Duke Pendragon

Raven observed his surroundings with sunken eyes.

Baltai was right.

The predicament could not be overcome with the two men’s current conditions. Not by themselves, at least. They would be able to put up a fight, but escaping the encampment would be impossible.

Even if they did attempt to run away, at least one, maybe all three, would die in the process in their current exhaustive states. Of course, Raven would not be killed easily, but it was different for his two companions, Karuta and Isla.

‘But…’

Raven’s eyes glimmered.

Baltai and the demonic army were prioritizing him. Even if Karuta and Isla ran away, they might not give chase, choosing to focus on himself instead.

Then there was only one thing to be done.

“…..”

Raven looked sideways towards Karuta and Isla as the soldiers of the demonic army closed in on them.

One was his loyal knight, and one was a friend who transcended species. And at this moment, Isla was not his loyal knight that followed his orders, but a true friend.

Raven knew that Elkin Isla was not a person who would leave his side even if he were facing death. Raven came to a quick decision.

“Elkin.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Isla answered while tightly holding onto his weapon, preparing himself for perhaps the last battle he would fight. His eyes were fixated to the front.

Then,

Thud!

“…..!”

Isla’s eyes grew large as if they would pop out of the sockets, then he fell down.

“I am sorry.”

Raven murmured softly as he supported the weakly collapsing Isla..

“Kuheul? What are you doing?”

Karuta’s eyes widened at the unexpected situation. The surrounding soldiers of the demonic army were shocked as well.

“Huh? Did he finally lose his mind?”

Baltai opened his mouth slightly, then soon narrowed his eyes. It was clear that the brat had a plan prepared the moment he suddenly knocked out his comrade.

There was no way the vicious, tenacious little boy would lose his mind all of a sudden.

“Don’t tell me…”

Baltai’s eyes started growing little by little as a sudden thought struck his head. He hurriedly turned his head and issued an order.

“Hey! Get your bows ready!”

“Yes!”

Archers walked out through the spear-bearing soldiers at Baltai’s command. In the meantime, Raven spoke quickly as he handed over the limp body of Isla to Karuta.

“At this rate, all three of us will be killed. Take Elkin and escape. I trust you.”

“What?”

After half-forcibly handing Isla’s body to Karuta, Raven tore his cape and held it out.

“Put him on your back and fasten him with this. I will be going into the Great Forest. You run back to the garrison with Elkin at all costs.”

“What are you talking about?”

Karuta asked back as he hastily put Isla over his back and fixed his limbs with the cloth.

“Tell Lord Moraine. I will be back within a month. And tell him to pay attention to El Pasa.”

“What are you…”

Karuta attempted to respond, but Raven interjected when he saw the archers load their arrows.

“I will never die. Do as I say. When they start to come after me, run to the other side!”

Fwoosh!

As soon as he finished speaking, Raven burst out like a lightning bolt while erupting his spirit in full.

“What…?!”

The soldiers of the demonic army became flustered when one person suddenly started running like a gale. Baltai, who was looking over the situation with triumphant eyes, also became flustered.

“W, what! What are you doing? Shoot! Shoot him down!”

Baltai roared in an alarmed voice.

The archers hurriedly let loose their arrows. However, they had been agitated by Raven’s sudden action, and he was too close to them.

Shishing!

Dozens of arrows flew towards Raven. His eyes flashed fiercely, and the two swords flashed in the air. Raven managed to deflect dozens of arrows. Compared to the past, his physical vision and ability had improved by several times.

Tang! Thud!

Several shots managed to land on his body but they were unable to penetrate the White Dragon Armor.

Thud!

“Keuk”

“Ahhhk!”

Several arrows missed Raven by a margin and penetrated the bodies of the demonic soldiers on the other side.

“Uwahh…!”

Archers retreated a few steps when they saw Raven continue forward without hesitation, even when he was subjected to a hail of arrows.

They could not afford to shoot more arrows either due to the risk of friendly fire.

Raven kicked off the ground as hard as he could.

After crossing ten yards with one leap, he slaughtered the soldiers like a lion amidst a flock of sheep, slicing and cutting with his swords.

Shiing! Shing!

“Kuahhh!”

“Keuk!”

Blood fountains erupted in all directions and screams resounded in a horrific harmony.

Clang! Tang!

Blades created sparks as they deflected off the White Dragon Armor. However, there was not a single scratch on the legendary armament.

Still, the opponents were soldiers of the demonic army, and they were honed in countless battles. Raven could not afford to deal with them one by one, as he would surely fall into exhaustion.

So rather than focusing his efforts on killing the enemies, Raven aimed to pave a way through the layers of soldiers as he swung his weapons with all his might.

“Keuhghh!”

Soon, Raven left behind a trail of blood and death.

“Chase him! Surround him and kill him!”

In an instant Raven started to run away after knocking down dozens of Black Demons. Baltai urgently shouted in response.

“B, but the orc…”

“Fuck!”

Baltai’s bloodshot eyes turned to the soldier.

“You fucking retard! That’s not the problem right now! All we have to do is kill Pendragon! Drive him against the monsters!”

“Ye, yes!”

The knight and the orc warrior were not important right now. The only thing that mattered to Baltai right now was to capture or kill Duke Pendragon.

If he succeeded, the Arangis Duchy would take care of everything else.

Doong! Doong! Doong!

