Chapter 253 Shameful Failure

The death of Londo instantly caused a sensation among the many soldiers fighting on the battlefield! The first A rank casualty of this battle had occurred!

Dion had only been on the battlefield for a few scant moments, yet he was already reminding everyone why he was a feared veteran who fought many battles during the Great Shift. Floating in the air, clad in his deep blue scale armor, Dion held onto his spear that glowed with a deep blue light.

After Londo's death, the A rank parties tangled in the fight backed up. None of them exchanged blows with their counterparts anymore, as the situation was now tense.

"It's you." Madox narrowed his eyes at Dion. "The Sea Dragon."

"Long time, no see, Madox." Dion twisted his neck from side to side, creating a popping sound. The sound of the battle below them seemed to fade out as intense sparks radiated from the two of them.

Boom!

Suddenly, the two of them flashed, breaking space as they suddenly appeared a foot away from each other. Madox held a long, curved and serrated sword that he chopped down in a vertical slash, while Dion stabbed his spear forward.

Blue lightning crackled along Dion's spear, while a purple flame blazed along the length of Madox's sword.

Clang!

With powerful explosions that went off a dozen times a second, the two of them exchanged blows so quickly that their bodies could not even be seen. Cracks in space bloomed all over the sky as the two of them shifted the location of their fight to over a dozen spots in mere seconds.

As the seconds ticked by, the intensity of blows they exchanged continued to climb until they clearly surpassed the threshold of power that Mid A rank powerhouses were capable of displaying!

Boom!

Whoosh!

Another space breaking explosion shook the sky and the two fighters retreated.

Madox waved his sword and the purple flames on it died out. He had a smirk on his face as he looked at Dion. "You've gotten stronger, Sea Dragon. I thought you were crippled after that last battle." His smirk hitched up higher on his face as he said that last part.

"No thanks to you, stupid gargoyle." Dion said with a passive expression. His blatant insult caused the smirk on Madox's face to twitch, but the gargoyle held himself together.

"Retreat!" He called out and waved his sword.

At his word, the gargoyle army that filled the sky and ground below began to retreat. A large portal appeared in the sky and they began to fly through it. The defenders also pulled back their forces and let the invaders retreat.

"Count yourself lucky today. It won't be so easy to make us retreat the next time. This is just the beginning." Madox cast a glance back at the defenders before stepping through the portal last.

"I will set up a formation to stabilize the spacetime here and make sure they cannot form a portal so close to shore." Lyra immediately said.

Even with the retreat of the Demons, tension still hung thickly in the air. Soldiers were rushing about as they got medical help to those who were injured. The wall had been damaged in the fight between A ranks, so mages began to rebuild the fallen parts, while reinforcing the entire structure.

Dion slowly descended from the sky into the crater where his family members were still gathered around Leon.

Leon was sitting upright now, and Dorian had stopped healing him. The only problem now was the fact that some of Londo's attacks had broken his legs in the earlier fight. They were being fixed, but he could not walk for the time being. However, he could fly.

"Ugh." Thankfully, Leon's perception of pain was very low, so he did not feel the pain that he should have felt from getting his legs broken.

"Are you alright?" Jet asked dubiously.

"Yeah, it's just been a while since I was last beaten that badly." Leon shook his head and sighed before turning to his friend. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming here?"

"Eh, it was supposed to be a surprise." Jet replied with a shrug. "We had actually dropped by not far from the town you had mentioned, but then we felt the fluctuations of battle from here and came here instead. We had no idea the fighting had already begun." He explained.

"Oh, I see." Leon nodded his head and turned to Dorian and Gael.

"This is Gael, my father. And Dorian, my uncle." Jet introduced the two of them. "The man up there is my grandfather." He pointed up to where Dion was hovering in the air with Leonidas and Richard.

"Oh, hello." Leon nodded at Gael and Dion. "I have to go." He took off to meet with the others that were gathering around Dion.

"Who would have thought the Sea Dragon would make a comeback at this time?" Leonidas hummed and crossed his arms. In the past, he had crossed paths with the Armstrong family multiple times. They were on good terms, but had very little dealings after Dion's injury that invalidated his strength.

"Hello Emperor Leonidas." Dion nodded his head in greeting and turned to Richard. "Hello to you too, Silver Tooth."

"Hello~ Those were some fancy skills you used there." Richard whistled in admiration. He was truly amazed by the strength that Dion had displayed when fighting Londo.

Whoosh!

Just then, Leon reached the group and all eyes turned to him.

"Are you okay, Leon?" Richard came over with a concerned look.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Leon nodded. "I was just outplayed due to my lack of experience." As he spoke, the head piece of the Abyss Set vanished from his head, revealing his pitch black skull that had a few cracks running through it.

"Oh, so you are the Undead that my grandson holds so highly." Dion floated over to Leon and extended a hand.

"Leon Cromwell, nice to meet you." Leon shook Dion's hand with a stoic expression.

"Pleasantries aside, we need to discuss how we will move forward. The sudden attack was unexpected, but we were able to repel the invaders. We should make better precautions in case of next time." Leonidas cut in.

"You're right. The Wall would have been good against the normal troops, but we need to make sure they cannot open transportation gates past this point." Leon agreed with Leonidas. The transportation gate had truly caught them off guard. The beating that he had been given by Londo had opened his eyes once again. He had been getting a bit too conceited in regards to his strength lately. It was a good wakeup call.

"Lyra has knowledge concerning transportation gates and the like. She will bring in groups of mages that are also skilled in that regard to set up formations to prevent unsolicited transportation techniques all through the Desolate Lands."

The four of them continues to talk amongst themselves while the soldiers down below gathered themselves for treatement and began to clean up the battlefield. Kai, Dizen and Dibella helped out with that, along with Leon's summons.

As they were recuperating from this sudden battle, the Demons that had retreated were also licking their wounds while barking at each other for their failure.

"YOU IMBECILES!" Ashtar slammed his fist down on the table, turning it into ash in one blaze of flames as he raged. "I GAVE YOU ONE JOB! Establish a beachhead on the Desolate Lands... AND YOU FAILED!!!" He did not even try to control his voice as he screeched and howled at the A rank powerhouses he had gathered and sent to the shore of the Desolate Lands through a transportation gate.

"And what's more, Londo died! LONDO DIED!!! HE FUCKING DIED!!!" Ashtar waved his hand and the wall of the meeting room collapsed as it was assaulted by an invisible force.

Madox twitched with irritation as he stood on the opposite side of Ashtar. The ash of the burnt table fell over his clawed feet as he stood without moving a muscle.

Ashtar raged a bit more before turning his glare and fixing it on Madox. The gargoyle flinched under the intensity of that glare as Ashtar stomped over and stopped right in front of him.

"Every failure will come with punishment... I believe I told you this before you set off." Ashtar spoke with a sudden calm that made Madox have a very bad feeling.

"Yes, you did..." Madox replied slowly.

"Good, you remember. Your first mission ended in a shameful failure. You shall take responsibility." As Ashtar spoke, his form slowly morphed into a sinister devil in Madox's vision, causing the gargoyle to begin trembling ever so slightly.