X. The Battle of Schapendorf (7)
X. The Battle of Schapendorf (7)
If asked to name the greatest variables in battle, Keldric would offer two after some thought.
One was a sudden change in weather or terrain. The other was an enemy appearing where no one expected.
This time, Keldric himself was the variable.
'Sir Rutger...'
Keldric drove Aveline frantically as he searched for Sir Rutger.
He was grateful that Rutger had taken Sir Gerhard away from him.
But if asked whether Sir Rutger could defeat Gerhard... Keldric would sooner trust to luck.
Terrified, Alisa tightened her arms around Keldric's waist. His large hand gently covered hers.
"Alisa. Bear with it a little longer."
She did not answer, but he felt her nod with her forehead pressed against his back.
Keldric did not intend to keep Alisa in such a dangerous place any longer. He had to settle the battle quickly.
After searching for a moment, he spotted two knights deep in the chaotic center of the battlefield.
"Damn!"
Keldric urged Aveline forward. Already tiring, Aveline drove onward through the snow.
In the distance, Sir Rutger was already at a slight disadvantage against Sir Gerhard.
Sir Rutger had begun descending the latter slope of a knight's life, while Sir Gerhard, like Keldric, was a hot-blooded knight still climbing toward his prime.
The difference between them was natural.
The fight appeared even only because Sir Rutger compensated for diminished strength and reflexes with experience.
Sir Gerhard, meanwhile, rampaged like an unbroken colt and steadily drove him back.
The white snow had been churned away, and cracks spread across the frozen ground.
A single blink was enough to decide the balanced contest.
"Urgh!"
Sir Gerhard drove forward with all his strength and unhorsed Sir Rutger.
The situation had become desperate.
"Sir Gerhard!"
Keldric drove Aveline toward them and joined the fight.
His shout boomed across the chaotic field, making Sir Gerhard turn.
The eyes behind the horned visor shook when Gerhard recognized him.
Keldric did not miss it.
A difference in martial strength only grew larger when reinforced by learned fear.
"I have come to finish what we started!"
Strictly speaking, Keldric was interfering in Sir Rutger and Sir Gerhard's duel.
He did not give a damn.
Saving a valuable knight who might die at any moment mattered more than preserving the honor of a duel.
When Keldric charged in without hesitation, Sir Gerhard hurriedly raised his weapon in alarm.
Clang!
"You bastard! Have you no honor?!"
"I've only come to finish yesterday's fight! This time, don't disgrace yourself by running away!"
"You have the nerve to say that?!"
A furious slash came at him, and Keldric answered immediately with his longsword.
A moment later, he noticed a dagger snaking toward his armpit.
Sir Gerhard's secondary weapon. Keldric recognized it and shot out his left hand.
The dagger stopped in Keldric's grasp.
With their swords locked, the knights glared through their visors.
"Surrender! I promise you quarter!"
"I will never surrender!"
Sir Gerhard reared his head back, intending to knock Keldric away with a headbutt.
Keldric yanked the reins. Aveline's black bulk lurched sideways, and Alisa's scream vanished beneath the surrounding shouts.
Frozen earth cracked underfoot as Aveline tilted precariously.
"Hup—!"
Keldric tightened his legs and used the recoil to right their balance.
His longsword came down with that same recoil, swift as thunder.
Sir Gerhard barely blocked it with his sword, but could not deflect the force.
Forced to grip his own blade in a half-swording stance, Sir Gerhard ground his teeth. The sound rasped viciously inside his helmet.
"Nnngh!"
Veins bulged along his neck and forehead, and his eyes became bloodshot.
Even amid the cries of battle, the two knights focused wholly on each other.
Keldric had no time to waste on a prolonged duel.
He glanced toward the fallen Sir Rutger. Rutger had staggered to his feet and was clutching his head.
Being unhorsed carried tremendous force, especially for a knight encased in heavy armor.
Waaaah—!!
Sir Rutger vanished into the press of men clashing spear and sword. For the first time, Keldric felt panic.