The drums rang out once more, and the flags started to move chaotically. The Black Demons that were surrounding Karuta began to crazily chase after Raven.

“Fucking hell…”

Karuta could not decide whether to follow Raven or to fight against the soldiers. He turned his blazing eyes towards Raven, who was running through thousands of soldiers.

Although Karuta was simple and did not avoid a fight, he could understand the current situation. If anyone else but Raven had told him to run away, Karuta would have smashed their heads.

It was the fate and glory of the orcs to die fighting. They should never avoid it.

However, this was not a fight of his own. He could not simply fight as much as he wanted until he faced death.

His human ‘friend’ had asked him for a favor, even knocking out his knight in the process.

“Krrrr…”

Karuta’s burning eyes slowly regained their light. Over the past year, he had already realized that Pendragon had a strange constitution. He had never heard of a case where a human recovered perfectly in less than a month after suffering a fatal injury.

Karuta did not know if it was the power of Soldrake or something else.

The important thing was that there was something special about his unique human friend, the Pendragon scarecrow. Most importantly, his friend had always kept his promises so far, and he would continue to do so.

He would come back without dying.

“Fuck, what do I say to the girls…”

Rather than worrying about Raven, who was heading into the enemy territory alone, Karuta scratched his head as he strained to think about how he would break the news to the Pendragon ladies, who were waiting for Pendragon’s return.

He tightened the piece of cloth wrapped around Isla and began to run into the direction where the troops were slowly thinning.

“Get out of my way, scarecrows! Before I blow all your heads away!”

No one had the guts to block the way of a roaring Ancona Orc warrior.

All thousands of soldiers faithfully followed in their commander Baltai’s orders, following after Duke Pendragon. They did not even venture close to Karuta.

***

Tung! Kakang!

Spears and swords thrusted from all sides and deflected off the White Dragon Armor, but the armor was devoid of any damage. It truly was an artifact containing the power of Soldrake.

It was fortunate that no more arrows were being shot after he rushed into the camp of hundreds of enemy soldiers. Nevertheless, he was so exhausted that Raven kept on stumbling.

Every time a weapon struck his body, a dull pain was conveyed. However, he did not stop running upstream, where the water was shallow and the current was slower.

If he stopped here, he might just really die.

“Hoo… Hoo…”

Kuwoooghh!

Then he saw the trolls and lizardmen running from afar.

“Huh!”

The soldiers of the demonic army flinched and paused at the roar of the trolls.

They had been informed that the monsters here were on their side, but they felt instinctive fear when they saw hundreds of long-tongued lizardmen and humongous trolls coming near them.

The pause momentarily loosened the siege, and Raven did not miss the moment.

Shuah!

Raven squeezed out all of his remaining strength and rushed towards the thinnest spot of the encampment while swinging his swords.

“Hey, y, you bastards, what the fuck are you doing!?”

Baltai rode his horse in a frenzy.

However, he could not cross easily because of how densely packed his soldiers were. Some unfortunate subordinates were crushed to death under his horse.

“Fuck!”

They were attempting to chase a person in an area where three sides were wide open and one side was the river. It was difficult for the troops to move while maintaining their formation.

The demonic army was not used to fighting while maintaining their formation.

In addition, there was a more troublesome problem.

The riverbank, where Duke Pendragon was fleeing towards, was littered with countless bodies. Numerous crocodiles were busily feasting on the remnants of the horrible battle.

Even the courageous, cruel lizardmen did not dare approach carelessly.

Shiing!

“Kuagh!”

After cutting down two soldiers in front of him, Raven could finally see the dozens of crocodiles munching away in front of him.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

Feeling his stamina near rock bottom, Raven clenched his teeth and kicked off the ground with the last of his strength.

His body rose into the air, a height several times a human’s height.

“W, what!”

Baltai became shocked when he saw Raven jump into the midst of dozens of crocodiles. But Raven was not the only one who was unafraid of the scaly creatures.

Kuwwwwagh!

A troll stomped his way forward and threw a huge log.

Shh!

When he saw a giant log fly towards him while spinning wildly in the air, Raven took a large breath and spun his body before stretching out his feet.

Thud!

Raven collided with the log, and he flipped through the air before crashing into the middle of the water.

“Ohh!”

Baltai became overjoyed at the scene.

All of the bones in the brat’s body must have been crushed after being struck with a large log containing a troll’s tremendous power. Surely, he would end up a crocodile’s meal like the rest of the corpses.

But…

Right before hitting the surface of the water, Raven turned his body in the air, and rolled several times in the shallow waters after standing up.

Then he limped off with one leg and disappeared into the thick shades of the Great Forest on the other side of the river.

“What, what?”

Baltai widened his eyes in disbelief.

He was sure that the brat was hit by the log.

However, he realized the truth of the matter after a moment and grinded his teeth in anger.

“Gaah! Don’t tell me that the son of a bitch…”

There was no other explanation.

Raven had kicked off the flying log and used the momentum of the rebound to fly dozens of yards into the middle of the river, knowing well that the water was shallow.

“Gah! Go! Follow him! Cross the river, you fucking dimwits!”

“B, but…”

Despite Baltai’s enraged commands, the soldiers were unable to carry out his orders.

Numerous crocodiles were starting to appear after catching a whiff of the flesh and blood that flowed downstream through the river.

“MOTHERFUCKERR!!!!”

Toban Baltai’s vicious curse resounded through the riverside, which had already turned into living hell.