The second continent army stood in a semicircle formation, they were positioned a few hundred metres from where Zick kneeled.
In these 30 years, from the beginning of the war between the first and the second continent, there has never been such a situation.
A single knight had killed more than 100 knights at once, the second continent army were surprised at first but it turned into anger after seeing Zick still going on a massacre.
There are a lot of reasons why this massacre was possible, the knights had not thought of Zick as anyone worth keeping eyes on.
Most of the peak rank knights were busy fighting the enemies in the same rank.
And the knight's instincts which they have been refining from years gave them warning that their end would be imminent if they tried fighting Zick.
The figure of Zick being covered in blood and the black mana was still vividly present in everyone's mind.
"Retrieve him!"
Seeing that Zick had run out of mana, Grantz ordered the knight beside him to retrieve him.
The first continent army had retreated the moment when Zick had started killing everyone in front of him.
So there weren't many casualties in their army, but the casualties which they suffered were all done by Zick.
"What are you....."
Grantz stopped speaking, seeing the knight beside him had a face filled with fear. He had seen how Zick killed the knights laughing like a maniac. The black mana covering Zick gave everyone a feeling of ominousness, it made their body stop moving instinctually.
'I will have to retrieve him....'
Grantz clenched his teeth as he thought of this. He dashed forward seeing everyone frozen in their places.
Seeing him moving, the second continent army snapped out of their daze.
"Attack! kill that knight!"
The second continent army started advancing hearing one of their captain's angry voice.
"Attack!"
With loud battle cries the army advanced towards Zick.
"Mages! support him!"
Ghreese ordered the mages to support Grantz who is trying to retrieve Zick. Immediately many layers of transparent barrier appeared around where Zick kneeled.
'This battle is already over, we just need to retrieve that kid now.....'
With so many casualties the second continent army had to retreat as soon as possible. Right at the moment, they were just trying to kill Zick as he was in a weak state.
If the second continent army suffered any more losses they would probably have to put the war on hold for a while.
But still they decided to kill Zick before retreating, everyone had seen Zick's capability, being able to kill him is already a big gain to them.
Different types of magic started flying towards the knights of the second continent army.
The mages of the second continent attacked Zick, but didn't get any result due to the barrier covering him.
Empowering himself with mana, Grantz had reached near Zick quickly, the mana barrier let him enter easily. Picking Zick up he put him on his shoulder, when he checked Zick's condition, he found that he was already unconscious from mana depletion.
Not hesitating, Grantz started running towards the First continent army.
Few knights were able to reach Zick's location fighting off the magic spell flying towards them, but they were still late.
Grantz is a peak rank knight just like them so there wouldn't be much of a difference in their speed. Following him would only lead to them entering the enemy's field.
"Sigh...retreat! everyone retreat!"
One of the captains of the second continent army ordered everyone to retreat.
****************
Waking up from his slumber, Zick looked at the ceiling made of wood with a blank look.
"Oh you are awake?"
Hearing someone's voice besides him, he looked towards it with suspicious eyes.
"Ah....I am from the sun god temple, I was ordered to look at you condition just minute ago"
A priest with glasses said with a harmless smile, but when he felt Zick's eyes landing on him he felt chills rising all over his body.
Zick didn't give off the ominous feeling that he gave in the battlefield anymore.
Every time when a knight ranks up their mana quality becomes purer, which then affects their body and makes it grow stronger.
Right now Zick was also strengthened after becoming a high rank knight but it was a little different.
The black mana affected his body which made people weaker than him feel chills. Anyone stronger than him could easily resist it.
Zick could only try suppressing the mana coming out of his body if he doesn't want to affect other people around him. He could feel the difference between his body before the battle and now.
The mana which entered his body, and then the mana nerves turned black on its own.
'mana Characteristic.....'
Zick knew about it from the novel, it is something only a peak rank knight can do.
RATTLE!
With the sound of an armed soldier moving wearing armour, the tent entrance was flapped open.
"The commander has ordered for you to come to his tent"
A knight wearing full body armour said this to Zick. The priest had left after taking a last look at him so he must be the one who reported about him waking up to the others.
Not saying anything, Zick got up from his bed and walked towards the knight.
"Let's go"
Zick said with an emotionless voice which sounded coarse to anyone who heard it.
'Ah.....I had enough of it'
Zick had given up in his past life, he just wanted to live the rest of his life within his room. Reading the novel to distract him from reality, that was enough for him.
Even living such a life didn't matter to him as he had long since given up on everything.
After coming to this world, Zick had gotten a little hope to live his life the way he wants. Even though he knew that the world would be taken over by the demonic race in the future and he couldn't do anything about it, He still felt that way.
Zick might be the only person who knew the most about the strength of the demonic race as a human. With his current strength he would not be able to even survive for more than a minute in front of them.
Zick earnestly wished to become stronger as that would lead to him being free. That is the reason he trained without a rest the whole time because growing stronger made him happy.
'But....why did I continue smiling?'
Zick felt like an idiot, even after growing stronger he did not stop smiling. Even the reason to why he was smiling felt stupid. He just wanted to hide his true feelings behind the smile.
He didn't want other people to notice about how broken he is within.
'Why should I hide my feelings....? from now on I will do whatever I feel like doing'
Going berserk on the battlefield was like a wake up call for him. The emotionless face that he had right at the moment is what he truly felt.
He had been pushing away his broken side even though he knew about it from a very long time ago. But now he had accepted all the things about him.
'Yeah I am a loser in both of my life being forced around by people but still that doesn't matter.'
For the first time in his life Zick had found happiness in living. By just growing stronger he could achieve what he couldn't in his past life.
He could find happiness and the feeling of being free.
'I will smile when I feel like smiling, I will laugh when I feel like laughing, I will do what I feel like doing. Isn't this the reason I have been trying to grow stronger?'