Chapter 591: Knight (2)

Leo, one of the members of the 9th Knight Order and a participant in this battle.

He stretched one arm straight out.

It was an act of calling over one of the Parion Empire’s hawks.

When they stretched out an arm like this, a hawk would usually descend within twenty seconds and report the current situation.

However.

Not a single one of the roughly 200 hawks they had sent into the sky when they deployed for this war was coming.

What is going on?

Leo was bewildered.

And the army of 100,000 he was leading had fallen into enormous confusion.

An army of 100,000.

It truly was an incredible number, and a force of that size could not be led by one person alone.

That was why the roles of hundred-man commanders and thousand-man commanders were so important.

They received the orders handed down from the front and commanded their respective hundreds or thousands, maintaining the army’s structure.

However, amid the army of 100,000.

The elite soldiers, trained to perfection, could not hide their confusion.

The corpses of thousand-man commanders were strewn about in silence.

And the corpses of hundred-man commanders had also had their heads severed, blood gushing across the ground, accelerating the chaos within the battlefield.

“Hiiiiiik!”

“Thousand-man commander!”

“Hundred-man commander!”

“Wh-who gives the orders!?”

There was at least one fortunate thing.

Two knights of the 9th Knight Order, who had entered the battlefield with the army of 100,000, had succeeded in killing the unidentified assassin roaming the battlefield.

The problem was that there had only been one assassin, and they still had no way to confirm the exact extent of their casualties.

Standing at the front and looking toward the end of the soldiers’ procession, Leo grew frustrated.

Have you ever seen the very end of an army of 100,000?

It was truly long, to the point that its end could not be seen.

And at a time like this, we can’t know the damage situation?

It was not good.

It was right then.

BAAAAAANG—!!!

A signal flare burst.

It was a signal flare sent by the Parion Empire Army.

Seeing the signal flare, Leo was certain that place was where Verd Territory lay.

“Shall we advance immediately?”

At the thousand-man commander’s words, Leo shook his head.

“We will turn and move in another direction. Tell Pers to lead 40,000 troops and advance on Verd Territory.”

They were already in a situation where one person could not command 100,000 alone.

If he led too many troops while many of the commander-level personnel had been lost, the army might become tangled.

“I will deliver it.”

The message was passed through the crowd.

However, it took nearly ten whole minutes for this order to be delivered.

“This is driving me mad......”

Leo seemed to be personally realizing just how fatal the absence of commander-level personnel was to an army.

The fortunate thing was that Pers began moving with 40,000 troops as planned.

Even after separating off 40,000 troops, Leo’s vision went dark. The end of the unit was still nowhere in sight.

“We will advance to the rear and launch a surprise attack on the Verd Territory Army.”

“Yes, sir!”

The signal flare had burst from the direction of the front gate.

Before deploying, the Parion Empire had already secured all information about the nearby terrain.

Taking Verd Territory, surrounded from front and rear, would be as easy as eating rice cake while lying down.

At that moment.

What is that...?

Knight Leo.

He was of a special breed. He, too, had originally not been a citizen of the Parion Empire, but had been selected according to “talent discovery.”

The place where he had originally lived was fields and mountains, a wilderness without buildings.

The people of his tribe generally had eyesight several times better than ordinary people, and their physical senses were also superior.

And among those naturally gifted tribespeople, Leo had been born with an excellent sense of presence.

At the unseen end of the army of 60,000.

Leo felt a certain sense of wrongness.

What exactly is this sense of wrongness?

He was wondering whether he was being too sensitive when a sound burrowed into the ears of his keenly developed senses.

SWIIIIIIIIISH—!!!

The enormous tearing sound was short and clean.

Also, Leo could clearly hear it, but the soldiers beside him could not.

Soon.

CRUNCH, CRUUUNCH—!!!

One head exploded, and the sound of that tearing force continuing onward, shattering bones, piercing through, and passing by rang out from the far end.

“......!!!”

Startled, Leo looked that way.

“What is it, sir?”

The stupid soldiers blinked, and Leo shouted,

“A-a bowman. A skilled bowman is targeting the remaining commander-level personnel!! Hurry and prepare for a bowman!”

Was that truly the sound of an arrow being shot?

The fact that that tearing sound had been produced by a mere single arrow startled Leo.

And that arrow just now.

It had shattered a commander’s head, and the sound had continued beyond it.

In other words, the arrow pierced through without stopping......!

What kind of bowman was it?

Had Verd Territory hidden some legendary archer?

