Chapter 91 - Chapter 14: The Last Flame #6
Simultaneously, many ideas popped into In-gong’s head.
‘How does a ship fly in the sky?’
‘Why did Silvan suddenly appear?’
‘Why did Silvan choose to ram into the giant out of the many means of attack?’
However, the answers also popped into his head.
To dark elves, the sailboat in the sky was a flying ship. In Knight Saga, Silvan, who claimed to be a captain of the skies, was always riding in it.
However, seeing it in a game was completely different from seeing it in reality. Unlike an airplane, the ship was essentially floating on a sky ocean. In-gong was already familiar with the concept of airplanes, so it was a destruction of his common sense.
He couldn’t be sure of the reason why Silvan had appeared.
They didn’t always move together like Chris and Caitlin did, but Silvan and Felicia were very strong together. Moreover, the dark elves’ values regarding family were famous among the demons. In-gong wasn’t sure, but he could only assume that Silvan had come to find Felicia.
Finally, the attack had been a desperate charge.
In-gong couldn’t think of any answers. The scene that followed immediately afterwards made his mind go blank.
The giant’s upper body exploded. To be precise, it shattered around the area that had been hit.
However, In-gong couldn’t cheer as Silvan’s flying ship hadn’t penetrated through the giant’s upper body. The giant’s upper chest had exploded before the ship even touched it.
The giant evaded the attack by splitting up.
The flying ship passed through the giant completely and the flying ship drifted in the air as the fragments of the giant united once more. Felicia’s scream pierced his ears,
“Silvan!”
The giant’s arm struck the rear of the flying ship. The giant hadn’t regained its proper form yet, so the attack was unreliable. However, it was still a strike from a giant. The flying ship lost balance completely and headed down towards the ground.
It reminded In-gong of the crash landings he had seen in movies. The flying ship hit the ground with a violent impact. It then pushed across the ground, cutting down dozens of trees in its path.
Amidst the deafening roar and shaking of the earth, Felicia shouted again while In-gong looked hurriedly at the sky. The white giant was preparing for a fourth bombardment.
In-gong sensed it intuitively.
This was the final blow.
Kwang!
The blue pillar of light struck the ward. Already cracked, the ward could no longer endure the attack. There was the sound of glass cracking and the blue light scattered over the sky and ground.
The ward was now broken. The coolness of the night air covered their bodies and the white giant stared down at the ground.
Kwang!
Once again, there was a roar and the white giant exploded. It wasn’t an attack. Rather, the white giant had reached the limit to maintain its present form.
The white giant split into approximately 20 pieces and landed on the ground. Like white clay lumps, they formed their respective shapes and started to emit a white light.
Whether large or small, they were all different. Not only was the amount of light they emitted different, their strengths and weaknesses were different as well.
"Guardians.”
In-gong said automatically. Every piece was a guardian. As Amita had said, they were guardians that had gone crazy.
The one in the middle had a prominent presence.
Among all the white lights, it alone was emitting a blue light. Unlike the other guardians who took the form of animals, this one was a humanoid with the power of Death.
It was a guardian that was probably controlling the purple-aura monsters around them.
The guardian raised a hand and the proportions of the forest changed. Under the green moon, the illusion surrounding the entire Spider Forest was lifted.
The forest returned to its original size and the nasty magic that paralyzed directional senses also disappeared.
The reason was simple. Now that the goal was right in front of him, the guardian needed to focus all his power on it. Instead of creating obstacles to prevent escape, he concentrated on attacking.
A purple light rose behind the white guardians and approached from one side.
Throughout yesterday and today, none of the crazed beasts and monsters had been shining purple.
It was something that had been saved...
For this very moment.
In-gong swallowed his saliva. Amita’s face was stunned from the impact of the ward breaking. Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned toward In-gong and he took out his dwarf dagger without delay.
“Below the King’s Flag!”
The moment that In-gong shouted, a pure white light emerged behind him. The flag of a king fluttered in the night sky and the blessing of white light surrounded those around him.
Below the King’s Flag wasn’t simply a buff magic that strengthened combat power; it also influenced the mind. It sparked loyalty toward In-gong and, more importantly, helped maintain the coolness and calmness that were important elements in battle.
Amita finally recovered their spirit. Felicia, who had lost her mind for a moment due to worrying about Silvan, also stared at the front.
Caitlin formed a fist. There were also changes among the enemies.
The white guardians had started to unite again. This time, they didn’t change drastically. It was like they were compressed one by one.
The purple aura filled the vacant spots of the white guardians and after a few seconds, the 20 guardians were reduced to two. One still exuded the blue power of Death while the other turned grey as a result of the compression.
“Fe-li-ci-a!”
Then a voice was heard from a distance. There was no need to ask who the voice belonged to as it was clearly Silvan.
“Silvan!”
Felicia called out. The grey guardian ran in the direction of Silvan’s voice while the monsters with the purple aura rushed towards In-gong’s party.
Then Felicia stepped back and chanted a spell. Daphne took Amita into her embrace and ran toward the center of the forest, followed by Seira, Carack and Delia, in order to guard the last flame.
Instead of following them, Caitlin produced a blue aura and In-gong activated his white aura as well. The two of them looked at each other without speaking.
A roar shook in their ears. It seemed like the battle between the grey guardian and Silvan had begun. The dark elf sailors ran over and clashed with the monsters with the purple aura.
Then the blue guardian took a step forward.
Despite the battles taking place everywhere, the area In-gong and Caitlin were in seemed silent.
Instead of stepping forward, In-gong and Caitlin grabbed each other’s hands. In-gong spoke in a calm voice and Caitlin nodded. She believed in In-gong to the depths of her heart.
