Chapter 578 Happenings in the Buffer Zone
Buffer Zone
Dungeon City Lacertilia
Beast Kingdom
May 5th
Year 1053
Chaotic.
That was the best word that could be used to describe the current battlefield.
But within this chaos, one could still notice semblances of order, mostly from the soldiers and city defence force members who tried their best to maintain formations as they repelled the waves of monsters crazily charging towards the city.
Screams of battle cries, screeches and roars of monsters rang out along the sounds of weapons clashing with monstrous flesh and scales.
Spells burst forward like fireworks, painting the sky with dazzling colours as they collided with airborne monsters and sent their corpses tumbling towards the ground.
Arrows whistled through the air, finding their marks amidst the chaos, a testament to the incredible skill of the archer adventurers and mercenaries.
The buffer zone was filled with close to a hundred thousand soldiers and monsters clashing with each other, and with every swing of their swords, every incantation chanted, and every arrow loosed, the combatants defending Lacertilia felled monsters of the horde.
However, if there was anything the monsters had in abundance, it was numbers.
They far outnumbered the combatants, and for every one monster felled, two more trooped out of the dungeon to take their place.
What's more, was that each newly emerging monster wave was more powerful than the last.
As at the current period, monsters from up to floor 50 of the dungeon had emerged, and when translated to levels, this meant monsters with levels as high as 350 were on the battlefield.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Buffer Zone in itself was as large as a small town, then there would not have been space to accommodate battles of such level.
The presence of airborne monsters also reduced the crowd on the ground by a lot. This didn't mean there was more than enough space, though.
Part of the city wall barriers had been breached and lots of infrastructure had been destroyed in the outskirts, with some monsters making their way deeper into the city.
These monsters were dealt with by the Soldiers and City Defence force members who were on standby in the city, however, not all of them were handled so easily.
The fact that all combatants that were above level 450 had suddenly disappeared did not help matters.
One might think that there were still the S rankers below level 450 around, as well as the A rankers, but it should not be forgotten that the dungeon's deeper floors had monsters up to level 500.
The combatants with S rank strength present could not do much at this juncture, as they had to save their strength to handle with those monsters in the event that the Boss was not defeated by the time the break got that far.
Indeed, defeating the boss of the dungeon; the 'Lizard Lord', would make the dungeon regain its full functions and trap the monsters inside once more, preventing more from coming out.
A large party of S rankers was formed to handle that, and they ventured into the 'Lair of the Lizard Lord' during the earlier hours of the break, but much to their shock, the dungeon's internal structure had been changed, rendering maps they possessed useless.
Worst of all, the strongest members of the party had killed some monsters on the way down and surpassed level 450.
The instant they did that, the World Isolation Barrier told them to GTFO.
This dropped their party's strength by a large margin, something that was quite bad as the party was already a bit too underpowered to handle a level 500 boss and its subordinates.
Left with no choice, they retreated to the surface.
From within the barrier, they could see the figures of the beings who had been kicked out, the beings above level 450 trying to break it, but there was nothing they could do when 'Living Legends' were helpless.
Besides, the Demonic Hand had planned this for years, no way it'd be easy for them to get back in.
The reason why the monsters were unaffected by the World Isolation Barrier, was also due to this 'planning'. Simply put, the effect of the Demonic Hand Member brooches was applied over time to the monsters inside the dungeon.
The number of monsters inside, their strengths were few of the factors that made them need years to work on this though.
As such, all those who had been kicked out could not do anything but watch as the combatants inside faced the monsters.
Internationally famous A and S rank adventurer parties fought tooth and nail, together with the Beast Kingdom's army which was able to maintain its chain of command despite the loss of several high levelled Majors, Colonels and the Major General in charge of the Army in Lacertilia.
Even the weakest adventurers on this dire battlefield were seasoned Peak C rankers of at least level 190, as everyone weaker than that was effectively useless on the battlefield where A rankers can, and have died.
And it was towards this same battlefield, that a certain Irregular Hero was making his way.
