Chapter 114: Iron Bones Clash, Passion Ignites (13)
“Issac!”
I turned my head, wide-eyed, at the bald man raising his hand high above his head. Honestly, I didn’t even know what I wanted to say to him.
Issac had a tough choice to make.
Once the First Knights Order reached the city gates, the heretics willingly gave up all the advantages of being inside the city. Instead of hunkering down, they decided to face the knights head-on, rolling back the thick fog that had been the biggest nuisance. They must have thought that sheer numbers would catch the knights off guard and tilt the battle in their favor.
Among those fools, some likely understood the ways and faith of the Holy Church Knights. They must have known that pushing the Third Knights’ captives to the front lines and torturing the church warriors in front of the First Knights would mean there was no turning back. They wouldn’t be able to charge again like they had a few moments ago, using cavalry for flanking tactics and guerrilla warfare. The knights’ honor and dignity wouldn’t allow such tactics.
But if we went in swinging first and crashed the heretics, the first in line to d*e under the divine blades would just be the Third Knights’ captives. That would put extreme psychological pressure on the First Knights’ warriors. More importantly, our commander, Issac, could easily become overwhelmed with unnecessary emotions.
Maybe sadness, maybe pity, but more likely, rage. No matter what, he would lose his cool, and if he got stupid, he might just risk everything to get his warriors to charge to save the captives—impulsive emotions could lead to a chaotic mess and all sorts of rookie mistakes.
If that happened, the heretics would have achieved their goal.
They wanted to devour everyone here…
Thoughts raced through my mind; from my limited understanding, it felt like things were about to spiral into disaster. I was worried Issac would do something irrational, and I wanted to warn him, but when I opened my mouth, I didn’t know what to say.
Because I was thinking the same thing as him—just rush in, save the captured knights, and wipe out all the heretics in front of us—how exactly we’d do that was a complete mess in everyone’s heads.
d*mn it…
The suffocating atmosphere flowed through everyone’s hearts. I saw knights clenching their fists, eyes so red they looked like they were about to bleed.
At that moment, the heretics began to split their lines, flanking towards the high ground. The captives were still being driven forward, many of them collapsing. Laughter and crying mixed together, stimulating the knights’ reason.
They really wanted to eat all of us in one go…
“Issac! Let me go first—”
“Judgment Fist, stand by!”
“Wait…”
The pitiful pressure pushed in, and I felt like I was about to cry, but my weak voice didn’t seem to reach Issac’s ears.
“Follow me—”
“Just hold on a second!”
Suddenly, a golden glow flickered from the rear ranks, and Angel’s voice rang out from afar: “Everyone, heed my command! Stay in place—”
He didn’t finish his sentence.
In the desolate wilderness under the night wind, over a thousand knights stared down thousands of heretics. Countless captives were being driven forward, stumbling on their feet. That was the only ruckus amidst a dead silence in the formation. The heretics shouted and cursed, cracking their whips and wielding their longswords, mercilessly chopping down anyone who could no longer stand. Scarlet bl**d splattered under the holy light, driving the knights wild with rage.
“f*ck… I just want to tear them apart…”
Then, something unexpected happened.
A young knight named Todd staggered forward like a zombie, his brain numbed by fatigue and pain. The captives were bound, but that didn’t mean much to them; many simply lacked the strength to resist anymore.
Suddenly, he noticed a middle-aged knight beside him had stopped.
Todd turned to see the man speaking in a raspy voice, “I… I have a daughter, her face a blur now. When I left home, she was only eight… I’m living for her.”
“Go! d*mn it, if you stop, you’ll d*e—!”
Crack!
A whip lashed out from behind, lacerating the middle-aged knight’s back, bl**d splattering everywhere. Todd saw the man cry; this iron-willed warrior near forty stood there with bl**d and tears in the wind, but deep down, Todd knew it wasn’t just the pain making him cry.
He seemed to understand what the middle-aged knight was planning…
Todd’s eyes lit up.
The night wind howled in his ears. For a moment, Todd wasn’t sure if it was a hallucination, but he saw Captain Nick hanging from a flagpole, slowly raising his head under the holy light.
“Don’t… go…”
His weak, murmuring words barely registered in the wind. But the whip in the heretic’s hand struck down, and Captain Nick coughed up bl**d. His body was already a mess, not a single inch unscathed; his ribs stuck out, and his intestines spilled out of his torn abdomen. Todd couldn’t understand why Nick was still alive, but somehow, he wasn’t dead.
The whips cracking several times drew everyone’s attention to him, bl**d and flesh exploding from Nick’s body. Yet in the next moment, everyone heard his terrifying, howling shout.
“Don’t go any further——”
“Shut up, shut up!”
