Chapter 231
Chapter 231
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 231
Chapter Title: The Age of the Created Hero (2)
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The blade raced forward. A skull glaring straight ahead with empty sockets flew through the air. No crude skeleton soldier pieced together by magic could withstand the impact of a charging cavalryman.
The mass of a warhorse, combined with speed, became a weapon in itself. Simply being struck by a mounted rider was enough to tear a human body apart with ease. And the attacks unleashed by those riders were no less devastating than artillery fire from a seasoned mage.
-KABOOM!
“Forward!!”
From the moment they were committed to the front lines and began their charge, the cavalry's performance rested solely in the hands of the field commander at the lead. The roar of the wind, the shouts, the thrill and terror of battle—all blended together, shutting out every sensation except the voice of the field commander.
Thus, like a herd of rampaging rhinos, the cavalry pursued their leader, advancing and pulverizing everything in their path.
“Forward!!”
The field commander's shout echoed in their ears. The beastfolk tiger tribe's cavalry were elite troops boasting centuries of history. They had grown strong through intertribal conflicts, occasional clashes with slave hunters, and battles against imperial or sultanate forces.
For them, becoming one with their mount was merely a byproduct of drawing their blades. The riders swung swords and spears in perfect unison, occasionally bellowing bloodcurdling war cries as they charged.
Toward death. For death. To show the enemy nothing but death! Forward!
“Raaargh!!”
“Hearttaker! Hearttaker! Hearttaker!”
The beastfolk tiger warriors screamed in frenzy. The skeletons scattered like retreating tides, crumbling and dispersing like waves crashing against a breakwater.
From a distance, the imperial command watched the scene in chaos.
“Those bastards crazy or what?”
* * *
“Beastfolk tiger tribe cavalry have penetrated the enemy's rear!”
“Crazy fools, desperate to die!”
The noble officers in the command tent scoffed. Most were knights themselves, officers who led knight orders.
The reason cavalry hadn't been deployed on this battlefield—why the empire had been forced to use hippo knights as heavy infantry—was that the terrain didn't allow mounted forces to shine.
When the front was a vast, open plain, cavalry commanders had cheered. They expected the sluggish skeleton soldiers to become fodder for their charges.
That expectation shattered when skeleton reinforcements erupted from the ground, perfectly aligned with the cavalry's path of advance. The horses panicked at the skulls, blades, and spears rising from the earth, throwing the formation into disarray. The first cavalry charge ended in horrific casualties.
As second and third waves suffered the same, cavalry commanders began thinking of themselves as heavy infantry leaders. Horses were skittish creatures, and attacks from beneath during a gallop were a response no rider could have anticipated.
Deprived of troop diversity and speed advantage, the battlefield quickly devolved into a quagmire of chaos. The stalemate dragged on. All they could trust now was holding the line until the scholars from the Imperial Philaineil Academy secured victory in the magical duel.
“Uh… they… broke through?”
“…What?”
“The tiger tribe legion's cavalry just punched through the enemy lines once and is wheeling around. Preparing for another charge.”
“…What?”
Something impossible happened. The cavalry had successfully raided the enemy's rear. The cavalry officers shot to their feet, peering down at the battlefield below the hill. They could see the enemy rear scattering.
Beyond the dust clouds, the beastfolk-mounted cavalry began advancing again. Trot, canter, full gallop. A charge so perfect it was beautiful!
“Have the enemy… switched to anti-cavalry tactics?”
“With that flank assault focused on the front, they can't spare forces for the rear, right?”
“We can't let them claim all the glory like that! Revans Knight Order! Prepare to deploy! Rally the cavalry!”
The cavalry officers burst from the tent, shouting. The battlefield had changed. It was now suitable for cavalry! They yelled as they rushed back to their units.
And that was a miscalculation.
* * *
“They took the bait!”
-KABOOM!
A sufficiently long greatsword produced the same result as an awkwardly gripped lance. And as a Religiosa Demonica, Fernandez possessed the grip strength to execute a masterful lance charge even with such an unwieldy weapon.
Fernandez shrugged off the shock rippling from his forearm to his shoulder, rampaging through the enemy ranks. Under his command, the beastfolk cavalry devastated the rear.
It was a matter of mass. The skeleton troops lacked the cohesion to form squares or hold against a charge. The wraith legion's forces collapsed in an instant, and before they could reform, the cavalry executed a disciplined withdrawal.
“Prepare to reenter! Forward! Forward!!”
At Fernandez's shout, the cavalry began to retreat. From the moment of the charge, their prowess lay entirely in the hands of the field commanders on site. And Fernandez possessed abilities unlike any other field commander.
He could see mana.
“Shift charge path to the left!!”
-Thunder of hooves!!
The cavalry's hoofbeats were light. Fernandez yanked the reins, veering sharply and widely. As they swung around, skeletons rose exactly where they would have charged.
The wraith legion's skeleton reinforcements were magic wrought by burial priests. And all magic left traces.
By reading the cavalry's charge path, the burial priests inside the legion cast their spells. Large-scale attack magic was impossible due to clashing mana forces. So the priests used simpler spells: resurrection of the dead.
A highly specialized imperial secret art, difficult to detect and even harder to counter. In the magical duel, it went undisturbed by countermeasures.
