The Golden Order Cavalry was made up of a kindred, the only group who were able to ride the exceptional sun horses. During their time, they were the last hope of the castle, the last stand against the Dark Lich's vast army.
That army spread like a bottle of black ink on white paper. It was unstoppable, not until the three thousand Golden Cavaliers, these anointed knights, charged into this corruptible, vile ink.
Riding straight to its core where the Dark Lich sat on his skeletal throne made of the fallen. With the Dark Lich's head, Lament recalled how, lonely on his horse, he watched the Lich's army crumble.
As the pictures in his head faded, Lament looked at his brothers. Though dead, their strength had not faded, neither had their devotion for duty been abated.
"Belmont," Lament said toward his stallion, and it moved. Its steps weren't light thuds, but they sent tremors through the earth. Though agile-looking, Lament's horse had a powerful skeletal structure and great muscle mass stretched over its explosive body.
Coupled with the armour, the warhorse weighed about six thousand pounds, and yet could hit three hundred mph at full speed.
With the addition of the rider, their total weight was around six thousand nine hundred pounds.
Each cavalier was built to be a unit, as their movement alone could bring down walls. Each possessed prowess rivalling Knight-Captains, and together, as a Cavalry, they could cause a disaster.
The moment they all moved, the trembling of the earth made the faces of not just the Elite Class on the wall but all the Regulars change.
A great amount of dust rose, grasses were uprooted and flung into the distance by the fierce wind generated by their charge.
'It feels like everything would fall apart!' Dax said inwardly, as the tremors were so great that people in the city miles away looked in the direction of the north.
The charge of two hundred and one Golden Order Cavaliers, each weighing almost four tons, put so much pressure on the foxes that they turned tails and began to flee.
Arden couldn't believe her eyes. "T-They're running?" she gasped. Even her own ears doubted what left her lips.
Even dungeon beasts fled? That was a very odd sight.
"I don't blame them," Dax replied with a low tone, shooting a glance at Godfrey from the corner of his left eye. "It would be suicidal to stand against such a Cavalry."
Before their eyes, the Cavalry split up. With a sweep of their halberds, several foxes were slain, their bones shattering at the sheer speed the Night Cavaliers moved. Though it was day, they were like shadows of light to the foxes.
While the Night Cavaliers reaped lives like harvesters of grain, Lament crushed and stomped everything in his path as he went straight for the Red God.
He activated Element Infusion, turning himself and his stallion into what seemed to be a mini sun. Golden sun flames burst from within him, an adaptive Ascendant skill, as it wasn't just flames around him; the Chief Knight became an embodiment of sun fire, a flame so hot the heat alone shriveled all the grasses a thousand feet away.
The Red God, an 11.0 mini boss, ran. It covered great distances, taking advantage of its huge size, but Belmont caused greater trembling, leaving web-like cracks through the earth as it kept running faster and faster until Lament was moving side by side with the fox.
It growled, swinging its arm at Lament. Black claws fixed into a massive paw came hurtling toward Lament, but the Chief Knight reacted with a swing of his own.
The axe part of the halberd met the Red God's arm, and flames engulfed its fur as the halberd sliced the paw into two before another swing, followed by Lament's grunt, took off half its arm in one go.
The Red God stumbled. Losing control in the middle of such high speed raised a great amount of dust as it tumbled several times, clearing grass from a huge area.
It growled at the dust, but nothing came out of it. Not just Lament had gone missing, but the entire Night Cavaliers were gone, leaving behind a hundred and something orange foxes left.
"They were killing the foxes, why did you retrieve your summon?!" Arden snapped her head toward Godfrey.
"I didn't." Godfrey replied, once again experiencing the feeling of being completely dry. This same action wiped out all he had. Lament's innate skill was beyond his capacity; it always didn't last.
"He's out of mana," Arian replied. "I made you absorb a month's worth of mana during your sleep, and you consumed it in less than three minutes of battle."
