Chapter 531: Unexpected Obstacle

Translator: imperfectluck  Editor: Kurisu

While Roland was in deep trouble, the battle within the Haletdam generation ruins was becoming fiercer as well.

“If your mission fails, use that blood-red signal flare to notify me. Then, we can prepare to have everyone retreat.”

Roland had told this to Timlad before the latter had set out. It was evident that even though Roland had hopes for this small adventuring team, even if this adventuring team was well equipped and strong enough, there was still no guarantee of absolute victory.

“To be honest, I should really be going to the ruins personally. But if I leave Starwood City now, it’s certain that nobody will be able to survive…”

Roland had a regretful expression as he chose to stay behind. Although his decision to defend Starwood City would perhaps save more people in the end, he knew that it was likely the wrong choice from a strategic perspective. From the very start, the seemingly quiet ruins were the most important objective of all. And, no matter how the fight against Undead Emperor Conservation went, it wouldn’t resolve the foundational problem at all.

Even if Conservation was defeated, that wouldn’t end the Undead Calamity at all. The real culprit behind the scenes, the Sky Tower Spirit, could easily restart the Undead Calamity or cause another war, for example allying with a different Undead Emperor or even an Elemental Lord. Then, the Spirit could sacrifice even more souls for a second Undead Calamity or an elemental invasion.

The problem would never be solved without removing the foundational root of the problem. It would be the most foolish decision possible. Roland was quite clear on this. But, despite knowing all this, he still chose to stay behind and defend Starwood City instead of personally going to the more important objective, sending only Timlad and Barton’s adventuring team as a small strike squadron.

And as Roland had expected, since the battle on the frontlines was so intense, it naturally attracted the Sky Tower Spirit’s attention and forces. All the war machines that were constructed were immediately sent to the frontlines to help its ally Conservation. It could be said that the current Black Tower ruins now had the weakest defenses it’d ever had since its construction.

Despite all this, Katerina and the others’ assault wasn’t that successful at all. At first, things had been quite easy before the robots could react and think of a method to respond with. But as time passed and the adventuring team approached ever closer to the core control area, the Sky Tower Spirit summoned all the remaining defensive robots from the other floors. And so, more and more obstacles appeared in front of everyone.

All sorts of strangely shaped combat robots would jump out from hiding in every corner. Although it was impossible for them to attack Katerina, they wouldn’t go easy on anyone else. Since everyone’s path was now blocked with a teeming mass of robots, they could only break through by using force.

The mercenaries who were already used to a bloody life fighting had no path of retreat left to them in front of this danger. All of them understood that they could only survive by fighting and winning. Anyone who hesitated or held back at this time would only meet death.

While mercenaries weren’t that useful in large-scale battles, they were always considered the experts of smaller scale guerilla-style warfare. At this time, staying in combat formation was far safer than everyone fighting for himself.

The mercenaries arranged themselves into a temporary formation based on Old Barton’s command. The warrior and knight job class members acted as the tanks in front to block the mechanical puppets’ charge. The archers and low-level mages provided long-range support from the rear. The very few priests present used every Divine Art where it was needed most.

The most eye-catching individual was the magical knight Mary from the Northlands.

Mary’s magical sword shone with many different brilliant colors as if it was a paintbrush soaring through the sky. The different elements each had a different color, creating various beautiful paintings in the air, such as a rush of fiery wind, a roaring wind tiger, or a solid earthen turtle shield.

And after each elemental painting was formed, it would transform into a magical spell in the very next instant.

The fiery wind sword seal spat out a sea of flames, followed by a swift wind tiger that blew a whirlwind which fanned the flames even further, expanding the flame sea to more than one meter tall and spreading on both sides. Meanwhile, the earthen turtle shattered to become numerous mystical runes that attached themselves to the armor of the frontline defenders.

In the ruins so far, the Four Elemental Swordcaster Mary had already used several hundred high-level consumable sword seals. She showed off just how highly versatile and well-rounded this new job class could be in buffing, defending, and attacking all at once. It also caused everyone else to sigh that she was truly rich and that she came very well prepared and equipped.

Meanwhile, her other Northlands companion, Anti-holy Knight Diyana, was in a much worse situation. Her abilities were the perfect counter to all magic, supernatural, and elemental existences. However, the metallic enemies here were all using pure heavy metal weapons. It was quite difficult for her abilities to affect them. And since Diyana basically had no usable abilities here, she was basically using her flesh and blood to fight against heavy metal robots, which would naturally be foolish and highly disadvantageous.

Since Diyana’s abilities were countered here and of no use, she naturally retreated to the backlines and became Katerina’s personal bodyguard. Upon seeing how fatigued Katerina was again, Diyana unhesitatingly picked Katerina up and carried her forward.

Seeing how Diyana was wearing heavy armor and a sword yet still was able to sprint, it was evident that Diyana still had plenty of energy in reserve.

As Timlad ran, he kept saying something to himself as if he was calculating something. When considering his reputation and his behavior in the ruins so far, not only did nobody blame him for not doing anything, there was even a shield warrior specially assigned to be his bodyguard.

