Clang!
Amid the spreading dust and smoke, the flaming Demon Sword pulled free from the crack in the rock gave an excited ring. A figure with tousled black hair and cross-shaped star pupils crossed the battlefield reduced to scorched earth, descending lightly before them.
"Sorry. I'm late…"
"Not too early, not too late. Right on time."
Among the ruins, Leonidas laughed heartily. He immediately raised his hand and gripped the offered palm tightly. Knocking aside two stray arrows with his shield, he bumped shoulders with the comrade who had crossed time and space to meet him, then pulled him into an embrace.
"Haha, lucky me. Looks like I won't have to die with this muscle-bound man after all. If I'm going to die, I should at least find a decent beauty to go with."
Caesar brushed at the clothes that had been reduced to strips, held his golden sword, and nimbly jumped out from the rubble. While dodging the spell projectiles crashing down, he made his delighted jab in a rising tone.
But when the Roman Emperor waved away the dust before his eyes and saw that lone figure, his smug smile froze.
"Uh, Your Majesty Theseus, where's the Athenian army?"
"They're still in the Sea of Chaos, held back by the Persian fleet. I was worried, so I came ahead."
"Venus, have mercy on me. I waited all this time, and I still have to go meet Pluto with two sweaty men."
"Not necessarily. As long as we hold Thermopylae until the Greek fleet surrounds them from the sea, it's still unclear who's the prey and who's the hunter. The Persians should be the ones getting nervous."
Samael answered in a low voice, his expression calm. His cross-shaped star pupils opened, taking in the entire battlefield. With a nimble turn of his wrist, the flaming Demon Sword in his palm swept in an arc with an Ether storm, forming a tightly defended fan-shaped barrier that swept down the scattered attacks.
Occasionally, when one slipped through, the golden wings of the Sagittarius Cloth behind the Ancient Serpent moved under divine will with even greater agility than ordinary human arms. Along the way, they slashed horizontally, thrust straight, slapped down, and spun to cut, clearing away arrows, stones, javelins, and spell projectiles alike, creating a safe zone one hundred meters across.
"That's right. The hunt has only just begun! Friends, block the breach! Don't let the Persians escape!
"Our lives are here. Our souls are here. Our glory is here. This is Thermopylae!"
Leonidas, having recovered some strength, laughed boldly. He hurled the notched spear in his hand, driving it into the eye socket of a mammoth war elephant and pinning it dead. Then he drew the short sword at his waist, raised his shield, stepped forward, and threw back his head to call out.
Bang! Bang-bang!
Bang! Bang-bang!
Bang! Bang-bang!
At that moment, hundreds of surviving soldiers supported one another and rose from the ruins. They struck their shields and gathered before the breach, building a new fortress of flesh and blood as they roared with pride in unison.
"Sparta!"
Using barely a hundred men to stop Persia's army of hundreds of thousands, plus at least double-digit Divine Blood Heroes, was madness.
Tch. A losing deal doesn't suit the aesthetics of the Gaius family.
So I'll have to find a way to make a profit from Greece afterward. Otherwise, I'll be taking a huge loss.
Caesar felt the earth tremble again within the dust and smoke. He slowly drew the golden sword at his waist and fitted a bracer onto his left hand. He shook his head helplessly the whole way and rubbed his forehead in complaint, yet his gaze was sharp as a hawk's.
They're here!
At the same time, accompanied by a piercing burst of air, Samael swung his sword forward. A blazing-red sword light unfurled like a strip of silk, precisely cleaving apart the rune arrows flying at them from afar.
"It's the Meteor Legion! Shields up, defend!"
The experienced Leonidas instantly recognized that one of Persia's two ace units, the Meteor Legion, had taken the field and roared a warning.
Before his voice even fell, the battle-hardened defenders of Thermopylae had already crouched down in place, overlapping their shields to form a half-covered circular shield formation. Leaning against one another, they activated the remaining Magecraft arrays on the shields and built an airtight mobile fortress.
Then piercing whistles rose one after another as a black mass of arrows bearing coldly flickering Magecraft light patterns came pouring down.
For a time, the clang of metal rang without end, yet the defenders of Thermopylae beneath the shield formation stood unmoving.
Hiss!
Just as the rain of arrows failed to break through after a prolonged assault, a golden beam mixed among them fell like a meteor.
Bang!
The flaming Demon Sword swept out and split the arrow apart, keeping it from striking the shield formation dead-on.
The aftershock of the collision formed a powerful wind pressure that swept outward, while scattered Ether blasted several smoking craters into the hard nearby rock.
Long time no see, Arash…
The Ancient Serpent's cross-shaped star pupils opened and focused into the distance. A thousand meters away, in a dense forest, the great Persian hero hidden among the lush branches seemed to sense his gaze and looked over. He rose and struck his chest in respect.
But then Arash lowered his arm, placed his hand on the bowstring without hesitation, drew his longbow, and chanted divine words as he poured all his Mana into the arrow, aiming at that terrifying opponent.
Revealing himself was to honor a hero. Drawing his bow was to attack an enemy.
Sorry. This is war…
"A complaint-arrow letter offered to the two great deities, Apollo of Light and Artemis of the Hunt!"
Just as Arash was preparing his charged strike, a cold, clear cry rang out. A massive golden-blue Magecraft array manifested in the sky, and Ether gathered madly. Then a rain of golden and silver arrows of light came crashing down from above.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!
Members of the Meteor Legion hiding beneath branches and leaves were struck one after another. They screamed, spraying blood as they fell from the tree limbs to the mud below.
Hiss!
The sound of splitting air rang out again. As Arash leapt away, his brows tightened. Relying on his sharp perception, he locked onto the target, rapidly chanted divine words, and fired a fierce arrow in midair.
Bang!
Under that precise interception, the two arrows collided, and the powerful shockwave snapped the surrounding grass and trees.
However, before Arash could catch his breath, a cold glint broke through the spreading dust and entered his eyes again, making the great Persian hero's brow twitch violently.
There was another one!
The great hero immediately twisted his waist and hastily fired an arrow, intercepting the second arrow hidden behind the first at a distance of less than ten meters.
Puff!
But unexpectedly, the great Persian hero, who should have turned danger aside, was sent flying backward by the blast wave, leaving scattered streaks of blood along the way.
Careless. There was actually one more…
"It wasn't two arrows in succession, but three fired at once. Impressive archery!"
Arash endured the pain and pulled the arrow from his shoulder, unable to help sighing in admiration.
"You managed to avoid a vital point even then. You're not bad either."
From the spreading dust, a female hunter with long emerald hair and brown-yellow cat ears stepped out of the forest, bow in hand.
"You two go on ahead. Leave this place to me!"
Atalanta drew an arrow from her quiver and spoke casually.
Several streams of light shot through the surroundings as the sound of splitting air rose on all sides. Locked onto by the longbow across from him, Arash's brows knotted together, his eyes shadowed.
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