"Your Highness!"
"Teacher..."
Facing the excited, elated gazes and beaming smiles of Reidi and Jenorio, his two disciples, along with their heartfelt cries of joy, Lorist suddenly felt a twinge of guilt, as though he had done something underhanded. But then he recalled what that old Storm Sword Saint had said—why should the two of us Sword Saints fight to the death over some merchants' affairs? There was no enmity of life and death between them—and Lorist's conscience eased.
The words were crude but the sentiment was sound. That lazy old rogue was right. Since the
The only thing Lorist regretted was agreeing to help the old man set up the scene of their so-called Sword Saint duel. That had been more exhausting than actually fighting the old man. Watching him expertly slash here and carve half a stone off there—his masterful forgery skills made Lorist genuinely wonder whether the historic Sword Saint duels recorded in the continent's annals had actually been just like this one: two Sword Saints getting together to chat and bullshit, then walking away and leaving behind a devastated scene for future generations to marvel at...
What irritated Lorist the most was that, after they had finally finished staging the so-called duel scene, the old Storm Sword Saint had the audacity to insist that their clothes needed to look the part too. He argued with great conviction: "We're two Sword Saints fighting a duel—the scene alone shows how intense it was. Look, a massive boulder like this was cleaved in half. But if you walk down the hill afterward with your clothes perfectly clean and not a speck of dust on you, wouldn't that make people suspicious?"
So the old man had first demonstrated on himself, using his sword to shred his own clothes into strips, forcing Lorist to admire the old man's avant-garde abstract sensibility—truly a vision that was a hundred years ahead of the Galentea Continent's fashion industry. Unable to refuse, Lorist had no choice but to smear himself with dirt and dust, use his sword to further tatter his clothes, and finally slice his short cape in half before descending the hill with a heavy sense of shame.
Reidi and Jenorio rushed over excitedly, looking Lorist up and down. Only when they confirmed that he was completely unharmed did they breathe a sigh of relief. "Teacher, did you win?"
Beside them, Count Borlede's face was deathly pale and his whole body trembled. Clearly, his teacher, the Storm Sword Saint, had gone up the hill to duel Lorist. Half a day had passed, and Lorist had descended at his leisure. Though he looked somewhat bedraggled, his expression was relaxed and he was completely uninjured. Didn't this mean that Lorist had emerged victorious, while his own teacher, the Storm Sword Saint, had been defeated?
Lorist shook his head. "Neither won nor lost—it was a draw. I couldn't be bothered to keep fighting, so I came down first."
Count Borlede let out a long breath and asked urgently, "Then what about my teacher? Was he injured? Oh, forgive me, Your Highness Grand Duke Norton—please pardon my forwardness. I was only worried about my teacher..."
Lorist smiled. "Your teacher is fine. When I left, he was still sitting at the summit. He said the duel gave him some insights into swordsmanship, so he might come down a bit later. But you can go up and check on him now."
That old man was a shameless show-off, demanding that Lorist come down and tell his disciples exactly this, then have them climb up to see for themselves the devastating scene of his duel with Lorist. They would study the sword marks and the cleaved boulders left behind, while the old man recounted the life-and-death battle in vivid detail—thus cementing his duel with Lorist into legend for all eternity.
"Thank you, Your Highness Grand Duke Norton." Count Borlede signaled to the other two Storm Sword Saint disciples nearby and rushed up the hill.
"Let's head back." Lorist mounted his horse. Jenorio removed his own cloak and handed it over—Lorist's current appearance was rather unsightly.
"Teacher, was the Storm Sword Saint really that strong?" Reidi also mounted his horse and rode alongside Lorist, asking curiously.
"No..." Lorist shook his head with a bitter smile. "That old man is far too cunning. He's slippery as an eel. If he's dead set on dodging and weaving, there's nothing I can do about him."
This was the truth. At the very end of their time setting up the duel scene at the summit, both the Storm Sword Saint and Lorist had briefly displayed their domains. Despite being a lazy old rogue, the Storm Sword Saint's battle aura cultivation was the genuine article. His Gale Domain spanned twenty-five meters, and within it, sand and stones flew through the air while razor-sharp wind blades cut in every direction. Lorist's Bloodlust Domain surged with killing intent—blood-red and bone-chilling, enough to freeze the heart and drain one's courage—spanning nearly fifteen meters. The Storm Sword Saint could only marvel at Lorist's rapid progress, thanking his own wisdom in not dueling him for real. The last time they had clashed, Lorist's Bloodlust Domain had only extended about ten meters. In just over three years, it had expanded by another five.
