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With Ferti’nier at the helm, the Heavensbreak plates dove into the blinding cloud of dust. All around me, the screeches of metal against metal rang out, clawing at my ears with a ferocity never seen before .

Three seconds passed, and the stone giant abruptly lunged out of the dust cloud. I ducked to the side with Wyrm, evading him as he slammed into a nearby wall.

A deafen explosion rocked the fort as a sizable chunk of the wall exploded forth in a shower.

It was a mighty ambush, but useless as long as it did not connect.

Back faced towards me, I found that his back wasn’t as severely damaged as I would have hoped. There were scratches, but despite Heavensbreak’s multiple attacks, his own defenses were too high for the plates to leave any sizable wound.

There’s no choice, then. Melee, it is.

This time, I did not wait for Ferti’nier’s advice before diving in with Wyrm. While he was still recovering from his previous attack, I swung my greatsword as many times as I could physically muster at his exposed back.

As an Epic weapon, even his fortified skin wouldn’t come out unscathed.

The stone giant seemed to have picked up on this as well. Rather than try to face his body around, he frantically crawled ahead, ramming through the wall and whatever was unfortunate enough to be in his path.

A great number of Ertalonese soldiers were sent flying, even two of my own magitek knights were affected.

“Meat, you ain’t escaping from your fate that easily. Little brother, chase it down, don’t let it get away!”

Yeah. Yeah.

The stone giant fleeing wasn’t lost on the troops present. Their flagging morale instantly collapsed when they realized their vaunted overlord reinforcement was trying to escape as well. To begin with, the volley of fireballs had taken a huge toll on their numbers; there were less than one thousand of them at this point. Their second wave of attack was only holding on under the premise of that overlord still being in the battle. As long as their overlord was active, victory was still possible.

However, even that was no longer possible. That overlord wasn’t even a match for me. In fact, he was desperately running for his life. While he might have taken out two magitek knights in the process, that wasn’t intentional. And even counting them as taken out was being generous. The magitek knight possessed unbelievable defenses. While the machine might have been destroyed, the pilots were alive.

“Eight of you, stay behind as a contingency. The rest of you are with me!”

I had eight of them stay behind to mop up the remaining troops and take care of the two kids. The two magitek knight hulls still had to be recovered, and the wall was still a concern. In the meantime, it was time to hunt.

In all likelihood, that fellow was heading towards his main camp. With the 90 remaining magitek knights, they should be able to handle the troops there. Just one volley of their mana cannons alone would cow the troops into submission.

“With the Commander!”

Unlike the Ertalonese army, the kids couldn’t be more motivated even if they wanted to. With the winds behind their sails, they roared their acknowledgement at the idea of charging into the enemy’s main camp.

The stone giant’s speed was admirable. But before the flight mode of Wyrm, he was at best average. As I led my team in pursuit, I made sure to continue peppering him with my shoulder cannons. Even if they couldn’t bring him down, I wasn’t about to let up.

However, it was about that time when the cooldown on his magical dome recovered. A half-dome materialized out of thin air, blocking the fireballs with its shimmering blue magicks. A series of explosions shook the ground around us. The air itself became noticeably hotter from the residual heat.

Our pursuit continued for another five kilometers. Throughout the chase, the stone giant didn’t seem as panicked as he initially was. In fact, he seemed to be leading us somewhere, and that somewhere wasn’t his main camp.

Realizing that, I sped up Wyrm to its limit to try and chase him down this instant.

Dragonslayer greatsword in hand, I pointed at the stone giant and commanded, “Maintain artillery fire on the enemy, I’m heading in.”

“Understood!”

With the order given, the kids slowed down their speed to maintain a long distance from the stone giant before firing off their shoulder cannons.

With over 90 magitek knights lobbing fireballs his way, even that magical dome was only able to hold out for a few more seconds before it shattered and dissipated in the air. The remaining fireballs landed squarely on his back.

“Cowards! Fight me fair and square, if you dare!” The stone giant yelled angrily, though he didn’t seem all that hurt by their attacks.

I was already in the process of preparing for a dive when I saw a golden opportunity to shake him further.

“Idiot, what do you think soldiers are for?!”

The moment those words left my mouth, a surge of psychic energy hammered into me, encompassing my armor and the kids as well.

What’s going on? Where did this psychic field come from?

I immediately asked myself, but it was then that a voice started speaking in my head in a slow, soothing tone.

“Submit to me… be my slave… do not resist… If you do, your brain will implode… submitting is the only way…”

Unfortunately for the owner of that voice, psychic suggestions like that were useless, Territory or no Territory. With the bloodline of the Lust Demon and the Illusion Demon in me, my psychic defenses couldn’t be any stronger. Especially not when I had a Devil King residing in me; what was an overlord before that?

Even a Demigod might not be able to work his magic on me. And there was no way anyone would allow a mesmer to reach that level. This mesmer being an overlord was an oddity in itself.

I wonder how the Ertalonese king hid such a powerful mage and allowed him to become an overlord.

However, just because that mesmer’s suggestion did not work on me, did not mean the kids were okay…

As the effects of the psychic Territory washed over them, their barrage fire stopped. Instead, their cannons turned ominously towards me…

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