Chapter 328 (Patreon)

Ghin grunted as another strike slammed into his crossed gauntlets. The impact rang through the shimmering barrier like a temple bell struck by a giant. Metal screamed. His boots carved trenches through the burning sand as he slid backward, heat rising around him in wavering curtains. Sweat poured down the side of his bald head. The desert sun above felt merciless now, pressing against his skin like a branding iron.

He understood it clearly at last. The woman before him was not merely strong.

She had transcended through the Great Wall barrier. The same threshold he himself had shattered decades ago.

The woman walked toward him through the drifting sand with terrifying calm, her longsword trailing behind her. Its tip carved a thin line through the desert floor. No wasted movement. No excitement. Just inevitability. Like death had decided to wear armor and walk on two legs.

Ghin’s breathing grew ragged. “I’ll give you all my money!” he shouted, raising both gauntlets just in time to catch another brutal slash.

The strike exploded against his defense. A sharp crack echoed through one of the gauntlets.

His arms trembled violently. “Just spare me today!”

Outside the barrier, he could guess the muffled yelling from his death squads. Shapes moved beyond the flickering wall of energy, distorted like ghosts behind heated glass. Some of them hammered at the invisible prison with weapons. Others probably were screaming his name.

None of it mattered. The barrier did not even ripple.

The woman didn’t so much as glance at them. She already knew no one was getting inside.

“Let’s not do this the hard way,” she said. Her voice was cold enough to freeze the desert itself. “Stay still, and I’ll make it painless.”

Ghin cursed under his breath. Painless?

That meant she truly intended to kill him from the very beginning. His thoughts raced wildly. Had he killed someone important years ago? Some noble? Her family? Her friend perhaps? He had slaughtered too many people to remember every face. The lawless city had never been kind enough to allow long memories.

“What do you want from me?!” he roared.

Rose answered with steel. Another slash crashed down.

Ghin barely blocked it in time, though the force drove one knee into the sand. Pain burst through his shoulder. His muscles screamed. He had fought monsters larger than houses. Dungeon bosses capable of leveling entire caravans. Yet this woman fought with a precision that made those creatures seem clumsy.

If only he could use his skills. If only he could summon even one of his beasts inside the barrier. His fingers dug desperately into the hot sand.

An idea sparked. The instant Rose stepped forward, Ghin hurled a fistful of sand toward her eyes. The grains exploded through the air.

But Rose simply shifted sideways.

One clean step. One impossibly smooth movement. The sand missed completely. And then her sword flashed.

Ghin didn’t even feel it at first. His right arm spun through the air before landing heavily on the desert floor several feet away.

For one strange heartbeat, he only stared at it. Then the pain arrived.

Blood erupted from the stump in violent pulses, splattering across the sand in dark red waves. Ghin screamed. The sound ripped itself from his throat raw and animal-like.

Rose’s expression never changed. “I warned you.”

Ghin staggered backward, clutching the wound. His vision blurred. The world tilted sideways. Yet beneath the agony, instinct still clawed at him to survive. The numbness was already spreading.

Good. That meant he still had one chance.

Finally, he found an opening. He gritted his teeth and lunged forward with his remaining fist, throwing every ounce of strength behind the punch. But the moment he moved, he realized the mistake.

His balance was ruined. Without the missing arm to counterweight him, his body twisted awkwardly. The strike missed by inches. His foot slipped deep into the sand.

And he fell. Hard.

Before he could recover, the woman stepped onto his back and pinned him there effortlessly. The pressure was overwhelming. Like being crushed beneath a boulder. The tip of her sword rested against the back of his neck.

Then, finally, she spoke again. But now her voice carried something else beneath the coldness.

Hatred.

“To Marta.”

The sword pressed slightly deeper.

“To Zig.”

Ghin’s eyes widened faintly.

“To Vien.”

The names stirred distant memories. Faces blurred by time. People burning beneath summoned monsters. People were screaming while he laughed and called it survival.

“To Isha.”

Recognition flickered at last.

It was the people he caught spying on him.

Brown hair.

Ghin opened his mouth to speak. To explain. To lie. But the blade entered the back of his neck before a single word escaped.

Slowly on purpose. 

The desert wind howled across the dunes as blood soaked into the burning sand.

