Chapter 41: Reunion in the Forest

  Seirei no Mori, located southeast of the trading city of Fedak, is an ancient forest that has stood for a very long time. The scenery inside is beautiful, with towering trees and many wild animals living within. However, the originally peaceful and serene environment of the ancient forest has been disrupted by the sound of intense fighting echoing through it.

  To thwart the ambitions of the fairy king to dominate the continent of Falucion. As mercenaries, Leonhard and the half-beastman Goh, Princess Tiana of the fallen Lars Empire, her guardian Hanks, the beast warrior Howl from Winglo, the Wyvernian outlawed by his own country, Lute, the former Four Demon Generals' black fairy Krotte, the elf Shiera, and the strange creature Gururu, each with their own reasons, have gathered together and are advancing towards the capital of the Republic of Vosfita, Fidac.

  However, what they didn't expect was that when Leonard and his group broke through the layers of obstacles and arrived at the Sacred Spirit Forest not far from the trading city of Fidac, they were intercepted by the Four Demon Generals who had been blocking their way, and were trapped in this forest.

  This time, the person leading the siege is the beastman general Ao, who has the highest martial arts skills among the four demon generals. He brought a large group of magic and martial arts practitioners, the Demon Knights, to eliminate Leonnard and his party, rather than the usual Beastmen warriors.

  Leonard and Tina were in a precarious situation, as the opposing forces this time were all elite troops of the old demon king. It seemed that he had made up his mind to annihilate everyone here.

  "Ha ha ha ha, look at you all now, where can you escape to this time? Especially you, Krotti, you traitor among the Four Demon Generals, today is your day of death!"

  Kroti looked at Ao with disdain and said in a cold voice, "Ao, it's not that I underestimated you, but just because you're a demon general and have those demon knights behind you, you think you can kill me? You're being too arrogant."

  With a large battle-axe in hand, he loudly roared with confidence: "I'm arrogant because I have the capital to be! As for you, Leonhard, do you think that with just these few people, you can resist the great Demon King? It's truly an absurd idea. I think it would be better for you all to die here after all, the scenery of the Sacred Spirit Forest is quite beautiful and suitable for your burial!"

  Leonard pointed the large sword in his hand directly at them, smiling with his usual careless tone: "You'd better shut up. If you like the scenery here, I don't mind burying you and that group of iron-skinned men behind you after we've killed you all. Don't worry, I'll choose a good spot for you."

  The arrogant general, not good with words, swung his large axe at Reynard and the others, coldly laughing: "You're so tough now, but just wait and see your expression when you're cut down by my army. Magic Knight, give me a merciless kill!"

  A group of demonic knights launched a fierce and merciless attack on Leonhard's party as soon as they received the order.

  The Demon Knights were indeed the elite forces secretly formed by the Fairy King, with extremely strong tactical skills. They did not take advantage of their numerical superiority to launch a pincer attack, but instead immediately divided into two parts. One group of Demon Knights wielded large swords and quickly followed Ao to kill Leonard's group, engaging in close combat.

  While another part of the Demon Knights were in the rear, using their magic to assist on the battlefield. They used two state magic spells, Scorching Wave and Earth Guardian, to increase the attack power and defense of the proud knights at the front line and those engaging in close combat, greatly increasing their allies' ability to attack and defend. At the same time, they continuously released Seal Magic Destruction towards Leonhard's side, suppressing the mages on their team and not giving them any chance to use large-scale powerful magic spells.

  For a time, both sides were unable to gain the upper hand, and Gruer, who was originally responsible for protecting Shera and Tina, who had relatively weak close combat abilities in the party, transformed into a demon and engaged in an intense battle with five or six demon knights.

  At this time, Tina, who was behind Gulu as a sacrifice, also released the recovery magic and status buff magic in her hand without hesitation to her own personnel, trying to strengthen their combat effectiveness.

