When the smoke had completely dissipated and visibility returned to normal, everyone could clearly see the figure of a massive wolf-like creature standing. The huge size of the creature, casting a looming shadow upon the ground. Meanwhile, beneath its gigantic feet were dead corpses of the Dementea archers.
The wolf was surrounded by dozens of Britannia's knights from all directions. However, the knights were the ones who were trembling in fear instead of the creature.
Then, in the middle of this tense situation, an arrow suddenly flew through the air and hit the wolf.
Everyone's eyes immediately turned toward the direction the arrow came from, and they all saw the culprit. It was the brave golden knight hailing from Dementae, Sir Galahad. The man was standing tall, though his body was slightly wobbly. His now tattered clothes were dyed red as blood from his wounds ran all over his body.
At the moment, he was still trying to pull the string of his bow in spite of his shakiness and gravely injured body. Even though his condition was awful, the man continued on his endeavor, as if he mustered all [Divine Power] buff he had into this one final shot.
But unfortunately..
CRACK!!
..The bow made a loud crack sound before it broke into pieces. The arrow, who had lost support, helplessly fell to the ground.
On the other hand, the wolf turned its head toward the golden knight who seemed to have only half of his life now. Its attention was fixed on Sir Galahad, completely ignoring the dozen knights around him.
The knights who were around Sir Galahad felt chill down their backs when the creature turned toward their direction, despite the fact it wasn't looking at them specifically.
Under the eyes of everyone on the scene, the wolf decided to pick up a boulder, or rather, a large stone that was once part of the wall in one hand and threw it toward the injured golden knight.
Its throw was so powerful that the boulder rapidly flew through the air, guaranteed to turn anyone it hit into a puree of broken bones and disfigured flesh. Everyone could only watch in horror as the boulder got closer to the golden knight.
Then, something unexpected happened. Just as the boulder carrying great momentum was about to hit the famous archer, a figure pushed him away from the side and saved the man at the last second.
Everyone whose mouths were literally gaping open immediately turned their heads to the savior.
"You've done enough, brave knight!" said the figure as he handed the heavily injured Galahad to the knights and ordered them to take the man to the rear. The figure then turned around, revealing its appearance. The ruler of the Logress Kingdom, King Arthur. "Gaious, take care of him!!"
While Sir Galahad was being carried back and cared for, Arthur turned his gaze towards the monster who was apparently staring at him.
The witch recognized Arthur, the man who stood in front of her. She remembered that the latter was close to that damned Emery. Hence, she immediately took action because she wanted to kill the man.
However, there were dozens of knights standing between her and Arthur. Even though they were scared and terrified, none of them dropped their weapon to the ground. It seemed they were ready to sacrifice themselves to battle her. Therefore, she decided to kill them all.
Splat!!
"My King!! Fall back!!"
Meave charged forward with only one goal in mind, reaching and killing Arthur. She killed every knight who was in her way without mercy, sending them flying away or straight into the ground.
In the end, Meave successfully rushed through the group of knights. And at this point, there was no one close enough nor strong enough to help Arthur.
Knowing that, he immediately braced himself. He planted his shield on the ground and put his entire weight on it, while preparing his mentality for an impact that could even destroy the thick outer wall.
Swwiisshhh!! Sounds of air being split could be heard faintly, as Meave ran at breakneck speed.
The knights who were trying to run to where Arthur was could only helplessly stretch out their arms as they watched the monster get closer to their ruler. They knew they were too late to do anything.
Fortunately, at the last moment before the collision happened, the wolf abruptly stopped in its tracks. Everyone was surprised and confused as to why, but their questions were quickly answered.
There, on the ground, they could see dozens of plant roots swirling on the wolf's legs and arms. The roots continued to creep upwards until they reached the latter's bdy.
Everyone wondered who could possibly be the one stopping the wolf when they suddenly saw a figure had unknowingly standing next to their king.
Arthur, who waited for the impact, was confused when he felt nothing happened. He then turned his head and saw a familiar figure next to him.
"Merlin!!"
"Sorry, I am late!" said Emery with a faint smile.
Feeling the restraint on herself, Meave immediately tried to break it by tearing all the roots apart. Unfortunately for her, Emery this time had much more confidence than before.
