Knights' Nightmare
The knights' nightmare. They had abandoned a lawful duel and chosen to flee. A truly fitting action for lowly mongrel blood. Hadn't he stolen the White Night Sword Albrus and the Black Star Sword Morion, summoned the pirate alliance and the colonial empire's fleets to destroy the city, and betrayed Zigrinde von Levanfalt, the benefactor who had plucked him from the mud of filthy mongrels? I'll kill him. I'll cut off his head for sure.
The heir to the Sword Duke raised his zweihänder high and commanded the pursuit. At his order, the Kreuz family knights and cavalry pursued the Valtenstein detachment like beasts that had caught the scent of blood.
"You stupid mongrel bastard, you think you can shake off the Sword Duke's knights?! I'll rip that impudent face of yours to shreds first!!"
The Valtenstein detachment, executing their escape, and the Kreuz family knights, pushing at full speed, entered a narrow open field in an instant. As they turned into a passage flanked by dense trees on both sides, shadows fell over them. It didn't matter. Any ambush would be crushed. The distance was closing rapidly. Thanks to the body-enhancement magic enchanted on the knights' horse armor. Proving it, the mounted knights showed no sign of fatigue despite their relentless charge.
"The bastards are in range!"
"Now! Fire the bows!"
Archers lurking in the dark shadows revealed themselves. They were mercenaries from the southern continent. With pre-loaded crossbows, they unleashed a steel hail from the side on the Kreuz family knights hot on the Valtenstein detachment's heels.
Thwuk-! Thudududuk-!!
The steel bolts fired from the crossbows boasted penetration strong enough to pierce even sturdy iron plate in one shot. But hundreds of bolts ricocheted off the knights' armor upon impact.
4th Circle. Deflection Field.
3rd Circle. Repulsion Armor.
3rd Circle. Anti-Force Shell.
They deflected all physical attacks and magic. They absorbed every impact striking the armor. And they formed a barrier that blocked and purified poison and heat. It was the essence of war, born from the collaboration between the Holy Empire, which possessed knights a hundred strong against one, and the Red Tower, which ceaselessly advanced magical weaponry.
The knights and cavalry breaking through the arrow storm without a scratch looked no different from invincible war chariots.
"Hahahaha! Birds of a feather flock together, huh?! You dragged in slaves from the southern continent as your lackeys! You've really hit rock bottom, Kailun von Valtenstein!!"
He spotted mercenaries in leather armor with black skin. Undoubtedly from the southern continent. Savage barbarians. Slaves treated only as labor. Zikfried burst into roaring laughter upon seeing the southern continent mercenaries. Block the Kreuz family's wrath with lowly slaves from the southern continent? It dissolved even the tiniest speck of wariness and tension left in him, surpassed by sheer ignorance bordering on stupidity.
"Cannon fire? You idiot...! You used slaves for the ambush, and now you're deploying scrap metal?!"
Having safely passed the arrow storm, a thunderous boom echoed. Cannon fire. Multiple blasts struck around the site. But even as the deafening cannonade hammered down, they didn't halt their charge. Even direct hits from cannon fire would be endured by the defensive and auxiliary magic on their full plate armor. Moreover, the Holy Empire's cavalry had undergone rigorous training to maintain reason amid sudden roars, so they weren't startled by the barrage.
"Kuh!"
These weren't ordinary shells. Smoke bombs that instantly blocked vision. His sight blurred. Murky smoke disrupted his view. And acrid soot assaulted both sight and smell simultaneously.
"Playing dirty tricks...! Smoke bombs to obscure vision! Doesn't matter—we'll reach the open plains! Frontline knights, don't slow down!!"
He had memorized the entire terrain around the designated battlefield. Zikfried recalled that the narrow field ended in vast open plains and ordered the knights and cavalry to full charge. Right after issuing the command,
"Kaaak!"
"What the—! Guhek!!"
Sharp screams pierced from the vanguard knights charging ahead. At the same moment, they vanished without a trace. What was happening? What the hell was going on? The rear knights, fixated forward, reacted with utter panic at their sudden disappearance. Soon, they realized the horror as their horses' hooves sank into sticky mud, tumbling forward with them.
"Damn it!"
"Stop! Halt right now!"
