Chapter 35: I Won’t Go Down So Easily (3)
Swaaaa!
Rain poured in sheets over corpses pierced by arrows, blood streaming down to the ground.
The smell of wet earth, the stench of blood, the thrill of the battlefield, and the earthworms crawling over everything.
All of it mixed together, more than enough to steal a man’s sanity.
“Uwaaaaah!”
Thud!
Gadolph let out a shrill scream and fell back on his rear.
“Please, get a hold of yourself, Young Master Gadolph! You must stand!”
A servant standing beside him hurriedly pulled him to his feet.
‘I-I’m going to die!’
This… this was no joke!
The alcohol in Gadolph’s system evaporated in an instant, and the fear that had been lying dormant inside him awoke, stabbing into his body as if to devour him whole.
“Aaaaagh!”
“Save meee!”
Screams erupted one after another.
The conscripts’ faces, which had calmed only for a moment, now broke out in confusion and terror.
But there was no turning back now.
This was war, and someone dying was only natural.
Then, one of the captains in the rear shouted.
“Return fire! Support the knights!”
“Eeeeek! Bastards!”
“Dieeee!”
The Daphne side hastily loosed arrows in reply, but they were overwhelmingly outnumbered.
Besides, the conscripts’ bows and their level of training were so abysmal that their range and power were woefully lacking.
Most of the arrows they shot didn’t even reach the enemy, instead embedding themselves in the ground.
It felt as though they couldn’t even pierce the heavy downpour.
“Aaaaagh!”
“He’s down!”
Each time arrows crossed between the two sides, only Daphne’s casualties increased.
A despairing situation.
On top of that…
‘The speed… we can’t gain speed!’
‘The ground… it’s turning into a quagmire.’
Splish! Splish!
The relentless rain slowed the Wedge Rush.
The horses’ hooves sank deeper into the mud, clumps of it splattering everywhere.
Even so, arrows continued to fall, loosening the formation of the wedge, widening the distance between the knights in the vanguard, those pursuing behind them, and the conscripts following further back.
The tension, the despair thickening across everyone’s faces, told the whole story.
Something was going terribly wrong.
Viscount Cobalt clenched his teeth.
‘I must not let this drag on.’
Behind him, the conscripts’ screams rang out, while the downpour ahead blurred his vision.
His heart pounded madly, a searing pain ripping through him as if his flesh were being sliced open or molten lava poured into his chest.
Why had Calpion chosen to attack them?
Why had this damned storm come?
Countless questions and emotions churned inside him, but he forced them down, grinding his teeth so hard it felt they might crack.
There was no retreat anyway.
If their advance was stalled, it would all end here.
This was their only chance. Before the spark of this opportunity was snuffed out completely, they had to break through the center… and charge into the enemy’s heart.
That was the only possibility left.
Swaaaa!
Clatter! Clatter!
The distance rapidly closed, and the enemy conscripts standing at the front came into view.
Calpion’s conscripts narrowed their eyes and shouted.
“They’re almost here!”
“Hold them! We stop them here!”
Unlike Daphne’s conscripts, they neither panicked nor retreated.
They simply leveled their spears forward, eyes fierce.
But Cobalt only urged his horse faster.
‘I will break through.’
If they couldn’t even pierce this line, Daphne’s blades would never touch the Calpion knights, the core of this war.
Viscount Cobalt leveled the spear in his hand and shouted.
“Chaaaarge!”
“Chaaaarge!”
Fwoooosh!
Viscount Cobalt and Commander Mulgybson.
Blue light flared in both men’s eyes, and a faint azure glow gathered on the spears they gripped.
Weapon Enchant.
An ability to imbue mana into weapons, the exclusive domain of 2-star mana users.
‘I’ll seize the initiative!’
Clatter! Clatter!
The moment the two men at the front collided with the enemy line—
Kraaaang!
“Aaaagh!”
The Calpion conscripts in the vanguard were flung helplessly into the air, tumbling across the ground.
Flesh and fountains of blood sprayed out, and screams rose to cover it all, stamping a grim punctuation mark.
It was a brute force charge, like a war chariot ramming through.
“Aaaagh!”
“Dammit aaall!”
