房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Every company that waltzed through the border had at least one platoon where a single soldier in the middle was carrying a large backpack-like artifact with green and jet-black magic crystals embedded in its frame.

Even though wary about the outside, the soldiers from other platoons were focused around those artifact carriers.

It was a pattern that would have been caught on to immediately, but in the current situation even when some mages noticed it, there was nothing that they could do before reorganizing.

The kingdom of Bellcephora forces were in deep trouble...

Mages with hair and eyes the color corresponding to their attributes were being pushed back and to the sides by well equipped commoners the were allied with not even an hour earlier.

pαпdα-ňᴏνê|·сóМ The traitors being commoners only added insult to injury because every honorable noble would never raise their hand against a commoner.

No... that alone wasn't as much of a problem as the next observation...

The vacant' expressions on the commoners' faces suggested that they weren't rebelling willingly so the mages held to the hope of saving them.

But that hope was being put to a test with each swing of the enchanted sword each of the commoners wielded – enchanted swords that channeled a corrosive mana that melted through all the spells.

As if to make things worse, some of the controlled commoners also had shields with the same attribute that were in fact just as dangerous as the swords – if not more.

"WIND AND WATER MAGICIANS, KNOCKED THE COMMONERS OUT! EARTH MAGICIANS TRAP THOSE ATRETERVE BASTARDS! FIRE MAGICIANS, BURN THEM!"

A tall man in enchanted armor roared over the chaos of the battle, reaching out his hand towards

the nearest company of Atreterve soldiers – aiming dead center at the soldier with a mysterious artifact.

"THUNDER!"

*BOOOOO-* *KSHHHHHHHH*

The man's voice boomed but right before his spell materialized a commoner carrying an enchanted shield threw himself in the line of fire and the blue and white lightning was intercepted and corroded into nothingness within an instant.

*thump* *KSHHHHHHHHHH* "AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!"

The commoner had no chance of landing properly and ended up falling over at one of his comrades – the edges of his shield melted through the enchanted armor the other commoner had on and burnt into his back causing the unfortunate man to let out an animalistic howl before falling to the ground.

The mages froze for a moment, but the other commoners didn't – as if they didn't even notice what happened to one of their own.

*KSHHHHHH*

Further cementing the idea that they had no clue what was going on – or worse, they did not care – the one who caused damage to his own comrade pushed himself back up, having the corrosive shield press into his victim, basically melting right through him...

"GENERAL! YOU HAVE TO RETREAT BACK TO THE CAPITAL! WITHOUT THE BELLCEPHORA ARMY THE BORDER IS FINISHED! WE WILL... WE WILL HOLD THEM OFF AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!"

One of the mages shouted to the lightning-attribute-wielding man.

It wasn't that the mages were disobedient and didn't want to comply with the order he had given them earlier – it was just they simply couldn't.

With the joint forces of the Victureo and Espine families the organization amongst their ranks was composed so that no one part is solely in charge – meaning, there was no company or even a platoon that was free of commoners – and so when they turned against the mages, everyone got locked in combat.

"YOU ARE MY PRIVATE FORCES AND YOU ARE PART OF THE AMRY! TRY TO EVEN IMPLY SACRIFICING YOURSELVES AND I WILL HAVE ALL OF YOU DIGGING TRENCHES FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!"

The brave cry of one of his underlings only enraged the lightning magician and was met with an instantaneous rebuttal.

"HOLD BACK THE COMMONERS AND I WILL DO THE REST!"

The man roared while activating his enchantments.

His spell was different from both the standard enchantments that made the user's body glow, and also different from the special enchantments that Zoemi helped to create – with him, white, blue, and yellow electrical charges began to crackle all around his body, visible even on his armor.

*THUMP*

The next moment, the lightning magician was gone, leaving only the small crater in the spot where he kicked off the ground.

*WHAM* *CRUSH*

In the blink of an eye, the very first company of the Atreterve nation that crossed the border was attacked, and its center the one soldier carrying the bulky artifact on his back got crushed into a pulp together with the device under the charged fist of the furious mage.

"DISCHARGE!" *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The lightning magician growled and became the epicenter of an electric discharge that sent dozens of lightning into the sky, turning the enemy company into a bunch of armor-wearing charred corpses.

At the same time, the attack was properly contained too – it did fry a platoon from the next company, but none of the magicians and commoners struggling around them were harmed – minus a few burst eardrums that is.

"YOU THOUGHT THIS PASSAGE WAS LEFT OPEN TO YOU BECAUSE OF OUR INCOMPETENCE?!" *THUMP* *WHAM* *CRUSH*

The lightning magician laughed and charged forward, bursting into the damaged unit like a hot knife digging into butter and disposing of another mysterious artifact.

"EMERGENCY! TRIPLE A THREAT ALREADY SHOWED UP! IMPLEMENT THE NEXT STAGE!"

The low-ranking soldiers of the Atreterve nation were about to start panicking but their commanders got things under control with one shout...

"DISCHARGE!" *BOOOOOOOOOOM*

Even though the few seconds of delay cost them another company worth of soldiers...

Still, as the next few moments, the Atreterve forces displayed a well-trained movement – each company formed a square and on each corner, a soldier would raise a rather odd staff with milky-white crystal...

"...! AS IF!"

Seeing the change of tactic of their enemy, the lighting magician decided to forsake the safest method and pushed both fists forward.

Seeing him like that the magicians backed off even more, pulling the commoners with them, out of the way and widening the passage leaving the advancing enemy forces in the direct line of fire.