Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 100

The green elf’s mace, used to block the halberd with a shield, shattered against the head of a Coalition soldier.

*Thwack!*

“Kkeuaaaaaaack!”

As the soldiers’ battle intensified, Green’s Phoenix revealed its awe-inspiring majesty.

Around it, Nemitz and Arc Shadows also materialized.

It seemed they intended to combine their strength to face the Coalition Sword Masters today.

Duke Sachsen, who had been smiling pleasantly at the Phoenix’s appearance, abruptly closed his mouth.

“Wh-what! A Ph-Phoenix!”

It was the first time he had ever witnessed a Phoenix, a creature he had only heard about in legends. (A Phoenix is a mythical bird associated with fire and rebirth.)

However, his surprise quickly morphed into shock.

The enormous flames pouring from the Phoenix’s beak crashed down upon the headquarters.

“Damn it! Run away!”

“Everyone, evacuate!”

Moments later, the Phoenix’s breath exploded across the headquarters, followed by a massive, earth-shattering explosion.

*Kuaaaaaaaang!*

The Phoenix’s breath, with its unbelievable power, instantly devastated a large portion of the Coalition’s formation, including their headquarters.

It was indeed the destructive power of the Fire Elemental King, Phoenix.

Green believed he had made the right choice in summoning the Phoenix today. Ariel’s attack was formidable, but the Phoenix was undeniably the ultimate force when it came to terrifying the enemy.

As the site of the headquarters transformed into a lava pit, burning like an active volcano, the morale of the Continental Coalition plummeted as if doused with ice water.

To make matters worse, they began to back away slowly, intimidated by the terrifying sight of the Phoenix rushing toward them, spewing fireballs.

Soon, the surroundings became a sea of fire, and the screams of soldiers burning to death in agony echoed incessantly within it.

However, there was one significant problem: the Phoenix couldn’t distinguish between friend and foe.

Therefore, the screams included a considerable number of green elves as well.

The moment the battlefield turned into a sea of fire with the Phoenix’s arrival, hundreds of Gigantes [Giant iron golems] revealed themselves around the headquarters, now a fiery pit.

Unlike yesterday, they were attempting to charge into the side rather than the front, but the Phoenix’s presence forced them to expose themselves.

Even if humans couldn’t survive in the sea of fire, the Gigantes, being giant iron golems, could continue to fight.

Leading them were the six Sword Masters, the symbol of the Coalition, just as they had been the previous day.

Duke Sachsen, who had narrowly survived the Phoenix’s surprise attack, was also still alive.

Green nervously bit his nails.

In addition, Kang Chan, who had secretly infiltrated the enemy camp the night before and returned with valuable intelligence, also entered the fray.

Despite voices of concern and worry, Kang Chan paid them no heed.

There was no sign of the cracks that had appeared on his Gigantes yesterday.

He had the dwarves repair them.

Kang Chan had also learned the reason for the Elven Knight’s joint cracks.

According to the dwarves, the cracks weren’t due to a defect in the Elven Knight itself, but rather the strain on the joints caused by movements exceeding its design limitations.

In short, activating combat mode was the primary cause.

Even the movements of a Sword Master like Kang Chan were already pushing a normal Gigantes to its limit, but suddenly moving several times faster caused critical stress.

In future battles, Kang Chan would have to fight without raising combat mode above level 3.

‘Can I handle Nemitz with that?’

Nemitz, the swordsman who once dominated the world with his dual swords.

He was an opponent that even Kang Chan would have difficulty facing without maximizing combat mode.

Ultimately, Kang Chan had no choice but to entrust Nemitz to Duke Sachsen.

『I would like Duke Sachsen to take care of Nemitz today.』

『Of course. You must be very tired, so I will take care of Nemitz. Kang Chan, please deal with the other Sword Masters.』

『Thank you.』

Duke Sachsen was considerate of Kang Chan, who must be exhausted from the continuous battles.

『Loki, instead of being here, go over there and help the humans fight the green elf soldiers.』

In fact, dealing with the green elf soldiers was a more efficient use of Loki’s abilities than fighting the Gigantes.

The Gigantes were much larger than Loki, and their riders were sword geniuses no less skilled than Loki.

Moreover, unless it was a significant attack, there was little risk of the riders being directly injured.

But Loki was different.

No matter how tough Loki’s ogre skin was, it was endlessly fragile against an aura sword [A sword imbued with magical energy].

So Kang Chan removed Loki from the engagement.

Even with Zikyon healing him from the side, he didn’t want to see Loki fighting covered in blood like yesterday again.

Loki understood Kang Chan’s concern and, without complaint, ran to assist the humans as instructed.

And then came the Phoenix’s cry.

“Kiaaaaaaack!!”

At the same time, the Gigantes on both sides charged, shaking the earth, and the Phoenix rained feathers containing the power of hellfire upon the Gigantes.

Then, with tremendous explosions erupting everywhere, the Gigantes’ arms and legs were blasted into the air, and their bodies melted beyond recognition.

However, once the battle devolved into a melee, the Phoenix couldn’t easily unleash fire attacks without endangering allies.

So the Phoenix descended to the ground and attempted to attack directly with its beak.

It was a chaotic scene.

