Chapter 233 Volume IV - Chapter 78: Black Armored Dwarf
The whiteness that had descended on the field slowly faded, the tremor slowly ceased, and the dwarf in black armor lowered his hand as the runes covering his arm disappeared.
He looked down into the pit formed by the beam that widened and widened in front of him, instantly vaporizing anyone unlucky enough to be in the line, and nodded proudly.
The area that had been dominated by constant noise had now fallen silent. Everyone, literally everyone, was silent, staring in horror at the effects of this 'ultimate' power in their eyes.
Yet it did not take long for the silence to be broken.
The enemy soldiers lost all fear as they realized that this destructive force descending on the battlefield was on their side. With their new allies in their ranks, they attacked even more fiercely.
The fear of our soldiers on their side only multiplied, they were trembling even.
No one could blame them. That man was strong, very strong indeed, whatever the armor he wore gave him. What could they do against such a force?
Nothing. They could do nothing.
They would be crushed now, just like the soldiers I had slaughtered as ants when I first landed on this battlefield. Every one of them knew it.
Despair, hopelessness, and fear... All these emotions were rapidly spreading through our ranks and there was no stopping it.
"Young man."
I was startled by a voice from behind me, I turned quickly toward it and found a dwarf in the same platoon as me.
He had short hair, I could tell even though he was wearing a helmet. Unlike his hair, his beard was bushy. He had brown eyes, just like his hair, and they were not on me, but on the dwarf in black armor in the enemy ranks.
"I dunno who ya are, but I seen ya on the ship, and I ain't sure 'bout how skilled ya are, but ya don't seem like no weakling either."
What does he mean...?
"Seems like ya lost yer helmet. I got a mission notification just a bit ago, and most likely everyone out in the field did too."
Ah... Now I get it.
"We'll stall him, that man in black armor..."
The dwarf nodded.
"Even though yer in the same platoon as us, yer just a human, and ya've been in this war for too long. Do ya wanna take a break?"
I narrowed my eyes, dropped my rifle in the air, and placed it in my ring. Then I took out my sword, and with it, I activated Spiritual Ascension.
It had been a while since I had used it, so it was okay to use it again now.
I looked sternly at the dwarf, not holding back even when he made eye contact with me and made an oppressive expression.
The dwarf sighed deeply as the crown from my spiritual transformation slowly took shape on my head, as particles of mana in dark shades of teal began to diffuse into the atmosphere.
"Then back us up as much as ya can. A few more o' our pals'll be showin' up soon. One group's gonna stand their ground against the robots, while the other takes care o' the black armor."
"Understood."
We didn't exchange any more words, nor did we need to. We just waited, because, with only two of us, we didn't stand a chance. Moreover, we had a good position that gave us the opportunity for a surprise attack.
One second, five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds...
Our allies kept dying, we kept waiting, which was the only thing we could do.
The dwarf in black armor surveyed the area with a smile as we waited, relaxed as if he didn't care that he was standing in the middle of a battle.
"Charge in five seconds."
I nodded my head in agreement, the reinforcement had apparently arrived.
I narrowed my eyes, gripped my sword tightly as I counted down inwardly, and finally the five seconds were up.
The dwarf next to me suddenly charged, and with him, five or so dwarves from all over rushed at the black armor.
I went after them, keeping my distance, my goal was to see a possible gap while they were attacking and take advantage of it.
No matter how strong he was, he had to show at least some weakness against six people charging at him at once...
But what I thought did not happen.
When the black armor saw us attacking him, instead of panicking, he widened his smile. Then a red glow began to seep through his armor and several runes appeared on him.
For a brief moment, reality rippled as if the colors of the world had been turned upside down as the dwarves drove right into it. Then the black armor disappeared as if it had never existed.
No, it didn't disappear.
Where he had just stood there was now someone else, one of the dwarves who had attacked him. And he was now where the dwarf he had displaced had been.
The disparate attacks of the five dwarves fell upon their helpless ally, and a momentarily audible muffled scream echoed across the field.
