Free Web NovelThe Iron Legion tore through the Labyrinth's floors at high speed. Barely five hours had passed since the start of the full-scale advance, and the three main fronts were already closing in on their objectives almost simultaneously.
On the ninety-fifth floor, however, one of the groups ran into unexpected difficulties.
That front was led by Taes. At his side were Baron, the Red Ogre, and the Savage Emperor, Jaly. Together, the three of them led at least thirty other Legion warriors, and up to that point they had crushed everything in their path without much concern.
Taes, in particular, had faced no difficulty at all.
His fighting style was aggressive and versatile, one of the most troublesome to face among all the North Emperors in the entire world.
He fought with one long sword and one short sword, both magical weapons, and every movement he made seemed to carry more than one intention at once.
Each slash extended into wind blades that tore through entire corridors, or into barrages of flame that swallowed Trolls whole without him even needing to look twice to confirm the kill.
And whenever an especially powerful monster endured the first sequence, Taes simply finished the attack with Howling Magic and a direct strike to a fatal point.
It was no wonder he held fifth place among the Kings of Gaia.
While Taes advanced in such a flashy manner, his two sub-commanders were far more straightforward.
Jaly practically did not fight in any conventional way. He moved almost exclusively with Wild Light, vanishing and reappearing like a bolt of lightning, a blur of light cutting across the battlefield at such speed that, for most soldiers, it was impossible to even follow him with their eyes.
What remained in his path were enormous monsters already cut to pieces, taking a moment to realize they were dead.
Baron was the complete opposite.
There was no subtlety whatsoever in his movements. He simply crushed everything with overwhelming force, fully living up to the name he carried.
Every blow he threw was enough to break apart almost any opponent in direct combat. The ground cracked beneath his steps, the corridors trembled under his leaps, and anyone who saw him fight immediately understood why he had once been known as the Giant-Ripper.
So how did a group like this run into difficulty?
At first glance, it seemed unlikely, but it was real for two main reasons. The first was the Steel Trolls.
Sixteen S-Rank Trolls.
In a Labyrinth as dangerous as the Ever-White, that was not exactly absurd. In fact, it was more or less expected that groups like that would start appearing on the deeper floors.
Compared to the Three Great Labyrinths, that was still quite manageable, especially for a group like theirs.
After all, no matter how strong they were, they were still monsters, not intelligent warriors.
The problem was that those monsters were fighting like an organized army.
They did not advance chaotically and protected one another, surrounded, retreated, pressured the flanks, and tried to separate the Legion warriors from each other.
The second reason was the Ogre God Malta.
In that case, there really was not much to explain.
Ogres were already a race naturally inclined toward war from birth.
Being acknowledged as the God of that race was enough to make even members of the Seven Great Powers think twice before accepting a direct confrontation.
And Taes, who had just taken a single indirect punch from that titan, could attest to that better than anyone.
His body flew like a projectile.
He barely had time to cross his swords in front of his chest before he was hurled backward. His magic armor absorbed part of the impact, but even so, the blow broke through his guard, crushed the air out of his lungs, and slammed him into the cavern wall with a crash that echoed throughout the entire floor.
Stones exploded around him, and dust rose as cracks spread like black webs across the rock.
If not for the armor, even that casual punch would have turned his organs into an unrecognizable mass.
And that was considering Taes was a North Emperor.
But he was not fighting alone.
"UOOOOOAAAHHHH!"
Baron took advantage of the opening that very instant.
Leaping forward with the speed of a train, the Red Ogre hurled himself at Malta with brutal force. In midair, he twisted his body and landed a double flying kick straight into the giant's chest.
Baron was powerful. A direct blow like that normally would have sent almost any opponent flying away in pieces.
The shockwave spread at the moment of impact.
But Malta was dragged back only three meters.
Baron's eyes went wide.
"Huh?!"
Malta roared back, as if that only irritated him even more.
"STILL WEAK!"
In one motion, he grabbed Baron's leg before the smaller ogre could pull away.
Malta simply yanked his rival back and drove a downward punch into him.
In the next instant, a crater opened up.
The ground rose in enormous slabs, and the ceiling collapsed in several places. An entire row of pillars toppled, and the impact echoed across the whole floor.
Baron vanished for a moment beneath the cloud of rocks and debris.
Immediately afterward, a flash streaked past Malta's side.
By instinct, Malta covered his neck with his thick arms in an instant, and in the next moment, Jaly struck with his blade.
His Wild Light carved across the corridor in an instant. The blade crossed the Ogre God's arm and left behind a clean cut. It was not deep enough to go through him, such was the monstrous toughness of the Ogre God.
