Chapter 318 - 277: Besieging the Fear Knight! Confrontation of the Top-Tier Experts

A white lie can sometimes prevent unnecessary disputes.

Especially when you’re in a race against time and the Death God.

If they failed to hold back the assault of Flayer Du Ma, not a single person in the entire hangar would be able to escape!

As for who would stay behind to cover the final ship’s retreat, both Albert and Matthias already knew the answer in their hearts.

In terms of rank, Matthias couldn’t refute Albert’s order.

Besides, Reinhardt was present.

Since he remained silent, Matthias could only accept the arrangement.

After a brief wait, Matthias reported back to Raphael and Senior Think Tank Albert, relaying the orders from the Radiant Angels.

One minute wasn’t a long time to wait for evacuation.

But on the Demon Mother Ship, every second felt like a year.

The defensive line formed by the Ash Guard and Death Battle Group Knights was under immense pressure, caught in a pincer attack from a relentless Demon Army.

With Iron Crown Florian and their Second Company Commander both tied up suppressing the Fear Knight, the burden of dealing with the Elite Slaughter Demons within the evacuation line fell entirely on the shoulders of Senior Think Tank Albert.

Although his power was no less than Florian’s, his heroic feat during the Verne Orbital Port battle—using a Spiritual Energy Field to single-handedly stall the Imperial Rebel Army’s ship-borne artillery—had left his Spiritual Power severely damaged.

He was already pushing his limits just to fight the Elite Slaughter Demons.

Even though they were the team sent to support and rescue the Radiant Angels, the prolonged, high-pressure battle had already drained every last drop of physical and mental stamina from the reinforcements.

Time until evacuation ship arrival: forty-seven seconds.

Stearns roared, putting all his strength into resisting the crushing assault of Flayer Du Ma. But the Earth Military Rank Destruction Force Field covering his Knight’s Broadsword and Power Armor proved pathetically fragile in that moment!

BOOM—!

The Fear Knight didn’t even use a weapon or any Combat Techniques—just a single, brutally powerful kick.

The Second Company Commander’s Knight’s Broadsword snapped, his Power Armor caved in, and he was sent flying backward like a meteor, spewing a torrent of blood, before smashing into the bone-strewn bulkhead of the Demon Mother Ship!

From that single, unadorned strike, Stearns’s Knightly Aura immediately withered. He slid to the ground and passed out.

Countdown: forty-four seconds.

Florian had intended to use the power of his Extraordinary Armor, the Shadow Cloak, to dodge the Fear Knight’s incoming Skinning Knife. But the instant he sank into the shadows, a massive hand—sporting sharp black claws and barbs on its back—shot out at a speed that surpassed his visual reflexes and violently seized his arm!

It was like pulling a lamb to the slaughter from a cage.

With incredible violence, it slammed Florian into the ground!

At the same time, it planted a giant right foot on the chest of the Ash Guard’s Iron Crown, looking down on him as its laughter echoed with mockery and cruelty.

"Hehehe... Trying to run?"

Countdown: forty seconds.

At the distant evacuation point, seven Elite Slaughter Demons tore through the hangar ceiling. They descended from above, striking the defensive line formed by the Ash Guard and the Death Battle Group from within.

The first second of contact.

Five Ash Guard members and three Death Battle Team Knights died instantly, crushed by the Mighty Power of a Four-star Earth Military Rank.

Terrifying Spiritual Lightning erupted from Senior Think Tank Albert’s eyes. Blood sprayed from his nose and mouth as he clenched his right fist, and the bodies of two Elite Slaughter Demons were instantly crushed together, twisted into a gory braid of flesh and bone!

This Extraordinary Power, a form of Telekinesis, was just a minor branch of Spiritual Power.

Countdown: thirty-five seconds.

Reinhardt tacitly approved Albert’s request to continue the fight. As streams of high-temperature energy propelled him toward Flayer Du Ma, he activated his Second Great Power: Destructive Field·Bloodthirsty Madness. He activated Black Cutter Empire Technology: Blood Fury. He activated Mimic Evolution Form: Torrential Rain Missiles.

Twelve Living Bombs—each powerful enough to destroy a small Flesh Battleship—shot out of the launcher on Reinhardt’s right shoulder at high speed, slamming into the Fear Knight as it swung its Skinning Knife in an attempt to slaughter Florian.

BOOM—!

A cluster of blinding fireballs instantly engulfed Flayer Du Ma’s massive body. The violent, deafening explosions reverberated wildly throughout the small hangar!

