Chương 79: Chapter 78: Divine Intervention

The moment the words left his mouth, Roderic and Maeve moved almost simultaneously. Roderic raised his kite shield and charged in along a wide arc from the left, while Maeve rushed in from the right. Before either of them had even closed the distance, Zoe's voice rang out from behind.

"Pierce the wicked! Spear of Dawn!" A dazzling, slender spear of light tore through the air, leaving a narrow trail of radiance behind it. The skeleton warlord immediately raised its longsword and knocked the spear of light aside. Roderic seized the opening and swung his kite shield upward. The image of silver wings appeared across its surface once more before the shield slammed hard into the skeleton warlord's flank. Bang! The skeleton warlord tilted sharply to the left from the impact.

It had barely begun to swing its spear in retaliation when Maeve charged in behind Roderic and smashed her silver shield of light into the spear shaft. The spear was knocked downward, its tip driving deep into the rocky ground and punching out a deep crater.

"Haaah!" Maeve twisted at the waist and brought her warhammer down with the full force of her body behind it, smashing directly into the skeleton warlord's knee. The impact drove its body downward, forcing the knee to buckle slightly. Seeing the skeleton warlord lose its balance, the corner of Maeve's mouth lifted. The head of her warhammer, still pressed against the knee plate, suddenly erupted with blinding white light. BOOM! The divine art detonated at point-blank range.

A crisp crack rang from the hardened knee plate. The skeleton warlord let out a deep howl and immediately swept its longsword and spear around it, forcibly driving Roderic and Maeve back. Roderic retreated several steps and looked down. A large chunk was now missing from the skeleton warlord's previously intact knee plate. The two had barely pulled away when three more spears of pure white light came flying in from behind them, two smaller and one larger.

The skeleton warlord only had time to block the largest one with its longsword. The other two slammed into its breastplate and triggered a pair of small explosions. Bang! Bang! Using the smoke kicked up by the blasts as cover, Roderic charged forward again behind his kite shield and slammed into the skeleton warlord with all his strength. At the same time, dazzling silver light rapidly gathered around the silver-winged longsword in his hand.

The next instant, a blinding beam of light punched straight through the skeleton warlord's breastplate. A rapid series of bone-cracking sounds came from beneath the armor. The skeleton warlord staggered back two steps. But before Roderic could regain his footing, its spear shot forward, aimed straight at his face. Roderic's pupils contracted sharply. The razor-sharp spearhead rapidly expanded in his vision. Crack. A transparent light grid suddenly appeared between them and stopped the spearhead cold. One second.

Two. The light grid shattered. But those brief moments were enough. Roderic immediately raised his kite shield and caught the spear thrust head-on. Then, without warning, a flash of steel swept out from the smoke beside him. Bang! The longsword struck Roderic hard beneath the ribs. Sparks burst in every direction. The terrifying force sent Roderic flying backward, and he slammed into the rock wall behind him.

"Instructor!"

"Captain!"

"Rod!" Roderic struggled out of the crater he had left in the rock wall. He was still swaying slightly. After several violent coughs, blood began trickling from the corner of his mouth and down his forehead.

"Damn. This thing really is strong." Roderic gritted his teeth, immediately sheathed his longsword, and pulled a vial of milky-white potion from the pouch at his waist. He downed it in one gulp. Before long, his ragged breathing gradually steadied.

"It won't be that easy next time, monster!" Seeing that he was not seriously injured, Maeve frowned slightly and raised her warhammer toward Roderic. Several soft glows lit up across his body one after another. Roderic quickly felt his body grow lighter, while the pain from his injuries rapidly faded. He ripped his longsword from its sheath and charged forward again, colliding head-on with the skeleton warlord as it rushed toward him. Just then, something caught the corner of his eye.

Deep in the cavern behind the skeleton warlord, two faint flashes of silver had appeared. Roderic immediately dropped low and raised his kite shield to withstand the skeleton warlord's descending longsword while shouting,"Careful! Something's coming!" A light grid instantly dropped into place in front of the group. Two crisp impacts rang out. Only then did they see that two arrows had struck the light grid. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Maeve immediately looked toward the depths of the cavern. Several skeleton archers stood in the distance, drawing fresh arrows and nocking them for another volley.

"Brant! Torren! You two take care of the archers!" Maeve raised her shield of light and charged forward. Arrow after arrow struck its surface and was forcibly knocked aside. Brant and Torren followed close behind her, racing deeper into the cavern. Just as the three of them were about to pass the skeleton warlord, a spear suddenly thrust sideways and blocked their path. None of them slowed down. Clang! Maeve slammed her shield of light forward and took the spear thrust head-on.

