The Amber Sword

The holy grounds of Baern Shyrltaesi was comprised of the Elves’ Goddess Temple and two outer courtyards with walls, and was in the center of the Elven ruins, with other buildings surrounding arranged like an axis around it.

The grand hall of the Goddess Temple was where Hewjil had occupied previously. The back room led to an altar, while the front of hall’s entrance was a corridor that led to the rooms where the Elven Priests stayed at. It also had stairways leading to the top of the Temple.

Amandina chose this place the very moment she saw it.

The mercenaries passed through the ruined walls of the buildings, accepting Amandina’s command to enter the temple. The courtyard within the temple was once filled with Silver Elves who came to pray to their goddess, but now that beautiful and tranquil place was in shambles. The elegant white tiles in the corridors were broken and stained with dirt, and the only thing left intact was the pillars.

The wind blew softly from time to time, passing through the holes within the walls almost like whispers.

In this near silence, three of the Mercenaries of Lopes who set out early were the first to reach the place. They went up to the temple’s rooftop to deposit a hastily made flag made with a spear and grey cloth torn from Brendel’s robes, then went out to the second outer walls of the temple’s courtyards to observe the Lizardmen.

Two outer walls that surrounded the courtyard were built by the Silver Elves in order to make defensive lines for the Holy Temple and prevent intruders. Many centuries later, these walls suffered harsh rain and winds, and were nearly gone. There was almost no cover left to stand behind and defend the area properly, and the Lizardmen had not repaired the walls when they occupied it.

The Lizardmen did not do so because of two reasons. The first reason was simply because they did not have the ability to repair the walls because of its intricate designs. The walls were built to lure in enemies at certain junctions which allowed the Silver Elves to ambush them, and with Hewjil’s intelligence, he was never able to figure out how it was supposed to be done. The second reason was the Lizardmen had no need to do so because they had no enemies. In this forest, their worst enemies were themselves and wine, having a hundred deaths nearly every year because they killed each other.

The second batch of mercenaries set themselves up at another opening of the outer walls once they arrived.

‘The Lizardmen have passed through the forest-‘

‘They are approaching the ruins.’

‘Their numbers are no less than a hundred.’

‘I spotted their commander.’

The mercenaries passed information around through signs, before it went back to the Elementalists’ sisters who accompanied Amandina and informed her of the situation.

She lifted up her skirt as she crossed over the hall quickly, then climbed up the stairs to the rooftop where it was able to oversee the entire area of the temple.

The complex defense lines of the temple quickly became clear to her.

She looked down and compared the area to the map that was hurriedly drawn by Nalaethar. Her studies in the architecture knowledge was useful enough to recognize the important chokepoints, leading her to turn around and search the area.

She straightened the first flag vertically and placed it in the center.

As long as the flag was standing upright, it informed Nalaethar and the Nightsong Tiger that the backlines and defenses were not lost.

She then gave the orders to the Elementalist sisters, informing the Grey Wolves Mercenaries to defend the fourth chokepoint.

The Grey Wolves Mercenaries looked at each other with uncertainty, when they realized what the order was from a Mercenaries of Lopes’ member accompanying them.

Amandina’s location was quite prominent. If the Lizardmen broke through the chokepoints, they could easily enter the inner temple and climbed up the stairs to where Amandina was. Brendel had instructed them to protect her safety, but she had ordered them to move far away where she was.

“Miss Amandina?” One of the mercenaries yelled out in a loud voice.

“Follow my orders!” Her reply came back.

“But—“

Amandina flung her hand indignantly: “I’m your commander now. My orders are your utmost priorities, if there are any objections, you can bring it up to our lord after this is over!”

The mercenaries fell into silence.

Amandina suddenly spotted the Lizardmen rushing out of the forest. Their formation was almost non-existent, moving out quickly across the ground for the sake of speed rather than safety. This meant that the leader of the Lizardmen had indeed deduced of their smaller numbers. She was definitely in a great disadvantage, because she only had a total of fifteen mercenaries under her

Even though the mercenaries were much more experienced than the Lizardmen, the latter outnumbered them many times.

[Delaying them is the best I can do.]

Amandina gripped the flag tightly subconsciously with gritted teeth.

============= Brendel’s POV =============

Brendel wiped the sweat of his head.

He had already lost count of how many times they escaped Ekman’s attacks by mere inches. He could hear his heart pounding loudly because of the constant tension. Scarlett’s rate of breathing was also beginning to increase, indicating that her stamina was going down.

