Ch.248Collision

When the enemy knights were still in confusion, Hersella’s idea seemed to be working well.

If we could threaten the enemy forces into surrendering, we might be able to end this conflict with minimal casualties. Not just me, but likely all of our commanders thought the same.

However, that sense of relief was short-lived. Isabella and her human garbage employed methods we never anticipated, dragging this fight into the mud.

“AAAAARGH!”

A scream closer to a wail than a battle cry.

Conscripts wearing only padded armor rushed toward death like a swarm of bees.

It was grotesque and chilling to see them running desperately with pale faces and streaming tears.

Following them were six thousand… no, probably fewer than five thousand now, regular soldiers being driven toward us by a rain of arrows from behind.

They had no choice but to advance. Anyone who resisted or tried to flee was being targeted with concentrated fire.

These madmen, forcing their own soldiers into battle by killing those who resist? Even though they know they can’t win?

These pieces of garbage…!

The holy light that had settled on my body faded as if being consumed.

My rising anger was greedily devouring the blessed light, rapidly restoring the strength I had spent.

“YOU SONS OF BITCHES!”

My erupting rage swirled with murderous intent.

=============

With things turning this way, it was Ernst’s knights who became confused instead.

They had been seriously considering surrender, but now the conscripts—whom they had expected to be mere numbers—were charging at them with desperate fury.

They clearly weren’t running toward Leopold’s army to surrender… at this rate, they would be pushed into the middle of the chaotic battle.

Surrender or fight? There was barely time to consider carefully.

They needed to make a decision before Leopold’s heavy cavalry charged at them, having judged the approaching conscripts as resistance.

Fear seeped into their hearts like fog, while loyalty and survival instincts clashed in their minds.

Their confused thoughts produced different answers, as chaotic as the rapidly changing battle situation.

“I will take the righteous path! Those who know honor, follow me!”

One knight threw down his lance and turned his horse around.

Even if they wanted to surrender, approaching Leopold’s forces now might be mistaken as an attack, so he intended to leave the battlefield entirely.

Though he spoke of the righteous path and honor, it was really just an expression of not wanting to die meaninglessly.

A group of knights followed him, breaking formation.

The limitation of a war without cause. They couldn’t find value in sacrificing their lives on this battlefield.

Even the loyalty they had been indoctrinated with became blurred before a lord who was driving them to worthless deaths.

After all, knights were people too.

“You speak of honor while fleeing from fear of death! How dare you spout such nonsense, you coward!”

Some knights roared in opposition.

But their cries failed to evoke any response.

While they criticized the fleeing ones for cowardice, in truth, those who remained were the ones who had committed too many crimes to escape punishment even if they surrendered.

More and more knights deserted. The formation was severely disrupted.

“Leave those who lay down their weapons! Target only those who resist!”

“All heavy cavalry, prepare to charge! Elpinel wills it. Eliminate the witch’s servants without exception!”

As if driving a wedge into the wavering knights, the attack order finally came from Leopold’s camp.

The heavy cavalry, which had been approaching slowly, spurred their horses and increased speed.

Hoofbeats thundered like rolling thunder. Lances fixed to armor rings gleamed white like sea foam.

Excited warhorses charged forward, foaming at the mouth, with the momentum to crush anything in their path.

“Damn it…! Take up your spears! We’ll charge to meet them! Fight for your lord, for Lord Ernst!”

They couldn’t stop now.

That would mean taking a one-sided beating from Leopold’s heavy cavalry.

The remaining two thousand cavalry of Ernst’s forces charged all at once. Just as Isabella had intended.

With their rear blocked by a wall of people, their only way to survive was to move forward.

The collision was now unavoidable.

Catastrophe was right before their eyes.

And then,

The violently colliding tides of steel crashed together with a deafening roar.

—-

The head-on collision of thousands of heavy cavalry.

It was truly like watching two meteors smash into each other.