….

Artin swept down from the sky in a spiral of sand and heat before landing lightly beside them. Feathers melted into skin. Wings twisted back into arms. In only a breath, the half-bird figure vanished, leaving behind the familiar grin of the royal knight.

“Lady Rose got the faction master, Ghin,” he announced while brushing dust from his sleeves. Despite the chaos surrounding them, his voice remained strangely calm. “They’re still going at it right now.”

“Should we help her?” Kana asked immediately.

Artin barked out a short laugh.

“Well, no one can help them.” He rolled his shoulder as if the answer was obvious. “Lady Rose has one of those strange skills that makes normal people question their life choices. I’m pretty sure stepping inside whatever she’s doing would just get us killed instead or should I say, we are just going to waste our time.”

Kana frowned slightly.

Curiosity flickered in her crimson eyes for only a moment before she forced herself to look away. Questions about Rose’s abilities could wait. The battlefield could not.

The monsters that had once moved like a disciplined army had completely collapsed into chaos. Without Ghin controlling them, the creatures wandered wildly across the desert, attacking anything nearby. Some tore into each other. Others sprinted mindlessly toward the dunes. The hot wind carried roars, screeches, and the smell of blood so thick it coated the inside of the mouth.

Kana tightened her grip around her bow.

“If that’s the case,” she said quietly, “we must kill these monsters. They’ll endanger people travelling outside.”

One of the knights snorted while wiping blood from his sword.

“You’re right,” he admitted, though his tone lacked conviction. “But I don’t see why it matters to us. They’re not people of the northern kingdom.”

Kana slowly turned toward him. The desert wind brushed against her dark cloak. Behind her, corpses of monsters littered the red sands beneath the merciless sun.

“They might not be people from the north,” she said, meeting the knight’s eyes directly, “but they’re still people. Like us.”

The knight fell silent.

Kana continued, voice quieter now. “And we are the reason this happened in the first place.”

For a moment, only the wind answered. Then Artin stepped forward and smacked the knight lightly on the shoulder.

“Kana’s right,” he said. “If we leave this mess behind, innocent people die later. We take responsibility now.”

The vice captain inhaled deeply before raising his voice across the battlefield. “Take down whatever monsters you can!” he shouted. “My team will focus on the dungeon bosses!”

He glanced toward the students. “Kana or Suri can assist us with long-range support!”

“Finally.” Boris cracked his neck loudly before slamming his fists together. The sound almost resembled stones colliding. Thorne, perched atop his shoulder, nodded with exaggerated seriousness as if she had been waiting hours for permission.

“I thought I was going to stand there all day,” Boris muttered.

He spun his spear once before pointing it westward. “I’ll take the west flank.”

Without waiting for permission, he sprinted forward. Sand exploded beneath his boots as his massive frame slid down the dune toward the swarming monsters.

“Wait!” one of the knights yelled instinctively.

Artin only laughed. “Hate to admit it,” he said, “but that kid’s probably stronger than most of us.”

“Kana and I will back him up,” Ryle said automatically before realizing too late what he had volunteered himself into.

Kana drank some potion and moved ahead before he finished speaking. Ryle stared at the battlefield, at the sea of claws and blood and monstrous screams, then released a heavy sigh filled with regret.

“…Right,” he muttered weakly before chasing after her.

Meanwhile, Suri remained comfortably near the rear line. “Yes. I’ll stay here,” she announced while lazily twirling her staff. “I’ll throw things from far away and make sure everyone survives.”

Chelle leaned closer and whispered, “You’re just being lazy.”

Suri placed a hand over her chest, offended. “Absolutely not.”

Then she pointed toward the battlefield where piles of corpses baked beneath the desert sun.

“Look at that,” she said grimly. “The monster bodies aren’t disappearing.”

Chelle blinked. Suri lowered her voice dramatically. “That means the smell is going to stay on your clothes.”

A hot gust of wind blew across the battlefield at the perfect moment. The scent hit them instantly.

Rotting flesh.

Blood.

Burnt fur.

Something sour and foul that none of them wanted to identify.

Chelle’s face paled. “…You’re right.”

Suri nodded sagely as though she had unlocked the secrets of the universe.

“Exactly.”

