Chapter 122: Counterattack! (2)
Chapter 122: Counterattack! (2)
The order for the special operation unit’s disbandment was issued once Iron left. Each and every unit scrambled to extend a branch to the members of Iron’s units. All of them were trying to take anyone, even if it was just a single member, from the ‘Demon Unit’, the vanguard and pioneer of the monsters’ annihilation.
The value of such fully trained troops in the frontline was extremely high. This was the main reason why all of the troops under Iron’s command had their destinations swiftly decided. Even the knight order led by Ariel had been officially taken in as the members of the knight order directly under command and prepared to become knights in earnest. With this, their entire unit had quickly dispersed.
“It’s a complete mess.”
The forest was a mess. Trees were forcibly turned by the dark elves into monster trees while some of them had been cut down or dug up. Unlike the witch’s ghost tree, these trees were purely contaminated with demonic energy to transform them into these monstrous trees. This was the main reason why they looked extremely strange with their disgustingly stretched and wriggling roots.
A forest teeming with bizarre and strange trees ― Dark Elves’ Formation
The messed up and dug up earth from cutting down the trees ― Human’s Formation
The land was divided into these two types of formations which strangely connected and intertwined making the forest into some sort of weird checkerboard.
Despite burning some of the areas of the forest down, the humans still found it difficult to advance especially with the strange trees growing immediately to replace the burned down trees. In addition, the devastated ground was slowly being eaten away and engulfed by the fast growth of the strange trees and grasses. So, from above, one could see that the humans were slowly being pushed back. There were even fences and outposts that were created by the humans trapped in between those strange trees.
Iron, who saw all of this from the airship, realized that his future was not an easy one.
There was a reason why the soldiers who were fighting and who had fought in the frontlines always said that fighting monsters was just like a children’s prank to them.
“It won’t be easy.”
Just then, while Iron was still busy trying to gauge the future battlefield that he would fight in…
Bang!
A loud explosion rang loudly from the side of the airship that was flying towards the troops’ camp.
“D… Dark elves are attacking!”
The dark elves’ arrow attacks were stronger than bombs. And since the airship was slow and dull when it came to steering and movement, it couldn’t avoid the dark elves’ arrows that could fly faster than bombs and cannons.
Iron had no choice but to step out and stay in front of the hole to parry the dark elves’ arrows. He blocked several flying arrows with his sword and beams of light but explosions kept on ringing from all over the airship as they continued to fly.
Then, the arrows that were targeting the ship suddenly began to focus on Iron when they saw him appearing in front of the hole that their arrows had created.
“So, you were aiming for me?”
Iron gathered the mana in his eyes as he swept the flying arrows away.
However, unless he was born like the dark elves who could borrow the mana’s powers, there was no way for him to see and feel his targets. It was even harder to find them since they were hidden under the cover of the trees of the forest.
Unlike them, who were riding openly on an airship in the sky, the dark elves were extremely hard to find in the thickets.
“Tch!”
Iron clicked his tongue when he saw another arrow flying towards the airship as he blocked it with a skillful swing of his sword. No matter how hard they tried to avoid it, the dullness of the airship gave them no other choice but to take the blows one by one and fall.
“We… We’re crashing!”
In the end, the airship gradually fell down from the air. Thanks to the magic installed in the ship, their descent was slowed down. However, there was still a limit to how much they could slow down their fall.
Iron had no choice but to show his strength to prevent the dark elves, who attacked more fiercely, as they fell down from the sky.
Bang! Bang!
He climbed on top of the airship to block all of the arrows with all his might to prevent the airship from being completely destroyed. But despite his efforts, the airship still got destroyed and fell down the area near the forest, a place that was too far from where they wanted to land on.
“What a mess.”
He knew that there was no chance that the support troops would arrive faster than the dark elves even after they had paged and announced that their airship was under attack.
Iron quickly cleared his head as he shouted to the men that travelled with him. Thankfully, none of them lost their life thanks to the magic power that prevented them from crashing straight down into the ground.
“Are there any knights?”
All of them shook their heads at Iron’s question.
There were a few former officers but all of them came from logistics, medics and even administration. Only a few of them were officers who fought in the frontlines. Since that was the case, all of them could be considered to have strength that was no more than the 4th Stage.
“Shit.”
Iron went out of the half-destroyed airship as he cussed out.
‘They probably ran here and waited for us the moment they saw us fall, right?’
Iron swung his sword as this thought flashed in his head. This was because an arrow was already aiming for the back of Iron’s neck as soon as he got out.
But that wasn’t the end of his problems.
Strange trees began to move from the forest to swallow their entire airship. If this demolished terrain was swallowed up and covered by these trees then, it would be difficult for them to survive.
―Kikiiikiiineee!
Strange wooden monsters also began to appear while spitting out strange sounds.
Iron gritted his teeth as he stared at the strange trees and wooden monsters surrounding their airship at the command of the hidden dark elves.
Then, something incredible happened.
“The stigmata?”
White light burst out from his chest. The tree monsters that accidentally got in contact with the light shrieked loudly as they emitted black smoke.
“An apostle!”
“Kill the apostle!”
The dark elves suddenly appeared as they shouted and fired their arrows. They appeared all over the place and aimed at Iron as they shouted for his death. And because the dark elves clamored for his death, the tree monsters endured the pain and surrounded him while shrieking loudly.
However, the holy energy in Iron’s body responded. It grew rapidly and went out of control. Fortunately, his body was already used to it after experiencing it once in the East.
―Ppiiiii~
―Hooot!
―Tweet!
Perhaps it was because of the holy power dwelling in his body that the divine beasts appeared so suddenly. With their appearance, the holy light emitting from Iron’s body spread far and wide and affected the area around them.
