Chapter 164: The Dread of Kamatayan Military

All these memories circulated in Clara's mind as she continued shooting arrows after arrows. She stopped spraying AOE attacks but instead focused on the couple that seemed to be assigned to target her. As her eyes bled due to her extensive use of her skills, the influence of her weapon familiar, and her continued "treatment," she could not help but frown.

"How can they be so fast in erecting ultra sturdy barriers?"

Because Clara uses the hero prospect crystal as an upper mild long term treatment of her parasitic eye disease, her crystal have the least output out of all the generals of the Living army, thus her intoxicati0n is lower, making her the most rational as seen when she was able to argue about the flaws of their plans against Sisa, however, despite all of this, she still cannot help but be agitated with how fast and efficient the support of her opponents are, as she opened her eyes after 7 seconds, she saw that the couple have increased their fusion, she frowned as she once again charged a [Concentrated Arrow] towards Philo and Lyra, this time angling her shot so that it will swerve in an S shape, however she once again saw how the dozen or so mages of the undead army created a multi layered barrier and then as if the staff they were using itself is in autopilot, the shield was dragged towards the exact direction of the arrow.

Now, normally, the arrow will have the power to destroy a magically fortified wall, actually the magicians in or below hero prospect level except for those blessed geniuses like Sophia or those artificially created like Clara can only conjure such strong power through long overcharge of mana using a magic circle that will again amplify the power of the shot, meaning such powerful magic can only be blocked by similarly overcharged shield, and yet when the shield and the arrow collided, the two matter made of magic exploded in a magnificent spectacle of white light, this signified one thing, the mages, though doesn't have a weapon familiar specializing in defense can match the power of the magic.

_Fuck... how can they do that?_

Cursing, the eyes of Clara bled as several capillaries surfaced on it, making it look like it was about to explode, Clara winced in pain as she forcefully shut her eyes, letting it rest by the prescribed 5-8 seconds by her king, yet even if she did such a thing, her problem still lay bare in front of her.

_So they can speed blitz the conjuring of the shield on par with my condensed attack arrows, not only that, they do so while protecting themselves from the soldiers that are attempting to attack them..._

Clara's eyes once again opened; they pierced kilometers away, ironic to her disease as she observed the people she had decided to target, for they also decided to target her.

_Those two... they are fusing fast, they just needed two minutes at most to complete their fusion..._

Clara was conflicted, in all her years serving as the general marksman of Stardust, she have never seen an army that has such fast casting speed, it was as if they can read the language of magic of the world, which is, without the elf archer knowing, is in fact, the truth. The mage academy of Kamatayan has a whole library on how to read baybayin, how to fluently speak it, how to use it in etiquette and ultimately how to apply all the said knowledges in magic, not only that, the mages will not be able to graduate if they are not able to have a straight, fluent conversation using the baybayin alphabet inside the school premises.

Their every words were recorded, and one slip up will deduct their chances of moving up, such ruthlessness is the reason of why the mages of Kamatayan is not only fast, but also capable of focusing on several tasks as one, and if that is not enough, all soldiers were trained so that their individuality will increase alongside their teamwork, they are the embodiment of bothersome opponents.

As Lyra waited for the unbearably spicy feeling in her eyes to subside, the frown she had been donning since the early rising action of the fight deepened.

_This won't do; those two couples have not targeted me as of now, yet I have a very bad feeling about them. If I don't disrupt their fusion, I will face danger to the point of dying._

Clara also remembered that the human summoner was being matched by several undead captains, something that the living captains cannot do, not just him, the other generals are also in difficult position, thus she have to win, if she did not and she dies, then their long range general will be gone alongside their assassin, making the fate of the remaining ones set in stone.

That won't do.

That will not please the king.

That will not make her see her beloved cadet again.

_I have to win._

Thought Clara, and as her eyes once again healed, they became filled with determination, ignoring the clotted blood that once seeped from her tear ducts, Clara put all of her fingers except the thumb into the bowstring, and as she did, three arrows made out of mana materialized. she then like before zoomed her vision, and as she did, she let go of the three mana arrows in her bowstring, causing a loud sonic boom to emanate out of the bow.

The attack this time is not straight or a predictable S, the three arrows dance with each other, and only when it reached 10 meters did the three arrows changed directions, one swerved above the head of Philo and Lyra, one went for their back and one went straight, as Clara's eyes blurred, and slowly closed, she cannot help but smirk, she is so sure that this attack will disorient the mages of the enemy, failing to protect their general.

She thought of this because, again, she uses their scholarly mages that struggle to fight one one-on-one with a goat as a reference of how mages should act. In a war, they rarely participate and provide one-directional offense or defense support; they are not versatile at all.

This philosophy would work if they are not enslaving their dark elven counterparts, but now, they have fallen to the point that they cannot be used as the standard of magicians, for the moment the arrows of Clara reached 3 meters of their target, the mages still stood calm as they responded in a discipline unbefitting of an unorganized bunch of eccentric scholars.

"Hurl captain up!"

