Chapter 500: Long Returns
In front of the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass was a slope two hundred meters long, a very precipitous terrain covered by snow and ice all year round. Its entrance acted as a natural fortress, only, after the experience of a year-and-a-half-long Holy War, the current defensive weapons of the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass were mostly either destroyed in the hands of the demons, or the reserves of magical beast crystals to sustain them were insufficient. Now it was fully reliant on manpower to resist the demon offenses.
In the distance, eight demon god pillars were glinting on the horizon, dispersing dazzling light. The large army of demons was flowing like a tide, rushing towards the Dragon Resisting Mountain.
It was reasonable for the Demon God Emperor to have assigned the Death Demon God Saminaga as commander for the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass. Launching attacks from the ground was indeed a true challenge, so aerial attacks had much better chances. Fiends were not only experts at flight and strong physically, but moreover, their clansmen were numerous. For sheer strength, aside from the Demon God Emperor’s Devil Dragon Clan, the Fiend Clan was the best. After all, Star Demons and Moon Demons were far from able to compare with the Fiend Demons.
Therefore, after the two sides had gone through over a year of repeated probing attacks and defensive battles to gather experience, now most battles were about the Temple Alliance having to resist the combined aerial and ground-based attacks of the demon armies.
On the ground, the ones leading the offense were mainly the Demonic Wolves and Demonic Bears. This wasn’t because of their expertise in climbing, but because of their capability of enduring the cold.
Because of this bitterly cold northern land, since the beginning of the Holy War the demon forces had undergone serious losses; but through constant reinforcement, the troops in the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass had almost entirely been replaced by those resistant to the cold.
Demonic Wolves are a powerful clan among demons. Standing in a way that is similar to humans, they have wolf heads, and their four limbs have sharp claws on their tips. As they climbed the walls, their claws kept letting out crisp sounds upon contact with the ice.
Compared to Demonic Wolves, Demonic Bears had a much harder time climbing. They had extreme strength, but when climbing, they would need their bear paws to create holes in the ice, and make use of those to keep their balance, which slowed down the process.
But don’t forget that among the eight great demon gods standing outside the area of the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass lay the Demonic Bears’ demon god Valefor, along with his main force. With him to supervise and lead them, the Demonic Bears spared no effort to follow the orders. Making use of their great strength, they steadily made their way up.
As for the situation in the sky, it was the stage for the Fiends. The omnipresent Fiends kept assaulting the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass relentlessly from the air.
Fiends of the sixth step or above have the ability of flight, but also can bear a lot of weight. Frequently, one would see some Fiends being carried by the ones with the ability of flight.
Fiends, Demonic Bears and Demonic Wolves. The attacks performed by the great fighters from these three races represented an enormous threat for the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass.
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But still, as the head of the Six Great Temples, the Knight Temple had plenty of trump cards for the situation. Above the city, a large amount of fully armored knights were lined up, glinting with the dazzling golden light that took the shape of a protective barrier, they blocked offense after offense from the demons.
The most balanced vocation for humans is indeed the knight. Knights were able to use some light magic while also being expert in close quarters fighting; more importantly, they could use healing magic. Therefore, even without other vocations to complement them in battle, knights are quite able to both defend themselves and kill the enemies.
At the same time, the Knight Temple has the greatest aerial force of the Alliance, which is their powerful Airborne Knight Regiment.
Depending on their kinds of mount, a knight would, after reaching the fifth step, either become an Airborne Knight or an Earth Knight. In other words, the Airborne Knight Regiment is only constituted of knights of the fifth step or above, reaching a total count of over ten thousand. This force is the main pillar of the Knight Temple’s army.
But as this Holy War kept on going, the Airborne Knights’ numbers kept decreasing. Now the Airborne Knights that retained the abilities of flight and combat were less than seven thousand. And even this was only because they were the greatest targets of priority for light-attribute support magic. Furthermore, they were only used after the greatest killing weapons or defending devices became unuseable, becoming thenceforth the main force in battle.
If one were to look over the situation from high altitude, one could see clearly that both sides were clearly lit in gold and black, confronting each other.
