Daimon came to his senses as he stared at the remains of Russellant. Seeing that Berkis had personally stepped in to kill Russellant, he sensed that the dragon must be after something.
“Then what he’s after is……”
He hurriedly called Krovitz and issued an order.
“Immediately scatter the heroes. He will definitely attack from the air.”
Krovitz was bewildered for a moment, but obeyed the order without complaint. Following his instructions, the heroes spread out, increasing the distance between one another. Their formation was designed to thoroughly protect the few remaining mages. From this point on, they would have to wage an aerial battle.
Berkis still had nearly thirty liches left, and after what had happened to Russellant, the only way to stop them was through a combination of heroes and mages.
Fortunately, most of the mages who had survived were high-ranking mages of the Sixth Circle or higher. Thus, they seemed well suited to aerial combat. In the meantime, Berkis finally appeared.
“Heh heh heh. Is the final battle all that remains now?”
The heroes’ gazes all turned toward the sky. The shadow of a gigantic red dragon hovering in midair stretched across the ground. Berkis was looking down at the heroes from high above. At the sight, sparks flew from Daimon’s eyes.
“You gutless bastard. You took advantage of me fighting the Iron Golem to ambush Russellant……. I never thought there would be such a despicable bastard among dragons.”
“I’m rather special among dragons, to begin with. And isn’t the one who got caught off guard simply a fool?”
At least when it came to verbal sparring, Berkis was in no way inferior to Daimon. Grinding his teeth, Daimon suddenly shouted.
“Stop thinking about stabbing us in the back and bring out the liches. I know very well that you still have plenty of them left.”
Berkis slowly shook his head.
“The liches I could mobilize aren’t here. Gedenhyde is carrying out some sort of mission with them……”
“Heh heh heh. Do you think I’ll believe such an obvious lie?”
Berkis glared at Daimon with an expressionless gaze. Daimon met his eyes without backing down.
“Whether the liches are here or not doesn’t matter in the first place, does it? If you’re confident, then come at me.”
“Of course I have no reason not to be confident.”
Daimon spat out the words harshly and immediately rearranged the mana. The mana was sparse here, and its flow was also extremely irregular, making it difficult to cast magic. But as a Ninth-Circle Master, he rearranged the mana in an instant.
Kyyyyyaaaah!
What appeared amid the eerie cry was a Phantom Steed. Eight ghostly horses, reduced to nothing but bones, flickered into existence. The mages watching them were startled.
“As expected of a Ninth-Circle Master.”
Summoning eight Phantom Steeds at once was impossible for an ordinary mage. Even mages of the Sixth Circle or higher were limited to two or three at most. The mages stared at Daimon with reverent eyes. Whether or not he was aware of their gazes, Daimon mounted the Death Knights onto the Phantom Steeds he had summoned.
“Go. Go and finish that bastard.”
At his command, the four surviving Death Knights among those retrieved from the portal, along with the Four Great Knights, mounted the Phantom Steeds and took flight. Carrying eight Death Knights, the Phantom Steeds flew straight toward Berkis.
Meanwhile, the remaining mages, led by Shrekheimer, silently gathered mana. They were preparing to summon Phantom Steeds at any time in case the current ones were dispelled. Seeing the Death Knights flying toward him on the Phantom Steeds, Berkis gave a bitter smile.
“You’re cautious.”
The Death Knights were flying upward with the distance between them carefully widened. Because of that, dispelling all eight with a single spell was impossible from the outset. Only an area-of-effect spell could eliminate all eight Phantom Steeds at once.
But this was Northwood, where the flow of mana was extremely irregular. Even a dragon could not use an area-of-effect dispel indefinitely when it consumed so much mana. Daimon seemed to have sent up eight for that very reason. But since he had no other choice, Berkis was forced to cast Dispel.
Bang!
With a thunderous roar, all eight Phantom Steeds vanished without a trace. The Death Knights, who had been flying upward with great momentum, were left helplessly plummeting as they flailed their limbs. But the instant the Phantom Steeds disappeared, another group of Phantom Steeds opened a portal and appeared. They were the reserve Phantom Steeds summoned by Shrekheimer and the other mages. They raced toward the falling Death Knights.
Thud.
Unlike humans, the Death Knights did not lose consciousness even while falling. With agile movements, they hurled themselves onto the Phantom Steeds. Then they spread out their formation and flew toward Berkis. Berkis, who was about to cast Dispel again, hesitated. He had sensed the mana the human mages on the ground were gathering. Even if he eliminated the Phantom Steeds before him, more would appear again.
“A rotation tactic……. An excellent method.”
With a sinister smile, Berkis cast Dispel once more, as though he had no intention of considering what would come afterward.
Bang!
The Death Knights, having lost their Phantom Steeds, once again found themselves plummeting.
“It worked.”
Daimon’s face brightened. Now it was time to send up the heroes.
“Berkis has consumed a great deal of mana in the exchange just now. He unleashed high-ranking magic one spell after another, so there’s no way he has enough mana left. And this is Northwood, where mana is extremely scarce. Since he has already cast it twice, he won’t be able to use another area-of-effect Dispel.”
Another group of Phantom Steeds flew toward the falling Death Knights. The mages who had been waiting had summoned them.
“Now is the time to attack.”
At Daimon’s signal, Krovitz raised his longsword toward the sky.
“Attack all at once!”
