The only sign the shadowy demon gave before he struck this time was a mere shimmer before a blade hurtled itself at Magus Drummond. It happened so fast that the fourth tier temple guard who was guarding against the shadowy demon reacted too late as he happened to be looking towards the healers at that moment.
Fortunately, the old Magus was not without his own means.
The blade halted a mere inch away from the face of the Magus, as if it was held in place by an invisible hand, while the old man sneered and launched another vicious blast of stone lances towards the direction it came from. He had figured out that the shadowy demon had some way to mitigate the workings of magic, so he used something that was far harder to unravel compared to a wind blade.
A blade of wind would simply dissipate and lose most of its deadliness when the magic that held it together was unraveled. On the other hand, a lance of stone hurled a high speed, while covering far less area and being a good bit slower compared to a wind blade, remained a lance of compacted, solid stone moving at speed even if the magic on it was unraveled.
He was rewarded with a grunt of pain as one of the stone lances caught the shadowy demon on the side, likely shattering his left arm, given how it dangled powerlessly by his side when he was forced to emerge into sight by the blow. It had been a lucky shot, as Magus Drummond had simply hurled the stone lances in the general direction the demon’s blade had come from.
The sight boosted the morale on Alissa’s side, who were still struggling hard against the group of third tier demons. Alissa and Ethan might have made some headway and dispatched of a couple of them, while the rest of their party managed to hold their own, but the same could not be said about the second tiers supporting them.
A good number of those already lay on the ground, their life or deaths unknown. It was not feasible for the healers to go to them either, not with the demons still pushing their offense hard, and they all knew that they only had maybe a minute or two left before the buffs they still had on them expired, at which point the fighting would go badly for them.
The situation with the fourth tiers still remained in a stalemate. The temple guard shieldbearer rushed and pressed the shadowy demon, keeping the two of them away from the main fight, while Magus Drummond still lent his support to the fight at the frontlines from behind, now more secure with the shadowy demon occupied.
It was not all good on the front lines, however, as there Sir Inolet was practically single-handedly holding the front. The other three fourth tiers with him were lower in the quality of classes they received, and it really showed, as those three already sported injuries of various severity and were constantly pushed back by the demons they were fighting.
Had Magus Drummond not supported them from behind one or more of those would have likely fallen already.
Sir Inolet on the other hand tackled on the two strongest demon fourth tiers on his own, the hefty sword he used moving so fast it barely registered as a blur in the eyes of onlookers, while a dagger held in his left hand either parried blows or struck like a serpent in an attempt to harm his enemies. The old knight did not move much, and his footwork seemed poor compared to the demons he fought, likely due to his fake leg, but he more than made up for it with his experience and skills.
The two demons fought warily against him, one stabbed and struck from further away with a long spear, while a second one fought up close with a pair of sabers. When their weapons clashed, it was clear that Sir Inolet was stronger than either of the demons, as they were always pushed back, and often needed their compatriot to help them occupy the old knight’s attention while they recovered their balance.
Even so, the situation was not a promising one, especially on Alissa’s side, where the demons abused their numerical and level advantage to push them hard.
At the sight of the deteriorating situation on Alissa’s side, Sir Henri Inolet sighed, and after a particularly vicious blow that threw his opponents off guard, disengaged from the demons he was fighting and leapt backwards.
“Murdock!” he yelled. “Keep them busy for a bit. I’m going to use it!”
“I thought you were keeping a lid on that!” complained the old Magus, though he rushed forward to take Sir Inolet’s place in the line instead. The old man brandished his staff expertly and judiciously used blasts of magic to temporarily push the demons back, though it was obvious how the demons were merely waiting for him to exhaust his mana before they would once again press the offense.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Pretty sure they already guessed who the kids are by now, no point hiding it anymore!” yelled Sir Inolet back from behind the lines. The old knight solemnly held his sword in front of his chest with both hands, the blade pointed upwards, and seemed to be concentrating.
It was not a long wait, maybe ten or fifteen seconds at most? It must have felt like an eternity for those fighting for their lives on the frontlines, however, but a moment later, Sir Inolet finally burst into action.
With overwhelming force.
“[Arcane Sword: Rime Blade]!” he proclaimed as mana seemed to whirl around his form and coalesced into the blade of his sword, the color of the metal turning into a pristine white within moments as a slick layer of ice and frost covered it, turning the rugged metal blade into something that more resembled a sword-shaped icicle, or a snowflake with one particularly elongated side.
