"Why?"
Esther slightly turned her head and asked Kraiss. The short and thick meaning of the question was, why are you in this place?
"I didn't come to fight with a sword."
Kraiss spoke quickly and gestured. Nurat came out to his side, and Seiki and Finn, and ten swordsmen Ragna had raised, and the like were together.
They weren't the only ones. Among the soldiers, everyone whose skill stood out came too. That number was over thirty.
"My name is Marco. Hey, you guys, stop acting so damn great. Just because you're junior knights doesn't mean you've got a body swords don't work on."
Bang! Doo-woong.
Marco said it as he kicked the spearhead he had let droop and aimed it forward. The spearpoint and the shaft tremble and then stop. The aimed spearpoint is straight, and the posture is the same as well. It is a posture with a will embedded in it that wouldn't be swept away even if muddy currents surged.
Was only the soldier who gave his name as Marco like that?
"We've got two prides of our city. One is the Golden Witch, and the other is the Black Flower. Right now, blood flowed from that flower. That alone means you've committed a sin worthy of death."
A female squire with short hair. Her affiliation is the Mad Order of Knights, that is, the only squire belonging to the knight order, and she had the name Clemens.
She truly loved this city. Along with that, she admired those who protected this city.
Everyone including Enkrid were the ones she admired, and the fact that she was their squire was her pride.
Now blood flows at the corner of that Black Flower's mouth. Clemens felt like she was looking at someone who had spat on her idol.
Anger surged up to the top of her head. Even though she was that angry, strangely, her heart was calm like a lake without a single ripple, and composed like sand settled deep in a river.
"My name is Clemens, squire of the Mad Order of Knights. I'll pound all six of you from head to toe."
She felt two emotions, heat and cold, cross her heart at the same time. In an instant, the past sequentially flashed through her head.
'Fallen Clemens.'
It was embarrassing and also enjoyable.
Contradiction, two things overlap. As those emotions crossed, Clemens opened the door to a new world.
'Will.'
The reason calm and anger coexist is because her will is incomparably clear.
One squire who digested mad training now rose above junior knights.
She had passed through the hands of the entire knight order. It couldn't have been that every moment with them was only enjoyable, but now her chest burned hot at the fullness of the time she had spent then.
"Come at me. You stupid bastards."
Clemens said, lifting her head. She gathered what she had just realized. She finished preparing to fight.
To one side, a group had also surged in and taken their positions. To those standing on the hill, they could see all of them.
"Martaiiiii-! Garrisoooon! Arrriiiive!"
It was what the one raised by the lord of Martai and the former Border Guard commander, the garrison captain, was shouting in front of them.
All of them carried crossbows and were armed with short swords and the like.
"The Pen-hanil Rangers are also ready."
It was what the messenger Finn had just sent said behind Kraiss. The ranger unit would have taken position behind the group of junior knights. Even if they only fired bolts without rest, it would be quite irritating.
In the end, even Nurat added a word.
"Looks like we must've seemed easy?"
Esther stared straight at Kraiss.
"Did you think we would leave it to you and just quietly watch?"
At Kraiss's words, Esther let out a snort of a laugh.
Yeah, they weren't the kind of guys who would. Not just Enkrid—every one of them was like that.
***
At the same time, Abnaier was already striking the unit that had tried to escape the swamp, taking a single battalion from the Border Guard.
No, he didn't even start a full-scale battle at all and only brought archers and fed them arrows. That alone was enough to inflict damage close to annihilation.
It was a unit already half ruined by fog and swamp. Their formation had collapsed, and there were even ones who killed each other in hallucinations.
After confirming that chaos, Abnaier pressed the archers right up close to the enemy army. If the enemy were fine, it was a distance where a mere infantry charge with two legs as weapons would be enough to break them. But of course, that wouldn't happen. Abnaier's tactical sense was truly outstanding. The moment he checked the enemy's condition, he chose and deployed the most advantageous tactic.
Those who could block arrows that flew in a straight line at close range could easily hear something like monster sounds.
Usually, squire or junior knight level is like that. Naturally, there were few such guys in the enemy unit now.
The yellow-earth flag unit couldn't even put up a resistance worthy of the name.
"Argh! Fuck!"
"Arrows!"
"It's arrows!"
"Block them!"
Enemy soldiers who fell in heaps splattered blood on the ground.
The Border Guard unit had never fought properly. But from this incident alone, there would be those who recognized their potential.
Abnaier admired the unit moving organically, moving like his own hands and feet. It was a sight that drew admiration on its own.
