Felguards averaged over two meters tall. Thick spikes jutted upward from their heads and backs, making them look even taller and more fearsome. Heavy armor completely covered their legs, right arms, and backs, but the fronts of their upper bodies were bare, their muscular, dark-blue chests exposed to the air.
Most demons tended to fight with magic, but Felguards were completely different. They knew no magic at all, yet had high spell resistance and overwhelmed their opponents through sheer physical force. As the Burning Legion's basic infantry, they were like a ceaseless torrent, spreading the Legion's terror across the universe.
Against demons like these, there was no choice but to meet force with force. Fortunately, there weren't many Felguards.
A fierce battle unfolded along the narrow mountain path. At its narrowest, only three or four Felguards could fight shoulder to shoulder. Pulhart was at the very front, somewhat separated from the troops behind him. He swung his great shield, pounding the enemies on every side. Here, only he was tall enough to look these demons in the eye.
Unas admired Pulhart's endurance immensely. The guy had fought from start to finish, appearing wherever the danger was greatest without stopping for a moment. Everyone else had gone down, yet he was still fighting on the front line. Protection Paladins really were the way to go.
A knight captain assigned Unas and his companion to the next wave of attackers. As they waited nervously for their turn, they helped buff the people around them.
The head-on fighting in the confined space was exceptionally fierce. Victory was in sight, and to reduce unnecessary losses, wounded fighters were continually pulled back and replaced by reserves.
As another group of soldiers withdrew, the knight captain raised his sword high, then brought it down sharply. "Charge!"
Unas drove his Skeletal Warhorse up the mountain at full speed. The pungent stench of sulfur hit his nose. The Bone Horse climbed much faster than a living horse, and he quickly left the others behind, crashing into the enemy ranks like a gust of wind.
He knocked a Felguard wielding a giant axe straight to the ground. Using his momentum, Unas swung his hammer and brought down another, but his charge had spent its force. Two enormous blades came at him at once.
The recoil from his full-strength blow had numbed half his body, leaving him unable to dodge for the moment. As the two blades threatened to cut him into three pieces, Unas hurriedly thought, Store!
Smoke scattered as the Skeletal Warhorse vanished into his backpack. With nothing beneath him, he ducked and rolled to the ground, prepared for the fall. The great blades barely grazed his scalp, leaving the top of his head feeling cold.
Before he could get up, the light suddenly dimmed. Two Felguards closed in from either side. At that moment, Erigor and the other Warriors finally charged up from behind him, and the two demons were instantly swallowed up by the crowd.
The fresh reinforcements pushed the battle line forward more than ten meters in one go, joining up with Pulhart, who had charged too far ahead and become surrounded. With him holding the front, everyone felt considerably less pressure.
Unas's scalp still felt cold in waves, and he didn't quite dare charge back into the thick of the fighting. So he pretended to stagger along at the rear, using skills like Judgment and Consecration, buffing everyone, and occasionally casting a few Holy Lights, temporarily filling the role of healer.
Finding a spare moment to open his attribute panel, he saw that his experience had risen to 81%, and he would soon reach level 23. He had gotten nearly all the experience for this level by tagging along, and hiding in the back made Unas feel a little embarrassed. Should he charge in and fight for a while? He didn't need to worry about getting hurt anyway; once he leveled up, his status would be fully restored.
Just then, a clamor suddenly arose from the mountaintop. It sounded like human battle cries. Had someone fought their way up there?
A slight commotion also stirred among the demons blocking the mountain path. An unusually tall Felguard with a red chest roared several times in Demonic, and the Felguards in the rear ranks began slowly retreating toward the summit.
Whatever had happened on the mountaintop, this was an excellent opportunity. Pulhart stopped, and intense silver light burst from his body, forming a giant hammer above his head, nearly twice the height of a person.
"Power of Justice!" Before Pulhart's roar had faded, the giant hammer of silver light swept forward at high speed, spinning with a deep, resonant whine.
The hammer crushed the Felguards like dolls. No fewer than ten demons were killed outright, while more were sent flying in all directions, tumbling down the mountainside.
Pulhart gasped heavily, but he didn't stop. Raising his great shield, he continued charging forward. The soldiers' blood boiled, and they seized the momentum to press forward with all their might, advancing another considerable distance. The summit was right before them!
The clamor on the mountaintop grew louder and louder. The demons began to retreat, and their side advanced step by step. At that moment, the courage that had fled Unas returned to him. He unleashed all his skills, felt the Holy Power boiling within him, raised his silver hammer, and sprinted toward the enemy at top speed.
Verigan's Fist collided violently with a demon soldier's great blade. A deafening clang rang in his ears, and Unas's arms went numb as the tremendous force sent him flying backward.
He landed on his backside with a thud. Across from him, the demon he had clashed with had also been knocked to the ground, where a spear that followed pierced its chest.
The enemy had been dealt with, but he couldn't feel happy about it at all. So his strength was only enough to fight an ordinary Burning Legion soldier to a draw. When would he be able to sweep his shield like Pulhart, sending enemies flying while he himself stood firm?