Sir Rutger might be a knight, but if someone struck a vital point while he was still dazed...
'Damn it...!'
There was no time. He had to end this in one stroke.
Keldric had to become the sharpest dagger and find an opening.
First, he had to dispose of the knight before him.
Bang!
Sir Gerhard threw a savage punch, making Keldric's bucket-like helmet ring.
For the first time, Keldric's vision swam. Hot blood surged through his body in response to the danger.
His heart hammered. Keldric steadied his blurred vision and avoided the second punch.
In that instant, his own fist found Sir Gerhard's exposed side.
BAM! BAM! CRASH!
"Ghk!"
Keldric's huge fist drove into Sir Gerhard's flank. Locked sword against sword, Gerhard sucked in a broken breath.
Gerhard had given one blow and received ten times worse. Unable to breathe properly, he gasped in an uneven rhythm.
"They're giving way!"
"Fuck! Kill this bastard!"
Just then, mercenaries shoved sideways by the fighting collided with Sir Gerhard's warhorse. Gerhard lurched off balance.
Keldric was equally unstable in the saddle.
He was wedged among mercenaries on every side while effectively fighting with Alisa on his back.
His powerful thighs anchored him in the saddle. Calm killing intent settled in his steady dark-blue eyes.
Keldric strained and reached out until his fingers touched the horned helmet.
He searched for a grip, but Sir Gerhard struggled desperately to escape even as drool ran beneath his helmet.
"Nggh...!"
His fingers scraped uselessly over the helmet, and Keldric changed his approach.
Trying to seize a mounted knight's helmet merely because he had struck the man's flank was far too naive.
Leaving his armpit exposed for so long was dangerous as well. Keldric made a quick decision and grabbed something else.
CLENCH—!
He seized Sir Gerhard's solid arm, which had been extended to resist him.
The arm was thick with knotted muscle and protected by a long gauntlet.
Keldric gripped it and smashed his pommel down.
BAM! CRACK!
"Aaaagh!!"
Sir Gerhard screamed as the brutal impact interrupted his struggle to pull free. The surrounding din nearly swallowed the sound.
One thing was certain: his left arm was either broken or badly fractured.
Keldric used the opening to close the distance and thrust out his arm.
His powerful hand clamped around Sir Gerhard's neck below the helmet.
"Ghk! Grrk!"
"Enough...!"
Keldric passed the longsword behind him, and Alisa took it in confusion.
A mace now filled his right hand.
"It's over!"
WHAM!
The mace flashed in the reflected light of the snow and crashed down. Iron struck iron with a roar that echoed across the field.
Sir Gerhard's breastplate caved inward. He shuddered, then sagged limply from the saddle.
Keldric gasped for breath. This was one of the first times he had faced genuine danger; being unhorsed would have killed him in moments.
But there was no time to celebrate survival or victory.
"Sir Rutger!"
Keldric grabbed the reins of Sir Rutger's horse and kicked Aveline forward.
Aveline was running out of strength but continued laboriously, saliva streaming from the mouth.
Keldric's gaze darted everywhere. Men filled every direction, with blood and steel flying and a metallic stench assaulting his nose.
The battle had become so chaotic that he could no longer tell which side was winning.
"Sir Rutger! Answer me! Sir Rutger!"
No answer came from Sir Rutger, swallowed by the mass of men. Keldric felt the blood drain from his body.
If those mercenary bastards had killed Sir Rutger...
"Sir Keldric! Over there!"
Alisa pointed, and Keldric's head snapped around.
A familiar helmet appeared among the soldiers colliding in the distance.
Keldric drove Aveline toward it.
No one wanted to be crushed by the massive warhorse. Soldiers whose allegiance was now impossible to distinguish recoiled and opened a path.
"S-Sir Keldric!"
Wedged in the press, Sir Rutger could barely move.
The battlefield was open ground, but more than four hundred men were packed together so densely that the center offered nowhere to plant a foot.
Keldric reached out with all his strength. Sir Rutger forced one arm free and reached back.
