Chapter 61: Holy Knight Georgic (2)
The goddess of light and justice who presides over all knights and teaches them justice, and whose power is granted to knights who are elevated to sainthood.
Holy Knights are agents of the gods. As saints, they weave the holy power offered by the faithful into their own power.
Each Holy Knight’s power varies depending on their deity, but the Holy Knights of Life and Fertility have earth-shattering powers.
“Ugh…what the hell is going on……this is nonsense.”
Yong-wan couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Georgic’s Divine Punishment Earthshatter had wiped out the area where the Tribal Alliance and the Hunters were.
Eight hundred meters in all directions, near the wooden fence where the main army was gathered a giant sinkhole appeared.
The good news was that the area around it wasn’t defended by Hunters. Most of it is held by warriors from the Tribal Alliance. But he just wiped out over three thousand of them.
“What the fuck… What the fuck… How is that, how is that a person…….”
Backed by the other Knights, the Holy Knights are a one-man army in their own right. They are monsters, no different from archmages.
Hunters panic at the prospect of a cataclysm unlike any they’ve ever faced.
What could they do against such a monster?
“Is that a human…….?”
“We can’t beat that…….”
The Holy Knight speaks from above the Pegasus and his tired voice echoed clearly all around.
“Goddess, protect us from the lands we touch.”
“Be firm ground for my brothers and sisters to tread.”
“A chance of purification for misguided souls.”
It was a humane and holy prayer but no one saw it as “merciful”.
There was a sneer that threatened to burst at any moment, tugging at the corners of his twisted mouth.
“Die, disgusting heretics.”
-Uh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh……!!!
-Follow the Majestic Georgic!!!
The knights charge towards the defenses that have been completely destroyed.
“”──Go!!!””
The wooden gate was anointed with oil, boulders placed behind it, and covered in spells.
The first person to charge through is, of course, Georgic. His hammer glowed as he rode over the ground on his Pegasus, and his hammer flew through the air.
He throws it as hard as he can, and it smashes right into the gate.
With a boom of destruction, it flew through the woodwork and the knights rushed through the opening.
“Stop them!”
The leading tanks and the tribal warriors with shields blocked the way.
Given their opponent’s cavalry strength, they loaded up on spears and built a barricade to hold them off. But in the moment of contact──spears shattered against armor, and shields ricocheted off shieldmen with a heavy mass.
-No, no!
-We had the upper hand in terms of armor, not to mention the effectiveness of the imprint!
Cavalry is weak against spearmen so in front of a dense mass of shields and spears, even the best cavalry would fall apart.
That’s conventional wisdom but these are knights.
Knights are not lightly armed, their heavy armor is impenetrable to cheap infantry spears, and the steeds of the Lionheart Kingdom are unafraid of spears.
And then there are the knights, handpicked and chosen, who are honored to be called Knights of the Realm and commanded by the Warknights.
“Kraaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
The formation was breached as a mere two hundred knights were sweeping across the battlefield, on a battlefield of tens of thousands of units, the likes of which none of the Hunters had ever seen.
“Shit! Don’t push, I’m falling!”
“Sa, help me!”
The Allied Tribe warriors, whose flanks had been torn open by Georgic’s Divine Punishment Earthshatter, fell into the sinkhole under the force of the Knights’ impact.
Yong-wan did not stand idly by as he tore up his treasured scroll and concentrated his firepower.
However, most of his high firepower comes from his ranged weapons but the Kingdom Knights, who were protected by the Holy Law <Ranged Nullification>, shrugged it off and swung their spears.
“Stop the main dealers, hit them from the side!”
The veteran Hunters take matters into their own hands, stabbing at the Knights’ weak points.
It’s a great breakthrough, but there are only 50 A-rank Hunters here so they cleverly pounded the Knights flanks while the warriors of the Tribal Alliance acted as meat shields.
“Not bad!”
Kingdom Knight Gaston swung his axe at Yong-wan, and he blocked it with his shield.
It was heavy and his strength was no match for theirs.
