231. The Age of Heroes, Forged (2)
Swords swung. A skeleton with glowing eyes flew through the air from the front. The impact of the cavalry was not something that the crudely assembled skeleton soldiers, reinforced by magic, could withstand.
The mass of the warhorse, combined with its speed, becomes a weapon in itself. Simply being trampled by cavalry is enough to tear a human body apart with ease. And the attacks wielded by the riders on top are no less devastating than the bombardments launched by skilled mages.
-KWAAAAANG!
“Forward!!”
From the moment the cavalry was deployed to the frontline and began their charge, their effectiveness depended entirely on the field commander leading the charge. The sound of wind, the shouts, the excitement and terror of the battlefield blurred together, blocking out all senses except for the voice of the field commander.
Thus, like a stampede of wild beasts. The cavalry followed the lead, advancing and grinding down everything in their path.
“Forward!!”
The cry of the leader echoed in their ears. The Beastman Nobility’s cavalry were elite soldiers with centuries of history. They were a formidable force, honed through conflicts among the nobility, occasional slave hunts, and battles against the Empire and the Sultanate’s forces.
For them, becoming one with their horses was as natural as drawing a sword. The cavalry swung their swords and spears in unison, occasionally letting out blood-curdling war cries as they charged.
Toward death. For death. To show the enemy nothing but death! Forward!
“URAAAAAAAH!!”
“Hearttaker! Hearttaker! Hearttaker!”
The Beastman warriors, consumed by frenzy, roared. The skeletons scattered like a receding tide, crushed like waves against a breakwater.
The Empire’s command, watching from a distance, was thrown into chaos.
“Are those bastards insane?”
* * *
“The Beastman Nobility’s cavalry has been deployed to the enemy’s rear!”
“Those lunatics are hell-bent on dying!”
The noble commanders sneered. Most of them were knights, and they themselves were cavalry officers commanding their own knightly orders.
The reason cavalry hadn’t been deployed earlier in this battlefield was that the Empire couldn’t utilize their proud knightly orders and had to rely on heavy infantry instead. They were forced into a battlefield where cavalry couldn’t shine.
When the wide, open plains became the frontline, the cavalry commanders cheered. They expected the slow skeleton soldiers to become easy prey for their cavalry.
What shattered that expectation was the sudden surge of skeleton forces rising from the ground, perfectly aligned with the cavalry’s charge. The horses, terrified by the skeletons, swords, and spears emerging from the earth, broke formation, and the first cavalry charge ended in horrific casualties.
By the second and third wave of losses, the cavalry commanders began to think of themselves as heavy infantry commanders. Horses are skittish creatures, and attacks from below during a charge were a tactic the cavalry had never imagined.
The battlefield, having lost its diversity of troops and the advantage of speed, quickly descended into chaos. The frontline stagnated. Now, all they could rely on was holding the line until the scholars of Philainneil University could secure victory in the magical warfare.
“Uh… breakthrough… achieved?”
“…Huh?”
“The Beastman Legion’s cavalry has broken through the enemy lines once and is preparing for another charge.”
“…What?”
An anomaly had occurred. The cavalry had successfully raided the enemy’s rear. The cavalry officers all stood up abruptly, looking down at the battlefield from the hill. They could see the enemy’s rear scattering.
Beyond the dust cloud, the Beastman cavalry began their advance again. Slow, then fast, then a full-force charge. A beautiful, perfect assault!
“Have the enemy… changed their anti-cavalry strategy?”
“Perhaps they’ve focused their underground ambushes on the frontline, leaving no strength to defend the rear?”
“We can’t just hand them the victory like that! Levanth Knights! Prepare to deploy! Gather the cavalry!”
The cavalry officers shouted as they left their tents. The battlefield had changed. It had become a battlefield where cavalry could be deployed! They shouted as they returned to their troops.
And that was a miscalculation.
* * *
“They’ve fallen for it!”