Their hands finally met. Keldric locked his grip and hauled Sir Rutger upward.
"Nnggh...!"
Even Keldric found it difficult to extract a heavily armored knight one-handed from such a dense crowd.
Veins bulged on his forehead beneath the helmet as blood rushed into his reddening face.
Straining with every ounce of strength, Keldric pulled Sir Rutger free like a radish uprooted from the soil.
"Aaaah!"
Sir Rutger flew briefly through the air before landing on the warhorse.
"Th-thank you!"
"Sir Rutger! We have to withdraw!"
Aveline was already exhausted. Continuing the battle with Alisa aboard as well was impossible.
Sir Rutger nodded. Other knights whose mounts needed changing were also withdrawing from the field.
Keldric drove Aveline frantically toward the allied encampment.
The moment they reached camp, Keldric changed to Boreas. Alisa staggered onto the ground, and Keldric took up a fresh lance.
He turned back toward the enemy and struggled to calm his ragged breathing.
A tired horse could be rested, but a knight in battle had no time for respite.
That was especially true if they meant to win decisively in a single engagement.
"Charge! Charge!"
"To a glorious victory!"
The five knights charged again on fresh mounts. No horn sounded to recall the soldiers.
Following Sir Rutger's advice, even the inexperienced Sir Lothar understood the situation instinctively.
They could not spend a second night in this standoff. There would be no better opportunity.
Even an opportunity as thin as a thread had to be seized—and once held, never released, even at the cost of death.
They had to win.
"Th-there!"
The tide already seemed to be turning in their favor.
Riding Boreas, Keldric saw a group streaming out of the enemy camp.
A banner rose conspicuously above them, escorted by three or four knights and soldiers struggling to keep pace.
"Coward!"
"We have to catch them!"
"Ride faster!"
It was Baron Gofrit, fleeing the field earlier than expected after sensing defeat.
Keldric's eyes blazed. The other knights reacted the same way.
But the fugitives already had too great a lead, and splitting off alone to pursue them was out of the question.
By the time Keldric and the others reached that part of the battlefield, Baron Gofrit's party had dwindled to specks and was already crossing the snowfield beyond.
"Fucking hell..."
Sir Henri ground his teeth. Nothing could have been more frustrating than letting Baron Gofrit escape.
But the flight of the lord commanding the army meant only one thing.
"Sir Keldric! Let's sweep them all away!"
"Wretches!"
Keldric and the knights plunged back into battle.
Victory was within reach.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
"So you're saying he escaped?"
"Yes. It appears he had shrewdly prepared to flee."
Sir Lothar's face went red, then pale.
He had lost a chance to end the territorial war and prove himself to his father when it was almost within his grasp.
"Arghhh!"
Sir Lothar shouted and kicked the snow, spraying it around the knights' feet.
"We could have ended everything! Everything! That was our chance to finish this fucking territorial war!"
"..."
"And we missed it!"
But raging at the knights earned Sir Lothar only increasingly cold stares.
He steadied his shaking breath and ground his teeth. The knights were not truly the target of his anger.
He was furious because, whether through fate's mockery or sheer tenacity, Baron Gofrit had escaped the dagger yet again.
"Sir Lothar, compose yourself."
Unable to remain silent, Sir Rutger intervened sternly. Sir Lothar flinched as reason returned.
Sir Lothar might be Baron Yaven's eldest son, but he could not openly oppose Sir Rutger, who held his father's trust.
"...My apologies."
In the end, Sir Lothar was the one who yielded.
He apologized sullenly and withdrew into his tent, saying commendations could wait until dawn.
Keldric watched with a sour expression.
'Whatever the ending...'
Keldric had claimed victory in grand fashion, with tremendous achievements of his own.
Countless mercenaries had seen him rampaging across the field, and mercenaries possessed wide networks.
Their stories would raise Keldric's value as a knight.
He had also captured Sir Gerhard alive. The ransom alone would fill his purse.
His first territorial war, and his first battle on a true battlefield.
The night of victory deepened.