While the first clashes were unfolding on the approaches to Dornheim, a quiet night hung over the kingdom of Blackridge itself. Lucius walked down the deserted streets at a steady pace.
He moved without unnecessary haste. At intersections, he paused now and then, peering carefully at house facades and checking street signs. Identical residential blocks flickered past one after another: House 141/A, then 141/B, followed by 141/C. The man turned down alley after alley, pressing deeper into the city.
The search for the right address took about fifteen minutes. Finally, in a dead end of one of the narrow streets squeezed between high walls, Lucius stopped. Before him stood a two-story building with closed shutters. He narrowed his eyes, examining the faded numbers on the sign by the entrance.
"House 157/A," he muttered softly under his breath. "Raul Werner..."
Lucius reached into his inside pocket, pulled out a pair of glasses, and put them on. Adjusting the temples, he took two steps forward, approached the door, and knocked several times.
At the same time in Dornheim, preparations were carried out in total silence. People checked their gear wordlessly, adjusted their pouch straps, and did brief warm-ups.
Iron personally supervised the distribution of ammunition. The fighters who received the new pistols double-checked the safeties and made sure the magazines were locked in tight. When the final preparations were complete, the main defensive squad moved silently beyond the village borders. Only those unable to hold a weapon remained in the settlement—a few women and children.
The squad dispersed as soon as they moved deeper into the forest.
Iron and Elyria moved at the head of the column, quickly coordinating maneuvers. Taking advantage of Lumon continuously streaming the terrain map and thermal signatures, the engineer used hand gestures to assign groups of fighters in different directions around the perimeter.
"Marek and Darwin's group—to the left flank, take positions by the rocky ridge," Iron quietly issued orders. "Gaston, take your people to the right, seal off the lowlands. Do not open fire without my command."
Meanwhile, Noah moved alone, taking the forest's upper canopy. He acted swiftly and virtually soundlessly: pushing off trunks with ease, he leaped from branch to branch, venturing farther into the depths.
He lay in wait on a sprawling oak branch, about ten meters above the ground. Resting a palm against the bark, he froze and listened.
About twenty minutes passed. At first, the forest seemed empty, but then the snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves gave way to a low rumble. The ground beneath the trees began to vibrate subtly. Gradually, a distinct metallic clank, the creak of wagon wheels, and the thud of boots reached Noah's ears.
Noah reached up to his neck, feeling a small metal capsule with a smooth button at its center. He vividly remembered Iron's brief briefing: "If you hear footsteps, just press this button. It'll connect you straight to me."
Noah pressed the button with his finger. In that exact second, a quiet click sounded in his ear, followed by a faint hiss.
"Iron?" Noah called out softly, trying to speak as quietly as possible.
The engineer's voice responded instantly, without delay:
"Yeah, I'm listening. What do you have?"
"I hear footsteps," Noah reported, peering into the deepening darkness ahead. "They're marching in a tight column and approaching very fast. They'll be in my sector soon."
Silence hung on the other end for a second.
"Can you take out a few of them on the approach?" Iron asked. "Remember the explosives and pistol I gave you? Use the full arsenal to the max, break up their formation."
"Got it," Noah replied curtly and took his finger off the button, breaking the connection.
He adjusted his grip on his sword hilt, secured the tripwire pins on his belt, and began cautiously descending to the lower branches, preparing to engage the vanguard.
King Edriac's marching column pressed through a forest clearing. The ruler himself was inside a covered wagon reinforced with metal plates. Edriac stared glumly out a small viewing window. Outside, the guards' torches carved tree trunks and the massive carcass of some slain monster lying on the roadside out of the darkness. The king shifted his gaze forward, sizing up the road.
Suddenly, a bright flash erupted a couple hundred meters ahead. The ground shuddered from a powerful explosion. The shockwave knocked the front-line foot soldiers off their feet, showering dirt and splinters in every direction.
"Protect the king!" the captain of the guard screamed frantically, and the guards immediately formed a tight ring around the transport, covering it with their shields.
The column ground to a halt. A thick veil of smoke, soot, and kicked-up dust rose around them. The vanguard commander rushed forward, trying to make out the source of the threat, but he saw nothing.
"Status report! Who attacked?!" he roared into the darkness.
The soldiers began looking around in confusion, answering that they couldn't see anything through the smoke. Finally, one of the sentries standing closer to the crater shouted back in fear:
"The blast came from—"
Noah appeared silently from the shadows behind his back, his blade slitting the soldier's throat in an instant.
"From where?! Where is he?!" the commander barked, turning toward the sound of the falling body, but no answer followed. "Damn it... Ready the cannons! Unlimber the guns, move!"
