Run! Ride Hard and Run!

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"

Havent, whom Taren had flung out of the dirt pile, felt rather dizzy.

"Young master, how are you? Are you all right?"

Watching Taren's mouth open and close, open and close, Havent reached up and dug at his ears.

"Huh? What did you say? I can't hear you."

Helpless, Taren could only lean close to Havent's ear and roar:

"Young master! Are you all right? I saw the energy barrier disappear!"

"I'm fine!!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

With Taren supporting him, Havent rose to his feet, dirt streaming down from his body.

"Young master, what did you do? How did it end up like this?"

"What?"

"What did you do? The magic formation seems to be gone too."

"Yeah!!!! You wouldn't understand! Art!!!! The power of art!!!!"

Havent looked around. By the flames burning on the Minotaurs not far away, he could clearly see the surrounding area. It truly was artistic—the ground within a radius of twenty meters had been cleared bare.

"Young master! What do we do now? Your art knocked down the horses. Babaka checked them; they can't stand up for the time being."

After resting for a moment, Havent was no longer as dizzy. He blew his nose hard, clearing out the dirt in his nostrils, then patted Taren on the shoulder.

"The mission is complete, so of course we retreat. As for the horses..."

"Neigh~~~~~~~~~~~"

A long whinny interrupted them. In the distance, a black-robed man with only one arm approached under the protection of ghouls.

"Heretic!!!!!!!!

You evil maggot, how dare you ruin Lord Narak's plan.

I'll tear you to pieces!!!!!!"

Looking at the black-robed man, who was furious and wreathed in green flames, Havent could not help swallowing.

"Taren, I need to revise what I just said. We need to run! Run fast!!!"

Taren looked at the ghouls closing in from all sides and nodded. The young master's art had just destroyed their own defensive formation as well. Only seven or eight White Lion Knights remained gathered around them.

"Let's go. Head for East Tower Outpost. There are spare horses there."

Supported by Taren, Havent staggered after the group as though drunk.

Baiman City's southern wall.

"Everyone, prepare the formation! Three waves of attack! Prepare for impact!"

Facing the ghouls' fearless assault, the undermanned defenders of Baiman City could barely hold them back. They had no time at all to clear away the corpses piling up beneath the wall.

By now, the pile of corpses had nearly reached the same height as the city wall.

Count Mori gripped a broken sword and swung it continuously, directing people to fill the gaps. This ornamental sword clearly could not endure such intense combat.

"Damn it! Damn it! Has Kevin still not finished over there?"

Yet clearly, no one could answer his question.

"Solis! Solis! Give them a few more blasts! Let the soldiers catch their breath, the pressure is too much!"

As the battle dragged on, powerful ghouls began appearing among the undead's siege force. Most had possessed mid- to high-tier strength in life.

Mixed among the ordinary ghouls, they would suddenly inflict grievous damage upon the defending soldiers.

"My lord, Lord Solis is injured."

"#￥&"

After cursing under his breath, Mori looked sorrowfully at the situation atop the wall.

"Are we going to die here today? God, great Tyr, save your people!"

'Boom~~~~~~~'

A thunderous explosion rang out. The attacking ghouls seemed to be disturbed by something, their movements uniformly freezing for an instant.

"Roar!!!!!"

A clear, resounding roar came from within Baiman City.

Moments later, a massive, scarred dragon rose into the air from the city. Bones emitting a faint golden glow were exposed in many places across its body.

Clearly, Count Havent's prolonged battle had inflicted considerable damage on the dragon.

Yet the dragon, after taking flight, paid no attention to the soldiers fighting the ghouls atop the wall.

It flew straight toward the ghouls outside the city. Its golden eyes, burning like fire, were dazzlingly bright in the night sky.

At that moment, Count Havent, covered in blood, also leaped onto the wall. He took several strides to his old friend's side and asked in confusion as he watched the dragon fly away.

"What's going on?"

"Don't know. What happened on your end?"

Count Havent took a potion from his waist pouch and tipped it back into his mouth. During his fierce battle with the Demon Dragon, he had not had a single opening to drink it.

If he had not held the front line himself, the Guard Regiment would have been instantly killed the moment they faced the Demon Dragon. Even so, more than half of his fifty-man Guard Regiment had been lost.

"We almost got wiped out. If that Demon Dragon hadn't suddenly broken free and flown away, we probably would have perished together if the fight continued."

The black-robed men standing on the earthen slope and controlling the ghouls attacking the city seemed to have suffered a heavy blow. They spat blood and collapsed to the ground.

The leading black-robed man turned to look behind him. The hillside that had originally radiated red light was now pitch-black.

"Damn it, someone destroyed the Necromantic Enslavement Formation!"

"Roar!!!!"

Before the black-robed man could say anything more, the dragon with a crimson-glowing chest had already flown over, its golden eyes blazing with furious fire.

"You filthy, despicable vermin

You will pay for what you have done!" (Dragon language)

Immediately afterward, the dragon opened its jaws and breathed dragonfire upon the ghouls below. In an instant, vast numbers of ghouls turned to ash within the draconic flames.

However, the dragon was already near death. After being trapped by the Church of Death's scheme and then suffering undead enslavement, if not for its hatred and the inviolability of a dragon's dignity, Nagrai should long since have answered the Dragon God's summons.

After using all its strength to unleash that burst of dragonfire, its shattered body could no longer support another.

Seeing the black-robed men protected by a defensive barrier, the dragon let out a mournful cry toward the heavens. It circled once in the sky, then tucked in its wings and crashed toward the black-robed men.

With a deafening boom, thick dust rose from the small hill beneath the dragon's impact.

When the smoke cleared,

a massive crater fifty meters wide had appeared. Moments later, a shriveled hand stretched out from the dirt.

The dragon now lay motionless in the crater, its enormous jaws clamped around half of a black-robed man. Its dragon eyes, once like suns radiating golden light, slowly dimmed. Weak green flames rose once more from its ruined body.

At the edge of the crater, the leader of the black-robed men struggled for a long while before rolling out of the dirt.

Looking at the dying dragon before him, he let out a sinister, piercing laugh.

"Heh heh heh heh heh heh.

Embrace death!"

The dragon watched the tiny piece of trash extend his chicken-claw hand. Sadly, it could no longer move.

"Lord Aeolus... forgive me..."

Nagrai calmly closed his eyes and awaited death's arrival.

"Stop! You stinking rogue, take my righteous strike!"