Chapter 426: Charge!
The concussive shockwave from the massive explosion blew away the thick cloud of smoke and dust that had engulfed the stairwell.
When the air cleared, the Royal Army soldiers gasped. The stairwell entrance was completely gone, blown wide open into a massive, jagged crater. Emerging from the ruined threshold was Noah's group.
At the very front, a towering, thick shield of solid ice stood as a bulwark between the Mages and the Royal Army. Gray stood behind it, his hands pressed firmly against the ice. He had effortlessly blocked the combined magical barrage of the entire garrison.
Seeing that the initial onslaught had ceased, Gray pulled his hands back, and the massive ice shield shattered into sparkling dust, dissolving into the air.
"There are so many soldiers. Are they all Royal Army?" Wendy asked, shrinking back slightly at the sight of the densely packed ranks of troops, all aiming identical magic staves directly at them.
"They are indeed Royal Army. However, judging by their numbers, this is only a detachment. It's likely the same unit we encountered underground," Ultear analyzed calmly.
"Don't overthink it. They're standing in our way, which means they're enemies. Crush them," Noah ordered flatly.
"Fire Dragon's... ROAR!"
Natsu didn't hesitate for a second. He took a massive breath and unleashed a torrential torrent of scorching flames that surged like a tidal wave toward the Royal Army ranks.
"Sealing Spear!"
Recognizing the terrifying intensity of the incoming flames, Erza (Edolas) knew her soldiers' standard barriers wouldn't hold. She stepped forward, her spear shifting form instantly. With a powerful, sweeping slash, she cleaved the massive torrent of fire perfectly in two, sending the flames harmlessly past her troops.
"What?! She cut through magic?!" Ultear and the others gasped in surprise. Even Natsu blinked, startled that his roar had been neutralized so easily.
"Fire!" Hughes roared, seizing the momentary opening.
The Royal Army soldiers unleashed a synchronized volley from their magic staves, sending hundreds of magical projectiles raining down on the Earth Land Mages.
"Hmph!" Laxus sneered. His eyes flashed, and countless bolts of blinding lightning erupted from his body, intercepting the incoming magical bombardment with pinpoint accuracy.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A rapid series of mid-air explosions rocked the cavern, the resulting shockwaves buffeting everyone.
Hughes knew the standard grunts' attacks wouldn't scratch these monsters. He had only ordered the volley to mask his true attack.
Swinging his conductor's baton in rapid, precise arcs, Hughes channeled his magic into the earth beneath Noah's group. The ground began to tremble violently. Suddenly, dozens of razor-sharp stone spikes erupted from the floor, aiming to skewer the Mages from below.
STOMP!
Noah, having anticipated the subterranean attack, simply stomped his right foot.
A pulse of golden magical energy rippled outward from the point of impact. The newly formed stone spikes shattered instantly, crumbling into dust before they could even fully emerge. The magic Hughes had infused into the ground was completely dispelled in an instant.
Hughes tried to wave his baton to launch a follow-up attack, only to realize his control over the earth had been forcibly severed.
"Keep firing! Don't stop!" Hughes screamed at his soldiers. Desperate, he swung his baton wildly, telekinetically ripping debris, weapons, and anything else not nailed down from the surrounding environment and hurling it all at the Earth Land Mages in a chaotic storm of projectiles.
"Ice-Make: Lances!" Gray thrust his hands forward, conjuring a barrage of ice spears that intercepted and shattered the incoming debris in mid-air.
"Ice-Make: Ice Eagle!" Ultear followed suit, summoning a flock of ice eagles that shredded through the remaining projectiles.
"Dark Spark!" Mirajane materialized spheres of highly concentrated dark magic in both hands and hurled them directly into the densest cluster of Royal Army soldiers.
"Gravity Spear!"
Seeing the devastating dark magic incoming, Erza (Edolas) shifted her weapon once more. A sphere of concentrated gravity formed at the spear's tip, ready to intercept Mirajane's attack.
"Heaven's Wheel: Trinity Sword!"
Suddenly, a figure clad in silver armor flashed into existence directly in front of her. Two flashing swords, accompanied by several telekinetically controlled blades, viciously battered down Erza's (Edolas) guard.
"Your opponent is me! Don't even think about looking away!" Earth Land Erza stood firmly in her counterpart's path, her expression fierce and unyielding.
