The Amber Sword volume 3 - Chapter 137

Chapter 137 – The Alliance in the forest
========= Elman’s POV ==========
“T-these are all Potion of Dragon Strength…… And the quality of the potions!” Rono nearly bit his tongue in his shock.
The youths from Kirrlutz were unable to leave, and they had to move closer to Brendel’s camp for protection.
“Rono, what’s wrong?” Faena jumped a little.
The appearance of the wolves made her jittery, and she lowered her voice subconsciously, afraid of either attracting the monsters or Brendel.
“H-he’s treating these potions like water……” Rono could not suppress his ire and said: “If they are instead used on knights who have more potential than this strange bunch— of people.”
“What is so surprising about these potions.” Elman regarded his companion a little coldly. He had pushed Rono down to cover himself when Brendel attacked them, and even though it was an instinctive action, he knew that this act would not be forgotten or forgiven.
Explaining was pointless and a waste of time. He even thought it would even be wise to consider ending this prodigy’s future in this Dark Forest.
Rono glanced back at his ‘companion’. While Elman’s expression was one of disinterest, Rono expressed his condescension openly because of the anger and injustice he felt.
“Ignorant fool. This is a true Potion of Dragon Strength made from a dragon’s blood, or perhaps a grade that’s close to it. The filth that you drank has nothing in comparison to the youths’ potions.”
Elman secretly gritted his teeth, but he showed no changes in his expression and looked at Brendel’s men one more time, before he spoke again:
“Fine, but it’s about time we leave. There’s an opening that we can take advantage of since the wolves’ attention is on Aouine’s men. We won’t be able to escape if we waste any more time.”
The trip was a mistake. But he could not openly blame it on Faena, even if she was the one who suggested to watch Brendel’s reaction. The responsibility would still fall on him.
Rono was probably interested to watch Brendel a little longer, but Elman had seen enough talented people and simply did not care. It was especially so when Faena was the only successor of the Redhill family.
[What an awful mess. I came here all for the sake of flattering this girl, but that Brendel ruined my perfect image. A genius or a duke’s successor, everything is pointless if my life is forfeit, but the ending to this scenario was a mere warning…… Damn this bastard from Aouine.]
Faena did not seem to realize Elman’ s actions back then because she was also panicking. Rono was certainly the victim, but he was not fond of speaking ill of others and did not give away Elman. Still, the latter’s eyes regarded Rono as though he was a dead person.
[If he were to tell Lady Veronica the things I have done to him……]
“Look over there!” Faena suddenly yelled.
============ Brendel’s POV ============
Everyone felt the night sky brighten a little.
A pair of gigantic wings of green light extended on the battlefield. But when they looked at the pair of wings, they discovered that it was actually made up of countless Magic Formations. The Wind Spirit Spiders appeared in the air one by one, with a golden shining sword hovering over each of them.
The green lights quickly took on a golden hue.
Everyone held their breaths. Many had already seen Brendel’s magic before, but it was never cast in the night. The golden Holy Swords that were pointing to the ground had more of a mysterious air to them compared to the ones summoned in the daytime.
[Is this magic?]
Austin could only stare at them like he had been turned to stone. The ambassadors behind him felt like their world had suddenly gone crazy. The youth was clearly a Gold-ranked swordsman.
How was he able to use magic?
But the gigantic pair of wings were clearly coming from him. Yet the scale of this magic was far beyond what an Arcane Knight could do.
[He’s a spellcaster too?]
Brendel was used to such gazes and ignored them. He merely yelled out as he pointed Halran Gaia at the wolves: “Lower your eyes!”
“Lower your eyes! Our lord is going to unleash his attack!” The squadron leaders immediately yelled as well.
The knights subconsciously looked at the sky. They were just in time to see the brightness of the glowing swords increase in intensity. Eyes squinted as pillars descended from the sky, easily piercing through the wolves. The creatures had the durability of a strong Iron-ranker, but it was still weak enough for the magic to pierce through them.
The pillars of light became lasers that burned the wolves’ fur before reaching their internal organs. Even when the monsters tried desperately to run away, the lasers tracked them in their general direction and continued to blast at them. The wolves who suffered the attack eventually had light pouring out from the other end of their wounds, and they exploded in a shower of burning ashes.
