I Became a Mythical Knight King

Chapter 55: Lords Meeting Ⅱ (4)

Healing magic, as its name implies, was magic designed to heal damaged and injured bodies.

It wasn’t something like resurrection magic.

That’s why Jillian stopped her hand, which was about to cast healing magic.

Even though she was a saint, she was still inexperienced.

Performing a high-level miracle like resurrecting the dead was beyond Jillian’s current ability.

“Big sister?”

Rene called out to Jillian again.

She was a clever girl.

The moment Jillian hesitated to cast healing magic, Rene grasped an unwelcome truth.

Rene looked at Baron Varian.

His mouth and chest were covered in blood he had coughed up.

His chest bore a massive hole large enough for several fingers to pass through, his face was pale and his eyes had lost their focus.

Rene swallowed her scream.

Though she gritted her teeth, she couldn’t hold back her tears.

Clutching Baron Varian’s hand, now growing cold, she quietly sobbed.

Yoo Seong noticed Rene but he couldn’t pat her back or hold her in his arms to share warmth.

“Defensive formation! Raise the shield wall!”

At Hector’s shout, the heavy infantry raised their shields and tightened their ranks.

Meanwhile, Dark Elves continued to invade through the balcony.

Though they didn’t launch an immediate attack, perhaps deterred by the might of the heavy infantry, both sides knew this lull wouldn’t last long.

The battle would soon resume.

The 40 members of the heavy infantry were a formidable force.

Even if there were more than 100 conscripted soldiers, they wouldn’t stand a chance against the heavy infantry.

But their opponents weren’t mere conscripts—they were Dark Elves.

Seven assassins.

The ability to emerge from shadows to ambush was a signature skill of Dark Elf assassins in Fantasy Monarch.

Of course, such an advanced technique wasn’t something just anyone could use.

Only a select few among the Dark Elf assassins could perform it.

That’s why most of the lords had survived—the assassins hadn’t targeted them.

The forces now streaming in through the balcony were Dark Elf warriors.

Where had they come from?

What was the situation outside?

Although it couldn’t be seen, Yoo Seong could deduce it.

The explosions and tremors meant that it wasn’t just the Dark Elves.

There was another force working alongside them.

“Kyahhh!”

“Ahhh!”

“Help—”

Even outside the meeting hall, screams echoed.

The setting sun visible through the windows was now marred by black smoke and flames.

Yoo Seong gauged the distance.

Recalling the mental map of the inner castle he had drawn over the past two days, he shouted:

“Hector! Clear a path!”

“Uoooooh!”

The moment Yoo Seong issued his command, Hector charged forward, activating his chivalry.

The sudden charge of the giant startled the Dark Elves, and the heavy infantry, previously in a defensive stance, followed with an attack.

“Elite infantry! Assemble!”

Fwoosh!

Kate and Jimmy led the elite infantry, filling the gaps left by the heavy infantry.

The newly arrived reinforcements widened the eyes of the lords, and Yoo Seong immediately issued orders.

“Half of you support the heavy infantry! The other half protect the lords!”

“For the glory of Camelot!”

Kate activated her chivalry upon receiving the order.

A dazzling golden light filled the meeting hall, temporarily blinding the Dark Elves.

“Rip them apart!”

The heavy infantry, shielded from the light, remained unaffected and quickly dispatched the disoriented Dark Elves with axes and spears.

The tide of reinforcements made the Dark Elves’ earlier momentum seem futile as they fell in succession.

Yoo Seong caught his breath.

Though the meeting hall was spacious, the nearly 90 soldiers Yoo Seong had summoned crowded the space, forming a protective circle around the clustered lords.

“Rene.”

Rene raised her head at Yoo Seong’s call.

Meeting her tear-filled golden eyes, Yoo Seong refrained from offering comforting words. Instead, he sat down and closed Baron Varian’s eyes.

He had been a good man.

Although they had spent only about two days together, Yoo Seong felt a tightness in his chest but this wasn’t the time to stop.

Yoo Seong looked at Rene.

Rather than wiping away her tears, he held her hand once, sharing a bit of warmth before meeting her gaze and speaking.

“We have to go.”

Rene bit her lip.

With trembling hands, she wiped her tears and stood up.

She swayed for a moment, but Jillian, standing close by, quickly supported her.

Yoo Seong also stood.

Dark Elf assassins could move through shadows, but they weren’t invincible.

Their abilities were limited in usage, and in a place like this, crowded with people and overlapping shadows, their movement was hindered.

Yoo Seong scanned the surviving lords and their escorts, then turned to Camelot’s soldiers nearby and said:

“We’re evacuating. Destination: the rooftop. I’ll lead the way.”

“Are you insane!? The rooftop!? What do you plan to do up there?”

“That’s right! We’ll be trapped!”

No sooner had Yoo Seong finished speaking than Baron Laval and Baroness Ober shouted in protest.

Their concerns had logic.

But instead of debating, Yoo Seong activated the King’s Insight and scanned the lords and escorts.

The King’s Insight—a power of the Sacred King—allowed him to see the potential of humans.

In other words, it let him distinguish non-humans.

Fwoosh!

Yoo Seong immediately beheaded someone nearby.

The others screamed in terror, but only briefly.

The severed head transformed into that of a Dark Elf.

Disguise magic.

This was another magic frequently used by Dark Elves.

