45 Chapter 45: Golem

"HAAAA!"

Panting, Lieutenant Elia Kratz slashed a soldier who refused to surrender, sending a spray of blood spurting out. Swinging her sword, she spun around and stabbed a second soldier who was attempting to sneak up behind her.

Protecting her flanks, Gio and the rookies took aim with their rifles and fired into the mass of soldiers pouring from the west gate and the garrison. The zombies lurched and pulled down the enemies, causing them to scream and shout.

"Back! Fall back!"

One of the enemies shouted, and suddenly a gout of promethium surged and immolated the zombies, turning them into ash.

"Flamer!" Gio shouted. "Take cover!"

The living ducked behind a thick wall while the undead shambled forward, heedless and fearless of an eternal sleep. Rather, they blissfully lumbered toward their demise, allowing the tsunamis of blazing promethium to destroy them.

"Flamer unit! Wipe out the zombies! Riflemen and archers! Follow me! There's only one unit of living soldiers in the castle! Flank them and crush them!"

"Ross! Ammo count!" Gio shouted to a corporal, who did a quick count.

"About ten per man, Sergeant!"

Gio gritted his teeth at the reply, and then glanced at Elia, who was still ferociously wielding her sword.

"Boss! We're running low!"

"I know!"

"And the zombies are getting annihilated!"

"I can see that."

Even as Elia replied stiffly, doubt began to surface in her mind. She had trusted me to keep her men alive, especially after I made that grand declaration of ensuring not even one of us died, but things had swung in the enemies' favor now. Especially with the arrival of the short-range but devastating flamers, the enemies had incinerated any numerical advantage we might have.

Was I deceived again?

Gritting her teeth as perspiration ran down her pretty face, Elia despaired as her resolve wavered for just a second.

Just a second.

No!

With a burst of strength, Elia determinedly sliced two approaching soldiers, felling them. Breathing heavily, she gritted her teeth and forced those thoughts of despair from her mind.

No, he has no reason to lie…and right now he's in the dungeon by himself, risking his own life to save Dragon Princess Yuan!

The shots came in fierce and thick, but suddenly the zombies stopped lurching forward and formed a meat shield in front of the living demonic soldiers.

"?!"

"Sarge, what the…?"

"I don't know, Ross…the zombies…they are…protecting us?"

"!!"

Elia's eyes widened when she studied the incredible sight. And even as the soldiers tried to mount a charge, a sudden black wave of dark energy swept across the place, knocking them off their feet.

"What?!"

"AAAAH!"

A shriek sounded from the back before it was gruesomely cut short. Turning around, the soldiers found themselves beset by zombies from behind.

At the same time, the zombies that were forming a wall of flesh and blood in front of the living charged forward, howling and bellowing in guttural tones.

"Pincer attack!"

"It's a trap!"

"Where did these zombies come from!?"

"Stand firm!"

The sole commander shouted and swung his sword down, cutting down a horde of zombies in a single strike. Glaring at the flamer teams, he barked out an order.

"Incinerate the whole lot of them!"

The roaring fires washed over the horde of zombies both in front and behind. Many of the soldiers were caught in the literal friendly fire, incinerated by their own comrades along with the enemies trying to turn them.

"Huff…huff…"

The mustached commander panted and then smiled in relief when he saw that the flamers had decimated most of my zombies.

"Heh. See? Those undead aren't immortal. They die like mortal men."

"Of course. As do you."

Striding forward, I tapped my staff against the ground. The blood around me rose and turned into spears before impaling the remnants of the company who were trying to assault Elia's position.

"?!"

The commander gurgled bloodily, the red fluids seeping out of his mouth and wounds, as he stared at me in disbelief. I stared at him disinterestedly for a second before taking his head off with a blood axe that sprang from the ground.

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"M…Major?!"

"Thanks for keeping them occupied." I wanted to say something more encouraging and motivating, but I was interrupted by a roar as a second company ran down the stairs. Arrows and bullets pelted me, but none of them penetrated the arcane defenses of my Redwood jacket. With a sigh, I turned to face them.

All around me, the blood churned and bubbled before they took shapes. Blood ghouls moved fluidly, their bodies yet to solidify, and lunged at the newcomers. Arrows and bullets mowed down the blood ghouls mercilessly, but they merely broke apart before reforming their semi-liquid but vaguely humanoid shape.