The weaker ones said, injecting mini hurricanes that explodes sporadically to increase the altitude and power of the elevation, the said captain has already erected a barrier and just like that, alongside the captains that have readied their respective barriers, the mage captain's shield bashed with the arrow that they are opposing, causing fireworks-like light envelope the couple that is already a minute away from completing their synchrony.

As her eyes bled, Clara's teeth gritted against each other in disbelief.

_S-such discipline... they are surely trained to be used in war!_

This time, Clara started to feel cold sweat on her body. The dangerous feeling emanating from the two undeads she is feeling has breached the roof of her calmness, and indeed, she started to panic.

_What the fuck is wrong with these people!? Why are they so strong!? First someone in their peripheral city can defeat Sisa, and then someone killed the King of the Underworld and we can only fight in fear that the killer will descend upon the battlefield to end the war in utter defeat and thanked our gods that our lived are being prolonged, and now their mages can conjure magic to effectively block three projectiles that are punching through the air at the speed of sound!_

Clara's veins bulged as she lamented how ridiculous their opponents are, of course, as stated, they have an order to overestimate their opponents so as to not fall to their sly machinations, however, their overestimation is still in their set standard, because in their mind, their is nothing better than their own kingdoms, the humans and elves is thinking that their enemies can content with the top mages or top warriors.

They would have never thought that their opponents are league above their higher ups.

"I have to kill those two!"

Clara's intoxication flared up as she opened her eyes even though they are still bleeding and knocked her arrows, she zoomed her eyes and was once again shocked as she saw the mages of the enemy now erecting a 360 barrier, and as their confidence on it implies, it was as sturdy as the one they were previously using, but Clara clearly doesn't care about this as she materialized three arrows on her bow and then unleashed it immediately, after such, she did not close her eyes and then shot another arrow in the same direction, she bared the spicy feeling in her eyes, after all, such feeling is just temporary and can be healed, is she failed to kill these two, she will not only die, she will disappoint her king and she then will not be allowed to meet her beloved.

I will meet him!

I will meet him!

Even if I have to be blind for eternity!

I'm sure he won't mind!

In a flurry, Clara materialized three arrows, pulled the strings and released them, again and again as if there was no tomorrow, her eyes bleed as well as the hand of hers that is pulling the string continuously, yet there was still no crack from the shield nor anxiety from the ones inside it, thus she went on it faster, as if a stallion rutting as it desperately tried to find a mate.

Unknown to her, the skill that will bind Philo and Lyra only needed 5 seconds to fully happen, this time, only their faces are yet to merge, yet still again, it was only seconds away from completion and at this time, Clara just started to crack the shield, this made her ecstatic, yet this also made her not notice that her enemies now became one.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Clara cannot count how many times did she fired a shot, however, this time, she cannot help but kneel, two pair of the frontal part of her eyes dripped blood in the ground as her capillaries finally cannot take it anymore, they exploded because of the strain, it will take another 20 seconds before it fully healed.

_So... so sturdy... what the hell... are they smoking to be that strong...!_

Clara cannot help but lament, however, soon, she stood up, once again ready to stop her opponent, she was in a top of a hill kilometers away from the battlefield, and normally, she will not worry about being targeted, even the most long ranged archer of the enemy cannot reach her.

That's why it was so puzzling to Clara who is still had her eyes closed when an extreme existential dread course through her core, it was not even death, it was something worse, it feels like she will be eaten inside out, and that feeling came at her very front!

_The fusion is already successful!_

As Clara evaded by ducking, she still cannot help but curse, she have failed to stop the upgrade of the couple, yet she cannot think of anything at that moment, because the existential dread she have felt transferred to her carotid part, the same direction as the arrow that shot at her, in that instant, Clara's eyes recovered taking a glance at the arrow that sent chill through her spine, she regretted even looking at the arrow that is made out of still wet bone with flesh all over it, many are in the body of the arrow's point, but some are in it's shaft.

What makes Clara want to wretched is that the flesh are not just some normal ones, all of them have a single eyes that are scanning the surroundings and met gazes with her and seemingly locked her down, they also have mouth that are agape, even Clara who lived with flesh eating worms in her eyes in her early to middle life feels like vomiting, however, she still felt the crisis, thus she opted to force herself to run away from the arrow.

However, it seems like the arrow does not intend do make her escape, as the mouth of the flesh suddenly clamped down as they bloated alongside the arrow that is seemingly stunted in air and then exploded in all direction, including the upper back gear and nape of Clara, blood and flesh smothered her back as instinctive disgust welled up to her, it was a good thing that she was a soldier and occasionally got splattered with blood, so she did not vomit, however, she did not noticed the magic circle that appeared at her back.

Thus, she is stupefied when she heard a notification that spelled her doom.

[Notice: Effect of the [Artificial Hero Prospect Crystal] has been sealed, individual Clara Montague will lose her amplified mana, amplified constitution and minor debuff [Intoxicated].]

[Notice: Due to the artificial heart of individual Clara Montague being blocked of all it's functions, the individual will die in five minutes, alternative heart immediately required.]