-KWAAAAANG!
A sufficiently long greatsword yields the same result as an extremely unwieldy lance. And Diemonica had the strength to perform a splendid lance charge even with an extremely unwieldy cavalry spear.
Fernandez casually shrugged off the shock running from his forearm to his shoulder as he strode through the enemy lines. The Beastman cavalry, following his command, ravaged the enemy’s rear.
It was a matter of mass. The skeleton forces lacked the mass to form a phalanx to stop or bind the cavalry charge. The Legion of Wraiths crumbled in an instant, and before they could rise again, the cavalry executed a flawless retreat.
“Prepare for another charge! Forward! Forward!!”
Following Fernandez’s shout, the cavalry began to retreat. The effectiveness of the cavalry depended entirely on the field commanders from the moment of the charge. And Fernandez had abilities that set him apart from other field commanders.
He could see magic.
“Shift the charge path to the left!!”
-DUDUDUDUDU!!
The sound of the cavalry’s hooves was light. Fernandez sharply turned the reins, making a sudden, wide detour. As the cavalry detoured, skeletons rose from their original path of advance.
The replenishment of the Legion of Wraiths’ skeleton forces was a type of magic performed by the Burial Priests. And magic always leaves traces.
By reading the cavalry’s charge path, the Burial Priests within the Legion of Wraiths cast their spells. Large-scale offensive magic was impossible due to the clashing magical forces. Instead, the Burial Priests used simpler magic. The resurrection of the wraiths.
A very special magic, created from the arcane secrets of the Empire of Ashit. Difficult to detect, and even harder to counter. Thus…
In the magic battle, the spell was not hindered by any great magic means.
However, all magic leaves traces. The moment the Legion of Wraiths raised the skeleton soldiers, Fernandez turned his cavalry around. Thus, his cavalry could ignore Lavirata’s great cavalry tactics.
“It’s a trap. A traaaap!!”
But not everyone could do that. Other knights collapsed in the same manner as the previous three charges. The moment the knights, who were doing their best to maintain the frontline, were pulled from the frontline and turned into cavalry, the imperial ranks began to retreat.
The command was thrown into chaos.
“Why can they do it, but our knights can’t?!”
“We must call the cavalry. The frontline is collapsing!”
“Damn it. It looks like all the credit will go to those beast bastards!”
“At least after victory, the frontline and the credit will have meaning. We must deploy the knights back to the frontline!”
“Why are they unscathed? Baron Vang Sang. Isn’t this evidence that they are colluding with the enemy?”
At the knight’s words, the old man in robes shook his head. He looked at the wraiths popping up between Fernandez’s advance path and the frontline.
“They are also experiencing the skeleton soldiers’ great cavalry tactics. However, they read the timing and evade when the wraiths burst from the ground.”
“How? How can they predict an ambush during a charge?”
“Either the commander is a mage……”
Watching Fernandez crush five skeletons with a single swing of his greatsword, the knights shook their heads. It was a marvel close to impossible even for knights who had spent their lives wielding swords and training their bodies.
“Or his instincts are astonishingly sharp.”
“What is the name of that cavalry captain?”
“Fernin, the concubine of the Chieftain of the Beastman Nobles.”
“Ha, a concubine. Seeing him fight like that, yes. He must be skilled in night affairs too.”
The knights chewed on their defeat in despair. If a warrior with instincts sharp enough to be mistaken for a mage is the cavalry captain…… well, that’s just how it is.
The knights in command groaned as they watched Fernandez’s battle. How can he wield a greatsword with one hand? How can he charge with a greatsword?
* * *
Breakthrough, breakthrough, and breakthrough again. It’s an excessive workload for a single group of cavalry. Fernandez keenly grasped the gradually depleting stamina of his cavalry. But not yet. Just a little more!
“Forward!!”
Forward, towards the enemy. Forward towards the enemy’s death! With Fernandez’s shout, the cavalry exhaled sharply, drooling as they charged. The horses bit cold foam and pounded the ground.
