311 Chapter 311: Trojan Nightmare

The nightmarish horses stampeded about the place, pursuing the other civilians. Mercenaries shouted as they closed ranks and formed defensive lines, firing haplessly into the incoming beasts. Fortunately, assistance arrived in the form of the Pendragon Academy Knights, who burst into the foray with their weapons and magic. Lances pierced horses, blades cut stallions, and axes cleaved steeds. The smaller horses neighed in agony and seared the area with flames, but their fire spells were clearly less powerful than that of their primogenitor.

Even as flames washed over the Pendragon Academy Knights, the students' gleaming armor held strong against the aggressive spells. The defensive runes glowed as the knights infused their armor with mana, and dissipated the flames.

By the way, the defensive runes weren't exactly spells, nor were they accelerants. They were more of boosters that served to enhance the knights' innate defensive spells and buff their endurance. They weren't auto-cast or passive spells that were perpetually in place. Just think of them as a different kind of Divine Device or Spirit Engraved Gear, so all they did was strengthen spells that their wearers cast, not automatically cast spells for them. Runes on their own did absolutely nothing until the user fed them mana or use them as a medium to cast their spells. And while they strengthened the spells, they did not speed up the casting time.

"Why are you explaining that?" Dong Fang Yue Chu asked irritably. I shrugged and gestured to several of the civilians, among whom the existences from beyond the fourth wall had taken possession of.

"Because they would definitely ask me those questions and complain about how I'm so stupid for not making use of these runes to speed up the casting time for my summomning spells…even though such a convenient thing doesn't exist."

"Furthermore, it's not as if anyone can just get spirit engraved gear," Harrison Reed added as he glanced at the mercenaries. "The Hell's Hounds, even though they are among the top mercenary groups and most famous, and arguably the most well equipped, don't have Spirit Engraved Gear for each of their soldiers. Pendragon Academy is a school for the elites and super-rich. All the studetns who enroll there usually come from wealthy families. Thus they can afford to arm each and every student with the very best spirit-engraved armor and weapons."

Spirit Engraving was a very luxurious industry that commanded much more money than comestic healing magic/surgery (which was why I couldn't afford to have my eyes fixed, because they charge people with exorbitant sums of money just to heal myopia, plastic surgery, slimming stuff, and other "comestic" things). Anyone who chose to become a Spirit Engraver would most certainly become set for life.

"Then why don't you become a Spirit Engraver and become rich?" one of the reader-civilians sneered. "Stupid MC."

"Do you think it's so easy to become a Spirit Engraver?" Harrison scoffed at the naïve reader, who could only think of ways to game the system without considering reality or the practicality of the situation. "If it's so simple, everyone will become a Spirit Engraver."

"But he's the main character!"

"So what?" I pointed above impatiently. "In case you haven't noticed, the title of the story is Summoner, not Spirit Engraver. Obviously I'm going to focus on learning summoning magic instead of Spirit Engraving or healing or whatever!"

"But…but, look at The Great Conqueror! Even though Ya Se is supposed to be a great conqueror, he is also a Spirit Engraving prodigy!"

"Do I look like I'm some prodigy to you?" I snarled. "I'm just a perfectly normal, average, mediocre guy with no talent whatsoever! I had to work hard to reach my current status and position! I don't have any stupid cheats or any random master conveniently popping out from nowhere to teach me ultimate magic or something! Even my dad only taught me martial arts and not a whole lot of magic! And I still sucked at learning martial arts despite my dad's best efforts, which is much more realistic than all those usual xianxia protagonists mastering whatever their masters teach them so easily as if they were sponges absorbing water! How convenient that they just happen to either have the best teachers in the world or they just happen to be geniuses who can master everything perfectly when being taught! If only everyone was that talented, eh?"

"Shut up! We only want to read about overpowered main characters! Weak and pathetic MCs like you can just fuck off and die!"

Yue Chu went over and smashed his fist into the rambling guy's face so hard that teeth actually flew out of his bleeding mouth. Shaking his hand, he turned back to me.

"Ignore those idiots and focus on the current battle. Seems like that big guy is about to breach your defenses."

"Black Tortoise!" I shouted, returning my attention back to the present. Even though Harrison and I were infusing the water barrier with mana, the original Trojan horse was smashing through the fluid screen and somehow causing cracks (I have no idea how, let's just say it made for easier visual representation for manhua and anime viewers) in it. We wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer.

