Regaleon: The Forgotten Knight

Perhaps it was the sight of the Coin Legion or perhaps it was the adrenaline coursing through their newly transformed bodies... Or perhaps it was something entirely unrelated.

Whatever the reason, the moment the group collided with the charging pack, they fought like absolute beasts.

The instant the two sides clashed, a surprisingly spectacular display of carnage unfolded.

It was so gruesome that anyone unfortunate enough to witness the scene would probably have lost the contents of their stomach before the battle was even halfway finished.

Claws tore through flesh, blades severed limbs and spectral weapons pierced fur and muscle. Blood sprayed through the crimson air before splattering across the ground.

The sheer brutality of the battle added to the savage atmosphere, making the group appear less like a band of newly advanced practitioners and more like a horde of bloodthirsty marauders unleashed upon the earth.

They fought with an intensity that made it seem as though they had been injected with some kind of stimulant—something capable of granting them unparalleled strength and ferocity.

But that wasn’t the case. There was no stimulant, no secret enhancement and no external assistance beyond Caelestra’s Coin Legion.

Everything they were doing was a product of their own newfound capabilities. And, if they were being completely honest, they owed it all to their breakthroughs.

Their bodies had changed in ways even they couldn’t comprehend; their strength had increased, their speed had multiplied, their senses had become sharper and their reactions were faster.

Most importantly, they were finally beginning to understand how much power their newly transformed bodies could actually unleash.

It wasn’t long after the initial clash before the forest floor began to run red. Blood soaked the earth while pools of crimson gathered between the roots of ancient trees.

Some of it belonged to the wolves, some of it coated the spectral warriors and some of it stained the clothes and armour of the cohort.

Yet despite the brutality of the battle and the sheer bloodshed taking place around them, none of the members of the group had suffered any serious injury.

Not yet, at least.

The worst they had received were superficial scratches and shallow lacerations.

For a group that had been surrounded by more than a dozen Rank One Animas, that was an impressive result.

But they knew better than to take it at face value.

They had already learned a very fundamental lesson during their time in the Nether Lands; no matter how simple or unassuming a situation appeared, one should never treat it lightly because anything could become a threat to one’s life.

That lesson had been drilled into them so many times that it had practically become a deeply ingrained instinct. Also, at this point, it was more than just cautionary basis, rather, it was a code of conduct.

And precisely because of that hard-earned lesson, the group managed to avoid several dangerous situations during the battle.

At first, they had it easy... Almost too easy.

The wolves were strong, but the group had quickly adapted to their movements. With the Coin Legion occupying a significant portion of the pack, the others were able to exploit openings and attack from different angles.

For a while, the battle seemed almost one-sided. But as time passed... Something changed.

The wolves became increasingly agitated; their movements grew more violent while their attacks became more reckless. And then, they suddenly went berserk.

At seemingly random intervals, flashes of gleaming silver light suddenly illuminated the battlefield; each flash carving through the crimson darkness in vicious, claw-like patterns.

At first, the group couldn’t understand what was happening. But after witnessing the phenomenon several times, they finally realized that this ability was a result of an Impulse.

It was one of the wolves’ innate abilities and that Impulse happened to bear an uncanny resemblance to Regaleon’s Essence Rune—

Silver Sheen.

Regaleon’s Rune allowed him to coat the edge of his Halberd with concentrated Aether, dramatically increasing the keenness of its blade and making its cutting power far deadlier.

The wolves, however, possessed something similar. Except their ability went far beyond simply sharpening their claws.

Their silver-coated claws became terrifyingly lethal.

The moment one of them struck, a strange sensation would linger within whatever it had touched.

A painful, lingering sting would spread through flesh and muscle, almost as though countless needles were being driven beneath the skin.

The sensation was so intense that it could make even a hardened warrior want to beg for death.

But that wasn’t even the most frightening aspect.

Furthermore, the Impulse also increased the durability of their claws; making them harder, stronger, more resistant to impact and far more penetrative.

That meant they weren’t merely capable of cutting through flesh, they could also penetrate armour. And that realization was perhaps the most chilling of all.

Because Regaleon’s armour wasn’t ordinary protective equipment; it was a Count Tier Armour.

Something capable of protecting its wearer from forces comparable to the thunderous detonation of an ancient heavenly weapon.

Yet when one of the wolves first activated its Impulse, Regaleon finally understood something.

Not every attack could be stopped by his Armour and not every strike could be ignored.

And if he became too dependent on the protection it offered, then sooner or later, his complacency would kill him... Perhaps in the most pathetic and humiliating way imaginable.

That realization was brutally reinforced when a wolf suddenly lunged at him.

Regaleon had raised his Halberd to intercept the attack but the wolf twisted in midair, flashing it’s paws. In the next moment, silver light erupted around its claws and then...

Slash!

The claws tore straight through his armour like it was nothing more than flimsy paper.

For a brief instant, Regaleon’s mind simply stopped functioning. His golden eyes widened while his brain seemed to short-circuit from sheer disbelief.

Had they not been in the middle of a life-and-death battle, the sight alone might have made the silver-haired Knight stare at his damaged armour in utter disbelief.

It cut through it?

The thought barely registered before his body moved on instinct.

His Halberd swept upward and the wolf’s head was separated from its body in a single brutal stroke, its corpse crashing onto the blood-soaked ground.

But killing the creature did little to diminish the shock Regaleon had felt.

Since then, the silver-haired Knight became considerably more cautious...

His eyes constantly scanned the wolves, his movements became more deliberate and every incoming claw was treated as though it were capable of piercing his armour.

Moreover, every attack was calculated in a way that he no longer assumed that his Armour could save him. Instead, he treated it as what it truly was, a final layer of protection.

And that distinction could mean the difference between life and death.

At least Regaleon had the protection of his armour.

Even if its durability had just been somewhat undermined, it could still grant him a few invaluable microseconds of reaction time.

A few fractions of a second could be enough for him to identify an incoming attack, adjust his stance, redirect the strike, and counterattack.

In battle, those fractions of a second were precious.

But not everyone had such protection.

There were members of the group who couldn’t rely on reinforced armour. They had nothing between their bodies and those terrifying claws except their own clothes... And their newfound strength.

And now, as the silver flashes continued appearing throughout the battlefield, they were about to discover exactly how much that strength was worth...