Chapter 189: Counterattack (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 189: Counterattack (4)
Thwack!
An arrow pierced the forehead of an imperial soldier.
Flora Lawrence quickly notched another arrow, her eyes busily scanning the chaotic battlefield.
'We're being pushed back.'
It was exactly as she had expected.
When they joined Marquis Vandenberg's forces, she had anticipated that even a surprise attack wouldn't give them the upper hand in close-quarters combat. Anyone with a shred of common sense knew that. The soldiers of the Kronos Empire were fundamentally superior in quality—a point heavily emphasized in the council chamber.
The conclusion was simple: they were gambling.
Even knowing they were at a severe disadvantage, the soldiers of Cairo had committed to the operation.
"Commander!" Flora shouted.
She had spent the entire night calculating every variable that could arise on the battlefield, proposing a contingency plan for this exact scenario. The other high-ranking officers had opposed her, arguing it contradicted the very purpose of a surprise attack. However, Flora firmly believed her plan was the only way to perfectly utilize their ultimate weapon: Roman Dmitry.
At Flora's shout, Marquis Vandenberg's voice boomed across the battlefield.
"Form a shield wall! Form a shield wall!"
The command spread like wildfire.
Instantly, the scattered Cairo soldiers converged. Those bearing shields stepped to the front, interlocking their heavy rectangular shields to form an impenetrable barrier. It happened in the blink of an eye. Though time had been short, they had drilled this maneuver relentlessly.
Clank! Clank!
The wall of steel rose in unison.
The Kronos imperial soldiers faltered, looking bewildered. A shield wall was a standard battlefield tactic, but it was entirely unsuited for a surprise offensive.
Baron Noel's previous objection echoed in Flora's mind:
"Flora. Speed is of the essence in this operation. While a shield wall can bridge the gap in raw power, stalling with a defensive formation could put the forces attacking the center in grave danger. We must be willing to make sacrifices and press the offensive. Only then can we truly capitalize on the surprise attack."
It was a valid point.
Flora didn't deny it. But their perspectives diverged on one fundamental difference.
Their absolute faith in Roman Dmitry.
Flora Lawrence was certain that Roman Dmitry would turn the tide, even if he were attacked from both sides. If that was true, the Cairo Royal Army's priority was to preserve their own forces as much as possible. After all, the Royal Army alone could never wipe out the imperial forces in the rear. Her fierce insistence had ultimately won the council over; they agreed to push the surprise attack but transition into a defensive shield wall the moment they began losing ground.
"Keep your shields tight!"
"Don't leave any gaps!"
The tide of battle shifted.
The imperial army relentlessly battered the front, while the royal army anchored themselves in place.
Believing they had seized the momentum, the Kronos forces pressed forward aggressively. But the Cairo soldiers held their ground tenaciously behind their interlocking shields. They weren't just defending. Spears and blades thrust through the narrow gaps between the shields, while from the rear, archers—Flora included—loosed volleys into the sky.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Thwack! Thwack!
"Argh!"
A rain of arrows descended.
Imperial soldiers collapsed, screaming in agony. Wiping away a mixture of sweat and blood, Flora notched another arrow. Her ears rang with the deafening roars and shrieks of the slaughter. There was a time when she couldn't even bear to look at a bloodstained world, but the battlefield had forged an unshakeable composure within her.
It was a brutal, grinding struggle.
Time stretched into an eternity.
No matter how many enemies they cut down, the endless waves of Kronos soldiers showed no signs of thinning. Under the relentless assault, the shield wall began to splinter. But every time a gap opened, another soldier stepped forward to plug the hole. Stepping over the corpses of their fallen comrades, they gritted their teeth and held the line, refusing to yield an inch.
Dizziness washed over Flora.
Under the scorching sun, the temptation to just give up gnawed at her, but she couldn't afford to lose focus in a life-or-death struggle.
Then, it happened.
Just as the heat of battle reached its absolute peak, Flora spotted something in the distance. Her face lit up, and she screamed at the top of her lungs:
"Our reinforcements have arrived! Disband the shield wall and attack!"
In the distance, their allies were charging in.
The counterattack Cairo had been waiting for had finally begun.
* * *
At the vanguard of the allied forces was Chris.
Leading his troops, he flared his Aura and charged straight into the enemy ranks.
"Follow me!"
Boom!
His Aura erupted.
The Kronos soldiers lunged at Chris from all sides, but the moment they clashed, his swordsmanship tore them to shreds. It was a chillingly efficient style. He carved open the chest of the first soldier he met, decapitated the next two who rushed him, and when the remaining imperial troops hesitated in terror, he threw himself into their midst.
"Argh!"
"Stop him!"
It was a massacre.
Led by Chris, the Dmitry soldiers began a one-sided slaughter of the Kronos forces.
The war with Barco.
The Southern Front.
And now, this civil war.
The Dmitry soldiers were hardened veterans who had survived massive conflicts ordinary men would never experience. They had evolved into bloodthirsty predators on the battlefield, completely uncaring that their opponent was a towering mountain known as the Empire. Every war they had fought had been under unfavorable conditions. Having repeatedly overcome those odds, they hungered for victory no matter the circumstances.
The tables had turned.
Caught in a pincer attack from the front and rear, the knight commanding the local Kronos forces raised his voice.
"Hold out just a little longer! Our allies will arrive soon! Hold the line at all costs!"
Despite his rallying cry, he knew the situation was dire.
To turn the tide, he had to suppress the rampaging Chris.
Rumble!
"I will be your opponent!"
A 3-Star Swordsman.
He unleashed his Aura to its absolute limits. Cleaving through his own soldiers who blocked his path, he charged furiously at Chris. Even amidst the chaotic melee, all eyes converged on their impending clash. Chris had put on a terrifying display, but the soldiers believed his life couldn't be guaranteed against a 3-Star Swordsman.
