With one choke point breached, the Liguritudum army poured forth and went to nearby choke points, striking the defenders from the rear. The ones who were guarding those choke points were shocked to find the enemies attacking from behind. Pinned from two sides, they were quickly routed, allowing those choke points to be breached as well.
Master was leading the charge as he destroyed one choke point after another. His spells continued to reap victims.
As he cast spells in a frenzy, he suddenly sensed strong mana from his flank. He canceled his casting and turned to where he sensed the attack was coming from. His staff formed a magic shield with the shape of a large tower shield.
From the direction he faced, he saw a large energy drill that skewered through his soldiers. This energy drill dealt large damage and it continued onward without slowing down despite the many soldiers in its way.
"Heavenly Spear Drill?" Master identified the skill.
The drill crashed into his magic shield. Master's magic shield was especially sturdy due to his abnormally high intelligence stat. Additionally, he also used mana manipulation to strengthen it. The drill was unable to destroy the magic shield.
Master also used Knight's Enhanced Block which stopped any skill or spell that could pierce through targets. The Heavenly Spear Drill was unable to pass through Master and was forcefully stopped. The skill's user came into view then.
"You again?" Master uttered when he saw Jeanny.
The Heavenly Spear Drill was Brave Lancer's level 70 skill. Jeanny was currently level 72. She didn't let the surprise of having her skill forcefully stopped to halt her movements. Her spear stabbed with inhuman speed.
Master felt a rapid impact on his magic shield six times. At the sixth impact, his magic shield was shattered and he was thrown back by a powerful force. He also suffered some damage.
He was shocked that Jeanny was able to pull the feat. He was very confident of his magic shield due to his high intelligence and mana manipulation.
What Jeanny used after the Heavenly Spear Drill was her martial art, Seven Spears Assaulting Heaven. If it was only either the skill or the martial art, they wouldn't have been able to break Master's magic shield. But the skill had weakened the magic shield with the first impact, the spear art came soon after without a pause. The combo multiplier added to the damage and this enabled Jeanny to destroy Master's magic shield.
Master planted his feet and forced his skidding to stop. When he looked at Jeanny, the woman had retreated.
Jeanny retreated while shouting orders for her allies to retreat. Once she saw the enemy break through a choke point, she sent messages to the other choke points. They were all doing tactical retreats at the moment.
Balgadur was a massive capital. The number of interconnecting cave halls that formed the capital was in the hundreds. John didn't just prepare one layer of choke points in case the enemy broke into the capital. He prepared several layers of them. If the first layer of choke point defense was breached, then the defenders should retreat to the second layer in which defenders and war tool barricades had been prepared beforehand.
Jeanny attacked Master because Master's offensive power was too fierce. The defenders couldn't retreat properly. Now that Master's offense rhythm was broken and added with Jeanny's instructions, the defenders gathered themselves and did a proper retreat.
"Want me to take care of her?" Spring Crown came to Master's side.
"… Suit yourself, but do not kill her," Master answered.
"Huh? Why?" Spring Crown asked.
Master didn't bother to explain. He resumed leading his soldiers to target the nearby choke points, allowing more of his force to enter.
After receiving Jeanny's instruction, everyone was on the move to the second layer of choke point positions. However, a good portion of the defenders were trapped in the area where Master had broken through the first. Jeanny led them to slowly retreat while resisting the enemy, but casualties kept on mounting.
It was a good thing Master prioritized opening up the other choke points over dealing with the retreating Palgrost soldiers, but the pressure was still heavy. If they were to save a majority of the force here, they would have to sacrifice some people to block the enemy while the rest made a run.
Jeanny was too kind to give that order.
When she was in that dilemma, a giant energy drill pierced through the defenders and came at her.
"What?! How…?" She was momentarily stunned by the scene. That incoming drill was the Heavenly Spear Drill. The skill she had used not long ago to stop Master.
She was late to react due to the surprise. Thankfully, Giant Steve had come to assist her. He came in front of Jeanny and activated Fortress. This defensive skill similarly stopped the Heavenly Spear Drill's advance as Knight's Enhanced Block. Spring Crown was seen before Giant Steve's tower shield.
Spring Crown was still smiling even when his skill was blocked. He followed up using Weapon Storm and Weapons Festival back-to-back. Giant Steve and those around were assailed by the multiple melee weapons flying around.
Jeanny had recovered from his shock. She swung and stabbed her spears to deflect Spring Crown's weapons.
"How can you use Heavenly Spear Drill?" Jeanny asked.
"Hehe," Spring Crown answered with a chuckle.
They continued to retreat as Jeanny and Giant Steve defended against Spring Crown. Spring Crown continued to change his weapons as he fought, fully utilizing his Weapon Ruler's weapon-switching bonus.
Because Jeanny and Giant Steve had to continue to back off, this put them in a passive position. Spring Crown expertly exploited the situation and chipped their HP bit by bit. He even killed some of the players who were with them on occasion.
Spring Crown changed his weapon again. This time he was using dual one-handed swords. A pair of additional arms sprouted from his back. These extra arms held one-handed swords.
"That… That is Blade Dancer's Asura!" Jeanny exclaimed.
