Chapter 189
Chapter 189
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: Cleanup
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Arsen's knights raised their crossbows, and the spear began to rotate slowly, emitting a roar.
It wasn't hard to guess that this was preparation for battle, so the Belluan army on the opposite side fell into brief chaos.
"Are they really going to fight?"
"Sir Ramun!"
Even though they had drawn their weapons, the Belluan army wasn't mentally prepared to clash with the enemy.
To them, lacking Sir Ramun's insight, the knights—equal in number to their own, if not more—and the countless mages posed a serious threat.
Ironically, sometimes the ignorant see things more clearly than those who know too much.
For Arsen, it was welcome if they charged in.
If they backed off with some half-hearted "Oh, we can save the estate lord, what a relief!", it would actually be trickier to deal with.
The chance was slim, but if the awakened estate lord lost his judgment and forgave them, that would be trouble.
"We can win! Trust me!"
Sir Ramun shouted confidently and spurred his Jin straight at Arsen. Amund, right beside him, did the same.
Buoyed by their leaders' bold momentum, their followers had no choice but to charge as well.
"Get back!"
"It's a fight!"
The residents, who had been peeking out cautiously wondering what was happening, scattered in panic.
For people who had lived peaceful lives, the idea of this many knights and mages clashing right in the middle of the territory was unimaginable.
Amid the screams, Amund bellowed.
"Watch out for Miss Eloise's safety!"
To Arsen, that sounded like "Stab Eloise dead at the first opportunity." And it probably meant exactly that.
Facing the vanguard Arsen were Sir Ramun and Amund, the two of them.
They flanked Arsen left and right, exchanging glances.
Each had confidence in taking him one-on-one, but since the opponent had been reckless enough to step forward, a pincer attack to finish him quickly was better.
"Sir Ramun!"
"Got it!"
Sir Ramun's longsword and Amund's axe flew in at exquisite angles that wouldn't interfere with each other.
Even if they were now leaders of opposing factions, they were comrades who had fought together in the same territory for over a decade.
Of course they had experience syncing up.
'Skilled!'
Indeed, Belluan's knights were top-tier even on the continent scale. Despite their isolation, frequent magic beast and raider attacks gave them plenty of real combat experience, and their internal systems were well-developed for honing martial prowess.
The Arsen from before leaving Belluan probably couldn't have blocked this strike.
He could see it coming slowly, but he couldn't overcome its precise trajectory, power, and speed.
But not now.
"Hup!"
Clang! Sparks flew from the longsword and axe.
Belluan's pride, weapons forged from black star iron, clashed against Isht's spear and didn't shatter in one hit.
Put differently, not breaking was their only brag-worthy feat. Their grotesquely bent shapes proved it.
"No way, what kind of spear..."
"Damn it!"
As expected of the territory's strongest knight, Sir Ramun swiftly drew his spare longsword, unlike Amund who panicked with his dented axe.
After a few more clashes, he managed to block quite smoothly this time, without the weapons bending again.
He had parried the attacks by striking with the spear's shaft, not the drill tip.
Watching this, Arsen was impressed inwardly.
'As expected, an impressive specialty.'
He already knew Sir Ramun's specialty.
Precognition—or rather, intuition honed to near-prophetic levels.
Thanks to it, Sir Ramun could handle hordes of knights and crush weaker ones without mishap.
It was why he reigned as the territory's strongest without a single loss to other knights.
But now, that powerful specialty couldn't lead him to victory. It only delayed the inevitable defeat.
The gap in overwhelming foundational abilities was to blame.
"Urgh!"
Amid the crushing pressure, he unwittingly groaned, but Sir Ramun was shocked inside.
This wasn't the greenhorn he could easily subdue just a year ago.
Whatever he'd gone through, his power, speed, and technique had all grown to absurd levels beyond common sense.
Strictly speaking, technique was still slightly in Sir Ramun's favor, but the differences in power and speed were ridiculous.
'A monster!'
Even anticipating attacks with his intuition and positioning his weapon in advance, he could barely keep up.
Head, chest, arm, abdomen.
He could predict where the spear aimed and prepare defenses before the strike began, yet there was no margin for error.
Arsen's superhuman reflexes read Sir Ramun's defensive moves, adjusting the attack trajectory accordingly.
Each clash brought shockwaves like being rammed head-on by a magic beast. After the fifth, Sir Ramun leaped back to catch his breath.
"Gah!"
A sudden scream drew his eyes: Amund collapsing helplessly with a hole in his gut.
Unlike Sir Ramun, who had managed some defense, Amund couldn't even hold out while Sir Ramun retreated for a breather.
Amund wasn't unskilled, but objectively, there was a huge gap between him and Sir Ramun.
Hadn't he suffered a broken arm in a duel during the southern territory war?
There was no way a knight weaker than pre-departure Arsen could block the current Arsen for more than a few seconds.
"What the hell..."
Shock aside, Sir Ramun used the brief respite to survey the battlefield.
Surprisingly, it was turning against Belluan.
The mages had signaled the battle's start.
Uniting their power, they extended glowing hands, unleashing a ferocious cold wave that engulfed the Belluan army.
Even bundled warmly in the chilly season, it felt like being thrown naked into midwinter.
It barely fazed the knights, but over a hundred soldiers collapsed, unable to endure.
The combined work of over forty mages.
They'd chosen cold spells to minimize fatalities. Flame spells would've had them burning alive, screaming in agony—like the southern kingdom's troops.
Even surviving the cold wave offered no hope. Eloise, not joining the freeze spell, cast vine spells, forming a circular barrier that enclosed them.
Those who knew how sharp the vines' thorns were and their crushing grip had no desire to escape outward.
Only a few ignorant ones tried, got snared, and screamed.
Even if knights weathered the cold wave, they weren't safe.
They endured a volley of crossbow bolts at battle's start, screaming as they were hit, then follow-up freeze spells that coated them in ice.
The Separate Realm mages knew well: freeze spells were most efficient at hindering knights, even if anti-magic resistance prevented death.
And in this demoralized state, they faced assaults from two high knights, Bazkal and Rino.
"Damn it, block them!"
"What the hell kind of strength do these bastards have...!"
Objectively, Bazkal and Rino's combat skills were below average among Belluan knights—exaggerating a bit, bottom-tier.
They'd trained properly as knights for barely a year or less, while Belluan knights had invested years or decades in interpersonal combat.
So they shunned traditional weapon exchanges.
Relying on overwhelming strength, reflexes, and sturdy relic armor, they dove into enemy lines to sow chaos.
"Uahaha!"
Bazkal reached out with his free hand, grabbing a somewhat careless enemy knight.
He hoisted the foe and swung him like a towel by the legs; two knights lunging at him recoiled in horror.
In the chaos, one even stabbed his own ally by mistake.
"S-sorry!"
Apology unfinished, a boom sounded beside him, sending a comrade knight flying skyward.
Before he could react, a spear pierced his gut.
"Ghck!"
Rino had body-slammed one knight aside and impaled another with a transcendent, common-sense-defying assault.
Not stopping there, Rino swung the skewered knight's spear wildly alongside Bazkal, menacing nearby foes.
The impaled knight screamed.
"Kaaaaagh!"
As the two high knights stirred confusion, Arsen's reloaded knights fired another crossbow volley.
A couple barely broke through to approach Arsen's knights, but Marun drove them off.
The shock staff from Narvik saw rare action.
"Gah!"
Boom! The shockwave blasted two or three knights tumbling from their Jins.
Mages didn't miss, pelting them with freeze spells to restrict movement. Marun swiftly nocked an arrow and loosed a magic one.
The flaming shaft pierced the writhing knight's chest.
"Ha! How's that!"
Marun grinned slyly, manipulating his Jin into a tap dance—the most infuriating sight imaginable.
A one-sided beatdown if there ever was one.
Finally, some Belluan knights and soldiers couldn't take it, tossing weapons and yelling.
"S-surrender!"
"Stop! Stooop!"
The Belluan army was already terrified.
Shocked by the unimaginable destructive power of the two high knights, mages neutralizing soldiers en masse, crossbows piercing knight armor like paper.
Worst, seeing vanguard leaders Sir Ramun and Amund getting crushed had tanked their morale.
If it were an honorable fight, against magic beasts or enemy territories, they'd fight to the death—but no one had that zeal for a mere power struggle.
"Hah..."
Anyone could see the battle was decided. Sir Ramun felt strength drain from his sword grip unwittingly.
"Absurd."
"Sir Ramun."
The monster on the black lion approached, addressing him.
Sir Ramun no longer knew how to view this young knight. A monster who'd achieved impossible growth in a mere year—time some might waste idly.
"What?"
"Why try to poison the estate lord?"
It wasn't a question expecting an answer. Too many ears around still.
Partly curiosity, partly to casually leak the fight's true reason.
Sure enough, Sir Ramun shook his head in denial.
"Why would I think I poisoned the estate lord? Baseless slander. You're the suspicious one—fleeing the territory, returning in a year with this army..."
Arsen sighed at Sir Ramun's accusation.
"Not think—I'm certain. I saw it myself. With magic."
"Gonna claim magic proves anything? Impressive, though. Damn you."
Sir Ramun spat, glancing around.
Belluan's army wasn't vastly inferior to Arsen's in raw power.
Fewer knights, but each elite; far more soldiers besides.
Many were squires—superhuman trainees honing to become knights—their skills far beyond regular troops.
A head-on clash would've been Belluan's overwhelming win.
Arsen's still-green knights could've been handled by a few squires with proper anti-knight tactics; Bazkal and Rino lacked technique, easy prey if knights calmly coordinated.
But now, they couldn't even fight properly, crushed helplessly. Non-anti-magic soldiers fell to spells; knights, unused to mass magic disruption, panicked into crossbow and high knight strikes.
Arsen's men might lack finesse, but they were no war novices.
Veterans of such battles, they waged war through division of labor, not duels—smashing Belluan knights before they could shine.
"If you won't talk, no choice. Young Master Ridat—no, Ridat probably knows the details."
Stabbing with words, Arsen watched Sir Ramun's face closely. He saw the eyes waver.
Moments later, Sir Ramun replied in a hoarse voice.
"Come on."
No more words needed—he raised his longsword at Arsen.
'Time to end it. Just keep him alive...'
Arsen inhaled sharply, flooding muscles with oxygen. Mana-infused muscles twitched with breath.
Surging energy like boiling blood. Channeling it to the spear tip, Arsen launched the final assault.
'Here goes!'
Mana-maxed spear roared louder than before, hurtling at Sir Ramun.
It seemed to aim for the head, then snaked like a serpent mid-block, instantly stabbing torso and legs. Faster than prior strikes, Sir Ramun gritted his teeth.
'He was holding back until now!'
No time for humiliation—the onslaught shredded his guard.
Head strike, torso follow-up, leg finisher. His fully bent longsword couldn't block the third.
Unbeknownst to him, fatigue and defeat had dulled his body.
Arsen's attacks weren't that lenient.
"Hup!"
Crunch. Something tore.
Boiling agony made it obvious: his leg severed.
To avoid screaming, Sir Ramun bit down hard, tumbling from his Jin.
"Sir Ramun!"
"Sir Ramun's down!"
The territory's top knight falling crushed the rest's morale.
Finally, the last resisting knights saw it and lowered weapons.
The dark cloud over Belluan for the past year had lifted.