Which was why I was sending my Celestial Guardian up to contest the breach.

At that moment, the Trojan horse kicked a gigantic hole open in the water sphere and vaporized the rest with its hellish flames. With a nightmarish neigh, it strode right in, triumphantly rearing up to torment the civilians.

"Harrison, Yue Chu, take all of them and run! My Constellation spirits and I will hold that giant horse off!" I yelled. Black Tortoise was already responding to my will, lumbering forward to contest the Trojan horse.

The titanic Trojan horse snorted, as if to say that my Black Tortoise wouldn't pose a threat to it at all, and kicked at him. My Celestial Guardian quickly withdrew into his shell and withstood the double kick that the nightmarish creature delivered, and his sturdy defense meant he didn't take any damage. He popped his head back out and unleashed a hydro pump attack (okay, I really need a more original name for this water spell) that crashed into the gargantuan creature and washed it away. The titanic Trojan horse screeched in rage and pain, but the fiery mane only served to ignite more forcefully, vaporizing water into boiling steam.

Charging through the highly pressurized torrent of water, the Trojan horse kicked out at Black Tortoise again, who quickly withdrew into his shell. Snarling, the titanic Trohan horse stomped on the durable shell, but failed to make even a dent. Spinning around, Black Tortoise tackled the Trojan horse and sent it crashing onto the ground.

Scrambling back to its feet, the Trojan horse then unleashed a huge stream of hellish flames that whirled about in a fiery tornado.

"Is that damned thing using a fire spin attack?" I moaned. We were really intruding into Pocket Monster territory here. Pretty soon Tyrant would reveal a ball to recall his fainted Rapidash…I mean Trojan horse into it.

Black Tortoise's shell, while impervious to physical attacks, was not as resistant against magical or elemental attacks. His shell, formerly black, began to glow red-hot.

"This ain't good."

Fortunately, I had not been idle this entire time. While Black Tortoise had been occupying the Trojan horse's attention, I had been investing all my time and energy into summoning yet another Celestial Guardian.

"Golden Kirin!"

A massive dragon-like horse materialized in the center of the crumbling building, his golden scales gleaming in the dim light and almost illuminating the area. Antlers crowned his draconic head, along with whiskers and a single horn that protruded from his forehead. Hooves clattered against the ground, the heavily muscled legs also similarly protected by armored scales. He issued a bellow of challenge at the stunned Trojan horse.

"What the hell? When did you get a new summon?!" Yue Chu demanded, still at the back directing the civilians through an alternate avenue of escape.

"The fifth and supposedly most powerful Celestial Guardian. Golden Kirin of the Center, who reigns over the element of earth." I shrugged. "If I can summon the other four Celestial Guardians – Green Dragon of the East, White Tiger of the West, Vermillion Phoenix of the South, and Black Tortoise of the North, why wouldn't I be able to summon this guy?"

In actual fact, it took me a long time to finally complete my conceptualization and creation of this guy, which was why I never summoned him until now.

Snarling, the Trojan horse unleashed a second fire spin attack at the newly materialized Golden Kirin, but he responded by stomping a single hoof into the ground and conjuring several walls of earth. Even as the rocky barriers were melted into molten magma, the flames failed to get past any of them. Instead, boulders levitated and flung themselves at the Trojan horse, almost like railguns firing off electromagnetically charged projectiles.

Or the reversal of gravitational forces. Well, I wasn't a physicist, so I had no idea how it worked, but I was aware of the concept of geomagnetism. The Earth had its own magnetic field, produced within its inner core, and my Golden Kirin was making use of that to charge its boulders into powerful railgun-like projectiles.

The Trojan horse was almost unable to dodge the gauss rifle like slugs, but it nimbly dove to the side, making use of its superb speed to evade the incoming projectiles. Even though the gauss slugs were being fired at incredible speeds, for the Trojan horse to still dodge them at near pointblank range, I couldn't help but be impressed.

Flames wreathing its body, the Trojan horse closed in on my Golden Kirin, screeching. Even so, my Celestial Guardian stood strong and conjured dozens of earth spikes that lanced out and almost impaled his opponent, forcing the titanic horse to veer off and alter its trajectory in midair. Stray fireballs crashed around the Golden Kirin, but he remained unperturbed by what would otherwise be close shaves. Ignoring the firery bombardment, he continued to unleash more earth spikes at the dancing Trojan horse, who made use of its amazing agility to avoid getting speared by the deadly stone lances.

