"Retreat! Retreat to the castle!"
By the time the order was given, the sun had already fallen and the dusk had taken its place.
Following Arthur's command, almost 5,000 men promptly began to move back in order. The living corpses came chasing. Although the dead were able to run, they still could not catch up with the knights.
"Emery, I will stay and help you," Arthur said with determination.
"As will I!"
"And I!"
One by one, the members of the Golden Knights followed suit to volunteer. Emery was a bit moved to see this, but in the end, he shook his head.
"The one I will be fighting is the witch. I am sorry, but none of you are her match. I am not sure how long I will be fighting the witch, so your men will need all of you to defend Camelot in the meantime," Emery regrettably explained.
He also left the fey sisters. Although it was unfortunate, he could not deny the fact that Meave was far too strong for them to handle. Not to mention, them being there when he would need to solely focus on taking her down would only burden him as he would need to also focus on their safety.
Emery then turned his gaze across the swarm of living corpses and focused on the woman that was standing at the end of them all.
With his enhanced senses, Emery could see that the woman was taunting him to come at her.
"You should all leave now!" Emery shouted to the knights, as he went down the hill toward the approaching swarm.
Although he could just use the spatial gate to teleport himself to the witch, Emery believed it was better to be careful in case there were hidden traps waiting for him there and decided to approach them head-on step by step.
Roaaaarrrr!!!
Half a dozen living corpses charged at him altogether. Unfazed, Emery simply cast one of the skills he had not used for a while.
He focused his 600 spirit force into his palm and, without delay, a large amount of water gathered above it, swirling fiercely. He quickly launched the swirling water with his perfect tier 2 spell, [Steam Lance].
This was one of the few tier 2 nature spells in his pocket that were available since his nature core evolved to stage two.
When he launched the spells along with the water, Emery could feel a very strong current flowing from his nature core, briskly rising through those spells.
What was supposed to be water spears began turning into huge waves rapidly thrusting forward, crushing every living corpse in its way. The crash of the waves cleared the way until about 100 meters forward, creating a two-meter-wide path for him.
With just that one wave of spells, dozens of living corpses were immediately wiped out.
Not wanting to waste any time, Emery sped up his pace, quickly running through the path toward his target.
When the remaining living corpses began blocking his path once again, instead of dodging, Emery raised his arms and cast [Entangled] with his maximum spirit force.
As he cast the tier 1 spell, he could feel the same thing happening to his nature core, it began beating with power, allowing him to raise more than two dozen roots at the same time.
It quickly swirled all the living corpses in the vicinity and, with his grasp, Emery tightened the roots entangling them, crushing their bones and skulls to pieces.
Within seconds, Emery was already halfway through the horde of corpses.
He then finished his last sprint, casting two [Enfeebling Blades]. Shadows formed on each of his palms and, with a slight rotation, two shadow blades were created.
He threw both of his blades to the hordes in front of him, splitting their bodies apart and creating two lines of blood paths.
The enfeebling blades became wider and flew further even after it had hit a few corpses.
But just as the blades closed in on their target, two identical blades were thrown from the opposite sides, hitting his blades in turn.
The blades from both sides were simultaneously destroyed to pieces by the impact.
The result of the clash could only mean one thing: they had same level of power.
At the same time the blades broke, Emery finally arrived a few meters in front of the figure who threw the opposing shadow blades.
It was a woman of Norgales royalty.
Even so, judging from the smell coming from the woman, Emery could tell that it was indeed the witch, Meave.
Her shapeshifting into a member of the Norgales royalty could only mean she had already killed that person and took control of all the Norgales troops.
"We meet again, my young Emery," the woman greeted with a faint smile. As she said those words, her face slowly distorted, turning to the face he was familiar with.
Emery scrutinized his surroundings, as he briefly checked the situation behind him, he realized all the moving corpses had stopped chasing him. To his surprise, the whole horde was moving toward Camelot.
According to his calculations, he probably had about an hour or two before those walking corpses finally reached Camelot.
He did not have much time.
Looking back to Meave's direction, he also saw an unfamiliar figure standing most far behind her. It was a figure in a black cape and a mask with deer horns.
Through his spirit reading, Emery could sense that the man who seemed to be a shaman was quite strong. If his judgment served him right, the figure should be at least at rank 5, perhaps even rank 6 or 7. He could not exactly pinpoint the reason, but he felt that there was something out of place about the figure.
Noticing Emery's gaze, the witch said in a playful tone, "Don't mind him, young Emery, just focus on me…"
Emery looked at Meave with a sharp glare. He still could not forget how the granny killed Lanzo and the rest of Mitshire Villagers, and now, she was responsible for the bloody battlefield of today.
Although the witch was surprised by his glare, she was in no way intimidated. Instead, his smile deepened after the brief moment of surprise.
"Oh my, look at what you've become, my young Emery! You've already grown so much, you've even become a great wizard!" Meave happily expressed.
Although her face was full of smiles, Emery could tell she was mocking him.
Still composed, Emery questioned the witch, "Why are you doing this? What are you trying to achieve?"
The serious look in his eyes amused the woman so much she could not help but laugh. Her eyes were still filled with smiles, as she lightly asked back,
"Why? Is there anything more beautiful than total chaos? Not to mention, it's to the people of Britannia!"
Her manner of answering as if it was obvious took him aback. She spoke as if it was normal, as if it was only right.
Lunatic.
How did he fail to see this side of hers before when it seemed so obvious now?
Clenching his fists, Emery resolutely said, "I will stop you today, but first... tell me, where is Morgana!?"
"Hahahaha!" The witch tried to hold her laugh, but to little avail. In the end, she let out an even louder laugh before slightly calming down. "She is no longer of your concern, young Emery. She is now mine, in my good care."
"I don't believe you!!"
Upon hearing that, Meave's laid-back smile disappeared, replaced with a slight frown.
"Well, it doesn't really matter, since you're not going to be alive to see her!"
As she said those words, she raised the black wooden staff in her hand. The pattern on the staff brightly glowed and suddenly, Emrery could see the staff appear to pull some energy out of the dozens of corpses and, in turn, dust of a different glow entered their bodies.
A few seconds after that, the bodies started to twitch and slowly rose. From his position, Emery could see that following the few, dozens more of them stood up.
"What do you think about my new spells, young Emery? Aren't they beautiful? Those people blindly follow orders without a second thought, and because of that, they've become fuel of my power" Stupid, aren't they?"
Although Meave's words were taunting, Emery's attention was on the rising corpses.
He had read about reanimating spells before. They were all high-level spells.
These new spells, the strange staff, as well as the fact that her enfeebling blades were able to match his truly bewildered him.
Although Emery's blades had passed through a few bodies before they clashed against hers, the last time his enfeebling blades went against hers, Emery was still at rank 7. But now, his spirit force had far surpassed rank 8 and perhaps even rank 9, and yet...
How much stronger has she become? How?