◇ ◇ ◇
"GROAARRR!"
A Giant four-armed grandmaster level mutant Lizardman roared wildly as it swung its four battle axes, two of which it had picked up from the corpses of dead mercenaries.
Its eyes gleamed with a dangerous light as it covered two of them in aura, raising them overhead and swinging them down towards a wounded A ranker.
Just as the poor soul had accepted his impending death, the ambient magic power rapidly condensed in front of him, before blooming into a barrier that shielded him from the dual axe swing.
Immediately afterward, an elf wielding twin daggers jumped out from behind, running up to the giant Lizardman and jumping atop its outstretched arms.
The elf ran up the Lizardman's arms and with daggers coated in poisonous aura, delivered half a dozen stabs to the creature's shoulders and slashed one of its eyes.
"GYAKKKK!!!"
The Lizardman's lower arms reached for the elf, but they knew better than to remain on the monster's body after dealing such a wound, quickly jumping off with swiftness and disappearing into the horde of monsters running past.
It didn't take the lizardman long to find the elf with its other eye, given the fact that all the B rank reptilian monsters that were in the area dropped to the floor as corpses a few seconds later.
Charging towards the elf, however, proved to be a bad decision as the long-eared adventurer launched a cannister towards the lizardman's head, which upon contact, exploded with bright purple smoke.
As it was roaring in pain from having more poison enter both eyes, the wounded adventurer it originally intended to kill blitzed in behind it and swung his blade, delivering a full powered aura strike with the last of his energy that severed the monster's tail and its right leg.
While the two A rankers were teaming up against the Lizardman, another internationally famous S ranker who could not hold himself back any more jumped into the fray at another point in the battlefield.
His sword gleamed with a green light as all the surrounding ambient magic power was dyed with the wind attribute.
With a swift motion that activated a Unique Skill, he drew his sword, and a howling tornado of energy erupted from the blade's edge.
The cyclone of razor-sharp wind blades whirled around him, stretching out with deadly force. As he dashed through the mass of oncoming monsters, they were drawn into the vortex, their bodies torn asunder by the relentless tempest.
Limbs, scales, and flesh were ripped apart, and the agonized cries of the monsters filled the air.
As for the more powerful ones who survived the tornado's onslaught, they were propelled towards the Adventurer, who bifurcated them with masterful precision using his aura-coated sword.
In a display of power, he traversed the area in a corner of the Buffer Zone to another, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
His actions sent hundreds of B-ranks monsters, and several dozen A-ranks through the gates of death, whilst leaving over a thousand of them injured.
But such a feat came at a cost, as his energy reserves were depleted considerably, forcing him to rely on his energy potion supply.
After all, unleashing a storm capable of annihilating more than a hundred monsters with at least B rank durability while simultaneously swinging his sword with enough aura and power to cleave through the flesh and bone of A ranks demanded an extraordinary toll, even for an S-ranker of his calibre.
The artifacts he used to boost his power also exhausted their energy and had to enter a cooldown state as well.
Just as he returned to the command area where the other S rankers were, he and every other energy attuned being in the Buffer Zone instantly felt a surge of energy erupt from the direction of the dungeon.
**BOOOMMM!!!!
The knowledge of what that explosion signified made their faces all turn dark, as this meant in addition to the over hundred thousand monsters on the battlefield currently, they now had to deal with another wave.
Adventurers who usually braved the Lair of the Lizard Lord and had been keeping track of the monsters emerging, had their faces pale as if they realised what monsters were coming next.
**KRAAAWWRRR!!!
The haunting combination of deep, resonant roars and high-pitched, piercing screeches that rang out after confirmed their thoughts.
Leathery bat like wings, a serpentine body covered in dark green scales, a long barbed tail, with a head bosting sharp jagged teeth.
That was the appearance of the first creature that emerged from the smoke of the dungeon's explosion, and a second after, hundreds more poured out.
Floor 60 of the Dungeon had broken.
And the Wyverns had been unleashed upon Lacertilia.
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