The Spear Shatters the Wall
Two thunderous hoofbeats shattered the earth.
The warhorses of the north, clad in iron plate armor, charged toward the Karu warriors at arrow-like speed.
“Slow not your pace! Destroy their formation like this!”
“Trample them all! Crush every last one!”
Following Captain Periexon’s orders from the forefront, two hundred cavalrymen swept over the Karu lines like a tank.
The moment the two camps collided, screams erupted alongside an explosion of noise, as though a bomb had detonated.
“Aaaah!”
“Sav… Save me… Ugh!”
A warrior hurled sideways by a horse’s body.
Another trampled flat on the ground beneath thundering hooves.
Even those whose necks were severed by the cavalry’s sweeping blades.
In a single clash, dozens of Karu warriors lost their lives, and countless more suffered grievous wounds.
Yet the suffering was not one-sided.
“Throw spears!”
“Aim for the horses! Cut their legs from the side!”
“Hi-yi-yiiing!”
Dozens of javelins flew toward the cavalry, piercing straight through the air to embed in horse necks and riders’ chests.
“Ack—”
Several cavalry soldiers following behind toppled and crashed to the ground.
Some horses collapsed mid-stride, while others, losing their riders, reared up and neighed in agony.
In an instant, hellish chaos unfolded.
A rear rider sent crashing by a fallen horse ahead, his unit tumbling helplessly.
Some highly skilled cavalrymen quickly reined in and leaped over the obstacle, but the tangled chaos only grew—among both their own men and the Karu.
Yet even in this disorder, the cavalry’s charge created a breach in the wall the Karu warriors had built.
And it was precisely when that barrier began to crumble that Isaac pointed his sword in one direction and roared.
“Third Battalion! Charge! Pierce straight through and dig into their core!”
The desperation blazing in his eyes was like flames.
And behind him.
“Fourth Battalion! Follow Third and go there!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
Under Tairen’s command, the Fourth Battalion soldiers let out thunderous cheers and charged toward the broken barrier after the Third.
Two thunderous hoofbeats.
Hundreds of soldiers trampled fallen comrades who died coughing blood.
But Isaac, leading from the front, was consumed by urgency.
*Please… don’t be too late.*
The Silent Spear unit had been inside the enemy camp for a long time now.
In the worst case, they should have been wiped out already.
*No.*
Before leaving, had he not seen Arteon?
A warrior who had reached the pinnacle of the six-star realm…
*He wouldn’t die like this.*
Among the imperial forces currently at Belikezel, there was not even a single six-star, let alone five-star.
At most, he and Tairen were barely touching the boundary between three and four stars?
In the empire, six-star warriors were counted on one’s fingers, were they not?
Such a man could not die on a battlefield like this.
But even with that belief, his heart could not help but race.
“Move aside!”
Swish!
Isaac’s blade, faintly aura-wreathed, split the Karu warrior in two and sprayed blood in all directions.
The surrounding Karu warriors recoiled under Isaac’s surging killing intent.
But at that moment.
“Block them! Exterminate every last imperial dog!”
One Karu warrior leaped forward with a roar aimed straight at Isaac.
His speed was nothing like that of ordinary warriors.
Watching the leaping charge, Isaac hastily raised his sword.
Clang!
In the darkness, a spark flew, and the face of the bleeding warrior flashed by.
How many allies had he slain…
Isaac’s wrist numbed from the warrior’s fierce strike.
He was not a foe to be dealt with lightly.
But…
“Move aside… I don’t have time to fight with the likes of you!”
Isaac’s eyes flashed with razor sharpness.
He poured every ounce of mana into his sword, and a blue aura flared violently.
A force unlike anything before.
The warrior’s face twisted in panic.
He hadn’t even manifested aura properly…
“No way…!”
Slice!
A horizontal red line carved across the warrior’s neck, and his head and body separated.
The headless torso flailed, spraying blood, before collapsing to the ground.
Isaac scanned his surroundings.
His allied soldiers and Karu warriors were locked in a desperate, tangled melee.
Isaac roared loudly.
“Clear them out! We must save our comrades!”
“Follow the captain! Push them back and form a formation!”
The Third Battalion soldiers quickly reorganized the disorganized ranks around him.
As the unit members gathered swiftly around Isaac, he turned toward the inner battlefield.
Just a little more…
Aura flared from Isaac’s sword.
The aura had been forcibly manifested here because of the chaotic fighting and the Karu warrior he had just faced.
“Kill every obstacle in your path.”
The voice from the north, colder than the freezing wind, crushed the Karu warriors’ chests.
Leading his unit, Isaac slaughtered the Karu warriors and plunged deeper inside.
But then…
“…”
Isaac halted mid-swing of his sword and stared in one direction.
Not just the imperial soldiers there, but every single Karu warrior as well.
All of them stared in the exact same direction, without exception.
An overwhelming pressure bore down like a mountain.
Isaac looked that way despite the impossible aura.
And the straight golden line drawn in the air.
It was an unreal sight.
“…What is that?”
Isaac muttered under his breath without realizing.
* * *
Kwa-rung!
It was a resonant boom as if the thunder god had descended.
With a thunderous sound that shook the heavens themselves, golden aura intertwined with darkness and triggered a colossal explosion.
A single strike.