Only then did the Calpion conscripts pale in shock, their faces filling with confusion and terror.
No matter how numerous Calpion’s forces were, this side was composed entirely of mana users. They were realizing that these troops couldn’t be stopped by mere conscripts.
“Eeeek!”
“Hold your spears! Don’t lower them!”
Wavering, trembling.
As the Calpion conscripts began to retreat, gaps appeared in their once-dense formation.
‘There!’
Spotting that opening, Viscount Cobalt thrust his spear forward and drove in.
Like a wedge being hammered home, the enemy ranks split in two along his path.
Following behind him, Daphne’s forces advanced in a sharp wedge formation, piercing deep into Calpion’s lines.
‘It’s opening… a path!’
Crunch! Crack!
Conscripts were impaled on the knights’ spears or trampled beneath the horses’ bodies, sent flying in all directions.
A lightning-fast advance.
‘Faster!’
‘We keep pushing like this!’
But not one of Daphne’s knights relaxed their tension.
They all knew well enough.
What they faced now were only conscripts.
The true showdown waited beyond them.
“Commander! I sense mana surging in the front!”
“I see it!”
At Mulgybson’s shout, Viscount Cobalt fixed his gaze on the far side of the enemy line.
Between the terrified conscripts, a surge of mana leaked out.
It stretched toward them in dozens of tendrils, brushing across the air.
That meant Calpion’s knights were waiting behind.
‘This is where it really begins.’
They had to break through. No matter what.
It was then.
“Spread out! Everyone, scatter!”
“They said scatter!”
At someone’s shout, the conscripts at the front threw down their weapons and quickly withdrew to the sides.
The speed of their movement made it clear they had been ordered in advance.
The once-dense wall vanished, and in an instant a wide road opened ahead.
At that moment, the eyes of Daphne’s knights grew darker.
“Fuuuuu…”
At the end of that cleared path stood dozens of armored men, clad in gear shaped to resemble a serpent.
Calpion’s knights, all lined up, blue light blazing in their eyes.
Standing there in the pouring rain, they gave off an ominous, oppressive air.
Whether they could break through those men or not—this would decide everything.
Cobalt shouted.
“Pick up more speed!”
“Uaaaaah!”
Daphne’s knights spurred their horses on, closing the distance when—
The enemy knights’ lips curled into grins.
“Raise shields!”
“Raise shields!”
At the command, they dropped to one knee.
Boom!
They lifted something that had been laid on the ground and slammed it upright.
They were shields.
Shields so large they could cover nearly the entirety of a man’s body—
Tower shields of immense size.
‘Shields? Here?’
‘T-That means…’
Viscount Cobalt and Mulgybson both showed the same look of dismay on their faces almost at the same time.
The enemy had abruptly pulled the soldiers aside, and the knights standing behind them all planted their tower shields into the ground in unison.
Even in this short moment, the situation was plain to see.
‘They expected this!’
‘Damn it…’
They had known Daphne would attempt a wedge charge.
If they pinned them here with the shields and then surrounded them with overwhelming numbers, the outcome of the war would be all but decided.
But Daphne had no choice.
‘We must break through. Somehow.’
A wall formed of dozens of shields lined up in a long row.
The fact remained—if they couldn’t break through it, they would die pointless deaths.
Viscount Cobalt urged his horse on faster, charging straight ahead.
“Eeeeeiiiii!”
Hiiiiiing!
Kraaaang!
Cobalt and Mulgybson roared as they thrust their spears at the enemy shields.
The horse’s head smashed against a tower shield and let out a piercing cry.
“Don’t get pushed back!”
“Hold your ground!”
Screeeeeech!
The Calpion knights in front were shoved back a good distance.
But… that was all.
They hadn’t taken any critical damage, and Daphne’s advance stopped in that instant.
“Break through!”
Clang! Clang!
The Daphne knights who had followed crashed their mounts against the shields just as Viscount Cobalt had and swung their spears.
Hiiiiiing!
“Damn it!”
Horses collided and fell, knights tumbling to the ground one after another.
“Don’t stop! Keep charging until it breaks!”
The knights gripped their spears again, and those who had lost theirs drew the swords at their belts, throwing themselves at Calpion’s tower shield wall.
Clang! Clang!
