Chapter 57: Defeat

 

“Exceed thy limits. I, the Harbinger, bring my enemies to death, the reaper’s blade! Calamity Spear EX!” Harbin finished her chant and let loose a dark glowing spear towards the humans that were blocking her way to Klauna’s position.

The skill that was just used was an upgrade over the Calamity Spear that Harbin perfected over the past year. A skill of the same grade as Klauna’s grade six ‘Mass Liberation’. However, unlike Mass Liberation which devours a large area in a large torrent of inferno, Calamity Spear was much more concentrated. It travelled just slightly above the ground, its sheer torrent of magical power distorted the surroundings around it as it headed towards a group of humans that were holding out their large shields in formation. A large rectangular barrier appeared over their shields, protecting those behind them.

It may look like a solid defence, but it was no match for the magical replica of a spear that’s said to bring about the end of the world. The spell hit the barrier before exploding outwards in a void of black before imploding back onto itself, taking along with it anybody or anything unlucky enough to get caught within the blast zone. Anything within the blast zone disappeared into thin air leaving behind a half-sphere shaped air bubble on the ground. Parts of a torn amour and flesh could be seen cleanly cut when the blast imploded on itself.

Seeing a hole in their defences, the Seventh Army tried to triangle their way through in order to reach Klauna’s position. It was unfortunate that despite such a strong spell causing a big opening, the enemies had no problem closing back the hole in their defences and once again blocked the Ak’hims from proceeding further. This caused the Ak’hims to be more frustrated, including Harbin who was getting more impatient by the moment.

“Cera! I’m going to punch through! Cover me!” Harbin yelled out before starting to chant another spell, the grimoire within her hands and her surrounding quake with sheer magical power.

“Roger!” Cera responded to her dear friend’s request and leapt onto the enemy. She and her men covered Harbin and made sure that the Ak’hims were at no point surrounded by the enemies in a concave. The humans saw Harbin charging up a spell and attempted to strike her down in desperation. But that attempt was futile with the protection of Blackmask’s and the Watchtower Warriors' units defending her. 

Seeing that Harbin was not a good option, they went towards what looked to be the person in charge. A group of human elites, knights, charged towards Cera as she held the frontlines. Another futile attempt as Cera easily destroyed them with a few magically infused swings. Their full plate magical resistant armour may be strong, but they were no match for the sheer physical force of the awakened Warrior.

“Oh, the wolf of the end! Heed my call! I summon thee to bring me to my destination at speeds of sound! Omega the wolf!” Harbin yelled out and a large red-maned wolf manifested out from the Grimoire of the Analyst.

“Absolute Path!”

Harbin yelled and slammed the grimoire shut facing upwards. As she did this the ground beneath the enemies broke into two large slabs before folding itself like the book within Harbin’s hands, killing many humans who were squashed by the two large slabs. Moving the grimoire within her hand, she manipulated the slabs to turn before falling away from her. The giant slab of rock fell to the ground, splitting apart numerous trees, boulders and squishing flat more humans, opening an even bigger path for the Ak’hims. 

Wasting no time, she rode the summoned wolf before speeding off into the opening that she made. It was as the chant promised, a wolf that travelled at the speed of sound. Kazakiel and some of his group of assassins saw this opportunity and chased after her as well. Though they weren’t nearly as fast as the Analyst.

“Wow...” Watchtower Warrior let out a voice of amazement as he saw Harbin single-handedly made an opening in the enemy lines.

“This isn’t the time to be amazed, officer Natahiniel.” Cera reprimanded him.

“I know… It’s just that… she’s definitely improved over the last year,” Natahiniel, the Watchtower Warrior commented.

“Tremendously,” Blackmask added.

Cera who was proud of her friend, let out a small smile. Her expression soon turned back into a stern one. “That’s enough! Get into phalanx formation. We are clearing them out!”

Being left in the dust, the remaining Ak’hims in the area pushed onwards slowly but surely with Cera leading the way. No longer in the pressure of breaking through, they took their time to annihilate the humans within the area.

 

* * * * *

 

The Warrior Spear Indominatus clashed against another sacred weapon. A bright sword of an unknown name, wielded by the Prince of Serrora. His attacks on Klauna were intense and furious, unending severe strikes fueled with anger and hatred for the demon in front of him. 

It wasn’t just him either, he was supported by the other heroes of the Alliance who attacked her with strikes fueled with hatred, as well. Fighting Klauna was a Human Priestess who protected the heroes with barriers and launched holy attribute attacks towards her, an Elven Princess who shot magically infused arrows at her, a human male with a large shield that protected them and a few other heroes.

