Chapter 183 Counterattack
How terrifying were two flame giants fighting at their full strength?!
The witcher-knights could tell you this with their intense and personal experience.
The Flame Fiend that Greem transformed into, as well as the Fire Lord, endured numerous ice arrows as they walked to the edge of the lava pool. Instantly, the fire spells that filled the skies turned the witcher-knights' shelter into a terrifying sea of flames.
One after another, clay golems coordinated with the stone serpents, and appearing on the battlefield. Every time they appeared out of nowhere, the monsters would pick up a surprised witcher-knight and tossed him into the lava pool. The rest of the job was finished by Greem and the Fire Lord!
Using this method, Greem had already killed four witcher-knights in a row.
To draw the spellbreaker knights to him, Greem took the extra risk himself, boldy leaving the lava pool and bringing the Fire Lord onto the shore with him. Even the rough muddy shore melted into part of the lava pool, flowing with red hot lava as the two flame giants stepped onto it.
Thus when the Flame Fiend strode across the shore, it left behind a dark red trail of lava behind.
This was a rare chance. Even though Ninther knew it had to be a trick, he couldn't help but lead his spellbreaker knights forward and surround the enemy.
Ninther wanted to force Greem into a direct confrontation and Greem didn't seem to have much of a choice. If this battle started to go overwhelmingly in his favor, the spellbreaker knights that could see no chance of victory would most likely give up on this battle.
And to let a still-organized witcher-knight army retreat from the battlefield might make the job of surrounding and exterminating them too hard for Acteon and Mary, who were meant to flank them. With their strategy revealed, they would most likely attract even scarier and difficult opponents.
From the start of battle, Greem had already made the resolution to decimate the knight army.
For this purpose, he took the risk to go to the frontlines, in order to attract the attention of the spellbreaker knights here and create the best opportunity to cripple and destroy this witcher-knight army later.
Now, the ensuing battle quickly reached a most intense stage.
Eleven spellbreaker knights formed a small group, surrounding Greem and the Fire Lord, as they charged and slashed within. Greem and the Fire Lord were knocked about, as the defensive spells on their bodies were cut into wisps of flames as quickly as they formed them. Scores of slashes and cuts covered their entire bodies.
Even so, the two flaming titans managed to bring out their battle strength to their limits and resist the knights. At one point, they even managed to instantly kill a spellbreaker knight, who wasn’t able to dodge, with an elegant combination attack.
Though in doing so, Greem had also lost two advanced-level stone serpents and one pseudo-adept level stone serpent.
As Greem was slowly becoming unable to endure the non-stop attacks from the enemy, he finally waved the Fire Lord’s Scepter and summoned another Fire Deity.
In a flash, three tall and enormous fiery giants stood side by side, with two pseudo-adept level stone serpents and a dozen clay golems on the edges. Greem had finally formed a battle line that was capable of both defense and offense with his army of golems.
The stone serpents and clay golems were in charge of defense, obstructing the spellbreaker knights' reckless and relentless charges. The three flame giants were in charge of releasing fire spells with all their might, trying their best to turn everything around them into a sea of flames.
At this moment, the spellbreaker knights finally realized the huge difference between the heretic before them, and the heretics that they had always fought before. There were always powerful heretics among the ones they fought in the past. But as long as the witcher-knights were willing to make some sacrifices to shatter the tough shields of their opponent, they would only need a single strike to kill them.
Yet the heretic before their eyes had immense Strength, Physique, and incomparable elemental attacks that other heretics did not have. Even though his speed was lacking, the weakness was covered by the lava domain he had created for himself. To use the opponent's weakness to attack was simply too hard!
If there weren't so many golems sacrificing themselves at every turn, and if there weren't the immensely powerful Fire Lord, then the powerful spellbreaker knights only needed three or four people to defend against Greem's attacks, and the rest could swiftly execute him.
But now, as the lava pool continuously expanded, the places where they could safely stand were rapidly decreasing, and the damage that they dealt to the evil heretic was quickly decreasing as well.
Once the battle had reached this point, Ninther had no choice but to make a painful choice.
Admit the loss of this battle and quickly lead the remaining troops out of this sorrowful and upsetting battlefield, Or continue hanging on, waiting for that opportunity to seize victory that might be right around the next turn. As long as they could kill this flame giant and obtain the victory on this main battlefield, the other two heretics hiding in the darkness were no big deal.
It was precisely because Greem kept showing up and giving them occasional chances, that the entire spellbreaker knight squad was chained and bound to the lava battlefield. Having already suffered so many losses, if they retreated without any results to show for it, it would be a fate even worse than death for the spellbreaker knights that thought of glory as their lives.
Greem used this precise psychological unwillingness and hesitation of his enemy to drag the battle into the state it was in now.
But after the second spellbreaker knight was killed under the coordination of Greem, the Fire Lord, and the Fire Deity,Ninther made the painful decision.