But again, the attacks were blocked by the shields, and the spears were severed by blades thrust out by the Calpion knights.
In the midst of that—
Swish! Swish! Swish!
“Aaaagh!”
“Damn iiiit!”
A rain of arrows poured over from beyond the shields, skewering Daphne’s knights in countless places.
A thick wall of tower shields in front, and a barrage of arrows raining down from overhead…
They were truly like rats trapped in a jar.
The knights’ faces grew grim with defeat, and even confusion began to show.
‘I’m going to die.’
The courage they’d felt moments earlier faded, and a single thought burned clear in their minds.
At that moment, Viscount Cobalt furrowed his brow.
‘I will not end it like this.’
He drew his sword and filled it with mana.
Then he pressed himself once more against the wall of tower shields.
“Uaaaaaaaah!”
Kraaaang!
The sword, brimming with Weapon Enchant, struck with an ear-splitting roar.
“Aaaagh!”
Craaaack!
One knight’s tower shield shattered, and his body flew backward.
In that instant, Cobalt and Mulgybson’s eyes met.
‘Now!’
The two of them thrust into the gap together, swords swinging.
“Bastaaards! Hold them! Hold them back!”
“Don’t drop your shields!”
The Calpion knights tried to counterattack, but they couldn’t easily contain them.
Though the power of the Daphne Viscomital House might have waned, Cobalt and Mulgybson were undeniably 2-star knights.
Moreover, they were veterans who had survived countless battlefields, not men to be subdued easily.
And their exploits now…
“Follow the Lord!”
“Drive inside! Get in!”
…gave the younger Daphne knights the courage to squeeze their last strength.
Clang! Clang!
Mud and blood splattered across the rain-soaked earth, while harsh shouts and the grating of metal rang without end.
---
At that moment, atop Daphne’s ramparts—
“Oooooh, Third Young Master! The mood is excellent! Surely, we have seized the advantage now! We’ve advanced quite deep into their lines!”
“As expected! It’s the Lord, after all!”
“Even Calpion looks rattled!”
The retainers were screeching in excitement, their voices shrill.
“……”
But Malion only stared intently at the battlefield with a grave expression, not adding a single word.
Just then, Hardin slowly shook his head, his brow furrowing as he spoke.
“Seized the advantage, my ass. They’ve walked right into the lion’s jaws.”
“W-What do you mean by that?”
“You can see it yourself. In that state… do you really think they can keep charging?”
Hardin calmly looked down over the battlefield.
The wedge that had charged so fiercely at first had slowed noticeably.
Meanwhile, the forces on both flanks of Calpion’s formation were shifting forward, steadily tightening their encirclement.
Right now, it might look as if they were pushing through, but if this kept up much longer…
‘They’ll be surrounded completely.’
It was obvious as day.
“……”
Malion’s pupils trembled, and Hardin turned his gaze to where Daphne’s vanguard was fighting.
‘They saw through it, from start to finish.’
Everything about the enemy’s disposition was clear.
How they hadn’t deployed their knights at the front, how they were only holding out with those massive shields to buy time.
The retainers were ignorant, so they could spout nonsense, but anyone with even a little understanding of combat would see it plainly.
The odds of victory were slipping away.
Hardin spoke again.
“Right now it looks fine, but give it a bit more time. They’ll be surrounded, watch.”
“Brother, please… could you just keep that mouth shut?”
“Why? I’m only stating the truth.”
“Even so, there’s no need to actually say it out loud.”
Malion’s whole body trembled as he bit down on his lip.
He might be speaking like that, but he wasn’t a fool. He knew it perfectly well.
That the battle was going poorly.
Just then, Hardin let out a long snort, folded his arms, and stared across the battlefield.
‘Those bastards really are something else.’
They’d known for a long time that Calpion would eventually attack.
But seeing those dogs crawling all the way up here with his own eyes, somehow…
‘Disgusting.’
A long sigh slipped out of him.
‘No matter how far our house has fallen, after all we’ve done for them… they still come here to wreak this havoc?’
Fine. All right. Go on, keep at it, you bastards.
Soon enough, you’ll find out exactly who you’ve provoked.
A meaningful smile slowly crept across Hardin’s lips.