Chapter 75: Revenge!

Kaiden wasn't the only one facing a dire situation. The other three fronts were fighting their own battles, each one under no less brutal pressure.

On one front, Golan held command, backed by Laura raining arrows down on the battlefield from atop the walls, alongside three Emerging Heroes.

Despite their small numbers, they kept firm control of their fight.

The Common-rank beasts couldn't pose any real threat to them, and even the Rare-rank ones found it extremely difficult to break through their defenses. Credit for that went to the runic armor forged from mithril ore that the Lord had given them before the battle.

For this reason, they'd focused from the start on eliminating the Rare-rank beasts first.

In the first few minutes it had been brutally difficult — those beasts' toughness was no joke — but after the new weapons arrived, especially the bow Laura had received, the balance gradually shifted.

At that moment, Laura's arrow and Golan's electrically-charged spear met their target in a simultaneous strike.

The arrow pierced through one of the black serpent's eyes, while the spear itself drove into its neck, unleashing violent sparks of lightning that surged through its entire body.

The massive beast convulsed violently, then finally collapsed to the ground, a lifeless corpse. That serpent had been Rare-rank, renowned for its enormous size and the toughness of its scales, but even those scales couldn't withstand their combined attack.

There was no time to celebrate.

The moment the serpent fell, Golan and Laura turned their eyes straight toward the next Rare-rank beast.

On another front, Josh was fighting alongside the earth mage Qasim and three Emerging Heroes.

But their situation was far more difficult.

Most of the beasts attacking this front were wolves, led by the Wolf King himself — a Rare-rank beast with the ability to control the Wind element.

Meanwhile, Josh was locked in a fierce confrontation with it.

His mithril armor had shattered, while wind blades had left dozens of long, shallow gashes across his body.

And yet...

The Wolf King felt no relief at all.

The human who'd turned a large number of its pack into shattered corpses wasn't weakening from his wounds as it had expected — he was growing fiercer with every new injury.

The Wolf King realized an unsettling truth: had it not been for its extreme speed, it would have already died several times under that heavy sword.

It didn't dare trade blows directly with Josh, so it had no choice but to keep firing wind blades from a safe distance, avoiding any direct confrontation.

As for the last front, it was being defended by six Emerging Heroes with support from the fire mage Fred.

Their battle was no less fierce.

Had Ibla not arrived in time, after finishing off the beasts that had tried to tunnel in through the ground — which relieved the pressure on the defenders — the gate there would most likely have been breached.

As for the most thrilling battle of all, it was the one unfolding in the sky.

Aerial maneuvers followed one after another without pause, as the two opponents traded attacks at astonishing speeds.

The Royal Eagle no longer carried that same imposing presence it had entered the battle with.

Burn marks scattered across its body, its eyes had gone bloodshot, and its movements grew less steady as time passed.

It wasn't weaker than that small lizard...

But she was an incredibly annoying opponent.

Asra exploited her small size and agility to the fullest, while the eagle's massive body had become an easy target to circle and outmaneuver.

For that reason, the tide of battle had begun tilting gradually in her favor.

Even so, bringing down a giant beast like that wasn't something that could be accomplished quickly, especially since she had to avoid any mistake — a single direct hit from the Royal Eagle would be enough to end her life.

Back with Kaiden, all the corpses and wounded had been moved inside the walls, where Nora waited to administer urgent treatment to the injured.

In that single attack alone, seven Elite Soldiers had fallen at once — a devastating loss for him.

Kaiden was the last to climb out of the pit, and the moment he crossed back into the Territory's boundary, a system notification appeared before him.

[Quest "Heroes Thirsty for Kills" completed.]

[Reward sent: Emerging Heroes ×5.]

That notification felt like a lifeline in the middle of disaster.

The flash of light faded, and the five heroes appeared before him. Kaiden ordered them to join the Territory's defense without any delay. He feared the fox might team up with the hyena against Piedra, who was still fighting outside the walls.

But it was already too late.

At that very moment, the fox carried out its plan — except its target wasn't Piedra, as Kaiden had expected.

KABOOOM!!

A massive explosion thundered behind them, and the gate shook violently, the force of the impact felt even by the soldiers stationed atop the walls. Its center caved in badly, and a flood of beasts surged through the opening.

"Damn it! Kill every beast that dares come through!"

Kaiden gave the order immediately, while the newly arrived heroes rushed to seal the breach.

He wanted nothing more than to hunt down that fox and tear it apart, but he realized chasing it now would be a mistake. He suppressed his fury and immediately began promoting everyone who'd reached the rank threshold during the fighting.

Eight Elite Soldiers had reached the required threshold — and had it not been for the earlier attack and the deaths of those soldiers, the number would have been far higher.

With the new heroes joining in, the defensive lines quickly stabilized again, and beasts began falling one after another as if being harvested like weeds.

But that wasn't what the cunning fox had expected.

It had believed that blowing the gate would plunge the Territory into chaos, mixing the beasts in with the defenders, letting it exploit the confusion to strike wherever it pleased.

But the arrival of that new force had turned its plan completely upside down.

Panic began creeping into its heart.

It had relied on its small size to hide among the beasts and launch hit-and-run attacks, but now, with their numbers dwindling, it no longer had anywhere left to hide.

It had been exposed.

"Found you."

A cold whisper reached its ears, making its fur stand on end.

It recognized the owner of that voice instantly.

That devil who controlled the earth.

The fox leaped with everything it had, and at that same instant, a sharp earth spike shot up from the spot where it had been standing. It escaped by a hair's breadth.

But from within that very spike, a compressed earth bullet fired out, striking it while it was still suspended in midair, unable to dodge any further.

A howl!

The fox let out a pained howl, and the moment it hit the ground, a sharp earth blade shot up from beneath it.

Schick!

One of its front legs flew through the air, blood gushing violently from its shoulder.

It realized it wouldn't be able to escape.

It opened its mouth wide, a fireball beginning to form, readying to fire.

But before it could finish...

BOOM!

A concentrated earth-element punch struck its lower jaw.

The fireball exploded inside its mouth, its lower jaw vanishing along with its teeth, exposing the charred bones of its nose, while a large portion of its throat burned away.

Even screaming...

Was no longer possible for it.

It raised its eyes toward Kaiden, pleading for mercy, but what met it was a cold gaze devoid of any pity.

It tried to flee one last time, running on its three remaining limbs.

Whoosh!

Another earth blade shot out, severing its remaining legs, and it collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

Thud... thud...

As it lay there, its face shattered and its limbs severed, it heard footsteps slowly approaching.

It trembled with terror, but it could no longer even try to flee.

Kaiden extended a thin thread of earth element, piercing it through the fox's belly, then pumped a massive amount of mana into it, not caring in the slightest how much it drained him.

And in the next instant...

He compressed it all at once.

BOOOM!!

The fox's body exploded from within, as if a bomb had been planted inside its guts.

Its stomach tore apart, its organs shredded, and what remained of its head flew off into the distance, while a thick cloud of blood rose into the air, a large portion of it raining down over Kaiden, coating his face and body in a fresh layer of blood over the blood that had already dried.

He stood in the middle of the battlefield, his eyes cold, his face drenched in blood.

In that moment, he looked as though he were a devil risen from the depths of hell.

End of Chapter 75.