“I can’t believe a mere mercenary is this strong. It must be the imprint of the barbarians.”
“A leisurely assessment on the battlefield, Lord Gaston!”
Sir Laurent said, deflecting a javelin flying toward him from the side. He looked humiliated that his charge had been thwarted by the momentum of the Hunters.
“No, I merely marvel at how lowly scum can become so strong through the barbarians power. Indeed, it’s understandable that one would be deceived by such power.”
“Blasphemy, Lord Gaston. Recognize that your words may be blasphemous.”
“Hahahahaha! Sir Laurent is still serious. Doesn’t it remind you of thirty years ago, when we were slaughtering orcs in the Black Desert?”
“Well, no. We always kill those beasts, don’t we?”
“I suppose we should fight them the way we fight orcs now, huh?”
Viscount Gaston Valshvar, Kingdom Knight <Orc Slayer> said.
“I will… hammer them!”
And Baron Laurent Dominek, Kingdom Knight <Iron Barrier> agreed.
The flanking knights dismount and their heavy armor rattles as they hit the ground, as if a small earthquake had occurred.
“Light and justice──”
“Life and abundance──”
“War and flame──”
They raised their swords and shields, chanting the name of the God they serve.
“”Glory be to God in the highest.””
A knight’s destructive power is undoubtedly most potent when mounted and their overwhelming speed, mass, and combined impact can shatter armor.
But knights are not just riders on horses. If being good on horseback is what makes a knight a knight, then commoners are just as capable of filling that role.
‘What?’
Rank A Hunter Park Chan-soo, who was attacking the five isolated knights with a hundred mid-level warriors, was puzzled.
They were swallowed up by a wave of numbers and surrounded, their horses were blocked from breaking through, and they were even dismounted.
Even the strongest armor and the sturdiest shields are no match for this kind of mass warfare and an elite force of unequal specs is bound to crumble and be swallowed up but there was something they had overlooked.
The Kingdom Knights may not have walked the honorable path of carrying out the quests of the gods as Quest knights, they have traveled across the continent to prove themselves.
In other words, they’ve been wielding swords for decades and by the time they reach the age of knighthood, they’ve been wielding swords for a hundred years.
They’ve slaughtered dirty green beasts, ugly sorcerers, and fended off invaders.
“War! Protect me with your holy flame!”
He swings his sword and the flames roar. It was never meant to be wielded in the midst of allies, but the flames consumed dozens of tribal warriors.
“Madman, you’re bringing your allies into this!”
The hunter shouted, stunned by what seemed like self-destruction but then he realized that none of the knights had been burned by the flames.
“Do you think this God-given fire will harm my brothers of the same faith, foolish mercenaries?”
Encouraged by the overwhelming performance of the kingdom knights, the flanking knights and kingdom troops rushed forward.
With the narrow gates pushed back by Georgic and the Knights, the Kingdom soldiers are able to get within striking distance. And when the battle turns to hand-to-hand combat, it becomes a one-sided slaughter.
-No, damn it! The knights are too strong!
-Someone do something about that!
-I can’t believe the soldiers are this good! The coordination is off the charts!
“…….”
Yong-Wan gritted his teeth as he watched.
The Kingdom knights were unimaginably strong. Not just in terms of strength and special powers, but also in terms of experience, slaughtering the tribal warriors like a machine.
‘It’s not enough to just match their specs.’
There’s a huge gap between them and themselves and Golden Chul who walked up to him felt the same way.
“What can we do, the kingdom’s soldiers have already arrived and we’re getting crushed in a head-to-head battle.”
“I know, junior.”
“The only way out is now.”
“What? That’s bullshit!”
Hwang Yeon-ha shouted from the side, and Golden Chul shrugged.
“We haven’t sent in our main force yet. We were planning on using the tribal warriors as meat shields from the start, so we can slowly mow down the Field Boss.”
“We did.”
“But we can’t even take out the Knights, let alone the Field Boss. We can’t do this alone.”
They had to give up the gate, change their strategy and rely on the other top 10 guilds.
