Chapter 303: Charge! [Bonus - ]
Sky decided not to give them that time. She was going to eliminate their primary combat threats one by one...
Sky turned his masked head toward two figures standing silently in the shadows behind the command vehicle.
They were two female Heroes clad in long pristine white cloaks adorned with glowing solar runes... Sky’s elite Light-Magic Specialists.
Sky offered them a firm decisive nod.
"Deal with her. Neutralize the shadow woman before she reaches our rear lines."
The two white-cloaked Heroes bowed silently in unison.
FLASH!
In a fraction of a second, both women dissolved into beams of pure blinding light, vanishing across the battlefield at high speed to intercept Tasmin.
’I’d like to see your move Vespera... come on, make things interesting.’
Out on the central battlefield, three hundred yards ahead of the open iron gates...
"Hahahahaha! We’re finally about to engage!" Brida roared out with boisterous bloodthirsty laughter.
The S-Rank Grand Titan Bastion stood in the center of the field, her six-foot three frame clad in armor.
She hoisted her massive, double-bitted Titan’s Cleaver onto her broad shoulder with her other arm bracing the towering Steel Aegis shield flat against the dirt.
A few paces behind her in the shadows, Tasmin, the S-Rank Shadow Commander shot Brida a flat unamused deadpan look.
"Calm down, Brida," Tasmin remarked smoothly, her twin shortswords spinning around her fingers with hypnotic speed. "You’re acting like you haven’t seen a fight in three years."
"I can’t help it!" Brida grinned savagely, her eyes burning with fanatical excitement. "I can’t wait to break some skulls and smash through their lines!"
Standing in a tight tactical formation alongside them were three other Vanguard warriors.
Gunnhild, holding her heavy ashwood spear with a confident smirk...
Hilda, adjusting her iron gauntlets and Fenna, who was wearing a dark traveler’s cloak over her sniper gear, her composite longbow slung over her back and her compact wrist-bow locked onto her arm.
There were exactly five members in this forward strike force: Tasmin, Brida, Gunnhild, Hilda, and Fenna.
Lord Silas had laid out the overarching battle strategy for them before they had stepped out through the gates this morning... and to be completely honest, every single girl in the squad loved their Lord’s plan.
Technically, if Silas wanted to end this Lord War instantly, all he had to do was send Eluned or Morwenna onto the field.
Eluned could sink The Unmovable Wall into a bottomless abyss with a single gesture, and Morwenna could slice the entire mobile fortress in half with her spatial magic.
The war would be over in less than five seconds!
...But Silas had explicitly forbidden them from taking the easy way out.
Relying entirely on SSS-Rank powerhouses would never help the girls to grow, evolve, or learn how to navigate high-stakes combat on their own.
Silas wanted his girls to become strong... strong enough to stand on their own two feet, face rival armies, and overcome adverse odds through sheer skill, teamwork, and tactical collaboration.
Their objective today was straightforward... Charge into the enemy vanguard, slaughter or neutralize Lord Sky’s frontline officers, clear a path through the infantry, and allow Fenna to destroy the remaining heavy mana cannons mounted on the fortress hull.
And, of course, as Silas had smirked and told them right before they marched out.
’Doing it this way will make you girls look infinitely cooler on the global broadcast.’
Tasmin’s lips twitched into a fond subtle smile as she recalled her Lord’s words.
’If My Lord says it will help us look cool...’ Tasmin thought with diehard devotion, ’...then it will help us look cool.’
"Don’t forget the plan, Brida," Tasmin reminded her smoothly, adjusting the Eclipse-Thread chains wrapped around her forearms.
"Yeah, yeah~!" Brida waved her hand dismissively, her red eyes fixed on the charging tide of supercharged soldiers. "I know my job! I’m the wall!"
Beside her, Gunnhild clutched her heavy ashwood spear, her knuckles turning white as she let out a excited breath.
"I can’t believe I’m back in action, baby! My spear hand has been itching for days!"
Fenna pulled her cloak hood over her head, her sharp hazel eyes narrowing as she calibrated her wrist-bow.
"I just need a clear line of sight to those upper gun decks. Give me five seconds of clear air, and I’ll silence those cannons permanently."
The roaring battle cries of Sky’s supercharged 10x-buffed army echoed loudly across the field, growing closer by the second.
Dozens of heavy knights, mercenary shock-troopers, and warriors were surging toward them like a tidal wave of golden-white mana.
Tasmin’s eyes narrowed into sharp cold slits. She raised her hand, issuing a crisp tactical command to the squad.
"Behind Brida. Now."
In a heartbeat, Gunnhild, Hilda, and Fenna smoothly shifted their positions, arranging themselves directly behind Brida’s towering mountain-like frame.
