At the Temple square, the two sides remained locked in a tense standoff.
Elmer was completely dumbfounded.
What was supposed to be a flawless, overwhelming victory had suddenly taken an unexpected turn.
Nar Alvin was here!
The strongest existence among the Guardian Knights, he had reached the top of their ranks at the mere age of fifteen.
His talent was terrifying, and his strength was equally soul-shaking.
Crucially, he was not alone!
Behind him stood over two hundred elite knights.
Elmer's side originally only had about a hundred people, and now the balance of power had shifted violently.
He was now at a complete disadvantage!
"Nar, have you lost your mind? This is Shumir's plan! Are you really going to rebel against your own father!?"
Faced with this sudden despair, Elmer had become hysterical.
He no longer cared about anything else; things had already reached this critical point.
If he did not succeed, his only future was death.
Nar's gaze swept across the entire square.
There were over a hundred powerhouses in the square, while the rest were ordinary soldiers, mostly between level ten and thirty.
These people were essentially not a threat.
Nar lowered his head, looking at the one-horned Rhinoceros-man.
"Uncle Abel, what are you doing?"
The Rhinoceros-man looked up at the youth on horseback and let out a sigh.
"As expected, just as the family head said, you did not choose the family."
Nar's gaze suddenly became sharp, his voice filled with fury.
"I am asking you, what are you doing!?"
The Rhinoceros-man did not answer; his single eye only stared coldly at Nar.
Nar took a deep breath and nodded.
"No answer? I understand... All units, raise lances!!"
"Ha!"
Over two hundred knights simultaneously raised their lances, pointing them forward.
Even though they were facing the brother of the head of the Cromwell family, they did not hesitate.
This group of people were indeed children of the nobility, but they were also knights loyal to the Temple.
If there were no leader, they would naturally lean toward their families, but at this moment, the person standing before them was Nar.
The youth with the greatest talent in the history of the Kingdom of the Moon.
These noble children respected him, and no matter what he did, they would follow him.
This was the charisma of Nar.
"Nar! Give up!"
Abel, the one-eyed Rhinoceros-man, looked at the youth on horseback and tried to persuade him once more.
"At this very moment, fifteen hundred knights have already joined our ranks. There are not many people in the square because they have already gone to suppress the city gates. In less than half an hour, the other knights will lead the army into the city. By then, there will be no chance left. Even if you are the son of the family head, he won't be able to protect you!"
"This isn't a rebellion; this is just us wanting to survive!"
"Fifteen hundred people..."
Nar turned his head to glance behind him.
Forty-two knightesses were lying on the ground, and only eight remained alive, all of them heavily injured. Two were clearly on the brink of death.
Hilda, the ninth among the knightesses, was also severely wounded.
Fortunately, the Temple was not empty. As someone close to the Saintess, Nara was leading the nuns in treating them.
Though they might not be fully healed, at least their lives could be saved.
Of the garrison remaining in Brilliant City, setting aside the infantry, there were only two thousand knights.
With fifteen hundred of them defecting, that left fewer than five hundred.
Nar did a quick calculation in his head.
There were 273 knights following him, and another 50 were guarding the other 100 knights elsewhere.
That made 333.
Adding the 50 knightesses, that was 383.
The remaining 117 were likely Cain's direct subordinates.
With only a hundred or so people, even under Cain's leadership, it would be impossible to hold the four gates.
They were simply overwhelmed by numbers!
From this perspective, Brilliant City could not be held.
Even if he stayed here, he couldn't hold it. Fifteen hundred knights were an absolutely overwhelming force.
Once they charged, nothing could stop them.
"Lord Nar."
While Nar was still contemplating the situation, a voice suddenly came from behind him.
He instinctively turned to look.
"Lady Nara? Are Bishop Lola and Minister Augus still in the Temple?"
Nara did not speak but walked to his horse and handed him a piece of paper.
"Minister Augus said that if you came, I should give this to you."
The handwriting was Augus's, though it was slightly messy, as if written in a great hurry.
