Chapter 42: Decisive battle and breakthrough

With the arrival of new enemy groups, the whole situation in the western front was quickly deteriorating. Nora's water porters and some other groups of knights and mages felt that on themselves when enemy numbers increased.

Sending another energy slash and evading from the trident, Theo thanked himself for the nth time for taking an enchanted armor with him. That armor has already saved him and his comrades several times!

Right now, he, Leonardo, and other water porters were fighting against singular opponents that passed through several lines of knights. Even though he and Leonardo were attacking at the same time, the comparatively big naga easily dodged and evaded their attacks.

Of course, they have used their energy techniques, but it was ineffective because of its sturdy skin. So, they and many other water porters were forced to enter in the melee and aim at certain areas like eyes, nose, mouth, below stomach area and others to have a real chance against it.

At the same time as they kept fighting, the overall numbers of the friendly forces continued to decrease.

Groaning and feeling numbness on his fingers, Theo covered his sword with battle energy before using "Bursting step" to keep fighting on par with naga.

It was obvious that he was at disadvantage, the naga continued to pour him with its trident attacks, while Theo barely blocked or dodged them.

Even all his battle experience from his past life wasn't enough for Theo, his opponent just didn't let him maneuver and continued to attack. The difference in raw strength was just too wide.

So, it was just a question of time before Theo was pushed back several meters away from naga, stopping near the edge of the wall.

Noticing that Leonardo wanted to launch another attack to distract naga from him, Theo gathered a huge portion of his battle energy before looking at his friend.

"I will buy as much time as possible, finish him," said Theo before jumping at the quickly approaching naga with his "Bursting step".

*Boom*

*Whoosh*

*Boom*

Several moments later, a figure of Theo and big naga appeared before Leonardo. They were in deadlock. Theo's sword met with naga's trident and only sound of struggle and gnashing of metal appeared.

Spitting blood from his mouth, Theo felt numbness in his hands, but he continued to groan holding his sword, blocking the naga at the spot in front of him if it didn't want to lose its weapon that was as precious as naga warrior's honor.

So, moments later when it came from the initial surprise, the naga started increasing the pressure on Theo, trying to free its weapon and finish with such an irritating opponent.

Feeling the increasing pressure, Theo continued to use his battle energy, covering his sword and armor. Though it was almost futile, it was among few things he could do in such a situation when he ran out of mana.

Noticing that his friend was in a dangerous situation and seeing how more blood appeared on his face with each new passing second, Leonardo didn't waste any moment and jumped in the naga's direction that fully concentrated its attention on Theo.

At the same time as he reached naga and raised his sword, aiming into its neck, the naga released a furious roar, realizing what was happening and that there were no chances it could evade from the enemy blade.

A moment later when Leonardo's blade pierced through its neck, the naga freed one of its arms and attacked Theo, hitting him in the body and sending him into the short flight.

Noticing that naga stretched its hand towards its trident, Leonardo knew that it was a chance to finish with the slowly dying enemy.

So, there was nothing strange when his battle-energy-covered blade pierced through its back, inflicting another fatal wound.

Falling to the ground, the bleeding naga didn't release any roars and didn't look at Leonardo. It just stretched its arm towards the nearby-laying trident and concentrated its attention on the small wooden-made object, tied to the handle.

Though this naga was his opponent, Leonardo recognized the glance with which it looked at that object, it was a loving and tender gaze, Leonardo usually saw when his parents looked at him.

So, feeling the real need to do it, the youth bent over and raised that wooden object.

Putting the object into naga's hand, Leonardo noticed gratefulness in his eyes before he rushed toward Theo that was coughing with blood.

Approaching his friend and helping him to stand up, a clear worry appeared in his eyes.

"Don't worry, I will be fine," said Theo, "I have already swallowed several pills and just need some time to recover. Bring me to the tower."

Nodding to his words, Leonardo took Theo by his left hand and started moving towards the tower.

At the same time as they moved they had some time to look around and noticed that their knights and mages were slowly retreating to the towers, the last line of defense and even one of the important walls they were fighting at wasn't an exception. Though some knights continued to fight, it was clear that the defense here was crumbling apart.

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Just as they reached the tower, knights and mages were slowly moving to the towers, retreating from their previous position.

Releasing a tired and painful sigh, Theo cleared his throat by spitting some blood.

"Let's get inside the tower, our archers and mages would most likely bombard those guys moments later. I don't want to stay here when that happens and see how everyone on the wall would turn into the bloody mess,"

Nodding to his words, Leonardo adjusted Theo on his shoulder and continued to move, entering the tower and starting to climb up.

At the same time as the duo started moving, the loud sounds of magic spells, ballista-like arrows, and enemy and friendly forces cry resounded behind their back.