Far across the field, Lord Sky, her officers, and over three hundred and fifty million viewers watching the stream looked at the Vanguard’s bizarre formation in total confusion.
Why was the all-powerful terrifying shadow woman... Tasmin deliberately standing behind this broad, burly shieldmaiden?
Was this shield-bearing woman some sort of hidden God of War?!
Brida lowered her center of gravity, her hands gripping the handles of her Titan’s Cleaver and Steel Aegis.
She turned her head slightly, looking back over her shoulder at Tasmin with a wide feral grin.
"So really..." Brida chuckled, her voice deep and vibrating with raw power. "...I don’t have to hold back, right? Like... not even a little bit?"
Tasmin stepped up behind her, gently placing her gloved hand flat onto Brida’s reinforced shoulder plate.
Tasmin’s crimson eyes flashed with lethal shadow magic as she whispered.
"Give them hell, Brida."
"GWAHAHAHA! WITH PLEASURE!" Brida roared out.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Brida took a single violent step forward onto the grass!
The moment her boot struck the soil, a colossal tremor erupted across the terrain.
The ground for fifty yards in every direction shattered and vibrated wildly, kicking up dirt, rocks, and grass into the air.
[PASSIVE SKILL ACTIVATED: Unyielding Bedrock Body]
[VITALITY: 5,000 / 5,000]
Brida’s muscle and bone density expanded to adamantine, mountain-like levels.
Her physical form radiated an aura of unshakeable gravity, rendering her completely immune to knockback, stagger, or displacement.
She brought her massive Steel Aegis shield flat in front of her chest, her red eyes burning like twin suns through her visor.
"COME ON, YOU BASTARDS!" Brida bellowed at the top of her lungs.
[ACTIVE SKILL ACTIVATED: Aegis Charge]
BO-BO-BO-BOOM!
A blinding blood-red crimson aura erupted from Brida’s body.
She surged forward across the battlefield like a runaway, five-hundred-ton armored locomotive.
Her boots tore three-foot-deep trenches into the dirt as she accelerated to high speeds, generating a massive boom around her shield!
The supercharged 10x-buffed vanguard of Sky’s army reached her position at that exact second—
KABAAAAAAM!
The impact was utter apocalyptic carnage.
The moment Brida’s Steel Aegis shield slammed into the frontline of Sky’s heavy knights, the laws of physics ceased to exist.
Even with Elm’s ten-fold physical durability buff, the mind-boggling kinetic force behind 5,000 Vitality moving at high speeds was completely incomprehensible!
"TAKE THIS BITCH!"
The first person struck... a massive six-foot-six heavy knight in full plate mail was completely crushed upon contact.
His steel chestplate flattened like paper, his bones pulverized instantly, and a spray of crimson blood erupted across the broad face of Brida’s Aegis shield!
"AHHHHHHH!"
"WHAT IS THIS MONSTER?!"
"MY LEGS! MY ARMOR IS CRUSHED!"
Screams of horror-filled agony echoed across the field as Brida plowed straight through the center of Sky’s army but she didn’t slow down.
She tore a gory, twenty-yard-wide breach directly through their dense infantry lines, spraying blood, shattered shields, and broken swords across her Aegis like a bloody snowplow.
"HAHAHAHAHA! MORE! GIVE ME MORE!" Brida laughed boisterously, sweeping her Titan’s Cleaver in massive horizontal arcs as she tore through their rear ranks, leaving a wide trail of destruction and groaning soldiers in her wake.
Behind her, the charging army was left completely shattered, disoriented, and paralyzed in terror!
Stepping out from the wake of dust and blood left behind by Brida’s charge, Gunnhild stepped forward.
Gunnhild rolled her shoulders, her hands gripping her heavy ashwood spear. Her sharp eyes scanned the confused, trembling stragglers who had survived Brida’s initial impact.
A cool confident smirk touched Gunnhild’s lips as her eyes ignited with a bright, swirling gale-force mana.
"Alright, boys and girls..." Gunnhild spoke smoothly, her voice echoing over the groans of the wounded as she casually whipped her heavy spear sideways in a wide sweeping arc. "...for your final act... you will now..."
The atmospheric pressure around her spear tip condensed to a terrifying density.
"...DISAPPEAR!"
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A catastrophic wave of compressed, hurricane-force wind magic erupted outward from her spear blade.
The invisible wall of atmospheric pressure blasted forward in a broad thirty-meter cone.
Dozens of disoriented enemy soldiers were lifted clean off their feet, their armor tearing apart as the gale blasted them backward through the air, crashing into trees and rocks with bone-crushing impacts, killing several instantly.
Before the dust could even settle—
SWISH!
Fenna ran gracefully past Gunnhild, her traveler’s cloak fluttering in the wind as her boots touched the blood-stained grass.
