Ch.235235. The Frankish Kingdom (4)

When exposed to the flames of flamethrowers powered by fuel created through alchemy and chemistry, cavalry soldiers frequently suffered prolonged burning before their breath was finally cut off, rather than perishing instantly in the flames.

While the Dawn Empire’s soldiers were indeed ruthlessly cruel and wished for their enemies to suffer more… the main reason was that the cavalry were inexplicably resilient compared to the flamethrowers’ firepower.

A 7th-grade warrior wearing thick armor would sustain significant damage when exposed to a flamethrower, but this damage wasn’t severe enough to cause instant death.

When these warriors, who could manipulate magical power at will, faced a life-threatening moment, their magical power instinctively worked throughout their bodies to maintain a near-death state for survival.

Of course, this miserable condition of being neither dead nor alive, with life barely hanging on, was certainly not what those who had been crisped by flamethrowers would have wanted.

Anyway, as more and more cavalry soldiers were either thoroughly roasted or heated up before collapsing to the ground…

By the time approximately 2,000 casualties had been directly created through flamethrowers, the magical fuel contained in the flamethrower troops’ suits was severely depleted.

While it might be possible for the flamethrower troops to use their own magical power as fuel instead, it would be nearly impossible for them to emit the same powerful flames as before.

Click, clack!

Therefore, the flamethrower troops detached the flamethrowers fixed to the backs of their hands, directly grasped the flame nozzle parts, and switched the flamethrowers to high-heat, high-pressure cutting mode for dealing with heavily armored enemies.

And so, as the soldiers prepared for battle in front of mountains of corpses that had been reduced to something resembling piles of ashes…

“””””””””DIEEEEEE───!!!”””””””””

“God of Justice!! Incarnation of Chivalry!!”

“Show no mercy to those evil creatures──!!”

The cavalry, driven mad by witnessing their fellow riders burning to death cruelly before their eyes, finally had the chance to clash with the imperial army’s formation without being exposed to that terrible firepower.

They aimed their Kingdom’s Fury (lances) held rigidly between their armpits and signaled to their horses, with whom they had built bonds almost like brotherhood through arduous training.

An attack close to the textbook lance charging technique, ingrained in their bodies through repeated practice drills.

The cavalry who charged forth to execute this immediately collided with the imperial army’s formation───

───KWAAAAAAANG!!!

KWANG!! KWAAANG!! KWANG!!

With the collision, sounds like trucks ramming into objects echoed from all directions, and the Avenger Legion soldiers who had been holding tower shields were sent flying far away from the impact.

Of course, the lances used by the cavalry shattered under the impact of the collision, but for these fantasy cavalry, lances were merely disposable consumables to begin with.

Therefore, they immediately drew their secondary weapons—clubs or blades—from their waists, intending to hunt down the collapsed formation in coordination with their bonded horses, but───

”””’……Huh?”””’

The moment they witnessed the soldiers who had been sent flying by the cavalry charge getting up one after another, the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry couldn’t help but think that something had gone terribly wrong.

But while they realized something was wrong, they couldn’t act on that realization….

“””””””””For the God of Vengeance!!!”””””””””

“””””””””Leave none of them alive!!”””””””””

“””””””””Warriors of vengeance, attack! ATTACK!!!”””””””””

Woooooong───!!

Slash!!!

Because before they could, the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry were being cut down by the weapons wielded by the Avenger Legion soldiers.

Indeed, the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry had succeeded in breaking the formation of the Avenger Legion, but even without their formation, each member of the Avenger Legion was an exceptional warrior.

Thus, having put down their tower shields, they demonstrated their unique martial prowess without restraint.

They skillfully used halberds to hook cavalry with the rear hook of the axe blade, dismounting them, slashing, stabbing, and finishing them off. Some veterans were already wielding their personal weapons, busily slaughtering the cavalry.

“Ugh, AAAAAAAH───!!”

“Quick, trample them!!”

Neeeigh───!!!

──CRUNCH!

Naturally, the cavalry also desperately resisted the Avenger Legion, but the warriors who had accumulated decades of combat experience serving the Empire displayed combat prowess beyond imagination.

