As Wilhelm and his group charged towards the center of the city, the Thalion Cultists began appearing endlessly, like swarms of cockroaches, as they attacked Wilhelm and his group, they came in from every direction, from the streets, from the buildings, and every direction imaginable.
Wilhelm’s mana burst like an explosion, as his sword moved in an arc killing three cultists lunging at him, the corpses covered his vision, and a cultist from the back threw a knife straight at Wilhelm’s eye, Wilhelm ducked and manifested Chirpy, the transparent green bird cast [Wind Blades], and violent blade shaped winds sprung out from Chirpy to slice the faraway Cultist’s body in half.
A Cultist got behind Wilhelm but was then ripped apart by Iris’s sword, she then proceeded to charge forward towards a crowd of Cultists, the priests cast a spell to weaken Iris, and some cast purple spears as it traveled with great speed towards Iris, while the cultists in front all had their swords, spears and various kinds of weapon in hand as they swung towards her.
Yet, the starlight that surrounded her, as well as the countless stars reminiscent of the Milky Way, defended against the various strikes of the cultists, and she retaliated by manifesting Star Magic after Star Magic while swinging her sword in controlled yet destructive motions, each swing of her starlight enhanced sword demolished many Cultists, and each of the stars moved around with fast speed as they picked a victim one by one.
‘She’s pulling her weight.’
Wilhelm dodged an attack from a nearby cultist and stabbed him precisely in the heart. The cultist groaned in pain, yet despite a blade embedded in him, he raised his sword with his trembling hands and screamed with madness.
“For the greatness of Thalion!”
Wilhelm brought his sword back and sliced his head in a swift motion. The headless body became limp as it fell down
“Tsk, crazy bastards,” Wilhelm murmured, drank a mana potion which barely recovered any mana due to continuos usage in a short time, and looked around. Abraham and Natasha, are swinging their weapons around coated in the Aura of their respective gold and purple color. Abraham ran like a tank on a battlefield, his Golden Aura surrounded him and his sword, and he moved like fish on water, crushing every cultist that came his way. It was an unexpectedly wild style of fighting for an upright knight.
On the other hand, Natasha displayed fluid and chilling movements as she moved without even a bit of sound as she silently sliced the heads of many cultists from the shadows, her Purple Aura effortlessly cutting through everything in its path.
Aura is considered proof that a warrior has achieved a high level and will be respected highly anywhere, needless to say, every knight in the Imperial Knights and Felles Knights could use it, however, there are not many that can use them all the time like Abraham and Natasha.
‘Well, those two are just on another level after all.
Wilhelm breathed out roughly as he tried to control his breath. Unlike Iris, he didn’t have a surplus of mana, so he tried to save his energy and mana whenever he could, especially with the rapid decrease of mana potions. Wilhelm looked around, blood covered the streets as countless corpses scattered about like broken toys, the thick scent of blood assaulted Wilhelm’s nose making him dizzy.
‘...Is this how a battlefield looks like?’
“Kyahh!” It was then that Wilhelm heard a wailing scream from somewhere.
‘Dammit, fuck those cultists!’
In the plan Wilhelm had made, he had asked the Holy Kingdom Inquisitors for help, and provided proofs for them. They happily agreed to help Wilhelm once they confirmed the proofs and amongst the help he had requested was to evacuate the civilians secretly, but to not alarm the other cultists it is inevitable for the number of people evacuated to be less than the people remained.
Wilhelm could’ve chosen a way to save more people by exposing his plans to the cultists but if he did so then there is a high chance the Cultists could get away. Therefore, he chose to sacrifice more citizens in hopes of catching all the cultists.
Wilhelm bit his lips until it bled to suppress the rising guilt as he focused on the current situation. Wilhelm looked at the source of the scream and saw a 2m tall man with a big mace about to swing his mace toward a woman.
After recognizing that the other knights are busy fighting and no one could help the women, Wilhelm dashed forward. Mobs of Cultists blocked his way yet he effortlessly sliced through them all, even if they are strengthened, at best the low-ranked Cultists are just annoying scrubs.