"It's understandable. Two hundred was just too much of an overkill. You should have been ten or maybe fifty and you'd be more strategic on how to deploy them. The mana needed to handle an innate skill that could summon two hundred Lord Tiers is too much. You'd have to dedicate years to meditation in order to use this ability freely, and even then, you would devote a lot of time to meditating," Dax said solemnly.
'So I'm stuck? Lament can summon up to three thousand… imagine them charging.'
Godfrey gazed at the destruction Lament and his cavalry did to the field and squinted.
'All three thousand of them might cause a literal 9.0 earthquake.'
"Godfrey. Are you listening?" Arian's slightly loud voice pulled Godfrey out of his thoughts.
"I was saying summoners are like batteries without specific capacity. Out there, you meditate, but we've developed a different means since constant battles drain the reserves. It's called Mana Refinement, and it produces the solid mana I gave you back then."
Godfrey recalled the white jade. Without that jade, he doubted his streak of dominating his enemies in school would have been a straight success, or even his struggle to escape.
"We have a plant for it. We'll be going there next."
Just as Arian said that, the Red God unleashed a reverberating roar that echoed through the mountains afar.
It began to run toward the wall once more, only with one forelimb this time around.
"It must have guessed the cavalry wasn't returning. It has figured out that something is wrong with the summoner. That's why I hate the Red God, its intelligence makes it dangerous," Dax said softly.
"Go back to your spawn spot."
As he said that, a red and golden portal opened up above the foxes and a summon fell out of it.
It was a twelve-feet-tall creature with the shape of a gorilla, only slightly more humanoid. It had two glowing red tusks that seemed to come out fresh from the forge, dark brown fur with glowing golden rune symbols and circles at its thick, greatly muscular arms down to its feet.
Its nails had a golden sheen, and its head full of mane-like crimson hair fluttered in the wind with short horns poking out of the hair.
It wielded a huge slab of heated stone, five feet in length, attached to a thick metal rod.
The Infernal Hammer Titan.
A 9.8 lord tier with a potential of 12.5 king tier.
Currently 11.3.
It swung its hammer downward right on the Red God's head, a blow that sent shockwaves rippling outward as the red fox's head flattened and its fangs fell off.
Web-like cracks spread out, tearing open and revealing a boiling-hot depth where about twenty foxes fell into.
By simply swinging the hammer to its shoulder, the huge gullies closed. Other foxes closed in. Seeing this, six Infernal Hammer Titans came out of the original summon and swung their hammers, killing the rest before they turned faint and vanished.
The Infernal Hammer Titan slammed the hammerhead into the floor before leaping and perching on the top of the rod, picking its sharp canines while looking around.
"I think Jin is in love with being a watchman more than you, Dax." Arden smiled at the Titan, who didn't even look at them. Its thick, lustrous hair fluttered gently in the wind as its hand-like feet held strong to the little platform keeping it suspended a few feet above the ground.
Regulars came out of the gate, sighing and groaning. Some threw dirt at Jin, cursing that it stole all the fight.
"Was it Jin that caused all that commotion?" one of them asked, looking at Godfrey who stood at the wall with the other Elite Class and the captain.
"I doubt," another who rode a huge lion summon said, squinting at the hoof print in the middle of cracks. "Jin doesn't have hooves. I guess the new Elite Class isn't simple."
"Before we go, do you see that?" Arian pointed at the Regular Class.
Godfrey frowned. He knew Arian was referring to the strange factor that most of the Regulars had additions. One of them had a blade attached to the forelimb of her lion summon.
Another's spider feet were covered with steel which had spikes. Another elongated the tip of his rhino's horn with metal, making it a few feet longer.
"Naturally, it's impossible, but that's what Orion's summon does. Not every summon can create an adaptive skill be it Advanced or Ascendant, but Orion's summon works on raw materials from raids, using them to form weapons that can fuse with an extension of your soul, which is your summon. It shortens the natural advantage we humanoid summoners have over them."
Arian turned away.
"Let's head for our next destination. Mana Refinement Plant!"
....
A/N: My eyes hurt so I'll stick with one chapter today.
Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.