Asher said as he pointed to his chest. The Stormbringers did not hesitate as they released arrows at him.
Unfortunately, gold-ranked arrows shot by gold-ranked markswomen bounced off the armor without Asher circulating his battle force.
Kelvin coughed when Asher said that. He felt Asher was abusing his soldiers. There was no way gold-ranked steel could compare to gold-ranked dwarven metal, not to talk about the saint-ranked dwarven armor he donned.
Even imperial-ranked weapons would find it hard to breach the armor unless they found an opening. For example, the gaps between the parts of the armor.
Asher wrapped his fingers around Euodias and unsheathed the blade. As usual, a spirit came out, this time around with flickers of lightning, but when it struck him, he only slid back a hundred yards, and there was not a scratch on him.
Seeing this, the spirit beast was about to launch a greater strike, but he infused his battle force into the sword, subduing its channel.
Like him, Euodias is also a vessel, a medium through which the spirit of the vengeful wolf appeared in the mortal world.
While he had to be cut to become accessible, Euodias had to leave its sheath to become accessible.
In a way, he was wielding a sword that had great similarities with him.
Swinging Euodias to his heart's content, he turned to the Stormbringers.
"Fire, and don't stop until I say so."
The moment he gave that order, the Stormbringers looked at themselves, slowly removed three arrows each, and nocked them.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Several arrows came at Asher, but he calmly deflected them with balanced footwork and sharp senses.
He was like a mirage despite his seemingly heavy armor. His movement was light, and sometimes he would seem to blur in-between arrows.
All of a sudden, one arrow came straight for his eyes with a force the others couldn't compete with. It came out of the blue and closed the gap almost instantly.
Asher swung his sword but missed by a narrow margin. In slow motion, the flesh above and below his eyes folded as he squinted.
The gleaming arrowhead reflected in his pupils.
In the next moment, he grabbed the arrow right before his eye. Good thing it wasn't a must to use two hands in wielding his sword.
His other hand was free all this while.
He lifted up his head and saw Eritrea. Her face was covered in shock.
"What kind of armor is that?!"
In her spars with Alec, Eritrea came to a realization that Alec, a sacred-ranked Aegis, needed to power his shield with his battle force in order to block her full-powered shots.
Even then the force usually made him take some steps back, but Asher just caught her arrow with his hands!
She expected him to evade, as that was what swordsmen do in the face of such a crisis, but Asher did the opposite.
"That got my heart pounding for a while there."
Asher smiled, but no one could see it because of the visor.
He chuckled as he swung his sword. The sound of Euodias tearing through the air resistance fell into their ears.
Two men in chains were pushing carts loaded with iron ore. They walked side by side, their eyes strangely shifty.
One had a stout frame while the other had red hair and a smaller frame, but both of them were quite tall.
They were Baron Rutherford and Baron Scarlet. After several months, they had learned to become humble and work like others or face more of the mind-dampening sensation of the iron prison.
Baron Rutherford said as he looked at the bronze-ranked soldiers with their tall spears strolling about.
Baron Scarlet glanced at them and raised an eyebrow. "Nothing much."
Rutherford chuckled. "They're trained. They're strong."
"That was before." Baron Scarlet revealed a malicious smile. In these past few months they have learnt to utilize their time to train their bodies.
Before they couldn't match these bronze-ranked soldiers who could use battle force, but now, they were sure they could beat up a silver-ranked without stress!
As they walked southward, a man came in the opposite direction. He had long black hair, a rough-looking face, and one eye.
It was Buba, the one-eyed flamethrower.
The trio started walking past each other like they were strangers. No one could notice the discussion that went on with their eyes alone!
"The bastard is at war with the count."
Baron Scarlet glanced at him. "I heard. It should make his domain more vulnerable from the inside."
"How many have you coerced?" Rutherford asked with a deep tone.
"150. I met 10 people yesterday who refused to cooperate. The bastard still has loyalists, and there are a lot of them amongst us."
"Tsk! What did you do to those who refused?"
It was obvious Baron Rutherford was implying something.
"Faked a collapse with my men, and they all died this morning."
"Oh? You were the one that caused the collapse." Baron Rutherford chuckled softly. Their voices were soft as they spoke to each other.
"The only problem remaining is that place." Baron Scarlet looked at the iron prison hold at the top of the mountain.
It was still a dreadful place to them.
"Where did that bastard get those unnatural men?"
"There's no need to worry. We'll work our way to the top and take over this bastide before that bastard even realizes. Once we equip those on our side with the great armor produced here, we shall be like a rotten wound that would get worse and worse until it eventually kills a mammoth."
Hearing this, Baron Scarlet smiled.
"I await our future prospects."
As they were discussing, a commotion caused them to turn. Curious, they went toward the crowd and saw large trebuchets being pushed by soldiers.
Baron Scarlet's eyes twinkled. "So…War machines are also produced here. Asher is indeed the key to the Ashbournes."
"He was the key; now he will be the key to our rise. This domain will be ours."
Rutherford said with a low, deep tone.