However, the one in front is quite different, The 2m Cultist turned toward Wilhelm with a creepy smile as he then changed his target toward Wilhelm. The mace flew in toward Wilhelm, and Wilhelm deflected it with his sword skills before he swung his sword targeting at his stomach.
Unlike the low ranked cultists however, he managed to dodge, and Demonic Energy surged from him.
“Hehehe, to think that the prince will defend a commoner woman, it’s going to make me feel bad when I kill you!” The cultist smiled while raising his mace up high. Considering the rankings, he would be a mid-ranked cultist, probably one of the leaders of this group. He will not be defeated by a mid-ranked, but it will still be a pain fighting him.
‘I need to save my energy but I guess there is no choice.’
However, when Wilhelm was thinking that, A blue werewolf covered in blood suddenly appeared and charged towards the cultist from his left side, a greatsword in his back as he then swung it downward with all his might toward the cultist.
The cultist panicked and reflexively raised his mace to defend against Gaius, however, that was the wrong choice, In a split second, Wilhelm sliced the right arm holding the mace, making the Cultist groan as his right arm fall.
“Damn it! How unfa-!” He said before his body was split apart by Gaiu’s greatsword.
“Nice job, Gaius.”
“I’m honored, Your Highness.”
Wilhelm went toward the woman.
“Go away from the battlefields and stay locked up in one of the buildings or shelters. You will not get caught up that way.”
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Of course, it was not a guarantee, but it is the choice with the highest chance of survival. The woman nodded before she went away. Wilhelm breathed out as a wave of exhaustion hit him, and his head became a bit dizzy, even he who was saving his energy was exhausted, what about the others who had been going on full throttle the entire time?
“S-save me!”
“Aghh!”
Wilhelm gritted his teeth and looked toward the source of screams, civilians that were forcefully held by the cultists and the knights coming to save them. The cultists know that the knights would try to save the citizens so they deliberately brought the citizens for the knights to see to have them save them. It made the knights' formations disorganized as they went out of their way to save the citizens, and it exhausted them even more since the initiative was on the enemy’s side.
‘This won’t work. We can’t have everyone try to get to the center of the city.’
At this rate, they will not be able to save the citizens and get to the center due to not focusing on either saving the citizens or getting to the center. Wilhelm then made a choice.
“Let’s split the group in half. Half will save the citizens and deal with the cultists and half will charge with me to the statue”
The group heard Wilhelm’s words as they split up, Iris and Natasha as well as some knights followed them, while Gaius and Abraham stayed with the ones that would rescue people.
The half that followed Wilhelm charged towards the middle of the city. Running there would be a lot less exhausting than dealing with the damn cultists after all. However, there was another problem when they arrived.
“Fuck, how many Cultists are there!?” One of the knights cursed and Wilhelm sympathized with him. In the middle of the city, they could see a statue of the First Count of Axelane, the Middle Crystal is located below that statue and that is the place he needed to go to. As the most important Crystal in the middle Wilhelm expected that it would be guarded and prepared for it, but this…
‘...How the fuck are there still this many people?’
All he could see was a sea of people wearing robes with the symbol of a deformed lion’s head with goat horns, a grotesque body with a dragon tail, and 6 arms, with 4 legs that symbolize Thalion. All of them are guarding the statue. It was mysterious how they managed to remain hidden for so long before Wilhelm came here, perhaps they camouflaged as ordinary citizens.
‘Damn it!’
He had expected them to bring more fighting power due to him and Iris’s knights, and he thought that the inquisitors would be enough for that problem. He also knew that since the Count was probably not super high-ranked, all he could do was order a bunch of small fries to do his bidding. He expected all that.
However, he made 3 mistakes. He underestimated the power of numbers, no matter how weak they are, 1000 of them would still prove to be a trouble.
Second is that he underestimated the mental toll and exhaustion of being on a battlefield, no matter how hardened of a fighter you are, if you are constantly smelling blood, seeing guts spurted out, and stepping on corpses of others, it will take a mental toll whether you want it or not. Even now Wilhelm is a lot more exhausted than he thought, even though he didn't move all that much compared to when in training.