“[Elemental Infusion: Breath of Winter]!” added the old knight as he slid forward on a sheet of ice that magically formed beneath his feet, the same icy sheen covering his armor as well, making him look almost like a knight statue carved of an ice block from a distance. On the other hand, the way the old knight moved just reminded Alissa and Ethan of a certain superhero from the comics of their original world.
Within a blink of an eye, Sir Inolet returned to where the five demon fourth tiers were starting to press the offense once more, and there he proclaimed a third skill.
“[Domain Expansion: Permafrost Tundra]!”
It was as if the prairie they were fighting on turned into a frozen wasteland in Sir Inolet’s vicinity. The domain expanded, and even from afar Alissa could feel the temperature of the air plummet around her all of a sudden, as the grass near where Sir Inolet stood became stiff, froze over, and shattered into shards of frozen material within a couple seconds.
All five of the demon fourth tiers were within the scope of the domain, and all of them already had ice and frost forming on top of their armor and weapons, their breath causing fog to form in the freezing air.
Of course, that was not all the skill did. Every one of the demons immediately found themselves slowed, every single one of their movements a struggle against their own limb, which felt cold and frozen and refused to obey their commands. Even breathing became a pain, as every breath only drew frozen air that threatened to freeze their lungs solid from the inside.
Under such conditions, it was already considered good if those demons could mobilize seventy percent of their full power, as none of them seemed to have skills appropriate to counteract Sir Inolet’s skill. The shadowy demon probably had something that could milden the effect, but he was kept under heavy pressure by the shield-bearing temple guard, and one of the other fourth tiers also rushed that way to keep that particular demon away.
From how all the other human fourth tiers stayed well away from Sir Inolet’s domain, Alissa guessed that it was likely not a skill that differentiated between friend and foe at all. Any of the humans entering that domain would fall under the same debilitating effects the demons faced, which meant that Sir Inolet was mostly on his own against the five demons.
Or perhaps not entirely, as Magus Drummond conjured lances of ice and hurled them towards the demons trapped in Sir Inolet’s domain and the spell worked just fine. If anything, the lances of ice seemed to grow in both size and speed as they entered the domain, so clearly it was something that boosted those of the same element while messing with everything else.
None of the demons – or the other human fourth tiers for that matter – seemed to be skilled with the ice element.
Out of the three fourth tiers that used to fight next to Sir Inolet, one already headed off to keep the shadowy demon away, while another circled around the back of the demons to harry those that were trying to escape the domain. The third one, the second temple guard who carried a pair of maces in her hands, rushed towards Alissa’s side and struck the flank of the demon third tiers with vengeance.
Alissa and Ethan had seen it in shows and movies in their world often, but neither had expected to see bodies literally thrown high into the air by a person’s charge in person. Yet that was precisely what they witnessed as the temple guardswoman rushed into the demons like a lion into a flock of sheep. Broken bodies were sent flying by vicious blows of her mace, and the pressure on Alissa’s group immediately lightened up.
Naturally, Alissa, Ethan, and the rest of their party did not let the opportunity go to waste, as they redoubled their offense against the demons with everything they had. There was less than a minute left on the duration of their buffs, so it was all or nothing for them. They had no idea how long Sir Inolet could suppress the five demons, so they had to make the most of the opportunity at hand.
Their reinvigorated offense pushed the demons back, whose formation was crumbling due to the fourth tier temple guard who was wreaking havoc in their midst. Most of the demons had to work together to keep her at bay, and even then they only very barely managed to do that, which only left around a dozen of them to fight Alissa’s group.
Those were odds that the party didn’t mind one bit as they struck hard against their enemies.
Within half a minute, eight of the demons that were fighting Alissa’s group had either died or had to withdraw due to their injuries. Alissa, Ethan, Nadine, and Silvia managed to finish off their opponents before they could retreat, but the others were not as lucky and had to let the demons go. They continued to press on against the flank of the group of demons who were busy trying to keep the fourth tier temple guard contained.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond worked together and used projectiles of ice magic to herd the five demons to group up. It was then that the old knight suddenly seemed to explode with power as the sword in his hand doubled in size and he leapt down from high above straight towards where the demons were gathered.
The demons gathered below him all felt a sudden sense of crisis, and pooled their efforts to block the strike as best they could, as it was too late for them to attempt an escape by then. The five demons raised their weapons together, some casting defensive skills, while others cast offensive skills in the hopes of striking hard enough to reduce the power of the incoming blow.
A cacophonous impact shook the prairie moments later as the full force of Sir Henri Inolet's blow landed.