Even as a Beast and Sword Emperor, he could not cut through him.
Jaly was already far away when he cursed through clenched teeth.
"Damn it!"
He had to retreat at once to avoid the same fate as Baron.
In the middle of the dust, Baron lay on the ground, coughing up blood, his torso grotesquely caved in.
Even for an ogre, even for someone with a monstrous constitution, that was far too severe an injury.
Taes frowned when he saw it.
If even Baron had ended up in that state from a direct hit, then neither he nor Jaly could take Malta head-on. A single full-power strike would be enough to kill either of them.
As that thought crossed his mind, Taes opened his mouth and let out a roar without hesitation.
Howling Magic reverberated through the corridor.
The sound struck Malta for only a second, but that was enough to delay his movement and keep him from finishing Baron off.
Jaly seized that tiny opening, snatched Baron out of the impact zone, and dragged him back to Taes.
Taes already had a healing scroll in hand, and he activated it immediately.
An intense green light shone over the Red Ogre's body. Baron let out an involuntary growl as his bones began to reconnect, as the caved-in flesh returned to shape, as the internal bleeding was forcefully stabilized by magic.
The process was disturbing and brutal to watch.
Taes was left panting by the end, breaking into a cold sweat as he drank another Mana Potion, his second to last.
"I'm almost out of mana... how is this demon so strong?!"
Baron opened his eyes the instant the healing was complete.
"WAAAH! MALTAAAA! I'LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!"
Even though he had been on the verge of death only seconds earlier, he did not hesitate and charged again.
Taes felt a vein throb at his temple.
"Baron! Don't be insane! We have to wait for Aisha, just hold him off!"
That was a real problem. If Baron got smashed like that again, Taes might not have enough mana to heal him, and without healing, one more exchange like that could mean the end.
But Baron did not listen.
Or perhaps he heard and simply did not care.
He ran toward Malta as if there were no one else in the world.
And Malta, seeing him approach once more, did not show the slightest trace of sympathy either. An even louder roar shook the corridor.
"BARON STILL WEAK!"
Those two had history.
In their youth, Baron had been one of Malta's great rivals. When the struggle for the title of Ogre God arose, both of them stood among the leading contenders, alongside other powerful ogres.
It had been a fierce battle, one that decided the next generation and leadership of one of the most powerful races in the world.
That day, Malta defeated all of his opponents through absolute strength.
Baron lost.
And for those defeated in the struggle for the title of Ogre God, there were only two fates: die in battle... or live in exile.
Baron survived.
That was why he had been exiled.
He had lived through many things after that, crossed other paths, made other decisions, built another life on the Begaritt Continent.
Even so, that defeat had remained carved deep inside him, and it always would.
Maybe that was why he was charging in like this now.
Maybe he did not even know how to fight Malta any other way.
Taes and Jaly exchanged a glance for a moment and followed right behind him.
Around them, the rest of the Iron Legion fighters kept resisting and cutting down the Steel Trolls, but the process was far too slow.
Ahead, Baron had already leapt again.
Malta did not hold back either and jumped forward to meet him head-on.
And while Baron charged as if there were no tomorrow, Taes was already thinking of a strategy as he analyzed the battlefield.
The Steel Trolls were extremely durable, but that was not the real problem.
The problem was their coordination. Even the Iron Legion's elites were having trouble bringing them down quickly.
KRANG! KRAAANG! KRRRSHH!
All throughout the cavernous corridor, hammers, blades, and clubs clashed without pause. Sparks flew, chunks of rock scattered everywhere, monstrous grunts mixed with the Legion's roars, and above it all were Malta and Baron beating each other senseless as ogre tradition demanded.
BOOOOM!
Taes unleashed a Wind Blade toward the Ogre God just as Malta collided with Baron once again and sent him flying like a rag doll. Taes's magic was instant. A massive blade of wind ripped through the corridor in the blink of an eye, splitting floor and air alike in its path.
But it was not fast enough for Malta.
The titanic ogre leapt over the magic with both arms raised, ready to crush everything beneath him.
Taes shuddered.
Even though he had already witnessed that monster's strength several times during the fight, every new movement still felt unreal. He reinforced his legs with touki and escaped like lightning at the last instant.
DOOOOOOM!
Malta's blow struck the ground.
The explosion was so violent that Taes felt his eardrums throb. Stone caved in, the floor rose in slabs, and the shockwave caught him full in the side, hurling the North Emperor away once more as if he weighed nothing.
His body scraped across the rocky floor, gouging out a trench, until he managed to twist his swords and stop his own momentum.