He raised both his arms where green and black glowing light could be seen. The two striking lights were quickly combined, and the brown roots with green leaves that wrapped around the wolf's body gradually turned pitch black with sharp thorns.
This was one of Emery's most mastered spells; something that he had practiced over and over with literal sweat and blood.
[Shadow Binding Root]
After he had successfully enlarged the channel between his dark core and nature core, Emery not only received a large 50 points increase in his spirit force. He also was finally able to combine the elements of his two cores, utilizing them to cast the combined spells that he never cast again after the situation with his core.
Of course, with his impressive 650 spirit force and the unhindered channeling of his nature spells, the might of the combined spell [Shadow Binding Root] he cast now was many times stronger than before.
The wolf, to be more precise, Meave was being held by more and more black roots with every passing second. The rate at which she destroyed roots was not comparable to the rate Emery produced them. Slowly but surely, she was pinned down to the ground.
Seeing that, Emery then shouted, "Clear the surrounding area! You all won't be able to fight this monster!!" Following his instruction, Arthur quickly ordered the knights to move away from the beast.
Then suddenly, Emery started to feel strong resistance coming from the witch. It was as if the other party's energy was building up, ready to explode.
At this time, the four Fey girls arrived on the scene and they quickly came to where Emery was.
"Brother! Let us help you!"
Even though Emery knew he needed help to handle the witch, the girls were simply still too weak to face this level of opponent. Therefore, he said, "Keep your distance from this place!"
The Fey sisters were dejected by Emery's rejection, but they still stopped in their tracks. They were about to retreat when something happened.
A loud howl suddenly came from the witch as she broke through the restraints imposed on her. Emery used this moment to rush and tackle the witch, quickly using the [Blink] spell to bring her away from this place as far and as soon as possible.
Alas, he only managed to bring her merely 10 meters outside of the gate. It certainly proved to be too difficult to move an unwilling individual, especially one as strong as Meave.
Meave in her wolf form once again fell into rage and ready to dash. Emery thought about transforming into his second transformation to handle the other party.
With his newly-improved stage 4 Fey Shaman, he might have the same strength with the other party which in turn would allow him to hold her down. Moreover, the [Beast Pendant] in his possession made him believe that he could control the second transformation enough not to kill those on his side.
However, the second transformation brought a rather severe drawback. In that state, Emery would lose his ability to cast spells. This was what made Emery hesitate. He felt it was such a shame, especially now, when he was utterly amazed by the spell strength displayed by his improved double cores.
Emery cast his [Shadow Binding Root] spell again, and immediately, numerous pitch-black roots rose from the ground and held down Meave's wolf form. But this time, it was only able to do its job for a second before the latter managed to break free again.
The truly enraged Meave let out a deafening howl as she utilized her speed to rush over Emery. She was certainly fast, but when her figure hit Emery's figure, she could only see his figure dissipated as Emery had secretly cast [Shadow Mist] to fool her.
Knowing that her sight was unreliable at the moment, Meave quickly used its sense of smell to chase after Emery. Unfortunately for her, Emery's 100+ battle power would surely make things harder than she thought.
Now that he had regained his ability to cast combined spells, Emery had recovered his confidence to defeat Meave in her wolf form. He just needed the best opportunity to finish this once and for all.
Fighting outside the walls made him realize that the undead were starting to appear around him and trying to enter the damaged part of the wall that Meave had caused.
Trying to help the knights as much as he could, Emery cast [Mud Wall] in the palace of the damaged section and the section was quickly covered by a wall made of dirt. While casting the spell, he also cast another [Shadow Binding Root] to stop the rampaging beast for a few seconds.
As Emery focused his attention on casting the [Shadow Binding Root] on one hand and [Mud Wall] on another, he suddenly discovered another epiphany and quickly stopped casting the [Mud Wall] spell.
This time, using both of his cores, Emery decided to cast a slightly different spell. A few seconds later, something seemed to rise from the ground. At first glance it looked like a stone wall, but upon closer inspection, one would find that it was not composed of ordinary stone. The wall was made up of shiny dark stones.
This was the result of Emery's spell.. He had just cast a new combined spell, [Granite Wall].