Chapter 73: Chapter 72: Attack On Stronghold City
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Standing above the walls surrounding Stronghold, seven powerful Hunters glanced at the gigantic, titanic golems attempting to break through the magic barrier protecting the city from the dangers of the outside world.
Henrietta, an A+ Rank Hunter and Guild Master of the Golden Shield Guild, is a gorgeous blonde woman wearing gold armor and possessing the power of the Archangel Gabriel himself. Often known as the "face of Stronghold" by many.
Sara was a silver-haired woman with blue eyes and a slender body, wearing black armor and holding two black spears. She was silent and reserved. A+ Rank Hunter and Guild Master of the Vigilantes Guild, known for silently clearing Dungeons and watching over public safety. They not only target monsters but also criminals, especially those that are awakened.
Hector, a tall, black-haired man wearing heavy blue armor, a stoic facial expression, and holding one huge golden battle axe, was imbued with the power of lightning. A+ Rank Hunter and Guild Master of the Eclipse Guild, which usually works in conjunction with the Vigilantes and Golden Shield Guilds for the safety of Stronghold. A man with little to say, but very strong, nonetheless.
And lastly, Lee Hengyang, the only one that surpasses them all, a handsome half-Korean man, the only S-Rank Hunter in Stronghold at the moment, and the Guild Master of the Crimson Knights Guild. He is so famous that he is known as a nationwide idol for all hunters. He is charismatic and strong, yet cynical and scheming.
And behind them, three B+ Rank Hunters and Guild Masters of the other three strongest guilds, although much below these "big four."
The joyful and talkative red-haired Cliff, an expert archer and guild master of the Rangers Guild, specializes in hunting monsters outside of the city.
The energetic, pink-haired warrior Annette, who, despite her small body, carries a huge hammer and crushes her enemies mercilessly, is the guild master of the Sunshine Guild.
And the gloomy white-haired Hasan, a magician and spiritualist who protects Stronghold from all matters of phantasmal creatures that normal people cannot easily see, is the guild master of the Shaman Guild.
All of them have now gathered together to face the threat that might end up destroying the city. With giant golems as strong as A+ Rank monsters, could these seven people truly stand a chance?
Awakeners were powerful beings; once they awakened, slowly, they stopped being humans. Even if they remained looking like one, all seven of them knew that their whole beings were more than that.
"GRUOOOHH!"
"Here it comes." Henrietta sighed. "Cliff, Annette, and Hasan, stay behind us and follow our orders! Only offer support and don't step in front, or you'll get killed."
"Understood!" Cliff nodded obediently.
"I'll do my best, Henrietta!" Anette giggled.
"Hah~ What a pain…" Hasan sighed gloomily, looking half-asleep. "No mames…"
"How cute; they treat you like their teacher." Laughed Lee Hengyang with a cynical smile. "I'm not in the mood to babysit some rookies, so make sure to not get in the way." He cracked his knuckles. "Oh, I wonder where's that Jack you love so much... Isn't he an A-Rank hunter too?"
"Jack is... busy." Henrietta sighed. "He entered a Dungeon and has been training alone... He can't be here now."
"So he can't be here when the city is in danger of being destroyed?" Sara sighed, furrowing her eyebrows. "I told you he wasn't someone we could trust. A loner like him is probably plotting something devious."
"Hmph, useless people like him are not needed," Hector said. "Even with his strength, if he can't be present when we most need him, what's his strength even for?"
"You two, stop talking like that about Jack!" Henrietta got angrier. "He's... someone noble who has helped me so many times; he even saved my life!"
"Yeah, yeah, but would he save the lives of others?" Lee Hengyang smiled back at her, his eyes looking especially cynical in that moment.
"As if you're one to talk, snake." Henrietta sighed.
"Hoh~ Alright, if we're playing like that, then I'm leaving this one to you and the newbies, bye-bye~!" Lee Hengyang laughed, leaping away from the scene and targeting one of the golems farther away from them.
"It looks like we should split at the end." Hector sighed.
"I don't need any of your help anyway," Sara said.
Both Guild masters swiftly jumped away, targeting one golem, each rather confident in their strength. Although Stronghold City enjoyed such strong people's security and although they often cooperated normally, the guild masters were a totally different thing; they were selfish loners.
