Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 141 - 45 Search and Rescue and Counterattack

Chapter 141: Chapter 45 Search and Rescue and Counterattack

"Everyone perform a self-check to see if you’re injured, and report promptly," the voice instructed.

"Nora, use your Life Sequence ability to detect if anyone’s contaminated with anti-life radiation dust."

"Thira, work with Nora to use a breeze to wash away the radiation dust," another command followed.

With the series of orders given, the members of The Azure Longsword began cleaning the dust off their bodies.

Although everyone was shocked, having laid on the ground for so long, their emotions had more or less settled down.

"What’s next?" Eleanor asked. "Shall we go find Medea?"

In a past-life’s game map, Aske would have said "no."

After all, such a large AOE animation would be visible to the enemy from a distance.

If the opponent got there first and set up an ambush, launching a pincer attack, that would be too disastrous for us, right?

However, in this world, Aske couldn’t give such a command, because the negative impact of "not rescuing" on the team was much more severe than being ambushed by the enemy.

So, he could only order everyone to be alert to dangers around them and to proceed cautiously towards the epicenter of the explosion.

The deeper they went, the more clearly they saw the might of that explosion.

The soil had melted into an asphalt-like substance, and the originally smooth concrete walls looked as though butter lumps were dissolving in them, covered in large and small drips and bumps.

The corpse of a Power Armor Knight lay nearby, its lower body completely dissolved and fused with the black ground beneath, while the upper body’s exoskeleton armor was distorted, radiating a golden-red glow as if it had just been extracted from a furnace, the heat of burning steel still emanating.

The group continued onward, reaching the center of the explosion. There, they found more wreckage of Power Armor Knights standing silently around the epicenter, while the Knight Followers without armor protection had long since been reduced to bones.

Underneath the collapsed buildings was a funnel-shaped hole, emanating an unpleasant charred smell and a pale blue smoke.

"She... she couldn’t be dead, could she?" Eleanor asked, staring at the center of the hole in shock.

Aske didn’t respond, just stared silently into the hole as well.

After a moment, a struggling cough echoed from below:

"Even if you died, I wouldn’t!" barked a voice with feigned indignation. "Persian cat!"

A head with soggy red hair struggled to emerge half-way from the hole, panting wearily.

Medea.

She must have been in a sewer directly below, and it was by submerging herself fully in its filthy waters that she survived the chain of explosions and high temperatures.

Sigrdrifa and Eleanor quickly jumped into the funnel pit and, one on each side, they pulled her out.

"How are you feeling?" Aske crouched beside her and inquired.

"Can’t you say something comforting instead of just that?" Medea lay flat on the ground, letting Nora heal her, her chest rising and falling slightly.

"I mean, your crazy alter ego, she must’ve communicated with you proactively this time, right?" Aske continued. "How is it getting along with her? How does she make you feel?"

At this, Medea seemed to drift off, staring blankly into the sky.

"It’s awful," she said.

————————

"She won’t get far!" Alfred declared with a livid face amidst the moving Crusader Knight team, "Such flames... they must have greatly drained her spirituality! Her condition must be dire now!"

"We’ve received intelligence that another small squad has infiltrated from the north," said Viscount Joel Glafoord, the King’s Sword Guard, Bernifax, "Perhaps they’ve come to rescue her."

"So what!" Alfred scoffed, "We’ll just capture them all in one fell swoop!"

The thought flashed through Joel’s mind that if this squad was filled with monsters like that Mage, then rushing in might lead them right into a trap...

However, he quickly shook his head with a wry smile. If that were the case, the squad would have been deployed right from the start, not rushing in after that Mage had cast her powerful spell and was half-dead.

Besides, that squad seemed to be less than ten strong, while the Crusader forces were three times their number, all battle-hardened Power Armor Knights. There was certainly no reason to fear the enemy before the battle had even begun.

While Alfred was impatiently urging them on, Joel agreed with him and ordered the men to quicken the march, knowing that Alfred’s urgency stemmed from over a dozen elite knights having perished in the flames.

In the Crusader Kingdom, life was the cheapest commodity, with a never-ending supply of western pilgrims to replenish their ranks, yet more than a dozen sets of Power Armor represented a substantial cost.

A cost that, inevitably, Alfred would have to pay out of his own pocket to compensate the King’s treasury.

"Enemies ahead!" With the Knight Followers’ loud warning, the Crusader warriors saw a tall knight standing in the middle of the street ahead.

She was clad in thick orange-yellow Plate Armor, her left hand bearing a bright Shield emblazoned with the Double-headed Eagle.

Her right hand gripped a dark gold Long Spear, its head carved into the shape of an Evil Dragon, breathing forth a blade thin as a cicada’s wing.

"Just one person?" Alfred laughed heartily, "What a crude bait and trap! Do they think we’d charge in so carelessly?"

"Grenades! Aim for the buildings on both sides and wipe out any ambushers!"

Several Knight Followers immediately stepped forward, kneeling on one knee to ready their rifles with grenade launchers.

These assault rifles and grenade launchers were the latest supplies from the Church Court to aid the Latin Empire, now conveniently at Alfred’s disposal.

The grenades roared into the buildings on either side with tails of white smoke, followed by loud booms of gunpowder explosions and collapsing walls.

"Seems like there’s no one there," Joel frowned.

"They just died before they had a chance to scream!" Alfred replied coldly, "First squad, advance and attack; second squad, cover with supporting fire, watch her rear!"

Four Armored Knights took the lead, their Long Spears thrusting forward in a rapid charge. Eleanor simply stepped forward calmly, her left hand Shield blocking an attack from the left, her right hand Long Spear swinging out forcefully.

Her Fine Gold Spear collided with the two Knights’ spears on the right, then suddenly twisted with a violent spin, flinging both spears away.

"Spiral Charge?" Joel watched from behind, momentarily stunned.

As a signature Spear Skill of West Francian Chivalrous Knights, Spiral Charge was widely known and not particularly complex to execute.

During a struggle with weapons locked, a vigorous twist of the spear would force the opponent’s weapon to shudder uncontrollably and be cast aside, illustrating the Knight’s merciful stance of "stopping violence without killing".

However, the technique displayed by the tall Knight before them was undoubtedly much more advanced than that of the Chivalrous Knights.

She first swept her spear as if it were an ordinary Attack Block, and only during the moment of collision did she twist the spear, the inherent force of the spear along with the spin to knock away, undeniably disarming the Armored Knights’ weapons even further.

Thus, creating a larger opening was, of course, for...

"Be careful!" Joel instantly shouted.

But his warning was too late – in the next second, Eleanor spun and swung her Long Spear in an Iron Cutting blow that hit the visual optics of both Knights simultaneously.