"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—"
Six thunderous bowstring vibrations rang out like cracks of thunder in
The silver moon mischievously peeked out from behind the clouds once more.
Lorist was burning with anxiety. He didn't know who had met their fate behind him. Straining to look ahead under the dim moonlight, he saw a crevice roughly two to three meters wide less than twenty meters in front of him. On the far side stood row upon row of neatly pitched tents, and through the gaps between them he could make out a blocking position built from stones and sandbags, along with clusters of Iron Guard Legion soldiers. Even farther below Bread Hill, scattered pinpoints of torchlight flickered in the darkness—those must have been the
A row of torches flared to life on the far side of the crevice, illuminating six siege crossbows lined up side by side. Several men beside them were frantically cranking the mechanisms to reload. By the torchlight, Lorist saw Iron Guard Legion soldiers armed with longbows crossing past the siege crossbows toward the crevice, while voices shouted orders for the archers to form ranks and seal off the mountain path with arrows...
"Kill!" Lorist bellowed, springing to his feet. The twenty-odd meters were covered in the blink of an eye as he vaulted over the stone crevice and plunged into the ranks of the longbowmen...
Chaos erupted. Drenched in blood from head to toe, Lorist's longsword reaped life after life as he carved through from one end of the stone crevice to the other like a scythe through wheat, sending the longbowmen and siege crossbow operators scattering in every direction, screaming and scrambling for their lives.
"Kill—" A spear tip gleaming with white sword qi slithered toward Lorist's back like a venomous snake. Lorist seemed to have eyes in the back of his head: he shifted a step to the left and pivoted sideways, catching the spear tip on his longsword, flicking it upward before following through with a downward slash.
The
Unexpectedly, when the longsword struck the spear shaft, a sharp "clang" rang out and the shaft snapped in two. The blade flashed, and with a wet "thud" it cleaved straight from the left shoulder down to the right ribs.
The Silver Knight stiffened as if struck by lightning, then toppled to the ground, his body split cleanly in two, blood spraying in every direction.
"Kill... kill that evil... demon..." A trembling voice rose from behind...
Lorist was dripping blood from head to toe at this point, though it was all someone else's blood. To his enemies, he truly looked like a god of slaughter — a demon risen from a sea of blood.
Two spearheads blazed with white sword qi as two Silver Knights charged forward simultaneously, one from the left and one from the right, their spears thrusting toward Lorist's left and right ribs respectively.
"G-together, let's kill him..." The trembling voice kept shouting for the kill as the longsword in his hand blazed with sword qi, raised high as he charged at Lorist. The blade came crashing down from overhead...
Just as this Silver Knight lunged forward, another streak of white sword qi erupted beside him, and a dark figure surged ahead. The longsword in his hand thrust straight for Lorist's heart.
Four against one, and Lorist was far from panicked. Through his dynamic vision, the attacks that appeared to launch simultaneously actually had slight differences in timing, and this fractional gap in their sequence became the perfect opportunity for Lorist to seize the initiative and launch his counterattack.
The first to arrive was the spear aimed at his left ribs. Lorist darted back half a step and dipped slightly at the waist — it looked as though he hadn't moved at all, but the spear sliced through empty air past his body. His left hand caught the forward shaft of the spear and, with a forceful push, redirected it along the weapon's own momentum, perfectly intercepting the second spear thrusting toward his right ribs.
The two spears locked against each other. Lorist raised his left hand, and the two spears crossed above his head in an X. The longsword slashing down from overhead struck right at the intersection of the two spears with a deafening "clang."
Lorist had already abandoned the spear in his left hand. He darted forward, parrying outward with the longsword in his right hand to deflect the blade shining with sword aura that the final dark figure had thrust in from the side. With a twist of his wrist, he drove his longsword straight at the dark figure's chest.
The dark figure had come at him with everything he had, which was how he'd managed to close the distance so quickly. His plan had been to exploit the moment when Lorist was entangled with the two spear-wielding companions, deliver a full-powered strike, and retreat the instant he made contact — never staying within arm's reach. But he never expected Lorist to target him first. His sword was knocked aside, sent flying wide, and his chest was now completely exposed...
The dark figure tried to pull back, but he couldn't stop his own momentum. Terror seized him. "Ah... no... don't... urk!"
There was no room left for his cries. Lorist's longsword had already pierced through from his back.
All of this happened in the span of a heartbeat — barely the time to blink twice — and Lorist had already killed one enemy.
The remaining three Silver Knights' spears and swords were still locked together, frantically trying to disengage. To save time, Lorist didn't bother pulling his sword free — instead, he powered through with a forceful slash, the blade cutting straight through the body and swinging toward the other swordsman.
The swordsman among the Silver Knights hastily drew back to block, catching Lorist's strike. But Lorist shifted seamlessly from a slash to a thrust, his blade shadow coming once more with blinding speed. The Silver Knight, in a panic, angled his sword in a diagonal slash to break through the thrusting momentum. But at the very instant the two blades met, Lorist's sword paused ever so slightly — the Silver Knight's diagonal slash met empty air, and Lorist's longsword drove straight into his throat...
