A layer of crystal also encrusted Hotspur's greaves. With a powerful surge of strength, he shattered the bindings, but Tanith's lower body remained firmly sealed to the ground by the glintstone magic.
He attempted to pull her free, but at his first exert of force, Tanith let out a suppressed groan of agony. The color drained from her lips instantly, frightening Hotspur into stopping immediately. Had he forcibly dragged her into the air, he feared she would have been torn clean in two.
"Cowards!" Hotspur roared. He knew nothing of sorcery; the only way he could think of to free Tanith was to slowly and carefully chip away at the crystal. But with a circle of experts watching him like hawks, he was never going to get that chance.
Below the balcony, the Outcast Sorcerer raised his staff. A Glintstone Comet, trailing a tail of blue flame, hurtled toward Tanith.
Hotspur spun around and raised his Horned Shield, taking the high-tier sorcery head-on. Before the destructive magical afterglow could even dissipate, he staggered back, a throwing axe burying itself in his back.
Without pausing to pull out the axe, he swung his greatsword in a horizontal sweep, intercepting a sniping explosive bolt. Then, snapping his wings shut, he shielded Tanith from the force of the blast.
"Good! Wear him down like that!" the Kaiden sellsword shouted. He was about to hurl a second axe when a spectral dragon tail whipped out from the rolling dust. The Aspect of the Crucible swept across the second floor, forcing the guests back, before slamming heavily into the junction where the balcony met the building.
The remaining half of the balcony collapsed, shattering into fragments upon the ground amidst a bloom of dust. Jolted by the impact, Tanith sat in the debris, clutching her mouth and coughing dryly; her palms were stained with the bloody foam she hacked up.
"Hotspur... save yourself. Go."
Hotspur said nothing. He swung his shield to further shatter the floorboards, finally lifting the section of stone beneath Tanith's feet. He retreated step by step toward the manor's outer wall, each stride leaving a deep indentation in the earth.
The guests pursued them, only to find that Hotspur had backed into a corner where the manor wall and fallen boulders blocked two sides, forcing them to attack from the front.
Seeing Hotspur thrust his Horned Shield into the dirt, clearly intending to make a final stand, the Kaiden sellsword's face darkened. "This bastard definitely has reinforcements. Don't let him stall for time."
Bracing himself behind the Horned Shield, Hotspur stood resilient against the onslaught of the guests. From time to time, he unleashed a fiery breath from his throat; the intense heat scorched the earth into glowing glass, ensuring none of the guests dared to draw too close.
Amidst the rolling waves of heat, Tanith slumped in the corner, looking like a withered flower.
"I dispatched a squad of knights earlier; they will be here soon. Please, my Lady, hold on a moment longer," Hotspur whispered.
"You shouldn't have done that. If the purge of the officers is left unfinished, the Gelmir army may spiral out of control," Tanith said with difficulty. Her body temperature was rising rapidly, and her sweat evaporated the moment it touched the air.
"The Man-Serpents will suppress them. You are the manor's strategist, my Lady—you never fail to account for every detail—so why did you not consider your own safety when making this plan?" Hotspur questioned her, his tone firmer than it had ever been.
He unleashed another gout of fire, but he faltered halfway through. When he forced himself to finish the cycle, he nearly gagged his very soul out; the Crucible power within his throat was utterly spent.
Even so, the guests sensed the Crucible Knight's weakness and began to close in, sensing blood in the water.
Hotspur gripped his greatsword, preparing for one final gambit, when the sonorous blast of a Gelmir horn echoed from behind the guests.
Wooooooo—
Atop the slope, a Gelmir Knight lowered his horn and leveled his spear. The triangular banner emblazoned with the volcano's sigil fluttered at the tip of the shaft.
"Charge!"
Amidst a mountain-shaking roar, nearly a hundred Gelmir Knights charged down the slope.
In terms of individual strength, even the weakest guest could have handled three to five knights easily. But at this moment, the guests were disorganized and lacked coordination, their stamina still depleted from the fight against the Great Serpent. Their line was shattered in an instant.
The Gelmir Knights' initial charge yielded significant results, but once the battle devolved into a melee, their own casualties began to skyrocket.
"This is their last strength! Finish them and the victory is ours!" the Kaiden sellsword roared, felling a knight with a thrown axe. As he moved along the edge of the battlefield, he suddenly felt a shadow loom over him from above.
The ground shook violently, and everyone turned to look.
A Godskin Noble shifted his massive belly, revealing the Kaiden sellsword crushed flat like a pancake beneath him. He leveled his stitcher, and a hundred spheres of black flame rose from the slope, slamming into the guests' positions.
"Not good! They have more reinforcements!" a guest screamed.
Over a hundred Blackflame Monks appeared on the slope. They unleashed three volleys of black fireballs like a heavy artillery barrage, then simultaneously drew their flame-patterned blades and charged, chanting prayers as they ran.
The guests began to waver. Once the first man turned to flee, the rest scattered in every direction.
Fewer than half of the Gelmir Knights were still standing; they had no strength left to pursue and could only watch with resentment as the guests vanished.
"That's the Godskin! The volcano has actually conspired with them!" Raven's knights saw the Godskin Noble and began to retreat, avoiding contact with these infamous heretics.
"I thank you for your aid, Sir Noble. Your side is indeed reliable," Hotspur said, using his sword to prop himself up. "Due to an accident, Bishop Baroque did not perish in the serpent's den. A dozen priests and deacons loyal to the Erdtree likely escaped the purge as well. For your side to fully control the Volcano branch of the Fire Guardians, we must continue our sincere cooperation."
He looked back at the manor; black smoke billowed from almost every window. The guests had set fires while looting, and half the building was now an inferno.
"Sir Noble, could you ask your men to help extinguish the flames? There is no water nearby, so I must rely on the Fire Monks—you!"
Hotspur stumbled back. His greatsword and Horned Shield fell from his hands as a small hole, smoldering with black flame, appeared in each of his pauldrons.
The Godskin Noble withdrew his stitcher. His corpulent body leapt into the air, crashing down into the center of the Gelmir Knight formation. Two knights and their horses were crushed into paste instantly; a dozen more were sent flying by the shockwave, rolling on the ground and screaming as black flames consumed them.
The Blackflame Monks also struck without warning. The Gelmir Knights were completely unprepared for their allies' betrayal, and their ranks were split into fragments in the blink of an eye. After a desperate, futile struggle, the remaining knights were forced to surrender and were disarmed by the monks.
"Godskin! How dare you betray Lord Rykard!" Hotspur spat with hatred.
"I never swore fealty to Rykard. How can there be betrayal?" the Noble said, walking toward Tanith with his stitcher in hand.
"What are you trying to do?" Hotspur's arms hung limply at his sides, yet he still stubbornly blocked Tanith's path.
"Step aside." The Godskin Noble's blade pierced Hotspur's left knee. He was about to strike again when he suddenly stopped. He retreated several paces and looked up at the sky.
"Bastard!" Hotspur shouted from his knees, but then he saw the Godskin Noble also drop to one knee.
"Silence. Do not be disrespectful to my Lord," the Godskin Noble said. He lowered his body so much that he looked like a pile of half-melted ice cream, but no one found the sight comical.
The Blackflame Monks looked at one another, and one by one, they all knelt.
The shadow of an Ancient Dragon stretched long across the ground. Lansseax beat her wings and descended from the heavens with a roar.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(161 Chapter - Ongoing)
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