Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle - Chapter 224-1

224 – Bring Out Our Best (Part 1)

The situation was like this.

There were 500 contestants at the beginning of the qualifying round, but now there are only 15 contestants remaining.

It can be neatly divided into three: the Fenix party, the Wraith party, and the Astrea party.

Then, the Fenix party and the Wraith party, which I belong to, teamed up.

As of now, the remaining 15 contestants can be divided into 3 groups.

The White Sorcerer Josh & the Miner Melania & the Destroyer Fran VS two knights.

The Water Hero Wraith & the Flame Hero Fenix VS the Scales of Justice Astrea & two knights.

Then, quickly heading there to intervene is the Black Sorcerer Lem & the Warrior Alba & the Paladin Lark & the ​Hunter Lily & the Frost Hero Bella.

By the way, all the members of the Astrea Party are women.

We are superior in terms of the number of people.

I do want to say that we are also superior in terms of our battle strength… However, there are some concerns.

The Fenix party is not in perfect condition.

Alba’s dominant arm was injured and one of Lily’s legs was injured. Lark lost his sword and got it replaced by Lily’s dagger, while Bella is trying to regenerate her Magical Energy, but the amount of Magical Energy she has expended is too extreme.

On top of that, the knights’ combat abilities are high.

Many Adventurers are specialized. They specialize in attack power, speed, and so on.

Sometimes they make up for what they lack in members, and sometimes they team up with members who have overlapping specialties.

But the knights are different.

『Contestant Ibbott & Contestant Ursula are brilliantly dodging Contestant Fran & Contestant Melania’s attacks which are packed with a lot of power.』

They are all trained to use the same knight combat techniques and basically fight with the same equipment.

The Hero parties can challenge a Dungeon… In other words, they can choose the battlefield.

But the knights can’t do that.

They don’t know when and what type of criminals they have to fight against.

That’s why they were trained in such a way that they can handle any opponent.

Unlike Adventurers, they don’t have to worry about the audience, so they are all-rounders who can respond flexibly according to the situation.

Moreover, since it is the party of Commander Astrea, I’m sure that they would have selected especially skilled knights.

In fact, the four knights other than the leader are also excellent.

『Contestant Esther and Contestant Olivia are also showing their skillful sword handling against the Contractors of the Four Great Spirits! In particular, Fenix is famous for his ability to scorch the swords without even allowing them to clash against his sword unless it is a Holy Sword, but Contestant Esther has coated her own sword with Earth Magic! She managed to launch a slash attack with just a slight contact so that the Earth Magic scabbard was not completely scorched and succeeded in engaging in a short-distance sword fight!』

『Contestant Wraith’s Holy Sword is also amazing! It seems like the Water Blades are wrapped around his Holy Sword. Just now Contestant Olivia’s shield was split in half. However, after that, Contestant Olivia was able to barely avoid the attack! I was just watching but it made me nervous as well. It was a very close call, but does the fact that she handled it so skillfully means that she has actually read through the opponent’s movements?!』

『That might be true, but I also think that it’s largely due to Contestant Astrea’s Spirit Magic.』

That’s right.

There are different ways to use Invisible Pressure.

If it’s from a distance, she can aim and shoot it. It will only have an effect in the limited space around where the target is.

However, if the target is close to her, it can be a ranged attack. A form in which the Invisible Pressure is deployed around her.

In addition to that, to avoid burdening her comrades, she prepared an opening where the Spirit Magic does not work and moved it according to the movements of her comrades.

Fenix and Wraith are in a situation where they have to fight against an unrestrained first-class knight while offsetting the high-level Spirit Magic.

『Contestant Wraith has subtle skills and bold tactics, but the choices that he can take are limited since he is in a situation where he needs to refine his Magical Energy while offsetting Contestant Astrea’s Spirit Magic.』

『I see! So that means his forte of making his opponents think that “I have no idea what he is going to do next” has been crushed this time.』

The two people who are not defeated by the knights even in this situation where they almost can’t use their specialty Spirit Magic are amazing, and even if they’re in such a state, the two knights who are fighting against the Contractors of the Four Great Spirits, Contestant Esther and Contestant Olivia, are also amazing.

The audience was excited, especially since they don’t usually get to see Fenix’s swordsmanship.

That said, if it went on for too long, it would have made the audience feel uneasy, but there was no need to worry about that.

We arrived and the situation was about to change whether they liked it or not.

「Esther.」

「Yeah…!」

Esther, an earnest-looking knight, tried to move away from Fenix.

After seeing through her intentions, Fenix tried to pursue her, but Astrea stopped him.

「Would you like to have an opponent, Sir Fenix?」

「…I was just about to ask you that.」

The Holy Swords of Fenix and Astrea clashed with each other.

I think….I just saw my best friend glancing in my direction for a moment.

It’s okay.

「Everyone.」

「I know already…!」

Alba shouted and everyone else began to move silently.

The Frost Hero Bella dropped the crushed ice as if it was snow.

Astrea looked puzzled for a moment but continued the battle.

Contestant Esther, who is coming towards us, isn’t stopping either.

Okay, I was able to confirm it.

When I looked at the Hunter Lily, she gave a small nod.

Lily shot an arrow toward Contestant Esther from the Paladin Lark’s back.

At the same time, the Warrior Alba’s Extensible Magic Sword moved in a semicircle and targeted Contestant Esther.

However, both the arrow and the Magic Sword were knocked to the ground by Invisible Pressure.

「Tch…!」

After confirming that Alba’s stance had collapsed, Contestant Esther accelerated quickly.

There are 5 people here, although 4 of them were injured.

It is better for there to be as few people as possible that can deal with me.

「I allow the use of your own unique combat techniques.」

The moment Astrea muttered something like that.

The four of them changed their movements.

Contestant Ibbott threw away her sword and shield and pulled out the twin swords she had on her back.

Contestant Ursula threw away her weapons as well, but she remained empty-handed as she confronted the Destroyer Fran.

Contestant Olivia discarded her sword and held her knife with a backhand grip.

Contestant Esther is still armed, but she created an earth wall behind us.

「This is…」

Bella muttered in surprise.

It’s understandable that she’d do that. 

Contestant Esther’s Earth Magic was far from just being a support, it was on a level where she could use it to fight against her opponents.

Either her Job is originally a Wizard type or she has a high aptitude for magic. 

While assuming that she had cast Resist on herself, I cast Black Magic and restrained Contestant Esther.

She probably won’t be able to use large-scale magic since she has to release Magical Energy in order to defend herself from my Black Magic.

「…Ahh, right, not all of them have a Knight-type Job.」

Lark muttered in comprehension and parried Contestant Esther’s sword with a shield.

Although they are called the Knights Order, it would be difficult to have all of their combatants own a Knight-type Job.

Even if it is possible, it is not preferable.

Those with a Knight-type Job wear armor and specialize in fighting with shields.

Not all criminals can be dealt with by them, and the Knights Order also accepts those with other combat-related Jobs.

Not everyone wants to be an Adventurer, and not everyone can succeed as an Adventurer.

The Knights Order accepts various types of Jobs and trains them all so that they can operate as knights.

Perhaps, at the same time, they also provide combat training suitable for their original Job.

So, the current knights can use the all-rounder type and the specialized type according to the situation.