Erza (Edolas) gritted her teeth. With this monster blocking her path, she couldn't afford to spare a single glance to protect her troops or assist Hughes. She was forced to focus entirely on the relentless assault from her Earth Land doppelganger.
Without Erza (Edolas) to intercept them, and Hughes's hasty, inadequate telekinetic barriers failing to slow them down, Mirajane's dark spheres slammed directly into the Royal Army formation.
BOOM!
A massive explosion engulfed the soldiers. The sheer concussive force hurled dozens of men into the air, instantly shattering their disciplined formation. While their armor mitigated the lethal damage, the impact was more than enough to incapacitate them, leaving groaning bodies scattered across the floor.
"Damn it!" Hughes cursed, his face turning pale as he watched a significant portion of his forces wiped out in a single strike.
His panic escalated into sheer terror when he looked back at the Earth Land Mages. His baton became a blur as he frantically manipulated every piece of debris and stone he could reach, hastily constructing layers of crude barricades in front of him.
He had to act fast, because an overwhelming tidal wave of magical attacks was hurtling straight toward him.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
"Ice-Make: Lances!" x2
"Scorpio! Sand Buster!"
"Sky Dragon's Roar!"
"Divine Judgment!" x2
"Raging Bolt!"
"Libra, alter the target's gravity!" "Understood."
"Sunlight Angel!"
The entire Earth Land vanguard, including Noah, unleashed their attacks simultaneously, focusing their combined firepower directly on Hughes and the remaining soldiers clustered around him.
Hughes's eyes bulged, bloodshot with pure terror. Earth walls erupted from the ground, and layers of rubble formed a chaotic, desperate shield before him as he tried to block the apocalyptic bombardment. The surviving soldiers frantically fired their staves, hoping to weaken the incoming magical onslaught.
"DAMN IT! HOLD ON!" Hughes screamed, pushing his magic to its absolute limits.
BOOM!!!
The combined might of the Earth Land Mages slammed into Hughes's frantic defenses. An unimaginably massive explosion detonated, shaking the very foundations of the Royal City. A colossal shockwave obliterated the surrounding structures, and an enormous cloud of dust and debris mushroomed into the sky.
Even with the soldiers' desperate counter-fire and Hughes's layered defenses mitigating some of the damage, the raw destructive power was still apocalyptic. Countless soldiers were sent flying like ragdolls, completely incapacitated.
The shockwave was so intense that even the two Erzas were forced to break their clash and leap back to avoid being blown away.
"Hughes! Are you okay?!" Erza (Edolas) yelled into the settling dust cloud.
"Cough! Cough!" A familiar, pained coughing sound answered her.
As the dust cleared, the devastation was revealed. Hughes stood in the center of a massive crater, his flamboyant clothes shredded, his body covered in blood and soot. He looked incredibly ragged, leaning heavily on his baton just to stay upright. All around him, and scattered far into the distance, lay the unconscious bodies of his entire detachment.
"Damn it! Damn it all to hell!" Hughes cursed weakly.
Hearing the commotion, fresh waves of Royal Army reinforcements began pouring into the area from adjacent streets. Seeing the devastation and their Captain in such a wretched state, they quickly formed a defensive perimeter around Hughes, leveling their staves at the Earth Land Mages.
Noah ignored the grunts. He looked past the immediate plaza and saw even larger battalions of soldiers marching toward their position. The entire Royal Army was converging on them.
"Don't get bogged down here! That pink-armored Captain is already gone, obviously reporting to the King. We're breaking through right now!" Noah commanded.
"Right!" the group chorused.
"You're not going anywhere! Silfarion!" Erza (Edolas) roared. Her spear transformed into its speed form. Leveling the weapon, she lunged with blinding speed directly at the one giving the orders—Noah.
However, none of the Earth Land Mages moved to intercept her. In fact, they all casually stepped aside, completely exposing Noah to her attack.
Erza (Edolas) blinked in confusion, but her momentum was already committed. She poured all her remaining strength into the strike, accelerating even faster, intending to impale Noah where he stood.
Noah calmly raised his right hand and extended a single index finger directly into the spear's path.
Seeing his casual, almost insulting defense, Erza (Edolas) burned with fury. He thinks he can stop my full-powered thrust with one finger?! How dare he look down on me! She pushed her body to its absolute limits, determined to skewer his finger and pierce his heart in one strike.
CLINK!
Erza (Edolas) froze in mid-air, her eyes widening to impossible proportions.
