The Indomitable Martial King

Chapter 225

Russ blinked.

“Eldril Gigantus?”

If there was one thing Russ excelled at above all else, it was reading energy—a skill that surpassed even masters. This extraordinary sensory ability allowed him to exploit and steal techniques from others’ auras.

Through this sense, he examined the new armor before him…

“Nothing has changed at all.”

He couldn’t gauge magical output—he wasn’t a mage. However, he could sense the physical capabilities of Eusus that were enhanced by magic. Yet, Eusus’s current condition was identical to when he had worn the older magic armor, Eldrad.

“Are you sure about that?”

A smirk crossed Eusus’s lips as he stomped on the ground. Despite its bulky and cumbersome appearance, the heavy armor soared nimbly through the air.

For a moment, Russ was stunned. That stubby form moved surprisingly fast.

‘Huh?’

Eusus swung Eldran straight at Russ. Although taken aback, Russ calmly countered the attack with a sweep of his Blade Aura. He frowned. While it was impressive—bordering on miraculous—that Eusus could achieve such movement wearing that thick armor…

‘It still doesn’t feel any different from Eldrad.’

The movements, speed, and power behind the sword were all identical to the old Eldrad. So, what was this supposed new strength?

Russ pulled his sword back. He didn’t fully understand the situation, but this wasn’t the time to drag things out. He needed to finish this quickly and move on.

And when it came to swift resolution, a proven strike was always the best choice!

“Seven Stars!”

Seven streaks of light battered Eusus’s body. It seemed Eusus hadn’t gained any increased evasion abilities, as every strike landed cleanly. Russ snapped his fingers nonchalantly.

*Boom!*

An explosion erupted.

That was when Russ’s expression changed.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Amid the roar of the blast, Eusus laughed triumphantly. Chuckling, he shouted:

“The only reason I lost to you before was because Eldrad’s defense was too weak! Now, this new armor shields me! Your aura is no match for this invincible fortress!”

☆ ☆ ☆

The Guardian of Silver, Serelein, had modified the Berserker Armor to grant Stefan the power of aura. However, this approach was impossible for Eusus.

Eusus had been using Eldrad for decades and was intimately accustomed to it. Simply switching artifacts at this point wouldn’t immediately enhance his abilities. Moreover, the magic armor Eldrad was already a completed masterpiece, leaving little room for further improvement.

Thus, the Sage of Silver chose to enhance Eldrad not by modifying it, but by attaching reinforced parts to it.

Of course, there are clear limits to how much a human can be strengthened by magic. Eusus had already reached that limit. No amount of reinforcement could further increase his overall capabilities—speed, power, reflexes, or dynamic vision. He was already achieving peak efficiency with Eldrad.

However, there was one stat that could still be improved in his current state.

“Defense can always be strengthened further!”

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Eusus swung Eldran gleefully, each motion sending beams of Eldril’s light streaking toward Russ.

Dodging the attacks, Russ immediately launched a counteroffensive. Blue aura struck Eusus multiple times, again and again.

Yet Eusus remained completely unaffected, tanking every hit with his body while relentlessly unleashing Eldril’s light without pause.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Golden flashes tore through the plaza with destructive force. Evading the barrage, Russ ground his teeth in frustration.

‘Damn it…’

Eusus’s new magic armor, **Eldril Gigantus**, wasn’t just thicker than its predecessor.

If it were merely thick armor, no matter how impenetrable, the impacts would still transmit force to Eusus, inflicting some degree of damage. But some potent magic was clearly at work here—the armor absorbed every impact entirely before it could reach Eusus.

‘Even the joint seams are covered with something.’

Russ wasn’t a fool. Naturally, he aimed for the gaps between the armor’s joints. No matter how thick and strong the armor, the seams were bound to be weaker.

But this armor’s seams were wrapped in an unfamiliar material. Every time Russ stabbed his Blade Aura into those gaps, a strange elasticity neutralized the force, rendering his attacks ineffective.

“Roar, Eldran!”

