Chapter 395: A Brief Respite

[Calyra’s POV]

’The soldiers won’t hold....’

Calyra knew it from a single glance at the advancing horde. There was something that needed to be done before the second wave crashed into them.

Which was why, with a quiet yet undaunted voice, Calyra called out:

"Father...."

She did not elaborate further; that single call alone was enough for her father to understand the unspoken request behind it.

Recognizing the necessity of her request, Lord Evrard remained silent for only a moment before giving his command.

"Yes... you may."

Calyra gave a faint, gratified smile before nodding.

Then, she flashed away with [Blink] and reappeared nearly three hundred meters above the carnage, presiding beneath the pearly moon.

With a graceful sweep of her hand, Calyra summoned her antiqued magic staff from her dimensional storage.

Almost immediately, an immense concentration of mana began to converge around her, stirring the clouds overhead until they churned and spiraled violently across the night sky.

Her cold blue eyes gleamed as she surveyed the remaining Voidspawns of the first wave.

Then, with a subtle motion of her staff, she cast a selective area-of-effect spell — one she had learned only recently from Ruvian, yet had already begun refining and reshaping into a variation uniquely her own.

Haughtily, she intoned the spell’s invocation.

"[True Authority]"

*****

[Ruvian’s POV]

At the same moment, a grim apprehension settled over Ruvian as the blare of the second-wave warning horn tore across the battlefield.

Even amid the raging melee, with Voidspawns swarming him from every direction, he managed to steal a glance toward the fortress — where a black flag was being waved atop the battlements.

Which meant....

’That bastard demon is coming...’

Grimly, Ruvian unleashed [Whirlwind], blasting apart the encirclement and hurling away the Voidspawns that had begun closing in on him through sheer numbers.

Then, he briefly inspected his [The Endseeker].

[Souls Devoured: (88/1,000)]

Before arriving at Frostgrave, his blade had already devoured 37 souls. And throughout the stampede so far... it had claimed only another 51.

Being a First-Class Magus had certainly made cutting through the numerous Lesser-rank Voidspawns considerably easier.

He could already feel the snowballing effects of [Slayer Growth] as well, each kill making the next one just a little easier than the last.

Strangely enough, Ruvian did not even feel tired after all that slaughter. If anything, it felt as though his body was only just beginning to warm up.

Like a cardio workout session.

But as he stared toward the darkened northern horizon, whatever amusement remained in his expression quickly disappeared.

The second wave was already bearing down on them.

And with the remnants of the first wave still scattered across the killing ground, the soldiers were about to find themselves trapped between one slaughter and the next.

’Something needs to be done...’

Just as Ruvian was considering using [Assimilation], a terrifying concentration of mana suddenly pooled somewhere high above him.

He did not even need to look up.

That presence was already far too familiar.

’Well, looks like someone finally got permission from her dear father...’ Ruvian joked to himself as he cleaved through another Voidspawn that lunged at him.

Then, with a cursory glance, Ruvian tilted his head upward. High above, Calyra’s figure was almost completely swallowed by the moon’s pallid radiance.

Suspended directly beneath it, her silhouette was reduced to little more than a dark speck against the blinding lunar glow — made even harder to discern by the sheer height separating her from the ground below.

Yet Ruvian was far from the only one watching. Countless soldiers and Voidspawns alike had turned their gazes skyward.

The carnage below had momentarily lost all significance before the ominous spectacle unfolding overhead.

Ruvian’s expression stiffened as a dreadful realisation dawned upon him. He recognised the spell she was preparing to unleash.

’You... you’ve got to be kidding me?’

Ruvian let out an awkward smile as Calyra unleashed her spell.

Almost immediately, more than half of the remaining Voidspawns were forcibly immobilised beneath the overwhelming mana pressure exerted by her magic.

Strangely enough, the spell seemed to have selectively targeted the Voidspawns alone, leaving the soldiers fighting in their immediate vicinity entirely unaffected.