His desire to level up quickly grew even more urgent. Someone behind him suddenly hauled him to his feet. "What are you standing around for? Watch out, or our own people will trample you to death!"
Unas came to his senses, thanked the soldier who had helped him up, and charged at the monsters again, his eyes red.
I want to level up, damn it. Hand over that experience!
Driven by his fanatical hunger for experience, Unas attacked desperately. The demons had already been retreating slowly, and after a wild barrage of blows from his hammer, he actually broke open a gap, becoming the first person to reach the summit.
Once the first made it up, others followed, and the Felguards' formation finally collapsed completely. Unas could now see the source of the clamor clearly: it was the group that had followed Tyrosus up to the summit earlier.
After Tyrosus flew into the sky to pursue the Dreadlord, they had become locked in a bitter struggle, but they hadn't given up. When Pulhart led his troops in the assault on the summit, they had launched a fierce counterattack, forcing the Felguards to split their forces.
The Dreadlord's scheme to lure the enemy in deep had become a joke before them, but the price had been heavy. Of the more than forty who had charged up together, fewer than ten were still standing, and every one of them was wounded.
The way to the summit had been opened, and soldiers poured up in a steady stream. The remaining Felguards were gradually surrounded. The Argent Dawn had no need for low-ranking demon captives like these, and Felguards would not surrender to humans either.
Having lost their advantages in terrain and numbers, the Felguards could no longer fight back. Soon, as the last demon fell, the hundred or so Felguards Bessarius had summoned were wiped out to the last.
Unas had leveled up while killing enemies, but only after the battle ended did he have time to check his attributes: Strength +3, Agility +0, Constitution +2, Intelligence +2, Paladin level 23, experience 13%.
Unas noticed that the attribute points from each of his previous two levels had totaled eight, but this time there were only seven. Why was that? Had he gotten too much experience by tagging along, so it didn't count?
But there was no time to ponder that now. Pulhart had yet to declare the battle over, and the soldiers had surrounded the boulder where Bessarius was hiding.
Unas also went over to see what was happening. Beneath the boulder was a deep crevice, and Bessarius's avatar was very likely hiding inside.
He and several people beside him joined forces to push the boulder aside, revealing a pitch-black round hole. Someone immediately cast a large net that had been prepared in advance over it. The net sealed the entrance, but caught nothing.
A closer look revealed that the hole was wide enough for a person and so deep its bottom couldn't be seen. There might also be traps inside, so no one dared rush in. Everyone waited for Pulhart's orders.
"Seal the entrance first," Pulhart said, standing guard beside the hole with his hands resting on his sword. "Hans, go find a few captives to question."
A small group of captives was soon escorted up the mountain. The young soldier named Hans was either a little slow or had a communist spirit. He had picked one captive from each race, making the group look more like a delegation of ambassadors.
"There were plenty of captives willing to cooperate. These are all their leaders. Please question them, sir." Hans actually sounded rather pleased with himself.
Looking at the delegation of nine races—human, elf, dwarf, Troll, Orc, Ogre, Kobold, Goblin, and Gnoll—Pulhart stared blankly, unable to say a word for a long time.
Fortunately, the human captive spoke first. "Lord Paladin, I am Marcus Thornton, champion knight of Lordaeron's Third Legion. After my defeat, I fell under the demons' control and was only freed today."
Then he lowered his head and dropped to one knee. "I am willing to serve the Silver Hand unto death."
Champion knight was a very high military rank. In the Alliance, the commander of a standard regiment generally held the rank of major, and a champion knight ranked just below a major. This man was probably quite capable, but having been controlled by demons was a very serious stain on his record. At the very least, it showed that his will was not strong enough, and there was no telling what fate awaited him.
In contrast to his enthusiastic pledge of loyalty, Pulhart seemed somewhat indifferent. "Stand up. You only need to answer my question. Do you know anything about this hole?"
"I can confirm that it's Bessarius's lair, but I've never been inside. Apart from demons and Undead, only dwarves and Kobolds were allowed to enter." Marcus didn't lose heart and did his best to appear sincere.
Pulhart turned to the dwarf and Kobold representatives. Both came only up to his thigh. The Kobold tilted his ugly head up and shouted, "Candle! I want my candle! Woof, woof!"
Pulhart didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He glared at Hans, and the young man hurriedly pulled the Kobold away. At last, the dwarf spoke. "I'm Yomode Stonebrow of the Steel Brotherhood. I was attacked and captured while transporting weapons for your human army. As for this cave, it really is Bessarius's lair. It seemed to be digging for something and caused water to leak everywhere. It had us dwarves help survey the geology and design the tunnels. That's all I know."
"Are you familiar with the tunnels inside?"
"We were all blindfolded and taken separately to different sections. Each of us only knows a little piece. The main digging force was Undead and Kobolds. You should ask them about that."
There was no communicating with low-intelligence creatures like Kobolds, to say nothing of the Undead. They would have to rely on themselves after all. Pulhart asked no more questions and waved his hand. "The dwarf stays. Take the rest away."
"Prepare torches and go down into the hole. We must not let Bessarius escape!"