Regaleon: The Forgotten Knight
Chapter 99: Third Swing
Regaleon’s pupils constricted as the shield-bearing Terracotta thundered toward him like an unstoppable siege engine.
Each ponderous footfall reverberated across the fractured dais, sending loose stones skittering across the obsidian floor. The construct’s enormous tower shield remained firmly braced before its body, transforming it into a moving fortress of ancient stone and steel. Dust billowed behind its charge, while the crimson glow burning within its visor shone with chilling intensity...
There was nowhere to run.
Broken slabs of obsidian and the shattered remains of the Terracotta he had just destroyed littered the ground behind him. To either side, more constructs were already converging, their disciplined ranks closing like the jaws of a trap.
Regaleon assessed the battlefield in a single glance.
If he attempted to dodge too early, another Terracotta would intercept him before he could regain his footing.
Retreat was impossible and the only path forward... Was through.
Taking a slow, measured breath, the failed Knight planted one foot behind the other, lowering his center of gravity; his gauntleted hands tightened around the shaft of his halberd as his golden eyes sharpened with an intense focus.
He knew full well that trying to stop the charge head-on bordered on suicide. But fortunately, that had never been his intention because he already had a plan in place...
The Terracotta continued its relentless advance. Its footsteps boomed like war drums, each stride carrying enough momentum to shake the shattered platform. There was no rage within its movements, no hesitation or reckless abandon; only cold, mechanical precision.
The distance between them vanished with terrifying speed and the construct lowered its shield even further, preparing to crush everything standing before it.
When it finally got within range, Regaleon exploded into motion immediately. Instead of retreating, he pivoted sharply to the side at the very last possible instant...
The charging Terracotta thundered past him with only inches to spare, the violent gust generated by its momentum whipping his silver hair wildly behind him.
And the instant their bodies crossed paths, Regaleon lashed out as his armored boot crashed into the side of the construct’s leg.
The kick alone possessed nowhere near enough strength to halt such a monstrous charge but that wasn’t his objective. Instead, he simply added to the Terracotta’s already unstable momentum, causing the construct to lurch forward...
Its enormous shield dipped ever so slightly from the imbalance. One of its feet landed upon a slab of fractured obsidian hidden beneath the rubble, and instantly its footing gave way.
The ancient guardian lost its balance as its colossal frame pitched forward uncontrollably before crashing into the shattered dais with a deafening roar.
BOOM!
Stone exploded beneath its tremendous weight while cracks raced across the obsidian floor like spiderwebs while fragments of rock erupted into the air...
Regaleon didn’t hesitate and before the Terracotta could recover from that fall, he was already upon it...
His eyes remained cold and calculating. Actually, throughout the battle, he had been carefully studying these constructs.
Their chest where the Aether Heart resided wasn’t their only weakness. In fact, there was another, one that is far more subtle but equally lethal.
"Silver Sheen" activated as a radiant silver light surged across Soul Essence, cloaking the edge in a luminous aura so brilliant it momentarily outshone the crimson glow filling the crypt.
Regaleon raised the Halberd high above his head... Then brought it down with all the strength remaining within his battered body.
The gleaming blade descended like a bolt of judgment...
BOOM!
The strike landed squarely upon the Terracotta’s helmet.
A violent burst of force rippled outward from the impact, sending dust and shattered pebbles skittering across the platform.
The construct’s head snapped violently to one side instantly. Its stone helm didn’t shatter nor did it split apart; but the tremendous blow left a noticeable depression across the crown of its helmet, distorting the carefully crafted metal just enough.
More importantly, it disrupted the construct’s mechanical posture...
The Terracotta instinctively turned its head toward Regaleon, the crimson flames burning within its visor intensified as it locked onto him.
But that motion turned out to be a fatal mistake...
Regaleon’s eyes flashed and without granting the construct even the smallest opportunity to recover, he thrust his Halberd forward.
The silver-coated blade shot through the air like lightning...
THRCK!
It pierced cleanly through the narrow slit of the visor.
The resistance lasted only an instant before the edge punched through whatever mechanism lay hidden within the construct’s head.
Like the previous one, this Terracotta froze first, its body becoming perfectly still. The crimson glow inside its helmet flickered erratically, and just when Regaleon was preparing to wrench his Halberd free...
A sudden instinct screamed at him and he abandoned the thought immediately.
A shadow swept across his vision as snother Terracotta swung its massive iron mace in a brutal horizontal arc...
The air itself seemed to howl beneath the weapon’s weight and instantly, Regaleon’s combat instincts took over as he threw himself backward...
The mace narrowly missed his chest, but not his weapon...