Seizing the opportunity, Ruvian immediately raised his voice and bellowed to the soldiers around him.

"Now! They’re completely immobilised! Cut them down while you still have the chance!"

The soldiers were momentarily bewildered by the sudden turn of events, but quickly regained their composure. Without wasting another moment, they surged forward with renewed ferocity, hacking and cleaving their way through the helpless Voidspawns.

With that, only a scattered remnant of the first wave horde remained, their dwindling numbers posing little difficulty for the soldiers to eradicate.

*****

After her devastating display of magic, Calyra slowly descended from the night sky before landing gracefully beside Ruvian.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly, her voice tinged with concern.

"Yeah... yeah, I’m alright. This is nothing much, really," he replied, giving his sword a sharp flick to cast off the blood clinging to its blade.

Then, Ruvian took a moment to survey his surroundings.

It was a scene of utter devastation.

The first wave had finally been repelled, but the battlefield bore little resemblance to a place where victory had just been won.

The ground was littered with the mangled remains of countless Voidspawns, their blackened blood mingling with that of the fallen soldiers.

Many of the surviving soldiers were too exhausted to even celebrate.

Some had collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground, struggling to catch their breath, while those who had sustained injuries were tended to by healers and potions.

Yet, despite having survived the first wave, there was little relief to be found on their faces. Instead, their expressions were marred by exhaustion and apprehension, with some staring blankly at the carnage around them.

Of course, no one could blame them for feeling that way.

The battle had already taken a considerable toll on their numbers, and even those who remained relatively unscathed had expended much of their strength fighting against the relentless onslaught.

If this was merely the first wave, then how were they supposed to endure the rest of the night, let alone survive until morning?

Worse still, they had little time to recover from their ordeal.

The second wave was already approaching.

Ruvian then shifted his gaze towards Commander Fajarn and Captain Zarrick, both of whom had already taken their positions at the forefront of the defensive formation.

A moment later, Lord Evrard descended from the fortress walls and landed beside them.

According to the strategy they had agreed upon during their earlier meeting, the moment the Black Knight made its appearance on the battlefield, the three of them would personally step forward to confront it.

"Do you think the three of them will be enough to take down that demon?" Calyra asked, her voice remarkably composed despite the gravity of the situation.

"Judging by Captain Zarrick’s previous encounter with the Black Knight, I believe they should stand a reasonable chance,"

Ruvian replied thoughtfully.

"Both Commander Fajarn and your father are at the early stage of the Grand Magus realm, while Captain Zarrick isn’t too far behind them in terms of combat prowess. With all three fighting together, they should be able to hold their own against it."

He paused briefly before adding, his expression turning somewhat solemn.

"Then again, we still don’t know the full extent of that monster’s strength, so I wouldn’t be too certain about their chances just yet."

It was a pragmatic assessment on his part, but even Ruvian knew that there were far too many uncertainties to place absolute confidence in their chances.

"Anyway, it’s not just the Black Knight that we need to worry about... The second wave itself is also rather concerning. There’s a good chance it’ll be even stronger than the first one."

"I know. I’ve already received Father’s permission to join the battle," Calyra replied calmly. "Besides, we only need to hold out for a little while longer, don’t we?"

Indeed, she was right.

According to their earlier estimates, the reinforcements would arrive in approximately twenty minutes, meaning that all they had to do was withstand the enemy’s onslaught until then.

Though...

’Twenty minutes, huh?’

Under ordinary circumstances, such a short amount of time would hardly be worth worrying about.

However, considering how much they had already suffered during the first wave, even those twenty minutes could prove to be an eternity on the battlefield.

And just as Ruvian was contemplating whether their remaining forces could endure for that long, something unexpected began to unfold amidst the approaching horde in the distance.

Which inevitably brought him back to the very question he had been trying not to dwell upon.

Could they really survive another twenty minutes?

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[Chapter 395: A Brief Respite]