Fenna sprinted forward, her sharp hazel eyes scanning the battlefield, and shouted back at Gunnhild.
"Try to keep killing the women to a minimum, Gunnhild! For the men here, you can do whatever you want... kill them or break their bones! But the female soldiers are going to be our new territory sisters after we win this war!"
Suddenly, from the cloud of dust on her left—
"DIE, YOU BITCH!"
A massive burly mercenary officer who had lost his right arm and his left eye from Brida’s initial charge let out a desperate bloodthirsty roar.
He had somehow tanked Gunnhild’s wind blast, and was now diving straight toward Fenna with his broadsword held in a two-handed overhead execution strike.
Fenna didn’t even flinch and she didn’t draw her longbow.
’I still don’t know why I was chosen... My Lord said I’m special... me...?’
As the massive officer plummeted down toward her head, Fenna smoothly dropped her hips, sliding flat on her back across the damp grass directly beneath his open legs!
While sliding under his falling body, Fenna raised her left forearm.
CLICK! THWIP!
’I’m not special but I’ve been trusted... and for that reason...’
The compact high-pressure wrist-bow mounted on her left forearm fired a single, three-inch micro-bolt point-blank through the bottom of the officer’s chin!
THWACK!
The steel micro-bolt penetrated cleanly through his skull, exiting out the top of his helmet in a spray of grey matter.
’I will fight for my Lord until the day I die.’
The massive officer’s eyes went completely life-less mid-air with his heavy body crashing face-first into the dirt behind her with a dull sound.
THUD!
Fenna smoothly popped back up onto her feet, dusting off her cloak, and muttered with a quiet deadpan huff.
"No offense... but I’d like to be touched by only my Lord."
Standing near the edge of the clearing, Tasmin observed the team’s seamless execution with a satisfied calm nod.
’This is okay...’ Tasmin evaluated in her mind. ’We’re making exceptional progress.’
She looked at the massive cloud of dust left behind by Brida’s charge.
The thick haze was hanging heavy in the air, significantly reducing optical visibility across the central battlefield.
Of course, Lord Sky’s high-tech streaming drones were equipped with thermal and mana-line sensors, so the viewers watching on the stream could still see through the dust and catch every single detail clearly...
Suddenly, Tasmin’s ears twitched beneath her pigtails.
From the dust haze directly to her left and right, two blinding, superheated pillars of pure Light Magic cut through the air, closing in on her position at light-speed!
It was the two white-cloaked Hero assassins sent by Lord Sky.
’I knew it...’
Light magic was the polar-opposite elemental counter to Shadow magic... capable of burning through shadow-submersion, illuminating dark stealth seams, and disrupting void-bleed effects.
If a standard shadow mage were caught between two high-tier Light Specialists, they would struggle immensely, get overwhelmed, and be forced onto the defensive.
...However, Tasmin was NOT a standard shadow mage. She was the Shadow Commander of the Blessed Land!
Instead of retreating into the safety of Brida’s Bastion barrier, a dark wicked, and utterly terrifying grin broke across Tasmin’s face.
HUMMMMMM!
[ACTIVE SKILL ACTIVATED: Shadow Strengthening]
[MANA POOL: 6,600 / 6,600]
Dense murky void magic erupted from Tasmin’s core.
Her shadow beneath her boots expanded, rising up and wrapping around her body like a suit of living, writhing dark armor.
Her physical stats doubled instantly, and dark terrifying shadow tendrils flared out from her shoulders like demon wings.
Tasmin turned her head toward Fenna and Gunnhild, her crimson eyes glowing with absolute, murderous thrill.
"Follow Brida and advance," Tasmin ordered smoothly.
Fenna paused, looking back at her through the dust.
"Why, Tasmin? Those two are Light Specialists... their magic is designed to counter your shadow!"
Tasmin’s grin widened, revealing her sharp fangs as shadow tendrils whipped violently around her blades.
"Why?" Tasmin chuckled darkly, her eyes locking onto the two incoming light-beams. "...Because I have bitches to kill."
Fenna looked at her, blinked her hazel eyes, and offered a flat deadpan nod.
"Fair enough," Fenna agreed instantly. She turned around, grabbing Gunnhild by the arm. "Gunnhild, let’s go! Keep up with Brida!"
"ON IT!" Gunnhild cheered.
With a sudden burst of speed, Fenna and Gunnhild dashed forward through the dust, following directly behind the continuous wave of devastation that Brida was carving through Sky’s army.
Left alone in the center of the dust haze, Tasmin slowly raised her twin void-blades, the Eclipse-Thread chains rattling against her wrists as the two solar light assassins burst out from the blinding glare.
Tasmin’s crimson eyes burned in the dark, and she whispered into the light.
"Let’s see if your light can outburn my shadow."