It was the mages' and archers' turn to get rid of another portion of the enemy. Some friendly casualties were a real, but inevitable fact during the war.

Finishing with the bombardment, a signal resounded from one of the main towers in the west front.

"Hold back signal, we should hold as long as possible," cried one of the knights, raising his shield and looking at the enemies that were already approaching their towers.

Just as he said that another signal resounded from the direction of the camp.

"The help is coming! All free groups will arrive here, we just have to hold back till that time," cried another knight.

"That's right, let me join you," said the injured knight, "Anyway, I am already dead. At least will buy some time with the help of this pill,"

The same scene was happening inside every tower, wounded, exhausted and others were gathering and preparing for their last battle.

Spitting another portion of his blood, Theo released a tired sigh before touching the dent on his armor and leaning back on the nearby wall when a huge pain and weakness passed through his body. He needed some time till the pills would finish healing him. So, he couldn't hold Leonardo near to him when they needed every warrior they had.

"Go, I just need some more time," said Theo before closing his eyes, "I will join you a bit later,"

Hearing him, and noticing that Theo was slowly healing, Leonardo nodded before standing up and leaving towards others that gathered near the entrance to the tower.

Feeling that his close friend left him, Theo released another sigh before concentrating his attention on the certain thing inside him.

Moments later, an effect of the recent battle and the fact that he used almost all his battle energy came in and new changes started happening in his battle-energy source. At the same time, a huge tinge of pain appeared in his battle-energy source area.

He was making a breakthrough!

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At the same time with the events that were happening with Theo, the fierce battle between Stella and Linek and their forces were already happening for half an hour.

His goblins were fighting like crazy and held each meter to the western gates with their teeth, killing, injuring, biting, and inflicting any damage they could at already hateful humans. On the other hand, Stella's small cavalry group has long ago lost any effect from the charge and was also fighting like lions, making everything they could to approach the western gate as much as possible.

In short, both forces were in comparative deadlock.

So, there was nothing strange when many of them threw their glances at the fighting figures of Stella and Linek, their respective commanders.

Now, all of them believed that this battle would be decided with the winner of the duel. That winner would have enough strength to change the overall situation here.

Releasing another energy slash at the Linek, Stella jumped into his direction a second later, raising and aiming at him in the process.

Linek who has long ago activated his light-made shield ignored her energy attack and jumped at Stella himself.

Of course, her attack was futile, his shield once again saved him from her energy attack, but she knew that it had one significant weakness. It couldn't block her sword attacks because it specialized against energy or magic attacks without a small effect against physical attacks.

A moment later, another fierce round of sword dance started, Stella was pouring him with her attacks while Linek tried to dodge and evade.

However, once again he was convinced that he was weaker than her in terms of physical prowess.

So, dodging from another attack, Linek jumped back, creating a short distance between them.

"Now, it's time for the real battle, you have proved yourself, and can be honored for forcing me to use my trump card right now," said Linek, narrowing his eyes and looking with hate at Stella.

A strange-looking pill appeared in his hand and moments later he swallowed it, roaring in the process.

Almost immediately, something started to happen to him, his green-colored skin started to darken, becoming brown, and then grey. Besides, he became taller than before, his muscles grew and an unseeable dangerous aura appeared around him.

A glance was enough for Stella to recognize a hub-goblin, a mutated goblin that was much stronger than ordinary goblins. However, such goblins lost a way to reproduce and their temperaments changed because of mutation, becoming more hot-blooded and crazy.

Noticing what was happening to Linek, Stella jumped in his direction, wanting to inflict as much damage as she could while he was still changing. However, other goblins weren't fools and rushed to stop her, sacrificing themselves for their leader.

Finishing with the fifth goblin, Stella finally reached Linek and her sword pierced through his stomach, getting stuck in there.

Roaring from pain and coming to his senses, Linek raised his hate-filled eyes and looked at the red-haired commander before him. A moment later, Stella was sent into the short flight after his punch in her armor while Linek easily took her sword and threw a meter away from him.

*Boom*

Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, Stella quickly raised herself and looked at the hub-goblin Linek that started creating chaos on the battlefield. Just the lone appearance of the hub-goblin changed the situation and goblins started pushing back her people.

She needed to fight seriously if she wanted to crush the enemy before her.

So, a moment later, she quickly untied several heavy small objects tied around her arm and leg muscles. A moment later, Stella felt how her body became lighter and when she raised a nearby laying sword, she was ready.

Using her battle energy and jumping at Linek, she continued their sword duel.

Unlike before, now both of them were in deadlock.

Though Stella became faster than before, she quickly realized that now she needed something more than physical prowess or battle abilities to deal with her opponent. Linek was as strong as she and could be considered even more dangerous because he disregarded his safety in his attacks.

