Ariadne noticed his behavior change, and as soon as the guardian dashed toward the battle, she intercepted him with a strike of her blade. He blocked and glanced at her before continuing to dash toward the sound, pursued by Ariadne, who tried to strike him multiple times as they moved but blocked everything.

She couldn’t pin him down, so the two slowly but surely moved towards the frontline in a fearsome battle, passing through to the destroyed buildings as they swung their swords at each other.

Egor and Ethan were at the center-right side of the frontline, as the far right was just holding in and trying to push slowly but not overextended themselves because of the lack of soldiers, so the push was at the center. Their objective was to just kill as many creatures as possible. What helped them to push the main streets was the trucks with the mounted heavy guns.

Ethan heard something approaching from behind as they tried to cross the street towards an open area surrounded by buildings with nothing but shapes drawn on the floor. He looked to his right and saw the duchess busting through a building and being launched between them and the demons as the battle continued.

‘Wait, is Her Highness, cease-fire.’ Ethan shouted.

Every soldier stopped firing as other squad and team leaders said the same. Even the demons stopped momentarily, and a strange silence took over the battle, but not for long. The guardian jumped from the building towards a point where multiple soldiers tried to slash them with their swords.

Ariadne noticed that the soldiers were now his target and dashed while still in the air. The soldiers hit the guardian without success; it connected, and nothing happened. They thought it was over until Ariadne blocked the attack. Because of her proximity to the soldiers, she grabbed the guardian by the head and threw it at a building on the side of the demons.

The demon’s attack resumed, and the battle started again, forcing Ariadne to take cover behind a wall next to the group of soldiers she had protected seconds prior. Ethan looked at Ely, who was carrying the rail cannon on his back.

‘Hit that abomination, Ely, NOW!!!.’ Ethan shouted.

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Giov took a round from Oliv’s backpack. As Ely put the cannon on his shoulder, Giov put the explosive round on the cannon and tapped Ely’s shoulder twice, giving him the sign that it was armed with no excitation. He pulled the trigger, and the projectile flew across the open area, hitting the guardian right as he stood up and causing a massive explosion.

But the guardian got out of the fire unscathed, dashing in the direction of Ethan’s team, making them startle for a second, but right before reaching them, Ariadne showed up swinging her sword, launching it back.

‘2-6 to all units at the center-right, give her highness cover, and push towards the buildings using the trucks coming in as cover.’ Calb spoke on the radio.

Ariadne wasn’t thinking straight, so she dashed towards the guardian as it got up. Right behind her, the soldiers came out of cover and pushed forward. As she got closer to the guardian, she started to fight with it again, but this time, she noticed the magic coming from the buildings around her.

She was blocking the guardian’s attack and dogging the magic being launched at her, but when a massive beam of light came towards her, there was no time to get out of the way, so she did the unthinkable and slashed through it, dividing it in two that hit the buildings to the side.

Ariadne looked at where the beam came from. There was a massive hole in a building in the front. She could see a creature on the other side, but as she noticed an attack from the guardian and blocked, two projectiles passed her and headed straight to the hole, passed through the building, and hit the creature on the other side, causing a massive explosion.

The advancing soldiers drew fire from the buildings, acting as bait; as one advanced, the other fell and needed to be dragged away. At the same time, two trucks coming from each side of the street turned towards the open area. They started firing against the windows of the buildings where the magic bolts were being launched. Other soldiers entered the buildings from the sides, trying to clear them from within.

All of this happened while Ariadne was still fighting the guardian. The sound of the blades clashing was loud and distinguished itself from the rest of the battle. She needed to be on top of him at all times because, at every opportunity, the guardian would try to dash towards the nearest soldier.

Even with everything going on, the situation was still manageable because the guardian was getting weaker but not weak enough for her to finish the job. As soon as the trucks and the soldiers approached too closely, she kicked the guardian in the head, launching him behind the soldiers into a building.

As she dashed past the soldiers advancing, she saw the bodies on the ground, the soldiers hiding behind the trucks, firing back at the demons, and a glimpse of another soldier struggling with a demon and another firing against it, trying to help him inside the building to her left.

Complete chaos was the word for it, and all she could do was focus on the guardian and try her best to kill the thing before it could recover its strength because if that happened, it would be her and everyone inside the dungeon.

With his vision still blurred, Edmund opened his eyes, immediately filling the pain all over his body and looking at his arms, which were now almost black from the bruises and the side effects from the technique he used against the guardian, but he gave a quick smile.

‘Well, I’m not dead.’ He got up slowly with a painful expression.