Free Web NovelChapter 363: Chapter 360: Plain of Despair
"The enemy cavalry is on the move."
"Then let’s engage!"
The "Master" among the Holy Knights received the order. A new round of war drums and horns sounded as both sides began to commit their cavalry to the battlefield.
Both the Empire Army and the Holy Knight Order chose to position their Knights on the wings of their formations. The Empire’s Knights charged out in three columns, organizing into a triangular formation as they advanced. The Holy Knights, meanwhile, were arranged in companies of one hundred, attacking in a staggered formation of two horizontal lines. These staggered lines, numbering over a thousand riders in total, formed a massive column meant to drive their enemies to despair.
A warhorse’s stamina is finite, so the Knights first approached the enemy at a walk. At a distance of about one hundred and seventy meters, the cavalry commander on the flank began to sound his horn. The Holy Knights leveled their Knight Lances, spurred their mounts with their legs, and the horses’ pace quickened to a trot.
Just as the two forces were about to clash, the melody of the horns changed again. The horses broke into a gallop, charging at full speed, their four legs alternating in a blur of motion. A strange song of salvation echoed across the battlefield, led by a baritone and answered by a choir.
The time was approaching noon, and the sun finally grew intense, causing the temperature on the battlefield to steadily rise.
The Holy Knights needed no other Sacred Artifacts to bless them. As they charged, their weapons were already overflowing with a golden light. The "Master" among them raised a banner, and a profound and magnificent radiance—bringing courage, defense, healing—produced an unrivaled effect.
Initially, there were gaps every five men in the horizontal line. But as they charged forward, the formation spread out to fill those gaps. They now swept across the battlefield like rows of a golden tsunami.
The Empire’s Knights who engaged them were instantly at a disadvantage. Because a warhorse’s instinct is to avoid other horses, violent collisions between riders were rare. It was a contest of horsemanship and courage, but the Holy Knights had the upper hand. Their Knight Lances easily unseated the Empire’s Knights or pierced the fronts of their mounts.
Outnumbered and more lightly armored, the Empire’s Knights quickly abandoned the head-on clash. They maneuvered to their right and wheeled their horses around. Although the Empire’s cavalry was smaller in number and used more slender lances, putting them at a disadvantage in the initial engagement, those Empireists still had an ace up their sleeve—the Empire’s warhorses had always been superior to those of the Holy Kingdom! freewёbnoνel.com
Their warhorses possessed a stamina the Holy Knights’ mounts lacked. Wheeling around, they were already at the enemy’s left rear. Since most men are right-handed, the Empire’s Knights were now thrusting their lances at the Holy Knights’ left side, which was difficult for them to parry and counter.
The "Master" among the Holy Knights once again activated a Divine Art. The warhorses of his allies were instantly invigorated, their fatigue swept away. The speed gap with the Empire’s cavalry was closed in a moment, allowing them to pull away and evade the attacks.
Some of the Empire’s Knights managed to land hits with their lances, but a hopeless situation arose. Their lances couldn’t penetrate the defenses of the Holy Knights, which were augmented by Divine Arts. Some lance tips even snapped off. The riders decisively discarded their broken main weapons and drew Short Guns from their saddles to fire. But the bullets still couldn’t break through their defenses.
At that, the Empire’s Knights gave up the engagement. They spurred their horses and maneuvered laterally between the two armies’ main lines, harassing the Kingdom’s infantry squares. The Holy Knights wheeled their mounts in pursuit, intent on reaping the expensive lives of the enemy cavalry with their Knight Lances, heavy hammers, and flails.
And so a chase between galloping cavalry erupted between the two front lines. Dust filled the air over the wasteland, mingled with the shrieks of men and the whinnying of horses.
’What the hell! Why are they coming this way!’ Rorschach, who had been idly watching from the sidelines, saw that troops of cavalry were all galloping in his direction. Though their speed was a far cry from their peak during the charge, if his mud-head took a hoof, it would definitely be smashed to pieces.
