Book 7 - Fleeting Glory Chapter 94

Siege

The miraculous scene caught the attention of almost every soldier. Richard felt his heart skipping a beat when the youth's gaze landed on him, but the other two pumped with force and made up for the loss of strength. As the imperial capital burst into earth-shattering cheers, he whispered to himself, "So the legends are finally showing themselves."

"Kid, a weakling like you has the guts to attack my empire?" The warrior threw his head back in a laugh, the golden aura around him growing in intensity. The rays of light were like blazing flames, soaring into the sky with power that was rare even for the legends of Norland. Everything within range would be under his control.

However, Richard was no longer at a point where legends were a threat. His voice remained calm as usual, "So you're saying a weakling has buried your empire's best generals and marched to its gates. I see we agree that your descendants are useless."

"I am the Son of Gold, Godfrey!" the youth sneered, "If you know the meaning of this name, you'll regret your impudence."

"Don't know, don't care. I don't pay attention to trash."

The flames around Godfrey suddenly pulsed with his rage as his voice grew loud as thunder, "I'll show you worms the power of legends!"

He actually walked straight towards Richard, completely ignoring the hundreds of thousands of soldiers nearby. His eyes narrowed as none of the archers fired at him out of line, but then he chuckled, "You know what? There's no fun just killing you. Let's play a game... that girl over there, she suits my tastes!"

The Son of Gold seemed to grab at the sky, a beam of golden light falling from the sky a hundred metres away. It seemed like there was no one there at first, but the light revealed Waterflower's graceful figure even as it trapper her in a spherical golden cage. The cage slowly rose into the skies, a tendril of flame shooting out and landing on her body.

With no room to dodge, Waterflower could only use her internal energy to fight it head-on. She managed to keep it from harming her body, but her clothing quickly started to burn away. In a moment, almost the entirety of her left leg was bare.

Godfrey chuckled, "Not bad, she seems to have some power. I like it that way."

Richard's eyes flashed crimson, but he forced his voice to remain calm, "Godfrey, I'm going to massacre your city."

"Haha. Don't be so anxious, kid, I made sure the flames will only burn off her clothing. If you don't want the girl to be exposed in public, beat me quickly." Amidst crazed laughter, another tendril of flames flew out and burnt a majority of the clothing on Waterflower's back. She didn't even try to cover herself, instead swinging around in place to strike at the golden cage. The energy dimmed with a strike, but it quickly regained its full brightness. Godfrey's eyes brightened as he watched on, continuing too laugh as he lugged his sword and walked towards Richard.

At some point, Nasia had appeared behind Richard, "This guy isn't easy to deal with, but at least he's stupid enough to waste his energy on the cage. Looks like he's underestimating you, want me to do a bit extra?"

"How?" Richard asked flatly.

"He looks to be someone who controls laws related to metals. I can alter War Fanatic to give you the same capacity, letting you vie over control with him and weaken him. Of course, it'll come with a high price; you need to think it through."

"What do you want?"

"That dagger by his waist isn't too bad."

"It's yours," he didn't hesitate.

"Huh?" Nasia looked to be a little surprised, "That thing is comparable to a top-tier offering. You won't regret this, right?"

"I need to kill him to get it, don't I? While beating the fucker back won't be a problem with the normal way, I want him dead."

Godfrey started running as the two were talking, suddenly leaping a hundred metres into the sky and flashing above Richard's army. He waved his giant sword in a large arc, shooting what looked like shards of solid gold down on the soldiers. Even superior-grade armour crumbled in the face of his might, and any wounds caused by these shards turned the skin nearby into metal. Even the humanoid knights couldn't resist this attack, while the ordinary soldiers were killed instantly.

"Let's make your heart bleed a little, kid!" Godfrey laughed maniacally, flying around and launching a number of these attacks down. Very quickly, more than 2,000 soldiers were injured dead.

Richard suddenly burst into laughter, voice amplified by mana, "What else should I expect from the Iron Triangle? Just a bunch of cowards that can only vent on commoners."

His voice resounded so loudly that even those still in the capital could hear him. Godfrey immediately turned towards Richard, shaking with rage as he grumbled about torture, but he found Richard charging in his direction of his own accord. The sheer gall of it all felt insulting, his fury so great that he bellowed, "Let me show you what a legend is!"

The words were like thunder in the ears of Richard's soldiers, causing a thousand of them to crumple to the ground in pain. However, Richard continued to fly forward, forming a fireball the size of his fist along the way.

Godfrey froze at first, but then he chuckled, "You're trying to beat me with a fireball? What can such a small fireball do? Just—"

His voice suddenly faded away, eyes going wide open as he saw the fireball go from red to orange to blue. Every mutation added two grades of might to the spell, bringing it to grade in an instant. This was something that even he wouldn't just take on thoughtlessly, but on top of that he sensed something within that made him uneasy.

Kilometres crossed in an instant, Richard and Godfrey were no more than a hundred metres apart. Richard waved a hand over the fireball, causing it to spin rapidly as it shot out of his hand.

"Speed, distance, tracking, instacast... How?!" the Son of Gold exclaimed. A grade 7 spell, when boosted with so many effects, was more difficult to cast than most grade 9's. However, Richard had cast it instantly!

A faint figure appeared behind Godfrey while he was distracted, stabbing into his back at once. A strange whistle rang out from the sky as Gangdor leapt out from the masses, chopping downwards with his axe. At the same time, curses from all sorts of sources flickered on Godfrey's body and caused him to groan, suddenly spitting out some fresh blood with hints of gold within. He had pushed through a barrage of curses before, but some of these spells were much more powerful than he had expected. At his level, even most higher-level spells should only have worked on him a fifth of the time or so, but many basic curses were striking true every other cast.

It was only now that the Son of Gold felt true danger, bellowing and sending a surge of golden energy in all directions to push out the curses. He also formed fourteen golden shields to protect him from head to toe.