CLANG!
The colossal head of the mace smashed against the shaft of his Halberd with overwhelming force, the impact ripping the weapon from his grasp as though it weighed nothing...
The Halberd spun wildly through the air, glimmering beneath the crimson light before crashing onto the shattered dais several meters away...
It skidded across the fractured obsidian before finally coming to a stop.
Regaleon’s heart sank but the Terracottas gave him no opportunity to recover as more heavy footsteps echoed from every direction around him.
Without a second’s hesitation, the failed Knight burst into a sprint, weaving through scattered debris as he raced toward his fallen weapon.
And behind him, the Terracottas followed....
Elsewhere, Aureleah’s condition had steadily worsened.
Fresh cuts crisscrossed her body, while blood seeped through the beastskin garments clinging to her slender frame. Crimson droplets trailed behind her every movement, staining the fractured obsidian beneath her feet. Her breathing had grown uneven, each inhale accompanied by a dull ache that spread through her battered body...
Yet despite this injuries, her Daggers never wavered.
Twin flashes of silver danced through the crimson-lit crypt as she intercepted one Terracotta after another, refusing to allow even a single construct to slip past her.
Behind her stood Sylveris.
The younger girl gripped the ivory fangs tightly, her knuckles turning pale from the force of her grip. Although she now possessed weapons of her own, the fourteen-years-old remained hopelessly inexperienced.
Against opponents comparable to Rank One Animas, courage alone meant little and every exchange seem to remind her of that harsh reality.
Whenever she attempted to assist, another Terracotta would immediately force Aureleah to abandon her own offense to shield Sylveris.
This made the silver-haired Assassin feel like she was fighting with one hand bound behind her back...
As an assassin, Aureleah excelled at exploiting blind spots, striking vital points, and ending battles before her enemies even realized she had moved; but none of those advantages existed here.
The Terracottas fought in perfect coordination, their bodies were encased in nearly impenetrable armor, and most importantly, she wasn’t fighting for herself... She was fighting for two.
The burden of protecting Sylveris alone had multiplied the pressure upon her severalfold, forcing every decision to balance survival against sacrifice...
Not far away, Veyrath’s situation had become even more desperate.
At some point during the relentless battle, he had finally managed to manifest his bronze cauldron.
Under ordinary circumstances, the cauldron possessed tremendous utility; however against these monsters, It felt woefully inadequate.
The failed Alchemist resembled nothing more than a small canoe trapped amidst a raging storm...
A Terracotta charged straight toward him.
Its heavy war hammer rested upon one shoulder before rising overhead with terrifying ease.
Panic seized Veyrath’s thoughts and without giving himself time to think, he swung the bronze cauldron with every ounce of strength he possessed.
The enormous vessel crashed against the construct’s chest...
THUD!
The impact echoed throughout the crypt but the Terracotta barely reacted. Its charge never slowed, and its balance never faltered as it simply continued advancing as though nothing had happened.
Veyrath’s heart plummeted as the construct raised its hammer, the massive weapon casting a broad shadow over him for a moment before it came down.
The hammer descended with enough force to pulverize solid stone and as usual, Veyrath froze.
His mind went completely blank, his legs refused to obey him, and his hands trembled helplessly around the cauldron’s handles.
Death had never felt so close. Scratch that, death had never felt closer...
Suddenly, at that instant, a deafening roar shook the entire crypt as the colossal six-winged guardian completed the third swing of its Greatsword...
BOOM!!
The gigantic blade crashed against the dais with an earth-shattering force causing the ancient platform to quake violently beneath the impact.
An overwhelming concussive wave erupted from the point of collision, racing across the battlefield like an invisible tidal surge...
Loose stone, shattered pillars, and broken slabs of obsidian were swept into the raging torrent of force...
The Terracotta’s hammer was scarcely inches away from crushing Veyrath’s skull when the blast reached it; the charging construct lurched violently as the overwhelming force struck its massive frame from the side...
Its balance vanished and the Terracotta stumbled before toppling heavily onto the fractured floor, its hammer crashing harmlessly into the stone beside Veyrath...
The failed Alchemist didn’t fare much better either as the invisible wave also caught him squarely.
He cried out as his body was lifted completely off the ground.
The bronze cauldron spun wildly through the air while Veyrath himself tumbled helplessly before crashing into a mound of shattered rubble several meters away...
Elsewhere, Aureleah’s silver eyes suddenly gleamed sharply because the Terracotta standing before her finally exposed a weakness as its stance had shifted ever so slightly after overcommitting to a downward strike.
Without hesitation, Aureleah vanished into motion...