Halberds swung with superhuman strength completely bisected the kingdom’s cavalry along with their horses, and in an instant, the spear tips of the halberds penetrated the gaps in their armor.

In the midst of this chaotic battle, the fate that awaited the cavalry—who needed sufficient space to reinforce their impact with a charge—was horrific.

And at the same time, on the flank of the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry…

“””””””””KILL THEM ALL───!!!!”””””””””

“””””””””WAAAAAAAAAAH───!!!!”””””””””

“AWOOOOOOOO───!!!!”

“D-Don’t run away!! Stand and fight!!”

“Ugh, AAAAAAAH!! Fight! Don’t lose to these evil creatures!!”

The battlefield where the Avenger Legion’s heavy cavalry—Blood Wolf Riders—had rushed in was, unsurprisingly, unfolding under their one-sided slaughter.

These riders, mounted on armored monstrous wolves—Blood Wolves—as large as bears, spent their time enthusiastically slaughtering the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry with feral movements.

They ambushed the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry, who were still organizing, with an incredibly fast charge.

They confused their enemies by driving lance charges into both of their flanks.

The damage inflicted by these Tier 1 heavy cavalry appearing suddenly on their flanks was significant, but the key point was that they blocked the Frank Kingdom’s cavalry from flanking maneuvers.

The true value of cavalry as a military branch lies in their ability to utilize wider spaces compared to infantry, and to enable more flexible movement on the battlefield based on overwhelming mobility.

While reality might differ, in this world, powerful war horses can run for over an hour even with heavy cavalry on their backs.

Just blocking the cavalry’s spatial dominance through overwhelming mobility would have been enough to fulfill their role, but not content with that, the Blood Wolf Riders were one-sidedly massacring their enemies.

Though the form might be slightly different, this too was a direction of the anvil and hammer tactics.

And at the same time as the Frank Kingdom’s proud cavalry was being annihilated in this chaotic battle…

“UAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

CLANG!! CLANG! CLAAANG──!!

In one part of the battlefield, the battle between intermediate warriors was about to come to an end.

※ ※ ※

If we narrow down the foundation supporting the Frank Kingdom to two elements, one would be cavalry and the other would be the kingdom’s intermediate warriors—namely, the knights.

To inherit the position of a lord governing a territory, one must become a knight. These knights, whose foundation lies in the role of “protecting the territory,” are both the kingdom’s highest power class and—the strong.

In an age of struggle where the weak lost everything—power, authority, everything—in a survival of the fittest, the number of powerless rulers inevitably decreased.

Anyway, these warriors who engaged in territorial battles almost daily in this violent and barbaric environment.

In other words, knights trained by gaining experience in an environment where the weak were consistently weeded out have a high average level, and above all, being rulers, they can obtain good equipment.

Considering that equipment is the most decisive variable in determining the outcome between warriors of equal skill, this alone makes it undeniable that knights are excellent warriors.

Additionally, the animals knights ride are not limited to simple horses.

The result is warriors who ride at minimum hippogriffs and sometimes even wyverns.

There are cases where they form soul contracts with their mounts, allowing them to move as if they were one body. Ultimately, these subtle differences combine to make knights synonymous with powerful warriors.

However, these formidable knights overlooked one fact….

If even ordinary Avenger Legion soldiers are strong enough that they can’t be faced without intermediate-level strength, then what kind of monster would be born if such a soldier were to awaken their aura?

And now, the result was unfolding in the middle of this plain.

Amid knights scattered everywhere, each missing at least one limb, ten intermediate warriors of the Avenger Legion—Avenge Knights—were examining the condition of their weapons.

The result of forty Frank Kingdom knights charging with their weapons and partners was an overwhelming and miserable defeat at the hands of just ten divinely skilled Avenge Knights.

The Avenge Knights, wearing red armor decorated with orichalcum and covered with surcoats, faced the forty individuals—the kingdom’s knights—as a single group of ten.

Using the bulk of the intermediate mounts to their advantage, they executed a meticulous encirclement tactic that resulted in the fall of the kingdom’s knights, thus concluding the battle on this plain with an overwhelming victory for the Empire.