'Sir Nar, if you are reading this note, it means your heart is still with the Temple. If Lord Hilda is already dead when you arrive, please lead the troops to break out immediately. Do not linger before the Temple.'
'If Lord Hilda is still alive, please hold the Temple. I will immediately lead the Dragon Knight Corps to provide support.'
The first thought in Nar's mind was that Hilda had been sold out.
In the current situation, he couldn't think of any other word besides 'sold' to describe it.
That Augus truly lived up to his family name; the words despicable and treacherous could hardly describe his crimes!!
In such a critical moment, he had actually abandoned a Guardian Knight.
What was he trying to do?
Did he think the Guardian Knights weren't human?
Such a person did not deserve to assist Her Highness!
Rage burned continuously in Nar's heart.
"Where is that bastard? How could he just leave Lord Hilda here to fight to the death!?"
Nar turned back, glaring at Nara.
However, Nara's explanation made Nar pause for a moment.
"Lord Nar, you seem to have misunderstood something. Minister Augus and Bishop Lola were forcibly sent away by Lord Hilda. They did not leave of their own free will."
Nar's brow furrowed as he glanced at Hilda, who lay on the ground with her chest armor sliced open.
At this moment, the nuns were doing their best to treat her.
"Then this paper..."
"It was left for me before Minister Augus was forcibly sent away."
Hearing this, the fire in Nar's heart subsided by half.
"How is Lord Hilda?"
"Her injuries are severe. We can only buy time. As for the rest... we can only wait for Her Highness to return."
"I see. Send Lord Hilda into the Temple first. Do everything you can to keep them alive. Don't worry about the outside; leave it to me."
Nar nodded, his youthful face filled with absolute gravity.
"Lord Nar, thank you for your hard work."
Nara bowed slightly, then turned back to the Temple entrance, directing the nuns to carry the nine knightesses, including Hilda, inside.
Watching the Temple doors slowly close behind them, Nar finally felt relieved and turned back to face the front.
During the time he was speaking with Nara, another two hundred knights had appeared in the square.
The combat power had suddenly shifted from unbalanced to a state of equilibrium.
Over two hundred Temple knights, over a hundred unorganized level 40 experts, and over twenty unorganized Guardian Knight-level experts.
On Nar's side, of the 273 knights, 200 had reached the level of Brave Knight, while the remaining 73 were close, all above level 38.
In single combat, Nar's side had no advantage at all.
But this was group combat.
As a Guardian Knight with warfare skills, he could make his 273 men exert the power of 500.
However, in terms of top-tier power, they were still slightly inferior to the opposition.
This created a disjointed balance in combat power between the two sides.
Nar weighed the situation in his mind. It would be very difficult to fight these people now.
Not to mention the experts before him, even the knights who would arrive later would be hard to deal with.
He couldn't charge recklessly, otherwise, as soon as his strength was slightly weakened, the enemy would take advantage.
Like a drawn bow, he could still deter them while his strength was gathered, but once he charged, he would lose that deterrence.
Nar knew his own strength well. If he were alone, breaking out wouldn't be a problem.
Even leading a team wouldn't be an issue, but the Temple was behind him. He could not retreat, nor could he leave!
The two sides fell into a strange, eerie deadlock.
The rebel army led by Elmer did not dare to strike out of fear of Nar.
Nar did not dare to strike for fear of weakening his army.
...
Meanwhile, three of the four city gates had already fallen into the hands of the knights.
Among them was the North Gate!
On the chaotic streets, a carriage was parked just inside the North Gate.
The massive gate had been closed, and the soldiers and knights on the walls stared down at the carriage.
Before the carriage, a tall figure holding a massive axe glared back at the knights on the wall.
"What do we do? Do we charge or not?"
Old Sake looked at the city gate not far away.
Inside the carriage behind him were undoubtedly Lola and Augus.
About a dozen knights stood guard on both sides of the carriage.
The two sides had been at a standstill for nearly a minute.
The enemy forces were growing. Besides the hundred or so knights on the wall, another hundred knights blocked the path in front of the gate.
