Golden Radiance City, southern outskirts.
Trinis, who had been holding his ground, had begun to retreat step by step. Every step he took left a deep pit in the ground, ankle-deep. Even those soldiers who could not see clearly understood now—Trinis had been suppressed by Samuel and forced onto the back foot!
The Emerald Legion soldiers all showed signs of excitement, while the faces of the Iron Scale Legion members were exceedingly grim. This was especially true for some of the leaders, who had known Trinis's plan beforehand. Yet plans could never keep pace with change; the strength Samuel displayed had far exceeded expectations. Even with all of Trinis's preparations, such an unforeseen situation had arisen.
One could well imagine Trinis's frustration. A major purpose of the "Ashen Set" had been to defend against Samuel's powerful killing move, "Dawn Extinction," unleashed by shattering his weapon. Yet Samuel had not even used that move, and had already forced him into peril.
A tower shield was a type of greatshield with a broad defensive area, but it was far heavier than an ordinary shield and required greater strength to wield. Especially when faced with Samuel's ghostlike movements and lightning-fast close-range assaults, Trinis began to feel the pressure mounting. The shield in his hand grew increasingly heavy and difficult to handle; the "restraint" he had anticipated had instead become a case of trying to be clever and only making matters worse. What shocked him even more was that, according to the intelligence he had received before, Samuel's stamina had always been a weakness. Yet now, after maintaining such high-speed movement and attacks for so long, his opponent showed not the slightest sign of fatigue. It was simply unbelievable.
The sharpness of "Flying Annihilation," said to have been personally forged by Prince Arthur, a