They had a big problem on their hands and not a single solution. Even if they join their forces, alongside with the dragons, Ryan doubted that they would be able to concentrate a powerful attack that would be enough to put the barrier down and at least half of the Dark Knights. Unless…

"Have you guys used those weird skills against them before? Draconic Lance or Draconic Bow?" Ryan asked the pendragons that joined the army recently.

​​

"We use it pretty much every time when things get dicey."

 After hearing that, it became evident that Hephaestus erected the barrier thinking about those powerful skills. If the dragons use that technique at the same time, Tyr and Hephaestus won't have time to react, so it was the best way to cause a lot of damage. However, they won't have enough mana to fight for a while.

"Did you guys have any mithril?" Ryan asked.

"No, we only had a reserve because our opponents were relatively weak," Nakine replied. "The other tribes couldn't afford to store it since they had to fight with their lives on the line. Do you want use to eat mithril to recover the mana? We can always recover the fragments that will be left once we kill the dark knights."

"What if they are expecting this as well?" Ryan asked. "We can't risk it… Oh, well, I guess I will have to share mine with you guys."

 Ryan didn't even have time to create a decent weapon made of mithril, and now he was forced to give them his payment for that kind of job. It was a pity, but if the plan works, Ryan will be able to recover some of his investment… probably. As soon as Ryan began to distribute the mithril, they noticed that things were changing inside the barrier. At least half of the Dark Knights were flying toward them. Tyr and Hephaestus noticed what Ryan was doing…

"Just share it among yourselves," Ryan said and then took out half of his mithril. "Let's get going, we can't let Tyr and Hephaestus attack the chimeras."

 Femradiel and Alissa nodded. They quickly flew to the sky and prepared to attack the Dark Knights, but then Tyr flew toward them, and at the same time, a rain of swords fell over their bodies… that was probably Hephaestus's action. At first, they ignored the swords, but then when the first one easily pierced their scales and wounded their bodies, they noticed that it wasn't a good idea.

"I can't stop the swords, they are special and can cut flesh and ice like butter," Femradiel said after she tried to shield Ryan and Alissa with ice magic.

 Hephaestus stayed inside the barrier, and Tyr didn't hesitate in closing up. Considering what they were doing, they wanted to make Ryan and the others worry about the swords falling on them while Tyr attacked them from below. Even by fighting alone, he would have some leeway against three enemies. Ryan tried to grab the swords and then store them in his spatial storage, but then he learned that it wasn't possible. They disappeared after a while.

 Before they could come up with a solution, Alissa and Tyr collided against each other. Since Tyr was on his normal size, their strengths were equal, but then Alissa lost her focus when some swords pierced her back.

"Go offer her a hand, I will deal with the swords," Ryan said.

"All right," Femradiel said, and they jumped from Ryan's back to Alissa's.

 In just a few minutes, Ryan tried several ways to stop the rain of swords, he tried to attack them with Power of Money and even Mana Arrows, but nothing worked. When he tried to create an iron shield, the swords easily pierced it. As expected of the Greek god of blacksmithing, he sure knew how to forge some annoying weapons.

 Ryan blocked with his own body some swords that were about to fall on Alissa and Femradiel. Thanks to it, he noticed that each sword only pierced his body up to a certain extent. That was weird… Hephaestus' skills probably had some sort of trick. But before Ryan could figure it out, he heard some explosions coming from below. The Chimeras and the Dark Knights finally were fighting, and just as expected, the Dark Knights were easily winning the fight. However, Nakine and the others bombarded the enemies with Draconic Warriors. Each time a Draconic Arrow hit an enemy, it would explode, and at least fifty Dark Knights would disappear… It was a pretty decent number, but not enough. If each of the five hundred dragons takes down fifty enemies like that, they will kill only twenty-five thousand of enemies.

Congratulations! The skill Pain Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Pain Immunity has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

"I don't have time to worry about them…" Ryan muttered in pain as the swords fell on his back.

 Femradiel and Alissa were trying to speed up the fight since they knew what Ryan was doing, but in the end, Tyr was getting stronger thanks to that. Once Ryan got used to the pain, his mind began to work again. It was the first time he had to face such a weird attack, but he understood before plenty of others that were equally hard to understand. He didn't find a solution to cancel the attack. Still, he found a way to make the enemy suffer the same pain... by using Vengeful Explosion.

 Ryan redirected the damage he felt back to Hephaestus, but the barrier protected him. Still, the barrier trembled since the damage of his attack wasn't something to laugh at. While that wasn't making Ryan suffer any less, perhaps it would be enough to destroy the barrier before Tyr falls. That being said, Ryan had been fighting for far too long to think that things would go that smoothly.

Congratulations! The skill Rage has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Rage has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

"I'd better come up with another plan… otherwise, it will be my turn to go on a rampage.