The Silent Spear's Charge
Bwooooooooo!
A trumpet blast rolled out like the furious bellow of an enraged elephant, and the Imperial soldiers scrambled into motion.
"Run! Hurry!"
"Archers, form ranks first! The moment they enter range, open fire!"
"Move it!"
Officers' urgent shouts rang across the camp as soldiers raced to their posts, many still clutching their helmets in one hand, unable even to strap them on properly.
Amid the chaos, the Imperial army's supreme commander, Velkain, could not hide the shock in his eyes.
"...I never thought they would launch a preemptive strike."
Days earlier, a devastating blow to the supply depot had left their provisions in critical condition. With every passing hour, the advantage should have swung further toward the Kar Tribe.
And yet...
A preemptive attack in this situation.
It was a tactic that overturned every conventional rule of war. Even knowing the Kar's warlike nature, he had never imagined they would commit to something so radical.
But the situation was already upon them. Velkain issued rapid orders to his officers and prepared for battle.
Bwooooooooo!
"Buying time is everything. Move every unit that can deploy immediately and halt their advance."
"Yes, sir!"
Yet no unit was truly ready to march at a moment's notice. Most were fortunate simply to have their wits about them.
Then—
"C-Commander! Look there!"
Claw pointed urgently. Velkain followed his aide's gesture.
"...?"
A single formation was already racing toward the front.
"It's the Silent Spear unit!"
"...!"
They had completed combat preparations and moved out this quickly?
"Silent Spear! Avoid a head-on clash! Our sole purpose is to buy time—remember that!"
"Understood!"
The trumpet had sounded the instant Arteon's spar with Ret ended. Without hesitation he led his men straight onto the battlefield.
He had doubted it would come to this...
But they really came.
That they had spotted the enemy before the Kar closed any further was thanks to Isaac's reinforced perimeter watch. Without it...
We would have been overrun in an instant.
Yet knowing early did not make the situation favorable. The enemy host was already far too close.
Chajajajajajak!
Flaming arrows from the Kar warriors lit the darkness as they rained down around the Imperial lines. In the sudden glare the sheer numbers of the oncoming warriors became clear, and the soldiers' faces darkened.
"I-Insane...!"
"How many of them are there...?!"
This was no mere show of force. Officers shouted desperately at the sight of the plain black with enemy troops.
"F-Fireeeee!"
"Keep them back! Keep shooting!"
Arrows poured onto the heads of the Kar warriors, but against such overwhelming numbers it was hopeless.
...A half-hearted jab won't even turn their heads.
Arteon slipped outside the main camp and studied the Kar formation from concealment. They advanced in one massive block, leaving no clean point of attack—especially for an independent unit of barely a hundred men.
But still...
It had to be done. If the Kar closed the distance while the Imperial army remained unprepared...
In the worst case, half our strength could die in this one battle.
They had to be stopped.
Arteon drew Iglis.
Clang!
Without Iglis's aid during the absorption of Ether's Heart, his growth would have been impossible. Mana flooded the weapon and it resumed its true form, radiating an even keener edge than before.
Then Arteon spoke.
"Silent Spear unit. Annihilate every enemy in front of you."
It might be like throwing eggs at a boulder. But when a 6-Star warrior led those eggs, the story changed completely.
"We'll follow you to the depths of hell."
"We'll butcher every last one of them!"
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
Without Arteon's speech after the spar with Ret, their confidence might have crumbled. But that incident had taught them something.
We...
have grown far stronger...!
The gap between them and their commander had only widened, yet they no longer dwelled on it. Their enemy was not Arteon.
It was the warriors before them.
"Silent Spear unit—charge!"
"Uwaaaaaaaaaah!"
The Silent Spear soldiers roared as they hurled themselves at the Kar warriors. Stealth? Unnecessary. Right now the priority was to make as much noise as possible and draw the enemy's eyes.
As the Silent Spear unit moved in from the flank—
"...An Imperial unit already this far forward?"
"Faster than expected. Still... it seems the main force is not so ready."
The Imperial main body ahead still had not properly formed ranks. One small unit striking from the side was no more than a toothpick's jab.
Kantacolan, commanding the Kar left wing, spoke curtly.
"Send the Buwangkan tribe to deal with them. Barely a hundred men."
The Buwangkan numbered over five hundred—a mid-tier tribe. Their Taman had long ago received four feather tattoos. Such a tiny force could be wiped out in moments before they rejoined the main advance.
Kantacolan turned his gaze back toward the Imperial lines ahead.
"Before the sun rises, we will slaughter them all."
The earth would be soaked in Imperial blood; a river of it would flow where none had before. And it would serve as a stern warning to the entire Empire: set foot on this land again and share the same fate.
At that very moment—
KWA-AAAAANG!
A tremendous explosion roared from afar. Kantacolan's eyes snapped back toward the sound.