She slipped beneath the construct’s sword with practiced grace, her twin Daggers tracing twin silver arcs toward its breastplate. Victory lay only a few inches away when the six-winged guardian’s devastating blast swept across the battlefield.
Aureleah immediately abandoned her attack; instead of pressing forward, she spun toward Sylveris before covering the distance between them in a single explosive burst.
She seized Sylveris by the wrist and activated "Shadow Drift." Her Shadow Cloak fluttered as darkness blossomed around them.
Eventually, their bodies dissolved into swirling masses of shadow, scattering like drifting smoke moments before the shockwave engulfed their position.
A moment later, the invisible torrent rushed harmlessly through the empty space they had occupied...
Not far from the others, Kaeloris stood at the center of a battlefield unlike any of his companions.
While Regaleon met the Terracottas with steel, Aureleah with speed, and Valmyr with unwavering defense, the failed Gnost waged a battle of intellect against relentless force.
His appearance had long since lost every trace of refinement, not that he had any to begin with.
The scholar looked utterly disheveled. His clothes were torn in several places, stained with dust and dried blood. His hair hung in tangled strands over his face, while his spectacles had long since disappeared somewhere amidst the chaos.
Yet despite his miserable appearance, his eyes never left the ancient parchment resting in his hand.
The glowing Scroll hovered quietly, glowing with a golden inscriptions. Every rune shimmered with profound authority, as though each word carried the weight of immutable law.
Around him, more than a dozen Terracottas stood frozen in place; some had halted in the middle of a swing, others remained trapped with one foot suspended above the ground while a few struggled desperately to advance, their stone bodies trembling violently as invisible restraints fought to keep them motionless.
It was quite an astonishing sight actually.
The failed Gnost had accomplished what none of the others could as he had single-handedly restrained an entire squad of constructs whose individual strength rivaled that of Rank One Animas.
Cold sweat streamed down his face, his breathing had become ragged, and both hands trembled violently as he struggled to maintain the Essence Rune "Law Script."
Hovering around the parchment were countless glowing word; SLOW, HALT, FREEZE, TRIP, and BURDEN.
Each word pulsed with a different radiance before flying toward the surrounding Terracottas, branding itself upon their stone bodies like invisible decrees.
And the moment the influence of a word settled upon a construct, its movements noticeably deteriorated; some slowed to a crawl, others staggered unexpectedly and even several of them froze altogether for precious seconds.
Individually, none of the commands possessed overwhelming power as against enemies of this caliber, their effects were frustratingly limited.
But layered together, again and again, upon dozens of opponents simultaneously, they were enough to become a nightmare.
However, though the Essence Rune was effective, it also demanded a lot from Kaeloris because he had to keep sustaining them every heartbeat and this had begun to drain him massively as very passing second felt like lifting an entire mountain upon his shoulders.
Still, he refused to let the Rune collapse because he understood something critically.
Every Terracotta he restrained was one less Terracotta threatening his companions and eery second he bought was another opportunity for someone else to survive.
Also, truthfully, among the eight exiles, Kaeloris might have been carrying the heaviest burden; not because he faced the strongest opponent, but because he was holding back dozens of them.
His battle wasn’t measured in victories. It was measured in time; and time was rapidly slipping through his fingers...
Because a few moments later, the parchment trembled as the radiant words surrounding it flickered erratically...
"No..." Kaeloris whispered through gritted teeth. "Not yet..."
He poured even more Aether into the ancient Soul Essence but it seemed to do nothing as the words got noticeably dimmer than before.
Meanwhile, the constructs immediately sensed the weakening restraint and they began brute forcing their way through the influence of the Rune..
Kaeloris’ pupils shrank as the pressure increased dramatically. His arms shook uncontrollably with fresh blood even trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Eventually...
CRACK!
One of the glowing words shattered into countless motes of light and a Terracotta finally tore free from its restraints...
Its crimson eyes blazed and without wasting a single motion, the construct surged forward, raising its sword high overhead.
Kaeloris froze. His mind screamed to evade but his exhausted body simply refused to respond...
A sword descended and it was at that moment that...
BOOM!!
A deafening explosion swallowed the battlefield and a concussive blast struck outward...
The construct attacking Kaeloris was swept sideways before its blade could reach him, crashing into several of its companions in a violent tangle of armored bodies.
Kaeloris himself wasn’t spared as the invisible torrent caught his frail frame head-on. He felt as though an enormous giant had struck him squarely in the chest and the next instant, his feet left the ground, before he was sent spinning helplessly through the air like a parchment of paper caught within an hurricane...