Chapter 54: Paris (4)

Leonel hid his trembling left arm to his side, holding it against his body firmly to make its odd movement less obvious.

After he forcefully stimulated his Force, the Force Chains that had been snaking from the Force Art on his hand took the opportunity to counter. In the end, Leoenl had to forcefully suppress it, but the result was a drain that was even a level higher than it had been in the past.

Aina didn't know it, but Leonel hadn't even been able to sleep in the last several days. If he stopped suppressing it for even a moment, he would suffer. Luckily, he could enter a meditative state that allowed his mind to rest while remaining alert, or else he might not even be able to continue standing now.

This was the true reason Leonel so confidently pointed his spear toward Reimond and the others. He wasn't some sort of battle maniac, those words were definitely out of character for him. But he had no choice, he had to do his best to hide his current weakness. And, it seemed like it worked.

The pressure that Leonel emitted coupled with the roars of the charging French made the Englishmen to Reimond's back feel that they might really be finished.

To one side there was Aina who killed knights descending the narrow winding stairs with a single swing of her ax. Before them there was Leonel whose hair whipped about in a wild manner as his momentum grew. And to their backs, thousands of the French were crossing the no-man's-land they had created toward the castle they were defending.

Even for Reimond, he really couldn't think of a way out of this. The plan wasn't even a tenth of the way to completion.

His calm expression flickered several times, running through a marathon of emotions. In the end, his visage twisted, landing on anger.

Who were these two? They had planned for so long and so diligently, giving away years of their lives toward this goal. Yet it was going to be finished just like this? How could he be willing?

After a deep breath, he calmed down. Barely a few seconds had passed since Leonel caused the drawbridge to fall. It wasn't over yet, there was still time to turn this around. No, maybe this was an even better outcome for the original plan.

At that moment, etchings on the ground Leonel hadn't taken notice of flashed and the group of 11 vanished.

Leonel's gaze landed on the etchings for only a moment before coming to an understanding. Force Art. A teleportation Force Art. It was no wonder they managed to just appear here before Leonel finished descending the stairs.

'Is the man with the Force Art ability among them?' Leonel thought to himself.

Leonel suddenly felt a hand clamp down on his trembling left arm. He looked down to find Aina looking toward him with a mixture of worry and anger on her face.

"What are you hiding from me?"

Leonel opened his mouth to respond, but he really didn't know what to say. He had only wanted to deal with the chains as quickly as possible. The longer he took, the more Frenchmen would die. But, he hadn't expected the backlash to be so bad.

Luckily, he didn't have to face Aina's questioning glares any longer because the first group of Frenchmen begun crossing the moat. Leonel took that opportunity to look toward inner gates.

Taking a deep breath, he could only look toward Aina with a pleading expression as though asking her not to say anymore.

Aina flicked Leonel's arm down in anger and glared at him as though trying to boil him alive with nothing but her eyes. Then, she turned in a huff of rage, her ax lighting up with a violent red glow.

She unleashed all her emotions onto the gate, slicing in cleanly in half and kicking its lower portion with a wind screeching stomp.

The doors were sent flying, taking with them the lineup of archers that had been waiting on the other side to start another bloody slaughter.

Leonel's lip twitched. He really had to remember to stop making this woman angry.

Suddenly, his expression changed.

Leonel stomped his foot on the ground hard, barreling forward with all his might and appearing to Aina's side.

He grabbed her waist, lifting his trembling left arm to block with his quickly expanding shield.

The two of them were blasted backward, sliding along the ground on their feet almost to the point of crashing into the French vanguard.

The Force Chains had taken advantage of the moment to snake further up Leonel's arm, almost causing him to lose control of it. Had that happened, he didn't even want to think of the consequences.

Leonel turned a narrowed gaze toward Nigelle, who was slowly lowering his bow from the other side of the inner gates, and then a solemn one toward his now severely dented shield.

All this time, no one had been able to land even a single scratch on it. But now it was deformed to the point its shape almost broke his arm. A little bit more and it really could have.

That arrow really was too swift and too powerful. Had it not been for his ability improving and causing his senses to reach an unprecedented level, he might have been too late.

At that moment, Leonel felt a bundle of raging Force to his side. He looked in shock toward Aina who seemed on the verge of exploding from anger.

"Aina!"

Aina was stunned out of her berserk state. The combination of Leonel's troubles and the near death experience almost made her lose her mind again, but luckily, Leonel caught her at the start this time.

Leonel looked back toward Nigelle, a deep frown setting into his brow. The situation had changed once more.

Reimond and his ten knights had appeared followed by a female wearing a golden mask appeared with her own knights. Each of the female's knights wore helms that revealed nothing but the slits of their eyes.

Englishmen continuously poured in from all sides, forming a defensive line to block entry to the inner gates. It wasn't long before their numbers totaled in the hundreds.

Leonel's gaze, however, didn't leave the golden masked woman. Though the pole she held in her hand no longer had a flag on it, Leonel wasn't a fool. This woman was obviously Joan.

The charging Frenchmen, as though by a previous tacit agreement, slowly organized themselves to Leonel and Aina's backs.

Leonel reined in the trembling of his left arm. He finally felt he could use his Force again without becoming a puppet to this mysterious person.

Since Joan was standing firmly on the enemy's side, there really was nothing more to say. Leonel didn't want to spare any words on such a person. He only wanted to ask just what was the purpose of all of this. It didn't seem to make any coherent sense at all.

What was the point of this battle? Why fight on the side of the French at all if her goal was to lose? And at this point, why did she even care to continue to hide her identity?

Leonel closed his eyes and shook his head, releasing Aina. None of it mattered anymore. Today would be the end of Joan's legend.

"Aina."

Aina flicked her palm upward, causing a perfectly square plank of wood to appear. She used the same Force technique that helped her levitate her massive ax to allow it to hover in the air.

Leonel's gaze flashed with seriousness as his spear snaked forward. In the blink of an eye, an intricate rune with soft edges reminiscent to low ocean tides appeared on the wood.

With a final strike of Leonel's spear, the plank of wood shot forward through the sliced inner gates.

At first, it seemed like nothing would happen. It was just an ordinary piece of wood flying through the air.

However, it was then the temperature began to rise. A moment later, the plank of wood burst into a fire that raced through the lines of the rune. And, in the next instant of time, it collapsed before violently expanding into a fireball just a over a meter in diameter.

Nigelle, Reimond and Joan's eyes widened in horror.