"Hey! Wait! Where are you going, you two?! We need to work together or else-"
"Henrietta! It's coming!!!" Cliff panicked, pointing at a gigantic stone fist reaching towards them!
CRAAASH!
The enormous fist hit the magical barrier; however, the four hunters in front of them were in front of such a barrier and instantly had to scatter before being squished like bugs. The golem roared furiously, noticing it couldn't kill any of the annoying flies. Henrietta managed to land over the golem's arm, as she saw all three of the other hunters doing just fine.
"Woah! This thing's so huge! How are we even beating it, Henrietta?" Cliff became slightly fearful.
"Don't be a chicken; just crush the damn thing like this!" Annette said, holding her hammer.
"STOP! Don't hit it yet!" Henrietta said. "If you hit its arm, it's going to fall, and it'll fall with us! We have to reach its core and shatter it."
"Ugh, I want to go back home…" Hasan sighed, as several ghosts were floating around his body, helping him levitate.
"GGRRRRHHHHHH…!" The Golem didn't stand still as four insects were wandering around its humongous arm. Its other arm quickly moved, opening its palm and then attempting to crush them!
"Run behind me!" Henrietta said, spreading her wings and giving several fast steps! The enormous hands constantly clashed over the golem's arms, generating small cracks.
"Uwawaahh! It is getting closer! A+ Rank monsters are totally out of our league, Henrietta!!!" Cliff cried, running as fast as he could.
"Stop being a coward! If only I could hit that thing!" Annette gritted her teeth.
"Hah~ Is this how I'll die?" Hasan sighed, already thinking about his death. "Mamita, te veré en los cielos."
"Cliff, trust me more! Annette, have more patience! Hasan, be more optimistic! You three are the future of this city! If I don't help you grow stronger, our city will be doomed in the future if something happens to all four of us!" Henrietta said. "I brought you here because I wanted to help you grow! You have to also show the city your capabilities!"
All three of the guild masters opened their eyes in surprise over Henrietta's emotional words, even as they were being chased by a huge golem hand that could easily crush them to death.
"UWAWAAHH…!That's very emotional of you, but that ain't helpin'!" Cried Cliff.
"Let me hit that thing already! I'm going to do it!" Annette suddenly stopped running and raised her hammer smiling manically. "TAKE THIS, YOU SHITHEAD! GYAHAHAHAHA!"
BAAAM!
Her powerful hammer was loaded with all her mana, with the tremendous impact hitting the arm's joints and helping the cracks expand tremendously, which quickly helped the entire arm fall apart into pieces! The golem screamed in agony as its entire arm fell off. However, that also brought down everyone!
"Dammit, Annette! I freaking told you to not shatter its arm!" Henrietta sighed. "Not all of you can fly, and I can't just carry you around all the time!" She quickly grabbed Cliff and Annette with her arms, while Hasan followed her from behind.
"B-But it worked! It has one less arm now!" Anette argued.
"Look." Henrietta facepalmed.
The rubble surrounding the golem suddenly started floating around, regenerating its arm in several seconds, until a brand-new arm was formed!
"W-WHAAAT?!" Annette almost lost it.
"Golems as strong as these can regenerate limbs due to their tremendous quantities of Mana." Cliff sighed. "I can't believe you don't know something like this, Annette…"
"W-Was I supposed to know?!" Annette cried in frustration.
"Ah… We're done for." Hasan sighed, pointing at the golem. "Ya valió…"
The golem's head opened, revealing a shiny red jewel charging with demonic energy.
And then, firing a massive laser!
"W-We're done fooorrrrr!" Cliff cried.
"Uwaaaaaggh…!" Anette screamed her lungs out.
"So this is how it ends…" Hasan sighed.
"Would you three, please stop being so childish?!" Henrietta cried.
BOOOM!
The huge explosion reached all of them at once but was swiftly stopped by a gigantic barrier made of golden light.
"{Celestial Shield}!" Henrietta sighed. "That was close…"
"I-I think I'm going to throw up…" Cliff groaned.
"Hahhh… T-That was crazy." Annette's eyes were red in shock.
"I'll need therapy after that." Hasan sighed.
"Can you just stop with your one-liners?!" Henrietta began to recall the bastard of Lee Hengyang's words. "Ugh… No, I'm not going to let what that snake man said become the truth… You three, show me what you've got!"
