Halce’s pupils contracted sharply.
His rich battlefield experience made him instinctively lean back violently while swinging his sword to parry!
“Clang——!”
Sparks flew!
The arrow was barely deflected by the sword, but the tremendous impact still numbed Halce’s arm.
His warhorse beneath him startled, rearing up with a whinny.
Almost at the same moment, figures abruptly appeared from behind the slopes and piles of rubble on both sides of the mountain pass!
They wore camouflage cloaks similar in color to the trees and rocks, holding longbows or scimitars, their pointed, long ears clearly visible in the twilight.
Their numbers weren’t large, about twenty or thirty, but they moved swiftly and silently, instantly occupying advantageous firing positions, their arrowheads uniformly aimed at the Rose Knights below.
From behind the only path through the pass, the sound of neat, rapid footsteps also came.
A squad of about twenty well-equipped Elven Border Patrol soldiers arrived, quickly deploying in formation, blocking the retreat.
Leading them was a female Wood Elf officer clad in light silver armor.
“Elven Border Patrol is here!”
Her voice was clear, sharp, and piercing through the battlefield.
“By order of the Empress, to maintain border peace! Lay down your weapons! Halce, you only have the right to search and capture, not the right to attack a merchant caravan!”
The situation reversed once again in an instant.
The Rose Knights found themselves caught in a pincer attack between the Elven Patrol and the caravan guards.
Halce steadied his mount, his face terrifyingly gloomy.
His adjutant beside him lowered his voice and asked urgently, “Captain, what now?”
Halce was silent for a moment, struggle flashing in his eyes, soon replaced by a nearly fanatical resolve.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as his voice clearly reached the ears of several trusted knights around him.
“The mission is already half-failed. The Saintess’s identity is exposed. Once that news gets back to the Holy Kingdom or spreads, we’ll all die.”
His gaze swept over his subordinates.
“But, if we kill them all here, completely cutting off the news, even if we die, Duke will remember our loyalty. Our families… can still be taken care of.”
He suddenly raised his voice, no longer concealing it.
“Knights! Hear my order!”
He raised his greatsword high, pointing at Ilyas protected at the center, and at all those blocking their way.
“For the Tiliano Empire! For the Duke! Kill them all! Leave none alive!”
“Kill——!”
Nearly a hundred Rose Knights roared, their formation shifting.
No longer retaining any defense, they launched a desperate, no-holds-barred charge towards the Elven Patrol, the caravan guards, and especially the core position where Celia and the other two were!
“Damn it, they’ve gone mad!”
Celia saw their reckless appearance and instantly understood they were going for mutual destruction.
“Onyxia, protect Ilyas!”
Before the words finished, she was already running towards the charging knights!
Both hands gripped the hilt tightly, the blade tip pointing at the ground.
Mana surged from within her, coiling around the silvery blade.
Facing several knights charging side-by-side, Celia’s power and mana, accumulated to the extreme, erupted violently along her arms!
A purple, crescent-shaped slash arc shot forth from her blade!
The arc was faster than the eye could follow, silently slicing through the air, through the heavy plate armor, flesh, even bones of the foremost knights, and their mounts beneath them.
In an instant, a mix of blood, metal fragments, and severed limbs shot into the sky!
At least four Rose Knights, both rider and horse, turned into a messy pile of wreckage before this unreasonable mana slash.
But this terrifying strike didn’t deter the knights behind at all.
Instead, they accelerated their charge.
Almost at the same time Celia swung her blade, Onyxia had already firmly placed Ilyas behind her.
The deep red gem atop her staff burst with a dazzling light as if in response.
Fire elements continuously gathered upon it.
“Boom——!”
A violent fire magic spell gushed forth, landing on the knight at the forefront of the charge, instantly turning him into a human torch.
Grom’s roar and the female Elven Patrol officer’s commands also resounded across the battlefield.
“Hold them!”
“Rangers, focus fire on the charging formation! Patrol, hold the line!”
A rain of arrows poured down from the heights.
The Elven Patrol soldiers raised their spears and shields, forming a defensive line.
The caravan guards, led by Grom, launched a counter-charge from the flank.
This narrow valley became a meat grinder in the blink of an eye.
Blood continuously splashed onto the dust and rocks, converging into dark red streams.
A thick stench of blood and scorched odor filled the air, nauseating.
Figures kept falling—silver-armored knights, resisting caravan guards, and Elven soldiers.
Celia’s figure was like a ghost, constantly flickering in the chaotic battlefield.
She had no fixed position, sometimes appearing on the flank of a charging knight to sever a head with one slash, other times sliding into gaps in the formation like a shadow, her blade precisely piercing the joints of armor.
Her every appearance was accompanied by death, but such high-intensity slaughter and mana usage also gradually made her breathing ragged.
It was precisely due to her efforts that Onyxia could barely protect Ilyas.
Right then, a murderous intent firmly locked onto her.
Celia had just cleaved a knight who tried to bypass her and charge at Onyxia off his horse.
Before she could even adjust her breathing, her peripheral vision caught a dark silver figure parting the melee crowd and rushing towards her.
The newcomer was none other than the Rose Knight Order Captain, Halce.
He had abandoned his mount, yet his steps on the blood-soaked ground and corpses were exceptionally steady.
His finely crafted plate armor was stained with blood and grime.
His broad-bladed greatsword was dragged diagonally on the ground.
His visor was already closed, only revealing a pair of eyes that, across the clamorous battlefield, were fixed dead on Celia.
“Dark Elf…” Halce’s voice came through the visor.
He wasted no words, giving Celia no chance to catch her breath.
Before his voice faded, his massive body suddenly accelerated.
The greatsword was swung up with one hand, delivering the simplest, most brutal vertical chop aimed straight at Celia’s head!
This strike held no fancy tricks, purely power.
Before the sword even arrived, its sharp, oppressive wind pressure made one’s breath catch.
Celia knew a direct block was unwise.
She tapped the ground with her toes, her figure floating backward while her long blade traced a tricky arc, attempting to deflect the greatsword’s spine with a clever force.
“Clang——!!”
A piercing metallic clang exploded! Sparks flew everywhere!
The impact forced both of them to retreat from each other.
“Only know how to dodge? Dark Elf?”
“Only brutes know to just clash head-on. I just need… to hold out a little longer.”
Halce was about to pounce again but paused upon hearing this.
Celia caught this momentary hesitation, her tone becoming even more certain, even relaxed.
“You should think first. This is the border between Elves and Beastmen. How could there only be a patrol garrison?”
“We’re waiting for the Great Sage to arrive. What are you waiting for?”
Halce’s greatsword chopped down again, deftly deflected by Celia.
“The Great Sage? Hah, how could the Elves possibly station a Great Sage permanently on a buffer border with Beastmen? Don’t you boast about the Hundred-Year Peace Alliance? Who do you think would believe such a lie?”
Then his skepticism abruptly stopped.
Because Celia didn’t refute.
Instead, she suddenly raised her head, her gaze passing over him, looking towards the sky.
“So you really didn’t know.”
Celia said softly, her tone carrying mockery.
“Look at the sky.”
Alarm bells screamed wildly in Halce’s mind.
Almost instinctively, he glanced towards the sky following her gaze.
Then, he froze.
He saw two figures, quietly hovering hundreds of meters above the mountain pass, as if they had been there from the beginning.
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