And (N)one Shall Remain

“Leo, old bastard!” greeted Sir Inolet cheerfully once he disembarked from the wagon. He walked towards the senior-most – easy enough to tell with the way the man dressed and the rank epaulets on his chest – of the welcoming officers from Fort Abernal, the next posting of the [Heroes]’ party and gave the man a big, friendly hug.

 

“Good to see that missing an eye and a leg had yet to drag you down to the afterlife, you lily-livered old fart!” greeted the old officer back as he hugged Sir Inolet just as warmly and patted him on the back a few times. “You’ve been gone from the front for so long that I thought you’ve gone soft in the capital like all those noble windbags!”

 

“Hah! Nah, just got saddled with training the latest batch of [Heroes], is all,” replied Sir Inolet all too nonchalantly, though Alissa noticed that the younger officers present did not seem the least bit surprised at the way he talked. Then again, they were officers in a fort led by one of the old knights, so it would be unsurprising if they were used to such talk, especially if they were trusted ones.

 

“They the younglings behind you, then?” commented the old knight from the fort as he glanced over Alissa and the rest of her group. All eleven of them were present and lined up while Sir Inolet greeted his old friend. “Doesn’t seem as impressive as the last batch, also, not many [Companions] and [Associates] this time around, huh?”

 

“Only nine of those off their first dungeon,” answered Sir Inolet. “Not really something you can blame them for, you know how it goes with [Companions] and [Associates]. Always depends on their own luck, for the most part. It was already rare enough that we had fifteen back then, and even then only one survived that war.”

 

“Fair point, I guess,” admitted the old knight with a shrug of his shoulders. “Hm? Is it just me or is the [Cleric] missing? That girl there’s clearly one of ours and with the temple guard, so it can’t be her,” he then asked as he glanced towards Leda. “Don’t tell me that we got shafted right from the start and are missing one of the [Heroes] already…”

 

“Summoning complication,” explained Sir Inolet with a shake of his head. “Even so, they did pretty well. We managed to beat the demons back in the east when we caught them by surprise. The kids did their part,” he added, clearly putting in a good word for the [Heroes]’ party. “They even listen well to my teachings.”

 

“Let me judge that for myself,” replied the old knight as he finally moved away from Sir Inolet and allowed the group to get a good look at him for the first time.

 

Sir Leonhart DelVillar – Sir Inolet had introduced him and his famous feats during the journey to Fort Abernal – was not an impressive looking man at the first glance, or at any subsequent glances for that matter. He was rather lanky and gaunt, and not that tall either, probably nearly half a head shorter than Alissa herself. The old knight kept his gray hair in a severe ponytail and his beard trimmed short, but looked nothing like what Alissa had imagined one of the most powerful combatants in the Kingdom would be like.

 

Of course, a glance with [Analysis] told of another story altogether.

 

[Orphan Lvl20 / Shield Soldier Lvl20 / Mighty Stone Bulwark Lvl20 / Unbreakable Guardian Knight Lvl15]

 

The old knight was the one of the highest level humans Alissa had seen thus far, not counting some like the High Priest or the non-combat classes. That said, his appearance was even more confusing when juxtaposed against his classes. In Alissa’s experience thus far, defensive class combatants tend to lean to large, robust physiques, which made the old, gaunt knight look like even more of an anomaly.

 

“I know that look, ain’t no stranger to it,” said Sir DelVillar with an amused scoff. Alissa was likely not the only one who had those thoughts, and clearly some of the others were worse at preventing their thoughts from showing on their features. Then again, Alissa sort of cheated since [Weather the Storm] helped her do so easily.

 

“You. You’re the [Mage], aren’t you?” continued the old knight as he pointed towards Joshua with a wrinkled, gnarled finger. “Come at me. Hit me with everything you have. I’ll see for myself whether this batch is really any good or not.”

 

“Just do what old Leon tells you to, boy,” encouraged Magus Drummond from behind Joshua with a wide smirk on his face. “He knows what he’s doing. Besides, if you can drop him, it’ll just mean that it’s time for the old bastard to retire and start raising sheep instead!”

 

“Well… okay then… Here I go, Sir. [Spell Combination]! [Mana Overload]! [Overcharge: 300%]! [Lens of Focus]! [Double Cast]! [Elemental Enhancement: Lightning]! [Incarnation of Elements: Bolt of Lightning]! [Elemental Arts: Piercing Bolt]!” said Joshua as he triggered one skill after another, overlapped and combined them. He had gained some new skills since he last did such an all-out strike, though lightning still remained his favored element since it has the best speed and penetration out of the elements he could use.

 

The way he stacked and combined his skills together created a blinding lance of lightning that struck towards Sir Leonhart DelVillar the very next moment. The resultant impact temporarily blinded everyone present – though Alissa guessed that the fourth tiers likely recovered faster or had ways to shrug off the blinding flash – for a while, and for a brief moment Alissa worried for the old knight.