In terms of quantity, the Fiends occupied the advantage: they were twice as numerous as the Airborne Knights, and the most terrible was that some Fiends had Hell Demons on their back. Hell Demons have very powerful magic, and are expert in launching crowd-targeted spells. Therefore, the aerial demon forces were in no hurry to reach the close range of the Airborne Knights. As they confronted each other, the demon side only sent forward some Little Fiends and Grand Fiends, as the ones with the ability of flight were defending the remote-spell-using Hell Demons.
The Airborne Knight Regiment didn’t advance prematurely as the Hell Demons and their guardians weren’t the only flying demons. To the knights, the most important mission was to guard the defensive mountain pass and not to take chances.
The mounts from the Airborne Knights were very uniform, formed solely of the unified and cultured Heavenly Horses. As a magical beast race of the fifth rank and a subspecies of the unicorn-type, they are completely white, have no horn atop their head, and rely on their snow-white pairs of wings to soar above the horizon.
The united Airborne Knight Regiment also had a deep mutual understanding with their mounts, their battle forces being the most reliant on the association between the knights and the Heavenly Horses. Therefore, in balanced battles, the demons would certainly be no match for the Airborne Knights.
At the vanguard of the Airborne Knight Regiment stood a group of gold- and silver-colored knights. At least six Gold Essence Foundation Knights and a hundred Mythril Foundation Knights formed this group leading the Airborne Knight Regiment.
Both sides seemed to have reached a vague agreement, as none of their powerhouses of the ninth step appeared on the battlefield: only soldiers of the eighth step at most were present.
Immense barriers of holy light appeared in the skies, one after another resisting the magic bombardment from the Hell Demons. The Airborne Knight Regiment preserved a neat formation from beginning to end, ready to enter battle at anytime. Their holy light barriers could be described as an impenetrable defense.
Long Tianying stood in the highest area above the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass’ City. The city was formed with three layers, the bottom one being the most broad, where the army of knights underwent battle. The second layer was for the mages, all specializing in the ice element. In the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass, no reinforcement from the other Temples were present outside of these mages.
This was the great character and unquestionable integrity of the Knight Temple, that preferred to let the other five Temples provide assistance to each other.
Behind Long Tianying were over thirty people. Amongst them, half were clad in Gold Essence Foundation Armor, and the other half in armor reaching at least the Legendary Tier. Without a doubt, they were the true core of the Knight Temple. Every one of them were fully equipped and prepared to join battle at any time.
“Attention, the Airborne Knight Regiment is to go down to the altitude of a hundred meters, and release Glorious Halo and Thorny Halo.” Long Tianying’s severe voice was heard.
His sight was focused on the Demonic Wolves and Demonic Bears climbing upwards. Without a doubt, when the first batch of Demonic Bears climbed over the city walls, that would be the time the Fiends would launch the aerial assault.
The demons were fully aware that the humans knew about their fighting methods, and yet never adapted. Coordinating terrestrial and aerial troops as one was always the best way.
Right at this time, the glints from the eight demon god pillars brightened, and one could faintly see that inside of these eight demon god pillars slowly appeared eight demons.
The one appearing in the biggest pillar was a grey-haired, tall and pale man clad in a grey armor, looking at Long Tianying in the distance.
This demon god was full of deathly stillness. His eyes were a shiny white, and his face looked quite handsome. A pair of immense grey wings extended from his back, reaching over twenty meters wide. Although it wasn’t so eye-catching in the distance, with the addition of the deep grey radiance on his back, it let out a kind of irresistible oppressive feeling.
Long Tianying’s eyes lit up as well, and a golden glint of light appeared therein. As he placed his hands on his back, his body slowly floated above the ground.
A radiance of blue and gold abruptly burst out from his back, carrying an immense bluish-gold light beam that soared up. The elegant Divine Throne of Order and Law slowly came to view on the background of the Divine Knight of Control and Restriction Long Tianying.
The instant the Divine Throne appeared, the whole Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass and the Airborne Knight Regiment all let out deafening acclamations.
To the Knight Temple, Divine Thrones were not only a divine tool, but the moral pillars of the whole body of knights. As long as the Divine Thrones existed, they would be able to face any powerful enemy with confidence.
