Medissa did not hesitate to use her ability and protected the mercenaries. However, when she saw the undead general staring at her with an extended right arm holding onto his scythe, she realized her mistake. He gripped onto his scythe with his metallic spiked gloves and shifted it slightly.

Iamas disappeared from her sight in an instant.

She raised her lance in instinct, but she was too late. The brilliance of the Spirit Wings immediately dimmed as the scythe’s swing came from the sky. Iamas’s swing had sundered the weaker protection and cleaved through her silver armor easily; the chain links holding them split apart and scattered like leaves covered in glitter.

Crimson blood quickly dyed her inner shirt as she looked at the gaping injury from her shoulders to her abdomen in disbelief.

Iamas’s cloak gracefully fluttered as he landed on the unicorn. He reached for her throat with his right hand, effortlessly lifted her up, before he hurled her towards the ground.

The Elven Princess had lost all her strength and was unable to resist. She crashed onto the ground with a loud blast, causing a cloud of dust to fly up.

Iamas leaped into the air again when the mercenaries rushed to her aid. He swung the scythe in a perfect arc, a black crescent of energy swept across the mercenaries, spilling blood as they were mowed down like grass. Screams quickly filled the area.

He landed near Medissa’s location.

Her unicorn quickly blocked his path, but he casually struck it down with a swing of his fist. He walked slowly towards her, and lowered his head to observe the bleeding girl; her eyes were unfocused as she coughed with bloody splutters. The blade had cut deeply into her body, and blood dyed it red.

She had almost no feeling left in her body other than pain invading her every nerve. Fatigue gripped her mind, and her consciousness was leaving her. Iamas grabbed her throat again and lifted her up into the air in her dimming vision.

“Medissa, why are you so immature—” Iamas said with a mocking voice, mimicking someone from her past.

Her feeble eyes widened slightly.

“Y-you—” She squeezed her words out before coughing out blood. Iamas had closed one eye while his other blazed with golden flames, staring into her eyes.

[Mind-reading!]

“Damn you—” She concentrated and sealed off her mind with her remaining Soul Energy by flooding around it like water. The Mind-reading skill was only able to retrieve surface thoughts, but it was still considered despicable, and only deplorable wizards would use it.

However, it was widely circulated amongst the Madara’s nobles. The Elven girl trembled with rage and felt humiliated by how she fell for his trick so easily.

[I can’t escape....] She tried to get away from his vice-like grip, but her consciousness was getting fainter, even with the metal spikes from his gloves piercing painfully through her neck. She wanted to warn Brendel, but an invisible wall seemed to shut down her connection to Brendel.

“Y-you.... bastard....” She coughed

“There are many ways to use the Soul Element Power. Madara’s undead have put in considerable effort to research this Element Power, and I am no exception. The barrier I created severs your mental connection to the material world.”

Iamas’s voice suddenly stopped, and he turned around.

He raised his scythe in a certain direction and blocked off a blade infused with visible lightning electricity. The explosive sound came a moment later, as he grunted with effort to shake off the electrical spirals.

Scarlett had struck a blow to him before she retreated quickly.

“Another Gold-ranked existence.” He looked at the red-haired girl standing a short distance away in a readied stance: “That youth has quite the number of skilled people.”

“Release her!” Scarlett roared through clenched teeth.

He scoffed once and threw away Medissa, and his scythe had already swung towards Scarlett. She was momentarily startled as she suddenly lost track of him. The cold blade was nearing her neck with a piercing pain like a needle.

Her blood turned into ice. She saw glimpses of the battle between Iamas and Medissa, but he had actually held back against her. His abilities had far surpassed what he had shown earlier. He was at least at the highest peak of a Gold-ranked fighter, one who had started to master his Element Power fully.

Scarlett immediately twisted her body to avoid injuries to vital areas. The scythe’s sharp blade struck across her back, and she uttered a guttural sound as she was knocked into a nearby wall, completely destroying it.