 

That was, until her vision returned to normal and she saw the old knight standing unperturbed where he was, with nary a scratch on his person. Not even his uniform was damaged by the magical blast, and the only sign he did something was the presence of a thin slab of stone that floated before his chest. The stone has scorch marks on its surface, likely where Joshua’s spell struck it.

 

Somehow the thin slab of stone dissipated the spell without taking any notable damage despite the power involved. Alissa knew that Joshua might need some time to overlap and use his many skills together, but the resultant spell was one of the strongest attacks that their party was capable of, and not by a small margin either.

 

“Is that all?” asked the old knight as he stifled a yawn with one hand. “I said give me all you got, youngster. Don’t be cutting corners, now. I’m old, but that doesn’t mean I can’t whoop your arse all the same, you know? Go ahead and wait till your skills cooled down and your mana refills first. I got time.”

 

Joshua remained silent for a moment and waited as he was told. He looked back at the old knight a few minutes later, then with a look of concentration on his face, he raised his arms once more. “[Spell Combination]! [Mana Overload]! [Overcharge: 500%]! [Lens of Focus]! [[Double Cast]! [Elemental Enhancement: Lightning]! [Incarnation of Elements: Rampaging Thunder Dragon]! [Elemental Arts: Thunder of Judgement]!” he chanted as a much, much higher concentration of mana focused itself between its hand and turned into a serpentine dragon made of lightning.

 

The combination of spells was one Joshua never actually used in combat yet because it took too long to get it together and such an opening would be potentially fatal, yet since the old knight incensed him and told him to do his utmost, he decided that he would do just that. The combination drained almost every drop of mana from his body, and he kept it charged until he couldn’t hold it anymore before he let the spell loose.

 

This time, the flash of lightning was even more blinding – Alissa still saw white for a moment despite having closed her eyes – and deafening as it struck the old knight’s floating stone slab. It took at least a couple minutes before Alissa finally blinked away the spots in her vision and managed to take a good look at the old knight.

 

Sir Leonhart DelVillar was unscathed, though this time, the slab of stone he used to block the blow had crumbled for the most part, with over half of the slab’s thickness shattered, but the rearmost layer still intact. The old knight himself had a satisfied smile on his face, however, despite his defense nearly being breached.

 

“That’s better,” he said nonchalantly. “At least you got some bite when you put your back to it, though you definitely need to work on getting those skills out faster and in a less noticeable way,” commented the old knight with a shake of his head. “Also go to work on your endurance, I’d say. Did that spell empty your mana already?”

 

“Just… about,” replied Joshua with difficulty as he was suffering from the throes of mana overuse. “I got… maybe some dregs left in me after that spell…”

 

“Still better than most mages I’ve seen. Take pride in that you’ve done more to my defenses than that old charlatan you call your master ever did!” replied Sir DelVillar with a bark of laughter over Magus Drummond’s protestations. “Don’t deny it, Murdock. You’ve never even managed to get halfway through a slab of mine!”

 

“You very well know that this brat takes a very different path compared to me you dotard!” yelled Magus Drummond back. Indeed, the old Magus had skills that were more focused towards endurance and being able to keep firing spells over long periods of time, unlike Joshua’s which went towards a far more explosive approach.

 

“Anyway, that’s one of them. What about you?” asked Sir DelVillar as he pointed towards Ethan.

 

“Uhh… My classes lean towards the defensive, Sir,” replied Ethan somewhat nervously. The old knight reminded Alissa and Ethan a lot of the sort of demanding coaches they sometimes had back at their schools. “I don’t think I have strong enough attacks that can match what Smith did earlier.”

 

“Oh, nevermind then. I’m more curious about what the current [Heroes] could do on the offense for the time being,” replied Sir DelVillar nonchalantly. “What about you, girl? Want to give this old man a try too?”

 

“If you don’t mind, I would like to give it a shot, Sir,” replied Alissa as she brought out her spear and held it in both hands in a low stance. She could use her spear one-handed, sure, but since the old knight seemed to want to test their most powerful attack, Alissa figured she should do as he asked, so she used both hands instead.

 

“All right,” noted the old knight as he nodded and formed a new slab of stone, one just as solid as the one Joshua partly shattered with his supercharged spell earlier. “Go ahead, girl. Come at me with all you got.”

 

Alissa held her spear with the thinner spearhead – the one meant for penetrating strikes – pointed towards the old knight and took a deep breath as she activated her offensive skills one after another. She had quite a few skills that supposedly aided in penetration and made her strikes able to pierce through many forms of defenses, but she was uncertain how well they would work against the old knight’s defense.

 

She took a moment to calm herself and double-checked to make sure that all the relevant skills were already applied properly, then took another deep breath before she lunged towards the old man and thrust her spear towards the stone slab he used for defense with all her strength. The impact that followed made her feel as if she had struck against solid metal, and almost made her lose her grip on her weapon.

 

“Quite impressive,” noted Sir DelVillar as he looked at the point of Alissa’s spear which managed to pierce through his stone defense, even if only by an inch or so. The spearhead was embedded into the stone slab and only barely penetrated it, but it was still a better result than any he had seen other than his contemporaries.