Both of them were at the first stage. Although the Storm Sword Saint's Gale Domain covered nearly ten meters more than Lorist's Bloodlust Domain, both were still under thirty meters—the first stage of a Sword Saint's power.
First stage: domain range above ten meters. Second stage: above thirty meters. Third stage: approximately fifty meters. Across the entire Galentea Continent, the few existing Sword Saints—with the exception of the Flying Fire Sword Saint of the reclusive Qigeda Kingdom, who was at the third stage—both the Sword Saint of the Roman Empire and the one of the Havistan Khanate were at the first stage. None was significantly stronger than the others. However, the Flying Fire Sword Saint was rumored to have lived for over two hundred and sixty years, with little time remaining, which was why he rarely appeared. No one knew whether he was still alive.
The old man had explained that most Sword Saints' domains were primarily based on the elemental attribute of their battle aura cultivation. His own was the relatively rare wind attribute, while the Flying Fire Sword Saint's domain was fire-based, as his name suggested. Entering his domain felt like falling into a furnace, with burning flames everywhere. The Roman Empire's Sword Saint had a wood attribute, with a domain characterized by constricting vines and battering logs. As for the Havistan Khanate's Sword Saint, his battle aura was earth-based, and his domain featured solid defenses and quicksand traps—extremely troublesome to deal with.
In his final analysis, the old Storm Sword Saint honestly admitted that the most bizarre domain was Lorist's Bloodlust Domain. He said that when sparring with other Sword Saints, even when their domains overlapped, it never felt like plunging into a pot of boiling porridge, where both attack and defense slowed to a crawl. With other Sword Saints' overlapping domains, speed remained the same—only the domain traits interfered with each other, increasing the risk for both sides. But overlapping with Lorist's domain felt like having a mountain pressing down on you. You couldn't move fast no matter how hard you tried—it was suffocating and frustrating. This was another reason he didn't want to duel Lorist again. Having tasted that misery once was more than enough.
The closer they got to Bruvia City, the more fleeing stragglers from the Commercial Alliance forces they encountered. Aside from chasing off a few small-time opportunists who tried to rob the three of them of their horses, Lorist didn't bother troubling the common soldiers running for their lives. He had to admit he had absorbed some of the old Storm Sword Saint's philosophy: as a Sword Saint, one should maintain a certain dignity. Harassing these foot soldiers was beneath a Sword Saint's station. Listening to the old man's rhetoric, it was all "mortals this" and "mortals that"—he clearly didn't regard the majority of people as anything significant. He probably thought of himself as a god.
Now Lorist understood what had driven the old man's arrogance and bravado back when he had kidnapped the second prince and the kingdom's nobles. The old coot had been flattered so long that his eyes had swollen to the top of his head. If Lorist himself hadn't been a Sword Saint, the old man would have dismissed him with the same contempt. To the old man, everyone below the rank of Sword Saint was nothing more than mortals and ants—all indistinguishable. Only upon becoming a Sword Saint would the old man treat you as an equal. That was why he could joke around and act shamelessly in front of Lorist, conspiring together on how to deceive people...
Forget it. No point holding a grudge against the old man. Lorist had granted his wish this time. Next, the old man would go to the Commercial Alliance to demand the Duchy of Galignia as his territory. After that, their paths would rarely cross again. As for the Commercial Alliance, Lorist could only offer his deepest sympathy. Not only had they suffered a crushing defeat on the battlefield, but it was also clear that once the Storm Sword Saint had taken the Duchy of Galignia from them, he had no intention of continuing to deal with those merchants. Whether he would even accept their tributes remained to be seen. Judging by the old man's attitude, with a territory of his own he was likely preparing to go independent. No one would dare attack a Sword Saint's domain, because that would almost certainly mean inviting an irreconcilable blood feud.
A squad of Imperial Guard Corps soldiers, accompanied by a unit of Free Alliance City Defense Corps troops, came pursuing the fleeing remnants of the Commercial Alliance forces. When they spotted Lorist and his two companions, they excitedly raised their weapons and shouted victory cries. Soon, cheers echoed across the battlefield. A few Norton Family knights hurried over, but Lorist waved them off, telling them to carry on with their duties rather than escort him—they were close to Bruvia City anyway.