Winston, the leader of the hired mercenaries, was loudly issuing commands to the mercenary formation. His old partner, who was the current commander-in-chief Old Barton, was charging at the very forefront, astonishing the mercenaries behind him.

“…Didn’t Old Barton retire from the mercenary life a few years ago? How did he become so much stronger despite retiring?”

War hammers and spears were both quite commonly seen heavy weapons on the battlefield. However, it was common sense that no ordinary human would ever wield these two weapons simultaneously. This included even the barbarians, who were naturally born with superior strength.

That was because war hammer was a blunt weapon, while spear was a sharp weapon. War hammers attacked with blunt force, while spears would attack with penetrating force. War hammers were heavy and slow, while spears were comparatively lighter and swifter. Even if you had enough physical strength to wield two heavy weapons simultaneously, with one in each hand, the imbalance between the two weapons would be incredibly difficult to deal with. An imbalance between left and right when attacking would easily cause the attacker to lose balance of their entire body. And if you lost your balance on the battlefield, that would be the equivalent of death.

But in Barton’s hands, these two ill-paired weapons actually showed off great prowess.

“Get out of my way!”

The furious Old Barton kept swinging the heavy weapons in his hands. His blue spear swept all around him, forcing the metal guardians to constantly back away, and the next instant, Barton’s pitch-black hammer viciously crushed a robot that lost its balance during the retreat into nothing but scrap metal.

Barton wasn’t using the ranger job class style of extravagantly wielding two weapons simultaneously. He simply carefully adjusted his footwork, sometimes sweeping around him with his spear, usually using the sword energy emanating from his weapon to cause the robot enemies to retreat. Then, he would take advantage of openings to attack with his heavy war hammer. Some faint magical runes could be seen on his hammer that further increased the attack power of this heavy weapon.

Barton’s attacks had no regular timing to them. He simply adapted to the situation in battle, making his attacks even more difficult to defend against. And if his attack was blocked on one side, another type of attack from the other side would descend right after.

A sweep with his spear, a strike with his hammer, and then killing a robot with the spear’s tip after it was struck off balance. Barton kept repeating this three-attack combination which allowed him to proceed forward with no robot able to stop him.

In front of Old Barton, even a three-meter-tall mechanical warrior was nothing more than a slightly more expensive robot. Not a single metal defender was able to block more than three hits from him. And when the half undead, half mechanical bone giants finally appeared, even they were unable to withstand a single hammer strike from him.

The bald old man’s excitement rose as he battled, and he suddenly started swinging both weapons around right where he stood while glaring at the enemies. Sword energy was sent out in all directions, instantly demolishing countless enemy robots.

“Whirlwind of Swords! Sword Saint!”

One of the mercenaries shouted out the name of this well-known technique that Barton was using. Whirling weapons of any type were capable of creating a windstorm of sword energy. Without a doubt, this was a special attack usable only by Sword Saints.

Although this attack had the somewhat negative side effect of causing dizziness in oneself if used for too long, it was indeed a powerful attack that Roland had loved to use back in the day as well.

The length of Barton’s two heavy weapons increased the attack power of the Whirlwind of Swords attack by even more than usual. After such a powerful area-of-effect attack, the robots’ defensive formation immediately collapsed. Everyone sliced and diced their way to the next staircase leading downwards.

“Only three more levels until we reach the core control area!”

But before they could go any further down, everyone discovered that this next level was actually a wide open platform, with the next staircase leading down actually visible not far away.

After seeing their goal so close by, everyone couldn’t help but be delighted. Yet the moment that they stepped forward, all the dim lights suddenly brightened as all the white stone floorboards started glowing as if they were diamonds.

As everyone walked on top of these floorboards, they discovered that these smooth stones were actually reflecting their figures as if the stones were mirrors.

Even the most reckless mercenary present knew that after seeing such a situation, it would be dangerous to proceed forward without a plan. At this time, a heavily panting and sweating Katerina told everyone what this was.

“Be careful. This is a spiritual creature creation room… This is a type of training field for warriors. The moment that someone steps within this room, the spiritual creature creation room will automatically read that person’s memories and create an exact spiritual replica of the strongest warrior that person knows. However, the spiritual creature creation room has a limited amount of energy. It’s quite easy to deal with as long as we constantly send our individuals with knowledge of the weakest warriors into the room first— Father, wait!”

Before Katerina could even finish speaking, Barton rushed forward first as he had just finished his Whirlwind of Swords attack and was still somewhat disoriented. He didn’t even hear her explanation when a light enveloped him before everything returned to calmness again.

However, not far away, a silvery-white figure walked out of the shadows. He wasn’t all that tall, and his blonde hair was covered in dust. A raggedy beard covered and obscured his entire face. It didn’t seem like that person was even remotely scary. He wasn’t even wearing any armor. He simply wore a tattered white cape and held a wooden stick while standing there quite casually.

All the mercenaries present knew this spiritual image as Karo, a drunkard who did nothing but drink and gamble all day. But, for some strange reason, everyone now felt that it would be incredibly difficult to take another step forward.

Everyone immediately froze and stood still. In the end, it was the newly born spiritual image that spoke first. He spoke incredibly arrogant words while using such a calm tone.

“Um, I hate troublesome matters, so could you please save me some time and all attack me together?”

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