Spear of the Madman: Decapitation on the Hill
Atop the hill where the brush rose to the knees, the ground itself was uneven with gravel. Yet the figure gliding across it moved like a predator incarnate.
With a sharp whoosh, Arteon kicked off the ground and leaped. The instant his spear thrust toward Marhuldan, the barbarian’s eyes went wide.
Clang!
“Kh…!”
Spear and sword collided with a ringing crash, twisting Marhuldan’s face into a snarl. Frozen earth and the snow blanketing it exploded upward to chest height, shuddering violently. For a heartbeat his vision was gone.
Marhuldan’s eyes bulged as he swung his sword blindly forward.
“Hyaah!”
Whoosh!
His blade carved a horizontal path through the flying dirt and snow. Beyond it stood no Imperial soldier.
Where…?!
The moment Marhuldan’s pupils flickered, a spear came screaming in from the side.
Sssshk!
“……!”
He twisted desperately, swinging his sword to meet it.
Clang!
The spear tip lashed left to right, then low to high, hammering Marhuldan with a relentless barrage. Fast yet heavy, sharp yet aimed only at vital points—a storm of killing blows.
Marhuldan clenched his teeth and raised his sword.
Clang! Clang! Crash!
Every collision of steel tore the air like metal being ripped apart. The shocks threatened to shatter his wrists; the furrow between his brows deepened.
This… this monstrous strength… what in the world is it…!
Even for a spear, how could the destructive force be this overwhelming?
But something else drove him closer to madness.
Thud!
“How dare you!”
The spearman had closed the distance this far. Marhuldan roared and swung, yet—
Clang!
The youth hooked the spear across his shoulder, dipped his waist, twisted, and used the rotational force to fling the sword aside. Marhuldan’s eyes shook violently.
A spear user… fighting like this at such close range…!
He had clashed with countless Imperial soldiers, but never one who wielded a spear this way. The movements defied prediction—almost like watching a performance of pure skill. Marhuldan found himself panting without realizing it.
Yet—
“Hyaah!”
Marhuldan gathered his momentum and swung again.
Whoosh!
Sword wind sliced the keen northern air, aiming to cleave Arteon. Or rather, it tried.
Before the blade could even graze him—
Ting!
Arteon twisted the shaft in his grip and flicked the sword upward. In that same instant—
Slash!
“Kh!”
Marhuldan twisted away by a hair’s breadth, but perfect evasion was impossible.
Drip… drip… drip…
Crimson blood fell onto the white snow, leaving vivid stains. Fear had begun to take root in Marhuldan’s contorted eyes.
Monster.
Looking up at the young Imperial soldier who gazed down at him with emotionless eyes, Marhuldan’s body gave an involuntary shudder.
Arteon spoke quietly.
“Resist harder. Is the warrior’s pride you Kar so boast of nothing more than this?”
“Sh-shut up! You bastard!”
Marhuldan exploded in rage and charged. His sword whipped through the air like a storm. Though fury twisted his face, the tip of the blade still sought Arteon with cold precision.
Sharp attacks. Yet for all his fervor, the sword never once brushed Arteon’s body.
Clang!
The spear tip rippled like a wave, turning every blow aside. Sometimes shoving, sometimes receiving, sometimes twisting to bleed off the force—completely nullifying the assault.
Just a little… a little more…
It was not merely the strength of aura or mana. Something just beyond reach kept tickling every nerve. A hot, flame-like energy surged from deep within, and the tangled currents began to unravel.
Thump, thump!
With every powerful beat of his heart, the spear tip grew sharper, more alive. As if sinking into a trance, Arteon immersed himself deeper into the fight against Marhuldan.
Boom!
“Gah!”
Marhuldan’s scream rang out as his body was hurled backward. The surrounding Kar warriors bellowed.
“Lord Marhuldan!”
“Lord Marhuldan!”
They wheeled about to protect their fallen commander and charged Arteon. Six Kar warriors attacked in the blink of an eye, yet—
“N-no!”
Marhuldan’s shout never reached them.
Slash! Thunk! Slash!
In the time it took to blink once, all six Kar warriors lay dead.
“Ah… ah…”
Each of them had possessed combat power far beyond ordinary Imperial soldiers. And they had fallen this quickly…?
“Impossible…”
Marhuldan’s eyes filled with horror.
This bastard…
The longer they fought, the stronger he became.
Marhuldan stepped back without meaning to. Growing stronger in the middle of a battle—how could that make sense? Simply being pinned here was already a disaster for them. They needed to break through and draw the Imperial army’s attention.
His gaze flicked to the Imperial soldiers fighting nearby—the forty-odd men this monster had brought with him.
