The big hand collided with the huge dome of the shield. The Paladin almost bent down on the knees bearing the full brunt of the attack.
The large hand of the tree extended and slammed on the shield along with the fortress wall.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Grunccchhhh!
Although the knight's parents inside the shield were able to hold on under the shield, the fortress wall wasn't able to hold on to a certain part that was broken down into tatters as the huge hand fell on it.
The watchtowers on the fortress wall had collapsed due to the intensity of the attack and several people present on the walls were blasted off by the impact and received injuries while some were seriously injured.
It was fortunate that the paladins were present and their magical shield had taken the brunt of the damage and was able to protect the knights by coordinating best of their abilities but the strength of the attack was too large to bear.
Lucas and others looked at the collapsed fortress walls with their mouth agape. Lucas didn't know how much strength the attack was packed with but he knew it was much stronger than a 6-Star rank warrior full pledge attack.
The fifty paladins accompanying the Princess gritted their teeth and suffered some injury still they took their stance and stood before us.
The giant tree monster pulled its arm back.
Miss Ami seeing the opening stomped on the ground and leapt and raised her fist mustering her full strength and punched the void in front of him
Following her punch, a huge blast of air pressure forms a faint crystal fist breaking the barrier of sound with thundering sound, moved toward the monster tree.
BOOOOM!
The monster's body was too large, making it easier to strike. The blast of air collided at its upper shoulder and tore the upper layer of the body making a huge hole in the upper shoulder pushing the giant tree a few steps back.
The left hand of the monster became collapsed on the ground and fell on the ground with a large thud.
On its, each stride ground beneath its feet cracked unable to endure the heavyweight of the giant tree-like creature and shook.
Moving a few steps back, it's supported itself and the hole in its shoulder started to patch up, as the tree branches and roots wriggled and closed the gap and soon a new hand sprouted.
"Damn, its strength is nearly on par with Miss Ami on coupled with its huge stature, we seemed to be at a disadvantage," Lucas muttered.
We may be able to take it down with our numbers if we split and attack at various spots but by doing so we were leaving the whole city defenceless and if it made a move towards thr city countless innocent lives of citizens would be lost.
Alabaster ordered the knights present out there to help the students to evacuate. The students present out there will just be baggage on them.
Hugo ordered the knights of Warren to properly guard Charles and asked him to retreat.
Charles looked in our direction.
"What should we do," Parth asked.
Fredrick was also in a pinch, he didn't know what to do in this situation. He wanted to help but he was too weak to help and he didn't want to drag down others.
The level of the fight had increased a lot and the threat they were facing now wasn't something a low-level warrior like them can face at the moment.
"Let's retreat." Lucas suggested and looked at Fredrick and spoke"We will not leave the battlefield, we will just stay nearby the fortress walls and look around in case of our help is required. Who knows we may be able to help a little?"
Lucas didn't waste time and ran toward the fortress.
"Wait," Fredrick shouted as he saw Lucas leaving like that.
Fredrick along with Parth gathered around the knight and discussed the retreating path but no one noticed Lucas after going forward a few steps his figure disappeared into the shadows.
While on the back series of discussions was going on, at the front Julian, Ami and Paladins along with the remaining knights were engaging with huge monsters in front of them.
The monster raised his hand again high up in the sky blocking the entire sight of the knights and fell in their direction aiming directly at them.
Half of the paladins raised their shields forming a barrier while the other half raise their swords to attack.
Luna joined her hand and closed her hands and chanted prayer of Goddess Earth.
Her body glowed and her blonde hair sparkled with golden light and fluttered in the air. A pillar of light fell on the warriors fighting in front of her which boosted their strength.
"The Saintess is with us. God is with us. Let's eradicate this vile creature." The Paladins shouted and as half of them raised their shields, a beam of light emerged which formed a shaped barrier covering the entire area.
Following their notions, the reaming paladins also raised their swords and all the beams of lights gathered to form a huge sword and it collided with the palm of the giant hands.
Whaaaaam!!!
Sounds of clashing reverberated across the whole area as the majestic golden yellow sword collided with the giant hand stopping it from descending to the ground.
Despite combining all their power into a single sword, they were not able to overpower it and were drawn into a push and pull battle.