Her mind struggled to process what had just happened. The razor-sharp tip of her magically enhanced spear was pressed firmly against the pad of Noah's index finger. Not only had he effortlessly halted her supersonic charge, but her spear hadn't even managed to break his skin.
Before her shock could even fully register, Noah stepped forward with his left foot. In a smooth, almost leisurely motion, he delivered an open-palm strike to her stomach.
BAM!
The impact launched Erza (Edolas) backward with the force of a cannonball. She blasted through the ranks of her own reinforcing soldiers, scattering them like bowling pins, before crashing straight through the thick stone wall of a nearby building, finally coming to a halt buried beneath the rubble.
"What kind of monster is he...?" Hughes gasped, his jaw dropping. He knew intimately how powerful his fellow Captain was. To stop her ultimate attack with a single finger... was that even possible?
Ignoring the incapacitated Captain and the approaching reinforcements, Noah raised his right hand. A massive golden magic circle expanded rapidly in the air before him, humming with terrifyingly dense magic power.
"Divine Judgment!"
This time, the attack was significantly stronger than his previous warning shot. A blinding pillar of pure magical energy, several meters in diameter, tore through the air, ripping up the cobblestone streets as it roared directly toward Hughes and the clustered soldiers.
Despite his severe injuries, Hughes's survival instincts screamed. With the last dregs of his strength, he dove to the side, throwing himself flat against the ground. He knew with absolute certainty that if that beam even grazed him, he would be vaporized.
The surrounding soldiers panicked and scattered, leaving a clear path for the devastating attack.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The massive energy pillar bored straight through the dense cityscape, cleanly annihilating everything in its path. Buildings were vaporized, leaving massive, gaping holes in their wake. The beam finally angled upward, disappearing into the sky above the city.
As the smoke cleared, an unnatural, perfectly straight path several meters wide had been carved directly through the heart of the Royal City. Everything that had stood in the way of the beam was gone.
"Let's go!" Noah called out, taking the lead and sprinting down the newly created thoroughfare.
"Right behind you!" the group cheered, following closely on his heels.
They had emerged from the underground tunnels near the outer edge of the Royal Castle's grounds. Noah's devastating attack had blasted a direct path straight toward the castle's central spire. By taking this newly carved road, they were marching straight into the heart of the enemy's stronghold.
"Ugh... stop them!" Hughes groaned, struggling to push himself off the ground. But his injuries were too severe; his arms gave out, and he collapsed back onto the rubble, forced to weakly order the surviving soldiers.
A few lightly injured soldiers scrambled to their feet, retrieved their staves, and hesitantly pursued the Earth Land Mages.
As Noah's group charged down the cleared path, more and more Royal Army soldiers poured out from the side streets, launching a relentless barrage of magical attacks.
The Earth Land Mages didn't even break their stride. They returned fire flawlessly, unleashing a storm of magic that easily intercepted the incoming projectiles and blasted away any soldiers foolish enough to stand in their way.
They moved in a tight, impenetrable formation. Wendy, Meredy, Yukino, Happy, and Carla were protected in the center. Noah, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy formed the vanguard, clearing the path ahead. Erza and Mirajane guarded the right flank, Ultear and Sorano guarded the left, and Laxus brought up the rear, neutralizing any attacks from behind.
"Divine Judgment!"
Noah fired another golden beam. While smaller than the previous one, it was still over a meter wide. The soldiers in its path scrambled desperately to avoid it, completely breaking their defensive lines.
BOOM!
The beam blasted through another structure, the resulting shockwave sending dozens of soldiers flying.
"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!"
Natsu lashed out, his arms transforming into massive whips of scorching flame. He swept them through the enemy ranks, igniting armor and swatting soldiers away like annoying flies.
"Taurus!"
Lucy summoned her Golden Bull spirit. Taurus materialized, but upon seeing the chaotic battlefield and Noah casually blasting holes through buildings, he instantly suppressed his usual perverted antics. With a serious, determined roar, he swung his massive labrys, cleaving through the enemy lines with devastating physical power.
"Ice-Make: Lances!"
Gray unleashed a continuous barrage of ice spears, effortlessly impaling the remaining soldiers foolish enough to block their path.
"Don't slow down! Keep charging!" Noah commanded, his voice cutting through the din of battle.
"YEAH!"
The Earth Land Mages surged forward like an unstoppable juggernaut, shattering every line of defense the Royal Army threw at them. Nothing could halt their advance toward the King.
~~~
Get early access to 50+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn