Chapter 84: Chapter 84

‘The commander?’

Reacting to the voices echoing around him, Shan immediately spurred Arwin and rode toward the mounted archer he had struck with his spear.

His hand, empty after throwing the broken spear a moment ago, naturally drew Guardian of the East hanging at his waist.

“Th-That……!”

“Block him!”

The enemy who had displayed overwhelming spear technique until just moments ago was now drawing what clearly looked like a powerful magic sword and targeting their commander.

However, the semi-horse archers merely urged each other to block him with terrified expressions, yet none dared to step forward.

Having just seen their comrades who had bravely charged forward all get wiped out, they had no other choice.

The enemy commander, unhorsed with a spear embedded in his flank, was being tended to by an adjutant who had leaped down right beside him.

As something was stuffed into the spot where the spear had pierced through, the bleeding noticeably diminished.

“Oh no!”

Seeing Shan charging toward him, his eyes widened in shock, and he immediately pushed away the adjutant’s chest beside him while drawing his sword.

Was it the spirit fitting for a commander not to hide behind others?

Just as Shan was about to rush straight in and strike down with his sword to finish his breath, the enemy commander threw away his drawn sword, raised both hands, and shouted.

“I surrender!”

“……What?”

At those truly unexpected words, Shan unwittingly pulled on Arwin’s reins and slowed down.

Where had the fierce spirit from just moments ago gone? The enemy commander coughed up blood while offering a servile smile.

“I surrender, cough, I surrender…… Hero of heroes, please, grant mercy to this humble shepherd of the plains.”

Though his words broke apart due to injury and exhaustion, he desperately begged for his life.

When the flustered Shan remained silent for a moment, he even immediately bowed his body and slammed his head into the ground.

Due to the violent movement, blood gushed from the flank that had been pierced earlier.

“Please, save me, my Lord! Master! I do not want to die! If only you save my life, I will become your servant and serve you!”

A knight of Pendia would rather die than surrender in such a dishonorable manner.

Their surrender merely meant fighting as much as possible, acknowledging the opponent after defeat, and gracefully paying a ransom.

Who would have thought that a skilled warrior who led over three hundred mounted archers and was capable of embedding an arrow in Shan’s chest would act so vulgarly and blatantly?

After a brief moment of surprise, Shan immediately issued an order at the opponent’s words of becoming a servant and serving him.

“If you truly surrender, tell your subordinates to disarm and gather.”

“Relay it.”

“It’s the commander’s order! Disarm! Surrender!”

As though it was too difficult to shout with a pierced flank, he spoke briefly to the adjutant beside him, who then raised his voice and yelled.

The mounted archers who happened to be watching their commander in crisis looked at each other, threw away their weapons, and raised both hands.

The Palles knights, who had been entangled while chasing them, also showed dumbfounded expressions as the enemy gave up combat.

“Wait, what is this……?”

“Do not attack enemies who surrender; tie both of their hands and restrain them!”

At the opponent’s attitude, Shan also quickly issued orders and let his concentration, which had been raised to the absolute limit, subside.

As he exhaled deeply, he felt the fatigue that had been briefly deferred settle over his entire body.

‘Phew……’

What he had actually done was merely riding a horse, thrusting a spear a few times, and throwing a spear once, but the fatigue in the mental realm was by no means small compared to physical exhaustion.

Looking at Shan, the enemy commander’s adjutant cautiously asked.

“Um, may I treat the commander?”

“I permit it.”

In any case, with his flank pierced, it was difficult to recover immediately even with a priest’s healing.

Naturally, he wouldn’t dare even imitate mounted archery, his specialty.

While the adjutant took care of the enemy commander’s wound, the Palles heavy cavalry bound the surrendered enemy mounted archers with ropes they possessed.

They did not bother making them dismount from their horses.

Since they were also mounted, it was more convenient to pull them along while keeping them on horseback.

Whether fortunate or unfortunate, those on the outer edges had fled, so each person only had to take charge of two or so captives, and the task was finished quickly.

Yurk, who dragged four mounted archers connected and bound by ropes, looked at Shan with an absurd expression and asked.

“What on earth happened, Lord Protector?”

“They said they surrender.”

That was something anyone with eyes could tell.

The main point of the question was how on earth it came to that, but Shan did not know well either.

Ravana, who approached from the side, informed him of the inner circumstances.

“Originally, Horais people surrender easily when the battle turns unfavorable. Their honor does not lie in holding out.”

In places where knightly culture flourished, including Pendia, throwing away one’s life for honor was taken for granted, but Horais people, on the contrary, considered yielding very natural if they could not win.

That was why, occasionally, a grand chief who subdued various tribes appeared and threatened Libert.

“Whew……”

Though they were nations of the same Arman Alliance, the Palles knights showed amazed expressions at such extremely exotic customs.

“By the way, is it alright to delay time like this? Even now, the main force is fighting……”

“Taking them as prisoners like this is faster than running around trying to annihilate all resisting mounted archers.”

“Ah.”

At Shan’s words, which had calculated that far from the moment he accepted the surrender, the anxious knight nodded in understanding.

In the first place, as Cheryn had said, it was not a battle where they had to risk their lives to fight, so there was no need to glare with fiery eyes and kill or be killed by the enemy.

As a bonus, they also needed to switch to fresh horses since their mounts were exhausted from running until now, so at that time, they could let the idle infantry manage the prisoners.

Having finished his explanation, Shan confirmed that things were settled to some extent and immediately ordered a return to the main force.

A spectacular sight where about one hundred fifty mounted archers were captured and escorted as prisoners by heavy cavalry numbering only about half that amount.

Shan, who was riding at the lead, asked the enemy commander who was clutching his flank with a grimace.

“Your identity?”

“Lugan tribe, second younger brother of the chief…… Ranta.”

His voice trembled, perhaps because the horse’s light trotting motion irritated his wound.

Even so, dismounting and walking out of consideration for him was out of the question.

“Were you hired by Prince Elvin?”

“No, we were hired by the King of Ruman. We are a tribe from southern Horais, and originally, when food becomes scarce, we work as mercenaries under them……”

To think that they had come all the way to Pendia from the far west because they crossed the sea by ship and were hired by the King of Ruman.

Since the enemy commander, Ranta, looked excessively exhausted to answer further questions, Shan asked no more questions.

It just so happened that they had also reached the battlefield where the infantry were clashing.

Approaching to observe the battle situation, the eyes of Shan and the others widened.

“Wait, what on earth is this……?”

*

“Uaaah-!”

After the cavalry departed to keep the enemy mounted archers in check, the Palles infantry unit took up formation and collided with the enemy infantry unit.

Originally, a clash between heavily armored infantry was not easily decided.

For while they possessed excellent defensive capability, they lacked the offensive power stemming from the speed that cavalry possessed.

Therefore, what was required of them was outstanding defensive ability and endurance to strictly maintain formation and hold out.

Pushing back enemies pushed up against them using shields held in their left hands, and stabbing with spears and swords held in their right hands to intimidate and suppress them from running wild.

However, the actual combat they entered for the first time unfolded completely differently from what they had learned.

“Huh?”

An Altoan soldier of Palles clashed shields with the opponent, thrust his spear through a gap, and was taken aback.

It was because the spear, which luckily dug between the opponent’s shield wall, tore open the leather armor covering the opponent’s chest and plunged in.

In a mock battle, an attack that stabbed armor would be invalidated, but the opponent whose heart was pierced spewed blood from his mouth and collapsed right on the spot.

The spear, which had become sturdier and sharper than an ordinary weapon thanks to Mana Stones, could easily penetrate leather armor even when wielded with one hand by a soldier.

In contrast, the weapons wielded by the enemy could not easily harm the bodies of the Palles soldiers.

In particular, the hydra leather armor crafted in the form of coats and trousers, worn by the three hundred elite troops placed in the first rank, covered almost every part except the face, hands, and feet, making them virtually invincible.

Realizing this fact before long, the Palles soldiers engaged in more active attacks rather than holding out shield against shield.

“Heave-ho!”

“Keo-hoak……”

Covering their vulnerable faces with shields, the Palles soldiers practically leaned their bodies against the opponent’s shields while hacking away at the enemy bodies on the other side with spears and swords in their right hands.

This strategy, which was utterly brute and under normal circumstances would have led to falling first, worked out far better than expected.

Even if the Palles soldiers clinging to shields had their limbs or torsos stabbed by enemy attacks, those attacks caused no damage whatsoever.

Despite the collision between anvil and anvil, the weaker anvil (namely, Prince Elvin’s infantry unit) was unilaterally carved away.

The biggest problem was the conscripts inserted to fill the insufficient numbers.

Possessing relatively poor equipment and lower training levels, they were unilaterally slaughtered without even being able to resist.

“Uaaaak!”

“Those guys, spears and swords don’t pierce them at all!”

“Run away!”

“You bastards! Anyone who runs will be executed!”

Despite the threats of veteran soldiers behind them, the formation gradually began to scatter.

Fear was a contagious emotion, so as conscripts withdrew blindly and holes opened wide in the defensive formation, experienced soldiers also retreated, unwilling to die meaningless deaths alone.

It went without saying that the morale of the Palles soldiers who saw this surged.

“Euhahaha!”

“This makes me feel like I’ve become a knight!”

Being able to unilaterally lay waste to opponents without suffering any injury oneself was truly the dream of all warriors.

The Palles infantry unit triumphantly penetrated the collapsed formation and slaughtered the enemies like wolves leaping among a flock of sheep.

In particular, the peculiar appearance of the Altoan Mercenary Band, who comprised the majority of the leading elite force, added to the terror.

When a soldier wearing a bird beak on his mouth clicked it and glared, conscripts threw away their spears, fled, and shouted.

“The monsters of Alto are immortals!”

“Those bastards don’t die!”

Of course, in reality, Palles soldiers were also injured or killed.

Most suffered weapon strikes to hands and feet or stabs to the face, but an unlucky few were attacked on the exposed areas of their necks and died from excessive bleeding, or had their heads pierced and died instantly.

However, every time one Palles soldier died unluckily, Prince Elvin’s soldiers died by the tens, making that fact difficult to notice.

“No, what on earth……”

“To this extent?”

Such hard fighting by the infantry unit was to the extent that even the Palles command felt bewildered.

Even if their weapons were better, it was modest for magic gear, and while the armor was premium, they had not expected breakthrough capability to rise just because armor was good.

Such a thing was a difference that could not be known through mock battles.

After a moment of bewilderment, Roden, who was acting as acting commander, quickly issued orders to a flagbearer beside him.

“Send flag signals. Two white and one purple.”

“Understood!”

One of the pre-arranged commands: break away from the existing linear formation and cluster into small units of ten to engage in combat.

As veterans who confirmed Roden’s signal spread it around, the infantry unit gradually split apart and seeped among the enemies.

In the process, those who felt surrounded by enemies in front, back, left, and right abandoned the will to fight, causing the formation to collapse even faster.

Seeing this from the opposite side, the commander of Prince Elvin’s right-wing formation let out a groan and ordered.

“Deploy the order of knights! Break their momentum!”

“However, Your Grace Count, if we use our knight force now, facing the enemy knights will be……”

“If the infantry unit collapses like this, there won’t even be a chance to use them!”

Since those words were not wrong either, the knight who argued with the commander bowed his head.

A moment later, eighty or so cavalrymen who had been preparing against a potential enemy surprise attack wheeled around the right side of their own infantry unit and charged toward the enemy infantry.

“For His Majesty the King!”

“May Pendia last forever!”

At the sound of horse hooves shaking the earth, the faces of the Palles infantry turned pale.

Though they had reigned supreme against enemy infantry with an overwhelming gap just moments ago, the opponents were knights who were the nightmare of all ordinary soldiers.

Of course, true knights among them were merely a dozen or so in the front ranks.

Fortunately, as soon as Roden grasped that the enemy cavalry unit was deploying, he had immediately ordered countermeasures.

The heavy infantry unit immediately clustered with nearby comrades and built a defensive formation to face the enemy cavalry.

“Charge!”

Clang, along with a loud roar, the knights pierced the infantry unit with a lance charge imbued with Fighting Spirit.

However, contrary to expectations, the knights’ powerful charge failed to blow away dozens of men in a single blow and break the formation.

Had the imagery of penetration been loaded, it might have been different, but Fighting Spirit carrying the imagery of impact meant for pushing back could not inflict such devastating impact on an army wearing enchanted hydra armor.

Those in the first and second ranks were knocked over by the impact, but from the third rank onward, they managed to hold out by leaning against the shields of the fourth rank.

And cavalrymen who failed to break through and lost their speed were utterly helpless beings.

“They stopped!”

“Kill them!”

“Target their legs!”

“Ugh!”

As the Palles infantry severed and stabbed the warhorses’ legs with spears and swords, the cavalrymen tumbled right on the spot.

A few among them hastily cleaved enemies with sword strikes imbued with Fighting Spirit, but using power in a desperate situation forced them to suffer rapid exhaustion.

“Damn it, retreat! Retreat!”

Had they assumed they were charging against heavy infantry armed in steel armor, they would have carried out a cavalry charge in a manner that whittled them away from the edges to some extent.

The captain of Prince Elvin’s cavalry unit issued retreat orders with a frustrated expression, then widened his eyes.

“Oh no…”

From the main body of Princess Cheryn, the cavalry unit that had handed over prisoners and completed reorganization was charging once more.

Toward those who barely detached nearby infantry, the Order of Knights of Palles riding lively new horses built up acceleration and slammed right into them.

“Here we go!”

Shan, standing at the lead, extended his spear, pierced the enemy knight’s neck, and activated the magic device.

As Spear of Intense Flames exploded, knights right beside him were blown off to the left and right.

*

While the Palles army on the left wing overwhelmingly laid waste to the enemy’s right wing, the battle in the center and right wing proceeded in a slightly different manner.

First of all, the battle led by Duke of Morayen on the right wing was unexpectedly sluggish.

It was because he thoroughly adhered to a defensive posture.

‘It isn’t my fight anyway; stepping forward actively would just waste my soldiers’ lives.’

The idea itself was similar to Cheryn’s, but it was a more despicable method in that he did not even do the bare minimum share required.

Without even deploying knights, as he merely hunkered down with infantry units and maintained formation, Prince Elvin’s army facing them also found it difficult to actively dig in.

However, that too was only temporary; as a masked group appeared from among them, the battle situation changed.

Seeing the bizarre figures, Duke of Morayen frowned.

“What is that?”

Those wearing masks of exotic shapes wore nothing on their upper bodies, thanks to which it could also be known that a few among them were women rather than men.

Dressed obscenely in the middle of the battlefield, they sang in an unknown language and danced bizarrely.

Without minding even when a few among them lost their lives after being struck by archers’ arrows.

Before long, the reason why they engaged in such bizarre behavior was revealed.

“Yo-Your Highness! Friendly soldiers are attacking each other!”

“What?”

At the adjutant’s report, Duke of Morayen quickly turned his gaze.

Just as reported, some of the Duke’s soldiers were seen attacking their own comrades.

No, to be precise, they were not attacking comrades.

The Duke accurately saw through the identity of those fighting each other with his peculiar artistic aesthetic eye.

“The conscripts drafted from Pendia are going wild……!”

While the Duke’s elite soldiers brought from Libert in the past were fine, only those conscripted after occupying fiefs in northwestern Pendia were rolling back their eyes and swinging spears and swords at friendly troops.

The problem was that their numbers were actually greater than those of the elite soldiers.

Due to differences in equipment and skill, most failed to inflict major damage and were being subdued, but with internal division occurring while fighting the enemy, there was no way the defensive system could function properly.

“What on earth is this? Could it be a trick of the Southern Continent heretics?”

“Whatever the method, we must retreat for now, Your Highness.”

“Fine. Issue the order to retreat. Have the cavalry unit disrupt the enemy front line and stem the pursuit!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Fortunately, none of the cavalry unit composed of knights, squires, and mercenaries under the Duke were affected by the frenzy.

Watching the army retreat, the Duke observed the masked dancers with a calm expression.

“I don’t know what kind of trick it is, but I’ve taken a blow. To think they used a secret weapon on me that they didn’t even use against Conrad…… It probably requires special conditions.”

He could roughly guess those conditions.

Turning his gaze to observe the battle of the central unit, the Duke realized that fortunately, no particular superiority or inferiority had been decided on that side.

Although the elephant unit crushed and trampled conscripts indiscriminately in the early stage of battle, Conrad’s army, possessing such vast numbers, paid no heed to this, fired arrows indiscriminately, halted them, and made them retreat.

As for the infantry, conscripts faced each other face-to-face, even minimum formations collapsed, and they were engaging in an absolute brawl, while knights also scattered over the wide field, constantly crossed paths, and pierced each other to death with lances.

“Come and try if you dare!”

“I will kill you!”

Among them, the most eye-catching was the one-on-one duel between the kingdom’s strongest knight, Marquis Abel, and Elvin’s lanky Lug.

Despite his overwhelming build, this tall knight who moved even more nimbly than ordinary knights maintained a long distance using his superior height and arm length.

Thrusts close to long-range attacks, fitting the expression of throwing rather than stabbing a spear, flew relentlessly.

In contrast, Marquis Abel made up for his lacking physical conditions with overwhelming skill, always moving faster, perfectly predicting the enemy’s attacks, defending first, and gradually narrowing the distance.

Every time the spear and shield of the two, relics of the ancient Altoan Empire, attacked and defended against each other, intense cracking sounds erupted along with sparks.

A duel of such high level that other knights around hardly dared to intervene.

What broke it was the sound of drums signaling retreat echoing from far away.

“What? Why?”

The knights following Prince Elvin showed expressions of incomprehension as retreat orders echoed from their formation’s side.

It was far from a situation that could be considered disadvantageous, and if anything, it was rather a slightly more advantageous situation, so why on earth?

But questions were questions, and obeying commands from superiors during battle came first.

Lug, who widened the distance to a far range, glared at Marquis Abel and spoke.

“I will have to avenge my squire next time.”

“I hope you get to do so.”

Feeling that Marquis Abel’s utterly calm expression was even more offensive, Lug opened his visor, spat ptui, and returned to the main force with his comrades.

Fortunately, as that side had also suffered no small blow, they did not pursue any further.

A moment later, Lug and the other knights who returned to the main force were able to learn why retreat orders had suddenly been issued.

“The right-wing formation was almost annihilated. Had we not retreated quickly and reorganized, even the Prince and His Majesty the King might have been in danger.”

“How on earth did that happen?”

They must have deployed quite a large force, given their superiority in overall military strength.

To them who felt bewildered, a knight who had participated in the battle on the right wing muttered in a disgusted voice.

“Those guys are monsters…… The Witch Princess’s hound, that green-eyed monster! And the Altoans who follow him too!”

In his voice recounting the existence of a monster knight who seemed to dominate the battlefield alone while mounted on a giant horse, and the immortal legion clad in black armor, thick terror seeped through.

At an attitude unbefitting a knight who had already experienced countless battles, fear also appeared on the faces of the others.

“I see.”

However, unlike those who were shocked, Lug nodded submissively.

Because if it was that boy knight he remembered, it was something he could fully accomplish.

‘Sir Shan……’

On Lug’s face as he recalled the past, there was an emotion like that of a boy admiring someone, rather than the deep hatred and hostility from a moment ago.