The spear-wielding Silver Knight, seeing his comrade killed in a single stroke, disregarded the fact that his colleague's body was blocking his line of sight and thrust his spear clean through the corpse, intending to catch the enemy off guard...
Such an attack naturally posed no threat to Lorist, but he hadn't expected the spear-wielding Silver Knight to be so cruel as to use his own companion's corpse as cover. Fury surged within him. He flashed sideways to dodge the spear's thrust, pulled his longsword free with his right hand, and lunged forward. His blade moved like lightning — a single strike and the spear-wielding Silver Knight's head was severed.
The last remaining spear-wielding Silver Knight was trembling uncontrollably. How long had it even been? It felt as though he had barely begun to process what was happening before he found that all three of his companions were dead and gone...
The spear was pointed at Lorist but trembling violently. Lorist barked in a deep voice, "Drop your spear and kneel, and I'll spare your life!"
The Silver Knight had completely broken down. With a sudden, shrill cry, he hurled his spear at Lorist and turned to flee.
Lorist swayed aside to dodge the incoming spearhead. He caught the shaft and hurled it back.
The fleeing Silver Knight shuddered as the spear pierced clean through his chest. He collapsed face-first onto the ground, twitched a few times, and drew his last breath.
The Iron Guard soldiers who had been lingering nearby saw that all the Silver Knights were finished and let out terrified cries. They turned and bolted toward the blocking positions in the distance, abandoning their gear in their panic. Torches, spears, swords, shields—everything was tossed aside, littering the ground.
"My lord! My lord!" Pat's voice came from behind.
Lorist was overjoyed—Pat was alive. "I'm here! Watch out for the ditches on the ground!"
He took a few steps forward and snatched up a still-burning torch from the ground.
A dark mass of people surged up from behind. Pat was the first to leap over the stone crevice, followed by
"You're all right?" Lorist was overjoyed. He turned and pointed at the fleeing, scattering enemies. "Pat, take men and press the pursuit. Don't give them time to form up and resist."
Pat waved his hand. "Charge! Push forward!"
The crowd surged ahead, but just past the tent area, shrill screams erupted and curses rang out in an unbroken stream. There was another stone crevice ahead. Dozens of armored spearmen at the very front had failed to see the ground clearly, missed their footing, and tumbled into the gap, half-dead from the fall. Fortunately, though the crevice was wide, it wasn't deep—they only suffered injuries from the drop rather than losing their lives.
"Redi, set those tents on fire. It'll light up the area and signal the feinting force on the other side. A pincer attack from both sides and Bread Hill is as good as taken!" Lorist issued the order to Redi while calling over the attendants nearby. "Men, turn those city siege crossbows around and haul them forward…"
One tent after another was set ablaze, and flames soared skyward over the barren Bread Hill. Fed by the wind, the fire blazed high, bathing the entire hilltop in a fiery red glow.
Redi hadn't followed Lorist's arrangement to light every tent on fire. Instead, he set about a dozen ablaze based on their spacing, then ordered everyone to tear down the remaining tents and throw them onto the burning ones. Before long, Bread Hill was dotted with a dozen enormous bonfires.
"There's a wooden bridge over here!" By the light of the bonfires, soldiers quickly discovered several planks laid across the stone crevice ahead. The pursuing troops crossed the bridge in short order and pressed toward the enemy in the blocking position ahead, who were still frantically scrambling to form their lines.
It was only now that Lorist could take in the full scene across Bread Hill. The hill's name was truly well earned. Not a single tree or blade of grass grew on the entire Bread Hill—it looked exactly like a long, oval loaf of bread resting on the ground, slightly domed on top. The whole hilltop was probably about the size of two football fields. Most remarkable of all were the two stone crevices running across it. They really did look as if a cook had deliberately sliced two gashes into a loaf of bread.
At this moment, Lorist was standing beside a large bonfire in the tent area—the highest point of Bread Hill. The Iron Guard Corps soldiers garrisoned here had probably set up their camp in this spot to prevent rainwater from pooling and soaking their sleeping mats.
A short distance away, over a thousand Iron Guard Corps soldiers still held the blocking position. Of them, seven or eight hundred were arranging themselves into a thin line of battle, preparing to meet the approaching armored spearmen. The spearmen who had crossed the wooden bridge numbered only a little over two hundred. On their officers' orders, they were forming into a square formation, marching with heavy strides toward the enemy before them. Soldiers continued crossing the planks and filing into the flanks of the square, which was slowly stretching into a line. The distance between the two formations was less than sixty meters—one charge would close it for combat.
On the enemy's line, quite a few soldiers were still struggling to reposition over a dozen city siege crossbows that had been facing forward. They couldn't turn the crossbows around in time, and the army facing off against Bread Hill at the base of the hill had already noticed the changes above. Blowing their horns, they shifted from feint to full-frontal assault, surging forward with a roar. The Iron Guard Corps soldiers who had just managed to move the crossbows into position were thrown into complete panic—they couldn't decide whether to push the siege crossbows back to their original positions to face the frontal enemy, or to continue turning them around to deal with the forces pressing from behind…
Lorist watched as Pat strode out of the square formation, seemingly delivering an ultimatum to the enemy across the way. Behind him, the armored spearmen in the formation let out a synchronized chant of "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
At last, the weapons of a few soldiers at the very front of the Iron Guard Corps line clattered to the ground. More and more followed, dropping their arms, until finally every last Iron Guard Corps soldier had laid down their weapons. They surrendered...