However, the Phoenix, having been taught a painful lesson by the Gigantes’ aura swords and aura blades, soared back into the sky and cursed.

“Kuaaack! It stings like hell! Damn it!”

The Phoenix had underestimated the Gigantes’ aura swords and injured its beak.

Against the 180 Coalition Gigantes led by the six Sword Masters, the dark elves responded with 31 Gigantes and 60,000 troll elves working in concert.

Yesterday, there had been over 100,000 troll elves, but their numbers had been reduced by nearly half in just one day.

Their attacks were even more difficult to deal with than yesterday’s formations of 3 Gigantes per group.

When dozens of troll elves, unafraid of injury, jumped and grabbed onto the Gigantes, the Arc Shadows would pierce the enemy Gigantes’ chests from behind.

Unlike the troll elves’ axes, the Arc Shadows’ aura swords penetrated armor and everything else as if it were paper.

It was a series of grueling engagements.

Sachsen’s Agni also fought fiercely against Nemitz’s Hellenic.

Duke Sachsen’s skill was indeed great enough to represent humanity today, but he was gradually being pushed back by Nemitz.

Indeed, Nemitz’s skill, honed over hundreds of years, was a cut above his own.

‘Kuek! He’s the one who made the world noisy 500 years ago, and he’s still amazing. But Agni has a trump card!’

『Breath of Fire!』

When Duke Sachsen activated Agni’s hidden technique, Breath of Fire, flames began to burn within the red crystals located throughout Agni’s body.

Then, a heat as scorching as the Phoenix’s began to threaten Hellenic.

‘Kuek! Damn it!’

With Agni protected by flames, Nemitz, despite his superior skill, couldn’t easily engage Agni.

This was because Agni’s intense heat was transmitted to Nemitz, who was riding inside Hellenic.

Nemitz inside Hellenic was sweating profusely. His mouth was parched.

『Damn it! Dark Sphere!』

Nemitz unleashed the Dark Sphere again.

But the result was another crushing defeat.

Hellenic’s Dark Sphere was useless against Agni’s flames.

In the end, he had no choice but to abandon the Dark Sphere and struggle with his bare skill.

Kang Chan watched Duke Sachsen fighting Nemitz in the distance and was satisfied.

‘Hmph, he’s holding his own. He lives up to his name.’

He had been worried, but his concerns were unfounded.

The Agni he was riding was demonstrating outstanding power against Nemitz’s Hellenic.

Indeed, it was a testament to the potential of the ancient giant possessed by the Bismark Empire, the world’s strongest power.

Kang Chan observed Duke Sachsen and crossed swords with his own opponent.

His current opponent was a level below him, allowing him to spare some attention to the overall battlefield.

Thanks to that, Kang Chan was able to maintain the upper hand from beginning to end while only using combat mode level 3.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix, having been forced out of the battle with the Gigantes, charged at the infantry like an angry bull.

There was no room for the Phoenix to intervene in their close-quarters combat.

The Phoenix wanted to sweep them all away with a single breath for its own peace of mind.

But Green strongly opposed it, so it began to vent its anger elsewhere.

In the meantime, Arteon used 7-circle range attack magic with faster casting instead of using 9-circle magic to stop the Phoenix, attacking the enemy infantry in the same way.

“Fire Wave!”

The small flame that left Arteon’s hand became a giant wave of fire and engulfed the green elves.

Then, hundreds of green elves screamed and burned to death in agony, and the next 4-circle Chain Lightning magic split into dozens of lines from both hands instead of one.

Her Chain Lightning swept away the enemies with ten times the power of a normal Chain Lightning.

Indeed, it was the skill of a 9-circle user.

“Kyak! A w-witch!”

“A white witch!”

Those children of the green witch called Arteon a white witch and began to run away, and Arteon relentlessly poured powerful magic over their heads.

Her appearance, without any hesitation in attacking the enemy, was completely different from her usual kind and calm self.

The Phoenix, who spotted her, spat out an angry roar.

“No! Isn’t that the bitch who shot Hell Frost at me before?”

The Phoenix stopped burning the Coalition soldiers and suddenly spewed breath at Arteon.

Then, Arteon hastily canceled the spell she was preparing and quickly deployed Blink [A short-range teleportation spell].

The Phoenix’s breath swept past the place where Arteon had been, and the breath exploded again over the heads of innocent soldiers.

But unfortunately, those soldiers were allies, not enemies.

“Aak! What are you doing! Phoenix!”

“Damn it!”

The Phoenix, seeing Arteon appearing a little further away and seemingly mocking him, fired dozens of homing feathers.

But even those attacks were futile, fluttering harmlessly in front of Arteon’s Blink.

In the end, they only collided with each other and dissipated.

Arteon, having shaken off all the feathers, shrugged as if to ask if there was anything else, and the Phoenix screamed and rushed at Arteon.

“Kuaaaack! You bitch to kill! How dare you mock me! I won’t let you get away with this!”

The Phoenix, with its fiery temper, chased Arteon in all directions, determined to catch her, and sprayed powerful attack magic.

But there was no way the Phoenix could catch her, who even Ariel, the fastest of the elemental kings, could not catch.

Indeed, the realm of the 9th circle was not a realm that could be reached by playing *ttakji* [A Korean game similar to Pogs].