"Hiiii!"

"No!"

The soldiers backed away, utterly taken aback by this new threat. I stepped forward to finish them off.

"Lieutenant Kratz!"

Magg and Twezent ran forward, escorting Dragon Princess Yuan. Striding forward, Yuan stood before HQ platoon in a dignified manner, brushing her long, dark hair with a hand and studying them with her emerald eyes.

"Lieutenant Kratz. I am Yuan Serpenta, the heiress to the Serpenta Clan and wife of the crown prince, Richard Gremory. I have been told that you have endeavored diligently and risked much to rescue me. You have my gratitude."

Taking the hems of her ruined skirt, Yuan did a formal curtsey to express her thanks. Elia merely stared at her in wonder, having met the crown princess for the first time. She fought to think of something to say, but could only mutter a single word from the shock.

"O…okay."

Elia was still staring at Yuan in shock, even as the dragon princess surveyed the devastation before her eyes.

"Hmm…I heard that he had recently been elevated to a Vampire Lord shortly after he defeated that girl who was one of Evelyn's Chosen…but I never imagined that his power would be enhanced to such levels…"

"Eh? Vampire Lord?"

Elia was blinking in confusion. She glanced at Gio, who shook his head and shrugged. She then turned back to Yuan, stammering.

"B…but isn't Major Tanaka a Lich Lord? I mean…the last time he beat two of Evelyn's Chosen, we saw him ascend to the rank of a Lich Lord…"

"Indeed…he was a Lich Lord when we first met…but many things happened." Yuan frowned. "Were you not informed of the news? Of the assassination attempt at Helsfort Castle?"

"O…of course we were! I just…didn't think he would change from a lich to a vampire. Wait, is that even possible? Aren't a lich and a vampire two different species?"

"Indeed. Which is what makes this young man's identity all the more mysterious. However…" Yuan turned to Elia with a mischievous smile. "Do you think now is the time to be discussing Sir Tanaka's origins? I believe you have a battle to win, do you not?"

"Ah…!"

Elia's face flushed when she realized that Yuan had a point.

"O…of course!" Turning around, she faced her men with a determined expression. "Magna 7th Company! Let's make use of this opportunity and take the castle!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Allow me to join the battle as well."

Dragon Princess Yuan picked up a smoldering sword that had dropped among the dead, then dusted off the ash from it. Her mana swirled around her furiously, descending upon her otherwise seemingly vulnerable body like a cloak.

"But your highness…!"

"Please indulge me. I have a score to settle with Count Raum."

At the same time, that Count Raum himself was raging when he heard the news.

"The Dragon Princess had been rescued!?"

"Yes, your grace! I've just received the report! And furthermore…"

"AAAAAAAARGH!" Raum thundered furiously, cutting off his adjutant before he could finish delivering his report. He slammed his hands against the window and glared outside to stare at my black and red figure. "The Hero Slayer?!"

"So it seems, your grace."

"Fuck…! I knew that brat seemed suspicious when he first showed up! That's why I never liked him! He planned this, didn't he?! He must have planned this ahead of time, and now he's here to take my position! That scheming, conniving son of a bitch…!"

"Begging your pardon, my grace, but that's quite the leap of logic. Unless he was aware of your plans to leave the alliance and to kidnap the Dragon Princess from the very beginning…"

"That's what I'm saying, you idiot!" Raum bellowed as he slammed his fist against the window, cracking the glass. "That brat somehow found out about my plans!"

No, I didn't. But there was no use telling him that. Some people only believed what they wanted to believe. They would close their ears to the truth, refusing to listen to reason or logic. Clearly Raum was one of those deluded idiots.

But he was an idiot with a lot of firepower.

Boom! Boom!

The cannons from the castle wall erupted in fury, firing ballistic projectiles at me. I turned around and raised my hand, stopping the first cannonball with my palm. Thanks to the regenerative defensive layers that my Redwood jacket afforded me, I remained unscathed despite the tremendous impact. Before the cannonball could detonate, I reared my arm back and hurled it as violent as I could. The first cannon exploded when it was struck by its own discharge.

The second cannonball arced way off from my intended target and smashed into the window where Raum was standing.

"Your grace!"

"Whoa!"

The fat demon noble jumped as the cannonball cannonballed through his window, shattering the glass, and smashed through his room before exploding into bright plumes of flame. Spluttering and coughing, Raum tried to rise his feet.