If they continued this standoff, the enemy would likely gather even more strength. By then, let alone breaking out, they wouldn't even know how they died!
Augus sat in the carriage, knowing full well that there was no chance for them to escape Brilliant City now.
Instead of trying to flee, it would be better to wait in the Temple and gamble on the Dragon Knight Corps.
Unfortunately, he and Lola had been forcibly sent out by Hilda.
Her intentions were good, but this had completely exceeded his expectations!
At the time, she hadn't said anything else, just sent them out directly.
The knights escorting them on both sides were also incredibly stubborn; they simply wouldn't listen to a word he said.
They had stubbornly delivered him and Lola here.
"Charge!"
Looking at the wall before him, since they had reached this point, there was no way back.
If they turned around now, they would likely be surrounded and killed by these knights before they even reached the Temple.
"Alright! Don't you worry, I'll get you out no matter what!"
With that, the old ox Sake let out a snort.
Snort!
"Boys! Follow me!"
The dozen knights looked at each other, nodded silently, and raised their lances, pointing them forward.
"War Stomp!"
Boom!
Sake's hoof slammed violently into the ground!
The earth trembled slightly, and the hundred or so knights opposite them also raised their lances.
Sake snorted again, raised his hoof high, and slammed it down once more.
"War Stomp: Multiple Echoes!"
Boom!
The booming sound rang out again, and the hundred knights across from him looked at each other in confusion.
After all, this kind of stomp was hard to turn into a combat force unless it was part of a large military formation.
Even the dozen knights on his own side looked at Sake in surprise.
It was as if they were looking at a fool.
Why was he wasting his strength like this?
However, Sake had no intention of explaining. He continued to stomp the ground repeatedly.
The small pit he had initially made began to grow as the number of stomps increased.
The initial vibrations seemed to start creating an echo.
The vibration waves, which had only a slight amplitude before, began to crack the stone tiles on the ground as his stomping speed and frequency increased.
The booming grew louder, and in this moment, everyone's gaze focused on the tauren.
The sound of his lone stomping, under the increasing speed, actually began to sound like the thunderous roar of hundreds of galloping horses.
In the distance, the enemy knights finally realized something was wrong.
"Quick, stop him!!"
"A single person is releasing a warfare skill? What is the background of this tauren?"
"Stop talking and charge!!"
At this moment, a simple, honest smile appeared on Sake's face.
"Heh! I haven't been eating all those wages for nothing! Boys, charge with me!!"
As Sake's final stomp landed, a crack instantly split the stone ground.
This crack seemed to have a direction, winding its way straight toward the city gate.
Crack—Boom!!
With a massive explosion, the crack extended all the way to the city gate over a hundred meters away.
The white horses beneath the knights were so startled by the violent tremors that they backed away to the sides.
"Now!!"
Sake let out a roar.
"Savage Charge!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Sake dragged his massive axe with one hand, letting the blade scrape across the ground in a shower of sparks. His massive body, over two and a half meters tall, charged directly toward the city gate!
"Block him!!"
"Don't let him get through!!"
Over a hundred knights quickly moved to block Sake's path, raising their lances.
But the ground was still vibrating slightly, and their horses couldn't build up any speed for a charge.
Sake's face still held that simple smile.
"Heh! Brute Strength! Greater Brute Strength!"
As the two skills were released, his arms, already as thick as a man's waist, suddenly bulked up by two sizes.
The muscles all over his body tightened like iron blocks, and his veins bulged.
In the next second, Sake collided with the hundred-plus knights.
Boom!
Lances instantly pierced Sake's skin, but... they simply could not go deep.
Seven or eight men, still gripping the lances stuck in Sake's body, were forcibly lifted off their horses by his sheer momentum!
The other knights couldn't even find an opening to strike, as their view of Sake was completely blocked by their own comrades!
Sake, having carved a path of blood through the hundred knights, finally reached the massive gate.
In an instant, a sharp glint flashed in Sake's eyes as he roared at the thick city gate!
"Bull Strike!"
Rate on N.U.