The Prince and his companions have somehow managed to survive the fall at the Grand Bridge. Though, it seemed that not all of them survived as can be seen by their numbers. There weren’t as many people here than when she fought them at the bridge. Although what they lacked in numbers they made up with strength. The Heroes in front of Klauna were much stronger than they were a few months ago when she faced them at the bridge. They’ve grown so good to the point that even Klauna has trouble landing a blow on them.

That being said, they were unable to land a decisive blow on Klauna as well, only pushing her back. She gracefully dodged their attacks and did her counter-attacks towards them. Any attacks that she couldn’t dodge, she parried it. Any attacks that she couldn’t parry, bounced off her special force field. The two seemed to be equal in strength and both sides looked as if they can’t pierce through each other’s defences. Though Klauna didn’t have any worries on her face, only a blank stare, making the enemies agitated. 

Klauna wasn’t fighting at her full potential. She couldn’t. Her mind was too shrouded by various thoughts. She found it hard to focus on the task at hand. It was too painful for her to think about something at that moment. Though in all honesty, she didn’t need too. She only needed to buy time. Enough time for the Ak’hims to regroup so they may launch a counter-attack and subsequently retreat back to Divinatus.

"ARGHHHH!"

The Prince yelled out like a madman in anger as he swung his sword towards Klauna which was easily blocked. The spear and the shining sword locked in motion against each other. “Why won’t you die, murderer!” He yelled.

Klauna didn’t know if the Prince was shouting these words in an attempt to get a reaction out of her or he had really lost his mind. Klauna didn’t care anyways, his words were nothing but noise to Klauna. She just kept quiet as they clashed and clashed for what felt like hours. 

Eventually, Klauna got careless and an attack managed to pass through her defence. Although no physical damage could be seen, she was sent flying away which left her open to more attacks from the Heroes— an opening they did not hesitate to take against her. 

Streaks of lightning and fury flew up in the skies in an attempt to land on her. She immediately tried to stand up but quickly lost her footing as one of the Heroes, the one with the large shield, slammed the ground, causing the earth below to break. Having no other choice, Klauna brought her spear upwards in order to parry the magical strikes that were coming towards her, though this attempt was quickly stopped by the prince who let loose a very powerful crescent wave towards Klauna.

Klauna was in a position where she would take damage no matter what she did. Gritting her teeth in response, she diverted all of her magical output to her force fields. She was about to the full brunt of a direct attack from the heroes.

“Awoooo!”

However, in the nick of time, a wolf’s voice was heard and shortly after, a large red wolf appeared and took the hit from the large crescent wave. Klauna then felt her body being pulled by some sort of external force. She could resist it but chose not to. 

She closed her eyes before letting go of her force field, letting the external force pull her away from the blast zone, fully trusting in the person that was pulling her out of danger..

The pull stopped once she was safely out of the zone, though she was still flying at high speeds towards the direction that she was being pulled from. Putting the shields back onto her, she stabbed the ground to slow down her momentum before landing in grace. Slowly opening her eyes, she could see Harbin in front of her, chanting a spell with the Grimoire of the Analyst opened wide. 

Klauna immediately identified all of the combatants in the area and analysed their next move. The Prince and some heroes were making a beeline towards Harbin, while the other three heroes were attempting to launch their assault on herself. There were also the human elites who were just standing by and preparing to charge at the two as well. Part of her wanted to just ignore herself and protect Harbin, but part of her wanted to believe that Harbin had a plan in this situation. 

Choosing to believe in Harbin, Klauna brought her spear into a full range swing towards the Elf and the Priestess, sending a large blast towards them and temporarily knocking them away from the fight. She then turned her attention towards the big hulking man charging at her with a large shield. 

Stomping her legs on the ground, she made a large stab towards the shield. The magically infused spear Indominatus pierced the shield and stabbed the man at his shoulders, effectively stopping him and his charge. Though the strike deflected off his pauldrons. 

The man saw this and quickly held down his shield which had the spear stuck on it. He then gripped the spear as hard as he could to prevent Klauna from pulling it out. The two were now locked in a tug of war, unable to move.

While this was happening, the Prince had managed to close the distance to Harbin who was chanting with her eyes closed. She was exposed. 

With her eyes closed, the young girl in front of him looked no different than any other human. Before, he would have hesitated landing the killing blow, but the Prince had learned these past two gruesome years that if one hesitates, one will only die in the middle of the battle. Such was the deception of demons. With a sacred sword clad in blue, the Prince yelled out and swung his sword towards Harbins’s neck

*Clang!