Lance tips concentrating speed and weight into a single point. The impact threw the front riders off their horses.

While a knight’s lance might pierce through, the average heavy cavalryman’s lance could dent steel armor but lacked the power to pierce it like paper.

Still, that was enough to unseat opponents.

Screams, wails, shouts, and battle cries were all crushed under the hooves.

Once fallen from a horse, that was the end. Even a Master-level knight couldn’t survive under thousands of hooves, let alone ordinary soldiers.

Armor crumpled, bones shattered, necks twisted.

In just one collision, hundreds of lives vanished like bubbles.

Leopold’s heavy cavalry suffered some casualties too, but most of the fallen were from Ernst’s forces.

This was the expected outcome.

Their morale was low, their formation disrupted, and their opponents had received blessings from priests.

On top of that, the enemy had numerical superiority.

Due to deserters, Ernst’s cavalry numbered less than 60% of Leopold’s forces.

No matter how desperately they fought, victory was impossible.

“Draw your swords! Annihilate them all!”

Someone’s command echoed loudly.

The entangled cavalry discarded their lances and drew their weapons, beginning a chaotic melee.

The lance charge was only meant to break the enemy’s momentum and deliver a shock.

Against infantry it might be different, but against fellow heavy cavalry, one charge couldn’t annihilate the enemy.

Swords, axes, and blunt weapons flew everywhere, harvesting lives.

Knights crushed enemies armor and all, while less skilled cavalry aimed for gaps in heavy armor with pointed blades.

A melee like a muddy swamp. Screams and death spread in all directions.

Once the close combat began, the scales of battle tilted rapidly.

For every one of Leopold’s cavalry that fell, about three of Ernst’s were cut down.

Their individual skills might have been similar, but priests’ blessings truly shone in this kind of melee rather than during a charge.

The miracle of blessing that restored vitality, enhanced strength, and reduced injuries made Leopold’s forces twice as strong as they would normally be.

Moreover, the difference in elite forces was overwhelming.

Leopold’s heavy cavalry alone had thirteen Masters.

They had discarded their lances, drawn their favorite weapons, and were crushing enemies like splitting bamboo.

A greatsword swept through, taking down two or three at once, while those impaled on karma-imbued spear tips writhed in agony.

Heiden was cutting through enemy necks with dual swords, while Richard was bombarding with holy spears conjured in mid-air.

Ernst’s forces had Masters too, but they were struggling just to stay alive.

With all the Masters originally positioned at the front of the cavalry dead, only three remained.

They were like hunted rabbits.

No, their situation was even more precarious.

The woman who had established herself as the Empire’s strongest swordswoman was charging toward them, exuding murderous intent.

============

Damn it.

I swung my right hand while cursing.

Durandal’s blade extended like lightning, cutting through a knight’s body and armor in one stroke.

I grabbed a spear from the fallen knight who spilled his entrails and hurled it.

The thrown spear pierced through a line of heavy cavalry, skewering them like kebabs.

In the face of this inevitable collision, what I could do was limited.

Without slowing my pace at all, I cut down every enemy in sight, breaking and throwing everything I could grab as I advanced.

No one could block my path.

The area within reach of my sword had become almost empty.

These bastards who charged despite my offer to spare them.

Even they were now trying desperately to get out of my range rather than block my path.

“If you’re so eager to die, why aren’t you attacking?!”

Tentacles of murder karma burst forth like waves, tearing apart the knights who had distanced themselves.

Horses and riders alike collapsed, spilling their mixed entrails as they were torn to pieces.

I kept running without stopping. There was no time.

If this melee dragged on any longer, the conscripts rushing from the other side would join in.

That would result in an unprecedented massacre.

Sparing the conscripts’ lives was only my and Lacy’s wish. Others argued that even conscripts were enemies, and if they resisted to the end, we would have no choice but to eliminate them.

…I couldn’t object because they weren’t wrong.