Third and the last one is that he underestimated the Count and Thalion Cultists. He underestimated the Count who managed to hide his fangs for a long time and grew his powers as a Cultist inside his territory, he underestimated the numbers he had, and he underestimated the lunacy of the Cultists who kept on pouncing on them despite seeing their allies getting ripped to shreds.
His knights are already exhausted because of the sheer numbers, and at this rate, someone will die if they clash against that group of cultist.
He was too confident, he was arrogant, just because he knew the future he acted like everything is going to be alright, and now its come to bite him in the ass.
‘Shit! What the hell should I do!’
Wilhelm then could feel a hand on his head. It was a small but warm hand. Iris was patting his head. Funnily enough, he calmed down quite a bit thanks to it.
“...What are you doing?” Wilhelm asked.
“You look like you are about to kill yourself first so I was worried. Have you calmed down?”
“I did.”
“Good, so what’s the plan now?”
“...To be honest, I don't know. I will try to think of another plan.”
They are both at a standoff right now. Neither side wanted to make the first move since they didn't know how to deal with each other. But as time goes on, it would be more of a disadvantage for Wilhelm’s group, the crystal’s power will settle more and more on the cultists and strengthen them even more. Wilhelm racked his brains to figure out something, but Iris spoke first.
“If so, I have a proposal.”
“A proposal?”
“You see those guys posing over there?”
Wilhelm could see cultists located at the very back of the cultist group and some on the buildings. It seems like they are priests responsible for the long-range spell attacks.
In a way they are the most troublesome opponents right now due to their strong area spells.
“I see them.”
"I can shoot off star magic at them and even if they miss, it will distract them. We also have some magic knights in our group, who may not be experts in magic but can still fire off spells from here to there, at least. In that opening, you will charge inside the damned statue immediately and go in. You said you knew the password, right?”
Wilhelm looked at Iris and the others. Except for Natasha, they would all be considerably exhausted, and their mana is probably already 1/3rd because of the battle before and the reckless charge here.
Wilhelm thought a bit about Iris's strategy. It's simple yet effective. However, Wilhelm shook his head.
“I need your spells later on after this, the Middle Crystal down there is protected with monsters so it will be better for you to converse your spells.”
Iris frowned and asked again.
“This is a stupid question but I guess you don't have any more mana potions?”
“None. Even if I had some it wouldn’t matter since the effectiveness would be trash after taking it so many times in such a short time…I'm sorry, I should’ve prepared better.”
“Geez, could you stop being depressed? You did good enough...So there are still monsters down there. Hmm…” Iris looked at Natasha and smiled.
“...Well, I have another plan, but I would need you to work hard. Is that fine, Natasha?”
“As long as you order it, My Lady.”
“Alright then. How about this plan, then?”
Iris told her about the plan, and Wilhelm agreed. It's basically just a distraction strategy, where they would distract the opponents and have Natasha sneak in and kill the priest. In exchange for saving Iris’s mana, they would be exhausting Natasha’s.
With that said no matter how great Natasha is, if someone disappeared all of a sudden, then the Thalion Cultists will be suspicious. So they had to create a very big distraction, like charging all of a sudden while hoping that Natasha was quick enough to kill the priests before they were bombarded with the spells.
However, Wilhelm refused. Since there is still a high risk of getting hit with the spells from the priests if Natasha is too late. A big distraction didn't need to be a battle. Sometimes words alone could give an advantage.
“I also know that but what exactly are you going to say to them that could distract them? Are you going to confess to them? That should distract them a bit.” Iris said.
The other knights chuckled. Even on a battlefield they still managed to laugh. It was fortunate.
“Honestly, that might work, but no, I have an even better one.”
Wilhelm didn't notice ‘her’ on the enemy side before because he was busy panicking, but after calming down, and hearing Iris' plans, he thought that he could somehow overcome the situation.