Chapter 66: No End to Them

After the audience with the king, Raive and the rest were free to do what they needed.

That meant they could move to intercept the monsters barreling into the fortified walls, or just sit tight and wait for what’s coming.

"First, we should split up."

This was the first run on this trial, so Raive didn’t want to be passive. He wanted to try out everything he could first.

Under his command, they split into five groups.

Hazel and Kenny were to defend the northern wall.

Sheila, Patricia, and Therese manned the eastern wall.

Shymine and Hershey went to fortify the southern wall.

While Raive moved alone, defending the western wall.

Reinhardt was left in the audience room to watch over the crystal, while Khamish was still nowhere to be found.

Although Raive was worried, he trusted that Khamish wouldn’t just die off so easily against anyone. He could only trust him for now, whatever he was doing.

After receiving their orders, they moved without delay.

Raive arrived at the top of the western wall the fastest.

As soon as he got there, he saw the swarming monsters attacking the stone walls endlessly, as if they had nothing else in mind but to invade. He also saw the soldiers glare at him upon his entrance, as if they’d just seen a monster standing among them.

Knowing they were clueless about what happened inside the audience room, he raised his voice and commanded.

"I, Raive Asterates, will help you defeat the monsters threatening peace in the name of god!"

As he spoke, he raised his Tree Knight’s sword high, like a commander giving a rousing speech before battle.

"Brave soldiers! Follow me to cut through this thick tide of monsters!" He roared. "Pray, for your faith shall lead you to salvation! May god’s will be with us all!"

And then, after saying whatever bullshit came to mind, he stood at the edge of the wall and fell straight down.

The walls were over ten meters tall, so it was quite a fall. But to Raive, with his +1000 stats, it was no different from skipping down a set of stairs. Soon enough, he was standing face-to-face with the enemy.

To Raive’s surprise, the monsters weren’t plant-type anymore. They didn’t look like the powerful, boss-like mish-mash horrors that were hard to even look at either.

Instead, they were animal variants.

Though none of them looked normal at all.

Some had festering wounds releasing green smoke, others had fur harnessing bright blue sparks, while others burned in orange flames without a care. It was as fantastic a scene as something out of a fantasy movie.

But Raive didn’t really care.

Whatever they looked like, monsters served only one purpose to him—to be cut down by his sword.

As soon as he landed, he swung his sword once, clearing a circle. Body parts and strangely colored blood flew around, staining the wall and the ground.

"Sword Flash!"

With a shout, Raive swung his sword horizontally, the edge glowing bright with the skill. He sent it flying out, a powerful slash sweeping across a wide arc and distance—far more than the skill’s usual three meters.

If there was one thing he’d learned during their last day of training, it was this. Something that the one who took over his body showed him.

How to properly control Sword Flash!

Thanks to that, it finally began performing like the EX-rank skill it was.

The slash flew out, clearing a fifty-meter arc from where he stood. Hundreds of monsters were bisected, dying in a single hit.

The soldiers on top of the wall watched in awe. Then, after realizing they became idle, shouted a command.

"F-Fire! Help Sir Raive!"

And soon enough, they resumed shooting arrows down at the monsters.

Of course, none of them dared come down and charge alongside Raive. They were soldiers who followed orders from above, and their orders were to hold the wall. Fighting in the middle of the horde wasn’t part of the deal.

Raive didn’t mind either.

He’d only shouted all that to mark himself as an ally—he never expected any of the soldiers to actually follow him down there.

He kept firing Sword Flash after Sword Flash, clearing droves of monsters around him.

But with tens of thousands of them filling his view, Raive knew their job was far from over.

He stayed focused, killing anything that got too close as he pushed deeper into the enemy’s formation.

Deliberately so.

He’d been holding back near the walls—otherwise, he’d just be helping the monsters tear those stone fortifications down.

But now that he was a couple hundred meters out, he no longer needed to hold back.

He pulled his sword to his side and began gathering energy.

The wooden blade flashed with bright white light as he charged Sword Flash. Then, when the enemies were literally an arm’s length away.

"Sword Flash First Application—Full Moon Slash!"

He twisted his body, sweeping the sword in a perfectly rounded path, as if drawing an imaginary circle around himself. All in under 0.1 seconds.

WHOOSH!

A powerful wave of light swept across the monsters.

They didn’t just get cut—they were vaporized. All of them within 200 meters. Even the wall, far off by now, got scorched black just from the slash’s remnant energy.

Raive killed several hundred of them in that one attack!

But he wasn’t even tired after using such a big skill. His stats were so high that even his best attack barely dented his mana or stamina.

"Phew..."

Raive paused, scanning his surroundings, pleased with the display.

He could even see the soldiers up on the wall, mouths hanging open. He didn’t blame them—he knew how inhuman that had just looked.

"Still, there’s really no end to them."

Despite killing so many, more kept coming to fill the gap.

Overall, the enemy didn’t seem to have suffered much.

Raive frowned.

Their task was to find the traitors, kill them all, while protecting the crystal in the throne room for 24 hours.

Even if the monsters were weak individually, Raive doubted they could defend this castle that long—not against an endless wave like this.

Raive and his party might be fine, but the other players, let alone the NPCs, had little chance of surviving that long.

And even with just his team, Raive was sure they’d fail to hold against an endless tide.

"There’s definitely something I’m missing... More hidden rules..."

Unless he could figure those out and use them to his advantage...

Then for this loop, defeat was imminent.