While the two titanic creatures battled it out, I spun around to ensure that my friends were all right. Theodore was working together with Charles and the Knights of Pendragon Academy to fend off the smaller horses so that the civilians could escape. Even though the majority had already fled under the protection of the mercenaries, there were still a significant number of them left inside. It was only natural. We literally started off with thousands of evacuees. They weren't going to simply empty out the building in a matter of minutes.

Especially when the whoe situation was so chaotic, and the soldiers were working to ensure they didn't stampede over and crush each other in the mass panic. The mercenaries also fought to keep the horses off their backs, and as much as I wanted to help, I was currently too busily fighting against the main Trojan horse. If I could, I would have summoned more Constellation spirits to help out, but I had already expended most of my mana and time into summoning Golden Kirin. Besides, I realized that if I took out the main Trojan horse, it was highly likely that the other smaller horses would disappear.

Additionally, my friends and the Knights of Pendragon Academy were doing a good job of holding the smaller horses off and even destroying them.

Drawing Hei Yue and Bai Ri, I sprinted toward the struggling Trojan horse. It was still nimbly dodging the hail of stone lances that my Golden Kirin was firing at it, twisting from side to side and weaving through the rock-hard barrage. I leaped onto one of the lances and began hopping from one stone spike to another, closing in on the thrashing Trojan horse.

At first, it disregarded me as insignificant. After all, what was a puny human when compared to the likes of Golden Kirin or Black Tortoise?

However, even as I jumped off from an elongating stone spike and spun midair to avoid getting burned by its fire spin, it kicked out at me almost casually. I altered my trajectory abruptly and swung about to slash its leg. Both of my swords flashed out, the black and white blades cleaving through its black fur and leaving a geyser of blood.

The Trojan horse neighed in agony and whirled about to face me, its flames spiraling in concerted fashion toward my falling figure. Even as the flames roared toward me, I smiled.

That small moment of distraction was more than enough.

The guass rifle shot made out of solid earth tore through the Trojan horse's body, pulverizing it and leaving a massive crater in its figure. The Trojan horse actually shrieked as it crashed downward, blood and fire erupting from its fatal wound. The spiraling flames that would have engulfed me went wide, scorching the air just centimeters away from my face. What few deadly embers that rained in my direction, I managed to slash apart with my dual swords.

Landing on the ground, I rolled to avoid another shower of fire, and then glanced up at the writhing Trojan horse. Using geomagnetic forces, Golden Kirin launched another gauss slug made entirely out of solid earth and obliterated the remains of the Trojan horse again. It cried out one last time before it shattered into wisps of mana.

"?!"

Tyrant King froze for a moment, and was forced to duck when Troy punched him. Even though he avoided getting a fist in his face, Troy's attack caught him in the shoulder when he proved too slow in completely evading it and he was sent spinning to the ground.

"My Nightmare has been defeated?" he growled in disbelief. Troy stomped on him, forcing him to roll away.

"You underestimate my friends, Tyrant," Troy sneered. "And it won't be just your stupid horse. You're going down too, big brother."

Tyrant chuckled as he hurled himself away, and back to his feet.

"We'll see about that, little bro."

Despite his confidence, the smaller horses found themselves slowly disappearing the moment their primogenitor was slain.

"They're falling!" Yue Chu cheered as he punched a horse into oblivion with his flaming fists.

"Yeah. Looks like Richard did it." Harrison glanced at me, even as his right hand unleashed a golden holy beam that sheared off the head of another horse.

"Leave it to the specialist to destroy monsters," Theodore agreed as he hammered another horse, pulverizing it into wisps of mana. He then turned to the civilians and gestured for them to hurry. "Get out of here! Now!"

"All…all right!"

Despite being shaken, the evacuees were able to leave the shelter in orderly fashion. Nodding to Golden Kirin and Black Tortoise, I proceeded to mop up the remaining horses that continued to stubbornly linger despite the demise of their parent. Despite their obstinacy, they were pretty easy to clean up. Between my Golden Kirin's earth spells and my Black Tortoise's water spells, we were able to crush any remaining resistance while allowing the remaining refugees flee from the crumbling shelter.

However, before long, I heard a massive explosion that wrecked half of the broken building. Spinning around, I caught sight of Troy vanishing in a shower of debris.

…and heard Tyrant's triumphant laughter echoing through the interior…