-Thud thud thud thud thud!!
The cavalry’s charge continued. Minds filled with fatigue and fear could no longer think rationally. The cavalry didn’t even know where they were going, running like a herd of wild boars following the lead.
And again, impact.
-Crash!
Fernandez had a map of the battlefield in his mind. The increasing fatigue of the cavalry. And the enemy’s density growing thicker was no illusion.
Indeed, Fernandez’s charge was peeling off the thick outer layer of the enemy’s defenses, penetrating their core with surgical precision.
‘The Legion of Wraith Lords collapses the moment their command is destroyed!’
Just as Ptaha’s Tutankhamun Gartep’s legion disintegrated immediately after his death half a year ago. The Legion of Wraith Lords collapses the moment the lord’s soul is lost.
Even if it’s not the legion Lavirata personally commands. The moment the core commanders, wraith priests, and princes at the center of this legion are killed, the legion ceases to function.
The driving force behind the skeletons’ seamless movement was the power of the priests commanding them. They must be killed. But……
‘That’s not my part!’
Fernandez looked ahead, not far off. A disturbance was occurring. Two forces were charging fiercely towards the enemy’s depth, consuming their lives in the thinned frontline due to rear disruption and destruction.
Kirhas and Erbe. The two protruding forces were sacrificing their lives to deplete the enemy’s depth. The enemy’s depth, guarded by the most elite forces of the Wraith Lords, where nobles, princes, and priests commanded……
‘Since they are beings risen by magic.’
-It’s only natural to return to eternal rest by magic.
-Whoosh!
Behind Fernandez’s charging head, a black halo ignites. The greatsword draws a semicircle. One stroke. The skeletons in its trajectory crumble into dust—
Construction. Then destruction. Pause and endpoint. Straight towards the endpoint of the frontline’s offensive. Four beastmen entangled in his left hand, the greatsword in his right hand blocking their path, forward. Forward.
“Forward!”
Foam forms in the mouths of the cavalry. Towards death. Even the mounts, naturally wary of sharp things, are swept up in exhaustion and frenzy, moving forward. Forgetting fear, advancing—
“Forward!!”
The enemies are crushed. The blessing bestowed upon the skeleton soldiers is shattered by Fernandez’s hand, and the weakened forces cannot withstand their mass. Destruction, destruction. And a feast of death.
“Forward!!!”
-Whoosh! Crash!
Fernandez’s greatsword draws an elegant curve. A gently curved semicircle of death. The skeletons within that distance are shattered, their heads, arms, legs, and chests scattering. The storm of fragmented bones creates a cacophony.
And within. A startled skeleton in old robes and adorned with lavish ornaments clacks its jaw, looking at him.
[Who, who are you! Who dares to wield such magic…… how is this possible……!]
The fact that it can speak confirms it’s a high priest. Fernandez’s gloomy blue eyes glinted. The greatsword covers the sky, its long shadow falling over the priest’s head.
“Didn’t Mumto tell you?”
-Whoosh!
The greatsword’s blade tears through the air and plunges down. Crack, the priest’s protective spell emits a bright light, binding the greatsword. And crack, the protective spell gives way.
Crackle crackle crackle! The ornaments creating the protective spell shatter and explode, and the crowned skull of the high priest is cleaved by the greatsword’s blade!
“I was Mumto’s death.”
-Crash!
With the priest’s death, a magical wave swept across the battlefield. The skeletons ceased functioning all at once. And the magic in the sky was released in an instant, as the empire’s bombardment struck the battlefield.
Explosions and destruction, suppressed from all sides, surged. And at that moment, two legions broke through the frontline and arrived.
Fernandez smiled as he saw their faces drenched in sweat and blood. He soon raised his voice and shouted.
“Duke Erbe has taken the enemy commander’s head!!!”
It was the moment a hero was born.
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