"Crom!" he shouted. "Help me!"

When there was no answer, he looked around, only to find the corpse of his adjutant, charred by the flames.

"F…fuck! Fuck!" Raum howled. "Bastard…Hero Slayer or whatever, I don't care who you are! Nobody gets in the way of my ambition! You're much too dangerous…too dangerous to my plans to unite all of the demon race! My men…my home…my dreams…I'll kill you for murdering and destroying all of them!"

Crawling to his feet, he casted a single spell to dispel the flames and then began staggering through the scorched corridor.

"F…fuck!"

"What the hell are these things?!"

"We can't kill them! We can't!"

Down in the courtyard, the last remnants of Raum's army were hollering as they desperately fired their rifles or arrows at the blood ghouls. The projectiles harmlessly passed through the crimson specters, the fluid holes closing up almost immediately after the bullets or arrows exited their semi-liquid bodies.

With a roar, the blood ghouls sliced through the withering resistance, their claws hardening into iron blades the shape of swords, axes or scythes as they indulged in the carnage.

I followed my army, and the living followed me.

"Keep following the major!" Kratz ordered as she led her Magna company in pursuit. However, a loud crash stopped us in our tracks.

My blood ghouls went still. Even I halted and turned to see the massive doors of what looked like a side shed or a gigantic garage slowly dent and cave outward.

It was as if some colossal creature was ramming the doors from the inside in a furious attempt to free itself.

With one final ram, whatever was inside the garage battered the gates open and finally emerged outside. A colossal humanoid machine that looked almost as if it was made out of rock shook off the debris and stomped into the courtyard, its servos screaming and engine whirring. Towering over us at twelve meters in height, a single obese figure peered down at us scornfully from the cockpit in the gigantic machine's head.

Huge arms, each the size of pillars, and hands the size of a small car swung on either side of the broad, sturdy mechanical frame, supported by titanic legs that left craters in the ground with each step. Judging from the depth of the prints, that thing must weigh at least five tons.

I glanced up at Raum's leering visage and sighed. The guy obviously thought he had won after revealing his trump card.

So did my men, it seemed.

"Wha…what the fuck!?" Gio shouted behind me, while Elia went speechless from fear and shock. The men turned pale and trembled before the mighty colossus before them.

Only Yuan remained calm. Folding her arms, she glared at the mechanical titan and studied it calmly.

"A golem."

"A…what?"

"A truly ancient weapon from the age of gods," Yuan explained to Elia. "One of the very few that still remain."

"How are we supposed to fight something like that?!" Gio hollered.

"By hitting it until it goes down," I replied before directing all my blood ghouls at the golem. However, as much as they hacked and sliced at him, their iron-hard blades failed to leave even a scratch on the adamantine armor.

Within the cockpit, Raum sneered.

"Don't even joke about that, brat. I don't care if you're the Hero Slayer or whatever slayer…even you have no chance against a weapon from the age of gods. I'll give you a chance now…surrender and I might consider granting you a swift and merciful death."

"And you're going to kill us either way, then what makes you think we'll surrender?" I retorted with a roll of my eyes. "Idiot."

Raum grinned, his expression sending chills down my spine. "I was hoping you would say that. Then I can take pleasure in crushing you."

"Not if I crush you first."

I narrowed my eyes. Following my will, my blood ghouls all launched themselves at the golem one more time, but they failed to pierce its mighty armor. Cackling within his cockpit, Raum crushed and obliterated the blood ghouls with raw force, pulverizing the blood creatures under those colossal arms and legs. Swinging his mechanical hand around, which transformed into a cannon, he blasted the blood ghouls apart, disintegrating them with a thermal beam.

"Holy…!"

"Those blood creatures were all destroyed in an instant!"

Ignoring Elia and the rest, I directed my efforts in piercing the golem's armor. Blood lances surged from the ground and struck the golem, but even their sharp points bounced off ineffectually off its armor.

"Tch!"

Clicking my tongue, I changed my stratagem and transformed the spears into axes and hammers, attempting to bludgeon the golem. But even the iron-hard weapons failed to leave a single dent. Raum chortled and smashed the blood weapons apart before he aimed his massive hand cannon at me.

"Take cover!"

Elia shouted, and her HQ platoon scattered. But even I knew they wouldn't be able to dodge the destructive blow in time.

