it didn't take long for the leader to raise his hand slowly as he was gazing at the big crowd of prisoners. The Death Golem was as silent as ever, however, what these Gargoyles couldn't see from their position is the presence of a strange, ominous dark book floating behind the Death Golem.

After thirty breaths, the leader signaled for his subordinates and ordered them to charge as he took the lead. His movements were swift as a white energy circulated under his feet. To be able to release Nether Energy from the Dantian and using it to support one's self, it could only be an Immortal at the very least!

There are many ways to differentiate between the Realms from Immortal above. Of course, the most efficient and precise way would always be Arthur's Godly Appraisal, that's a skill that can be activated with no cost and he just needs a target to use it on. The second way is by using one's own Sense, however, you can only sense the Realm of someone of the same Realm or lower than you.

There is also the last rare method, which is not always used and it is by seeing the color of the Nether Energy released from the target. For example, this leader used Nether Energy and supported the movement of his legs to move faster, the increase is not very high, however, it isn't meager either, but if compared to movement skills, it is far lacking. For Immortals, they would release White Energy, Blue for Divine beings and Purple for Gods and so on.

Perhaps the leader did that on purpose to scare off the enemies, or so thought some of his subordinates or the scared prisoners, who caught sight of this dashing hooded figure and the energy under his feet.

In reality, it's not that he was showing off but the Gargoyles are known to be melee fighters and even if they have techniques, they would be physical-oriented too, it is too difficult to find mages and that has to do with their Race, their natural constitution.

Furthermore, their tribe is declining year by year and the resources are becoming so sparse that even a Regiment Commander such as this one does not have a single efficient movement technique that could help him, that in itself shows their desperation and one of the reasons they decided to boldly attack the Pigolo tribe.

Followed by Uyo, the staff-wielding Desert Gargoyle, the two of them rushed toward the big Golem, planning to take care of him as fast as possible.

The rest of the Gargoyles, numbering thirty-one, circled around the crowd of prisoners and attacked from all sides. Fortunately, they were not as strong as Uyo or the leader, their average Lv was 400, even so, the prisoners had a few strong and capable fighters, so each fighter would have to deal with two or three Gargoyles at the same time.

The first clash was supposed to be between the Death Golem and the two fast Gargoyles, however, an unexpected thing happened. When Uyo and his superior Esdik stepped into the area ten meters away from the Golem, they both crashed into a barrier that was not visible previously. On a closer look, it strongly resembled Arthur Dark Barrier, with a transparent color which some dark in it and an infinite number of squares on it which created a spheric barrier enveloping the whole group prisoners and even a small area around them.

Due to not being strong enough to sense the Barrier, Esdik's body rebounded five meters, he literally hit a hard wall so he was in a stunned state for one second. Uyo was luckier, he was slower than Esdik so he managed to see the process and react in time. Using his long staff, he lifted it with both hands and struck the barrier to stop his fast momentum. The strike allowed him to bounce back and land safely after performing a big backflip.

The other Gargoyles, who were much slower than these two, didn't even to do the same thing as Uyo, they witnessed what happened and weren't dumb enough to charge recklessly at this invisible wall.

One of them cautiously walked near the Dark Barrier then used his spear only for it rebound and force its user to take two steps back.

"T-This is?"

Uyo looked at the other Gargoyles who started striking the barrier with their weapons, some of them even used their skills but to no avail, futile attempts that are only expending their Stamina and Energy reserve.

Esdik finally snapped out of his stunned state, he wasn't in a good anymore, although he managed to kill quite a lot of Pigolo officers, all of that pride disappeared when he crashed into a wall and brought this upon himself, it was too embarrassing for someone of his rank to suffer like that.

He needed to regain his face, however, he was not a fool either, for the enemy to have made such a barrier, they must be quite strong. Esdik's eyes landed on Arthur, who was still standing there but surprisingly, his eyes now closed and he was standing there without any movement whatsoever.

Taliya had already unsheathed her blades and guarded Alina along with Lucas. Vyncent was hiding a few meters away with a thoughtful look on his face. He disregarded the incoming danger and had his focus all rest on Arthur, whose back was facing him.

This barrier which caused this much trouble when the clash didn't even begin yet was laid by Arthur.

After countless fights with strong beasts and Gods, conjuring Dark Barriers around him had become like a second nature to Arthur. They didn't cost Nether Energy or Mana and from all his attributes, the Dark Barrier was the most effective, its defenses are really incredible.