“Pass it on. A bowman is currently targeting commander-level personnel!”

“Pass it on...... A bowman is targeting commander-level......”

“Tell them to prepare!”

The message being passed from soldier to soldier was far slower than the sound of the arrows.

The soldiers at the rear would merely be startled that several people had been pierced through.

They would not be able to grasp the current situation accurately.

It was right then.

SWIIIIIIIIISH—!!!!

Again!

Leo concentrated on the tearing sound that rang out once more.

It was important to determine exactly what level of bowman this was.

Once again.

The sound of an arrow that seemed to have burst a commander-level figure’s head continued for a long stretch.

Puh, puh-puh, puh-puh-puk—!

One, two, three, four, five, six......

This place right now.

If an arrow could keep piercing through, it was the place where a single arrow could kill the greatest number of troops.

The army of 60,000 was densely packed, and the arrow had targeted their heads.

The head was the part with the weakest protection.

Especially because the army Leo was leading generally belonged to a unit with excellent armor and shields, but no helmets.

That was why.

Sixteen!!?

A mere single arrow had shattered sixteen heads.

Of course, the soldiers’ heights all differed.

But most differed by only three to fifteen centimeters, meaning their heads and necks had been pierced through and they had died instantly.

Leo was shocked twice over.

First, because it possessed piercing power that defied common sense.

Second, because the being he had believed to be some legendary archer might perhaps be someone who had reached the level of a Divine Archer.

Even now—

“This is Sir Leo’s order to prepare for the bowman!”

—Leo’s transmitted message had only reached half the army.

Even in that moment.

SWIIIIISH—!

SWIIIIIIIIISH—!

SWIIIIIIIIIIISH—!

SWIIIIIIIIIIISH—!

The bowman who had reached the level of a Divine Archer endlessly fired a barrage of arrows at the commander-level personnel.

In only a few seconds, hundreds were massacred.

Feeling urgency, Leo personally leaped into the army.

I have to tell them to hurry and catch the bowman......!

Because he did not know what kind of result one outstanding bowman might cause.

“Move!”

Leo gritted his teeth as he urgently forced his way through the soldiers and advanced.

You bastard, what do you think you can do alone!

Leo believed that.

SHHHHHRIP—!!

“Ten-Thousand-Kill Bow.”

Buried under the noise of the soldiers, he did not hear that one sound.

It merely appeared in his sight.

At the army’s rear.

What is that?

Something was flying in.

Arrows?

And those arrows were not a single shot.

A rain of ten thousand arrows was pouring toward the rear.

“......!!!”

Startled, Leo realized his own foolishness.

Why did I assume there was only one bowman?

If it was a bowman that outstanding, then there were sure to be followers under him.

The ten thousand arrows pouring down from the sky made him realize that an archer unit numbering several thousand had arrived.

PUHPUHPUHPUHPUHPUHPUHPUK—!

The pouring rain of arrows swept through the soldiers at the rear.

Those with arrows lodged in their armor, necks, heads, arms, and other places collapsed.

Still running through the soldiers, Leo was aghast to see the rear group swept up in massive terror and shock.

No......

The soldiers in the rear realized thousands of soldiers had appeared and began pushing the soldiers in front of them.

“Uaaaaaagh!”

“Don’t push!”

“Thousands of archers are lying in ambush!”

“It’s an archer unit!!!”

Originally, the ones who should have controlled the scene of those screams were the “commanders.”

The commanders should have grasped the situation and calmed the soldiers, but they could not.

Why?

Because the one presumed to be the captain of the archer unit.

Had deliberately massacred commander-level personnel first, then operated the archer unit.

He had fired ten thousand arrows.

The soldiers at the rear pushed the soldiers in front of them, and the soldiers in front pushed back to avoid being shoved forward.

Because of that, the tangled bodies crushed one another, and people being trampled piled on top of them.

The scene that unfolded as a result.

“Kkeueoeoeo......”

“Don’t push......”

“Don’t push!”

It was a horrific scene of death by crushing.

The aftermath had still not reached the advance party at the very front, but it continued like a wave, and the number grew as rapidly as a tidal surge.

“Get a hold of yourselves!!!!”

At least Leo’s shout stopped their movements.

However, his voice was slower than the enemies.

Even in the place where bodies were still tangled together in a scene of crushing death.

Leo was shocked once more.

What is that now!!!

A huge hammer rose so high it seemed to cover the sky.

