《Plague Children》Chapter 29: A Warriors Limit
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Many of the other citizens realized how perilous the situation was. Several brave men and women picked up various weaponry. Rusted old swords, armor from the deceased bodies, random gardening tools, etc.
They equipped themselves and silently, as a collective, walked outside of the gates.
"B-brother...what are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to fight." He smiled and patted his younger brother on the head.
"Y-You cant! there's too many of them. You'll die!"
"Hahaha, ah, Remi, don't worry. This is a sacrifice I'm making for you."
"If I stay in here, we'll all die. But...if I join the fray...even if I can just delay that army for a second. It is an extra second for you to escape."
Many of the others shared that sentiment. They all understood that sacrifice must be made. They were going to lay down their lives just to buy enough time for a couple of seconds. This was the best gift they could give their families and loved ones.
It wasn't much, but it was their last.
"Even if it does not amount to much, it amounts to something... the great general must have realized this. That's why he's out there facing the enemies on his own."
The various people that understood that all banded together, and soon they were a force 400 strong! This was a fight that was only going to end in their deaths, but still. That was alright.
Mothers abandoned their children to fight. Brothers, sons, and daughters all banned together in arms. Who cares if all they could amount to was simple hinderances? Who cares if they were all going to die without much change to the situation? They were going to die spiting their enemies. They were going to die protecting others.
As the great general charged forward with a mighty roar, the sounds of hundreds followed behind him. The roars of others drowned out his own and he had realized he was being accompanied by others.
The Baerim army was lead by Oreimi. "Tsk. A meager force of 400 or so?" He stuck his fan into the air and turned it to the side, signaling the mages to stand down and the archers to ready their bows.
With one signal, they all drew at the same time, nocked, then released. A shower of arrows flew towards the crowd of braves. In just 5 seconds it was going to chew through the whole lot of them.
Suddenly, a voice rung out. "Divine art: Whirlwind Gale!" jumped into the skies, withdrawing his giant buster blade, and spinning at a rapid pace. His sword appeared to be that of a tornado and cut through the incoming assault of arrows. The ones that further away were simply blown off course.
The rain of arrows had been evaded easily.
Oreimi squinted towards what he had just seen. "Divine Arts huh... and very proficient too. Is that? General Galtz?" he chuckled under his breath. "What a fool. A man with his talent probably could have easily been spared."
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"But there's no need to waste magicians over something like this. Send the infantry!"
"Hm...would it not be easier to just demolish the whole lot with magicians?" Kawa asked.
Oreimi shook his head. "Shows how much you know. It would simply be a waste of mana. You see, Galtz is what they call an anti-magic warrior."
"Eh? Anti...magic.. is there such a thing?"
Oreimi nodded. "I'm afraid so. Divine arts is generally of no threat to magic users. However, every now and then there are those who are so proficient in Divine arts that they magicians cannot dare harm them."
"Even if we sent an entire platoon of magicians at him...he'll most likely evade all of the attacks as well as rebound them. Pesky rat."
Kawa seemed perplexed by this idea. Proficiency in divine arts could really go that far huh...incredible.
As the warriors came to collide with the infantrymen, Galtz mowed through several dozen men. His speed was quick and he always seemed to know exactly where to move and what to do. Every time it seemed they had him cornered, a new move presented itself, sending infantries flying.
The men behind Galtz felt almost as if they couldn't even be of use. A couple of the men knew how to utilize Divine magic and joined in the action, but those who couldn't felt utterly useless.
The group of 60 or so were fearsome and immediately sweeping through the hordes of armies as if it were child's play.
Relic wielders, magicians, warriors, all came out to face them but very few could match up to them.
"Umu..hoi..Oreimi. How come none of our warriors are utilizing Divine Arts?
"HAH! Brat. Divine Arts are lost in many countries around the world. Baerim had never known how to utilize it in the first place. It's useless compared to magicians anyways."
"But alas, just watch. We'll overpower them within the next couple of minutes."
The battle continued for maybe 10 or 15 minutes before the numbers started visibly dwindling. The unskilled were dying left and right with ease. Some managed to hack apart a man or two or wound at least one other warrior. The army of 500 was quickly reduced to 260 and falling sharply.
The skilled former military that Galtz had stuck close by him. They moved as a unit and followed with every action he commanded.
"Guard the flank to the right. You, come with me, we're going to wedge our way into the wall there." A group of soldiers had formed a sort of wall around their magicians. These magicians were rapidly bolting at the other warriors who were not Galtz.
Immediately as he dashed towards the wall, several magicians flew from behind the men. Galtz, lead the arrow-shaped charge of 25 men at the wall of people, but the moment the magicians rose to attack, he got ready to counter.
