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Translator: M.S
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Battle Begins
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Kalserik gritted his teeth.
*We have to break his momentum as much as possible…!*
The irresistible Barkan.
If they couldn't stop him, that brat Saltsran up front would shatter like a glass doll.
“Longspears! Hold!”
At his shout, the high-level Experts positioned on his flanks infused their longspears with aura and aimed at Barkan.
These weren't just any longspears.
They were treasure-grade ancient armaments that Lansen himself had acquired.
The way they fit in the hand was different, and the force of the aura extending from them was on another level.
With these…!
Even the irresistible Barkan…!
*Krak! Cruuunch!*
The ancient longspears thrust forward by Kalserik and the other high-level Experts.
All of them were swatted away before Barkan like mere raindrops.
Some were bent by the swing of his guandao, while others were broken against his aura-infused armor.
A storm whipped up from the clash of auras.
Barkan tore through even that storm as he charged.
“B-Brat…!!!”
Kalserik's eyes filled with panic.
Barkan's momentum was still terrifying.
It seemed impossible for Saltsran, holding the shield at the front, to withstand it.
However,
*It worked…!*
Saltsran, on the contrary, saw a glimmer of hope.
His gaze was fixed on Barkan's guandao.
*It's weakened.*
The Aura Blade was clearly fainter.
That was enough.
He waited,
and waited,
until the final moment—
*Now!*
Aura Repulsion!
Saltsran unleashed the ultimate technique of the House of Count Juan at the most perfect moment.
*BOOOOOM!*
A shockwave erupted.
The sudden vacuum made his ears ring.
And the whole world was sucked forward.
*CRASH!*
Saltsran was thrown backward at a terrifying speed.
His hand, which seemed lifeless, twitched.
*I have to get up… I have to protect…*
Just as Brother Lansen did.
From just a single clash, the powerful muscles he had built his entire life screamed in protest.
The ancient shield and armor Lansen had given him were in tatters.
Still, Saltsran eventually pushed himself up from the ground with trembling hands.
Holding his dented ancient shield,
he glared ahead.
He saw him.
The figure of Barkan, pushed back by the Aura Repulsion and brought to a halt.
He had stopped a Sword Master's charge.
“Crazy! You actually did it! You crazy bastard!!”
Kalserik's voice, filled with laughter, rang out.
“I told you I'd show you.”
Saltsran replied in a cracked voice, raising his shield once more.
It was only a single step,
but he felt like he had finally set foot on the path his brother had walked.
* * *
“They've been stopped cold.”
Harun frowned.
A cavalry charge that failed... How dreadful.
And it was his own cavalry, no less... Doubly dreadful.
“Has Barkan lost his touch...? Hmph... Send in the horse archers to harass them. Two or three volleys should be enough to break their formation.”
“Yes, sir!”
The brutal speed of the Ailun white horses.
Combined with the power of the 'Staghorn Bows' used in the Ailun region.
The two together produced a piercing power that surpassed crossbows.
They could shatter shields with ease.
They would surely be able to drive those insolent infantrymen into the ground.
*Thud-thud-thud-thud.*
The heavy cavalry and lancers who had led the charge turned their horses and retreated, replaced by 2,000 horse archers who advanced.
But what Harun had overlooked was the fact that Lansen's army was armed with the Imperial Blackbows, said to be the finest bows in the land.
The very same blackbows rated a tier or two above the Ailun horse archers' Staghorn Bows.
*Swoooooosh!*
A rain of jet-black arrows poured from the sky, a full two beats faster than expected.
*Heeeeigh!*
“What? They're already in range?”
“Blackbows! Imperial Blackbows!”
“Aargh!”
*Thud! Crunch!*
Harun's horse archers crashed to the ground with arrows sticking out of their necks and chests.
However, their reputation as Norverge's finest elites was not for nothing.
“Full speed ahead!”
“Hiyah!”
Instead of retreating, they spurred their mounts on, increasing their speed.
Their calculation was that with the speed of the Ailun white horses, they could shower the enemy with arrows and withdraw in just a few seconds.
But it was inevitable that their field of vision would narrow for a moment.
Lansen's army did not miss that opening.