'Even if the infantry charged.'
It would have been meaningless. The ones who somehow pushed through the rain of arrows were skewered on spears and died as they were, or lost their lives to flying throwing knives.
They were the standing army of the Border Guard, those who had endured the training of the Mad Order of Knights.
***
"Kill them all, and make sure you finish the mages."
Whether their rear got hit or not, the momentum of the six enemy junior knights was no joke either. They didn't break easily.
They fight to the end. They fight until they die. They fight even in hell. It's the spirit of the south.
Even excluding Graham, Nurat, and Clemens, there were quite a few who stood out. Their strength didn't lag behind. The fight was one-sided.
One enemy junior knight couldn't endure the arrows of the ranger unit and turned around. Before the two could surge in, Seiki joined the ranger unit.
She held holiness to the point of being called a saint, and though she had no talent, through training she had power above a certain level.
Slightly below a junior knight, you might say.
That alone was more than enough to cook one junior knight.
Because the holiness she was born with was enough to fill what she lacked.
Soldier Marco's spear showed the skill he had honed all that time, and Clemens didn't get pushed back even though she faced two junior knights alone, and Graham killed one.
He himself had a hole punched into his shoulder, but still, he won.
The archer unit Kraiss had raised with his own hands were called snipers. Whenever they saw an opening, they shot arrows like crazy.
How much had they suffered before, on past battlefields, because of a guy called Hawk Talon.
It was a unit raised because he remembered that time. Arrows are one of the most superior thrown weapons humans possess. They vividly showed that power.
Is that all of them?
"If things went bad, they would've stepped in."
Puff.
It was what the tree giant smoking a tobacco roll said. Among him and the fairies of the city Kirhais, there were at least three who had reached junior knight level.
Jaxen knew Kraiss, so he wasn't very worried. But the fewer variables, the better, so he sent Enkrid.
When Enkrid had just come down from atop Odd-Eye, among the six junior knights, there was only one left.
Enkrid fell over the head of the remaining enemy junior knight. He was a guy who used a spear with sharp blades on both sides as his weapon. He thrust the spear at Enkrid. The fact that he reacted even to an attack falling from above was enough to praise his skill.
Of course, that praise should be received after crossing the gate of heaven or the river of hell.
Just as he came down, Enkrid struck the twin-bladed spearpoint with his sword and pushed it to the side.
The technique was so fine and cunning that even as his spearblade was pushed aside, the opponent couldn't show a meaningful follow-up move.
Just like that, Enkrid's knee stamped into the junior knight's skull.
Thud, crunch.
With veins standing out on his neck, his cervical spine snapped and his head bent at an abnormal angle. Blood flowed from every hole attached to his face, and blood also splattered from the neck bone that had broken and pierced through the skin. Like that, Enkrid landed.
"Esther?"
In a posture with one knee on the ground, he asked.
"You're late. Pretty, beautiful, and demure guy."
"...That's a bizarre title."
Maybe he was tainted by Sinar; it was a strange joke. She was safe. Enkrid also saw those gathered around her.
"Huh? How did you get here?"
Kraiss asked and lifted his gaze. There was no need for further questions. Odd-Eye was up above, flapping its wings and looking down.
***
"Enemy."
It was news that suddenly came in. Crang thought the opponent's response was too fast.
'Already?'
His sharp head repeated thought after thought.
'They were already advancing before I even said I was here.'
"It's the High Pontiff's flag. Lihinshutten's main force has come."
While Enkrid was away from his place on horseback, the High Pontiff's main army showed itself. They weren't in a hurry.
They spread left and right and filled the field of view. They were like rainwater flowing down a gentle slope. Not fast, but they approach without gaps.
Two masses that had gone around the cliff terrain were approaching and gathering toward the center.
Puuu-oo.
It was a great army approaching with a monster-like cry blown out by elephants and with thud-thud shaking the earth. Their numbers were far greater than ours. To the point you didn't want to count.
Among those who confirmed the scale of the enemy, there wasn't a single one whose complexion didn't change.
Some commanders frowned, and some rubbed their eyes. No matter how high morale is and how much swagger they have, you can't break the difference in numbers.
This was movement that broke everyone's expectations. Crang's plan was thrown into disarray. He intended to concentrate more allied units on this side before the High Pontiff's army surged in.
Even then, the numbers would be insufficient, but the opponent came first before preparations even finished. It was like infantry that still hadn't even formed up receiving cavalry. And on top of that, the numbers were fewer and the equipment was poorer.