At that moment, a flash of light.
Splat!
"...!"
The knight's head flew off.
The moment he reached Chris and attempted to swing his sword, his head was already soaring into the sky.
It was a shocking, unbelievable sight.
A single strike.
He had dispatched a 3-Star Swordsman in one blow.
It wasn't a victory born of overwhelming Aura. Chris had calmly watched his enemy's approach, pinpointing the exact microsecond a gap opened in the knight's offensive stance. Chris had already defeated a 3-Star Swordsman two years ago. His Lightning Technique, which had evolved beyond comparison since then, was so fast the imperial knight couldn't even react.
And that was only the beginning.
The Aura Swordsmen of Kronos charged at him all at once.
Aura erupted from every direction, all targeting Chris's life. Yet, just like before, they were cut down in a single stroke.
One strike.
One death.
His Fast Sword Technique had reached its absolute zenith.
Chris's monstrous martial prowess struck deep, paralyzing terror into the hearts of the Kronos forces.
The Flash of Cairo.
The figure destined to shake the continent was finally making his presence known to the world.
* * *
By the time Count Fabio arrived at the scene, the battlefield had already descended into a living hell.
"...W-What is this?"
Roman Dmitry.
It was him.
He had blocked the path entirely and was slaughtering the oncoming imperial soldiers.
Goosebumps erupted across Fabio's skin. The sheer martial prowess required to overwhelm such numerical superiority was terrifying enough, but Fabio instantly realized the strategic nightmare of Roman Dmitry's positioning.
The Kronos army had been marching in a long column. When their center was attacked, the vanguard naturally rushed back to reinforce the middle. Roman Dmitry had planted himself directly in that path, blocking them head-on.
In other words, any reinforcements trying to reach the center had to go through Roman Dmitry first.
Though it was a choice that defied all common sense and was tantamount to suicide, there was only one reason a man would stand in their way like that.
'Does he genuinely believe he can handle such an absurd task?'
No verbal explanation was needed.
The mountain of corpses piled beneath his feet was proof of Roman Dmitry's conviction.
Countless troops had already been butchered by the time Count Fabio arrived. And even if they somehow bypassed Roman, they would only meet death at the hands of the Dmitry soldiers. His head spun. He was genuinely horrified by Roman Dmitry's audacity, and the sheer, overwhelming power of Dmitry's forces left him utterly dazed.
Roman Dmitry.
The rumors were true.
At first, Fabio had dismissed him as a big fish in a small pond. But seeing him now, he realized the man was a monster who would struggle to find an equal even within the Empire itself.
It was then.
"Commander! The situation in the rear is dire! At this rate, our rear forces will be pinched from both sides and wiped out!"
It was his adjutant. Having received a desperate report from the backlines, panic laced his voice.
They were in a critical crisis.
This was no time to stand around in awe.
Cairo had boldly chosen to open their castle gates, and Kronos could not afford to squander this heaven-sent opportunity.
'If we are defeated outside the walls by the likes of Cairo, I won't have the face to look at anyone back in the Empire. Exploiting Cairo's civil war has already proven useless, but if we do not punish their arrogance, the Kronos Empire will become the laughingstock of the continent. Regardless of the practical gains of this battle, we must crush them at all costs.'
"Kronos Knights."
"Yes, sir!"
Count Fabio's personal guard.
They were the 10th Knights Division, one of the elite ten knight divisions of the Kronos Empire.
Looking at his knights as they awaited their orders, Fabio spoke, his voice dripping with murderous intent.
"Eliminate that eyesore, Roman Dmitry, immediately. Once he falls, the Cairo Kingdom won't have the strength to hold out any longer. Then, head straight to the rear and—"
Suddenly, Count Fabio choked on his words.
Perhaps it was just his imagination.
But Roman Dmitry, who was a considerable distance away, was looking directly at him—as if he had heard every single word.
* * *
They say a man freezes when facing a wild beast.
But while a beast's roar instills overwhelming terror, Roman Dmitry paralyzed a man's mind with his gaze alone.
Fabio's train of thought ground to a screeching halt.
Right in the middle of issuing orders to his elite knights, it felt as though the entire world had stopped.
Then.
"Argh!"
Roman Dmitry cleaved an enemy in two and launched himself off the ground.
It was unmistakable.
He had made eye contact with Count Fabio, and the very moment he identified the enemy commander, he charged straight at him. It was an absurdly reckless decision. The distance between them was vast, and the path was choked with a sea of Kronos soldiers. Logically, breaking through that dense formation to reach him was impossible.
Sure enough, a swarm of imperial soldiers surged forward, engulfing Roman Dmitry in a tidal wave of steel.
'It's over.'
Fabio blinked.
In that split second, the world shifted.
Roman Dmitry slaughtered every soldier in his path, carving a bloody highway straight through the dense imperial ranks.
Blink.
He had closed the distance even further.
With every step he took, dozens of soldiers lunged at him, and Roman Dmitry gladly reaped their lives to take that single step forward. Seeing this, the Kronos Knights charged. Although Count Fabio hadn't finished his command, they were quick-witted enough to realize they had to eliminate this monster immediately.
Among them was a 4-Star Swordsman.
His fiercely flaring Aura radiated absolute confidence.
Blink.
Blood sprayed.
The 4-Star Swordsman's head soared into the air. The sight of the remaining elite Kronos knights collapsing like severed puppets burned into Fabio's retinas.
Every time he blinked, another impossible, shocking scene unfolded.
He had believed Roman could never reach him, yet suddenly, Roman Dmitry was right in front of him.
Only then did Count Fabio realize the terrifying truth.
'This crazy bastard.'
Roman Dmitry truly intended to tear through an entire army just to kill him, the commander of Kronos.