“Wipe them out! Crush the horse archers before they even know what's happening!”
The 1,500 cavalry led by Katrina bypassed the heavy infantry and charged at full speed.
In an instant, they reached top speed and aimed for the flank of the Ailun horse archers.
“Damn it…!”
Harun's horse archers, realizing the situation too late, hastily changed direction.
Katrina, who was hot on their heels, cursed in frustration.
“Crazy…! What kind of turn is that!”
She succeeded in trampling a few stragglers, but the vast majority managed to turn and escape safely.
An absurd turning maneuver.
A feat only possible for the Ailun horse archers, renowned throughout Roverland.
But Harun's expression grew even more grim.
“How dare you… bring out cavalry against me?”
The Norverge region in northwestern Roverland was generally famous for its cavalry.
The endlessly stretching low, wide hills were a perfect environment for horses to run.
But among them, the Ailun white horses were special.
Raised on the mana-infused waters of Lake Naelund, the world's largest lake, these white horses were the finest of fine steeds, spiritual beasts capable of even containing aura.
To dare face the Gale Knights, all mounted on such Ailun white horses...?
“Cavalry! Get rid of them now! And infantry! Full charge! Wipe them all out!”
“Yes, sir!”
Following Harun's command, the heavy cavalry and lancers who had retreated turned back once more.
Their target was Lansen's cavalry, which was pursuing the horse archers.
*Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!*
“We turn too! Charge!”
Katrina also quickly turned her horse and charged head-on toward the Gale Knights.
Meanwhile, the Gale King's personal 6,000 warriors and 8,000 mercenaries also charged toward Lansen's army.
The forces of both sides clashed with all their might across the battlefield.
* * *
The first to collide were Lansen's cavalry led by Katrina and Harun's cavalry led by Barkan.
At the moment of impact,
the Sword Master known as 'Irresistible,' Barkan, experienced something he had rarely encountered in his life for the second time today.
*CLAAAANG!*
“You blocked it?”
His large guandao hummed.
His beloved horse, pushed aside by the shock, snorted loudly.
Barkan unknowingly broke into a wide grin.
“Isn't this thrilling?”
A moment ago, it was a little less thrilling.
That infantry brat had stopped him with the combined strength of many.
It was just soft, like a cushion.
Barkan didn't want that; he wanted the heavy, crushing impact of a single moment.
The muscles tightening to the point of bursting, the aura surging through his body, the terrible weight pressing down on him.
In those brief moments, he felt alive.
Right now, he felt it.
From the warrior before him, her lion's mane of hair fluttering in the wind.
He wasn't the least bit curious how she had blocked his Aura Blade with mere aura threads.
“Name?”
“Katrina.”
“Good. I'm Barkan.”
With that, he turned his horse to secure charging distance again.
He could only hope.
That this toy would last just a little longer without breaking.
* * *
*They're tougher than I thought.*
One of the Gale's Seven Heroes,
Jedak the Gambler clicked his tongue.
14,000 infantry against 5,000.
When they first charged, he had thought the outcome was obvious.
The numbers were just too different.
But now that they had clashed…
*What's with all the ancient armaments they're slathered in?*
The bastards, formed in a dense phalanx behind ancient shields, were impossible to break through.
With long spears jabbing over the shields, even getting close was a challenge.
*Looks like I'll have to open a path myself.*
So he stepped forward.
He deflected an ancient shield blocking his path with his aura sword and was about to tear the exposed shield-bearer to pieces.
*Fwip!*
A jet-black arrow flew in without a sound.
Heavily imbued with aura.
*Screeeech!*
The arrow grazed his cheek, leaving a long trail of blood.
*Huh?*
That was sheer luck.
Dodging that arrow just now.
No.
He hadn't even dodged it. He'd happened to spot the arrow when he turned his head for a moment… and had hastily wrapped his skin in an aura shield to deflect it with his face.
A chill ran down his spine.
The thought that he could have died.
That thought flipped a switch in Jedak the Gambler.
*Lick.*
Licking the blood trickling down his cheek, Jedak quickly searched for his opponent.
He spotted an archer hiding among the enemy soldiers.
Their eyes met.