Watching Russ scrambling to evade, Eusus grew even more aggressive, firing Eldril’s light continuously. At that moment, Russ realized that this magic armor offered more than just defense.

‘The destructive power is the same, but why isn’t the magic depleting? How many times has he fired already?’

Originally, the light of Eldril was the ultimate finishing move of the magic sword Eldran—a technique that concentrated all of the sword’s magic into a single devastating attack. It was meant to be used sparingly, once or twice at most, as a trump card. Yet now, Eusus was spamming it endlessly.

Despite having fired Eldril’s Light dozens of times, its power showed no sign of diminishing. While the spell itself couldn’t be altered to increase its output, the magic armor’s capacity to store mana had been vastly expanded.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Eusus’s maniacal laughter echoed across the battlefield as Eldril’s Light rained down on Russ like a storm. Eldrad was originally equipped with various magical techniques beyond Eldril’s Light, but Eusus didn’t bother with any of them. He relied solely on his indestructible armor, spamming the most powerful strike repeatedly.

Striking it was futile.

Getting hit meant certain doom.

And now, that ultimate attack was coming at him relentlessly.

Russ shuddered. Why did this feel so familiar?

“This is just like fighting Repenhardt-nim! I never thought someone like Eusus would resort to such a brute-force tactic.”

In truth, the strategy wasn’t Eusus’s idea. It was devised by Teslon, the legitimate successor of **Gym Unbreakable**.

As he continued dodging Eusus’s onslaught, Russ cast a glance to the side.

Malroid was fiercely battling against five Zeppelin Knights, holding his ground with difficulty. The dwarf warriors under his command were also locked in combat with the knights of Chatan, protecting the runaway slaves. Though they fought valiantly, it was clear the situation wouldn’t be resolved easily.

This was bad.

Time was running out.

For reasons unknown, reinforcements had been delayed, giving them some breathing room. But that delay wouldn’t last forever. Russ needed to get everyone out of Zeppelin as quickly as possible.

Feeling the pressure mount, Russ swallowed hard.

‘Damn it, what should I do?’

—

* * *

Leading the runaway slaves, Kadamyte headed toward western Zeppelin.

By sheer luck, he hadn’t been ambushed by the Zeppelin Knights like the others. The knights assigned to that region had scurried off to protect a trading company that had bribed them—a plan set in motion by Karl. Even the elite Zeppelin Knights weren’t immune to his preemptive measures.

The knights who confronted Hadatoum, Russ, and Malroid were comparatively more upright. They ignored bribes and carried out their orders. Well, to be exact, they had taken the bribes but chose to disregard them due to the gravity of the situation.

Not all Zeppelin Knights had responded promptly. At best, only about half had acted on time. Still, given their reputation as the duchy’s elite force, having even half respond was an achievement. Within the principality of Chatan, this level of discipline was considered remarkably clean.

Thanks to this, Kadamyte was able to follow the operation without much trouble, unlike the others. After swiftly cutting down a few Chatan knights blocking his path, he kept running, eventually reaching the rendezvous point at Zeppelin’s western gate on time.

As he approached the city gates, he spotted another group of runaway slaves rushing in from the opposite side of the street. At the forefront were two elven women. Waving his hand, Kadamyte called out.

“Oh! Siris! Iniya! You’ve made it safely!”

Iniya glided effortlessly along the road to Kadamyte’s side. She spoke as she came to a halt.

“There were a few interruptions along the way, but nothing major.”

“The same goes for me,” Kadamyte replied.

Iniya tilted her head curiously.

“Still, those were strange opponents. They boasted about reinforcements arriving, so I was on edge at first, but nothing happened.”

“Same here. They made it seem like an Aura User would appear, but it turned out to be nothing.”

Nodding, Kadamyte agreed with Iniya. Though they had reached the rendezvous safely, the initial encounter had made his heart sink.

“They seemed to be onto us to some extent, but what could have happened…?”

“Exactly. I was sure we had walked right into a trap.”

Kadamyte and Iniya exchanged puzzled glances.

