Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 564: Battle of Camelot 8

A few miles away from the scene of destruction that Emery and Meave created, at the Brittaniaʼs greatest castle, Camelot Castle of the Logress Kingdom.

”Here they come!!”

King Arthur was standing on top of the great castle wall, watching ten thousand undeads marching closer to the castle slowly, but surely. The terrain was so overcrowded by those abominations that no gap was left open.

The living corpses encroached their reach upon the northern hills, as they ran and stumbled down toward the castle.

No apparent tactic, no intricate strategy. There was simply no trace of intelligence left in them. Most of them didnʼt even have weapons in hand. They were just like wounded, crazed beasts, who moved unconcerned with everything in their path to kill all living things presented in front of them.

”Galahad!” King Arthur shouted. ”Prepare the fire arrows!!”

One thousand five hundred Demetea Archer who had returned from eastern battlefield had taken their respective positions on top of the outer wall of the castle. All these individuals in green banners quickly raised their bows at the cue, a few other knights would approach them while bringing burning torches. They then would light up the arrow whose tip had been covered with flammable material, before the archers finally released it to the air.

”FIRE!!”

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The sky was momentarily dyed crimson, as thousands of flaming arrows streaked across. The arrows made a beautiful arc in the sky, before raining the charging masses of undead with their existence, setting many of them aflame. 

Arthur as well as those who were at the outer wall had a clear view of how the undeads slowly suffered the incineration.

The reason Arthur opted for flame arrows, which were usually used in siege battles, was because he knew normal arrows would not be effective on those living corpses who clearly didnʼt feel pain. It would even need the fire a minute for the undeads to be totally killed and finally dropped dead to the ground.

”Fire the arrows! Again!!”

Following Arthurʼs shout, another barrage of flaming arrows rained down upon the undeads, but most of them still continued their fierce advance toward the castle. It seemed the flaming arrowsʼ effectiveness was not enough to stop these abominations.

Seeing that the undeads were near, Arthur shouted, ”Knights, get ready!!”

Currently, outside the Camelot Castle, one thousand chosen knights and the three hundred Fey Warriors were ready with their shield and pikes brandished toward the living dead. Their expressions were filled with determination, though the undeads who were the definition of bane continued to move toward them.

They cut trees and shaped the wood into a three meter long pole with its tips sharpened. This was the pike they were using, they currently held it close to the ground. This action allowed them to make a line of sharp pikes across the castle, a barricade to put a hold on the undeadʼs march.

This was another example of Arthurʼs ingenuity. Knowing the enemy they were fighting was physically strong and hard to kill, but a mindless creature, he decided to devise a specialized tactic for them.

Just like expected, hundreds of the first wave of undeads foolishly charged forward and impaled themselves into the pikes. However, as time passed the situation started to not look good on Arthurʼs side.

More and more undeads pushed those who were impaled from the back, the weight imposed upon the pikes started to break them. This resulted in some of the knights breaking off the line, causing the line on the verge of destruction.

It was at this time that Arthur shouted his next order!

”Sound the horns! Order them to retreat into the outer walls!!”

There existed two sets of walls with several meters worth of buffer zone, three gates acting as the entrance in Brittaniaʼs biggest castle. Arthur had decided to open all three gates to let the fight enter inside the castle. 

Many of those who heard his plan questioned his judgement, as it would be easier to let those undead pile up outside, while they attacked them behind the protection the walls provided. However, the answer Arthur gave out quickly sent those dissenting voices down to the gutter.

”I cannot risk them to turn around and attack Camelot City! We must let them siege us!”

With that logic, all three thousand knight Logress Kingdom had were deployed inside the outer wall, creating a line of defense where they would be fighting the undeads. The archers scattered across the wall would continue to fire their barrage of arrows from above, while the knights would deploy shield wall formation to defend the three gates. This was the tactic Arthur came up with.

As for his other men - the one thousand plus hundreds wounded, they were sent to the city to assist and speed up the process of evacuating the civilians. The group was led by the two brothers and golden knights, Sir Bor and Dagonat.

The enemy had three to four times their number, but with this tactic Arthur was confident they could hold out until at least all the civilians were evacuated. He was also confident that the number of injured would be cut down to a minimum. ℞ᴀΝO͍ʙÊʂ

According to Arthurʼs arrangement, Sir Gawain led the handling of the undead at the north, Sir Yvain brought his group to defend the east gate, while the west gate was held down by Sir Percival and his men. Last but not least, Cavvi and the four Fey sisters would move around as an independent unit, assisting any location that needed immediate help.

Sounds of metal clashing into hard surfaces were heard throughout the outer wall, as the knights fought the waves of undead. These living dead were really durable individually, and it proved to troublesome as they continued to try to run over the knights in formation.

A congregation of them could break the shields after repeated bashings and the knights holding onto it would quickly wear out by their actions. 

With thousands of these seemingly unkillable undead pushing in as they tried to enter the castle, the knights eventually couldnʼt keep their initial line of defense.

Realizing the situation, Arthur swiftly sent down his order.

”Open the line!!!”

As soon as the order was given, the middle of the defensive line immediately split up, letting the undead and bestowed the way for them. The gap between the line quickly attracted the undead, as the knights saw dozens of them entering. Then, the knights reformed their line and closed the opening.

The undead that managed to enter were quickly surrounded by the knights and killed one by one.

The plan seemed to be working in their favor, but Arthur noticed the undead were still coming endlessly. Fatigue began to catch up to the knights.

”Knights of Britannia, keep fighting!! Donʼt falter!!” Arthur shouted, as he clenched his fist tightly.

With Gaious next to him, Arthur couldnʼt help but ask, ”Any news of Merlin? Did anyone catch sight of him?”

Gaious only dejectedly shook his head. ”No, Your Majesty. Not yet.”

Arthur sighed when he heard that. He knew it meant Merlinʼs fight was harder than he thought and he was still fighting. The fact it had been more than an hour, but there was still no sight of him could also possibly mean he was in trouble, or worse. 

He also realized Gwen hadnʼt returned from her task, which was perplexing. The Fey people had come to the castle, proven by Cavvi and the Fey sisters, who fought to and fro across the outer wall. Then, why hasnʼt she returned yet?

Arthur couldnʼt help but to be worried about her.

Unfortunately, things began to turn for the worst when he saw something in the distance - something he wished he saw wrong. A huge black creature was approaching the castle and it was moving very quickly.

”What the hell is that?!!”

The massive, wolf-like creature charged through the sea of undead, killing countless, unconcerned of the latterʼs fate, Arthur knew it wasnʼt friendly to them either. Knowing that, he immediately shouted, ”Galahad!!!”

The golden knight, who also noticed the new arrival, swiftly told dozens of his men to light their arrow and fire. All the arrows shot by the well-known Demetea archers were right on mark, but other than the one fired by Galahad himself, none of the arrows managed to pierce the creatureʼs fur.

Galahad shot a few more arrows, all of them hit the monster squarely. But it didnʼt seem to hurt it at all as it continued to charge forward. Eventually, it reached the castle walls.

The creature didnʼt go into one of the gates. It completely ignored them and decided to ram its body into the wall where Galahad and his men were at.

BAAMMM!!!

The 3 meter thick stone wall was destroyed immediately into piles of rubble. Dust and smoke rose to the air as the huge wolf howled loudly.

”HOWWWLLLLL!!!”

The long, ear-deafening howl as well as the sight of the obliterated wall brought terror to all the Brittania knights at the scene.