The soldiers hurriedly clattered their locks, trying to aim the barrels.
Taking advantage of the lingering explosion smoke, Noah tore into the disoriented ranks of knights. Several soldiers dropped to the ground before the others could raise their shields. Enemy archers opened blind fire on the bushes and branches, but their arrows only sheared off leaves.
Suddenly, an enemy spell flew out from deep within the column—a mass of red magic. A powerful explosion thundered, tearing up the earth and toppling two trees. However, Noah managed to slip out of the kill zone before the magic touched the ground, melting into the dense thickets to the left of the road.
Seeing that the vanguard was taking losses while the enemy remained unseen, King Edriac cracked open the wagon door and bellowed frantically at his commanders:
"Fire! Blast the bushes! Mow everything down!"
The gun commanders acknowledged the order, and the field cannons opened a barrage in every direction. Despite their small size, the projectiles possessed immense armor-piercing power. They splintered tree trunks clean through, reducing the undergrowth to matchwood. But Noah kept shifting positions, never lingering in one spot for more than a second.
When the barrage briefly lulled for reloading, Edriac activated his communication artifact, calling Olgerd and Valdes.
"The vanguard is under attack," Edriac reported quickly while the guards bustled around him.
Olgerd's voice came through the device:
"Noah?"
"Looks like it," Edriac confirmed. "He's moving too fast. The cannons are hitting broad areas, but we can't snag him."
"Damn it..." Clear venom flared in Olgerd's voice. "Fine. Kill him as fast as possible. Burn and destroy everything around, but kill him!"
"We're already doing that," Edriac replied dryly and disconnected the artifact.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the pause in artillery fire, Noah slipped back toward the infantry ranks, whittling down the enemy forces.
But due to the continuous artillery volleys, hiding was becoming harder and harder for Noah. The trees around him were toppled or turned into stumps, and the foliage had stripped away, depriving him of his main advantage.
Noticing that Noah was still moving among the debris, one of the enemy mages stepped forward. He dropped to one knee and drove his palms deep into the churned-up earth. A second later, the soil beneath Noah's feet crackled. Forked lightning began bursting straight out of the ground. Electrical discharges slammed through the dirt with a thunderous roar, scorching the grass and shattering root remnants everywhere. The magic was selective, bypassing Edriac's soldiers while completely plowing through the neutral zone.
Noah spotted the mage leader in time and charged straight across the electrical storm. At full speed, he darted between two flashes, closed the distance with the sorcerer, and took his head off with one quick stroke. Without stopping, he drew the pistol Iron had given him and fired three energy bolts into a group of nearby mages. The charges detonated right in the middle of their rank, scattering the mages in all directions.
Leaping back, Noah jumped onto a surviving branch of a distant tree and caught his breath heavily. His clothes were singed.
"Damn... Just a little more and I would've been done for," he muttered softly under his breath, wiping soot from his face. "Gotta be more careful."
He froze, peering deep into the enemy vanguard. His gaze locked onto the heavy protective box on the wagon where King Edriac sat. Noah quickly calculated the trajectory. Aiming his pistol vertically upward, he pulled the trigger, sending a shot into the sky. In that very second, Noah instantly teleported straight onto the iron roof of the royal transport.
"He's on the roof! Shoot!" the guards below bellowed immediately.
Noah didn't have time to strike through the armor—the guards reacted too quickly, raising their crossbows. He vanished again. A second later, the projectile he had previously fired into the sky slammed right onto Edriac's wagon. A massive explosion thundered. However, when the smoke cleared, Noah saw that the structure's protective barrier had taken the hit without a single dent.
"What kind of bullshit is this?" Noah spat through his teeth, watching from cover.
"There he is! On the flank!" shouted one of the commanders.
The gun crew instantly swung the small cannon's barrel around and unleashed a quick salvo. Noah lunged to the side, but a tight cluster of shrapnel caught him. One fragment grazed his left forearm; a second struck his shin. He fell, but forced his way through the pain, rolled behind the massive trunk of a fallen oak, and rapidly retreated deeper into the woods, vanishing from view.
Reaching a safe hollow, Noah leaned exhaustedly against a tree. Looking at his wounds, he frowned: the edges of the cuts were rapidly turning green, and the surrounding flesh was starting to blacken. His throat went dry, and he coughed violently, spitting blood onto the grass.
Wasting no time, Noah drew his combat knife. With swift motions, he carved away the blackened, infected flesh from his arm and leg, cleansing the wounds down to healthy blood. The tissue began to slowly knit together. The process was agonizing and took several minutes, but in the end, the skin completely restored itself.
Noah stood up, touched the transmitter on his neck, and held down the comm button.