“Up ahead… are the First Knights’ finest warriors! If we lose and d*e, it’s okay! There are still them… there will be others to k*ll all these demons… right here—”
“We can lose… we can d*e… but we can’t become their stumbling blocks!!”
His tragic cry echoed across the wilderness. Some captives had bloodshot eyes, others cried, their mouths gaping in bloody shrieks, and they refused to move forward.
“k*ll him! k*ll them!!!”
Chaos and slaughter erupted in the wind and among the masses. The heretics swung their whips; captives crumpled under the splattered bl**d, and insults flew like arrows. Someone cackled as they thrust a kn*fe into Captain Nick’s chest, twisting the handle to inflict maximum pain as Nick’s voice turned hoarse, yet he still roared.
“Third Knights! Everyone… heed my command…”
“Turn! Around! —”
That voice seemed to pierce the heavens, rolling through the wilderness.
“Don’t be afraid…”
“Let’s charge one last time…”
Some dragged their battered bodies, with broken limbs, glaring with bloodshot eyes, gritted their teeth and turned to charge toward the whips and butcher knives behind them.
Todd heard the middle-aged knight shout “Ahhhh,” half-laughing, half-crying, bl**d-soaked face splattered with tears, and he turned to dive toward the heretics behind.
Captain Nick’s head drooped.
In the wind, his last words came through.
“The Williams family… as Church Knights, we swear to protect the people! We swear to defend our land… our home… the First… First Knights!!!”
“Please… leave these demons behind…”
“Leave them… in this city… on this land ahhhh——!!!”
On the high ground, Pope Angel’s face was half-shadowed by the holy light, his gaze cutting like daggers. He shouted something to the crowd. Standing in the center of the ranks, on my ice pillar, my head buzzed, and through tear-blurred vision, all I saw were those bloody captives and the silhouette hanging from the flagpole, my ears drowning in his shouts.
I just stood there, watching, as countless captives turned around, lunging toward the glinting knives behind them, the bl**d blooming in the light, and in that moment, it felt like my very soul was trembling.
Grief pierced deep; anger roared like the ocean.
I’ve never felt the urge to k*ll so vividly, so clearly, as I did right now.
“Ha, ha, haha, hahahaha…”
Issac let out a chilling laugh beside me. I could see him shaking, an overwhelming killing intent radiating from this fierce bald man, from every knight standing quietly like ghosts on the high ground.
“You all saw it—”
From the back of the ranks, ten or so message-bearers began to wave their flags and gallop forward, as Angel’s deep thunderous voice resonated through the wilderness again.
At that moment, he was about to issue an order that was the complete opposite of the previous one.
“Our warriors, our comrades! They are being slaughtered by those beasts!”
In front of the heretic ranks, Todd stumbled amidst the chaos and lunged toward the cleavers behind him. The cold blade sliced into his chest, bl**d sprayed as his vision blurred, he heard the sound of his bones cracking. With a desperate glare, he bit into the right cheek of a heretic and tore a piece of flesh. More knives struck him down, and as he fell, he thought of his grandma far away in Nalanda.
Was dying like this considered brave…?
“Those heretics from the Eastern Continent came here to steal our food, slaughter our people, and defile our women! As if that wasn’t enough, they want to k*ll all our warriors before our eyes—!!!”
“Now, it’s time to retaliate!”
With a voice that seemed to echo through the clouds, Commander Safiros raised his blade high, shouting emphatically: “k*ll them! In their bl**d, etch the memory of Captain Williams—”
Pope Angel’s call echoed under the night sky: “Leave them! Leave their corpses here and soak this land with their bl**d! My glorious knights, you know what to do—”
In the middle of the ranks, the Young Bishop and members of the Faith Organization began to chant loudly, dazzling lights rising and falling, enveloping the warriors within. Some gave out fierce roars like beasts from the crowd.
“With our blades, defend the dignity of the Church Knights!”
That voice seemed to come from the heavens, shaking my ears. At that moment, bl**d boiled and surged from my chest, and apart from the cold scythe in my hand, the swelling power inside me, all I could feel was the dense mass of enemies ahead.
“All units, heed my command—”
“Ah hahahaha!!”
Beside me, Issac grinned grimly, bloodthirsty eyes locked onto the battlefield, brilliant golden light erupted from him, shining and proliferating as the divine miracle “Immortal” took hold.
“Charge forward—”
“Let’s tear these bastards apart!!!”
The horn of attack sounded through the wilderness. The knights’ roars reverberated through the sky. In that moment, the golden flood swelling on the high ground surged forward like thunder, bursting from its dam. Holy arrows blazed overhead, and soon, over a thousand knights crashed into an uncountable horde of heretics in the most savage manner—
It was as if the very universe trembled.
