Chapter 78: The First Wave (2)
Before the gates opened, a figure stepped forward from the shadows of the fortress wall.
Torvin approached Malrik with measured steps. His weathered face remained calm, but there was a trace of regret in his eyes.
He stopped a few feet away and bowed his head.
"Seventh Banner Bearer." Malrik turned toward him.
"I’ve been given orders not to interfere in the battle."
Malrik studied him for a moment. He didn’t need to ask who had given the order.
The Elders... or perhaps Father.
It was likely for the same reason Eliza had been kept out of the trial. An Ascendant-Rank warrior would have made things far too easy for him.
Torvin straightened and stepped back, making his way toward the top of the walls. From there, he would only be able to watch the battle from a distance.
Malrik turned toward the gates.
Outside, the Morveth army had gathered in enormous numbers. Their forces were comparable to those standing behind him, making the battlefield ahead far more balanced than it had been during the siege.
Ronan stood near the front of the formation, golden mana already flickering around his fists. Kael stood beside him with his staff in hand, while the six warriors of Ashmore waited nearby.
Malrik’s gaze swept across the soldiers "Open the gates."
The massive doors groaned as they began to swing open.
Malrik stepped forward first, his spear in hand. Behind him came Ronan, Kael, the six warriors of Ashmore, and the assembled forces of Blackthorn.
They emerged from the fortress in an organized formation, their footsteps spreading across the battlefield.
For a brief moment, neither side moved.
Then...the battlefield erupted.
The Morveth charged first.
A massive wave of red eyes and blackened bodies surged across the open ground, their roars shaking the earth beneath them.
Malrik raised his hand, and dark mana gathered around his palm.
The shadows beneath his feet spread outward, twisting across the ground before countless figures began to emerge from them.
Wolves, spiders, faceless creatures, and dozens of Morveth that had joined his ranks in the forest.
One after another, their souls manifested into physical forms, emerald eyes glowing beneath the morning light.
The soldiers around Malrik couldn’t help but glance at the creatures forming behind them.
Even after seeing them inside Blackthorn, witnessing an entire army emerge from their commander’s shadow was still unsettling.
Ronan stared at the army for a moment before looking back at Malrik "You could’ve mentioned you had an army."
Malrik ignored the remark. His gaze settled on the massive Morveth standing at the front of the enemy forces.
"That one." His voice remained calm "I’ll deal with him."
Ronan’s golden mana flared brighter "Fine."
He turned toward the incoming Morveth and grinned "Then we’ll handle the rest."
Then both armies surged forward.
The earth shook beneath their advance as two armies charged toward the same battlefield.
The impact sent a deafening roar across the battlefield.
Ronan was the first to break through the front ranks.
Ronan’s golden mana flared around his fists as he charged into the Morveth ranks. His first punch landed with brutal force, crushing through the creature’s defenses and sending its massive body hurtling backward.
He didn’t slow down.
He drove forward, striking one Morveth after another with overwhelming physical strength, each blow forcing the surrounding creatures to stagger beneath the sheer force of his attacks.
"Push forward!" His voice thundered across the battlefield "Don’t let them surround us!"
The soldiers followed his command, shields locking together as they advanced behind him.
Not far away, Seren led another group of soldiers into the thick of the fighting.
"Hold your formation!"
Her sword flashed as she deflected a claw before driving her blade through the Morveth’s throat.
"Don’t chase them! Maintain the line!"
The soldiers obeyed immediately, their formation moving forward as a single unit.
At the rear of the formation, Mara provided constant support from a safe distance.
Her bow never stopped moving.
One arrow after another tore through the air, striking Morveth that threatened the advancing soldiers. Whenever a creature broke through the front line, another arrow was already on its way.
She never rushed.
She simply kept firing, steadily thinning the enemy ranks and covering the soldiers as they advanced.
Beside the advancing formation, Corin raised both hands.
Flames erupted from one palm and swept across the battlefield, engulfing several Morveth in a sea of fire.
The creatures screamed as the flames burned through their bodies.
But the flames were not ordinary. Hidden within them was a faint trace of Law.
Corin possessed the Law of Fire, a Low-Rank Law and one of the fundamental elemental Laws.