"Now, it's our time to fight too. Let's get ready."
Even so, one person's tone and attitude didn't change. Cypress spoke in his usual tone and moved at his usual speed.
"Master, there are too many."
It was Aurelia's words. Ingis was already putting on armor. Rien would be measuring the enemy's advance speed with Ferdinand.
"Then we've got to diligently reduce them."
Cypress said with a smiling eye. If needed, he steps to the very front and swings his sword, and if needed, he stays at the very rear and helps the allied retreat. Cypress had battlefield experience numbering in the hundreds, and the achievements and merits he had built were a person who could fill several volumes even if you turned them into books.
He intended to go forward and fight.
"Your Highness, please raise the morale of our troops."
He also knew how to use everything around him. The king's existence has a tremendous influence on soldiers' morale. Just the fact that the king stays together here to the end would become strength for our troops.
Of course, Crang also wasn't the kind of vessel that would be flustered and end there.
"I haven't forgotten what I must do."
He said and moved as well.
"What? A toy came first instead of the boss?"
If anything, it was a point of relief.
It was what a gray-haired barbarian said, acting like he roughly knew Crang as Crang went out.
If it were the old mad unit, they would have shown laziness because Enkrid wasn't here, but now, even they had changed. It was different from before.
Even without the commander, an order of knights is an order of knights. If there's something to protect and an enemy to fight, they step up. And also because their intuition stabbed their whole body like a prickling warning that now wasn't the time to be lazy.
"Lawford, take a group. Fight with the resolve that if you get pushed back, you die. Pel, fill the gaps of the unit Lawford commands."
It was Luagarne's words. She was busy too. Was it Frog's nature to get excited at a large-scale battle after a long time, or was it her own trait.
There was no need to know, and you couldn't know. She simply found what she had to do and did it. At least until Enkrid returned, she couldn't let this place collapse completely.
"I'm not planning to step in."
Temares declared early and withdrew. He had already paid enough cost, and Enkrid also wasn't here. So it was a natural attitude.
"Who will fill the fiancé's empty seat."
Shinar quickly made up a song and sang it. The tone was excellent, but it wasn't a very pleasant song to listen to.
Audin and Teresa were still in a state where it was hard for them to step out and fight. Even today, those two maintained the sanctuary.
"Hey, stench, follow me. Let's go have fun."
Rem looked around and said. If Luagarne steps up, Rem himself doesn't need to rack his brain. He called Dunbakel.
"My body odor is perfume."
Dunbakel followed Rem's words even as he spat nonsense.
Just before Cypress stepped out, Rem moved first. However, it was a part even he didn't expect at all.
"But where'd that directionless bastard go?"
Rem asked. Dunbakel shrugged, and Pel shook their head. Lawford hurriedly swept his gaze left and right. He took in the wide distance and chased traces, but he couldn't see anything in particular.
"Doesn't seem to be inside our camp."
"This bastard got lost somewhere again—well, whatever, it doesn't matter if he's not here."
Rem said.
***
Ragna encountered some of the enemy while on a walk. Three men and women who had gone out on reconnaissance.
"To run into you right here."
One woman said as she reached out. There was no hesitation in that touch. It was skill that had done this countless times.
A thin blade bent and aimed for the nape of Ragna's neck. At the same time, one man swung around behind his back, and the last remaining one held a bow.
They were guys whose hands and feet matched well. They were a combat unit called 'the High Pontiff's children.' They were on the road to find and eliminate enemy scouting units under the guise of reconnaissance.
A simple provocation and a kind of seizing initiative?
All three were skilled people better than most squires.
They couldn't recognize Ragna's skill. Their eye was lacking, and they also didn't even think that a guy around knight level would come all the way here alone. The enemy is at a disadvantage. If you're at a disadvantage, isn't it the basics of tactics to save your main force?
Of course, Ragna didn't know that kind of basics.
Sunrise drew three lines as it was pulled out. The three lines cut three necks. Amid the blood that sprayed out with a splat-, Ragna turned his vision.
'Enemy.'
He met them suddenly, but that they were enemies was certain. Their momentum, attitude, and clothes were so. They also tried to pounce immediately.
After briefly sorting out his thoughts, Ragna stepped again. Because he knew that walking without a signpost was stupidity, he climbed up a small hill and gauged his position. At the same time, he saw a large mass and headed that way.
Puuu-oo.
A creature he had never seen in his life was letting out a monster cry with its long nose.