The Silent Spear's Counterstrike
The darkness had completely swallowed the narrow pass.
Below the slope where even moonlight could not reach, a vibration like the earth itself quaking suddenly surged forward.
“Uwaaaaaaaa!”
With a beast’s roar, thousands of shadows poured down from both flanks at once.
The Kar warriors charging like a black wave.
The clashing of iron and bone ornaments filled the canyon with deafening noise.
“Kar warriors! Enemy ambush!”
“Battle formation! Shield troops advance quickly! Block them!”
The Empire soldiers on watch shouted without hesitation and hurled their torches.
The red light pierced the darkness, revealing the rough leather-clad Kar warriors.
Their eyes gleamed with madness, axes and swords gripped tight in their hands.
A perfect ambush.
Result of hiding in the frozen ground of Preldior for days without a sound.
But……
“Defend! Form ranks while pushing them back!”
They had expected the attack, so the Empire’s response was swift.
The shield troops in formation raised their shields in perfect unison, and from the rear the archers had already nocked their arrows.
The only flaw was the narrow terrain that prevented them from spreading out.
Even in that situation, the commanders’ orders reached the soldiers with perfect clarity.
“There’s a gap on the left! Shields—close the distance, raise them higher!”
“Hey! Over there! Block them! Shoot arrows toward the ones on the slope!”
In an instant the battlefield turned into hell, and Velkain watched the situation silently from a distance.
More enemies than he had expected.
He had anticipated the two-sided assault, yet the ferocity still overwhelmed him.
It was no simple surprise. It looked as if the enemy had prepared from the very beginning to crush them entirely in this pass.
‘If one side collapses… the whole formation will fall.’
The Kar warriors knew the terrain here and could use that to their advantage.
And they used it perfectly, pressing in relentlessly.
Even so.
“….”
Velkain’s gaze did not waver.
Instead, his cold, deep-set eyes locked onto the Kar warriors descending from both slopes.
‘That’s right… press harder.’
They probably believed their ambush had succeeded and that they were already in the advantageous position.
But that was a mistake.
They were not attacking them.
“We… brought you here.”
A faint shadow flickered at the corner of Velkain’s lips.
His gaze shifted not to the center of the pass where soldiers and Kar warriors clashed, but to the rear of the mountain where the Kar warriors had come down.
Softly.
In the darkness, beneath a high ridge, fine traces stirred simultaneously.
The entire hidden force had descended the slope and was now enveloping them.
“Feel the edge of the Empire’s blade.”
The two sharpest blades he had thrown now pointed at their backs.
* * *
“…….”
Strange.
Ultrakwan, sent to find the enemy reconnaissance unit in their own ambush zone, furrowed his brow deeply.
Barg Sravan had no reason to send them here.
His seven feather tattoos’ senses were simply beyond comparison.
He had also accumulated considerable experience in large-scale wars.
Yet he had not shown himself at all. Could he really be absent?
‘…Was I mistaken?’
Doubt flickered for a moment, but Ultrakwan shook his head.
To question his judgment felt almost sacrilegious.
That moment.
“Ultrakwan-nim, the hidden troops have begun their attack. We should intervene as well, right?”
Vakum, his right-hand man, approached and asked quietly.
Ultrakwan shook his head firmly.
“Hold position. The enemy vanguard may still be out there. Observe the situation a little longer before moving.”
“Even if the main force is under attack now, can we really assume there’s no enemy left?”
“…….”
Ultrakwan narrowed his eyes at those words.
If they intervened and attacked the enemy main force together, they could gain an advantage even faster.
But……
“Just a little more caution. We will move when the situation becomes clear…….”
Swishhh!
Before his words had even finished, a sound like air being sliced apart rang out.
Boom!
“……!”
A dull thud, and a long spear burst from Vakum’s chest.
The tip had pierced his front, then emerged from his back in a fountain of blood.
“Ugh……!”
Vakum stared at the spear that had burst through his own chest in disbelief.
The fact that it had already pierced the Kar warrior’s thick armor was itself impossible.
Thud.
As his body collapsed to the ground.
“Enemy! Empire bastards!”
Ultrakwan roared.
But at that moment.
“Quiet.”
A black shadow suddenly rose from behind a rock on the opposite side and spoke in a cold voice.
Golden eyes that flashed in the darkness.
Around the spear in his hand, golden energy sparked like lightning just like those eyes.
“You……!”
Ultrakwan roared in fury, lifting his axe and charging forward.
The massive axe blade split the air and swung toward his head.
Crack!
But Ultrakwan’s axe never even completed its swing before the sky split.
“Eh……?”
Blood gushed from the severed arms, and Ultrakwan blinked in confusion.
He had not even realized what had happened.