Since Lorist had returned safely and unharmed from the Sword Saint duel, that at least meant he hadn't come out the worse for it. Fatty Shi, upon hearing the answer that it was a draw, lost no further interest in the matter and instead began describing to Lorist how the great battle had been won. As a firsthand witness to the entire war—if not for the fact that everyone had insisted he stay behind due to their utter lack of confidence in his swordsmanship—Fatty Shi might well have galloped off sword in hand, burning with fervor, to join the chase after the enemy.
According to Fatty Shi's account, the Commercial Alliance forces had sounded the charge less than a quarter of an hour after Lorist had set off with Reidi and Jenorio toward the small lonely hill for the Sword Saint duel. Everyone found it puzzling that the Commercial Alliance would be in such a rush. Arrayed in thousand-man formations, the Commercial Alliance forces displayed their enormous numbers—countless thousand-man squares blanketed the entire plain in view, placing immense pressure on the Norton Family forces, the White Lion Corps, and the several Free Alliance City Defense Corps units. Some of the defense corps even saw several dozen deserters.
This was why they harbored such deep hatred for the Norton Family and were willing to serve as cannon fodder, launching probing attacks and fighting to the death without retreating.
The massive wooden shield carts they pushed forward effectively deflected the attacks from the war chariots' steel crossbows. At two hundred meters, these shield carts also blocked the catapults' projectiles—stones of forty or fifty jin did virtually nothing. It wasn't until around a hundred and fifty meters that boulders weighing close to a hundred jin began to inflict some casualties. The Avenger Corps soldiers pushed their shield carts all the way to the Norton Family battle formations and even launched brief, fierce assaults, coming to close-quarters combat with several of the Norton Family's frontmost formations—though all were beaten back.
Perhaps the Avenger Corps' successful assault on the Norton Family formations encouraged the Commercial Alliance leadership, because they committed half their forces directly—over a hundred thousand-man squares launched a fierce attack along a battle line stretching more than ten li. Under the cover of shield carts densely spread across the battlefield, they closed rapidly on the Norton Family battle formations. Meanwhile, behind the squares, several hundred long-arm lever catapults were being slowly pushed forward.
The Norton Family commanders didn't take these Commercial Alliance catapults seriously, assuming they had the same effective range as ordinary catapults—two to three hundred meters at most. But they were caught off guard when several dozen of these catapults stopped advancing at four hundred meters and began hurling fifty-jin stones at the Norton Family formations. The completely unprepared troops suffered hundreds of casualties, nearly causing the battle line to collapse.
Ovicks, commanding the catapult units, was forced to redirect the catapults to target these long-arm lever catapults of the Commercial Alliance, engaging them in a counter-bombardment. The problem was that these Commercial Alliance catapults were all protected by shield carts, so the forty or fifty jin stones were often wasted unless they scored a direct hit.
Schweid then ordered Ovicks to use explosive charges as projectiles, while simultaneously commanding the six hundred bronze cannons across three artillery battalions to load canister shot and prepare to fire. By this point, the Commercial Alliance assault troops were less than a hundred meters from the Norton Family battle line and were about to launch a full-scale assault, intending to smash through the Norton Family formations in one decisive blow.
When over a hundred thousand elite soldiers of the Commercial Alliance launched their general assault along a front stretching more than ten li, what awaited them was a thunderous barrage of cannon fire and countless iron canister balls that sealed off the entire charge zone. It was an absolute massacre. The enemies in front of the Norton Family formations were virtually wiped out in an instant—corpses piled into mountains and blood flowed into rivers. Both the surviving Commercial Alliance troops and the Norton Family soldiers were so horrified by the carnage that many of them vomited on the spot...
At the same time, the explosive charges launched by the catapults detonated among the enemy rear formations, sending fire and smoke billowing across the entire enemy line. Both the long-arm catapults and the massive shield carts were blown over or shattered in the explosions. The Commercial Alliance had never dreamed that the Norton Family had such a trump card. The remaining formations on the battlefield collapsed immediately, and even the formations that hadn't yet entered the fight began to panic and stir.
Tiger Ross and Fareya seized the favorable opportunity, sounding the charge and leading the Flying Tiger Corps and Hunting Cavalry Corps in a pincer movement from both flanks. Schweid and Ovicks pressed forward with the artillery and catapult battalions, continuing to bombard and launch explosive charges into the Commercial Alliance's rear.
The outcome was simple. The Commercial Alliance forces were completely stunned. Under the Norton Family's relentless and continuous assault and suppression, the remaining mercenary companies all collapsed, scattering in every direction in disorganized rout. Meanwhile, the Norton Family forces gleefully threw themselves into the joyful activities of capturing prisoners and pursuing fleeing enemies...