THE AURELIAN CHRONICLES SHARDS OF DAWN

Chapter 9 The Siege of Ignis Part Two Bloody Combat

The ground of the academy's main courtyard shook violently. Hundreds of Iron Assassins charged forward all at once. The sound of their iron boots stomping sounded like an earthquake ready to swallow everything in its path. The cold

night air instantly felt like it was boiling from the steam of their breaths and the bloodlust of the mercenaries.

Arthur gripped his short sword with both hands. His torn shoulder muscles screamed in pain, but the adrenaline killed the ache for the time being.

But before a single enemy could reach their defense line, Bramble stepped forward. The giant weasel pulled a glass bottle from under his leather armor, chugged the rest of the liquor in one long gulp, and smashed the bottle onto the

ground until it shattered to pieces.

Bramble let out a low growl. His growl did not sound like a normal animal. It echoed like an ancient monster that had just been woken from a long slumber. The muscles beneath his brown fur swelled wildly, tearing several parts of his

leather armor. The weasel's black eyes glowed a thick blood red.

Berserker Mode.

"Come get some, you rusty pigs," Bramble roared, cutting through the noise of the battlefield.

The weasel did not wait for the enemy to come to him. He leaped fifteen feet forward, crashing straight into the center of the Iron Assassin formation. His giant steel sword swung in a spinning motion at an absurd speed. Bramble turned

into a bloody blender. Because of his short stature, his sword swings perfectly hit the knees and groins of the heavily armored Orcs.

The sound of snapping leg bones and tearing metal was horrifying. Screams of pain erupted from the enemy's front lines. Black blood sprayed into the air every time Bramble's sword spun. Severed legs and intestines scattered, dirtying

the stone courtyard.

But Valerius's army had too many numbers. The gap Bramble created was instantly closed back up by the next wave of enemies. Ten Iron Assassins broke off from Bramble's vortex of slaughter and ran straight toward Arthur and his group.

"Kaelen, shoot the ones carrying sledgehammers, wtf," Arthur yelled, giving quick orders.

"I know, monkey, do not tell me what to do," Kaelen shot back in a tense voice. The Elf prince drew two arrows at once. He let them fly in the blink of an eye. The two arrows zipped through the air and embedded themselves perfectly into the helmet eye slits of the two leading Assassins.

Both collapsed instantly, but the remaining eight kept charging.

Arthur had no choice. He dashed forward to meet the enemy. He was not a sword expert. He didn't have beautiful martial arts techniques. He only relied on street survival instincts and the buffs from his system. An Assassin swung a massive axe at Arthur's head. Arthur slid across the blood soaked stone ground, dodging the slash, and thrust his short sword into the gap under the Assassin's armpit.

The sword blade pierced a few inches deep into the flesh. Hot blood spurted onto Arthur's arm. The Assassin growled in anger and backhanded Arthur's face with his iron gauntlet.

Arthur stumbled backward. The salty taste of blood filled his mouth. The blue screen popped up and blinked in front of his face.

[Target Destroyed. 15 EXP gained.]

The system did not care that Arthur was dying. It only recorded the death of the monster that had just bled out from the fatal stab to its armpit artery.

"Fall back slowly, damn it. We are surrounded," Lyra screamed from behind. The girl threw a small fireball at the face of an Assassin trying to push forward. The fire did not kill, but it was enough to make the monster step back while clutching its blistered face. Lyra's nose kept bleeding. She had pushed her

magic capacity way too far tonight.

Arthur stood back up straight. He parried another enemy's sword slash, spun his body, and kicked the enemy's knee with all his might. When the monster lost its balance, Arthur slashed its neck without hesitation.

Blood sprayed, soaking Arthur's face. The blue screen exploded again.

[Target Destroyed. 15 EXP gained.]

[Level Up. You have reached Level 5.]

[Agility stat increased by 5 points. Strength increased by 2 points.]

A weird sensation instantly swept through Arthur's entire body. The air around him felt lighter. His vision became incredibly sharp. When a giant Assassin leaped to crush him with a sledgehammer, time seemed to slow down in Arthur's eyes.

With his sharply increased Agility, Arthur moved sideways at an incredible speed. He dodged the sledgehammer, then plunged his sword straight into the enemy's neck from the side.

"Watch your left, Arthur," Kaelen yelled.

Arthur ducked in a flash. An arrow whizzed a centimeter above his head and embedded itself in the eye of an Assassin about to attack Arthur from his blind

spot.

"Thanks, wtf," Arthur yelled back. He did not stop moving. His speed had increased drastically thanks to the back to back level ups. He slashed, stabbed, and dodged like a predator that had found its killing rhythm.

