
Grant was having a really bad headache.
"You won’t be able to endure this much longer." After some time, he suddenly opened his mouth and spoke to Miles. "I understand you. You’re an assassin, you don’t have great physical strength. If you drag this on, even an ordinary soldier would be able to kill you. Do you really wish to continue delaying me here?"
Hearing that, Miles gave a few chuckles as he panted. He nodded and said, "Yes."
"...Leave this place, leave the Kingdom of Helius, and I can promise to give you so much money that you wouldn’t be able to spend it all in a lifetime. Think about it carefully. Risking your life for that mage? Is it worth it?"
Miles straightened up, putting his hands up in a shrug. "None of your damn business."
Grant let out a cold snort, and gave up on advising him.
Lifting that shield up high, he suddenly turned around and flew into the formation of the royal army. Seeing that, Miles hesitated slightly for a moment. However, because his physical strength had been largely exhausted, he did not give chase; he stopped where he was and took out a bottle of Magic Potion, gulping it down speedily.
Nevertheless, the Magic Potion had just been downed when he turned his head to see, all of a sudden, a few Holy Knights climbing up from beneath.
"I have no time to waste with you here. Have fun playing with them!" At this moment, Grant suddenly appeared behind the Holy Knights and said thus. He gave Miles an irritated glance before turning around and flying off with a whoosh.
Along with his words, even more Holy Knights appeared on this street suddenly, surrounding the house that Miles was on.
"Damn it..."
Seeing that, Miles clenched his fists. He could feel an aching pain throughout the muscles of his entire body and could not help but frown, as he contemplated as such in his heart. He lifted his head to look at Grant, only to see that Grant had already shot directly towards the battle between the priests and the mages. His next step would be to commit a massacre!
His first objective was to aim at Joanna.
"You..." Joanna had just used a cluster of flames to block a round of focused fire from Grenades of Holy Light. She had not expected a light silk to fly at her from another direction, piercing through her shoulder in the blink of an eye. Immediately, she gave a cry of pain. Her spellcasting was interrupted; turning around, she saw Grant, who was less than ten meters away from her.
Grant’s eyes were full of murderous intent.
"Die!"
Another light silk shot out from his hand, flying straight at Joanna’s heart. At that moment, Joanna’s spellcasting had just been interrupted, so she was still in a state of retaliation. There was no way to dodge the inevitable. All she could do was freeze where she was, watching that light silk arrive at her own heart with wide open eyes.
Ding!
There was a bright, clear sound; Joanna’s entire body shook, as she subconsciously reached towards her chest, only to discover that she was not wounded.
Right at this time, a little blue figure that was flourishing its wings had spread out its arms, defending her from the front. Its long hair was slowly drifting about, like water. On the other side, Miles, who was on the rooftop, discovered that the Holy Knights surrounding him had suddenly turned into ice sculptures.
At that moment, all of them turned to look up in unison.
After that, everyone was stunned.
"I’ve only been gone for a short while, and you can’t continue delaying him?" All they could see was Benjamin riding on the back of a gigantic griffin, looking down at the entire battlefield from a towering height. He spoke slowly. "You, the legendary mercenary. It looks like you’re just so-so after all."