At the command, the remaining mages simultaneously summoned Phantom Steeds. Many mages had died in the earlier battle, so there were not enough for all the heroes, but enough Phantom Steeds appeared to carry roughly half of them. The heroes hurriedly mounted. They had already undergone sufficient training for aerial combat.
“Waaaaah!”
The sight of more than a hundred heroes taking flight on Phantom Steeds was, in a word, spectacular. The remaining heroes encircled the mages without leaving a single opening, protecting them while the mages began gathering mana once more in preparation for being dispelled.
Daimon also took flight on a Phantom Steed he had summoned himself. The members of the Kasim Mercenary Corps and Shrekheimer likewise took to the air to support Daimon. Only Illumina remained behind to protect Juliana. At last, the humans’ all-out assault, which Berkis had feared so much, had begun.
Yet Berkis showed little agitation even as he watched the charging knights. Nor did he attempt to cast an area-of-effect Dispel.
“Is it time to bring out my final arrangement?”
Looking at the heroes rushing toward him, Berkis opened his jaws wide. A thunderous roar covered heaven and earth.
Kroarrrr!
It was the signal. From within the clouds, a piercing cry burst forth as though in response.
Kyaaaak!
Then countless shadows burst out of the clouds. They stood roughly ten meters tall and looked like dragons shrunk down in size. They were wyverns, winged dragons without forelegs. More than three hundred wyverns emerged from between the clouds. Without hesitation, they began charging toward the heroes.
“I expected liches, but wyverns……”
Though startled, Daimon did not waver. There were many of them, but since wyverns had vital points, they were actually easier opponents than liches. Remembering that, Daimon prepared Magic Missile without delay. But Berkis had no intention of leaving Daimon alone.
“You’re mine.”
Faced with Berkis’s momentum as he plunged toward him, Daimon hurriedly dispersed the mana he had gathered. His task now was to cover the Death Knights. The Death Knights were already charging toward Berkis.
“I’ll have to leave the wyverns to the heroes.”
Daimon drove his Phantom Steed away at high speed. At the same time, he ordered the four Death Knights retrieved from the portal to withdraw from the battlefield and deal with the wyverns. Their abilities were inferior when it came to fighting Berkis, and they would do little more than distract Daimon. Now was the time to devote all their strength to fighting Berkis.
“You’re quite persistent, aren’t you?”
With Berkis’s shout, the Phantom Steeds ridden by the Four Great Knights abruptly went out with a pop. They had been dispelled once again. But the Death Knights soon escaped their plight of falling through the air. Daimon and Shrekheimer had summoned another group of Phantom Steeds. The four enraged Death Knights approached Berkis without hesitation. Behind them, Daimon and Shrekheimer firmly supported their advance.
The one hundred heroes mounted on Phantom Steeds had to fight a difficult battle against more than three hundred wyverns. To begin with, regardless of whether they were riding Phantom Steeds, the wyverns possessed superior basic flying ability.
Moreover, like the medium-sized monsters and orc warriors before them, the wyverns had been subjected to Berserk magic. Numerous knights lost their lives to the wyverns that attacked without any regard for life or death. Knights were frequently seen being bitten by sharp teeth or knocked backward by claws, plummeting upside down through the air.
But even more wyverns were cleaved in two by the heroes’ swords. The sky became a chaotic slaughterhouse where humans and wyverns killed one another. The members of the Kasim Mercenary Corps were also engaged in a fierce battle. Kasim narrowly avoided the teeth of a wyvern charging at him with its jaws wide open.
“Damn it. We practiced, but this isn’t easy.”
After cursing, Kasim drove his Phantom Steed in pursuit of the wyvern that had attacked him moments earlier. But the wyvern was vastly faster in flight, and Kasim soon had to give up the chase. As he searched for another target, a warning suddenly sounded in his mind.
“Damn!”
Kasim exerted his strength and sprang upward. At that moment, something struck the Phantom Steed he had been riding at tremendous speed.
Thwack!
The Phantom Steed vanished on the spot, bitten by the wyvern’s sharp teeth. It was another wyvern that had attacked it. Madness flickered in its bloodshot eyes, and its sharp teeth looked capable of biting through even steel armor. As the wyvern looked around for another victim, it felt something land on its back and turned its head. At that instant, an ominous sensation pierced its neck.
Slash!
Pain followed. The wyvern let out a death shriek.
“Kyaaaah……”
But the wyvern’s scream did not continue. From the severed neck, only a hissing sound escaped along with a torrent of blood. The headless body of the wyvern soon began plummeting endlessly. Standing atop the wyvern’s body, Kasim hurriedly looked around.
If he fell with the wyvern like this, there was no doubt that he would be smashed beyond recognition. Before that happened, he had to find and mount an ownerless Phantom Steed. But not a single one was in sight. The mages on the ground also seemed to have reached their limits and could no longer summon Phantom Steeds.
“Damn it……”
Kasim felt all the strength drain from his body. Just then, a shout rang out from behind him.
“Captain, jump over here!”
Kasim turned his head and saw Patterson’s face. Seeing that he was towing an ownerless Phantom Steed, it was clear that he had followed after him. Kasim’s face lit up.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been so happy to see you, Patterson.”
“Don’t forget that feeling until the day you die.”
Kasim mounted the Phantom Steed Patterson had brought and charged toward another target.