"Clack, clack."
Amidst the rhythmic sound of iron armor plates colliding, a squad of Demons was on the march.
Leading them was a Demon General.
Leather boots trampled the earth, kicking up flying dust. He was bare to the waist, his upper body wrapped in black straps, with only a ring of dark brown cape draped around his neck. On his left shoulder hung a spiked pauldron resembling a turtle shell, while his right shoulder bore a heavy greatsword five feet in length.
Messy, thick hair hung straight down, obscuring his eyes, and a pair of large, buffalo-like horns protruded from the sides of his round iron helm.
Demon General, Lightning Schulek, was leading his remnant forces in search of human towns.
The Hero's Northern patrol had ended, and Schulek led his squad to emerge once more.
The Demon King had passed away, yet Schulek continued to follow the orders from the war era, continuing to slaughter humans. Schulek was a dull and wooden fellow; precisely because the Demon King was gone, he could find no direction for the future other than executing this unfinished command.
He was no match for the Hero, but the small human clans on the border of the Northern Empire were a different story.
The reason for his title, "Lightning," was that even wielding a clumsy heavy sword, Schulek could swing and hack with the speed of lightning once he enhanced himself with magic.
Every strike was lightning!
Rather than magic, it was more like a martial art. With Schulek's close-combat capabilities, even first-rate human warriors were vulnerable before him, and Mages allowed to get close were chopped up like melons and vegetables.
Due to the centuries of war with the Demon Race, the unified empire of five hundred years ago had disintegrated. The current Imperial border was actually sparsely populated; there were not many villages, as most had been ravaged in previous wars. Conversely, the closer one got to the Imperial Capital, the more elite and numerous the human armies became. Even the Seven Sages of Destruction would find it difficult to penetrate deep into that territory.
Schulek's remnant army had absolutely no chance there, so they could only stir up trouble at the border.
After trekking over mountains and rivers for several days without distinguishing night from day, they finally found a human city.
Schulek did not know that this city was actually the free city of Gaderia, located near the Fortified City of Weise.
When the gatekeeper guarding the city saw a large group of Demons approaching, he showed no panic whatsoever. Instead, he revealed a smile and shouted loudly towards the ground below.
"Hello there! Are you all here to defect to Gaderia?"
When Lugner had come with a great army last time, he had been scared speechless. After so much time, he hadn't expected another group of Demons to come defecting.
"Defect?"
Schulek's voice was thick and deep, somewhat confused. This human guarding the city was not only unafraid of him but actually appeared kind and amiable.
The Demons following behind Schulek also looked at each other in dismay; this was the first time they had seen such a situation.
"Eh? Aren't you here to join the Mutual Love New Demon Association?" The gatekeeper asked with some doubt.
"Mutual Love New Demon Association? A thing I have never heard of."
Schulek shook his head and gripped the heavy sword he had been carrying on his shoulder in his hands.
"Eh?" Only then did the gatekeeper realize that something seemed wrong.
"Siege the city!"
Schulek no longer wanted to think about this association with the weird name. He had only one goal now: kill humans!
Exerting force through his legs, Schulek leapt up as high as a cannonball fired from its chamber. Stretching out a hand, he vaulted onto the city wall and smashed his heavy sword ruthlessly down toward the gatekeeper.
In a panic, the gatekeeper grabbed a spear leaning against the battlements and frantically rolled several times on the wall, barely dodging the blow.
"Crap!"
During his roll, the signal flare in his pocket fell out.
The so-called signal flare was actually something like a firecracker. Once lit with a match, it would explode in the air to alert the subjects and the army within the city that there was a situation at the gate.
Boom!
Stone fragments were kicked up by the heavy sword, splashing everywhere from the wall. A shallow crater had been smashed into the gatekeeper's original position.
Schulek lifted the heavy sword that had sunk into the wall. Beneath his thick hair, a pair of eyes refracted killing intent, staring dead at the gatekeeper who had escaped disaster and was climbing up from the ground. Crushing the stone debris underfoot, he hefted the heavy sword and slashed again.
It was another slash as fast as lightning. The gatekeeper's naked eye couldn't see it clearly at all, and on this narrow wall, he had nowhere to run.
He had wanted to jump over the wall to seek a final chance at survival. However, he was a gatekeeper of Gaderia. The commotion just now should have alerted other soldiers stationed nearby; he had to stall for some time.
His hands gripping the spear trembled violently, causing his legs to shake along with them. In despair, the gatekeeper thrust the spear out blindly.
Clang!
A sound of metal clashing rang out, followed by the squelch of a spear tip piercing into flesh.
The gatekeeper looked at his own neck in disbelief. Several winding, interwoven red blood lines had intercepted the heavy sword that was right at his throat.
Cold sweat dripped from his forehead; it seemed he had escaped death.
Looking again at the spear in his hands, he saw that it had actually pierced into the thick, sturdy arm of this Demon before him, who was more than twice as robust as himself!
"Ugh... Who is it?!"
Schulek grimaced in pain. His sword was obviously more than a hundred times faster than this human's; how could he have been stabbed by such an unremarkable, weak fellow?
"That was truly a close call. Hurry up and run."
Ten winding blood lines wrapped around and bound that five-foot heavy sword. Standing behind the gatekeeper, following the path of those blood lines, was Lugner with his ten fingers spread wide!
Hearing Lugner's voice, the gatekeeper's hands went limp. The spear slipped directly from his grasp as he bent his waist to duck under the heavy sword, stumbling and running toward the rear.
Schulek was still in a stalemate of strength with Lugner, gripping the heavy sword tightly with both hands and exerting force.
Lugner frowned. This big Demon really has a lot of strength.
By now, the gatekeeper had fled behind Lugner.
"Boohoohoo, thank you so much, Lord Lugner."
The gatekeeper was a mess of snot and tears. He had truly thought he was going to die just now; surviving the disaster caused him to lose his composure entirely.
"Hurry down and notify the army in the Demon Special Zone!"
The gatekeeper nodded hurriedly and ran down the other side.
At the same time Lugner spoke, Schulek mustered enough strength to cleave apart the blood lines wrapped around his heavy sword.
The severed blood lines were like duckweed without roots, dissipating into Mana particles in the air.
"Kin, why do you help humans? Have you forgotten Lord Demon King's orders?!"
Schulek glared at Lugner. The mana of this fellow clansman before him was faintly a notch higher than his own.
However, on this narrow city wall, his sword was faster and held the advantage. He only needed to watch out for the opponent's magic.
Pulling out the spear stuck in his arm, the thick-skinned and fleshy Schulek held the heavy sword in one hand and gripped the spear in the other.
Meanwhile, at the city gate below, the other two gatekeepers guarding the entrance could not withstand the assault of the hundred-plus Demons at all. The stone gate was breached by the Demon soldiers following Schulek.
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