The long and sombre sound of a horn rang across the battlefield. The witcher-knights started to retreat from the battlefield, one after another. They were ready to end this painful suffering where no light could be seen at the end of the tunnel.
The spellbreaker knights continued harrying Greem and his golem army to allow the witcher-knights a smooth retreat. Blow after blow of powerful knight battle techniques reduced the clay golems into mud, splashing everywhere.
Sadly, the difference in the depth of their strategic thinking caused Ninther to fail to realize the difference between himself and the enemy in who they chose to target. The spellbreaker knight squad he led placed the deciding factor on defeating the enemy leader, Greem. However, Greem had placed all of his hopes of victory on defeating this group of spellbreaker knights!
Why would it matter how many more witcher-knights there were? Even if was only Greem alone, he was confident he could exterminate all of his enemies within these vast mountains. The only one that concerned him were these spellbreaker knights. Thus, even if he let all the witcher-knights go, he was determined to not let a single one of these spellbreaker knights leave alive.
Following the retreat horn being blown, the witcher-knights quickly retreated from the valley. A gap of about two hundred meters appeared between the spellbreaker knight squad and the witcher-knight army.
Seeing this, Flame Fiend Greem let out a roar that shook the skies. It was finally the time for the decisive blow!
The first sacrifice was naturally the Fire Deity that could be summoned at any time.
It shook its ten meter tall and terrifying bod, and charging into the middle of the spellbreaker knight's squad formation. Then it blew itself up, generating a terrifying explosion that seemed as if it would rend the skies and rip the ground asunder.
The sudden blow instantly destroyed the formation the spellbreaker knights had created.
Since the start of the battle, the twelve remaining spellbreaker knights used their well-trained riding skills and potent knight battle techniques to weave about the battlefield. They constantly charged and rode about, using their dazzling horsemanship to ride about and draw the enemy’s attention as they looked for chances to dash in once more.
Often times a spellbreaker knight would have just landed an Evil-Killing Blow on the enemy before continuing right past the target, while a second knight would already be charging, his Explosive Cross Slash waiting to be executed. Meanwhile, a third knight would be accelerating and ready to charge at any time……
It was precisely thanks to this constant attacks and well-honed intertwining and positioning that they were able to crack the defenses and slay the enemy, regardless of how powerful they were.
But now an artificial volcano had appeared in the middle of the battlefield, following the Fire Deity's terrifying explosion. Intense heat, scorching streams of flame, blazes that filled the skies as well as molten lava that went flying everywhere.... all of this completely disrupted the attack patterns of the knight squad. Everyone could only attempt to flee the vicinity of the volcano with all their might, with no time to care about their formation or attack pattern!
And this was precisely what Greem wanted.
This kind of magma hell and this harsh environment might be unbearable for humans, but the Flame Fiend and the Fire Lord they were like fish in water. They laughed loudly. With a strange motion they vanished from the spot, appearing next to a spellbreaker knight that had been isolated from his companions.
Two clusters of explosive flames that suddenly appeared out of thin air frightened the spellbreaker knight’s colt. Yet before he could even react, Greem and the Fire Lord's great shadows had already appeared within the flames.
Flame Teleportation!
The moment they appeared, the two large flame beings extended their palms, and instantly engulfed the spellbreaker knight's body with all sorts of violent and ferocious fire spells.
Firestorm.
Flame Pillar.
Ignite.
Chain of Fireballs.
Greem, who was had yet to display all of his strength, held back no longer. He executed his fire spells to the very limits of their power. Under the combined effort of Greem and the Fire Lord, how could a spellbreaker knight with merely a basic elemental resistance hold out against this degree of fiery bombardment?
The opponent's tough body was swiftly torn to pieces by the vicious spells. Even the magic colt beneath him exploded into tatters of flesh, sent flying in all directions. But before their bodies had been blown out of the centre of the explosion, they had already been turned to dust and ash by the shocking flame streams and violent shockwaves.
"Edward!" Ninther's pained cries could not save the life of his companion.
Edward was his most capable assistant in the knight squad, and was also an exceptional spellbreaker knight that was only second to himself. But when faced with the combined power of two adept-level opponents, no amount of anger and unwillingness could make the spellbreaker knights, who had no special means of preserving their lives, any more than a pile of meaningless flesh no different than an ordinary mortal.
"Retreat……retreat……retreat quickly!" Ninther gritted his teeth several times. Finally suppressing the desire to charge at Greem and fight to his death, he loudly shouted at this companions that had been blown and scattered all over the place.
Sadly, Greem would never let them run away just like that in this situation!
Boom! Boom! Two bursts rang throughout the battlefield as two Flame Teleportations were executed. The Flame Fiend Greem had transformed into, and the Fire Lord, had teleported into the path of retreat, securely standing at the mouth of the valley between the spellbreaker knight squad and the witcher-knight army.
A new blood bath was about to begin!