One blow caused the ground around Krelmuk to collapse entirely, filling the air with so thick dust and snow that visibility vanished.
And dozens of Karu warriors stationed behind him were instantly annihilated.
An unpredictable, absurd strike that completely reversed the battlefield’s mood.
“Hah… Hah… Hah…”
Arteon, standing on the ground, shook his shoulders and gasped heavily.
He had poured forth refined aura too excessively, exhausting every last drop of his strength.
Even breathing had become difficult.
Yet Arteon focused his mind and stared at where Krelmuk stood.
*No matter how monstrous…*
He should not have survived a direct hit like this. No, he would almost certainly be dead.
Even Arteon himself had no guarantee of surviving such an attack.
Kuu-gu-gu-gu-gu-gu-gu!
Only the earth’s trembling reached the battlefield.
The pitch-black dust that had surged like a tidal wave slowly receded, revealing a blood-soaked figure within.
“Kukukuku…”
A faint, trembling laugh.
Blood streamed down disheveled hair and over the forehead, covering his face.
Wounds that looked as if his entire body had been torn apart marred him, but Krelmuk remained on one knee, staring straight at Arteon.
“The strike just now… was incredible. I was nearly killed had I been even the slightest bit careless.”
Leaning on the ground with his sword, he soon straightened his waist and brushed back his bangs.
His eyes held an eerie gleam, as though he could not forget the moment he had come face-to-face with death.
*…In that brief instant, did he strike toward a direction without his subordinates?*
He could control the very direction the aura spread.
It meant his mana control was terrifyingly superior.
Such control was only possible among those bearing six feather tattoos, and even among them he stood out.
*But… I haven’t refined my abilities yet. And I’ve already used up all my mana too.*
Krelmuk had already seen Arteon’s depleted strength. And Arteon’s eyes, watching Krelmuk, shook violently.
*A monster… of a man.*
He could not fall yet…
He had to kill that man…
His vision gradually blurred, and he feared consciousness would slip away.
But the pounding of his heart pierced his eardrums, and a pain that felt like suppressing his mind pressed in.
His vision grew even hazier, and he felt his mind slipping away.
And at that moment.
“It’s over.”
Grasping his sword with both hands, Krelmuk murmured and charged toward Arteon.
Kwaang!
Slower than before, but to the current Arteon, it was still a catastrophe.
Arteon, barely clinging to his consciousness, gritted his teeth upon seeing the approaching Krelmuk.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Krelmuk’s sword slashed down like lightning toward Arteon.
He barely raised his spear to defend.
Clang!
“Ack!”
From the relentless impact, Arteon screamed and rolled across the ground.
“Cough!”
Red blood sprayed from his mouth alongside the shattering pain in his body.
His vision blurred further, and now he could barely hear anything.
“Deputy Commander!”
“Arteon-nim!”
The Silent Spear unit members, witnessing the scene, cried out and moved.
They had to save Arteon at all costs.
But…
“Hahaha, where do you think you’re going?”
The Karu warriors blocked the path and laughed.
“Don’t rush too much. You’ll all die here anyway.”
“Watch your captain’s death clearly. Then we’ll kill you all too.”
“Move aside!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
The Silent Spear unit members charged desperately toward them.
But it was impossible to break through the densely surrounding Karu warriors to reach Arteon.
No, it was the opposite—the formation had collapsed, and they themselves might fall to the enemy.
“Arteon-nim! Arteon-nim!”
All they could do was helplessly shout Arteon’s name.
Thud, thud.
Drrrrrrd.
Krelmuk dragged his sword across the ground as he walked toward the fallen Arteon.
Each bloody step looked as if it would shatter his body, but he looked at the collapsed Arteon with a calm gaze.
*How far I’ve been pushed… after how many years?*
It was a forgotten sensation.
The dread he had felt at the threshold of death.
Krelmuk looked down at the fallen Arteon.
Despite the injuries that even his own body could not support, his eyes held the strength of a warrior.
*If only a year… or if just one more month had passed since reaching this realm…*
The outcome of the battle would have been different.
But on the battlefield, even luck could be considered skill.
Soon Krelmuk’s eyes flashed coldly.
“Your luck has run out… Resent it.”
Whoosh!
Krelmuk raised his bloodied sword high.
And…
“It’s over.”
At the exact moment Krelmuk’s sword swung toward Arteon.
Swooeeeeeek!
A momentum that tore the wind.
“…”
Krelmuk instinctively swung his sword.
Clang!
The incoming blade bounced off.
“Gah!”
Krelmuk’s face twisted in pain.
What the hell?
But there was no time to think further.
Suddenly a shadow of a sword leaped in.
“You want to resent my lack of luck? I’ll return it as is.”
The man charged like a wild beast, blue light flashing in his eyes, and drove his spear straight into Krelmuk’s chest.
“Kraaaaaaaaah!”
The spear dug into Krelmuk’s right chest and pierced straight through his back.
With him, his body slowly collapsed backward.
“K-Krelmuk-nim!”
“Tamaaaaan!”
The Karu warriors nearby shouted in frenzy and charged toward the man standing in front of him.
And with that…
The man— no, Isaac—roared with blazing eyes.
“You bastards… I’m killing all of you.”
Dark killing intent surged in Isaac’s eyes as he looked at the fallen Arteon.
[Technique Name]