The knights followed their nation and added thier strength as light beams shot out of ther bodies and aided the sword.
The knights and the paladins gritted their teeth and tried to push the sword with their combined might but still, they were neither able to move up the giant hand nor they were able to slice it with the huge sword.
The pressure of the giant hand was too large for them to bear and the ground on which they were standing using as a foothold started to crack.
CRACK!CRACK!
Depression of fissure started to form in the ground and ripples of fissure started to spread all around. The pressure made the knights bend down.
Julian noticing the situation going out of hand, surveyed each people present out there and looked at Ami.
Ami noticed Julian's gaze and got a signal as Julian informed her about her next step.
Julian had been living with Ami since her childhood and they were so close that a single look at her was enough to make Ami know about what she wanted to do.
A white pillar of light ascended from the defensive shield and as the light scattered, Julian's figure appeared in the mid-air supported by a pair of beautiful angel-like wings made of ice on her back and boots made of ice with which she was able to fly in the mid-air.
In her right hand was a huge black sword which was longer than her height and was too heavy for a normal person to carry but within her hands, it look as light as a feather filled with the power to destroy anyone who stands before it.
The ice crystals fell from her wings, sparkling in the air giving her an otherworldly glow of an angel descending from the heavens towards the mortal planes.
Julian noticed the bitter struggle of her side as they struggled to keep the huge hands at bay from falling on them.
Julian's eyes glowed coldly and she gazed sharply at the humanoid tree-shaped monster.
Clenching the hilt of the sword tightly, she raised it high up in the air.
As if to answer her call, the air around her surged towards the huge black great sword. A mini-tornado hovered around the blade and started to gather all the mana that was around her.
The temperature of the atmosphere started to fall as the huge greatsword started to freeze and layers of ice covered it.
Just as everyone was wondering what was going on, a huge ice sword appeared and it started to enlarge.
Julian using her ice ability made a huge greatsword which was made of ice whose size was comparable to the hand of the giant tree.
Ami's silhouette appeared beside Julian. Seeing Julian's ice sword surprised her for a moment.No matter how many times, she sees with her own eyes it was an unbelievable sight to see the Princess having such a huge amount of mana.
She has a large...no an abnormally high amount of mana. Even a 7-Star warrior would suffer when using a huge amount of mana reserve at once but the Princess managed to make an ice sword of such calibre without blinking an eye was quite astonishing.
Ami didn't fear Julian going out of mana rather she was afraid of her illness relapsing if she used ice ability of such scale.
"Ami, Take it," Julian spoke.
Julian's voice snapped Ami out of her thoughts and she looked at Julian with her resolute gaze and extended her hand and held the ice sword tightly.
Although Julian made the huge ice sword, if they wanted to give heavy damage to the monster, she needed Ami's strength to give the blow so Julian let Ami hold the hilt of the sword.
Ami released all the pressure of an 8-Star warrior and didn't hold back at all.
The air around her rippled as the sudden burst of her strength.
Her pressure was quite suffocating even for Julian.
"Haaaa."Ami and Julian took a deep breath and raised the huge sword slashing at the hand of the giant tree.
Whissshhhh.
The entire atmosphere turned silent after the swing.
Followed by Ami's slash a huge hand flew backwards and fell on the ground making the earth tremble, followed by a huge cut that extended for a few kilometres.
The huge arc of sword didn't stop here and extended to the night sky tearing it apart, and extending over the horizon. Even the clouds present in the night sky were cut apart from the mighty blow of attack. Even the ice sword crumbled after the attack and turned into countless small particles and evaporated.
Rumble...Rumble.
With huge rumbles, the ground tore apart and the thunder echoed in the night sky.
The human-shaped monster was blasted back and fall on his back creating a huge crater as the mighty strike detached one of his hands and cut his entire left side.
Under his heavy crashing, the entire fortress and city shook for a bit throwing all the people living out there into chaos.
Everyone who looked at the impact of the attack was stunned with their jaw wide open seeing Ami's strike.
" This was the strength of 8-Star. The one who is nearer to the peak of the strength a human can attain.No, it is the strength of the human who is close to surpassing humanity."