Only after Brant and Torren successfully made it past the skeleton warlord did the shield finally fail under the pressure. The spearhead punched straight through it. Its razor edge grazed Maeve's cheek, leaving behind a thin line of blood. Maeve gave a cold snort, her gaze hardening. She twisted back, trapped the spear shaft, and raised her warhammer high in her right hand. Then she brought it crashing down! Roderic seized the opening.

His kite shield slammed the skeleton warlord's longsword aside, and he leaped high into the air. Dazzling silver light flared across his silver-winged longsword. A brilliant crescent of sword light came crashing down toward the skeleton warlord's helmet. Clang! The strike sheared away one corner of the helmet. Even the smooth, jade-like skull underneath had a small section carved away. Roderic landed and immediately stepped forward. His longsword drove straight toward the skeleton warlord's waist.

At the same time, he raised the kite shield in his left hand and forcibly caught the longsword sweeping back toward him. The silver-winged longsword pierced directly through the plate armor around the skeleton warlord's waist. Roderic twisted his wrist, preparing to cut through its spine. But the skeleton warlord abruptly turned its body, forcing the blade to scrape past its spine and veer off to one side. At the same time, the spear Maeve had been holding in place suddenly swept sideways.

Caught off guard, Maeve was hurled through the air. She rolled several times across the ground. Her tied-up hair came loose and spilled around her shoulders, while the shield of light knocked from her hand dissolved into specks of silver in midair.

"Maeve!" Roderic roared and quickly pulled his longsword free from the skeleton warlord's waist. He ducked beneath an incoming slash. His body had barely leaned backward when the skeleton warlord's spear came after him. The spearhead scraped past the edge of his kite shield and plunged deep into his shoulder. The next instant, the spear was ripped back out, spraying bright-red blood through the air. Roderic staggered backward several steps and glared furiously at the skeleton warlord.

Just then, another spear of pure white light came flying in from behind. This time, however, the skeleton warlord did not raise its sword to block. It suddenly drove the spear in its left hand into the ground. Then its newly freed hand reached out and grabbed the incoming spear of light. Roderic froze. The next instant, the spear of light began flashing violently. It was about to explode! The ghostly blue soul flames beneath the skeleton warlord's helmet suddenly flared.

Still gripping the light spear that was seconds away from detonating, it charged straight toward Roderic.

"Instructor!" BOOM! The violent explosion swallowed both of them in an instant. Dust and shattered stone erupted outward, rapidly obscuring the entire area. Zoe froze in place behind them. Her raised right arm went slack and slowly dropped to her side. For a moment, she had no idea how to react. She had never imagined that her own divine art could be seized by an enemy and turned against one of her companions.

"Zoe! Snap out of it!" Tanisha shouted sharply beside her, her eyes reddening. Zoe, still shaken, slowly came back to herself. The dust ahead gradually began to clear. Roderic stood bracing his kite shield with one hand, large patches of black soot smeared across his armor. The skeleton warlord gripped its longsword in both hands and pressed down against the shield with all its strength. At first, Roderic managed to hold. But before long, his body began sinking lower, bit by bit. Damn it.

At this rate, my strength is really going to give out. Roderic gritted his teeth and swept his gaze rapidly across his surroundings, searching for anything he could use. There was nothing. Just then, a warhammer glowing with silver light came spinning through the air, flying straight toward the skeleton warlord's helmet. The ghostly blue soul flames beneath its helmet flickered. It had no choice but to abandon its pressure on Roderic and twist aside to avoid the incoming warhammer.

The weight bearing down on Roderic vanished. He sucked in a sharp breath and forced himself upright again. Then two startled shouts rang out from behind the skeleton warlord. Roderic snapped his head up. Another skeleton warlord had appeared in front of Torren and Brant! It was clearly smaller than the one Roderic was fighting, and its weapons were nothing more than an ordinary longsword and shield. Even so, it was still clearly stronger than either of them.

Torren had barely parried the longsword coming at him when the shield slammed into his body and sent him stumbling backward several steps. Brant hurried forward to support him, but even together, the two could only barely keep the skeleton warlord occupied. A bitter smile appeared on Roderic's face. Were they really going to fall beneath the blades of these monsters? No. The people of Rockspring Town had not all been evacuated yet!

