"What are you saying? I'm not going to leave you to fight those monsters alone!" Mikaela protested

Placing his hand on her shoulder, Artreus explained. "No, you won't! You're still injured. You have to fall back with the kids. Also, I am not going to fight alone, these men will fight alongside me."

"Bullshit. I have trained so hard to get stronger. What use are all my efforts if you are just going to drive me away when I could be your strength?! I'm staying." Mikaela argued, her frustration evident in her voice. "And if you are so adamant in sending me away, then why don't we all retreat and inform the town of the oncoming horde? Why do you insist to stay? Do you have a death wish?"

Artreus gazed at her face that is full of resolve, his eyes then turned towards the kids whose faces are filled with worry. He knows how they feel. After all, he also felt powerless when his comrades faced insurmountable odds head-on and he can only helplessly watch them fall one after the other as he laments his weakness. This time. Things will be different. No longer will he stand back and watch the back of great men as they save the day. This time, it will be his back that they will see. "We have to slow the horde down and buy enough time for the town to set up their defenses. If we don't, then they would surely overrun the town and slaughter countless people." Artreus then turned towards the direction where the horde is coming when suddenly, he felt a hand gripping his shoulder.

Using her Mana in her hand, Mikaela strengthened her grip and turned Artreus back towards her. "Then why don't you assign one of these men to escort the kids back to town so that I could stay here?"

Artreus clasped Mikaela's hand. While her eyes are full of resolve, he could feel her worry with her shaking hands. Locking her eyes with his, he pleaded. "Please. You are the only one I could trust to keep the kids safe." Mikaela tried to look away but he gently cupped her face with his hand and promised. "Believe in me. We will only buy some time. After ten minutes, we will retreat to town. Just like I believe in you, that you will keep the kids and the town safe."

"This is unfair." Tears started to well in her eyes as her frustration approached its peak.

Artreus could understand her feelings. She gained a lot of strength but he is snatching her chance to prove herself. But... "Don't worry. There is a lot to go around. Get the kids to safety quickly and I'm sure there will be a lot of these monsters left for you to fight." There will be a lot of monsters that will be left by then indeed, but she will not be fighting here where they would surely be surrounded, but near the town walls, where she would have people to fight with her, shoulder to shoulder. Sensing that the monsters are only a few hundred meters away, Artreus raised his voice. "Go! They are almost here! Go and report this to the town!"

Mikaela then grabbed both Timothy and Juliet before sprinting away in the direction of the town of Mukala. The strong-willed woman didn't turn back as she carried the crying kids in her arms.

This is the way it should be. They should stay safe.

Artreus then turned his attention to the two tied stalkers. He grabbed his iron sword and cut the ropes on their wrists. He then glared at them. "Go and make sure they are safe. If even a single strand of their hair is put to harm, I will make sure to make you suffer." The skinnier man nodded his head like a chicken pecking for corn while the other seems unable to understand what Artreus has said, but that is not important right now as the two raced off after Mikaela and the kids.

"This is how it is supposed to be," Artreus whispered to himself. He then turned towards the direction where the monsters are coming from.

400 meters.

300 meters.

200 meters.

150 meters.

125 meters.

100 meters.

A horde of this size would normally just run about without direction, like a wildfire. So how could they catch the attention of such a large group of monsters and make them focus on them instead of running straight towards town?

The answer is using a skill that was left to him by their Captain himself, Marius the Lion Heart. "Beings of the dark wishing to cause harm, I am the wall that protects the weak and the helpless. If you wish to pursue your dark impulses, then you shall have to go through me first!" The monsters are only twenty meters away from their group when he then imbued his Voice with Ki as he shouts to the sky. "ROAR OF CHALLENGE!" His Ki-infused voice spread like a shockwave as all monsters, mostly composed of goblins equipped with shabby weapons and dire wolves, are only fifty meters away from their group. His roar's effect was evident all the attention of the affected monsters was instantly directed at him and like rabid dogs, the monsters within the range of his roar come barreling down towards them. Seeing the avalanche of goblins and wolves, Artreus shouted another order. "Form a Square! Guard each other's backs!" He barked his order as he killed four goblins who lunged at him in a single slash before kicking another goblin, sending it flying towards its comrades and knocking them down.

To their merit, the four men quickly jumped to follow him and they quickly strikes down any goblin and wolves that came into their range.

Judging from their form, these guys must be army soldier veterans before they became adventurers, and from the looks of how easy they kill the goblins they came in contact with, they must be at least Sargeant class if they are compared to the soldiers back when Artreus was a part of the army a thousand years ago.