The Death Demon God Saminaga wrinkled his brows, murmuring aloud, “This Divine Throne is quite troublesome.”
Nearby, a stalwart man with a bronze-colored skin, and yellow eyes looked at him respectfully, “Shall I go?” This was the sixth-ranked demon god Valefor. If one only looked at external appearance, this person looked like a robust human warrior. His figure could hardly be compared with his immense clansmen.
Saminaga shook his head, “This Long Tianying won’t be an easy opponent. In a one-on-one fight, I don’t have the certainty of being able to kill him. His Divine Throne is just too troublesome. Letting you go won’t achieve better results than if I went. And furthermore, there’s also that Divine Throne of Protection and Mercy present in the Knight Temple. That one will be even harder to deal with. Calling him the greatest human powerhouse wouldn’t be exaggerated. Since His Majesty is ordering us to carry out a prolonged war, we shouldn’t go for such an all-out battle.”
As he said that, the fiery fighting intent in him dissipated, as he kept confronting Long Tianying. None of them showed the initiative to launch the attack.
Right at this time, the Demonic Bears finally finished climbing the walls of the city.
The Demonic Wolves launched frantic, almost suicidal, attacks. Their goal was simple: it was to let all the Demonic Bears safely reach the top of the city. With the defensive power and strength of the Demonic Bears, as long as they would be able to stand firm on the city walls, it would definitely inflict a huge blow to the Knight Temple.
The holy light formations from the Airborne Knight Regiment that went a hundred meters down gained in power, and purplish-golden Thorny Halos as well as bluish-gold Glorious Halos became incredibly brilliant due to the simultaneous release from many Airborne Knights. Furthermore, these halos were also glinting on the heads of the knights standing above the city.
Han Yu was amongst them. On his left hand he held a heavy golden shield and on his right hand his Scarlet Wildness.
Launching a shield charge, he ruthlessly knocked against a Demonic Bear that was just done climbing the walls.
That Demonic Bear was also tough, supporting his own body with both his arms, it entered close quarters battle with Han Yu.
With a loud bang, both the Demonic bear and Han Yu were forced back by a violent collision. However, the Scarlet Wildness had already lashed out.
It was presently radiating a white heat from Holy Sword.
The combination of a heavy sword at Legendary Tier and the skill Holy Sword couldn’t be easy to resist, even with the physical resistance of the Demonic Bear. In actual fact, although there existed a gap between the physical builds of the two, Han Yu’s external spiritual energy was not much inferior to the Demonic Bear’s.
After bathing in the dragon crystal infusion, and with the addition of the Forest Boa Training Pill’s amplification, Han Yu’s external spiritual energy was absolutely not below his internal spiritual energy. This was also the reason why everyone from the 64th commander-grade Demon Hunt Squad still survived even after going through so many dangerous battles.
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With an angry roar, the Demonic Bear was knocked back right after managing to climb above the wall, and was thoroughly enraged. The iron hammer in his hand was swung, aiming right at Scarlet Wildness.
Right that instant, a figure fell in the midst of the two of them. It was a knight, sent flying by the powerful force of an enemy.
The hammer in the Demonic Bear’s hand kept going without the slightest hesitation, but Han Yu was extremely startled.
He was faster to react than the Demonic Bear, but if his attack kept going, Scarlet Widness would surely strike the body of his teammate. With his deep feelings towards his fellow soldiers, how could he keep going?
This all happened just too fast. Scarlet Wildness was already halfway there! If he were to try retracting his force, he would be the one suffering a backlash, and that fellow soldier would hardly escape getting crushed to death by the Demonic Bear. But if the attack kept going, his fellow knight would die by his hand! Since going to war, this was the first time Han Yu faced such a difficult choice. This was just happening too fast, giving him far from enough time to decide.
A resplendent golden light glinted, and just as suddenly as the falling knight appeared, he disappeared in a flash of light.
A myriad of golden lights burst out in that instant. Everything in the range of a hundred meters was enveloped by the golden light. Within its scope, all the Demonic Wolves and Demonic Bears gushed blood, collapsing like wheat.
Han Yu’s eyes became moist, yelling loudly, “Captain!”
He came back!! Was it time for the 64th squad to reunite?