  And although as a magician, Sheila's powerful magic was suppressed by the Magic Knights' continuous release of Seal and Annihilation due to its long preparation time, she still managed to use various mid-to-low level magics that could be released quickly to support Reynard and others who were fighting hard in the front.

  As a Winged person, Laito was also relying on his own flying advantage, constantly using wind magic to attack the Mages Knights below from the air.

  Although the cooperation between Leonard and others was perfect, it was clear that their situation was getting worse and worse. The number of demon knights was too large, they had just defeated a few and more appeared. His physical strength and magic were being consumed rapidly.

  As the divine archer, Hua shouted loudly to Reinhardt after continuously using his powerful special moves to knock down several dark knights who were surrounding him: "Reinhardt, this won't work, there are too many of them! If we want to win, it's only possible with Sheila's powerful magic. But Sheila is currently being suppressed by the magic of those few dark knights in the distance, they must be taken out first."

  "Alright, I'll cover you, Hankes! You coordinate with Hua's actions!" Reynold shouted loudly after unleashing a special skill, Thunderbolt Slash, to drive away Ao and several magic knights who were entangling him.

  The assassin, Hanks, who was utilizing his speed advantage to dance around the Dark Knights, immediately abandoned his opponent and wordlessly charged towards the several Dark Knights who were releasing magic. Due to his lightning-fast speed, for a moment the several Dark Knights he was engaging did not react in time, and their target had already left.

  Just as the demon knights were about to strike Hank, a powerful seismic wave suddenly came towards them. The group of demon knights and several other demon knights who were fighting against Lute were knocked to the ground together.

  At this time, the Berserker's battle-axe was still pointing at the ground, and he was panting heavily. The ground in front of him, which had stretched out before him, was now a complete mess. Just now, he had seen Hanks being chased by the Demon Knight, so he immediately launched his ultimate skill, forcibly shaking the enemy over a large area.

  Those mages who were casting magic attacks, seeing Hanks and Kyouya quickly closing in on them while constantly sniping at them from a distance, immediately split into two groups of mages to intercept the duo.

  Just as the remaining demon knights were about to use magic to suppress Shera, a large number of lightning bolts suddenly fell from the sky, accurately hitting them who were completely unguarded.

  A powerful lightning bolt struck down all the demon knights in an instant, facing this sudden change. The two groups of people who were fighting to the death on the spot felt extremely unexpected.

  They didn't think that they, who were already surrounded by their own army, would still have other reinforcements to help them. The lightning strike that just knocked down the dark knight was absolutely a high-level wind magic in terms of its power. Otherwise, it would be impossible to take down such a powerful dark knight with one hit.

  Leonard and his group, on the other hand, were extremely puzzled as to why someone would suddenly lend them a helping hand. After all, they were a group of people wanted by the Republic of Vorsicht, and it was unthinkable that anyone would risk offending the strongest nation on the continent for their sake.

  At this time, the lightning in the sky was still falling continuously, with extremely precise attacks constantly hitting the demon knights on the scene, causing the opponent's formation to be greatly disrupted, and the personnel losses were also increasing continuously.

  And at this time, a burst of magic missiles suddenly shot out from the forest, constantly attacking the remaining demon knights. All the demon knights who were hit by those magic missiles were knocked to the ground without exception, and their hard armor began to be completely deformed by the powerful impact.

  Leonard and the others would not let go of this great opportunity, so they launched a full-scale counterattack against the remaining demon knights with one breath. The arrogant side that was suddenly attacked was greatly reduced in morale and began to show signs of withdrawal without fighting back.

  He saw that the current situation was already out of control, and he immediately prepared to retreat. The opponent obviously had two powerful mages lurking in the dark, while his own demon knights had suffered heavy casualties under the opponent's continuous magic attacks and counterattacks from people like Leonhard. This battle was no longer worth fighting, and the first priority for their side was how to safely retreat.