How could the enemy, who had apparently seen through their plans in advance, be so poorly prepared? Neither Kadamyte nor Iniya, unaware of Karl’s preemptive machinations, could comprehend the strange turn of events.

“Anyway, let’s get out of here quickly!”

“Agreed!”

Kadamyte and Iniya sprinted toward the western gate of Zeppelin. Though the gates were firmly shut, breaking through them was a trivial task for two Aura Users. While the city’s gates were heavily fortified with advanced defensive spells befitting a national capital, these enchantments required mages to activate them in wartime. In their inactive state, the gates were nothing more than thick wooden barriers.

Eyeing the gates, Kadamyte shouted the name of his treasured weapon.

“Haltorn!”

Iniya drew her sleek rapier from its sheath. Together, they slashed at the gates with all their might.

“Haaah!”

“Tear up!”

Two streams of Blade Aura—one silver, the other crimson—sliced through the air with overwhelming force. The terrifyingly destructive power of their strikes surged toward the gate in a blinding flash.

Just as the impact was about to land—

*Boom!*

With a thunderous roar, a sickly yellow flash intercepted the attack.

The swirling yellow aura deflected Iniya and Kadamyte’s Blade Auras, forcing their trajectories astray. Each Aura strike veered off course, slamming into the city walls to the left and right, resulting in powerful explosions.

“Huh?”

“What’s this?”

Iniya and Kadamyte tensed, turning their attention toward the gate. The walls, now partially melted, emitted black smoke that curled into the air.

From within the smoke, a powerful energy emerged, one that hadn’t been detectable just moments earlier. Iniya frowned, raising her rapier to chest height as she clicked her tongue.

“It’s an Aura User. They must have been concealing their energy…”

Adjusting his grip on his axe spear, Kadamyte grumbled under his breath.

“Tch, no wonder everything seemed to be going so smoothly.”

Through the smoke, a figure slowly came into view—a young man with black hair and strikingly handsome features. His sword shimmered with a yellow Blade Aura that writhed like a living flame.

The young man stepped forward, blocking the gate, and muttered to himself.

“Damn it. What’s the point of coming up with a plan if no one follows orders? Everything’s gone sideways because of this mess.”

At the sight of the young man’s face, Siris gasped and murmured in surprise.

“Ah, that’s…!”

Suddenly, the young man looked up and shouted toward the top of the wall.

“Philena! Surround them!”

A clear voice rang out in reply from above.

“Got it, Teslon!”

The sound of incantations followed. The air rippled with magical energy, the fixed mana around them distorting and reconfiguring into a new form.

“Hast Pen Grede Pantera, redden the skies, blacken the earth, and seal the heavens with a crimson veil…”

As she chanted, Philena pointed her crimson staff toward the ground. With her final words, the spell was unleashed.

“Fire Wall!”

Walls of flame roared to life, encircling the runaway slaves on both sides. The oppressive heat caused the slaves to panic, their shouts filling the air.

“Ahhh!”

“It’s so hot!”

“Get back!”

Chaos erupted as the runaway slaves panicked, scattering in all directions. Despite their yearning for freedom, they were an untrained, disorganized mob.

Siris and the other non-human warriors from the Duchy of Antares shouted desperately, trying to restore order.

“Everyone, stay calm! Losing formation will only lead to greater harm!”

“Don’t break ranks!”

“Block the heat with spirit magic!”

Meanwhile, the wall of flames continued to expand. The massive barrier of fire stretched wider and wider, eventually encircling nearly a thousand runaway slaves completely.

Summoning water spirits to shield against the heat, Siris muttered in shock.

“My goodness, how is this Fire Wall so long?”

Fire Wall was originally a 5th-circle flame barrier spell, typically forming a wall of fire about 5 meters high and 20 meters long in front of the caster.

But this Fire Wall was nothing like the standard version. It extended to an incredible length of nearly 150 meters, surrounding the slaves from all sides, including the rear. For a flame barrier of this scale, the amount of mana required must have been staggering.

Gazing up at Philena, the female mage standing on the city wall, Siris wore an expression of disbelief.

‘Is that woman truly such a powerful mage?’