Chapter 147: Thunder's Prelude
As soon as Nash's spear touched the wyvern's exposed flank, golden sparks erupted from its tip like angry fireflies.
A thunderous hum followed.
Electric arcs danced wildly across the creature's scaly skin. A heartbeat later, the spear's Rank-3 engraved spell [Volt Impale] triggered on its own.
A concentrated ray of lightning burst forth from the spear's core, piercing clean through the wyvern's hide and shooting out its other side. The air sizzled, and the smell of scorched flesh filled the area.
The wyvern's body convulsed violently.
It stiffened mid-air, wings frozen in place, eyes wide but lifeless.
No roar. No screech. Only silence remained.
Its nerves were paralyzed entirely, and even its heart seemed to forget how to beat.
The beast began to fall.
Nash yanked his weapon free and backed off just in time to avoid being dragged down by the collapsing monster. But he didn't wait long. As the wyvern tumbled through the air, he and Doran moved in unison.
Like predators sensing blood.
Steel met scale. Fire met flesh. The two knights attacked relentlessly, slashing, stabbing, punching, and tearing through nerves and joints. Within seconds, they reached the neck.
Doran shouted as he noticed the wyvern was already on its deathbed,
"Now!"
Nash twirled the spear backward and rammed it through the wyvern's skull. It slid in with a wet crunch, the tip emerging through the creature's eye socket. The wyvern jerked once… then stopped moving forever.
Below, the carcass hit the ground with a thunderous crash, flattening trees and kicking up clouds of dirt.
Just a few ten meters away, Kael, Veyra, and Elion stood over another lifeless wyvern—its wings charred, eyes gone, body bound in frost.
The battle had barely started.
But something shifted.
A deep tremor rolled through the hill.
Then came the sound—a chorus of monstrous screeches echoing from above.
"Here comes the real deal," Nash muttered, wrenching his spear from the wyvern's skull with a metallic scrape. He looked up.
Everyone else followed his gaze.
Three massive wyverns emerged from behind the jagged hill, their bodies wreathed in deep crimson scales, each easily twice the size of the previous ones. Their wings stretched like massive war banners, their talons glowing faintly with elemental power.
Behind them was a horde.
Thirty-plus Wyrms, smaller but fast, flew in a chaotic storm of wings and shrieks. Their glowing eyes radiated fury.
Raven and others stepped forward from the tree line.
"Th-three wyverns…" one of the guards stammered.
"And the Wyrms… Are we going to be alright?" another whispered.
Nash narrowed his eyes as the red-scaled beasts started to get closer.
The roars caused the air to ripple, and wings became fierce. Dust spiraled in the air. Over thirty Wyrms screeched madly overhead while the three crimson-scaled wyverns descended like ancient beasts summoned from a nightmare.
Nash calculated the distance carefully.
'700 meters.'
He turned sharply toward the Expert Knights and Wizards gathered behind him.
"We'll split into three teams," he ordered, his voice echoing everywhere. "But first…"
He glanced at the three Wizards standing to his left. "I request Sir Ariel and the other two Wizards to cast large-scale area spells. Reduce the number of Wyrms before they swarm us."
Nash knew that the radiant knights would die in a matter of minutes if they faced thirty wyrms all together.
Wizard Ariel gave a solemn nod. "Understood."
He stepped forward, followed closely by Wizard Ryder and Miss Delilah.
Nash pointed his spear toward the frontlines. "Once the spells are cast, Sir Ariel and I will face the Wyvern at the center. You'll handle the left Wyvern, Doran, Elion, and Wizard Ryder. Kael, Veyra, and Miss Delilah—you'll take the right one."
He turned briefly toward the armored soldiers at the rear. "Radiant Knights—focus on protecting Lord Count Alden from the Wyrms. Hold your ground no matter what!"
A loud "Yes, Sir!" echoed in reply.
Then, the Wizards moved.
Wizard Ryder raised his staff, a weapon embedded with a massive sky-blue gem. As he pointed it toward the sky, wind gathered around him. It twisted, howled, and spiraled like a living entity, crackling with mystical force.
It was the spell engraved in his staff.
"Hurricane."
The moment he finished, the sky screamed.
A colossal whirlwind erupted above them, expanding outward with terrifying speed. But it wasn't just air—it was lined with wind blades.
They spun within the hurricane, sharp as razors and invisible to the eye. The trees that stood along the way were cut into pieces and broken, and even rocks were shredded. The Wyrms that flew ahead didn't even have time to scream—bodies ripped apart mid-flight, blood spraying like rain.