Rivera Pietro.
Jedak grinned at Kushan City's finest archer.
“Let's have a go. See who dies first, you or me.”
Jedak the Gambler.
He was a man mad for the thrill.
A warrior who always charged into danger and survived.
* * *
Lansen's heavy infantry didn't just hold their ground against Harun's infantry, which outnumbered them nearly three to one. They were actually crushing them.
The secret to this was the oblique order formation.
The forces, divided into left, center, and right wings, were arranged diagonally against the enemy.
The right wing advanced.
The center held its position.
The left wing slowly retreated.
The Gale King's warriors, who had charged without any particular strategy, were caught perfectly in the oblique order.
They first clashed with the advanced right wing, then the center, and finally the left wing.
Lansen's army had placed a larger number of more elite troops on the right wing.
The elite troops of the protruding right wing engaged first, devouring the enemy soldiers more quickly, then swept toward the center and then the left, crushing the enemy's flank.
The relatively weaker center and left wings, by retreating and engaging later, were able to buy time until the right wing came to their aid.
Lansen's heavy infantry had already experienced the power of this oblique order against the orcs, so they could engage in battle with confidence.
Furthermore, the core of their strength, the elite warriors, were equipped with ancient armaments, and 3,500 archers provided constant support from the rear with black arrows…
5,000 versus 14,000?
It was Lansen's side that was devouring Harun's.
* * *
Baren Rodona.
At 24, the third son of the Lansen family, he was in command of the right wing, tasked with crushing the enemy infantry's flank.
“Jahir!”
As he relentlessly cut his way through the enemy soldiers, he finally found the target he had been searching for.
“Ah, it's you. The brat I saw in Kushan City.”
Jahir of the Hundred Victories rested his blood-soaked longsword on his shoulder and grinned.
Baren didn't like his relaxed demeanor.
“I… was looking for you.”
“For me? But why are you so angry?”
“Why?”
Baren thought.
Of the humiliation of that day.
It wasn't the humiliation of simply being beaten up.
It was a far more terrible and wretched humiliation than that.
Like a cherished dream shattering to pieces,
an unbearable misery, not just as a warrior, but as a person.
*…I didn't even get to properly show off my skills to my brother after reaching the highest level!*
When he became a highest-level Expert, the first thing Baren wanted to do was show off his skills to Lansen in style.
He wanted to hear those words: “You've gotten really strong!”
But,
But…!
“Before I could even… show him my skills…! If you give me a black eye! What! Would my brother! Think of me?!!!”
*Fwoosh!*
A blue flame erupted in Baren's eyes.
He would definitely,
kill Jahir here.
* * *
I surveyed the battlefield where the fight had truly begun.
My brothers, my vassals—everyone seemed to be fighting well in their positions.
Infantry against infantry,
cavalry against cavalry,
they were all clashing fiercely.
But,
that leaves one group.
The Gale King's horse archers.
The ones who would ravage the infantry's rear if left alone. Who was going to stop them?
*I will.*
Grasping a 2.5-meter cavalry lance, I charged alone into the heart of the horse archer formation.
“S-Stop him!”
“We can't stop him!”
“Shit! It's like his aura threads are alive…!”
The horse archers were already weak in close combat.
There was no way they could block the charge of someone like me—a Sword Master who had reached the high-level Expert rank even by ancient standards.
I thrust left, swung right, smashed skulls, and stabbed my way forward.
How long did I continue the slaughter?
Finally, the opponent I was waiting for came to find me.
“Are you an idiot, Lansen?”
The Gale King, Harun.
He appeared before me, leading ten of his royal guards.
“You kept singing that song about wanting a one-on-one duel… and this is how you call for me? If you wanted to die, you could have just hung yourself.”
Harun was utterly bewildered.
It made sense.
Looking around, I was completely surrounded by enemies.
Not just the horse archers, but also the ten royal guards Harun had brought with him.
I, on the other hand, was alone.
Anyone could see this was far from a one-on-one situation.
But so what?
I met you, didn't I?
I swung my cavalry lance wide and aimed it at him.
“What? Scared?”
Harun furrowed his brow, looking dumbfounded.
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