"Iron, watch out for their cannons," he said quickly. "Their shells poison the target on the slightest hit. The venom acts instantly."
The engineer's short, calm reply came through the earpiece:
"Got it."
The line went dead. At that moment, Iron was pushing forward, concealed within the dense canopy in another part of the forest, carefully scanning the approaches and awaiting the main enemy wave.
About five hours passed.
King Valdes's column moved through its sector of the forest. The ruler himself sat in the exact same heavy, metal-plated box-wagon that Olgerd and Edriac used. Ahead, at the very tip of the march, brief skirmishes erupted repeatedly—monsters lashed out aggressively. During these clashes, several front-guard knights acted recklessly and perished.
The flank commander hurriedly approached the royal transport's viewing slit and reported the losses. Listening to him, Valdes merely grimaced.
"Are they serious? Dying to ordinary beasts?" the king spat in annoyance.
At that moment, the situation in the vanguard changed drastically. One of the knights marching in the front line spotted a massive figure stepping silently out of the thick brush directly across the column's path. Assuming the silhouette was another large monster, the soldier rushed forward with a shout, bringing a downward chop.
His sword shattered into tiny pieces upon hitting the armor. The machine didn't even sway. It was Iron's fourth golem. The golem acted without hesitation: its massive metal hand shot forward like lightning, grabbed the knight by his breastplate, and with one powerful motion slammed him vertically into the dirt, instantly crushing the steel.
"Get the cannons! Fire on it!" the vanguard commander screamed frantically, backing away.
Reserve gun crews hastily unlimbered their barrels and unleashed a simultaneous direct-fire volley. The projectiles struck the golem with a roar, shrouding it in a cloud of soot. However, when the smoke cleared, the soldiers saw that the golem was still standing ground. There wasn't even a dent on its armor.
Valdes felt his wagon shudder from the nearby blasts and yanked open the viewing hatch.
"What happened now? Why are we stopped?"
One of the mages escorting the wagon, staring fearfully at the magic field sensors, replied:
"Sire, an unknown entity has attacked us."
Valdes lost his patience completely and roared at the top of his lungs over the din:
"Damn it... Did we come here to fight monsters or what?! Grab the C14 and blow everything to hell!"
The commander hesitated for a moment upon hearing the order, but didn't argue. He rushed to the nearest supply wagon under heavy guard and retrieved a heavy metal bar with dim indicator lights from a reinforced crate—C14 explosives.
Meanwhile, the golem was tearing through the front ranks of knights. Masses of Chaos energy erupted from its open palms one after another, arcing into the sky directly over the advancing force. Ten rear mages reacted in sync. They quickly joined hands in front of them, projecting a cascade of ten defensive barriers lined up one after another. The first, topmost shield shattered with a thunderous bang under the Chaos strike, but the remaining ones held under the pressure. The energy dissipated.
"On three!" the commander shouted, flanking the golem. "One! Two! Three!"
He pulled the pin hard, tossed the C14 right at the golem's feet, and bolted back behind cover with all his might.
A pillar of fire surged into the sky, and the shockwave completely tore up and destroyed everything within a four-hundred-meter radius. When the dense dust screen settled somewhat, Valdes gave the order, and the column resumed its advance through the scorched swath.
But the march was cut short once more. A sharp, grinding whine of metal echoed from the smoke and soot. Despite the direct hit, the heavy construct began forcibly reassembling itself. Its massive chest armor was deeply cracked, coated in soot, and severely compromised, but the golem got to its feet and sprinted back toward the enemy formation.
"You've got to be kidding me..." the commander spat, watching the approaching golem.
At that moment, one of the mages stepped forward. He locked his eyes on the golem, laced his fingers, and uttered:
"Cataclysm."
The earth beneath the moving golem's feet instantly exploded, flying apart in chunks. Dense brown tendrils burst straight out of the resulting fissure. These bands wrapped tightly around the golem's limbs, twisting them and ripping the mechanism's joints apart. A violent surge of energy hurled the damaged golem backward. In the spell's culmination, all the soil masses hoisted into the air compressed above the machine into a single colossal, heavy boulder, which crashed down squarely onto the golem's cracked chest, pinning it to the ground.
The mage breathed heavily, his face turning pale as his knees buckled. The commander lunged forward just in time to catch him by the arm.
"Good work! Gunvest, over here! Get him medical aid, double time!" he ordered the approaching medics, who immediately took the mage away.
Valdes's remaining forces reformed and pushed further down the road. Around them, scorched by explosions and magic, a forest fire gradually began to take hold.
And behind them, amidst the burning tree debris, one of the golem's severed arms twitched and began slowly dragging itself back.
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