The next second.

A crimson figure, wrapped in an overwhelming Destructive Suppression and wielding a War Axe, tore through the fireball from the explosion and hacked viciously at Flayer Du Ma’s chest!

After this tyrannical, unparalleled Destructive Suppression, saturated with the aura of slaughter and blood, descended upon the combat zone, thousands of Low Level Demons, whether they were fighting or not, reacted as if they had encountered an Abyssal Great Demon, their eyes filled with utter terror!

Even the Ash Guard and the Death Battle Team Knights, deep in the heat of battle, were all inwardly horrified!

As Iron Crown Florian, pinned beneath Du Ma’s foot, felt this Destructive Suppression—so powerful it shook his very soul—up close, and as a grand figure shrouded in a fiery, blood-red mist was reflected in his eyes, his pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.

He was horrified beyond belief!

’What a terrifying Knightly Aura!’

’What he found hardest to believe was that during the battle at Verne Orbital Port, this Vengeful Angel of the Emperor had never used his full strength from beginning to end?!’

But when the bloody aura of this Destructive Suppression violently slammed into Battle Sister Lu Jia’s Knight Perception, she initially thought an Abyssal Great Demon had descended upon the battlefield!

She stared at Reinhardt’s terrifying figure, bathed in Blood Flame, and cried out in her heart, ’How can an Imperial Knight possess such an evil Extraordinary Power?!’

’This is...’

When she sensed the faint blessing of Avernus within Reinhardt’s Second Great Power, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning!

’By the most high Divine Emperor...’

She, who was subject to the authority of the Inquisition, would never have dreamed that the biggest and most terrifying heretic on the entire Demon Mother Ship had been by her side all along!

Having never used its Domain Power from the start, merely toying with Reinhardt and the others, the Fear Knight, Flayer Du Ma, faced Reinhardt’s descending War Axe head-on.

A mass of Demon Scales hardened on its left hand, and it easily caught the War Axe—an attack powerful enough to kill an ordinary Four-star Earth Knight in one blow. The creature itself merely took a single step back.

Its eyes, burning with crimson flames, stared into Reinhardt’s at close range. With a cruel and savage expression, it growled like a beast, taunting, "Heh, even with the enhancement from the great blessing of Avernus, is this all the power you have? Insect."

Evacuation countdown: thirty seconds.

The instant Reinhardt pinned the Flayer from the front, Matthias used the speed advantage of his Extraordinary Armament to appear behind the Flayer in a flash, hovering briefly in the air.

His Ejected Sword Blade, covered in an Energy Force Field and propelled by the Legendary Power of his Steel Cable Muscles, erupted with several times more force than he had ever mustered before. It tore through the air, slashing violently toward the Flayer’s neck!

But the Fear Knight, its gaze still locked with Reinhardt’s, just gave a cruel grin. The Steel Execution Rack on its back suddenly erupted with an extremely powerful Demon Evil Power!

A growth of steel barbs covered its back in an instant.

The Flayer’s execution rack.

A Hundred Refinement Furnace Cast Extraordinary Creation.

Named after Du Ma itself, it was forged from Evil Iron found around an endless corpse pit. Blessed by the power of the Slaughter Death Arena, not only did it possess extremely strong defensive capabilities, but it could also hang the corpses of the strong on its frame and, through a skinning ritual, receive an even greater Blessing of the Arena of Death!

If Matthias hadn’t been strong enough, or his combat experience rich enough, he would already be a dead man for merely coming into contact with this powerful being who possessed the Blessing of the Arena of Death.

In that life-or-death instant, adrenaline surged through him. He escaped the execution rack’s attack range with an arc of electricity, the steel spikes grazing his neck.

As one of the powerful Knight Warlords of the Dark Abyss, and though both were Fear Knights, Flayer Du Ma’s power and combat experience were far beyond what a nascent power like Carnivorous Hunting Dog Carlos could compare to.

Even though it had been beaten half to death by that damned Formless Divine Chosen Sky Knight—forced to hide on this Demon Mother Ship to recuperate and avoid its greedy colleagues—it only needed to use thirty percent of its power to toy with and crush that Radiant Angel.

It was also at this moment that Flayer Du Ma stared into Reinhardt’s tyrannical eyes, its own gaze erupting with ultimate greed and contempt.

"Your hide will surely fetch a greater power in the Slaughter Death Arena, insect."