On the other side, Baron, who was still in the air from the last blow, twisted his body and landed on all fours, dragging his feet across the ground.
In the very next second, he was already running again.
"UOOOOOOAAAHHHH!"
The Red Ogre's roar echoed through the corridors like thunder.
Even if the comparison diminished him, Baron was anything but weak.
Quite the opposite.
Baron was one of the most powerful ogres in history, a monster capable of tearing dragons and giants apart with his bare hands.
The problem was that Malta was simply far beyond the norm. If Baron could tear apart dragons, Malta could tear apart mountains.
And even so, an ogre like Baron would never retreat from battle.
In the struggle for the title of Ogre God, he had not retreated. Back then, he had only survived by pure luck. From the very beginning, in every important fight of his life, Baron had always charged forward with that same fierce momentum.
And now would be no different.
While Baron rushed toward Malta yet again, Jaly remained on the prowl, invisible amid rapid flashes of light.
A single blow from Malta would be enough to kill him. But the opposite was also true: if he could land a clean Wild Light on a vital point, he could finish the Ogre God right there.
The problem was landing it.
Taes pulled himself back up, saw Baron and Malta about to collide once more, and acted at that very instant. Without any chant, he sent mana coursing through the ground and activated Earth Magic beneath the titanic ogre's feet.
GRRRRROOOOMMMM!
The earth shook violently.
The stone beneath Malta gave way, shifting his footing for a brief, calculated instant. Just enough for the hammering punch he was throwing to slip off angle.
And that gave Baron the opening he needed.
BOOOM!
The Red Ogre's fist slammed squarely into Malta's face.
Another shockwave rang out.
The impact made the bones in Malta's face audibly tremble, and dark blood sprayed out. The damage was building up, even if only little by little.
But Malta once again showed why he was the Ogre God.
Even with his head snapped to the side, he simply jerked back like a beast and drove a short elbow into Baron.
Baron was sent flying again, spinning through the air before crashing into a block of stone and shattering it completely.
At that same moment, even with the ground still shaking like an earthquake, a ray of light passed behind Malta.
Once again, the Savage Emperor's blade cut.
The strike severed the tendon in the ogre's left leg.
"OOOAAAAAH!"
Malta roared in pain, his knee buckling from the completely torn tendon. Veins bulged in his neck as he smashed the ground in a fit of fury.
BOOOOM!
That destroyed the effect of Taes's seismic magic and sent debris flying everywhere. But Jaly was no longer there. The Savage Emperor had retreated almost in the same instant.
Taes smiled when he saw that and briefly pulled out the communicator.
There was a message from Aisha.
I'm two minutes away, hold on!
Even with his mana dropping back to critical levels, Taes felt more optimistic the moment he read that. Without hesitation, he pulled out his last Mana Potion and drank it whole. The bitter liquid went down burning, but soon a sense of vigor began flowing through his body again.
It was not much, but it was enough.
His long sword began to emit blue flames. The heat rose quickly, flickering across the metal, warping the air around the blade.
Taes drew in a deep breath, planted his feet firmly, and then charged forward like an incandescent comet toward the crater where Malta was still roaring and smashing everything around him.
That was when he sensed a new presence.
Even though he was not a tracking specialist, Taes was still a Beast Saint. If he felt it, then Jaly had probably sensed it first.
And indeed, emerging from the depths of the Labyrinth, walking slowly through the middle of the violent battle, was a red Troll.
Small by the standards of its race, somewhat scrawny and thin. freeweɓnøvel.com
Definitely very old.
It wore strange tribal garments covered in markings and dark ribbons, and in one hand it carried a staff as sinister and uncomfortable to look at as its own face.
Its wrinkled skin looked like dried leather, and one of its eyes was clouded and white. But the other one was shining.
Before Taes could react, Jaly was already rushing at the old Troll.
He shouted a warning.
Or at least, he tried to.
Taes saw it clearly.
He saw Jaly's mouth open, saw the muscles in his neck tense, even saw the air being expelled.
But no sound came out. A cold shiver ran down his spine.
In that moment, he suddenly realized that there was no longer any sound at all on that battlefield.
Nothing.
The whole world seemed to have been swallowed by an unnatural silence.
Taes could see everything happening.
He saw Baron screaming as he charged, but voiceless.
He saw Malta smashing the ground, opening his mouth in a soundless roar.
He saw the Steel Trolls colliding with the Legion soldiers in mute clashes.
And at the center of that silence, only one voice could be heard, a hoarse and deep voice.
"Curse of Muteness."
----
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