"Aaagh! Maeve, give me every enhancement you've got! I'm going in!" Maeve bit her lower lip. She said nothing. Instead, she closed her eyes and raised both hands high. One blessing after another descended upon Roderic in radiant light. As more and more enhancements layered over his body, Roderic's face gradually turned pale. And yet the smile at the corner of his mouth only grew wider. Roderic threw aside his kite shield. He gripped the silver-winged longsword tightly in both hands and lowered his body slightly.

The next instant, the rocky ground beneath his feet exploded into two deep craters. A piercing whistle tore through the cavern. Roderic became a streak of silver light and shot straight toward the skeleton warlord.

"Take this, monster! My do-or-die strike!" ◆ ◆ ◆ From the moment Roderic first engaged the skeleton warlord, Owen had been bouncing frantically around the stone pedestal far away in Blackstone Dungeon's Core Chamber. Who the hell could have guessed Rockspring Dungeon would suddenly pull out a Peak Gold-level monster?

"Wasn't Rockspring Dungeon supposed to have been short on visitors for ages? Where did it get that much Soul Energy?!" Owen trusted the information Gern and the others had given him completely. That was why the strongest paladins he had sent on this mission were only at Mid Gold rank. He had thought that would be more than enough to deal with Rockspring Dungeon. Instead, something had gone horribly wrong.

"B-but... Gern and Old Guildmaster have no reason to lie to me!" They had not known each other for very long, but Owen believed Greer and the others were absolutely not the kind of people who would gamble with the lives of an entire town. If the intelligence was accurate, then only one possibility remained. Rockspring Dungeon was cheating. The azure light across Owen's core flashed violently, bathing the surrounding walls in blue.

"There's no way it could've accumulated enough energy on its own to create a Gold-level monster. Just maintaining something at that level should already be more than its original income could support..." Owen abruptly went quiet. The hazy figures he had seen when he first connected to that chat channel surfaced in his mind again. Even now, those things still made him deeply uneasy.

"... Could they have done this?" Who else could it be?

"Dungeon cores can actually transfer energy to each other? That's totally cheating!" Owen let out a miserable howl.

"Doesn't that mean I'm basically fighting a whole group of players using cheat programs?!" He bounced furiously around the pedestal. But through Roderic's eyes, the battle was getting worse by the second. That guy... He looked like he was about to risk his life.

"No! There has to be another way!" Roderic and the others were far away in Rockspring Dungeon. There was no way Owen could suddenly raise their ranks from here. Worse, the farther away they were, the more extra Soul Energy they were burning every second. Was he really supposed to sit here and watch the paladins he had painstakingly prepared fall inside Rockspring Dungeon, then let the Demonic Tide burst out and ravage the entire town? Then Owen suddenly remembered something.

"That's right!" A huge exclamation mark popped into existence above his core.

"I can use Divine Power to restore the divine arts to full strength!" Owen hurriedly opened the skill panel and found several enhancement divine arts he had originally assigned to the paladins. [Consume 3 Divine Power to restore Blessing of Fortitude to full potency?] [Consume 3 Divine Power to restore Blessing of Might to full potency?] [Consume 3 Divine Power to restore Blessing of Agility to full potency?]"Damn it... screw it! I'll just power them up first!" Owen did not hesitate any longer.

With his thoughts, he pressed all three confirmation buttons one after another. He could always find a way to get more Divine Power later, but Rockspring Town would not get a second chance! All nine points of Divine Power vanished in an instant. The light across Owen's core flashed violently as he stared at the screen showing Roderic's perspective. I've powered you up! Come on! Give it everything you've got, Roderic! ◆ ◆ ◆ In the middle of his charge, Roderic's eyes suddenly widened.

For just an instant, he thought he had heard his Lord speaking to him in some strange way. Before he could even process it, the divine arts layered over him suddenly erupted with silver-white brilliance far brighter than before. The next instant, Roderic had shot past the skeleton warlord. He came to a stop a short distance away. Then he slowly turned around and looked back at the skeleton warlord still standing where it had been. The skeleton warlord turned stiffly as well.

The ghostly blue soul flames beneath its helmet locked onto Roderic. It took one step forward and began raising its right arm to attack. At that exact moment— Crack. A thin fracture suddenly appeared across its shoulder plate. Then, in an instant, a perfectly smooth cut appeared through its shoulder. The arm holding the longsword separated cleanly from its body and crashed heavily onto the rocky ground. Roderic froze.

His expression hardened at once as he gripped the silver-winged longsword in both hands and faced the skeleton warlord again.

"Under our Lord's protection, turn to ash, monster!"