“If we rely on the help of the other top 10 guilds… it won’t be impossible to capture it, but it will cause a dungeon break, won’t it?”
“Actually… I think there’s a smoother way to end it than you think.”
“What do you mean?”
Golden Chul men had retreated one after another, wounded from fighting the Knights, and luckily the names of the gods they served had reached his ears.
“Arianna, goddess of light and justice, and Petos, god of war and flame. Where have we heard of them before?”
“I don’t know, I’m not really into religion. How could I know the religion of the Gate in the first place──”
“Haven’t you watched the Ten Thousand Gods Guild YouTube?”
“!!!”
Yong-wan’s pupils dilated at that.
“What?”
“That king seems to be from the same kingdom as this gate.”
Well, that’s a different story. They know about the Kingdom of Lionheart and the Lionheart King Leon.
What if that king is from the same place as these knights?
“……It’s worth retreating.”
“Well, they’ll break through anyway. We can’t hope to outnumber them by seven to one.”
It makes perfect sense. If they retreat, this tribal alliance will surely collapse, but Yong-wan has no intention of throwing his life away for NPCs.
“Warrior… are you leaving?”
Even if there is an NPC with mixed emotions.
“Miss Hildir.”
“If you leave…what are we to do? Do you really intend to abandon us?”
“I’ll bring you reinforcements soon, but for now, we’ll have to leave.”
With those words, Yong-wan did not continue to persuade Hildir since there was nothing more pointless than arguing with NPCs.
“Tell the guild that we’re retreating! Hurry out of the gate!”
“So in the end, you didn’t defeat those monsters after all.”
“Miss Hildir?”
Yong-wan felt a chill run up his spine.
The lovely beauty who, until this morning, had whispered her love into his bunk, now smiled a grotesquely eerie smile.
“You disgusting people, never finish your tasks.”
Her gaze was still on the leader that slaughtered the warriors, the green knight and the knights and soldiers following him.
“What are you talking about──”
Yong-wan started, but Hildir cut him off with a wave of her hand.
“Forget it, I’m going to cheat this time, even though he won’t like it.”
All she did was snap her fingers.
-Guck?
-That?
It started with a dead body.
The imprinted skin swelled, the muscles expanded, and the skeleton groaned and twisted.
When it finally took on the form of a beast rather than a man, the Knight’s eyes lit up.
“They’re using magic!”
“Beastification!”
The barbarians who worship beast gods are blessed by the imprint of a beast on their bodies and end up with the power of beastification.
-Goooooooooo!!!
Boars, bears, wolves, eagles, there were thousands of these monsters, their human bodies distorted and twisted into beastly forms.
The tribesmen cheer at the horrific sight.
“The Great Beast God has favored us!”
“We, too, shall soon receive his favor!”
It’s not just the warriors of the Tribal Alliance who have become beasts. All who bear the beast imprint, young and old, are corrupted, even the Hunters.
“K, k, k…! What the hell did you do…!”
Yong-wan protested, scratching at the black eagle imprint on his neck with his nails. Instinctively, he realized that it was corrupting him.
At his futile struggle, Hildir twisted the corners of her mouth in mockery.
“Oh, my love. It’s no use trying to resist. The imprint may not last long, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Yong-wan was not alone, Ha Yuri, Golden Chul, Huang Yeon-ha… and all the other Hunters in the Alliance’s raiding party were imprinted, unable to stop themselves from losing their senses.
When they finally reached the point of no return, Hildir smirked and clapped her hands.
“Now, then, kill the damned Holy Knight and his knights. We’ll have to start all over again. I’ve traveled to so many worlds, and I can’t even kill one of them.”
At Hildir’s command, the S-rank Hunters charged toward Georgic, who was in the middle of slashing tribal warriors and demonic beasts.
“Peel off the imprinted ‘skin’! That’s their weakness!”
Even in the midst of the commotion, Georgic split the skull of a charging warrior but he didn’t die.
-Grrrrr!
The imprint on the nape of his neck degrades his flesh, and he swells into a large bear.
Georgic’s eyes widened at the sight.
“The holy law must have destroyed his soul.”
