Chapter 168: 3/5 Living Generals Remaining
Kabuto stared at the bloody green crystal in his hands, he realized how strong the crystal was as a bomb as his hair and clothes were being swept by the crystal that continued to bombard the place with pure mana.
_But I wonder if it of any use for my lady..._
Kabuto completely ignored the bellow of the living knights in front of him as well as the left part of his flank, which is caused by the fight between the living and the dead assassins happening a little bit in the edge of the main battlefield just 50 or so meters within the range of the undead marksmen, so the ones who wanted to avenge their general (who are mostly elven mage who are Simoun's admirers) that went in front were shot dead.
Thus the redundance if Kabuto paid them any mind.
As if on cue, a voice rang out on Kabuto's ears right after he thought of the possible utilities of the crystal.
[Nope, that product was never peer reviewed, the bombardment part is very inefficient and taxing to the user compared to the more gentle way our arc reactor lets the mana flow inside the body, there is also the problem that it has to be recharged or else it will stop functioning, the arc reactor, except for special circumstances crafted so that it will not be able to absorb mana from the environment has an infinite amount of gas... such are the reasons why is it not good to be a grenade, but you can use it this one time.]
Kabuto nodded, never questioning the superiority of his lady's creation, not only is she able to innovate such a product, she also strives for perfection that she allows the invention of the arc reactor an opinionated discussion between her and her scientists.
Such is how a leader should think.
_I see. How do I use it as one, then?_
Kabuto asked, to which [Guide] answered.
[Crack it a little, and then toss it; that should do the trick.]
Hearing that, Kabuto nodded and did what he was instructed to do, he banged the tip of his dagger into the crystal with moderate force and as he did, the said crystal immitted a very bright light, Kabuto calmly tossed it in the middle of the enemy lines, causing the knights to scramble in futility as the crystal's glow intensified until it exploded in an spectacle of flames and dust shooting up alongside knights with mangled, twisted or straight up ripped out bodies.
"Woah."
Kabuto was surprised, it was said by his lady herself that the arc reactor is a very powerful bomb, he wondered how powerful it really is if the inferior version can generate such great results.
Soon, however, Kabuto stopped his mulling as he sank into the shadow.
_In any case, only 3/5 of the living generals are alive._
_________
The one on one fight against the generals of the living and the dead is of course happening in an open battlefield with Clara being the one and only person out of sight, thus the soldiers is not aware that Clara was dead even though they have a hunch that she have escaped because the couple that targeted her stopped their shots already, however even then, when they saw the only person who can take the place of Sisa as the sneak attacker perish right before their eyes, they cannot help but falter, the knights and mages started to get pushed back, more so that the majority of the melee soldiers were humans and their king just stopped spouting lava and is presumably dead.
They cannot help but lose more morale that they already have so little inside them, yet of course the generals who saw such a spectacular scene of the wave of humans and elves suddenly stepping back and seemingly letting themselves be consumed by the blades of the undead will not allowed such a cowardly attitude, all of them bellowed orders at their back as they continued to fight their counterparts that are tasked to kill them.
"March forward!"
"This is no time to be faltering, this might be our last day of the war! Attack! Don't falter."
"We are still here! Our very own false prophet and King of Stardust Aerendil is on our side, fighting against the enemy leader with all his might!"
Hearing these encouragements and imagining the repercussions of the generals possibly misinterpreting their actions as desertion of duty, the humans and elves soldiers once again gained their footing, but the damage in their progress has already been done and the undeads were unwilling to let go of their charging momentum, thus a more bloody battle ensued between the living and the dead, seeing the morale being forcefully brought back to the soldiers, the generals, even though unbeknownst to them, heaved breaths of relief at the same time.
Morale is at least one of the things that is going in their favor temporarily, after unlike the normal soldiers, they were able to tell by instinct the situations of their fellow artificial hero prospect crystal bearer, and thus they are also the fate Clara have befallen.
In short, they knew that only three out of five living generals remained in the very first hour of the last day of the second elven undead war.
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The generals of the living that are fighting in the main battlefield are regretful that two of their members died, but to say that they are fearful of their adversaries out of a sudden would be ridiculous, not only are they confident on themselves, they are also intoxicated and thus can't weigh the situation properly. Besides, Clara and Simoun, the first two to die in the hands of the dead are the two weakest living generals, after some apprehension, the remaining tree that can be considered the higher brass of the living generals shook their death off as a natural course of events, and they can only swore that this time, the true big guns will take the center stage.
And indeed, the fights between the remaining living generals against their counterparts are riddled with excitement, soldiers from both sides have their moral raised as they saw their leaders go one on one, pound on pound against each other, the battle that claimed the life of Clara and Simoun lasted less than an hour, however, the remaining generals did not stopped after an hour, two and five hours have already passed, the generals and soldiers of the two warring sides did not rest nor did they noticed that the sun is already in the middle of the sky.
It was already noon, yet the next general that will disappear from the battlefield is yet to be decided.