Beams continued to sweep across the monsters. A few went close enough to the knights and youths, causing them to shudder and shrink a little from the terrifying firepower. Each beam of light killed about two or three wolves before they went into cooldown.
A stream of golden light flew towards Brendel, and after sweeping the battlefield with the ten-odd beams of light a few times, the black wolves’ charge started to crumble. Half of their numbers were slain, allowing Brendel to net around close to 1000 XP. Each wolf that was personally killed by him gave 7 to 8 XP, depending on the creature’s level.
The knights and youths were relieved to see the wolves weakened, but Brendel shouted a new command: “Advance and push them back!”
Austin was startled. His intention was to retreat and meet up with the main bulk of the ambassadors’ guards, or to go behind the Druids’ defense lines.
“It is too dangerous for us to attack them. We should retreat, Ser……” Austin turned to Brendel and said, before realizing that he did not know the youth’s name.
“Brendel, the Baron of Firburh,” Brendel gave a single laugh in response, “Aouine will never retreat in the face of these monsters—”
Austin was completely stunned. Perhaps the youth in front of him was a crazy fool? It would explain why he went against the people from Kirrlutz. Even if the youths under his command became Silver-rankers because of the Potion of Dragon Strength, going against the endless waves of wolves was impossible.
“Lord Brendel, you have to calm down, we will be torn into pieces if we fight them!” Dolant ran up to the youth as well.
Even though he looked down on Brendel initially, the latter fought together with them as Aouine’s citizens and taught the wild beasts from Toquinin a lesson. His opinion on Brendel went up, but the decision to march forward was too frightening.
And yet the number of knights that was brought along merely amounted to twenty-odd men. If Brendel insisted on going forth, they had no choice but to follow him. Dolant’s eyes briefly went over to the black wolves. The opening created by Brendel was starting to be filled up. The tremors that reached his feet was making his hair stand.
Brendel shook his head and pointed to the right: “Count Dolant, you’re the one who needs to calm down. We will not be torn into pieces because our allies have arrived.”
Dolant quickly followed Brendel’s finger. A group of wolves was scattering from something as though they had encountered something frightening.
A metallic glint flashed briefly in the forest.
It was a centaur that suddenly charged out from the forest, clad in silver armor with a silver lance on his back. He wielded a huge ornate longbow that was the size of his body, chasing after the group of black wolves.
With each arrow fired, a black wolf would tumble over and cease breathing.
A few seconds later, hundreds of centaurs galloped out of the forest, firing at the wolves and thinning their numbers at a quick rate. There were many Druids who rode on the centaurs’ backs, and they raised their staffs. Large vines shot out from the ground and overtook the charging centaurs, lifted the dead black wolves up and hurled them in the midst of the beasts that were still alive, causing many to stumble on the ground.
The monsters got up shakily, but the centaurs came up and finished them with a thrust of their lances. The reinforcements were like a group of heavy cavalry causing a great din, and they changed the dire situation in an instant. They cut straight into the wolves, reached where Brendel and the ambassadors’ forces were at, and quickly eased their pressure.
A centaur who appeared to be slightly older than the others trotted forth. He had a different suit of armor. His pauldrons had the shape of a pair of deer antlers that curved majestically outwards, while his gold armor followed the shape of his chest closely, making it look like he had bare skin that was gold in color.
With a shake of his lance, he came before Brendel with a loud voice: “Human, I am Wydall! The Elder Druid have made his request known, and we shall assist you to break the first wave of the Calamity of Wolves!”
The nobles from Aouine snapped their heads towards Brendel What agreement did the youth make with the Druids?
“You agreed? What about the Tree Elves?”
“We are here in the battlefield too, young one.”
There was a sudden shift of lighting on Wydall’s back, revealing a tall elf with green hair adorned with leaves. He wore a robe, but did not wear a shirt and had an exposed chest. He too had a longbow, but it was even larger than what the centaurs used and made one wonder how he was able to use it.
“It’s you—” Amandina expressed her surprise; he was the Druid that she and Scarlett saw when Brendel entertained the children.
He nodded with a tiny smile: “If it were another human, we might reject the Elder Druids’ proposal, but I am pleased with your actions, young one, and I can try believing in the proposal.”
Brendel was a little confused as to what he did to gain the elf’s trust. But he glanced at Amandina and took a quick guess, nodding:
“There’s no time to waste, allow me to explain the plan.”