His one-handed hammer isn’t just a hammer; it’s a holy artifact that contains his entire life’s holy power, and it constantly absorbs his holy power to enforce the Holy Law of Doom.
Like other Holy Knights’ holy swords and lances, Georgic’s hammer extinguishes the souls of those it kills.
Even the mark of the Beast God on a barbarian warrior’s body should fade upon contact. However, he proceeded with his beastification at the same time as his decapitation, proof that something was wrong with his holy power.
-Uh-uh-uh…!
He kicks a giant bear in the shin as it lunges at him and the creature falls to the blows of his hammer.
“Whoa…!”
He hurries to gather the knights and soldiers. If even he, a Holy Knight, can’t use the Holy Law properly, this battlefield will be a constant battle of attrition.
They are overwhelmed, but he must send out a dispatch to the kingdom to enlist the help of the other Holy Knights.
“Everyone retreat──”
It was then that a shadow rushed toward Georgic and a two-handed hammer the size of a man slammed into him but Georgic quickly blocked it with his shield.
“Crunch…!”
He recognized the hammer’s wielder: a mercenary captain of considerable strength who now wore the beast imprint and glared at him but he wasn’t the only one.
“Krr…!”
An armored warrior rushes forward and delivers a heavy body blow and impact force far exceeding the previous one is transmitted through the armor and almost simultaneously an assassin stabs him in the back.
-Boom!
But he quickly ducks his head and barely manages to block the dagger’s blow with his armor.
-Papapap!
A flurry of arrows shoots out and even though the Holy Law blocked 90% of the damage, the speed was too much to ignore.
Lee Yong-wan, an S-rank Hunter from the Firebird Guild can sense the slightest crack in Georgic’s armor, and he’s firing arrows at high speed.
The four S-class Hunters surrounded Georgic, each much stronger than before.
“You…you must be bearing the heretics imprint.”
Foolish things. What kind of ignoramuses would believe in a cult that worships beasts?
They should all be killed, skinned, and incinerated for their insanity.
“If you were merely lured by riches, it would have been a simple matter of killing you but if you have the imprint of a beast-god, I have no intention of sparing your souls!”
Georgic was furious and determined to extinguish these foolish souls. Though he doubted he could use the Holy Law properly now.
-Bam!
The two-handed hammer was the most intimidating attack and if he blocks it with his shield, a fierce pugilist will pounce on the gap and there was also the archer.
He couldn’t just worry about the three men in front of him since if he let himself be vulnerable the assassin would quickly thrust her dagger in his back.
-Kaaaah!
The dagger, which was engraved with the beast god imprint, attacked Georgic with great force while Golden Chul readied his hammer to deliver a deadly blow.
“Don’t look down on me, you insolent things!”
It was then that Georgic threw down his shield and swung his hammer with all his might.
Golden Chul clashed with his hammer, and in the next moment, the golden hammer shattered.
“Know thy place, lowly thing!”
In the next moment, the swinging hammer struck Golden Chul in the chest and he rolled across the floor and was knocked out.
“Whoa…!”
To counter the Golden Chul deadly blow, he allowed Ha Yuri, Huang Yeon-ha, and Lee Yong-wan to attack. However, Grail Knight Georgic is still standing, recovering himself.
He glanced at his surroundings but the situation was not favorable.
Corpses are crawling like beasts out of the holes where the first Divine Punishment, Earthshatter, should have crushed them and if all the barbarians in the area can be turned into beasts, the Knights alone will not be able to withstand them.
I will burn this body to the ground to send the survivors back to the kingdom!
Georgic steeled his resolve as dozens of beasts charged at him.
“To the Lionheart…! Glory be!”
A golden knight fell from the sky as the Pegasus rider slashed through the giant beasts with his holy spear.
There was a master of the Pegasus beside himself on this battlefield? Georgic naturally looked at him.
“Who are you?”
The man in gold answered his question.
“I am King Leonheart, Guardian of the Grail and agent of the Ten Thousand Gods. I am Leon Dragonia Lionheart.”
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