To the place where the Buwangkan tribe had gone.
"...?"
Something was happening that defied every scrap of common sense he possessed.
Dudududududududu!
The charge of five hundred Kar warriors made the ground tremble. Holgteroken, Taman of the Buwangkan tribe, narrowed his eyes at the Silent Spear unit racing toward them.
Their momentum is impressive.
For a force of only a hundred, the air around them felt anything but ordinary. Even with overwhelming numbers, this was no opponent to take lightly.
Holgteroken bellowed.
"Do not close with them! Form a defensive line here! When they enter range, hurl your spare axes and break their charge!"
"Defensive positions! The moment they're in range, throw the spare axes and engage!"
"Uwaaaaaah!"
The Buwangkan warriors' eyes blazed as they roared. Even they could feel the murderous pressure rolling off the approaching Imperial soldiers. They snatched the spare axes hanging at their waists and stretched into a long horizontal line facing the oncoming Silent Spear.
"...Hoo."
As the distance shrank, Arteon felt his heart hammer. This was his first battle since fully absorbing the power of Ether's Heart.
Can I use this power... completely?
He had not even practiced with it yet. Nothing was certain; the situation was unstable. Still, Arteon tightened his grip on Iglis.
For now, there was only one choice.
Believe.
Believe that everything he had done until now had not been meaningless.
He drew up his mana and poured it into Iglis.
Kuuuuung!
A strange vibration unlike anything before accompanied a sudden, explosive amplification of power.
And then—
KWAANG!
"...!"
The Buwangkan warriors watching the Imperial unit charge could not believe their eyes. The soldier who had been leading the charge—
"H-He vanished?!"
"Where did he go? Th-That bastard?!"
The ground seemed to crater for an instant, and then he was simply gone from their sight.
But a moment later—
"Above! Above!"
Holgteroken, Taman of the Buwangkan, roared as he looked skyward. In the faint moonlight they saw the Imperial soldier and the silver spear glittering in his hand.
That was the last thing they saw.
KWA-AAAAAAAAANG!
The instant the golden aura slammed into the earth, a colossal detonation erupted and Buwangkan warriors were hurled in every direction.
"...?"
Far away, at the heart of the Kar main force, Krelmuk turned toward the distant roar without thinking. The moment he felt the intense aura radiating from that place—
"...!"
—he shot to his feet.
That sensation.
It was something that should never have appeared here, not from anyone but himself.
"Who...?"
For the first time, Krelmuk's eyes wavered. Perfectly refined aura. He had never imagined another person in this place could wield power of that caliber—the ultimate realm attainable only by those who bore six feather tattoos...
"T-Taman."
Baolk, standing beside him, stared in shock.
"That is... the power of high-grade aura, is it not?"
Even among aura users, the difference in refinement created vast gaps in strength—gaps that only widened at higher realms. They themselves had not fully understood until they witnessed Krelmuk and learned that realms possessed true "grades."
That was why they had never once considered the possibility of defeat in this war, no matter what variables arose. To reach such a height required transcending humanity... and then transcending it again.
But now—
"..."
Gulp.
In the silence, the sound of someone swallowing hard rang loud in their ears. No one spoke, yet a sudden wave of crisis washed over them.
"Kraaaaaaagh!"
From far away, the screams of their own warriors rose into the night.
Kugugugugugugung!
Where something like a thunderbolt had struck, heavy silence and deep tremors lingered. Dozens had been torn apart by the shockwave; more than a hundred lay blood-soaked and broken.
Fearful eyes. Oppressive quiet.
At the center of it all, Arteon slowly rose and looked at Iglis in his hand.
"...This is..."
The 6-Star realm.
He had used aura countless times since reaching 4-Star and then 5-Star, fighting battle after battle. Even that had felt like transcending the limits of humanity.
Just how far... does this higher realm go...?
For an instant, fear touched him. The old tales of 8-Star masters shattering mountains and splitting the earth no longer seemed like empty boasts.
A single strike.
With that one blow, well over a hundred of the five hundred enemies had been neutralized. The power was still difficult to control, yet—
"Commander!"
The shout from behind snapped Arteon's head around. The Silent Spear unit was still advancing, cutting down the remaining enemies. The cry jolted him fully awake; he tightened his grip on Iglis.
This is no time to get lost in thought.
There was no room for leisure.
Arteon turned his gaze forward.
Perhaps... with this power...
"I might be able to do it."
When he next faced that man who had once felt like an unbreachable wall, he believed he could now stand as an equal.
The Silent Spear soldiers finished off the last of the nearby foes and linked up with him. Arteon looked ahead and spoke.
"We break straight through to the enemy center in one push."
"Yes, sir!"
Their resolute cry rose as one.
Thud!
And so began the advance that would announce their legend.