However, in the middle part of the battlefield, two men entangled against each other can be seen, one sometimes transforms his whole body into a beast or a part of his limbs that also yields just a part of a certain monster, while the undead general... doesn't use any kind of unique skill or weapon familiars, just straight up hands. At first, the living general thought that the battle would be easy; after all, his opponent didn't have anything distinguishing him. he was just a normal soldier with a big body, and of how wrong he was? One can only judge by seeing how is their fight dragged on for five hours without a pause and his opponent not even faltering for a second to receive a blow that will force the opponent to enforce a run and gun tactic, all this while, the living and the dead is in an all out face to face tussle, Linares the Beastifying elven general cannot help but grit his teeth.
His opponent is not only a good user of several martial arts technique that is backed by his overly fit and resilient body, in Sophia's term, the undead goblin is her Might Guy, except the cause of his lack of magic techniques is because he refused to train and barely reached her standards to become a general, stupidly afraid that he will outshine his daughter.
Going back, Linares not only saw great skill from the man, he also saw determination, it was like a sinner trying to atone, it was like a blasphemer that will only be forgiven if he laid waste to his lord's enemies.
It made the living general wonder.
Though of course, Linares is not aware that his discerption is closer to the truth more than he have expected.
Bernardo, the father of Lyra, is the last of the first generation of main soldiers to have become a general.
In his career as a colonel of the young yet mighty army of the Kamatayan queendom, he sought the darkness, not wanting to use his natural acumen in martial arts that was given to him when he was bestowed newfound intelligence when he was resurrected after he failed to save his daughter from the child Sophia.
In that incident, it was evident just how much he dotes for his daughter Lyra, at an instinctive level, he have transversed the dangerous forest of the undeads that is teeming with monsters much stronger and smarter than him just so that he can find his missing daughter, thus when the Queendom was established, he tried his best to sideline himself partaking in normal missions of subduing orcs that resiliently terrorizes the normal undeads, it was enough for him to not stand out and steadily level up to what his current burly self have become rather than to blow the minds of the higher ups, in fear of overshadowing his daughter.
And only when the order to fight as general came and his lady personally visited him to give the order of not holding anything back did he have to question himself.
_Is holding myself back helping my daughter?_
Is congratulating her from the shadows as her achievements piled up while he continues to lead missions on killing random orcs the right thing to do?
Now that he thought about it, his lady Sophia personally visiting him to tell him about his new assignment might be a subtle hint of her encouragement and a little bit of frustration.
And if Sophia really intended to encourage her, Bernardo, upon seeing how Lyra fought someone way above her league with utter confidence and even more motivation despite being dissolved by her husband by doing so, finally realized his mistake all this time.
No one will benefit from a genius pretending to be a fool.
Bernardo, of course, never considered himself as one, but having the "Saint" in his martial arts skill proves otherwise.
Thus, the martial master of the dead decided to try his best, and indeed, he was not disappointed.
Bernardo panted, yes he did, a smile plastered on his face, his dead body circulating blood just for the sake of it heated up.
As he stared at his opponent who have a head of rhinoceros, hands of a tiger and the legs of a praying mantis who have become annoyed due to his inability to catch him off guard, Bernardo unconsciously smiled.
Nowhere in his mind were the shame of how bastardic his previous actions were, nor did he care about his surroundings in general.
He just wanted more.
Make me attack more.
Make me defend more.
Make me evade more.
Make me use my techniques more.
Fight me more.
Fight me more.
FIGHT! ME! MORE!
The feeble snicker in Bernardo grew louder and louder as Linares, hurled himself in front of his opponent, using his horn to puncture Bernardo's eye, however, with an audible laughter, the undead goblin bent his body, almost nonchalantly, he waited for a second until the chest of his opponent is visible before kicking the chimeric living general's stomach with all his might.
The eyes of Linares bulged out as he coughed out a mouthful of blood, and he reverted to his human form whilst shooting 25 meters into the air.
Linares is depressed, annoyed at his snickering opponent that now surely learned that he cannot become a single monster throughout the fight, he also conjectured that the damnable goblin also realized that he only have about 10 seconds in his every beast form, yet still, for his sister, he cannot be defeated, thus with a single spin, he stabilized himself, aimed his feat into his opponent that is staying still for some reason and then transformed himself into that of a golden harpy, the feet that is being aimed at Bernardo became half a meter talons and without hesitation, he descended down his opponent like a meteor.
And again, Bernardo stood still; gone was his shyness in getting into a good fight, for he knew that he had to show off in front of his lady, his colleagues, and his future son in law, also because it was fun.
"Why won't you fucking die!?"
Linares shouted as he swooped down, he clamped his talons as he descended, and to his surprise and delight, he felt flesh being punctured, causing him to look in mild anticipation at the dust-filled land caused by his descent, however, when it cleared, the first thing that he saw is the smirking mug of Bernardo that is already etched in his mind.
"I didn't receive such an order."