  Although the proud and arrogant man was preparing to retreat with his remaining demon knights, who had lost all will to fight, this did not mean that Leonhard and the others would let them off so easily. Just a moment ago, they were desperately attacking him, now it was time for him and his companions to take their revenge.

  At this time, as a magician, Cilla began to launch powerful magic attacks against the proud and remaining demon knights who were retreating. For a while, the enemy suffered heavy casualties in the face of these large-scale lethal magic.

  Leonard and Hound, two powerful warriors, also caught up with Proud, one of the Four Demon Generals, a beast tribe demon general, who saw that retreat was hopeless and went all out to launch a desperate counterattack against the surrounding crowd.

  Facing this demonic general who had already started to go berserk, Reona and Hauru were temporarily unable to knock him down. Just as Kuroti was about to join the battle circle surrounding Gao, two strangely-shaped long swords suddenly appeared out of thin air behind him, striking his body with lightning speed.

  As the blood continued to gush out, the beastman general, who had been through a hundred battles under the command of this proud fairy king, stared at the two sharp swords protruding from his chest in utter disbelief. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, he finally fell to the ground with an extremely reluctant gaze.

  Leonard and the others were on high alert in the face of this sudden situation. So far, they had not yet discovered that the person who had instantly killed the proud demon general was still around.

  It's clear that the four demon generals under the Fairy King are not to be underestimated, but the opponent can still instantly take down the powerful Ao in a sneak attack. Now, however, no one has any idea where the opponent is, which is really too frightening.

  Just as everyone was on guard around them, a person wearing strange black armor slowly appeared in front of them from the forest.

  He simply glanced at them and walked to the proud corpse, casually pulling out the two long swords stuck in the body. Then he turned his head again, quietly staring at them without speaking. However, just by standing there, he gave everyone a very strong sense of oppression.

  Just as Leonhard was about to ask the other party, another footstep came from the forest behind them. A beautiful woman in red appeared in front of everyone soon after. At this time, Tina saw the appearance of the man and woman clearly, and immediately thought of something. Just as she was about to speak, a familiar voice suddenly came from the air.

  Xia Lin's elegant figure slowly descended from the air and appeared in front of everyone. She looked at Tiana with a faint smile and said, "Little princess, it's been a long time since we last met. How have you been lately?"

  Tina saw the raven-haired beauty speaking to her and immediately recalled that this beautiful woman was one of the three mysterious people she had met when escaping from the Kingdom of Fidac a year ago, along with the man wearing a strange helmet who had just assassinated Ao, and the red-clothed beauty. She never thought they would meet again here, so she smiled and said: "Sister, I didn't expect that we would meet again after a year. You've helped me once more, thank you so much."

  As Tina was about to walk over and greet them, Hanks, who was loyal and protective of his master, hastily stepped forward and said seriously: "Your Highness, these people have an unknown background, please be careful!"

  At this time, Mu Chen Xing, who was holding two swords, smiled faintly on his face under the helmet after hearing Hank's worried words. With their current strength, if they were to attack, he believed that the already very tired crowd present would not be their opponents at all. He began walking towards Xia Lin Yue.

  As he saw the figure of Dust Star walking towards him, Leonaard, who was already extremely cautious, immediately gripped his sword tightly in his hand. His special intuition, which had been tempered through trials and tribulations, told him that the person in front of him, wearing a helmet and armor emitting a dark aura, was absolutely an expert, and gave off an extremely dangerous feeling.

  Huo's body was Leonard's old comrade-in-arms, of course, and he cooperated with the other party very well. At this time, the bow and arrow in his hand had already been prepared, and he could attack the enemy at any time.

  As a warrior, Hwoarang also sensed that the atmosphere at the scene was not quite right, but he didn't overreact like Ryoana.

  As a demonic swordsman, Krotti gazed at the person wearing dark armor in front of him, his hand on his weapon seeming to hesitate. Meanwhile, Rait and Shera curiously observed these people who had lent them a helping hand.