The armored spearmen's square formation erupted in earth-shaking cheers. Pat directed the spearmen forward to separate the Iron Guard Corps soldiers and escort them to the side, seizing the entire blocking position.
"Move the defensive crossbows onto the blocking position."
The triumphant horns echoed through the night sky, and the Bear of Anger banner billowed fiercely atop Bread Hill under the glow of the flames.
The golden-haired female knight charged up the slope at full gallop. Dismounting, she swiftly scaled the five- or six-meter-high blocking position built of piled stones and flipped over to land beside a horizontally mounted city-defense carbolliust. She had just drawn her sword when she found herself face to face with nothing but cheering armored spearmen clad in standard White Lion Corps equipment...
Lorist hurried forward to meet the golden-haired female knight as she strode toward him. "Cousin Chrithia, what are you doing here?"
The golden-haired female knight was indeed Chrithia. The moment she saw Lorist covered in bloodstains, she cried out in alarm. "How did you end up like this? Where are you hurt?"
"Haha, it's nothing. It's all other people's blood—I'm not hurt." Lorist's eyes drifted to Reddy, who was approaching with a dejected look on his face.
"What's the matter, Reddy? What happened?" Lorist asked.
"My Lord. Just now, when we were climbing to the top of the ridge, Brother El fell down..." Reddy delivered news that turned Lorist's face pale.
"What did you say? What happened to El?" Lorist sprang to his feet in shock, his mind racing back to those six tremendous twangs of the city-gate ballistae and the violent gusts of wind that had grazed his back...
"When we reached the top of the ridge, we called out to you, My Lord. Then we heard your warning, and Pat and I immediately threw ourselves flat on the ground. But the guards climbing up behind us couldn't react in time—they were struck by the bolt bolts and swept off the cliff edge. Ruhl was hit too. When he was knocked flying, he slammed right into Brother El behind him, and both of them went tumbling off the side of the ridge. Pat and I were so terrified we could barely get up. The only reason we came up first was out of concern for you, My Lord. Two of the men who helped me set the fires just now were guards who had followed Brother El up the ridge—they're the ones who told me what happened..." Reddy's face was a mask of grief as he spoke.
"Search. Send men to search immediately! If he's alive, I want to see him alive; if he's dead, I want to see a body! If anything has happened to El, I will make every single Iron Guard Legion soldier on this ridge pay with their lives..." Lorist's face was ashen as he gave the order. All his joy at capturing Bread Ridge had evaporated, replaced by nothing but agonizing worry over whether El was still alive.
"Yes, My Lord." Reddy was just turning to muster men and head down the ridge to search when a roar of battle cries, screams, and charging horns erupted from the military camp at the base of the ridge.
"What's happening over there?" Chrithia turned toward the darkened camp below.
Torches flared to life in patches down the mountainside, illuminating a valley not far from the camp. From their vantage on Bread Ridge, they could see everything. Termann was leading the knights' charge down the slope at the speed of a loosed arrow, like a flash flood breaking through a dam. Utterly unstoppable...
The lances of the foremost knights blazed with silver-white sword light as they tore through the enemy mass huddled in the middle of the valley like a hot knife through butter. The foe scattered in every direction, and a single unbroken wail of agony rose into the night...
"The enemy is finished," Lorist said with complete indifference.
"When we launched the night raid on their camp, we had already positioned a follow-up force in ambush along both sides of that valley entrance. Those are reinforcements sent from Lichtenana Fortress, and they've walked straight into our trap. First the horse-archers rained down arrows from their longbows, then the knights shattered their formation with a charge, and finally our scout light cavalry sealed off the mouth of the valley. So don't worry, cousin—not a single one of these reinforcements will escape." Seeing the bewilderment still written across Chrithia's face, Lorist had no choice but to explain in detail.
"Lorist, I just didn't expect you could organize a knight order like this. Could you possibly..." Chrithia gazed at Lorist with eyes full of longing.
"Cousin, don't make requests that would strain our relationship. This is the knight order I've poured everything into building for the family, and I intend to develop it into a Silver Knight Order in the future. If you were to leave the Second Prince's side and return to the family, then I might hand this knight order over to you to command." Lorist shut down Chrithia's little scheme in one fell swoop.
"Stingy..." Chrithia mumbled under her breath and fell silent.
In less than an hour, horn blasts echoed up from the valley below.
"The enemy has been completely wiped out." Lorist exhaled a breath. "Dawn is approaching, cousin. You can now send a squad up to set up our defensive line. I'm entrusting all these siege ballistae to you—have your men aim them toward the fortress. That'll give our follow-up plans an extra layer of security. I'm heading down first."
…(To be continued.)