Facing this one is impossible. Then better to…
Concentrate on those men and divert the monster’s attention.
Decision made, Marhuldan roared.
“Attack those ones! Aside from this bastard, the rest are nothing but chaff!”
At his cry the Kar warriors immediately changed direction and hurled themselves at the 4th Platoon. Finishing off a mere forty men would not take long.
But—
“Ha… those sons of bitches.”
“They’re calling us chaff.”
1st Squad Leader Barter turned from a Kar warrior whose breath had already stopped and spoke to Grein. Grein raised the shield on his left arm.
“Then we’ll show them just how different Imperial chaff can be.”
He raised his voice.
“Mobile defense formation!”
“Mobile defense formation!”
“Form the mobile defense formation!”
Orders echoed as the 4th Platoon swiftly locked into a square defensive array, then retreated rapidly into the terrain features of the hill.
“Kill them!”
“Barely fifty of them! Cut them down in one go!”
Even as the 4th Platoon formed up and withdrew, the Kar warriors only grew more ferocious, charging after them. Whatever tricks the Imperials tried, their numbers were pitiful against hundreds. They were already as good as dead.
Marhuldan knew it too.
“Heh heh heh heh… You’ll regret coming here.”
He laughed low, staring at Arteon.
Yet—
“Fool.”
The quiet voice came from ahead. Marhuldan looked at the youth before him. Far more refined and razor-sharp than at the start of the fight, Arteon spoke with eyes cold and still.
“Do you really think sheer numbers will let you kill them?”
“What?”
Before Marhuldan could finish—
“Gyaaaaah!”
The first scream was followed at once by others. Startled by the unexpected voices, Marhuldan turned his head.
“……!”
Kar warriors lay bleeding on the ground.
What… what is this…?
His gaze locked on the Imperial soldiers and his own warriors locked in combat.
“Die!”
A Kar warrior charged the 4th Platoon without fear. Yet—
Clang!
Piercing the 4th Platoon’s formation, crouched like a tortoise, proved impossible. The moment a shield rose to block the attack—
“Nesil!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Barter’s shout, 1st Squad member Nesil drove his spear deep between the shields.
Thunk!
The spear punched cleanly through the Kar warrior’s abdomen. Blood poured onto the ground as the body crumpled.
Thud.
Clack! Clatter!
Having dropped the enemy in a single strike, the 4th Platoon covered themselves with shields again, crouching low and glaring with fierce eyes. Moreover, the ground they held was the most cluttered with terrain features, the gravel making footing treacherous. Every scrap of that landscape became their tool—and an obstacle to the attacking Kar.
“……Crazy.”
In mere seconds more than ten Kar warriors had died for nothing. Even with hundreds of men and numerical superiority, the losses weighed heavy. There was simply no way to smash that formation in one blow.
Marhuldan’s eyes shook hard. Where in the world had these men suddenly come from?
Then—
Whoosh!
“Huk!”
A razor-sharp spear tip flashed before his eyes. Marhuldan leaped back. Refined energy now rose from Arteon’s body like heat haze—purified, utterly different from before. Marhuldan swallowed hard without meaning to.
When they first clashed it had felt like facing an unscalable wall. Now…
H-how… how is this possible.
The gap had become so vast he could barely look up at it.
Arteon spoke to the stunned Marhuldan.
“Thank you. Because of you lot, I finally made it.”
“What?”
Marhuldan asked, but no further answer came. At the tip of the raised spear a blue light shimmered, condensing into dense aura.
Finally…
Five-Star.
The wall of that realm he had never reached in the past…
I’ve touched it.
Leaving the dozens of fallen Kar warriors behind him, Arteon leveled his spear at Marhuldan.
“I have much left to do… so let’s end this here.”
No matter how well the 4th Platoon held, dragging this out any longer risked danger. He needed to kill the commander quickly and shift the momentum.
“You think I’ll go down that easilyyyyy!”
Perhaps feeling insulted, Marhuldan’s face twisted with rage as he drew up his mana. Yet the very moment he charged Arteon—
Slash!
“Ghk…”
A foreign sensation at his neck, followed by a wet, gurgling sound.
This… this can’t be…
Thud.
Marhuldan’s head struck the ground. Arteon speared the head on his tip, raised it high, and roared.
“The enemy commander is deaaaaad!”
The cry rolled across the entire battlefield in an instant. The Kar warriors assaulting the 4th Platoon stared in disbelief.
“L-Lord Marhuldaaaaan!”
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
They wailed in anguish at the severed head.
“Now! Sweep them away!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”
At Grein’s shout the 4th Platoon charged headlong at enemies more than ten times their number.