Roaring after blocking her move, Linek initiated his counter-attack.

"Die, bitch, die," cried Linek with increasing veins on his face.

Only he himself knew that the inevitable effect from swallowing the hub-goblin transformation pill was finally showing itself.

He was becoming crazier and much easier to get angry. Sometimes, such hub-goblins could attack even their own forces if their irritation reached a certain limit.

It was his last chance in this battle if he wanted to make thoughtful attacks.

However, Stella wasn't an easy opponent and preferred evading or dodging his counter-attack to get some more time to analyze her opponent.

Only after that, Stella finally noticed his attacks were slowly becoming chaotic. unlike before, Linek could no longer create traps during their duel and just tried to kill her, using his raw strength instead of his mind.

So, a moment was enough for her to realize what was happening and she smiled continuing to pour him with her attacks.

She inflicted light wounds and continued to circle him irritating him in the process, and dodged only when she needed it.

At the same time as Stella fought with Linek, a new change happened in the west front! Both camps' reinforcement finally reached the western gate and met a short distance away from the gates, initiating another fierce showdown.

Human riders bumped with wold riders. Noticing that the main street was already filled with enough warriors, the battle shifted to the local areas, launching new battles there.

Mages and other long-distance fighters continued to inflict as much damage as they could, however, with each passing moment, goblins and nagas continued to push them inevitably.

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*Whoosh*

Inflicting another wound at the Linek, Stella quickly evaded his punch. Roaring to his another failure and losing the last bits of his rationality, Linek finally became a berserker.

At the same time, some groups of battling humans, nagas, and goblins approached the place they were fighting and Stella quickly realized that the overall situation was deteriorating and she needed to finish with Linek as soon as possible.

Releasing a tired sigh Stella returned her gaze at her opponent and moved to the last phase of her plan.

Since she succeeded in making him go crazy, Stella finally started to inflict much more serious wounds at the already bleeding and quite exhausted Linek.

It was his big mistake when he thought that his pill will save him from the heir of the Freinos family. She had some training on how to fight against berserkers and knew their weak sides.

Though they could get strong and fast, they relied too much on their battle intuition. Experienced warriors could use that flaw to exhaust them in energy-consuming strikes till the moment when their bodies wouldn't be able to react fast enough. The lack of thinking was the biggest liability such types of warriors had.

So, half an hour later, Linek's beheaded body fell to the ground.

Raising her glance and releasing a sigh, Stella noticed that the battle already reached her place and more enemies were coming here, pushing her subordinates in the process.

In short, they were losing, and they needed an urgent change in the flow of battle if they wanted victory.

A moment later when she killed one of the wolf riders that reached her, an idea appeared in her head and she looked at the gates with certain sly flames in her eyes.

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At the same time, Spartacus was throwing a worry-filled glance at the western gate and crowds of goblins and nagas that were passing through them.

"We can't stay here any longer! Young master and young lady need our help!" cried Spartacus, looking at Bartolomeo and Neo.

Neo also had a worried expression on his face and nodded, agreeing with him while Bartolomeo just touched his chin and continued to look at the battlefield.

Noticing that Bartolomeo was silent, Spartacus smiled and already wanted to jump from his place, using his battle energy to reach the battlefield as soon as possible when Bartolomeo's voice stopped him.

"Don't hurry, I am sure that young lady will find out how to solve this situation, she wouldn't be happy if you steal her fame right now," said Bartolomeo, "Besides, young master has life-saving treasures with him. He won't die without a fight and in such a fast manner!"

Hearing his words, veins started pulsating on his forehead and he wanted to start cursing at his colleague when a certain sound came from the direction of the western gates.

Moving his glance there, Spartacus was surprised to see that the gates were crumbling apart, closing the way the enemy was using and trapping half of the enemy army inside their camp.

"See," said Bartolomeo, "This is what I was talking about,"

However, Spartacus seemed unconvinced.

"Even if they trapped half of their forces, another half wouldn't sit and watch how young lady and her subordinates finish with them. She needs help and an urgent one!" said Spartacus with a resolute expression on his face.

Bartolomeo only smiled and turned to look in a certain direction, pointing there.

Following his glance, Spartacus and Neo changed their expressions when they noticed a rider's figure, appearing from the slope of the eastern hill in distance.

The figure seemed to cry something before galloping in the direction of the western gates. Moments later, other figures started appearing, following him. Very quickly, Spartacus and Neo realized that several thousand friendly riders appeared under the banner of the 6th special!

This was it! The appearance of the fresh human reinforcements and the fact that the goblin and naga army was divided by walls and would fight on two fronts made it clear. The battle was over!