Beyond the narrow field lay a horrific quagmire. Countless knights and cavalry who had burst through at full speed slipped and fell like dominoes into the sticky mud like coastal tidal flats. Splatter-! Splatter thududuk-!
No defensive or auxiliary magic could overcome inertia. They trampled and crushed each other. Their lightning-fast speed turned into deadly poison. The proud knights and cavalry boasting the Kreuz family's honor and prestige sprawled in the mud, tangled together in disgrace.
"Eurk!"
Zikfried fared no better. The Sword Duke's heir face-planted into the mud headfirst.
"Mud?! That damn bastard, what cowardly scheme...!"
He was covered in viscous liquid reeking of foul stench. It didn't take long to realize the dark swamp he thought was mere mud was viciously volatile tar.
It was all oil. Countless knights and cavalry were isolated in the oil field.
"The stupid young master fell for a trap even fresh recruits wouldn't trigger. He strutted around like a war hero with merits exploited from mongrel blood... Did he think he was a real competent war hero?"
"Insulting war with your filthy tricks...! Zikfried von Kreuz demands a lawful duel! If you're a noble of the Holy Empire, fight fair and square!!"
Figures emerged amid the violent scene drenched in black oil. It was Kailun and the Valtenstein detachment, who had veered off to the side right after exiting the narrow field.
Kailun. He'd fallen for a third-rate noble's trick. Covered head to toe in black oil, Zikfried demanded a lawful duel. Perhaps sensing the desperate fate awaiting them, the commanding voice that had roared over the Kreuz family now trembled pathetically.
"Shove it up your ass, you retard."
"Kailuuun—!!!"
Kailun gazed at Zikfried and the numerous knights stranded in the sticky oil mire, then drew his sword hilt. A blade as beautiful as the night sky gleamed forth. Morion. The Black Star Sword's power was sealing and unleashing magic. Kailun had pre-loaded artillery magic into the Black Star Sword.
"Expel all magic from the dark abyss, Morion."
The inky blade rippled, drawing forth merciless explosions. The brilliant flash of the blast was a fire arrow heralding utter doom for the Sword Duke's heir and his knights.
6th Circle. Inferno Surge.
With a blinding flash, a sea of fire erupted. The Sword Duke's descendants, who prized the Holy Empire's noble pride and fame, faced the most sordid and filthy end imaginable. Amid the blaze engulfing the sticky oil mire in an instant, the knights' screams exploded.
* * *
The Kreuz family knights, engulfed in flames, slowly rose. Despite the fierce fire clinging to their bodies, they moved like dolls ignorant of pain. Anti-Force Shell. It formed a barrier blocking and purifying all poison and heat. Zikfried and the knights thrashed in the oil like sulfur demons, attempting to escape outward. But no auxiliary magic, including body enhancement, could free them from the oil mire akin to quicksand. The more they struggled, the deeper they sank. Repeated resistance hastened their death. Rather, the auxiliary magic embedded in their full plate armor exerted resistance, slowly dragging the Kreuz family knights to the mire's bottom.
"Kailun von Valtenstein! I'll kill you for sure, if I can just get out of here...!!"
"You think you can get out? Better hurry if you can."
Zikfried, slathered in filthy tar like mud, bellowed. Creak-. An ominous metallic groan echoed from his full plate. A signal that the magic stored in the armor was rapidly depleting. The Sword Duke's heir's full plate was a rare armament rivaling magical weaponry. In contrast, the knights' attendants' plate was mass-produced by the Red Tower, so their stored magic bottomed out in seconds.
"Kaaaak!"
"The armor...! The armor's melting!"
"Guh! Guhek! Please, just kill me!!"
The armor began melting from the outside, fusing to their skin. That wasn't all.
2nd Circle. Cure.
2nd Circle. First Aid.
The full plate, reduced to molten scrap clinging to them, activated stamina magic, plunging the Kreuz family knights and cavalry into even more sadistic agony. Their bodies burned away by fire, yet recovery magic triggered repeatedly, prolonging their lives.
"Kill the Holy Empire's noble knights."
"They boasted of being chosen purebloods by the One God... Burnt black, they look just like us."
Dark shadows blocked the Holy Empire knights emerging from the inferno. Mercenaries from the southern continent.