Still, in face of such an overwhelming amount of enemies it is only a matter of time till they are defeated for even a fully armored knight would be defeated by a hundred peasants armed only with sticks. That is, if Artreus, a veteran who faced such numbers of enemies on a daily basis for countless years is not with them.

The Square Formation.

This formation is a favorite when they were still in the Void Plains. This formation enables a smaller group of elite warriors to defend against a bigger group consisting of lower quality warriors from all sides thus they avoid getting flanked or leaving their rear vulnerable. The only weakness of this formation is that if one side falls, the others would soon follow. That impending collapse is already drawing near as each warrior is fighting at least three to four goblins and wolves at the same time.

While a singular goblin's strength is comparable to that of a ten-year-old child and can be defeated by a normal adult villager, given a weapon, it could kill an adult man, and just like a huge group of villagers armed with only sticks could kill a well trained, well-equipped knight, so too can a horde of goblins could kill a group of veteran adventurers with just sheer number. What's worse is that they are also quite cunning and wouldn't think twice in resorting to dirty tactics to defeat their foes.

Thankfully, in this open field, and their minds muddled with rage directed towards Artreus, most of the goblins and wolves targetted him first rather than the other four warriors, lessening the pressure on them and preventing them from being overwhelmed by the monsters. Still, Artreus could see them struggle as the intense fight against the horde rages on. Each goblin and wolves they cut down was quickly replaced with another, not letting them even a second to rest.

A horizontal slash cleaved through five goblins in a single stroke, scattering a shower of blood and viscera which splattered not only him but also the other monsters before him, not batting an eye even as a mountain of corpses are forming before him which slowed down the monsters from advancing towards them for they have to wade over the corpses of their comrades before reaching him, Artreus then grabbed one of the wolves than lunged towards him by its neck and with a flick of his wrist, a crisp cracking sound could be heard as the wolf died after the bone in its neck were shattered. Artreus then threw it to the goblin that was about to stab the warrior to his right whose sword was still embedded deeply on another wolf's gut and was not in a position to defend against the blade that was about to bite deep to his sides. Artreus then cut the arm of another goblin who crawled towards him, the blood-soaked goblin who still has the intestines of his dead comrades tried to sneak attack him. But with Artreus' Sense unleashed at its full potential, it is like he could see the whole battlefield from a bird's eye view and everything within the twenty-meter radius would not escape his notice. Stomping his boot on the sneaky goblin's head, splattering its' brains, Artreus then grabbed the dagger that still has the severed goblin hand clinging unto it and threw it towards the wolf that was lunging towards the warrior to his left before kicking a nearby goblin and sending it towards the group of goblin charging towards him, knocking the group down.

He doesn't even need to look at the men who are fighting beside him to tell that their fighting spirit is beginning to wane in front of such a seemingly suicidal last stand. Being veterans that they are, they should know what happens to a company of soldiers that were ordered to delay an incoming opposing army to buy time for their own main army to get into formation.

It is the same as ordering them to their deaths!

It's not like Artreus could blame them for feeling that way, for it is one thing for a battle-hardened veteran commanding officer to order his men to fight compared to an unproven new-blood who have only joined their ranks for just over a month ago. If not for their confusion and them instinctively jumping to follow a command, something that is drilled in them from their time in the army, these grizzled veterans would know that it would be better to retreat to town and face the horde there alongside the other adventurers rather than putting a futile effort to slow down the horde here and lose their lives for nothing.

But that is thinking naively.

If they retreat to town, they would indeed have more people to fight together with, increasing their chances of survival.

But not by much.

They might think that they could funnel these monsters at the bridges, eliminating their advantage in number. But it would only take a small number of monsters breaking through the defenses by swimming across the river or climbing above the walls to deliver a devastating blow to the town. Artreus could already imagine these monsters wreaking havoc in the streets, killing defenseless civilians left and right, causing mass chaos and hysteria among the people, especially the thousands of refugees who are already on the edge after they fled to the town to seek protection. It is one thing to fight amid town with panicked civilians running about, but if those civilians went into rampage due to being blinded by fear, the damage they could wreak would be equal if not even higher than the monsters themselves.

If that happens, even if the town survives, it will be at the cost of hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Thus, they must buy time here. Enough time for the town to mobilize people to not only defend the town but also control the crowd, and by Artreus' estimation, they could only hold this position for ten minutes at most before the warriors beside him would be out of energy and forced to retreat. When that time comes, he plans to remain and cover them from behind, for even if he had experienced awful things in this town, with him being falsely accused of murder and having his honor dragged in the mud, even when the townspeople who he helped before turned their backs on him and viewed him as a villain, that doesn't mean he should also turn their backs on them and leave them to their death. If he did that, he doesn't know how he could face Captain Marius and the others when he meets them in the afterlife.