Nearby, the knights began reorganizing into formations before advancing toward the eastern side of the battlefield. Shields locked together. Spears lowered. Calm professionalism amidst complete madness.

Chelle glanced around before looking back at Artin. “How about you, Sir Artin?”

Artin nearly choked on the water he had just swallowed.

He coughed violently before raising a finger. “I’ll supervise,” he declared with suspicious confidence. “Very important role.”

Suri narrowed her eyes. “You mean you’re also avoiding the smell.”

Artin ignored her completely. Instead, his legs suddenly shifted, muscles twisting unnaturally as golden fur spread across them. In only seconds, his lower body resembled that of a massive desert feline.

He grinned proudly.

“If something dangerous happens,” he said while flexing one clawed foot against the sand, “I can get there fast.”

“I doubt they need my help.”

…..

[Cleave]

The skill exploded from Boris’ spear like a thunderclap.

The moment the blade struck the desert floor, the sand itself burst apart. A violent shockwave ripped forward through the mob of monsters, carving a jagged trench across the battlefield. Bodies flew into the air. Bones shattered with sickening cracks. Green blood mixed with red as nearly a dozen monsters were torn apart instantly, their remains scattering across the scorching dunes.

The impact echoed far into the desert.

Even the hot wind seemed to pause for half a heartbeat.

Boris exhaled heavily, gripping the shaft of his spear tighter as sweat rolled down his neck beneath the armor. His muscles screamed from exhaustion, but adrenaline kept his body moving. The desert heat wrapped around him like burning cloth. Every breath tasted of sand and blood.

He had long since lost count of how many monsters he had killed.

Swing.

Thrust.

Step forward.

Again. Again. And again.

The rhythm had become instinct.

His spear spun through the air with brutal force, crushing the skull of a wolf-like creature before driving through the chest of another. A smaller monster lunged at him from the side only for Thorne to leap from his shoulder with surprising speed. The little lizard bit straight into its eye.

The creature shrieked. Thorne hissed proudly. Boris barked out a laugh before smashing his spear downward again.

Not far ahead, Kana had already pushed deeper into the battlefield.

She moved through the monsters like a phantom wrapped in blood and dust. Her bowstring snapped endlessly, each arrow finding a throat, an eye, a skull. When enemies got too close, she shifted seamlessly into close combat, her movements frighteningly efficient. Monsters collapsed around her before they even understood they had been attacked. Then she switched to her curved sword whenever there was an unfortunate monster lurking around her.

The deeper she advanced, the more the battlefield seemed to bend around her.

Ryle struggled behind them.

Boris noticed it immediately.

The boy’s sword trembled slightly every time he swung it. He managed to kill one of the smaller monsters, but even that looked difficult. His breathing was ragged. Sweat drenched his clothes despite the dry heat.

Is he scared of fighting monsters? Boris wondered.

Another creature lunged toward him.

Boris did not stop moving. With a roar, he swung his spear sideways using nothing but raw monstrous strength. The weapon crashed into three charging beasts at once. Their bodies folded grotesquely from the impact before flying several meters across the sand.

Blood sprayed across Boris’ armor.

Across his arms. Across his face.

Green.

Red.

Dark black from some creatures he did not recognize. At this point he barely noticed anymore. The battlefield had become a blur of screams, steel, and flying sand.

Above them, Suri’s blades continued to descend from the sky every so often like the judgment of some lazy but terrifying god. Silver flashes pierced through monsters with horrifying precision. Every time her attacks landed, another section of the battlefield collapsed into chaos.

Little by little, the swarm began to thin.

Dead monsters littered the dunes so heavily that the red sands were barely visible anymore.

Boris planted his spear into the ground for a brief moment and inhaled deeply. His entire body ached. His hands were numb from gripping the weapon too hard.

Then suddenly—

A familiar text of god appeared before his eyes.

[You have leveled up!]

Boris blinked.

Then slowly, despite the blood covering half his face and the monsters still trying to kill him, a grin spread across his lips.

“Well,” he muttered while rolling his shoulders,“This is what Kana was talking about, both of them getting strange skills and stronger all of a sudden.”

Post note:

Yes. Boris finally caught up.

Sixth chap of the week.Hope you enjoy the chap! 🙂

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