The Dark Barrier was never put to a proper use due to Arthur always fighting people way stronger than him so such barriers would shatter almost immediately.

"Regiment Commander, what do we do? It seems that there is a strong barrier protecting them."

With Uyo talking, all the other subordinates stopped their useless attacks and turned to look at Esdik, waiting for his orders.

The person in question was still silently standing there, when he hears Uyo talk to him, he diverted his attention to the strange looking barrier and yelled with a loud tone

"What else can we do? Strike it until it falls, I do not believe it can withhold our relentless attacks forever!"

With that said, Esdik retrieved a Scimitar from his ring and viciously slashed at the Dark Barrier, creating sparkles of Nether Energy as the skill dissipated after landing on the strong barrier.

Esdik didn't flinch as he slashed multiple times whilst unleashing powerful skills. Uyo and the rest soon followed, they started fiercely smashing their weapons on the Dark Barrier, which didn't even have a crack on it despite all their combined attacks.

****

".... It won't hold that long, we need to prepare ourselves!"

Taliya had good discerning eyes, although the Barrier didn't have any cracks, she noticed that each time the Regiment Commander attacked, it would shake violently, adding to that the non-stopping attacks of the other thirty-two Gargoyles, the power behind all of that is not something they could withstand. For her and everybody else, it's already a miracle that the Barrier lasted that long.

In fact, if Arthur was conscious, if he wished for it, they would never be able to shatter it or crack it as he would reinforce it if it weakens, but with him in this state, he won't be able to influence it, it's good enough that he laid it around them before succumbing to his 'dreams'.

"W-we should surrender!"

One of the helpless prisoners, who were staying at the center, expecting to be protected, was frightened by the attacks of the Gargoyles, he couldn't help but utter those words with a trembling voice and shivering body. What's worse is that he's a young healthy Demon, just like Lucas, he could pick a weapon and protect his Princess but he just told them he cannot wield a weapon and would start crying whenever something bad happened.

It didn't even take a second for the rest of the cowards to join him and support what he said as they saw the savage looking at the hooded-figures, which were banging on the barrier as if they were Grim Reaper banging on the door of their home.

"Y-yes! They'll kill us all if we resist!"

"This is pointless, let's just surrender and go back to the prisoner, at least it's better than dying!"

As their emotions were surging up and fear took control of them, the shivering prisoners started protesting but that didn't last long. Lucas's short personal blade arrived near the young demon's neck, with a cold look, Lucas stared down at the terrified demon and said

"One more word from your mouth or any other person, I will not hesitate to kill you. You're going to die anyway, so I'll kill you all in advance so you cannot hinder us later."

Alina wanted to step up and stop him at first but she was stopped by Taliya, who also thought Lucas was doing the right thing. From the looks of it, not everyone here deserves to be saved. Even if they go back to Astria, she wouldn't turn a blind eye, instead, she would certainly punish those who only thought about their survival and would sacrifice anything to live.

Of course, there were elderly and some children that are unable to fight, but what about the healthy demons like this young man? Even if his Lv is low, that didn't matter, one would pick a sword and swing it around randomly if necessary, all to protect their princess and fight as a group, not just surrender when the tiniest danger arrives.

".... Truly pathetic."

The head maid only said a few words before turning to face the Gargoyles, however, her senses were on high alert as she noticed Vyncent was nearby and he was suspiciously keeping an extremely silent attitude but that didn't stop him from stealing a couple of worrying glances at Alina.

Taliya decided to keep her niece close to her while at the same time positioning herself near Arthur and the Death Golem, it could be said to be the safest place possible.

****

'Damn, what kind of barrier is this?'

Uyo's attacking power is extremely high with a blunt weapon like his staff, he was known to have a high offensive power but despite that, his skills did nothing to the barrier, no crack, no reaction. Only Estik's pierces coupled with his techniques as an Immortal allowed him to make the Barrier shake violently.

Albeit reaching no success with his attacks, he didn't give up and swung his long staff continuously, he wasn't foolish enough to relentlessly release all his techniques and trump cards, because, after all, this was but the first hurdle.

More so, they weren't afraid of reinforcement coming because of two reasons, first, the Pigolo tribe's population is much much less than the Desert Gargoyles. Second, this invasion was planned to last at least two days, they needed to turn the Pigolo Tribe upside down. Eradicating it all is close to impossible as they have strong powerhouses residing in the central tower, but getting rid of the nearby villages, plundering goods and treasures and killing a few Major and Colonels should be possible with the advantage of numbers.