[Target Destroyed. 20 EXP gained.]

[Target Destroyed. 15 EXP gained.]

[Level Up. You have reached Level 6.]

[Agility stat increased by 5 points.]

Arthur killed four enemies in less than a minute. His body moved incredibly efficiently. But behind the blue screen that kept popping up achievement notifications, a bright red box started blinking wildly in the corner of his vision.

[Critical Warning. Stamina depleted. 12 out of 100.]

Arthur's lungs suddenly felt like they were filled with broken glass. His breathing was ragged. That incredible movement speed came with a very steep price. A normal human physique was not built to move that fast continuously. His

legs started to feel like they were made of hot lead.

"Finn, duck, damn it," Arthur screamed as he saw an enemy's axe flying toward the chubby kid.

Finn, who had just been holding a broken piece of wood while crying in fear, instantly threw his body to the ground. The axe smashed into the stone pillar behind Finn, shattering it. Arthur forced his body to jump and stabbed the enemy's chest, but his sword got stuck in the Assassin's ribs.

Arthur pulled his sword with all his might, but the thing snapped. Half of the blade was left behind inside the monster's chest.

"My sword broke, asshole," Arthur cursed in a panic. He threw the useless sword hilt right into the face of another approaching enemy.

The four of them were continuously pushed back. The number of enemies did not decrease at all. Every time Kaelen killed one enemy, three more popped up from behind the roaring fires. Kaelen's fingers were bleeding from pulling the bowstring too often. His quiver was almost empty. Lyra dropped to her knees on the ground, vomiting black blood from her mouth because her brain could no longer handle channeling magic energy. Finn could only curl up into a ball,

protecting his head.

Far out in the middle of the courtyard, Bramble was still on a solo rampage. The weasel was surrounded by piles of dozens of Iron Assassin corpses. But the movements of his giant sword were starting to slow down. Bramble's body was

covered in dozens of slash wounds and spears stuck in his leather armor. His Berserker Mode was starting to reach its time limit.

"We are going to die here, Arthur," Kaelen said between heavy pants. He threw away his useless bow and pulled out a thin dagger from under his robe. "We are cornered, wtf."

Arthur looked around. Kaelen was right. They had been pushed all the way to the corner of the courtyard, trapped in front of the remains of the academy's shattered fountain statue. There was no way out. A wall of fire burned the dorms

to their left, and hundreds of iron troops blocked the way forward.

At the far end of the courtyard, General Valerius stood casually, watching the show. He had not even drawn his sword from its scabbard. The man was simply enjoying the slow process of this massacre.

Arthur stared at his system screen in despair.

[Critical Stamina. 5 out of 100.]

[Muscle functions are being automatically shut down to prevent internal organ damage.]

Arthur's right leg completely locked up. He could not step forward. His body forcefully rejected his brain's commands for the sake of his vital organs' survival. He could only stand still, clutching his chest that was heaving to an extreme degree.

From behind the line of Iron Assassins surrounding them, the enemy formation suddenly split in two.

Footsteps that were much heavier and slower could be heard pounding against the courtyard stones. The sound was different from the stomping of regular troops. It sounded like solid metal being dropped from the top of a building.

A giant figure stepped out from the crowd of enemies. It was not a regular Iron Assassin. It was a Shadow Army General. His height reached over ten feet tall. His body was wrapped in pitch black armor covered in sharp spikes. In his hands, the giant monster held a serrated spear the size of a street lamppost. The spear radiated a highly deadly dark purple aura.

The monster General did not look at Arthur. His glowing red eyes were locked onto Lyra, who was sitting weakly on the ground holding her bleeding nose. The monster knew who was the easiest to kill first in order to destroy the group's morale.

The monster General smirked, revealing his rotten yellow fangs. He raised the serrated spear high into the air. His arm muscles, the size of tree trunks, tensed up, ready to unleash a deadly throw.

"Lyra, run," Arthur screamed at the top of his lungs until his throat tore.

Arthur tried to step forward to push the girl out of the way, but his legs could not be moved at all. Zero percent stamina. The system forcefully locked all of his leg's motor functions. He was stuck in place like a living statue.

Kaelen tried to run and intercept the throwing path, but two Iron Assassins immediately lunged, pinning the Elf prince down to the ground.

The monster General swung his arm forward with incredible force.

The giant serrated spear zipped through, slicing the night air. Its whistling sound was like the screams of thousands of tortured souls. The spear flew at an insane speed, aiming right for Lyra's chest, who didn't have an ounce of energy

left to dodge. The girl could only widen her eyes, staring at the death coming to take her.

And Arthur could only stand frozen, watching the tip of the spear reach less than a hand's span away from his best friend's body.