That was fine.

Stepping forward, I raised a hand and caught the blow. The countless layers of protective wards on my Redwood jacket burned off, obliterated in an instant by the sheer firepower and extreme heat. My feet dug into the crumbling concrete as I was driven back, but I grunted and held my ground firmly despite leaving twin trails of tunnels in the courtyard.

Despite their best attempts to regenerate, seven defensive layers were smashed through before my Redwood jacket stopped the beam in its tracks. Red-hot agony lanced through my hand, almost causing me to blank out, but I gritted my teeth and held on. Biting my lip so hard that blood leaked out, I somehow managed to retain my consciousness.

"You…how?!"

Even as the beam dissipated, Count Raum could clearly see that I was alive. My wounded arm, scorched by the superheated blast, was beginning to regenerate, as were the defensive layers on my Redwood jacket.

"We're…still alive?"

"We didn't die!"

"The major…he stopped that blast!"

"What the hell is he?!"

Behind me, my men watched my figure in awe, even as fumes billowed from my smoldering arm. Even Yuan was taken aback by my spectacular display.

"Amazing…" she whispered.

"That cannon should possess the fury of the sun itself! How the fuck did you endure such power?!"

"I'm not obligated to tell you." Instead, I glanced at Elia. "Lieutenant Kratz, escort Dragon Princess Yuan to safety. Take the men and get out of here. Full retreat. That's an order."

"Eh? But what about you, Major?"

"Someone has to hold that guy back. Wouldn't you say I'm the only one capable of doing that right now?"

"No!" Elia shouted. "I can't just let you fight that monster on your own! Please, Major! Allow us to fight by your side!"

I sighed and shook my head before I tempered my voice and asked her a question in a cool, level tone.

"Lieutenant Kratz, what is the primary objective of our mission?"

"Eh?"

"Tell me, what is the primary objective of our mission?" I repeated. Elia swallowed, and then nodded.

"To rescue the princess, sir."

"Yeah. The rescue of the princess. All other objectives, such as defeating Count Raum and taking the castle is secondary. Do you understand? Her highness's safety is paramount. I repeat, escort her highness to safety at all costs. Bring her and Magna 7th Company back to Helsfort alive and safely, at all costs. That's an order."

"…"

Elia opened her mouth, almost as if she was going to argue, but Gio grabbed her shoulder and shook his head. Biting her lip bitterly, Elia hung her head, unable to meet anyone's gaze.

"Do you understand me, Lieutenant?"

"Crystal clear, sir." She turned around. "You heard him, everyone. Protective ring around the princess. Move, move, move! On the double!"

HQ platoon began scrambling on Elia's command, pushing Princess Yuan along with them. They turned and ran toward the exit.

"Do you think I'll let you?!"

Having smashed through the blood ghouls that had reared up to distract him while I was giving out orders, Raum advanced toward the fleeing soldiers. Holding my staff up I swung it and unleashed a colossal Shadow Lunar Fang that sent the titanic machine staggering.

"It's useless!" Raum growled even as he fought to right his machine. "None of your attacks can hurt me! None of your familiars can scratch me! I'll obliterate all of them!"

I assessed the situation calmly. My blood ghouls had been severely diminished by another blast of thermal beam from the golem's hand cannon, but if I mustered all the blood that had been spilled in the castle, I could summon more of them.

But it was pointless. They couldn't scratch the golem's armor. And I would eventually run out of blood long before I could bore a hole through that ancient machine.

What if I enhance my blood ghouls using Thousand Astral Graves?

No. The courtyard was too small. Furthermore, the golem's firepower was too destructive. He would level a sizable amount of my tombstones in just one shot, severely depleting the already limited number of gravestones I could summon in such a confined space.

Fortunately, they weren't the only thing I could summon.

"Ha ha ha! Give up! There's nothing you can do hurt me!"

Advancing forward with his golem, Raum tried to pulverize me. I sprang forward and jumped atop his colossal arm, balancing myself precariously for a few seconds before he tried to swat me away with his other arm.

Jumping away, I landed on the ground, skidding across the courtyard before coming to a halt. As Raum lumbered toward me again, a small holographic window at the corner of the lenses of my glasses popped up to notify me that my summoning spell was finally complete.

I smiled and acknowledged the notification with a single phrase.

"Standby for Titanfall."