Two-Hundred-Year Veterans
Without a doubt, Luca was a true Sarkaz elite.
In the war two hundred years ago, he could take down a Steam Knight on his own. Now, another two hundred years had passed...
In the future assassination of Theresia years from now, he would be one of the Shroud Assassins. Back then, he too was a hero who had charged toward the allied forces alongside Theresia for the sake of Kazdel.
But it was precisely because they had participated in that war two hundred years ago that they followed Theresis without hesitation.
The fury of Kazdel being slaughtered scorched the chests of these old men every waking moment.
In that assassination years later, every one of those assassins—none of them inferior to him—would cut off their twin horns, discard their names, and even destroy every inch of skin that could be considered a characteristic. It was because they believed that once they decided to slaughter the Demon King with such base methods, they were no longer fit to be remembered by the Sarkaz.
They could not be remembered.
They wanted to do one last thing for the Sarkaz before they died, which is why they stood before Theresia...
To kill her—the Demon King they had once sworn to serve.
They knew Theresia's strength better than anyone; two hundred years ago, they had won that war by following right behind her.
Yet they came anyway, carrying a resolve for certain death, in the identity of the most damnable traitors, to descend into hell with Theresia.
Undoubtedly, they were filled with reverence for Theresia. She was, after all, the hero who had led them to victory in the war against aggression, the Demon King who had guided the Sarkaz through two hundred years of storms and trials.
Compared to those Demon Kings of the past who were assassinated through various schemes and intrigues, Theresia's death was profoundly heartbreaking.
And even in such heartbreak, they chose this path.
Because everything of their past had been consumed by fury.
Recalling the war from two hundred years ago, Luca suddenly gripped the long saber in his hand with conviction.
He knew the enemy before him was countless times more terrifying than a Steam Knight. He could tear apart steel armor to drag a knight out and kill him, but against this person, he would consider it a success if he could even swing his blade once.
After all, he had seen with his own eyes how General Theresis had returned to the formation looking battered and defeated.
If one of the Six Heroes had suffered such a setback, what could he do?
But even if it was only one swing... he had to make it!
In a daze, he seemed to hear a cry from the soul—it was the painful grievance of the suffering Sarkaz collective consciousness!
They wept and decried the world's injustice; they lamented the repeated collapses of Kazdel; they roared at all the suffering the Sarkaz had endured.
At that moment, boundless power seemed to surge within him. Facing that unimaginably terrifying enemy, fire burned in his eyes. He raised his long saber high and lunged at her in a strike that completely discarded his own life!
Clang!
It was the sound of her weapon clashing with his saber. Luca's blade was instantly knocked aside.
The gap was simply too vast. Hands that could tear open a Steam Knight's armor were no match for a casual wave of her hand.
Luca's full-strength strike only managed to slightly delay her footsteps.
But it was because of this tiny delay that he saw the weapons in her hands clearly.
Two unknown swords, still kept inside their scabbards.
'Ah, Princess Theresia... even though we are factually standing on opposite sides in a fight to the death, you are still so gentle.'
The swords in her hands hadn't even been allowed to Cleave.
How... arrogant!
Xia Yu looked at the Sarkaz soldier (actually an officer) who was the first to charge her, feeling slightly surprised.
That force just now wasn't much different from when she was swatting Theresis around; she hadn't expected someone to actually block it.
The Sarkaz really were a land of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
She raised the long sword in her hand high, intending to strike his shoulder, but in the next instant, the Sarkaz lunged at her without a single thought for his own defense.
Luca knew that because of this armored person's arrogance, he only had one chance.
Those sheathed swords wouldn't kill him, but the saber in his hand... it had been sharpened for two hundred years.
In an instant, he felt a sharp pain from his shoulder. He was nearly flattened entirely.
But he endured it!
In the next second, that long saber thrust out fiercely, aiming for the armored person's neck!
He didn't know where the weak points of this armor were, so he didn't even dare to use a slash, choosing instead the thrust with the strongest single-point penetration.
Success! Seeing the tip of his blade successfully strike the armor at her neck, a flash of joy appeared in his eyes.