No.

He would try his best to save them. The same goes for the men who are currently fighting by his side. For while he needs them so that the monsters would have a tempting bait in front of them to fight, he would try his hardest for them to survive this trial. He just needs to buy more time, and for this, he can't have these men lose their fighting spirit.

Gathering his Ki, he roared once more. "Brothers! Raise your arms! We are the final wall that protects the town of Mukala! Stand fast! Strike down the enemy before you! Do not falter before their numbers! For the Gods watch over us and bless us with the strength we need to defend the weak! Every second we delay them will strengthen the defense of the town. Every foe we strike down will save a life of innocent people! We only need to buy time! We will not fall here! With the strength of our arms, we will survive and bask in the glory of what we will achieve today! Shout to the sky, let them witness our bravery!"

"Glory is before you, take it! For today, WE ARE HEROES!"

Thus, he activated the 'Roar of Courage'. His Ki-infused voice reverberated in the air, filling the men beside him with renewed courage, and with their renewed vigor, they continued to hack away at all the enemies before them, be it wolves or goblins, it only took one sword stroke each to fall them down. Of course, Artreus was there to support them whenever they were about to get overwhelmed while he was also killing his fair share of monsters before him.

Then, after two minutes has passed since the start of the assault, Artreus Sensed a group of eleven wolf-riders approaching their group. They are coming at an extreme speed and it looks like they will try to ignore Artreus and his group.

You want to bypass me and head straight to town? Not on my watch! Artreus then used the Roar of Challenge to incite the wolf riders to attack him. But then a roar came from the wolf rider that was leading the pack. Suddenly, the following wolf riders deviated from attacking Artreus and instead, running past him and their group.

A Goblin Packmaster! Artreus exclaimed in his mind.

While Roar of Challenge is a great crowd control skill, its effectiveness is affected by the range of its use. The larger the area you want to affect, the lesser the effect of the skills is. With Artreus pacing himself so that he could last longer in his fight to buy time for Mikaela and the others to report the incoming monster horde, he opted to use the Roar of Challenge to its widest possible range that Artreus could possibly cast, in return, the skill could only incite monsters with weak will. Those who have a stronger will could overpower the effects of his skill.

One such monster was the Goblin Packmaster. What's worse is that the Goblin Packmaster used its own skill, freeing his subordinates from the effect of Artreus' roar and commanding them to ignore Artreus and his group. Carried by agile Dire Wolves, the goblin wolf riders quickly ran past Artreus' group before Artreus could ready another, stronger Roar of Challenge.

"Damn it! Come back here!" Artreus grabbed one goblin by the neck, and focusing his Aura in his arm, he threw it towards one of the wolf riders. A sickening squelch was heard as the two goblins were reduced into a pile of mush on the impact of each other. Still, the wolf riders followed the order of the Packmaster and did not stop.

At this speed, they will reach Mikaela and the others!

Worry started to creep in his heart for while Mikaela is a skilled fighter, nine wolf riders would still pose a problem to her in her injured state. Add to the fact that she has to keep the kids safe while fighting the wolf riders, Artreus tries his hardest not to run to their side and keep them from harm.

But resist he must.

Just as Mikaela and the kids trusted him to keep the horde at bay, he must also trust them that they will keep safe and deliver the word of the horde back to town.

Besides, Mikaela wouldn't have to face the wolf riders alone. The stalkers are with them. The two men need just to take the focus off the red-haired firebrand for a couple of seconds so that she could dispatch three to four wolf riders in a single flurry of thrown knives. After that, he job would be much easier.

With those thoughts in mind, his worry began to somewhat lessen, and in their place, another emotion took place. Anger began to rise up in his chest as his eyes turned towards the Goblin Packmaster who chose to remain in the battlefield in front of him, a stupid grin etched in its hateful face as if to taunt him.

"You don't know who you just messed with, punk." Artreus then threw his longsword towards the Goblin Packmaster. Seeing the sword speeding towards him, the Goblin Packmaster's eye widen, but before he could even yell in distress, the projectile split his head open like a watermelon and the goblin leader fell from his seat like a puppet with its string cut. With its master dead, the large Direwolf that acted as its steed went into a rampage and with a terrifying howl that cowered even its comrades, it rushed towards Artreus. As the one-ton, two-meter tall, the behemoth of a wolf lunged at Artreus with fangs wide open as if wanting to swallow Artreus whole, he just grabbed each fang with each of his hands and with his Aura at full force, ripped the wolf in two.

Then, as the blood of the Dire Wolf sprayed like a shower, Artreus raised his voice in the sky before letting out a roar of his own. "DEATH TO THE ENEMY! TO VICTORY!"