The Prince’s eyes widened at the spectacle in front of him. Harbin had perfectly blocked the Prince’s attack, the Prince’s sword stuck in between the pages of a book. He stood there in shock for a moment, unable to fathom that his sacred sword was unable to cut through a mere book. A short moment that was enough for Harbin to launch her own counter-attack. 

Harbin clenched the fist of her free arm, the arm which was swirling with a vortex of magic, before yelling out. 

“Hurricane Banshee!” 

She then punched the Prince of Serrora right in the face. The vortex of magic turned into a miniature tornado that blew him, the heroes and the soldiers behind him in a wave of force. The winds were so strong that it howled like a banshee, so strong that even the rainwater dispersed into a fog.

“Alex!” The man with the shield yelled out in concern over his friend.

“Your opponent is here. You have no time to look away,” Klauna said to the man, who in his moment of carelessness, allowed Klauna to pull the spear out of the shield. 

With a swift kick, she knocked the shield away from the man before stabbing him in the stomach. With her weight, she pushed him down to the floor before taking out the spear and swinging it at his head, decapitating the hero with the shield. His blood spurted out of his body uncontrollably. 

Having finished the job, Klauna wiped the blade clean of blood before starting to flee the area. 

‘Murderer!’ The Prince’s words rang out in her mind as she was about to do just that. Klauna then looked towards the man she just killed and went into a small daze.

“Lord Klauna! Let’s go before they surround us!” It was Harbin who came over and yelled at her ears that she woke up from her short daze.

“Oh-ohh… Yeah. Lead the way, we’ll regroup with the others,” Klauna said.

“This way!” Harbin ran ahead without looking back. Klauna simply followed behind.

As they ran, they could hear the maniacal scream of Alex, the Prince of Serrora, and his companions. They yelled out the name of the recently decapitated fallen hero, ‘Dominique’ and grieved over his death. The angrier of the human soldiers tried to chase down the Klauna and Harbin, but Kazakiel and his group of assassins arrived just in time to prevent them from getting any closer. It didn’t take long for the Seventh Army to regroup.

Regroup at Yuupiecca’s position.

 

* * * * *

 

“...Balestra,” Klauna was speechless when she arrived at the gathering point. In front of her eyes was one of her oldest friends lying on the ground. 

Dying.

His body was filled with multiple stab wounds. He was having difficulty breathing as he laid on top of a pool of his own blood— blood that was being washed away from the rain.

Next to him was Medica who was trying her best to treat his wounds with healing magic. Both Poi and Yuupiecca sat next to him with sorrowful looks on their face. The two were having possibly their last conversation with the elder rogue. Lina was sitting next to Medica, helping her wherever she could, but one could see that she was injured herself, blood seeped out of her back and her eyes non-stop. She looked to be on the verge of collapse.

“Senior… Balestra… Don’t go. I need you…” Poi said to him while sobbing. Tears dropped off her cheeks in a neverending torrent. 

Balestra let out a small and painful chuckle. “I’m so… proud at how far you two have come. Promise me… you two will get along after I’m gone,” Balestra said with a weak voice towards Poi and Yuupiecca.

“Don’t say that! You can’t just go out like this old man! You are tougher than this!” Yuupiecca yelled out in frustration.

“It’s pointless… I’m done for.” Balestra said to the two.

“Damn it!” Yuupiecca yelled out again. Though his voice was drowned by the heavy downpour.

His frustration was shared among the officers of the armies that were there. Harbin, Cera, Natahiniel, Blackmask, Kazakiel, Aberanis, and Parash. Balestra was an excellent man, one in a million. There was no replacing him.

“Balestra…” Klauna said as she kneeled next to him.

“...Lord Klauna.”

The two shared a moment to look at each other, their eyes communicating something that the others couldn't understand.

“Looks like this is farewell. You were… a great friend. You can rest now,” Klauna said to him, her voice was as monotone as ever. 

“Noted... I’m proud to have served under you,” Balestra said before closing his eyes. It wasn’t long before he stopped breathing and his hands fell to the ground limply.

The person known as Balestra died with the most satisfied smile on his face.

“Senior Balestra!” Poi yelled out as she tried to shake Balestra’s body to no avail. She was soon stopped by Lina who consoled her in a tight hug.

Yuupiecca could only curse at himself as he punched the ground repeatedly in anger.

“No,” Klauna said before standing up and looking towards the dark skies. “I’m the one who is proud to have served with you.”

Nobody could tell that day if the water that dropped from Klauna’s cheeks were tears or simply raindrops.