But in the next second, a feeling of powerlessness transmitted back to him. Luca watched as his attack—one capable of piercing a Steam Knight—slid off the slender neck armor.
The combat instinct honed over hundreds of years told him this wasn't a miss.
It was that armor... it was simply too hard.
How could it be this hard...
Luca's body was still rushing toward her, but his blade had already been extended; there was no chance for a second move.
Xia Yu used a knee strike to send the Sarkaz flying, then followed up with a direct downward strike of her sword, slamming him heavily into the ground.
Luca felt as though his internal organs had shifted out of place; his entire body was numb.
"What is your name?" Xia Yu asked, looking at the fallen Sarkaz.
Not just anyone could take two or three of her moves. With that force just now, even Theresis would have been blasted away; after all, this was Sam in a state of Complete Combustion.
"Lu... ka..." he said haltingly.
"Luca..." Xia Yu recalled for a moment. "I heard Theresia say that in the war two hundred years ago, there was a Sarkaz warrior named Luca who destroyed a Steam Knight alone?"
"It was me..." Luca coughed twice and looked behind her.
His saber had landed there.
"You are quite good," Xia Yu nodded. "Not everyone can take two moves from me."
"Cough... Sarkaz..." Luca said intermittently. "The Princess... where is she... taking the Sarkaz?"
"Perhaps to a future where everyone can eat their fill," Xia Yu replied.
"...That's good," Luca's mouth twitched into a faint grin.
Then he lost consciousness entirely.
Xia Yu stepped over his body and headed toward the Sarkaz formation.
An anonymous warrior charged at her.
The next second, he and his weapon were sent flying into the sky together.
Not every Sarkaz had combat power like Luca's; the vast majority of people couldn't even take a single blow.
After defeating about a hundred Sarkaz, Xia Yu encountered the second one.
Scythe-Beard.
One of the most special among the countless Sarkaz with the same name. In the war two hundred years ago, after being captured, he saved three compatriots from a Spire Caster camp and destroyed their magic circle...
It was equivalent to slaying the general and seizing the flag in the enemy camp.
Coincidentally, he was also a member of the Shroud Assassins years later.
Scythe-Beard was a Caster; he raised his hand and bombarded Xia Yu with a string of spells.
The next second, the giant fireballs were directly smashed apart by Xia Yu as she rushed before him with unparalleled speed and power.
But Scythe-Beard did not dodge or evade. Like Luca, he chose to face Xia Yu's attack head-on. He was instantly forced into a half-kneel by the heavy strike to his shoulder, but in the next second, he death-gripped the leg of the Sam armor.
A complex witchcraft was instantly activated—a desperate spell that involved self-detonation by sacrificing oneself.
Xia Yu couldn't understand the spell, but looking at the tragic eyes of the Sarkaz warriors around her and their suicidal charge to pin her down, she knew it wasn't anything good.
So she took off directly, carrying the clinging Scythe-Beard into the air, and then performed a supersonic dive. A Caster's body was ultimately not as robust as a warrior like Luca; Scythe-Beard eventually couldn't hold onto her leg and was slammed heavily onto the ground, losing consciousness.
The spell also stopped because it was interrupted.
Wait, are the Sarkaz all this crazy? They'll self-detonate just like that!
Xia Yu clicked her tongue and charged into the crowd once again.
Theresis watched as the warriors loyal to him fell one by one.
No one could withstand more than two moves from that cyan meteor.
He saw a one-armed figure.
Theresis recognized that man.
His name was Levin.
In a dangerous operation during the war two hundred years ago, he had blocked crossbow bolts for Theresis and lost an arm, but he survived that hell and persisted until the retreat...
Even with one arm, he could be called a pillar of the Sarkaz.
But before that armored person, he fell after resisting for only three seconds.
The massive formation of ten thousand people had been bored through from front to back.
Yet countless Sarkaz warriors still charged toward that cyan meteor one after another.
Xia Yu realized she had somewhat underestimated the Sarkaz's morale. She thought that after the previous events, their spirits would flag, but now it seemed the entire Sarkaz host was permeated with the aura of an army that fights with its back to the wall.
