Faraam dodged to the left as the horn of an awakened nightmare creature missed him by a hair length.
The abomination turned toward him and raised its body, intending to crush Faraam with its feet.
Faraam saw this coming and jumped back; the beast couldn't stop its momentum and brought its feet at nothing.
Taking advantage of the opening, he raised his sword and slashed downward at the horse head.
But the beast blocked the sword using its horns, making the sword stuck.
Cursing, Faraam retreated back and summoned his [Sword of Despair] again.
'How much time do we need to hold on?'
Looking around for a second, he saw sleepers being crushed, eaten, or penetrated. But he also saw abominations being killed.
If he had to guess, the ratio was one to four. Every time a beast gets killed, four sleepers die.
If the battle continued like this, then the sleeper army would win.
Unfortunately it wouldn't, as the Fallen nightmare creatures have finally reached the battlefield.
The first of them was Fallen Beast; it ran toward the sleeper army, killing two of its kind in the way. As the Fallen Beast reached them, a golden bolt penetrated its eye in the middle of its chest.
The beast fell dead on another abomination, crushing it to death.
That was the third Fallen to die; only five remained.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Degenerated Bull.]
Faraam took a deep breath and looked down at the nightmare creature he just killed.
'That's five.'
Sighing, he glanced around him; the screams of beasts and humans merged together, creating a symphony of chaos and malice.
Many sleepers have died; most of them were those who came from the outskirts, and some from the guards.
Well, the good thing is that most of the awakened beasts were dead, of course, that came with the sacrifice of half of the sleeper army.
From behind, Faraam heard the order to retreat. He moved fast, not wanting to become lunch for the Fallen ones as he watched them butcher those who couldn't escape in time.
Their role as meat shields has ended, and it's time for the elite of the elite to enter the show.
The Hunters, led by Gemma, took the front line and surrounded the remaining awakened nightmare creatures.
They quickly took care of them, as their experience, skills, and teamwork were far better than the sleeper army's.
Now only the Fallen ones remained. Four of them stood beside each other; they were roughly three times the height of an average man, and behind them was the Fallen Tyrant, who was tasting the divinity of those who were barely still alive.
Above the wall, Gunlaug ordered to shoot the transcendent bolt at the Tyrant. The bolt flew so fast it broke the sound barrier.
The abomination's eye in the middle of its chest looked at the flying bolt, then the Tyrant raised its hand and grasped the bolt.
The Tyrant was pushed back from the force, but it didn't get hit.
Clicking his teeth, Gunluag summoned his transcendent echo back.
"I'm sorry, my lord, the ballista broke from the force of the launch."
Gunluag sighed and spoke, "It's alright, Kido, it had done its purpose."
As he said that, the golden liquid started covering his body, turning into a flawless golden armor. Then in his hand a large battle axe emerged.
The Third Lord of the Bright Castle, the Golden Serpent, has decided to join the fray himself.
He jumped from the wall and fell down at the street; his fall shocked the ground beneath him.
Then he ran, ran faster than any sleeper in the Forgotten Shore.
Beside him, two sleepers came out of nowhere; they were Harus and Tessai.
"Harus, take the left. When I give you the signal, blind the Tyrant."
Harus nodded his head in silence.
"Tessai use your aspect to slow it as much as possible."
Tessai frowned and spoke in a sarcastic voice, "That's all? You really want to take all the fun, my lord?"
Gunlaug didn't have to respond to Tessai as Harus was looking at Tessai as if he was going to kill him.
Tessai laughed and grinned. "Of course you can do whatever you want as the lord, right?"
Gunlaug didn't even look at Tessai again and continued running toward the tyrant.
He knew that Tessai has an insatiable ambition to become the next lord, but Gunlaug didn't care, simply because it was insignificant to him.
As they passed the fallen beasts who were occupied with the hunters, they stood in infront of the Tyrant.
Gunlaug raised his battle axe and lunged forward toward it.
The Tyrant brought it's hand down, intending to crush Gunlaug, but he quickly changed the form of his battle axe to a shield blocking the hand.
An ordinary sleeper would normally be crushed to a pulp, but Gunlaug's transcendent echo prevented him from being crushed by taking on the force of the Tyrant.
Behind Gunlaug, Tessai and Harus ran to the right and left, aiming their battle axe and sword at the front legs of the Tyrant and cutting.
Tessai cursed as his axes could only scratch its leg. It was the same for Harus too. But it didn't matter since they were only a distraction.
In front of the Tyrant, the golden shield transformed into a large battle axe; Gunlaug ran to its right side and jumped.
His battle axe cut through the Tyrant human-like abdomen like cutting butter.
The Tyrant screamed as dark, oozy blood gushed out.
"Now!" Gunlaug screamed.
Hearing the shout, Harus used his aspect ability, blinding the abomination.
The Tyrant, losing its sight, was stunned for a second; using the opening, Gunlaug jumped higher than before. The armor covering him turned to liquid and went toward the battle axe, making it grow larger.
Gunlaug raised the mighty axe and brought it down at the Fallen Tyrant's arm, completely severing it.
The Tyrant screamed and started moving hysterically like a horse.
The three quickly retreated, not wanting to be crushed under by accident.
After a few seconds, the Tyrant calmed down; the three of them waited for its next move, but what happened next stunned them.
The Tyrant brought its hand to its worm-like mouth and swallowed it. Then it slowly pulled its hand out... with another thing.
Gunlaug watched as a large bloody spear emerged; its pommel was covered with red veins, and the head of the spear was dark and rusty from being covered with blood for a long time.
The Tyrant then aimed the spear at... the ruins?
Before Gunlaug even asked why, it threw the spear with a force that made the ballista look like a bow.
Then he saw it. The spear suddenly changed its path and headed toward him.
Surprised, Gunlaug didn't even try to block it with a shield and dodged to the right, but it was too late.
The spear pierced his left arm, destroying it completely, but the spear didn't stop. It reached the Fallen beast behind him and killed it, as well as the hunter fighting it and the sleepers behind them, and destroyed part of the wall protecting the Bright Castle, then came to a full stop.
Then the spear turned back and flew to the remaining hand of the Tyrant.
The Tyrant raised his hand to throw the bloody spear again.