To keep the handsome face his main body had spent so much time sculpting from being trampled into pulp, "Ninja Xia" quickly activated "True Earth Escape." The [Earth Shaping Skill] caused the dry ground beneath him to deform like a swamp, swallowing most of his body. He left only his head exposed, buried among his fallen, temporary comrades.
Suddenly, a massive Airship with a gray coat of paint, blending almost perfectly with the winter sky, appeared without any warning, looming over the battlefield. It blocked the sun, making everyone once again feel the winter chill.
A single blast from its steam whistle drowned out all the Holy Songs and tolling bells. From their high vantage point, Richard and his teacher now observed the entire battlefield.
The Chief Military Mage observed the Church’s spectacular thousand-strong cavalry but let out a disdainful snort. "They have the advantage, yet they don’t break the line or charge the artillery positions. They just blindly chase after enemy cavalry... They’ve all chanted themselves stupid."
"Chief, charging is complete. All systems are normal. The Airship’s engine has entered a non-Magic-Power operational state," an Eight-character Moustache Mage reported respectfully to the Chief.
After confirming the situation on the battlefield, the Chief Military Mage nodded. "Activate it."
A second blast from the steam whistle sounded. As if on command, the two Imperial cavalry contingents from the left and right wings crossed paths in the middle of the field and began to withdraw to the sides. This left the pursuing formation of Holy Knights clustered in the very center of the battlefield.
"Something’s wrong!" The commander of the Church Army noticed something strange about the Airship. At first, he thought it was going to drop bombs, so he had the Priests and the Ritual Team prepare a large-scale defensive Divine Art. But the bizarre Airship wasn’t dropping any bombs. freēwēbnovel.com
’No matter what, we have to shoot it down!’
"Are the siege engines assembled?" The Holy Wood trebuchet, with a history of over four hundred years and a record of breaching the strongest fortress in the Kingdom of Sand, had been intended for use against Andorrella. But now he wanted to use it to shoot down the Airship.
Because the Airship was carrying extremely heavy equipment, its ascent from Andorrella had been slow, so it wasn’t hovering very high at the moment. However, a Priest quickly calculated that the trajectory of a projectile from the "Holy Hammer," with its twenty-meter-long throwing arm, could not reach the Airship.
"Then issue the order to retreat! Tell the Holy Knights to stop their pursuit!" His command was quickly opposed by the commander of the Holy Knight Order. He argued that rather than worrying about some mysterious Airship, they should press the attack. As long as they achieved victory, how could an Airship that only blew its whistle possibly change the course of the battle?
A third whistle blast. A north wind suddenly rose, faster than any horse, galloping forth and sweeping away all warmth. Following the howling, bone-chilling wind was a massive shockwave of Magic Power!
A pillar of light too bright to look at shot straight down from the bottom of the Airship. It had no power against ordinary people, but the violent fluctuation of Magic Power it stirred up was, for Casters and Divine Benefactors, a massive magical tsunami, an unstoppable wind of Magic.
All Divine Arts failed. All radiant glows faded. The Holy Artifacts and Sacred Artifacts reverted to their original forms, some even rapidly decaying. And without the Divine Arts to invigorate them, all the horses halted. Some even collapsed under the crushing weight of the Holy Knights’ armor.
Caught in this sudden, drastic change, the Holy Knights and Priests fell into a deep panic. Their power had been swept away, scoured from them without reservation. To them, this meant they had become the abandoned of their god—and on the battlefield, no less!
But the Empire Army’s artillery, which had been holding back, gave these men no chance to breathe. Guided by the Airship, the cannons roared. Shells screamed with precision toward the Holy Knights, the command post at the rear, and the positions of the reserve Holy Knight units that had yet to be deployed, mercilessly reaping the lives of these now-mortal men.
The Holy Bell was rendered useless. The Holy Song turned to cries of anguish. Prayers for victory became pleas for salvation and mercy.
The Chief Military Mage and the Eight-character Moustache Mage wore cruel, triumphant smiles. Richard remained silent, continuing to observe the battlefield with careful scrutiny.
Rorschach’s avatar, also hit by the Forbidden Magic attack, lay buried in the earth, having already lost control of its body.