Suddenly, Xia Yu thought of Luca.
The only Sarkaz whose name she had asked, recalling the fire burning fiercely in his eyes.
It was the fire of anger.
If she were using the body of the Tarnished right now, the Frenzied Flame would likely be dancing wildly.
This Sarkaz army defending Kazdel was the elite of the elites. With their crude equipment, they could even fight to a draw or gain the upper hand against a hundred Victorian warships amidst Originium Storms outside Londinium.
Most of these people... had experienced the war two hundred years ago!
They weren't the new generation of Sarkaz. When the allied forces of the four nations ravaged Kazdel, they were already warriors.
They had already lost too much. The stable life the new generation sought... they didn't care about it at all.
They only wanted revenge!
Thinking of this, Xia Yu looked at the Sarkaz warriors charging at her one after another and sighed.
They were all tough nuts to crack.
But that was fine. The toughest bones of Kazdel were basically all here. As long as she crushed them, there wouldn't be much resistance for what came next.
As for the Sarkaz hatred that had spanned ten thousand years...
Tsk, that wasn't her headache. Let Theresia solve it herself.
Her current persona was a cold mercenary.
A mercenary shouldn't have too many thoughts of their own; just ensure the employer's mission is completed.
Another two-hundred-year veteran fell.
After boring through the formation, Xia Yu killed her way from left to right.
But the Sarkaz offensive remained continuous.
She silently disarmed the warrior before her and gently struck her shoulder with the sheathed long sword.
This was a child.
At least she looked like a child, not just in stature but in those innocent eyes.
But she was already quite strong; no wonder she could join the Royal Court Army.
In the next moment, countless more Sarkaz warriors lunged forward.
"It's completely useless," the Shapeshifter Collective said, shaking its head while watching the Sarkaz warriors repeatedly charge and fall.
"Hey, you aren't actually counting on using human waves to drain her energy, are you?"
"It's only been how long? Nearly ten thousand people have been dealt with."
Ten thousand—it sounded like a lot, but the vast majority of people lacked the strength to block even one of Xia Yu's strikes. In fact, the shockwave from Xia Yu breaking the sound barrier while moving was enough to knock some people unconscious.
"You can go up yourself," Theresis said. "Go look for an opening."
"Fine," the Shapeshifter Collective couldn't wait to transform into an ordinary Sarkaz warrior and charge along with the sea of people.
"Isn't that too reckless?" Quisatustar couldn't help but ask. "The Shapeshifter... likely has no way to deal with that iron armor either."
"It's better than doing nothing," the Forager King shook his head. "We didn't expect it to achieve much anyway."
Having said that, he and Theresis exchanged a look; they already had a conclusion in their hearts.
In this battle, the Sarkaz were destined to lose.
Theresis's precious saber was already nicked and dented, yet that armored person didn't have a single scratch.
How could there be such cheating armor in this world!
An army of forty thousand might look large, but what was the use if they couldn't even break her defense?
"Perhaps we can feign submission for now," Quisatustar's eyes flashed. "She can't be wearing that armor every waking moment, can she? There will be a time when she takes it off."
"When that time comes... hmph, there are plenty of methods in ancient court intrigues."
"I suggest you don't try," Theresis shook his head. "After you went to report, she saw that I couldn't break her defense with my blade, so she took off the armor to fight me."
Both the Forager King and Quisatustar instinctively looked over.
Indeed, the dirt-covered Theresis's expensive yet practical clothes were now a dusty mess.
"I didn't win," Theresis said with a stoic face. "Her speed and power were both superior to mine. I simply couldn't win."
Even if the girl inside that iron armor looked soft and frail.
But her strikes were ruthless; every hit left a crater!
Theresis was starting to feel a bit traumatized.
"It's our turn to go," the Forager King completely gave up on the idea of victory.
How was this a fight? This wasn't a war at all!
Seeing this, Quisatustar realized he couldn't continue to hide his strength. Mainly, everyone else was going all out; if you still stayed like this...
★ ★ ★
T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
★ ★ ★
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