With the advent of this light, black smoke came out of the bodies of the bizarre tree and plant monsters. The light seemed to drain them of their power whenever the light swept through them. Their shrill cries were particularly loud whenever Baepsae’s sacred light touched their bodies. Even the dark elves were groaning in pain as they staggered back to avoid the light. At the same time, Phoenix’s flame turned white as it swept and melted everything unclean with Owl’s ray of lights
“Apostle! Apostleeeeee!”
One of the dark elves screamed hatefully at Iron as blood spurted out from his body.
However, even if they screamed loudly, the results were still the same. As everything that was unclean turned to smoke and disappeared, the dark elves’ skin color began to change. But they did not die. The long exposure to the light changed their body back to their original form.
The dark elves endured the pain of purification as they tried to kill Iron. However, the divine beasts were tough. And even if they got past the divine beasts’ strict and tight protection, Iron was not weak enough that they could beat him easily.
“Overwhelming.”
One of the officers muttered blankly as they watched Iron.
No matter how hard they tried, the dark elves couldn’t reach Iron. If they were lucky to escape death from the claws of the divine beasts, they would still get purified and lose strength. However, something like that was unacceptable to them. If they were given a choice, the dark elves would choose death over being purified. Although that was what they hoped for, the choice was not for them to make.
“Stop them!”
The officers came back to their senses at Iron’s orders and hurriedly approached the dark elves.
The dark elves were all listless and weakened. It was as if the purification had zapped all of the strength in their bodies. They tried so hard to commit suicide but they were so weak that they couldn’t struggle and fight against the officers’ hold.
Seeing them get tied up one by one without any strength to kill themselves made their colleagues from afar feel pity for them. So, they fired arrows to help kill them and let them leave this world proudly. However, that was also blocked by Iron. After all, he was already well aware of their tactics due to his experiences in the Winter Mountains and was fully prepared for them.
“I think everything’s roughly sorted out…”
Iron stared at the forest and watched the retreating dark elves after roughly sorting out the situation in his surroundings. He could see them moving in the grotesque forest filled with plants that moved as if they were alive. However, Iron had no intention of letting them go. He wanted to catch and kill all of the dark elves that attacked him.
“Please.”
Iron turned around and approached the dark elves that were slowly being purified as he made a request to his divine beasts.
Then, he grabbed the dark elf’s hands with his hand that was overflowing with holy energy. A huge amount of energy disappeared from his body as the dark elf’s body began to turn back into the skin and hair color that they originally had. The dark elf’s hair turned into a brilliant blond as his skin’s complexion turned clear and fair.
Everyone looked at the scene in awe as they watched the dark elf turn into the elf that they had read in books. However, they weren’t completely the same as those elves. This was because the patterns engraved on the dark elf’s skin remained purple. This was not the power that resulted from their choice of living a life that was different from the elves.
“Hu… man…”
The dark elf tried to bite his tongue as soon as Iron removed the gag so Iron had no choice but to slam it back inside and stop him from committing suicide.
“Hoo… This is exhausting.”
Iron sighed as he stared at the dark elf.
The Drake Unit appeared in the sky as the divine beasts organized the prisoners with the officers.
“They’re prisoners.”
The Drake Knights hurriedly looked at the dark elves upon hearing the words of Iron.
“Loyalty! Lieutenant Colonel Iron Carter, we have an order to bring you to Command immediately. The Drake Knights will escort you on your way.”
“The rest…”
The knight spoke and assured Iron that there would be no problem when Iron looked at the rest of the group that came with him.
“Some of us will remain here. Additional troops are also being dispatched here.”
“Hoo… I see.”
Iron climbed up on the drake and flew in the sky as he said so. Dozens of Drake Knights surrounded and guarded him. However, none of the people present thought that this was excessive.
He had shown his overwhelming power. Especially his holy power that worked extremely well against beings with the void’s power. They knew that this power would play an important role in this battlefield.
“Perhaps his power is more important than a master’s power…”
One of the officers mumbled to himself as he watched Iron disappearing from the sky. The other officers also nodded their heads in agreement. They all believed that he would show a greater contribution than a master, at least against the creatures from the void.
“Commanding skills, divine beast, holy power… Is it really possible for one person to have all of those things?”
Everyone smiled bitterly at the words of a middle-aged officer from logistics.
‘Genius.’
He was a person with plenty of talents that any ordinary man would want. A man with overwhelming talent that far surpassed the rest. That was what everyone thought of Iron. The problem was that he never thought of himself as a genius.
Iron, who moved to command under the envy of everyone, received and parried the arrows from the dark elves as he moved with the Drake Knight Order.
Was it because they knew that Iron was the ‘Apostle’? He received a lot more attacks than before. Even the void insects flew towards the Drake Knight Order. Perhaps it was because they instinctively felt that failure to kill him here would make this battle a difficult battle to fight.
However, Phoenix and Two Moons flew firmly by his side and stopped them. Even the Drake Knights were formidable as they stopped them from approaching.
But the attacks did not end there.
Trees spurted out poison that targeted the drakes. It seemed like the entire forest army was moving to kill Iron. A huge tree even popped up and spat purple poison towards the drakes. They somehow flocked towards Iron. However, their attacks became meaningless just a few minutes later.
This was because a storm that was several times stronger than their attacks appeared and blew away some parts of the forest and protected Iron. The attack came from an old man, who lightly swung his sword, standing on top of a drake.
The Drake Knights saluted the old man as he smashed and destroyed a part of the forest with a storm created from the light swing of his sword.
“Loyalty! Greetings, Commander!”
Crimson, the Northeastern Commander, smiled and winked at Iron as he personally appeared to protect him.