The ally the black armor had displaced died quickly at the hands of his own friends. He, meanwhile, still emitting red glows, turned his hand on the nearest dwarf.
There was no time, the allied dwarves needed at least a second to regroup. I was already on the move, so I had a chance.
I spread my mana throughout my body, using Sith's mana to speed up my own movement.
With explosive speed, I sprang from my position at the dwarf with the black armored man's outstretched hand. Using the air currents, I grabbed the dwarf's shoulder as if he were weightless and pulled him back, not caring if he was damaged or not.
When the dwarf was thrown back by my force, the black armored man's hand was this time facing me. A sharp, thorn-like piece of metal rose from the center of his palm, threatening to pierce my right shoulder.
I tilted myself to the side, aided by the air currents, but I could not completely avoid the barbed weapon.
The sharp metal grazed my shoulder deeply enough to make an open wound, if not completely. However, I didn't care, and when I locked eyes with the dwarves who had gathered themselves, they were already on the move.
A wordless communication took place between us, we understood, if not completely, what we had to do.
I grabbed the black armored man's arm with my free left hand, then thrust the sword in my right into his stomach, ignoring the pain in my shoulder.
Still, I didn't use excessive force on him, it was fast but controlled.
Just like that, what I expected, what we all expected, happened.
The body of the black armored man disappeared in an instant, only to be replaced by the body of another.
I stopped my sword instantly, and the allied dwarves stood where they were and searched for the black armored man.
It did not take them long to realize that he had not switched places with anyone from this group. The person in front of my sword now was not one of us, he was a random normal soldier.
"Watc-"
My eyes widened before I finished as I pushed the soldier away without a care in the world.
A beam of light shot out from right behind one of the dwarves in the vanguard.
The same beam of light engulfed the entire body of the dwarf, who was alone and unable to understand what was happening, before we had even noticed him for a second, and moved off into the void, not caring what was in its path.
I couldn't even see how the dwarf reacted. His death was so sudden that he was literally erased from existence. Fortunately, no one else was hit by this death ray. But that didn't change the fact that we were facing a big problem.
In the beginning, there were seven of us, now there were five.
Four dwarves and I, one human, turned in the direction of the death ray as it slowly disappeared. Then we met the dwarf in black armor with his palm facing us.
"You northerners be too simple."
He turned his palm to his side, pointing at us, and then the metal that flowed like liquid from his armor slowly took the shape of a spear that matched his stature.
Not only that, the ground beneath his feet rippled slightly as the glow on his armor intensified.
"Why don't ye leave the base to us and go home?"
No one answered him, no one was stupid enough to respond to his provocations.
Still, it was good for us, after all, all we had to do was distract him, and that's what he was doing to himself now.
"The mana in his armor flows into the earth, there must be a rune in his armor that allows him to control the earth."
I whispered and the other four dwarves nodded. One of them spoke up.
"We've been tryin' to defeat him, but it's impossible."
Another sighed deeply.
"Three of us will attack, but we won't try to damage him, and the remaining two won't try anything at all but will try to protect us and restrain him."
It made sense, no one objected. We didn't have enough time to make a more proper plan anyway.
"Understood."
We got into position quickly, we could move more carefully now that we knew three of his abilities, and it was easier to hold him off. At least that's what we thought. We had to believe in ourselves.
'Sith, I know you've been quiet so that I can focus and grow stronger, you haven't interfered too much with my mana flow. Don't leave everything to me this time, move in sync with me. We're going to need your help.'
'Alright.'
When all three of the dwarves charged at the black armor, the remaining dwarf and I kept our distance as agreed, just watching their movements and only acting when necessary.
Countless sounds of metal echoed through the area for the next while. The black armored dwarf deftly dodged the different physical and runic attacks of the three men as if he had been fighting this kind of battle every minute.
But we were also unscathed. We kept dodging his attacks, just like him, and kept surviving.
Every time he switched places with one of them, the dwarf next to me and I intervened, trying to prevent him from doing anything extreme. Every time he was about to damage one of the three he was fighting, we personally countered his attack.
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