Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

"We should fight as comfortably as we could... The number is large, but it's not that different from what we face at the surface. We should fight using our respective style to muster all of our strength," (Surena)

Fighting with those that you're not familiar fighting together with would hinder the smooth teamwork. By fighting in your usual groups, it will be easier for them to fight since they are used to each other's fighting styles and their teamwork would be much more solid than having to force themselves to collaborate with other groups.

"You're right. Fight as you see fit, Valkyries. Julius," Erich nods in agreement before calling for the captain of the royal knights.

"Yes, your highness. Knights! Breakthrough formation!" (Julius)

The royal knights and the prince's personal knights made a breakthrough position on the right side of Lyan. The Valkyries stand gallantly in the front while Ravia and Raine are behind them, it seems they are going to be the ones entrusted to guard their team's rear.

(And I'm alone, huh...) (Lyan)

(If things go south, summon me immediately, Lyan) (Griselda)

It's not her usual sarcastic tone, but it's a serious and grim tone.

"Of course," (Lyan)

(I know you're very worried about that prince of yours, after all) (Lyan)

Lyan looks at the formation made by the two groups.

(So the Valkyries and I will be charging for the goblin king's head after the Astellian breakthrough their encirclement, huh? If we had joined up with the main army and attacked together, the situation wouldn't be this grim, though. But I guess the plan was made with the assumption of having the elite group fighting in full force in the first place...) (Lyan)

Lyan observes the condition of his allies around him.

(They seem to be not that exhausted after the battle with the [Crows]. The Valkyries look like they still have lots of aces under their sleeves, same as William and that captain of royal knights, Julius. The [Crows] seem to underestimate their strength too much. As long as I keep up with them, there would be no need for me to use my summonings, Now for my mana...) (Lyan)

The portion of Arturia's mana that he got from the grimoire of summoning's buff had completely depleted after the battle with the [Crows], Griselda's mana is about half, Sylphia's mana had already completely recovered, while he hadn't used any mana of the other spirits.

(My illusion mana still at around 85%, this could do. This should be enough) (Lyan)

As Lyan finishes his calculation, Lyan takes his stance, ready to rush whenever he should. But when he moved his feet, there was a sound similar to a bone cracking coming from under his feet.

"Hm?" Lyan takes a peek downwards, and the sight forces him to widen his eyes.

!?!?

It's a skull, and lying beside it is the Golden Thrill leader's hat. Lyan then realized that behind them, there are piles of bones scattering around.

(In such a short time, they didn't just get massacred, but they got eaten down to their bones as well, huh...) (Lyan)

It's not strange considering the number of the goblins. With such a number, it's expected for them to be in a constant state of hunger since the food wouldn't be enough for such a number.

The one that realized about the skull and the hat is not only Lyan, but the Valkyries that heard the sound of bones cracking also saw the skull and the hat. Since they had become mercenaries longer than Lyan, they must have known the man called 'Martin' even better than Lyan.

(So he died too...) (Surena)

Surena gripped her sword stronger, making her hand to shake a little.

(The goblins and hobgoblins before us are only about 500 or so in number, they must have sent most of their forces to repel the main army and the Astellian army on the surface. We can do this...) (Surena)

Surena's gaze met Erich's, and they nod at each other.

"Forward!!!" Erich shouted as he point his sword forward.

Following Erich's call, the Astellian knights lead the advance like the tip of a spear, while the Valkyries, Raine, Ravia, and Lyan followed them from behind.

As expected of the royal knights from the country that is famous for the quality of their knights, they are acting as invincible heavy infantries, repelling all of the goblins jumping towards them, while advancing forwards to break through the formation of the goblins and hobgoblins.

Julius lead them as the captain of the royal knights and stand at the very front, but every goblin that entered his view quickly got their head sliced cleanly from their bodies. While Erich on the other hand, he's at the center of their formation since he's an important crown prince, but he continues to summon golden flames which engulfed lots of goblins surrounding them.

"We're breaking through!" Erich's sound resonated.

They are already on the verge of breaking through the formation of the goblins to open the path for the Valkyries, Raine, Ravia, and Lyan to rush towards the goblin king.

Since the goblins' are not that clever enough, and it seems that there are no commanders leading them, they didn't attempt to prevent them from breaking through their barricade and continue to attack them. And when they finally reached the last line of goblins.

"We're in!" (Erich)

The Valkyries, Raine, Ravia, and Lyan immediately take the created space and separate themselves from the Astellian group.

"Don't let them got chased!" (Erich)

Following Erich's command, the knights made a horizontal line, blocking the rest of the goblins from running after Lyan and company.

"Let's go!" (Surena)

Looking at Lyan and company coming, the goblin king's ugly face made a face of displeasure and slammed the greatsword beside him powerfully to the ground.

As if responding to it, a group of red goblins suddenly appeared from one of the holes beside the rushing Lyan and company.

"I'll take care of them," Lyan stopped in his tracks and readied both of his swords.

The number of the rushing red goblins is about 100. For a normal knight, it's difficult for him to defeat a group of 20 goblins, let alone a group of 100 red goblins that are stronger than usual goblins. But for Lyan that had faced an army of abyss beasts inside the demon world, the force in front of him is not something for him to be afraid of.

"Now, look into my eyes," (Lyan)

The red goblins at the front row saw the purple light emitted from Lyan's eyes, but when they saw it, their vision suddenly turned black. One by one, the goblins stopped their tracks, and stumbled because of their sudden loss of vision. The stumbling in the front rows made the ones rushing from behind fall as well, crumbling their formation.

Of course, the man before them wouldn't let the opportunity they had just made fall to waste.

*Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!*

Rather than a battle, it's more like a massacre. The red goblins that didn't have their sight didn't have any chance to fight back against Lyan. They could only get killed one by one.

([Mystic eyes of Incubus]. It's a great skill, but it's draining a lot of mana. I should finish this as fast as I could) (Lyan)

Lyan continues to slaughter the red goblins, but when he is about to slay the 70th one.

"Agh!"

"Emilia!" (Alice)

"Emi!" (Surena)

Emilia's groan sounded from the direction of the goblin king. But not only her.

"Argh!" "Ugh!"

The royal knights from the Astellian side also made some groans. Lyan shifted his gaze to see the situation, and he saw the reason for the sudden damage they got.

"So this is why there are lots of malice in the air..." (Lyan)

There are goblins and goblin champions holding stakes, but on the stakes, there are living human women tied on it. There are about 50 of them surrounding the Astellian group and the Valkyries group. They are using them as a shield from getting attacked.

With the sudden appearance of human shields on the goblins' side, the Astellian group and the Valkyries hesitated in their attacks. Their decision-making got disrupted by the sudden element popping before their eyes.

Which one should they prioritize? Should they risk their lives to save the ones the goblins holding captives? Or should they sacrifice them and stick to their objectives?

The weight of the lives before them made them hesitate to make their decision, resulting in Emilia from the Valkyrie group getting direct attack by a goblin champion, and two royal knights from the Astellian group getting stabbed by the goblins' spears.

At that moment of hesitation, a smile appeared on the ugly face of the goblin king.

___________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Gold-ranked Mercenary

Money: 49,722,400 Elnes

Weapon: None

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, Shadow Hobgoblin, Papilio Slime, Galewing Butterfly, Rock Golem, Deadlight, Moonlight Butterfly, Ice Golem