Screeches turned to silence.
But it wasn't over.
Delilah raised her staff high. Her voice, though calm, echoed with power.
"Scorching Wall!"
From the earth, fire surged upward in a straight line, thirty meters long and glowing bright orange.
A towering wall of flames roared between the defenders and the advancing beasts. Several Wyrms tried to pass through. They didn't even make it halfway as their bodies blackened and turned to ash in an instant.
The others veered away in panic, wings flapping chaotically to avoid the inferno.
But the wyverns didn't stop at all.
The red-scaled beasts flew through the fire, completely unaffected, eyes burning with fury as they landed hard on the battlefield, claws crushing stone and ancient roots beneath.
The surviving wyrms also flew behind them closely and landed while screeching.
"50 meters," Nash muttered as he gripped his spear and calculated the distance between them and the Magical Beasts.
At that moment, Wizard Ariel raised his staff, a crystal-tipped relic glowing with cold light.
"Ice Lance."
Dozens of icy spears materialized behind him in a split second, then more.
They rocketed towards the wyverns and wyrms like a storm unleashed.
The ice lances tore through the air, targeting the wyverns and the Wyrms. Some lances hit directly, skewering Wyrms through the chest or wings; others detonated midair, exploding into icy shrapnel that shredded nearby beasts.
Cries of agony echoed across the hill.
When the assault ended, ten Wyrms lay dead.
More than a dozen others stood with injuries, wings mangled, bodies bleeding.
"Just like we planned, split up into teams," Nash muttered, tightening his grip around the spear.
Without another word, the three groups broke away into formation.
Nash and Wizard Ariel advanced toward the central Wyvern, the largest of the three—its wings tattered slightly from the Ice Lance barrage, but its power undiminished.
Doran, Elion, and Ryder moved swiftly to the left, approaching the second Wyvern.
Kael, Veyra, and Delilah dashed toward the right flank, where the third Wyvern had just landed, crushing a massive boulder beneath its feet.
Behind them, the Radiant Knights raised their shields and drew their weapons, standing guard around Count Alden.
Raven, in his armored suit, Jovie, and the other servants stood over 10 meters away from the Count's group and watched the battle in silence.
'I can't even face a Wyrm head-on with my current strength.' Raven thought while glancing at Jovie.
"Don't miss the battle. Watch and learn how a Knight fights." Jovie muttered as she observed the battle quietly.
Meanwhile, the battlefield burned, froze, and howled all at once.
The air itself trembled with power.
As the three teams split and rushed toward their designated targets, Nash and Wizard Ariel headed straight toward the central wyvern—the largest crimson-scaled Wyverns, its wings torn from earlier spells, yet its steps unshaken.
The clash began the moment they entered its range.
The wyvern struck first, tail lashing like a whip of stone.
Nash blocked it head-on using his spear.
The blow would've thrown a normal Expert Walker a few tens of meters away.
But Nash stood still, his skin shimmering like polished metal.
A loud clang echoed as the tail rebounded off his shoulder, throwing dust into the air.
His expression remained unchanged.
On the other hand, the wyvern roared, confused as it felt pain from its tail.
At that moment, the wyvern felt like its tail had struck the hardest metal and roared.
Ariel called out behind him, "Iron Skin spell?"
Nash smirked as he twirled his spear. "Yes. The helm has the Clarity of Thoughts, too."
It wasn't just defense. His mind was sharper than ever—calculating, measuring, reacting. Each beat of his heart echoed with precision. His boots shimmered faintly beneath him.
Then—Feather Steps.
His body vanished from the ground and appeared in a blink above the wyvern's head. Mid-air, he twisted his wrist and brought his spear down like a falling thunderbolt.
CLANG!
The wyvern jerked back. Blood spurted from a shallow wound above its eye. Furious, it raised its claws and swiped.
But it was too slow.
Nash dropped down and dashed sideways with impossible speed—his movement doubled by the rare Aether boots. He darted like lightning, stabbing deep into the wyvern's underbelly and leg joints.
All the while, Ariel supported from the rear.
"Frost Bind!"
Chains of ice erupted from the ground and coiled around the wyvern's legs.
"Glacial Shot!"
Sharp needles of ice struck the beast's wings, ripping through the thin membrane. Each attack slowed the monster further.
And it couldn't fly or escape.
But it fought harder, swinging its tail and slamming its claws in desperation.