Chapter 620: Back in Control

Facing the knight lance that nearly took her life,

Emily's gaze remained unwavering. She swiftly raised her own lance, infused with lightning-imbued mana, and thrust forward in response.

In an instant, the two horses brushed past each other.

*Snap!*

The lance shaft shattered, but the tip had already pierced through the opponent's chest—she had cut down another earth knight.

But it was futile. The Coral Island Knights were being whittled down.

Originally over a thousand strong, repeated charges had already reduced their ranks by a third. Meanwhile, behind the Roaring Knights, fresh reinforcements continued to pour in. Though these knights were not elite, mostly irregular troops, they were a relentless tide on the battlefield.

To counter the invaders, the Raging Waves Marquis had mobilized nearly all the knight orders from the Riverhead region, likely numbering over three thousand.

Their goal was to annihilate the Coral Island Knights here and now.

Emily didn’t know what the final outcome would be, nor did she have the mind to ponder it. Every time she cut down an enemy knight, her entire body thrummed with heat.

Raw power flooded through her limbs, urging her to press on.

"Charge!"

With a battle cry, she became the leader of a knight squad, gripping her fourth lance as she led a fresh charge against the black-armored knights ahead. Lightning-imbued mana arced around her, causing the fragmented mana fields nearby to knit back together.

The knights behind her felt their own mana resonating with something, receiving a tremendous boost.

Following this sensation, they howled:

"Charge!"

"Charge!"

"Charge!"

...

*Fall back!*

*Retreat again!*

Liszt realized he couldn’t match the Raging Waves Marquis, who wielded his knights’ pooled mana. However, the Marquis wasn’t particularly fast, making it difficult for him to truly catch up.

Understanding this, his mind raced frantically. The arrogance and restlessness from before the battle had shattered entirely, replaced by cautious precision in handling each crisis.

A glance to the side revealed that Lee William, though in dire straits, wasn’t about to break. As a veteran sword saint with water-attribute mana—renowned for endurance and resilience—he wouldn’t fall anytime soon.

"Damian’s trick of harnessing the knights’ pooled mana is too powerful. If I don’t break it, this battle is lost! The only way now is to cut through the Roaring Knights first, severing the Marquis’s source of mana!" Normally, one would target the leader first, but the enemy chief was too strong—so he had to clip their wings first.

Dragon Aura flared as he wrenched open some distance.

Liszt swiftly switched to the Swiftshadow Bow, snapping off three arrows in a spread-shot toward an exposed flank of the Roaring Knights—where the Marquis couldn’t protect them.

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

*Thud!*

Kaboom!

Each arrow exploded, unleashing waves of flames that engulfed several knights clad in black armor astride black warhorses.

"Stop!" Marquis Ragingtide spoke for the first time, his voice amplified by some unknown method, rolling over the knights like thunder.

Yet, Liszt's eyes only grew brighter at the threat—if the enemy was resorting to intimidation, he must be doing something right.

He retreated again, then turned mid-flight, loosing three more arrows that decimated another group of knights. Back and forth, the Marquis could do nothing but trail behind him in frustration, eating dust. Meanwhile, Liszt grew more exhilarated with each shot, honing his craft and coordinating with the Coral Island Knights.

He studied their charge patterns, pinpointing and eliminating the Roaring Knights' resistance units.

For a Dragon Knight to target mere Earth Knights was like using a flak cannon to kill flies—overkill, but undeniably effective.

With his bow and an endless supply of arrows from his gemstone vault, he was practically a rapid-fire rocket launcher with unlimited ammo, firing and exploding without pause.

"Stop!"

"Liszt!"

"You coward!"

"Stand and fight me!"

Marquis Ragingtide roared in fury as Liszt relentlessly decimated the Roaring Knights' elite, his heart bleeding with every loss. Yet, he couldn't catch Liszt. Whenever he tried to retaliate against the Coral Island Knights, Liszt would swiftly redirect his arrows toward the exposed positions of the Roaring Knights.

It was a brutal choice—slaughter a group of ordinary Earth Knights or protect his own elite Roaring Knights. The Marquis had no choice.

He couldn't afford not to intervene, for the Roaring Knights were the source of his strength.

Without their pooled battle aura, he stood no chance against Liszt, the inheritor of ancient warrior techniques. Their first clash had made it clear—this enviably young knight was at the pinnacle of ancient warrior successors, forcing the Marquis to unleash his true strength as a peak Sky Knight.

A peak Sky Knight stood just below Dragon Knights at the zenith of knighthood.

Yet, most peak Sky Knights, lacking the refined heritage of noble houses, could barely outmatch sword saints in combat.

But for a great house like the Yuhua Stone Family, with centuries of accumulated heritage, there existed battle techniques and battle aura domains truly befitting a peak Sky Knight.

Such knights, masters of battle aura domains, were known among the aristocracy by another title—Domain Knights.

Under the influence of a Domain Knight's battle aura, the Roaring Knights' energies resonated, amplifying into a vast surge that coalesced into the knight's personal domain. Within this domain, the Domain Knight was nearly invincible, overwhelming any opponent.

This was why knight families, even without Dragon Knights, could steadily supplant the traditions of ancient warriors and mages. While Sky Knights alone weren't overwhelmingly powerful, domain empowerment allowed them to rival the greatest ancient warriors—especially when backed by a knightly charge.

In the struggles between noble houses, victory always favored the knights.

Dragon Knights might shine briefly, but Domain Knights were the true pillars of aristocracy.

...

Yet, Marquis Ragingtide faced an unforeseen complication.

He didn't realize Liszt wasn't an inheritor of ancient warrior techniques—but a dragonless would-be Dragon Knight.

Thus, Liszt wasn't crushed. Instead, with his blast arrows, he steadily eroded the Marquis' domain—every knight felled diminished the battle aura domain further.

Rage turned to dread in the Marquis' heart.

After several rounds of back-and-forth, the domain provided by the Roaring Knights had significantly weakened, and the power it granted him had drastically diminished. The favorable situation that had just reversed was overturned once again, as the Coral Island Knights resumed their slaughter of the Roaring Knights, who were being precisely targeted by Liszt.

The supporting ragtag knight groups collapsed one after another under Liszt's archery.

With his archery on full display, Liszt grew increasingly exhilarated, clearly sensing the waning strength of the Marquis of the Raging Waves. Yet, to deny his opponent any chance of a comeback, he continued employing hit-and-run tactics, relentlessly weakening the Roaring Knights. At the same time, he took potshots at the four sky knights, providing support for Lee William.

Soaring into the air, he scattered arrows in all directions.

Liszt's lips curled into a graceful smirk again: "That was just a misstep earlier. Now, everything is back under my control!"