But in the next instant, the searing heat and agony came rushing in.
Crack!
With the sound of air tearing, his head separated from his body and shot into the sky.
Then, tumbling, it rolled down the slope toward the pass.
The sudden tragedy made the surrounding Kar warriors instinctively recoil.
Over the body of the slain enemy commander, Arteon’s sharp voice cut through the air.
“Silent Spear unit. Strike at the rear of the bastards attacking our troops.”
“Yes!”
Isaac answered and issued rapid commands.
The sub-unit leaders reacted immediately.
Black shadows scattered left and right and charged at the same time. It was like a trained pack of beasts.
Before a Kar warrior could even scream, his throat was pierced.
A shield-raised soldier was stabbed in the heart by a dagger flying from behind.
A soldier lifting an axe fell with a leg torn away by the spear of a low-crouching enemy.
“Gwaaaaaah!”
The fallen soldier screamed, but a charging spear soon pierced his chest and silenced him.
“Kill them all! Leave no one behind!”
The eyes of the soldiers following Barter burned with killing intent.
They melted into the darkness and rapidly reduced the numbers of the Kar warriors.
Instead of rushing from the front, they always struck from the flanks.
Two or more moving together could slaughter a Kar warrior in an instant. The movements were fluid, as if one body.
“Ugh!”
“Behind, behind!”
The confused screams of the Kar warriors continued, but it was already too late.
The black wave swept up the slope and crashed down in reverse. Blood sprayed like a fountain from the center.
And in the middle of that chaos, Kairon plunged in.
He had not yet fully blended into the unit, but his judgment was astonishingly accurate.
He brushed past a fallen soldier and cut down the one charging from behind, then immediately twisted his direction and stabbed into the point where their comrades were being pushed back.
No wasted movements.
Isaac muttered idly as he watched.
“……What the hell is that guy.”
Arteon simply smiled faintly.
He turned his gaze away from Kairon and was already moving toward the next target.
Not a sparring match, but real first combat.
Yet Kairon fought the battlefield as naturally as someone who had survived it for a long time.
‘That’s why Master told me to take him.’
In battle, the guy possessed exceptional ability.
With such talent, there was no need to worry anymore.
Arteon’s spear flashed again.
Using excessive aura risked collapsing the terrain of the pass itself.
So he restrained his power to the extreme and cut down the soldiers with pure spearmanship and only the minimum aura.
Parbat!
In one forward step, five fell.
Twisting his waist, he swung again, four more.
In the short inhale, two.
In an instant, more than a dozen Kar warriors fell before him, bleeding.
Arteon looked down the slope.
“Empire…… Empire soldiers!”
“Empire soldiers on the top!”
The Kar warriors, who had only just realized their presence, turned back too late.
But it was already too late.
“You’d better give up on going back alive.”
A calm voice cut through the darkness.
At that moment, the Silent Spear unit struck the Kar warriors who had completely broken their formation.
* * *
“……It’s begun.”
Durokam, the right-hand man of the Kar chief, narrowed his eyes while listening to the clash of weapons and the screams of the warriors echoing from beyond the mountain.
The metallic sounds carried the scent of blood on the wind.
Metal clashing, flesh tearing, and necks breaking all tangled together.
It was an anticipated battle.
A perfect strategy that had anticipated every variable while preparing for the Empire’s vanguard.
Even if the Empire’s numbers were greater, in this terrain they would not escape with light casualties.
But only a short while after the sounds had begun.
Krrung!
Suddenly the air itself shuddered and trembled.
As if an entire mountain had shifted its body, a heavy vibration rolled across the earth.
“……!”
Durokam’s pupils shook violently.
“Th-this……?”
A sinister energy flowed along his spine.
What he had sensed moments ago was no mere shock or vibration.
The aura of ‘strong ones’ that he had rarely felt even after a lifetime on the battlefield.
Durokam’s instincts warned him of the compressed power held tightly yet suppressed.
“B-Barg-nim!”
Durokam ran toward Barg without hesitation.
Even while jumping over the rocky ground, his mind was filled only with confusion.
But Barg had already sensed it. He had stepped outside and was looking toward the battlefield.
Between the wind-swept hair, his eyes were far sharper than usual.
Durokam asked Barg.
“B-Barg-nim. The power just now was…….”
“…….”
Barg remained silent and gazed at the spot.
It was clear that this first battle had been perfectly planned by him.
He had even sent extra soldiers forward to prepare the surrounding perimeter against possible Empire vanguard units.
A flawless plan prepared with every small variable under control.
“……Perhaps an unforeseen situation that surpassed that variable has occurred.”
“Eh……?”
Durokam asked with a startled expression.
But the expression on Barg’s face as he looked at the fighting place had simply hardened into a straight line.