Chapter 47: Hunt(1)

Ian and Joselina comes out of the main gates of the castle. They witness true strength of the Phirsecots, 2000 knights are standing waiting for their lord's command.

Among those 2000 knights, 500 are low knights and 2 intermediate ranked knights. While the remaining 1498 knights are unranked, that doesn't mean that they are weak. Everyone of those unranked is trained by the intermediate knights, they possess strength which far surpasses an average human.

Joselina observes the two knights who standing ahead of everyone else. 'Intermediate knight.' She concludes that by only seeing the armour of those knights which looks far luxurious than others.

"Is the beast that strong?" She asks to Ian.

"Yes, according to the scouts. The beast has some level of intelligence and it has few annoying abilities." Joselina taps on her watch and opens the internet. She searches for Koraet the ancient beast.

"What is your relationship with Leonard?" she asks.

"He is my friend and my brother in arms." Joselina raises her eyebrow, not convinced by Ian's answer.

"On that note, why did you make Leo the vice guildmaster?" Joselina quickly looks away.

"I...lost a bet." Ian stares at her for a second before laughing out loud.

"Hahaha. That's so like him." Joselina glares at Ian.

"Now, don't be so tense. He is a good person. Trust him." Joselina doesn't say anything.

Suddenly, all the knights stomps their feet on the ground, creating a loud sound. The large main gate slowly opens and Ray walks out wearing his helmet, In his full glory. Behind him, a small crowd of servants follows their lord. Among those servants Karl and Hector are standing the closest to Ray. Once outside, Karl looks at the Phirsecot's army.

'Isn't this knighthood supposed to be dying?' He questions in his mind. The two intermediate knights kneels in front of Ray. Karl notices the two kneeling knights, one of them is female. As her voluptuous figure couldn't hide behind her armour.

The female knight had a long bow on her back and a belt full of knives on her waist. On the other hand, the other knight is alot taller than the female one. He has a long sword on his waist. "Begin!"

Ray shouts with all of his might. All of the 2000 knights raises their weapons high in the air. A large bus enough to accommodate the entire army appears out of nowhere in the air. It slowly floats down. Once it touches the ground, all knights quickly goes inside, in a well organized manner.

'Ohh! A real space ship.' Karl's eyes sparkle as he looks at the floating vehicle.

Ray glances at Joselina. "Follow me."

Another small sized ship reveals itself on the ground. 'Camouflaging technology?' Karl wonders.

This ship resembles a expensive private jet. Perfect for a noble. The door opens and Ray steps in followed by Karl and Joselina. The inside is too luxurious for a airplane. It looks more like a 5 star hotel suit than a jet. Ray takes a sit on the large couch and Karl sits on a comfy chair opposite of him. He indicates Joselina to sit and she sits besides him.

"For the battle plan." Ray taps on his watch and a map of the entire Renock city including a large part of desert is projected via hologram.

"Hopefully, we will confront the parasite here." Ray points at the corner of the map which is covered by only sand.

"My knights and I will charge first. We will clear out most of the outer body of that parasite. Once we can see the main body of the beast, you will come on the field and contiue deeper inside the body. My knights will protect you and your companion but in the innermost layer, you are on your own. Any questions?"

Karl raises his hand. "You said that you will sense when you reach the main body. How does that work?"

Ray smiles. "Oh. I can sense the screams of this little fella." He points at his chest. Karl gets the point.

"This guy tries to move whenever I get close to the beast. After seeing the main body, I believe that this thing won't remain silent."

Joselina also raises her hand slowly, she tries to imitate Karl. "What about me?"

"You will go with him and protect him as long as you can." Joselina nods in understanding.

"Any more questions?" Both of them remains silent. The conversation dies and after few minutes a maid comes. She whispers something in Ray's ear. Ray quickly stands up and leaves the room. Leaving Karl and Joselina alone.

Few seconds passes and Joselina exhales loudly. "Why didn't you told me that we are meeting a high knight?"

"Is it that special?" Karl asks with genuinely.

"Are you dumb or you live under a rock? A high knight is one of the strongest people on the entire continent. Not even a Sentinel can kill a high knight so easily. They are like the pinnacle of human strength." Karl doesn't say anything.

"And how do you even know one?" Joselina asks.

"His son is my friend." Karl answers with a straight face.

"That's the main question. Why would a son of such important person would be friends with you?"

Karl thinks for a second and answers. "I don't know."

"But-" Karl puts his hands on her lips.

"Shhh!" This startles Joselina.

"You think too much. I told you that I would help you bring the Sabre guild back on the top. Just trust me."

Before Joselina could say anything the ship shakes violently. The lights turn red. "What is happening?"

"I do no know."

THUMP! The door smashes open and Ray walks in a hurry. "Our co-ordinates were wrong. The beast was much closer to the city gates. Everyone! Prepare for combat."

He points at Karl. "Not you."

Then he taps something on his watch and a glass window appears on the wall. Outside there is a huge dome of worms moving towards the city. It is eating everything on it's way.

"Deploy the knights." Ray commands and the bus which is carrying the knights hovers in the path of the dome. Suddenly, the lower part of the ship opens up and all 2000 knights drop straight onto the ground.

WHOOM! The dome visibly vibrates and a large tentacle made of worms emerges. It slowly moves in the direction of the large ship. It quickly extends and hits the ship. BOOM!

"N-No!" The large ship quickly loses control and begins to fall.

"Alessa! Report!" Ray calls and the maid from earlier quickly comes.

"My lord! The ship is out of control. Fortunately, all the knights reached the ground before the impact. The only casualties are the captain of the ship and the ship itself." Ray tightens his grip.

"Alessa! Open the window, I am going down. Maintain the ship at a higher altitude to avoid being attacked."

"Yes, my lord." The maid bows deeply. The window that they were just watching through opens up and Ray casually just walks out.

On the ground, the knight have taken a formation of 'V' shape with both intermediate knights on the corners acting as the vanguard. They move forward into the dome. Hundreds pf pillars surges from the ground attacking them. But the intermediate knights are strong. They are unfazed. The male knight leads his side forward, he unsheaths his long sword and it catches fire, he continues moving forward by cutting any worms coming in his way like butter.

The female knight grabs her long bow and shoots out arrows which freezes the area on the impact. Slowly but steadily she also moves her side forward. For now everything is going smoothly. They reach the outer layer of the dome and the number worms increases exponentially. The intermediate knight at the front starts to take heavy casualties.

"Sir! We lost around 150 men. Our formation is breaking apart." A low knight reports. The intermediate knight grabs the low knight by his throat.

"Keep the formation, if you don't want to die." He threatens. While on the back the ranged knights are doing well compared to the squad which is deep inside.

CRACK! The ground shakes. Everybody looks at the dome. Karl's eyes opens widely. Hundreds of tentacles pushes the dome and it goes up in the air.

"It's flying!" A knight screams in horror. Everybody stops fighting. The dome slowly leans towards the knights, the pillars which are supporting the dome from the back keeps on extending. The male knight who is standing closest to dome grits his teeth. He turns around and screams

"RUN!" The dome falls on the knights, consuming half of the army. The female knight who was standing in back with few hundred knights watches the scene in horror.

BOOM! Just then something fell from the sky, straight into the dome. A green light flashes and the dome splits in half. All the sand, worms and even the sky is split. Ray stands in the middle, shielding the remaining knights from the worms. Gale rapier raised high in his hands.

"MARCH FORWARD!" He commands.