Henrietta grabbed Hasan with her pure aura, shaped as a huge hand, and then flew with all three of the youngest promising ones towards the golem's exposed head as the enormous goliath's arms began to move towards her, attempting to hush her like a fly.
"Now! I'll open the way!" Henrietta roared, dropping all three of them over the golem's head.
"Woaahh!" Cliff cried. "Baugh…!" Cliff was throwing up already.
"Holy shit! Holy shit!" Annette was about to have a stroke.
"Wow… Dying while seeing such a good view ain't so bad." Hasan sighed.
Henrietta summoned her Divine Sword, as she channeled her Mana and Skills into her body to their fullest potential. She moved like a star, flashing across midair and filling the two arms with countless cracks and holes, breaking them apart! While the arms were beginning to slowly regenerate, the head was once more exposed, showing its red jewel as it slowly started gathering more demonic energy to fire a laser.
But Henrietta knew that it couldn't simply gather demonic energy and regenerate at the same time so easily. Because it wanted to do both things at once, the golem naturally would take even longer, giving enough time for these three super rookies to do their thing!
"NOW!!!" Henrietta roared, fighting the regenerating arms and countless boulders being launched at her by the golem's mana.
"It's time, then!" Cliff gritted his teeth. "{Hunter's Instinct}!"
Cliff suddenly changed his cowardly personality as his eyes glowed bright green, his red hair grew long, a bow made of mana materialized on his hands, and his magical power gathered into a gigantic, over twenty-meter-long magic arrow.
"{Artemis' Arrow}!!!"
The green arrow reached the golem's core, stopping it from gathering demonic energy as it slightly pierced through its surface, generating countless cracks as green light surged from within them!
"Now's my turn!" Laughed Annette, her eyes glowing redder and redder as her aura became bloody red. "{Hercules' Might}!"
Her heart started beating faster and faster as her muscles grew to an insane size, making her resemble a bodybuilder out of the blue! Her gigantic hammer suddenly grew several times bigger, taking the shape of a roaring lion.
"{Nemean Lion's Wrathful Hammer}!!!"
"ROOOAARRR!"
The hammer roared like a lion, and then fell down towards the golem's core with almighty strength! The tremendous impact generated an enormous shockwave, and the entire golem's core shattered even more, though it barely held off!
"Hah~ So it all depends on me now, huh?" Sighed Hasan. "{La Muerte}"
Suddenly, Hasan's aura changed shape as multiple ghosts and spirits converged together into a gigantic skeleton woman with long black hair, wearing a long red dress, with a face painted with colors, and empty black eyes.
"{Festival De Los Muertos}!"
The gigantic skeleton sang a lugubrious sound as an enormous army of countless phantasmal skeletons surged from her shadows, rushing towards the golem's gigantic core and swarming it until it finally cracked apart!
Crack… crack… CRASH!
The Golem gave one last scream of agony as its core fully shattered into pieces. Its entire body crumbled apart in a single instant! As the titan crumbled apart into pieces, Henrietta flew down and caught all three of the super rookies, already guild masters of their own, and sighed in relief, smiling.
"I knew that you could do it, you guys! I'm so proud of you!" Henrietta celebrated.
"Geh… I'm going to throw up again; I hate heights." Cliff sighed.
"Brrhh… My body's paralyzed after doing that…" Anette complained.
"La Muerte me llama…" Hasan sighed. "No more, porfavor, Señorita Henrietta…"
"Ugh…" Henrietta, for a moment, wanted to take back what she said. "Well, at least for now-"
RUMBLE!
However, the problems were far from over. The ground right in front of the Stronghold city opened wide as a tremendous behemoth surged, even while the other guild masters were still busy fighting the other three golems! A tremendous demonic presence surged from within this gigantic beast, a similar energy to the Apostle of Death Henrietta had fought some hours ago.
"D-Don't tell me…" Henrietta felt utter horror as she saw the enormous, over two hundred-metre-big beasts.
"Tremble in fear, you humans! Because I, Astaroth, the Tenth Apostle of Death, have come to bring your eternal doom!" The beast roared, its gigantic eyes glaring at the enormous Stronghold City. "We shall crush your hope and future, and this world shall be inherited by us demons!"
With a flashy entrance, another Ancient Apostle of Death appeared, and this one seemed stronger than any of the others that had appeared before.
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