“How long did you say...... that the warhorse can use charge again?” Scarlett asked with a panting voice.

“Another...... twenty seconds.” Brendel estimated in his mind. He had used this ability once earlier to cover half of the distance to his destination.

“No, if we...... don’t fly in the air..... we can’t hold on that long!” She shook her head right away.

Brendel turned his head to take a look.

He wished that Scarlett’s answer was different from his own but he knew that was something impossible. He had predicted the same results from the start. Even though the monster was clumsy and slow in turning directions, the speed at which it charged in a straight line was shocking. Each time they turned to pull away from it ended up with the monster gaining back the distance after a few seconds.

If they kept changing directions all the time, they would not be able to lure the monster back to the intended location even if the sky turned dark.

Flying up to the sky was a temporary solution, but Brendel realized that it was becoming more and more accurate in sending the rock spikes at them. With the nearby trees being destroyed over and over again, the obstructions to the attacks were also becoming fewer. They might as well have a target painted behind their back.

“You can’t fly up.” Brendel gave his conclusion.

Scarlett rapped the warhorse’s head in frustration.

He looked back again and saw Ekman getting closer and closer. He finally stopped hesitating and threw out an Exploding Crystal at it. The monster covered its head with both hands as the series of explosions happened right in front of it. However, the explosions did not seem to stop it even for a moment, as it charged right out of the smoke and dust.

Scarlett felt that threat and forced the warhorse to jump into the air. Ekman did not waste any time and shot the spikes out from the ground at them.

Even though Scarlett reacted to the attack as fast as she possibly could, the exhaustion from the long tension had caused her to be slower by a split second. The rock spikes accurately struck the warhorse’s thigh and caused the entire body to topple, knocking it straight onto a tree.

The immense impact caused Brendel and Scarlett to be jerked out from the warhorse, and when they finally reacted from the attack, they realized they were already on the ground, dazed and injured.

Brendel almost felt like he was back at Bucce the first time he arrived there. That feeling of wrecking pain and confusion was almost like a bomb thrown into his mind. But his worry was not about what kind of damage he received from the impact, because the bastard was going to follow up with another attack.

[Fuck, this time we’re in grave trouble!]

He grabbed the last Exploding Crystal and tried to get up while he shook his head to shrug his dizziness, but before he was able to do so, a hand pressed him down.

“Listen carefully.”

Scarlett’s voice sounded like it came from a near and far place at the same time. Even his vision appeared like there were two or three images overlapping each other when he tried to focus on her.

“I’m going to delay that monster and give you some time to escape.”

“What are you trying to do?”

Brendel felt pangs of sharp pain in his spine, and he wondered if it was broken in several places.

“There’s no need to worry about me. I’m also an Acolyte, the most damage that mindless creature would be able to do is injure me if I delayed it for a short while.”

“I think I’m the one who told you about the characteristics of an Acolyte...... Ouch.” Brendel felt her help him up.

“Hmph.”

The girl scoffed coldly in his ear and released him. “The horse is right behind you. Stop wasting time.”

She took up her halberd and turned around to face the monster. It had crashed into a few trees and destroyed them in its charge.

Scarlett took up a stance and placed her spear horizontal to her body and gritted her teeth.

Brendel looked at her back once more before he grabbed the reins of the mithril warhorse and mounted it. There was no time to waste and argue. Scarlett had made her choice and he could only cooperate with her.

This chance would be wasted if he hesitated.

He forced the horse into a furious gallop. There was a loud smacking noise, and when he looked back, he saw Scarlett flying backwards like a piece of rock, colliding into trees with audible snapping noises, before he lost all signs of her.

[Fuck! There’s no way she’s able to hold off a Boss-tier with an unsealed Element at all! This isn’t going to work—]

The monster turned to Scarlett’s direction for a few seconds, when a small crystal knocked onto its head. The explosions happened in front of its face, causing it to turn into Brendel’s direction again.

It was certain that the girl had lost her combat abilities, and thus set its target on the irritating fly. Without a proper order, the Berserk status that it had caused it to kill anything that still moved.

Scarlett’s delay had worked.

Brendel was ready to use his Charge ability. He made the horse run off in another direction and activated his ability, causing the speed of the warhorse to move over a thousand OZ, reaching the peak of his character’s speed in his previous world.

If someone was able to look at him from a hill, they would have seen a blurring silver line cutting through the entire forest.