Yet all magic left traces. The moment the wraith legion raised its skeletons, Fernandez wheeled his cavalry. Thus, they ignored Ravirata's anti-cavalry tactics.
“It's a trap! A traaap!!”
Not everyone could do it. The other knights crumbled like the previous three charges. The moment knights dedicated to holding the line were pulled to reform as cavalry, the imperial front began to retreat.
The command fell into turmoil.
“Why do those bastards succeed while our knights fail!”
“We need to call back the cavalry. The line's collapsing!”
“Damn it. All the glory's going to those animal scum!”
“Victory comes first—then lines and glory matter. Put the knights back on the line!”
“How can those bastards come out unscathed! Baron Vincent, isn't that proof they're colluding with the enemy?”
At the knight's words, the robed old man shook his head. He watched Fernandez's advance from the front and the wraiths bursting up between paths.
“They're facing anti-cavalry tactics too. But they read the timing of the dead rising through the ground and evade.”
“How? How can they predict ambushes mid-charge?”
“If the commander is a mage… or…”
Watching Fernandez shatter five skeletons with one swing of his greatsword, the knights shook their heads. It was a feat near impossible even for knights who lived by sword and forge.
“Or has astonishing instincts.”
“Who's that cavalry captain?”
“Some Fernin, the beastfolk great chieftain's concubine.”
“Hah, concubine. Looking at him fight, yeah. Probably excels in bed too.”
The knights chewed on their defeat in hollow frustration. If a warrior with instincts sharp enough to be mistaken for magic led the cavalry… well, nothing to be done.
The command knights groaned watching Fernandez fight. How with one hand on a greatsword? How a greatsword lance charge?
* * *
Breakthrough, breakthrough, breakthrough again. Too much for a single cavalry group. Fernandez keenly gauged his riders' waning stamina. But not yet. A little more!
“Forward!!”
Forward, toward the enemy. Toward their deaths! With Fernandez's cry, the cavalry charged, foaming at the mouth, exhaling ragged breaths. The horses champed cold foam, pounding the earth.
-Thunder of hooves!!
The charge continued. Minds clouded by fatigue and fear could no longer think rationally. The riders galloped blindly, like a rhino herd following the lead.
And impact again.
-KABOOM!
Fernandez held the battlefield map in his mind. The mounting fatigue wasn't imagination. Nor was the enemy's growing density.
In truth, his charge had peeled back the thick outer layer, slicing precisely inward like a scalpel.
‘The wraith lords' armies collapse the moment their command is destroyed!’
Just as Ptah's Tutan Gartep's legion disintegrated half a year ago upon his death. Wraith lord armies crumbled when their lord's soul vanished.
Even if not Ravirata's loyal legion. Killing the core commanders, wraith priests, and princes at the center would halt it.
The force making skeletons move in unison was the priests commanding them. They had to die. But…
‘Not my job!’
Fernandez eyed the not-so-distant front. Uproar there. Two forces raced terrifyingly through the thinned lines, disrupted by rear chaos, sacrificing lives to burn through enemy depth.
Kirhas and Erb. The spearhead troops plunged into the enemy's depth, where nobles, princes, and priests huddled under the wraith lords' elite guard…
‘Beings born of magic…’
-Meet eternal slumber by magic. Fitting.
-Fwoosh!
Behind the charging Fernandez, a black halo ignited. The greatsword traced an arc. One stroke. Skeletons in its path powdered—
Build. Then destroy. Pause and terminus. Straight toward the offensive endpoint. Four beastfolk strokes intertwined in his left, the greatsword slashing between from the right. Forward. Forward.
“Forward!”
Foam flecked the cavalry's lips. Toward death. Even the mounts, once fearing sharp things, swept by exhaustion and frenzy. Forgetting fear, advancing—
“Forward!!”
Enemies pulverized. Blessings on skeleton soldiers shattered by Fernandez's hand; weakened troops couldn't withstand the mass. Destruction, destruction. A feast of death.
“Forward!!!”
-Whooosh! Crunch!
Fernandez's greatsword drew a graceful curve. A gently bent arc of death. Skeletons within exploded—heads, arms, legs, torsos scattering. Shards of bone whipped like a storm, clattering noisily.
And within. A panicked skeleton in tattered robes and ornate jewelry snapped its jaw, staring.
[You, who are you! How dare you wield such magic… How is this possible…!]
It spoke, confirming a high priest. Fernandez's gloomy blue eyes flashed. The greatsword blotted the sky, its long shadow falling over the priest's head.
“Didn't Muto teach you?”
-Whoooosh!
The blade tore air, plunging down. Crunch—the priest's ward glowed, binding it. Then crunch, cracks spiderwebbed.
Craaaack! Ornaments crafting the ward shattered; the gold-crowned skull's crown split under the blade!
“I am Muto's death.”
-KABOOM!
With the priest's death, mana surged across the field. Skeletons froze en masse. Overhead spells unraveled in an instant, unleashing imperial bombardment.
Suppressed explosions and destruction roared from all sides. And in that moment, two legions burst through the line.
Fernandez smiled at their sweat- and blood-streaked faces. Raising his voice, he bellowed.
“Duke Erb has taken the enemy commander's head!!!”
The moment a hero was born.