Way of the Knights

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Luna's solemn declaration ignited something within the hearts of whoever heard it.

Add the fact that she basically took down a Little Stone Titan on her own made her words resonate even more.

Even Balmung himself, who should've been the heart of the battalion due to his status, thought that at this point, his little sister was even braver than him.

"OHHHHHHH!"

Needless to say, the morale of the defenders rose up to an unbelievable momentum. They roared at the top of their lungs as they wantonly hacked down the enemies in front of them.

Luna's pursuers didn't stay idle either. The Golden Knights took advantage of the crippled Little Stone Titan and poured their attacks towards it's chest, where it's core is. The crippled stone giant wasn't able to defend itself in time, hence under the attack of the trio, it exploded into chunks of rocks, promptly ending it's life.

"Luna! Watch out!" 

Luna heard the shout behind her and was instantly startled. She turned around and saw a giant boulder heading towards her. 

It seems that while she was distracted, another stone giant hurled a giant rock towards her. Luna immediately kicked the Pegasus's belly, urging it to get out of the way. Needless to say, she knew that she was a little too late, the giant boulder will inevitably hit her so she mustered up her energies and prepared to strike the boulder. 

It turns out that there was no need for that.

"As if I'd allow that!" Paul roared from below. Using all of his strength, he threw his shield towards the trajectory of the impact. 

His shield arched gracefully and stopped precisely in front of Luna. It then glowed with an intense blue light as it grew in size, big enough to completely cover Luna and the Pegasus behind. 

The earth shook due to the shockwave of the impact. Paul's shield neither faltered nor broke in the impact when the boulder hit it. The shield remained intact and unmoving, perfectly defending Luna from any sort of damage. Luna turned around to look at Paul.

"I got you!" Paul said while giving out a thumbs-up, however there is a visible exhaustion on his face.

"Thanks! I won't let that happen again!" Luna nodded as the Pegasus flew upwards with her. Paul's shield returned to him while he continued charging forward.

*Phew!*

A flaming projectile flew at a break-neck speed towards the stone giant who hurled the boulder towards Luna. It gracefully flew and struck the eye of the stone giant, making its exit at the back. 

The flaming projectile stopped mid-air and revealed an annoyed Ellen with fire wings flapping behind her.

"Let's see if you could still aim properly after that." She coldly snorted. Despite this, if one looked closely, Ellen's arms and legs are ridden with bruises from that attack.

Following that, a green projectile kicked up a huge gust of wind and turned into a tornado heading towards the same stone giant. As it travelled, it continued growing bigger until it was big enough to shave of an entire arm from the stone giant. 

"Let's see if you could still throw something after that." Anne spat venomously. Her face twinge in pain as she felt her hands bruised by her own attack,

Suddenly, a Black Lightning fell down from the skies. 

Mark could be seen with a chilling expression on his face. His body was covered in streaks of Black Lightning as well. As he waved his hand down, Black Lightning fell down from the skies once more. The stone giant groaned in pain as the Black Lightning tore its stone flesh. The lightning precisely the core in its chest, killing it in the process.

Once Mark is done lashing out his anger, he puffed out a smoke from his mouths as a wry smile appeared on his face. It was obvious that he couldn't control this lightning properly just yet.

Two out of the five Little Stone Titans were down. This was a unprecedented feat, specially considering the fact that one of those two were taken down by teenagers who hadn't even stepped into Knight Stage. 

As the second Little Stone Titan fell, the Golden Knights along with the Prince and some others are also tackling down the remaining stone giants. Below them, the defense against the beast horde continued on full throttle. The defenders were steadily pushing their forces back.

The beast horde is now down to a measly 300,000 numbers. It won't be long until their numbers drop even further down at the rate of their deaths. Luis who's monitoring the battalion had a calm face but inwardly he was praying for no further developments. 

This might be the best defense that had ever occurred in the Lightshield history. The casualties are no more than a thousand people and the deaths are no more than 200 amongst them. With how much beast large this horde is, this result is truly astonishing. He prayed for this trend to continue and wished that no beasts or giants appear anymore so that this war could end. 

In the frontlines, another stone giant fell. That makes three out of five. Unfortunately, the attacking forces are spent from the stress.

Without those huge and flashy moves from earlier, taking down this hulking monstrosities became a difficult task. 

They would've love to launch their high-leveled techniques but they couldn't. Raven's friends for one have their energies running on fumes. They could only provide support in the attack against the stone giants from now on. They wanted to consume some recovery pills but that is a bad idea in a live battlefield. 

The Golden Knights were faring better, but they're facing a Little Stone Giant. Famous for it's tough defense and horrifying strength. Even though they are strong, none of them could receive a blow from these things.

If these Stone Giants showed up from the very beginning, they would've had an easier time against them and wouldn't need the kids to help them out. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. They've spent a considerable amount of energy before this battle, it is through sheer will and stubbornness that all of them could still stand. 

*Roar!*

Under sheer perseverance, the attacking forces managed to take down the fourth stone giant. All that's left is one more, if they could somehow find a way to take the last one down, then they could leave the rest to the others. 

However, there's another unforeseen event.

*Roar!!!*

Seeing that it's the only one left. The last Little Stone Titan felt incredibly threatened. It let out a guttural roar and opened it's jaw wide. 

Everyone on the battlefield could feel the frightening energy condensing on the mouth of the stone giant. The attackers paled. 

"It's going to throw a big one!" Ellen exclaimed, she then turned to face Paul and asked: "Can you block that?"

"No." Paul unhesitatingly shook his head, "Even in my prime condition, I'm sure I couldn't."

"Shit!" Ellen cursed under her breath.

"You kids, fall back at this very instant!" Leona ordered.

"But Teacher!" Luna protested.

"Now is not the time for stubbornness, Princess." Leona spat harshly. "Let us, adults face this one. We can't have you dying now."

The kids bit their lips in unwillingness, nevertheless they too know the situation they're in. Staying here will only place them in danger. They know that the adults will do everything in their power to save them. It's just a little painful for them to realize that they have no alternatives for this sort of scenario. 

Some of the loyal guards escorted Luna, Balmung, Paul, Mark, Ellen, and Anne towards the Southern Walls. 

Old Lee, Leona and Morel stood forward and glanced at the incoming attack with grim faces. If they had more energies, then they could've interrupted this but they barely have anything. All they could do is hope for the best.

Everyone watched with bated breaths as a huge ball of energy flew from the mouth of the giant. Old Lee, Leona and Morel gathered their remaining energies and even fueled it with their blood essence to break the attack. Unfortunately, even with their blood essence, the attack proved to be too strong so the Golden Knight could only sigh in defeat and meet their ends. 

"You can have this back."

A deep and archaic voice echoed across the battlefield. 

*Boom!!*

None saw what happened properly. All they saw was that, the energy ball flying towards the Golden Knights mysteriously flew back and blew up the entire body of the Little Stone Titan, killing it in the process.

Everyone gaped at this incident. They all turned their heads towards the Golden Knights who's faces turned extremely fantastic at this point.

An old man with rugged clothes was standing before them wearing the kindest smile ever. There was a hint of nostalgia in his face as he looked at them, like he was being taken back to the good times.

Old Lee was beaming, Leona's mouth was twitching, and Morel was smiling wryly. 

The Old Man nodded to every single one of them and said: "It's been a while."