He jumped high into the sky and shouted once more "Divine Arts: Rejection of Wills!" the elemental blasts that were aimed at him collided with his sword and bounced immediately back towards the magicians as if they were getting rejected.
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The magicians in turn simply activated a shield spell of pure mana.
Before they could even react, however, Galtz, who was still very high in the sky spun around so that his back was towards the magicians.
"Divine Art: Heavy Heart, Heavy blade" In that instance, he kicked off his own buster sword, letting it fall to the battlefield below on some poor unlucky soldier.
The blade seemed to have weighed much more than it appeared because it launched his body like a tennis racket. The giant man was sent in the direct trajectory of the mages.
The first one tried to put up a mana shield but Galtz immediately pierced through the shield with just his hands. "Divine Art: God's Spear"
The shield of Aura shattered and before he could create another one, Gantz was already upon him. His finger poked right through the mage's skull as he screamed.
Before the mage could fall down, he pushed off that mage and began cutting through the rest. He chopped through the 6 different mages quickly before the others realized how dangerous he was and turned retreated to the ground amidst the other infantry.
Meanwhile below, the infantrymen that Galtz had ordered to charge had torn through the line of defense that was set. When the magicians landed, they were met with the blades and fists of the other soldiers.
Galtz landed right behind enemy lines and smirked. He was surrounded on all sides. There was no way he could leave this situation without injury.
"Ahhhh....the memories of the battlefield."
He sighed calmly. Everyone had seen what he had just done. They all feared to make the first move. "What are we waiting for, he has no sword! Let's take him out!"
"Sir!"
They moved forward with their attacks. Several dozen blades and arrows were directed at Galtz.
With his eyes closed, he muttered one phrase.
"Limit Magic; Frenzy"
Hell unleashed. With that single sentence, many people perished.
Galtz was not a magician. But regardless of that fact, all men had aura coursing through their body. Magicians however, had the ability to utilize this aura externally, to interact with the surroundings and the world around them. This is known as mana.
Everything in the earth, from the skies to the clouds, to the sea, to the ground, the mountains, the grass, the trees...everything contained Mana.
So the only difference between mages and a regularly being was that they could utilize their aura externally. However, contrary to popular belief, one could utilize aura internally. Divine arts was done through fortifying parts of his body, and awakening different parts of his brain through the utilization of the aura inside him.
In order to use this effectively however, one would have to train their physical capabilities. It doesn't just increase your abilities out of nowhere, it simply heightens them to points that you yourself are already capable of utilizing.
Mana was energy manifested outside of the body to formulate blasts, distortions in the world around them.
However, there are those who could go beyond divine arts and break those limits several times over. The price for breaking those limits is usually horrendous strain on the body.
"Limit Magic; Frenzy" simply meant one thing. Death.
Within the moment those words left his mouth, the people around him began to drop like flies. Some couldn't understand or cognize what was going on. But they undoubtedly saw each of their comrades dying one by one. The cause of death?
Broken necks.
Galtz was quite literally going from person to person at blinding speeds and breaking each of their necks before one could even realize. They could see the blur that was Galtz, but by the time their eyes focused on him, he was already onto the next 4 targets.
Screams began to howl out and soldiers were losing their composition. 10 seconds...
100 dead.
20 seconds...400
30 seconds..700
This scenario was horrifying. The infantrymen and mages alike kept dropping by the dozen. Though some tried to shield themselves with mana shields, he had hacked right through the shields and the magicians alike, cutting them in half with his Divine Art: Godspear.
"What in the world.... is that.."
Oreimi was even taken aback. Kawa stopped his horse upon seeing the scenario unfold. He was almost 800 meters back, but even he couldn't stop sweating.
That scene was frightening.
"What ya guys waiting for!" a voice rang out cheerfully. Reon. Her cheery demeanor was not fit for the battlefield.
She licked her paws as a cat might do. "Come now, can't you guys see he's slowing down?"
By the time she had said that, Galtz had already cleared through 1,000 of their men.
Suddenly his speed halted immediately.
"I-imagine if we could have him teach that ability to our men!" Kawa exclaimed
"Don't bother." Argan rode up beside him. "Such an ability is only learnable by those who are willing to go through hell. We might successfully create another Galtz in a decade or so after 1,000 failures."
Galtz now stood panting heavily in the clearing of bodies he had made. He noticed that both the magicians and his own group had stopped fighting just to see the insane display of might.
"Shit...." He resisted the need to cough up blood. Noone must see that he was weakened by the skill.
In truth, it felt like every part of his muscle had shredded. He had pushed himself beyond what his body could physically go through.
One of the men tested just incase and launched an arrow at him. He tried to dodge and get out of the way, but he was much too slow and the arrow went clean through his arm.
Shit....things were not looking too well.
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