Yoo Seong glanced at Count Carian.

Despite desperately holding his severed arm, he was human.

“Move out! Heavy infantry clears the path. Hector and I will lead. Kate, protect Rene and the saintess. Robin and Ruan, support Kate. Jimmy, sound the charge horn.”

Yoo Seong’s rapid commands sent Camelot’s soldiers and their companions into action.

Boooo!

Jimmy’s resounding horn momentarily silenced the chaotic noise, snapping the panicked lords back to their senses.

“Let’s go.”

Yoo Seong glanced back at Rene one last time before moving forward.

Hector, back to his normal size after deactivating his chivalry, smashed through the meeting hall doors.

“Everyone! Advance!”

As the heavy infantry and elite infantry charged ahead, the lords scrambled to their feet.

“Wait, take us with you!”

“Yes, don’t leave us behind!”

Baron Laval and Baron Ober desperately followed.

Baroness Anjou positioned herself at the rear of the lords, while Ruan, having entrusted Jillian to Robin, guarded the rear with her.

“Help us!”

“Kyaaah!”

The area outside the conference room was chaotic.

It wasn’t just the Dark Elves who were massacring the castle’s servants and the guests gathered for the banquet.

Giant rats called Ratmen, who walked on two legs.

They were undoubtedly the ones responsible for the earthquake that caused the current disaster.

Unlike the monsters that invaded through the land routes, these creatures must have used tunnels.

“Kiieeek!”

One ratman wearing a helmet let out a horrifying screech, and dozens—no, hundreds—of ratmen seemed to gather from all directions.

Each of them was about the size of a child, but there were so many of them, and in terms of strength, they were more powerful than adult men.

“Don’t get caught! We break through!”

Yoo Seong shouted loudly and sent out a wave of sword energy.

Flames of intense heat swept through the ratmen, and Hector, once again using his chivalry, charged in, breaking through and trampling the ratmen.

“Fire Wall!”

“Omphalos’ barrier!”

Rene and Jillian shouted in turn.

With each passing corridor, walls of flames and sacred barriers blocked the passages and windows, preventing the rapid reinforcements of the Ratmen.

“Mi, madness! What, what is that!”

While smashing through the ratmen and heading upwards, Baron Laval screamed, staring out the window and the other lords also couldn’t hide their shock.

Near the entrance of the inner castle a huge Land Worm, which had burst through the ground, was writhing and screeching loudly.

Land Worms were both the cause of the earthquake and the transportation method that brought the Ratmen and Dark Elves to the city.

In Fantasy Monarch, they were one of the monsters raised by the Ratmen, and like now, they were used to charge into enemy lines.

“Lu, Lushen…”

Lushen was literally burning.

The Ratmen, who emerged from the tunnels created by the Land Worms, were killing people and setting the city on fire.

The scene was filled with nothing but screams, flames, and howls of despair.

Mayor Hexen, his legs giving out, collapsed in place, but there was no time to stop.

Count Carian, with his remaining hand, slapped mayor Hexen’s cheek to bring him back to his senses and helped him up.

“Pull yourself together! We need to go now!”

Mayor Hexen nodded in a daze.

Count Karian let out a grunt, then turned his gaze towards the front.

Although blocked by the elite and heavy infantry, he envisioned the person who must be running at the forefront.

-Kwang!

Hector broke down the door leading to the rooftop—more precisely, the outdoor garden.

Swinging his sword forcefully to shake off the blood that had stained his blade, Yoo Seong took a deep breath and entered the outdoor garden.

As expected, the enemies had not yet taken up positions in the outdoor garden.

‘The enemies appeared through tunnels.’

The Dark Elves were few in number. Most were Ratmen.

Yoo Seong took a breath and looked down at the garden below.

Lushen’s soldiers were offering scattered resistance without any organization, only dying one by one.

Flames were spreading in every direction.

Ratmen were running across the walls higher than the outdoor garden.

On the level directly below, more Ratmen were gathering.

The greatest strength of the Ratmen was their overwhelming numbers, based on their abnormal reproduction rate.

The lords, who were looking around with Yoo Seong, turned pale, and Baron Laval once again screamed in panic.

“I, I told you! The rooftop was a no-go! We’re all going to die now!”

Though terrified, his words still had some logic to them.

There was no further escape from the rooftop garden.

The soldiers summoned by the Black Knight of Lothian were strong, but if they were trapped here, death would be the only outcome.

What were they supposed to do if arrows rained down from the walls?

But Count Carian did not panic or blame Yoo Seong like Baron Laval.

He let out a deep breath and looked at Yoo Seong, while Baron Ober, though trembling, bit his lip and only watched Yoo Seong.

Baron Laval had already considered what Lothian’s Black Knight had likely also thought.

The reason he led them here was because he surely had an escape plan in mind and he was right in his assumption.

When the Ratmen, armed with crude arrows, and a few Dark Elf archers, each of whom were expert marksmen, had taken positions on the castle walls.

“Heavy Infantry, Elite Infantry. Return.”

As soon as Yoo Seong’s order was given, light flared, and all of Camelot’s forces, which had been protecting the lords, vanished in a flash of golden light.

And immediately after the sudden light caused the Ratmen and Dark Elves to falter.

“Heavenly Cavalry, gather.”

From above, not the ground, golden flashes erupted.