Our Family Has Fallen

Junia’s Divine Arts greatly disrupted the heretics’ attack, also drawing their attention.

Those heretics who weren’t affected by the Sanctuary immediately charged, while the hidden Heretic Priests attempted to cast spells to break the Sanctuary.

Junia needed to maintain the Sanctuary; how could William and Fergus, both just one man and one dog, hold out?

"Watch out for the bombs!"

A shout echoed, and several objects flew directly from the roadside wilderness, precisely landing among the heretics and exploding. The shock wave wasn’t very damaging to the heretics, but it was extremely insulting.

It sent them into a brief daze, and that was enough, as more bombs came crashing down.

"Hahaha! Die, all of you!"

A hidden gunshot sounded, and a Heretical Witch casting spells fell to the ground, not even realizing where the shot came from.

Immediately after, a roar resounded as a figure resembling a Savage Bear burst out from the forest, clad in Heavy Armor, with an exaggerated mountainous physique, wielding a decapitating Great Axe in hand.

Charging into the heretics like a tank plowing the ground, he sent several flying before barely stopping, yet seemed to have boundless strength, swinging the Great Axe without pause.

In the next second, the Great Axe drew blood, a splash of fresh blood poured out as one heretic was chopped in half, spilling various messy things everywhere.

"Battle, glorious!"

Bear in mind, they weren’t the only team clearing heretics in the area; the Honor Guard was constantly searching near the front line to eliminate the threat posed by the heretics.

Thus, many supported Dismas and his team’s decision, and rushed over as soon as they realized the situation.

The Honor Guard was only thirty people, yet they were more formidable than hundreds of prisoners, successfully thwarting the heretics’ advance.

Because they had the best equipment, and were mostly of Elite strength.

The situation seemed to be changing, but Balistan’s orders were to retreat.

"Soldiers, carry them and retreat in an orderly fashion; Honor Guard, form up and stage a phase blockade, orderly retreat."

By "them," Balistan was referring to the ordinary people.

These prisoners were numerous but lacked any combat ability and were quite a hindrance.

And for those decisively defeated earlier, they had no choice but to comply; the soldiers, though reluctant, had to obey orders.

Under the protection of the Sanctuary, they quickly withdrew, even carrying away the wounded...

But eventually, the power of the Sanctuary, being merely an equipment enhancement, was exhausted and extinguished, and Junia’s condition wasn’t good, akin to a nearly extinguished torch.

Fortunately, the time gained as a result allowed Balistan to reorganize the troops, though the numbers were greatly reduced, the members of the Honor Guard grew stronger.

Moreover, their task wasn’t to fight to the death but to buy time, withdrawing steadily.

Yet the situation wasn’t much improved, because a very bizarre scenario emerged where the heretics injured by throat slashing, headshots, even being bisected, did not die.

Rather, in the absence of the flame suppression brought by the Sanctuary, their wounds quickly healed and their strength became even more formidable.

Incredibly, from the neck wounds grew mouths filled with sharp fangs, opening and closing consciously, craving flesh.

The exploded head, torn helmet, flesh all expanded the mask, squeezing out extra flesh from the gap, faintly visible was an eerie eyeball peering.

Most bizarre was that from the severed two halves of the body flesh tumors grew unrestrainedly.

This kind of situation was a new experience even for the Honor Guard members, they couldn’t withstand it.

"Apply the medicine!"

Dismas shouted, remaining very calm, directly applying powder to the Short Sword.

The Honor Guard’s equipment was naturally the best, similarly, those special potions naturally existed.

This was a specially effective Corpse Decomposition Spore against the heretics when applied to the flesh; while it didn’t kill them, it restrained the peculiar flesh.

Only evidently less so now, as the thing sterilized by Lance presents less favorable outcomes against the increasingly grotesque heretics, without the previous suppression of self-healing nor the corrosive effect on flesh.

What remained was mere slight restraint, which if not consistently applied quickly wore off, failing to truly kill them.

The heretics’ flesh proliferated uncontrollably, even consuming all flesh, whether from their comrades or recently fallen prisoners.

As if a bit more flesh could expedite ascension, they even fought over those, devouring chunks, their inherently grotesque regenerative ability further improved.

Luckily, those ordinary people retreated quickly; otherwise, witnessing this scene might have driven more to collapse.

They likely weren’t afraid of dying in battle, but watching flesh consumed by heretics could scarcely be tolerated!

"Away, blasphemous entities!"

Junia felt no fear, only anger, shouting at the flesh-consuming heretics, raising the Iron Torch issuing a judgment.

Yet whether due to exhaustion of the torch’s power or deteriorating condition, the Divine Arts’ power faded feebly.

But Junia felt a feedback of force, as if the Holy Light urged her to vanquish the blasphemers.

Truth be told, she was not a Mendicant Monk, still too inexperienced, and without the torch’s enhancement not even considered an Elite.

But Hamlet wasn’t comprised only of just them.