The blue guardian took another step forward. In-gong and Caitlin let go of each other’s hands, then In-gong opened the mini-map and Caitlin activated her aura once again.
The blue light from the guardian covered the ground. Caitlin pushed against the ground and rushed forward. Despite the guardian possibly being as strong as Gerard, there was no hesitation in her dash.
Then In-gong turned back. Instead of facing the guardian with Caitlin, he ran toward the nearest monster with a purple aura.
Felicia, who had been observing the entire battlefield, was confused by In-gong’s actions, but she didn’t say anything and turned toward Caitlin. It was because, like Caitlin, she believed in In-gong as well. It was obvious that he had an idea.
There were melees everywhere, but In-gong aimed for one monster at a time. He raced toward a monster and aimed for its head and neck. Immediately after the monster was knocked down, he aimed all his senses toward finding his next target.
By the time In-gong defeated three monsters, Caitlin had received exchanged five attacks with the guardian. Caitlin had become stronger after learning Divine Sura Authority and forming the Starlight Core, but the guardian was still an overwhelming opponent. Rather than counterattack, she moved quickly to evade or prevent the attacks.
The blue guardian could feel In-gong’s actions, but he was focused on Caitlin. If the enemy was acting stupidly, he would take advantage of it.
The power of Death flew toward Caitlin’s head like a whip. Caitlin raised her arm hurriedly to block the attack, but the guardian didn’t care. He attacked on the premise that it would be blocked. There was a blast as it hit her arm instead of her head.
Caitlin was pushed back from the force. The guardian immediately aimed for Caitlin’s waist with his left foot, but Caitlin succeeded in defending against it again. However, this time, her posture collapsed as soon as she defended the attack.
Divine Beast Authority used explosive momentum based attacks. From the beginning, it hadn’t been suitable for defense. Divine Sura Authority was based on Divine Beast Authority, so it wasn’t much different.
The guardian used a joint attack. The gap that was created with every blocked attack got bigger and bigger and her defense eventually failed on the seventh attack. She barely managed to twist her body to evade it.
Then finally, there was a perfect gap. The guardian, who had learnt this fighting method from the leader of the purple-aura monsters, felt joy at the gap being created perfectly. Without hesitation, he aimed a blow at that gap.
The guardian’s fist struck Caitlin’s abdomen. Instead of screaming painfully, Caitlin tried to reduce the impact, but it was useless. At this time, the guardian’s left arm flew like a whip and caught Caitlin’s shoulder. Caitlin had nowhere to escape as he then swung at her chest.
With a loud roar, Caitlin’s aura, that was focused for defense, collided with the blue light and she flew backwards.
The guardian strengthened his legs in order to attack Caitlin again, but something caught the guardian’s eye. In-gong, who was covered with the blood of the purple monsters, grabbed Caitlin in mid-air and waved his left arm. White Eagle flew forward from his left arm like an arrow leaving a crossbow.
The guardian crossed his arms for defense, but it was useless. Instead of flying toward the guardian, White Eagle moved to the side and struck a monster nearby. The half-dead monster died from having its head smashed.
‘Why?’
The guardian thought it was crazy and careless. The guardian with the blue light had watched the battle yesterday and today. The strongest of the group was In-gong and he had fought rationally.
So, why was he acting like this now?
Why had he let Caitlin fight alone despite knowing she wasn’t a match for the guardian’s?
Why was he obsessed with killing the monsters with a purple aura? Why did he use the previous opportunity to attack the monster instead of the guardian?
Was he too afraid to fight the guardian himself?
Was he putting off fighting until the strong dark elf defeated the other foe?
It was incomprehensible. It was natural that the guardian didn’t understand.
Caitlin gasped from where she was held in In-gong’s arms. She wanted to speak, but her voice didn’t come out.
In-gong moved Caitlin to one arm and used recovery magic. Then finally, the conditions were met.
He had dealt with eight monsters while Caitlin had been fighting the guardian.
White Eagle had taken care of another one.
Healing Caitlin also gave him a very small amount of experience.
Additionally, he had killed 220 beasts and monsters in the past two days.
[Your level has risen.]
A white light wound around In-gong’s body and the stamina that had been exhausted by the battle was instantly restored.
However, this wasn’t the reason why. He hadn’t risked Caitlin and become obsessed with leveling up just to recover his stamina.
Level 25:
A level that had a special meaning in Knight Saga.
It was possible to increase the level further and depending on the character, a hidden function was also unlocked.
In-gong hadn’t aimed for the former.
Although he didn’t know what it was, he had full of expectations for a hidden function.
Zephyr and Locke, the two protagonists of Knight Saga, were different from each other, but there were a few things they had in common.
This was one of those things:
Both of them had gained a skill at level 25.
[Super Special Move Control Lv1 has been learnt.]
Zephyr’s sword, Dragon Slayer, had the built-in function, Dragon Strike. The Warrior’s Sword, which could be called Locke’s symbol, had the built-in function, Warrior’s Sword.
In-gong had two equipment.
‘Master!’
Green Wind shouted with confusion and jubilation as a series of lights appeared before In-gong.
[Great Enkidu’s Earth Quaker]
[Awakened Move - True Destruction has been learnt.]
[Watcher Ainkel’s White Eagle]
[Awakened Move - Absolute Area has been learnt.]
“Shutra.”
Cailtin muttered in a small voice. In-gong drew Caitlin closer with his right arm and held out his left arm. White Eagle flew toward In-gong as the blue guardian prepared the same move the white giant had done.
White Eagle landed on In-gong’s arm.
The blue guardian sensed the impending crisis and fired a pillar of blue light.
However, In-gong saw it and was prompted by Green Wind to use the awakened move. He declared,
"Absolute Area!"
A green light emerged from White Eagle.