It fell directly toward the place where the soldiers had become tangled together and reduced to utter chaos.

RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE—!

With its immense pressure, it granted an even more horrific death to the soldiers who had already been suffocating, ribs breaking in their chests as they died.

CRUUUUUNCH—!!!

The ground caved in while undergoing violent convulsions.

The soldiers within it were naturally crushed like tomatoes, scattering blood.

SHAAAAAAA—

Watching the huge hammer vanish, Leo, who had been stupefied, once again realized his own incompetence.

“Why did I......”

Why had he assumed there would only be a bowman and an archer unit?

The Parion Empire had done far too many things that would earn resentment until now.

The strong people of this continent have joined forces!

That thing just now.

It was surely large-scale magic used by a great mage of this continent.

I will not be startled anymore. I will stay calm. How dare you bastards......!

They had already suffered more than 20,000 casualties.

However, because Leo had realized that an incredibly large number of enemies were surrounding them, he believed he could now respond.

But then......

“It’s a demon!”

“A demon appeared!”

“Hiiiiiik!”

“What!”

Leo’s body broke out in goosebumps when he heard the distant soldiers’ cries.

A demon.

The being humans feared most.

“Kill it!”

“Hiiik, it recovers no matter how much we cut it!”

“We can’t kill it!”

The fact that it was a demon that recovered no matter how much it was cut made it even more horrific.

And then he heard it by his ear.

“The demon disappeared?”

“It disappeared!”

For a moment, silence spread across the battlefield.

Why did it disappear?

Leo made a puzzled expression.

Could it be a limit on descent?

A brief silence settled over the battlefield that had become a scene of carnage.

The soldiers were clearly on edge as they chased after the vanished demon.

Only Leo, whose hearing was extremely developed, began hearing a strange sound.

“Urk, ugh, khak, uuugh, kweek!”

What in the world is that sound?

And soon, he clearly heard a heavy voice.

“Ten-Thousand-Kill Bow.”

Ten thousand arrows fired into the sky once again.

Again!!?

Leo’s face turned white.

Once more, the barrage of arrows from the ambushing archers swept away the allies in the rear before they could even respond.

And that bizarre sound was ringing out again.

“Keheok, uuheoeok, kweek, not there!”

KWAJAAAK—

“Kkeueoe......”

What in the world is that sound!!!

It sounded as though someone was being beaten.

Who would be getting beaten on a battlefield?

But Leo could not continue thinking for long.

Once again—

KUUUUUUU—

A great mage’s large-scale class magic was descending from the sky.

The same enormous hammer as before descended once more.

Just as before, more than ten thousand soldiers were swept into the great mage’s magic, crushed, and killed. Before long, more than 50,000 soldiers had died.

“What the hell am I looking at? Are there others too?”

That suspicion was true.

SLAAAASH—!

“It’s a swordsman!”

“Stop him!”

“A great blade!?”

“A warrior wielding a great blade appeared!”

SLASH, SLAAAASH, SLAAAASH—!

Leo hurriedly pulled himself together and ran, stepping over dead soldiers.

At first, there had been so many allies that he could not even see the rear, but now most of them had fallen, and he could.

Perhaps......

Perhaps the enemies had also brought an army of 50,000.

Perhaps they had brought in an outstanding bowman, an outstanding mage, and an uncontrollable demon in order to oppose Parion.

And then—

“Sword Cry.”

KIIIIIIIIING—!!!

More than 2,000 allies were sliced away.

Yes, they had surely brought even an outstanding warrior.

Leo ran over his allies’ corpses and, at last, arrived at the rear of the soldiers who had endured until the end.

Only about 4,000 soldiers remained, and just as he passed them and was finally about to face the enemies—

“Cut Them in Two.”

SLAAAAAAAAASH—!!!!

Everyone in front of him was cut down, and the path opened completely. Before the fallen soldiers, a single man stood.

“......!”

Seeing him, Leo was startled.

A bow was slung over the man’s back, and his quiver was full of arrows with short arrowheads.

It was the identity of the ingenious and powerful arrows he had seen.

Also, at the man’s right waist hung a hammer.

It was identical to the enormous hammer that had filled the sky.

In the man’s hand was a single huge great blade.

Only when Leo saw him standing there, frozen in the same posture in which he had swung it and cut down the soldiers, did he realize.

It was one person......

It was not a great mage who held a grudge against the Parion Empire, nor an archer unit, nor a demon.

He was simply someone skilled in many different things, who had cut down 60,000 alone.