Fire was simple in nature, but extremely versatile.
Corin didn’t stop there. White lightning suddenly gathered around his other hand.
He thrust it forward.
A bolt tore across the battlefield and struck a cluster of Morveth, the impact exploding through their ranks.
This time, the power carried a different presence.
It came from his second Law—the Medium-Rank Law of Lightning.
Unlike the fundamental elemental Laws, Lightning was a more advanced Law, born from the development of elemental principles.
But Corin’s eyes suddenly sharpened. He brought both hands together.
Fire and lightning collided between his palms.
The flames twisted around the white lightning, while countless sparks erupted from within the blazing mass.
For a brief moment, the two Laws resisted each other.
Then...They fused.
A violent surge of crimson fire and white lightning erupted from Corin’s hands, forming a terrifying torrent that tore across the battlefield.
The ground beneath it shattered.
Morveth caught within its path were engulfed instantly, their bodies blasted apart by the combined force of heat and lightning.
The attack was far more destructive than either the flames or lightning alone.
Yet even this power had its limits. The Law of Thunderflame was still only a Medium-Rank Law.
It possessed far greater destructive power than Corin’s individual Laws, but it was nowhere near the level of the higher-ranked Laws.
Corin lowered his hands, breathing slightly heavier as the last traces of Thunderflame faded from the battlefield.
Only then did the true nature of the attack become clear.
Corin had not simply used two Laws at the same time. He had combined them.
Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind were considered the fundamental elemental Laws.
From these foundations, more complex Laws could emerge through combination and development.
When two compatible Laws were fused together, they could produce an entirely new Law with properties belonging to both.
Ice, for example, could be formed through the combination of Water and Wind.
Magma could emerge from Fire and Earth.
And in Corin’s case...Fire and Lightning had produced the Law of Thunderflame
A Derived Law.
Its power depended not only on the Laws being combined, but also on the compatibility between them and the user’s ability to control their fusion.
The greater the complexity of the combination, the greater the difficulty of mastering the resulting Law.
But the rank of a Law was not the only thing that determined its strength.
What mattered just as much was the user’s understanding of it.
The deeper one’s understanding of a Law, the more of its power they could draw upon—and the greater the strength their attacks could reach.
Even a Low-Rank Law could become terrifying in the hands of someone with profound understanding.
A master who had truly comprehended the Law of Fire could unleash flames powerful enough to melt mountains.
Corin was nowhere near that level.
His understanding of both Laws was still shallow, and as an Awakened-Rank warrior, the power he could draw from them remained limited.
Compared to someone like Lilith, whose mastery of her Law allowed her to manifest an entire fortress into reality, the gap was enormous.
Elsewhere, Lian slipped into the Morveth ranks.
His twin blades flashed through the chaos, striking with precise and controlled movements.
A Morveth suddenly turned toward him. But Lian was already gone.
His body shot forward with startling speed, covering several meters in an instant.
No footsteps followed his movement. No sound of steel cutting through the air.
He appeared behind the creature and drove his blade through its throat. The Morveth collapsed before it even realized what had happened.
Lian’s speed wasn’t simply the result of his physical ability.
A faint power surrounded his body, suppressing every sound he produced while reducing the resistance of the air against his movements.
The silence surrounding Lian was the work of a Low-Rank Law—the Law of Silence.
But the unnatural speed he displayed came from something else.
A Medium-Rank Law—the Law of Friction, which allowed him to reduce the resistance of the air around his body and move with far greater speed
By reducing friction around his body, Lian could move with far less resistance, allowing him to accelerate faster and reach speeds that would normally be difficult for someone of his level.
The Law of Friction was highly versatile, capable of enhancing its user as easily as it could hinder his enemies.
Another Morveth lunged at him.
Lian twisted past the attack, his body gliding forward with almost no resistance. His blade struck.
The creature’s movements suddenly slowed as the same Law took hold of its body, increasing resistance against every motion and robbing its attacks of their momentum.
Lian’s second blade flashed.
The Morveth’s body jerked as its slowed movements left it completely unable to evade.
The blade pierced its chest, and the creature collapsed heavily to the ground.