The attack was far stronger than what Medissa had received, but Scarlett quickly got up.

The Blood of Gods offered a robust defense and regeneration, and it was incomparable to the frail Elves’ constitution.

“What?” Iamas was surprised. He had put in considerable strength into his attack and should have killed her outright, but she got up as if nothing had happened.

Scarlett was glaring angrily at the mercenaries. Iamas and her were a fair distance away from Medissa, and it was the best timing for them to rescue her. However, they had become fearful of his attack and made no attempts to move.

Cornelis was greatly hesitant. His forehead was full of perspiration because of the fear gripping him. The enemy was beyond anything he had seen before in his life and was as terrifying as the monsters appearing in mythical legends. His closest aides had started persuading him to flee from the city, but the youth was just as troublesome to handle. He was not only a viscount in rank; he was also someone who had multiple Gold-ranked fighters under his command.

He had to have an incredible background. Abandoning the two women here would certainly doom him and his men in the future.

The Bonethorn Skeletons suddenly started to move. Iamas had given them the order to surround Medissa and kill her.

Cornelis made his decision with clenched teeth. Going against Brendel might cost them their lives later, but they had an immediate threat here. That undead general was clearly stronger than what they had here; he injured both the newly-arrived Gold-ranked fighter and Medissa in a single strike.

He returned his sword to his sheath and prepared to give the order to retreat, but when he was about to do so, a small pair of hands grabbed onto his sleeve. He looked down to see who it was.

It was the little girl Brendel brought into battle.

“Messere Cornelis?” Sifrid was looking up at him with a frightened pair of deep green eyes. Her voice was a whisper.

Cornelis obviously knew what her question was.

[How should I answer to this little girl? Should I tell her we’re leaving?]

He opened his mouth and tried to find the words to gently tell her the truth. But he quickly discovered he was unable to do so. Sifrid’s terrified face reminded of his own daughter.

His wife and daughter had died in the borders of this accursed land against Madara’s forces. Almost everyone living in this damned place had suffered the hardships of war. Leaving this city meant it was doomed to Graudin’s torturing ways.

He closed his eyes.

“Commander?” One of his aides asked again for his command.

Cornelis’s eyes opened again, bloodshot vessels signaling his madness: “I’m betting everything here.”

Everyone in the vicinity was startled.

“Our fates are left to Marsha’s hands! Form up!” Cornelis bellowed.

“””Our fates are left to Marsha’s hands!!!””” The mercenaries roared in return.

The mercenaries did not waste any time the moment he gave his order. Indecisiveness was the biggest mistake in a battlefield. They quickly formed up to get into a formation and pushed forward against the rows of skeletons. The nearest mercenaries to the Elven Princess picked her up and formed a human wall.

Medissa shook her head to shrug off her blurring senses. There was still a chance to turn this situation around. She gritted her teeth and took a deep breath and whispered feebly to the mercenaries around her

Scarlett was trying hard to fend off Iamas’s attacks, but she received another injury for the third time. She wiped off the blood off her lips when the mercenaries suddenly yelled at her: “Use all your strength to give a blow to that undead fucker!”

[What? Use all my strength?]

She was puzzled, but she suddenly caught a glimpse of the Elven princess amidst the mercenaries. Hope flared up in her heart and understood that it was Medissa’s advice.

“A strike with all I got, you say?” She raised her halberd in the air like she was claiming victory. Lightning gathered to her halberd and lit up the area as though the sun had appeared in the sky.

The blinding light forced Iamas to partially hide his eyes behind his hands.

Countless streaks of electricity danced across her body as she leveled her weapon to his body. The static energy was so intense that it forced her tied up ponytail to break apart and raise up into the air. She grinned at him with her fangs shown.

“Seventh chord—”

“Resounding Thunderclap!”

A star descended onto the battlefield. It pierced through the barrier made of Soul Energy and shook the entire ground. The roaring peals of thunder nearly deafened everyone as lightning flooded the area where Iamas stood—