Chapter 494: Mental Breakdown. (Bonus Chapter)
"Defend!"
"Defend!"
The Guard Captain shouted, veins bulging on his forehead with sweat dripping down from the corners of his face.
His voice had already become hoarse from repeatedly issuing commands.
Blood was splattered across his breastplate armor, while one corner seemed to have been chipped off during the fierce battle.
Around him, the patrol guards and the gate security guard all formed small groups to fight the undead soldiers.
They moved together, supporting one another as they desperately resisted the relentless attack.
Even then, the situation was grim and deadly. Any slight mistake would result in their doom. One careless movement was enough to cost an entire group their lives.
As the strongest among them, the Guard Captain took it upon himself to command the battle. He knew that if he lost his bearing, then everyone would be doomed.
"Don’t let them breach your defense!"
"Shields! Shields!"
While he was coordinating the battlefield in his area, he deflected the spear strikes of two undead soldiers and immediately retaliated.
Bang! Bang!
He knocked aside their spears with his overwhelming might and struck swiftly before they could recover.
Thud! Thud!
The two undead soldiers were cleaved apart, their bodies falling to the ground like dry wood. Their severed limbs rolled across the bloodstained road.
But there was no smile on his face.
His expression remained as grim as ever as two more undead soldiers were already charging toward him without the slightest hesitation.
Bang! Bang!
He raised his saber and brought it down, cutting the two undead into pieces.
"When is this going to end?"
"Where are the King and the Elders?" he muttered in annoyance.
His voice carried both frustration and desperation.
When they were summoned to the palace, never in his wildest dreams had he expected he was walking into a full-blown war.
Worse, he had never expected their enemies would not be the living but the undead.
He tried to wrap his head around how their clan had managed to provoke such an existence, but he simply could not.
At the beginning of the battle, he had not considered the undead to be such terrifying foes. But as the battle continued, his expression gradually turned into one of horror.
Kill one, two would appear.
Kill two, four would appear.
They were endless and tireless.
They just kept coming and coming.
He had forgotten how many times he had swung his weapon, and by now, his arms had already become numb from exhaustion. Every swing felt heavier than the last.
He wanted to drop his weapon and rest, but whenever he looked into the hollow sockets of the undead soldiers burning with eerie soul fire, he did not dare.
Suddenly, he noticed a drastic change on the battlefield.
"How is this possible?!" he exclaimed and rushed forward, his heart pounding heavily against his chest. Cold sweat instantly drenched his back.
Fear and panic gripped his heart like a vice, squeezing relentlessly while strange thoughts whispered within his mind.
’The end has come...’
’Prepare for your end...’
’Embrace death... and you shall find solace.’
He shook his head vehemently, trying to throw those thoughts out of his mind.
But to his surprise, instead of disappearing, the strange whispers only grew louder and louder, as though countless voices were speaking directly into his soul.
What had he seen that shocked him so greatly and nearly drove him into a mental breakdown?
Previously, the undead soldiers fought individually, and at worst, two of them would charge the same target simultaneously.
But now, they were moving in groups just like the Scorpion Men. Worse still, every group carried different weapons.
It was as if they had suddenly become enlightened and mastered the art of war.
Thus, how could the Guard Captain not suffer a mental breakdown?
Originally, fighting the undead soldiers was already a pain in the ass, but now...
Ahhh! Ahhhh!
Various miserable screams echoed through the air. Cries of pain and misery filled every corner of the battlefield.
"My hand! My hand... Ahhh!"
"Nooo! Nooo! Don’t come toward me!"
With the undead soldiers forming smaller groups, their killing efficiency rose to another level. Their attacks became smoother, faster, and far deadlier than before.
If previously they were already killing machines, now they had turned into meat grinders.
Before them, the patrol guards and the wall guards stood no chance. Their desperate resistance crumbled under the coordinated assault.
Their advantage of overwhelming a single undead had disappeared.
Thus, it became a killing spree.
Heads were severed from necks.
Tails were brutally chopped off.
Weapons were shattered into pieces.
Many tried to escape, but how could they escape?
Everywhere was filled with undead soldiers.
Huh!
The Guard Captain halted in his tracks, his chest rising and falling violently. He had not stopped because he wanted to.
He had been forced to stop.
Standing across from him was an undead draped in a black cloak. Unlike the other undead, it remained completely still, silently watching him.
’Where did this come from?!’ his instincts screamed.
He instinctively took a step backward, his back drenched in cold sweat.
’I should just escape. I can’t die here.’
Just as he prepared to flee, the cloaked undead charged forward. Its speed was unlike that of any undead he had ever seen.
It covered the short distance in the blink of an eye, appearing directly before the Guard Captain.
’Danger!’
Without hesitation, he raised his saber to defend himself.
Clang! Clang!
From beneath the cloak, a massive butcher knife emerged and repeatedly struck his saber.
Sparks flew in every direction.
Again and again.
The massive butcher knife descended relentlessly without pause or rest, each strike carrying terrifying force.
’How could this be?!’
Alarm rang throughout the Guard Captain’s mind. This had gone far beyond his comprehension.
For a full three minutes, their weapons collided continuously without either side stopping.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The deafening sound of metal striking metal echoed across the battlefield. Watching the terrifying duel, the nearby Scorpion Men instinctively retreated farther away.
The battle was simply too frightening.
Just as the Guard Captain prepared for another butcher knife strike, a massive kick suddenly slammed into his chest.
Bang!
Ahhhh!
The air was violently forced from his lungs as he was sent flying backward.
He crashed heavily onto the ground before tumbling several more meters, finally coming to a stop in a pool of blood.
Puh!
He coughed up a mouthful of blood, his vision blurring.
His head rang continuously, and every bone in his body screamed in pain.
However, he had no time to care about any of that. The cloaked undead had already appeared before him once again.
Hastily, he raised his saber to protect his body. But to his shock, the attack he had been expecting never came.
Just as he thought it was an illusion, an overwhelming sense of death swallowed him whole.
His instincts screamed frantically.
’A feint...’
That was his final thought before a cold flash swept across his vision.
Swish!
His head separated cleanly from his neck.
Blood erupted like a crimson fountain as his head rolled several meters across the battlefield, his eyes still frozen in disbelief.
His headless body remained standing for a brief moment before collapsing heavily onto the blood-soaked ground.
Thud!
Looking at the headless Guard Captain lying on the ground, the cloaked undead merely stared at him for a second before turning away.
Without the slightest emotion or hesitation, it disappeared into the battlefield in search of its next target.
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[AN: Who can guess which undead was in the last scene?
This Chapter is sponsored by: Daemoncles
]