Ch.692Plains Battle

“…What is that?”

Targiyan muttered, twitching the corner of his eye as he spotted a group of troops rushing toward them, making the earth rumble.

An army of eight thousand wearing chain mail. Judging by their thorough equipment, they didn’t seem to be hastily gathered rabble.

“Weren’t we told there would be no ambush?”

“They’re not Imperial reinforcements. Looking at their armor style… it seems the Dane bastards have dispatched emergency support.”

“Reinforcements from Dane? Huh, ridiculous. What nonsense is this now…”

Targiyan let out a dry laugh. For those who had abandoned the city and fled to now come charging in—he could only respond with bitter amusement.

“Their khan must be as stupid as Amin. If they were going to fight anyway, they would have had a slightly better chance holding out behind the city walls from the beginning.”

“Perhaps they’re planning to defeat us in parts while we’re divided?”

His adjutant, Champion Baita, cautiously suggested that they might be trying to exploit the gap between Aishan’s main force being split into siege troops and follow-up units.

“Defeat us in parts?”

Targiyan burst into laughter as if he’d heard an amusing joke and patted Baita’s shoulder.

“Is that even possible?”

“Of course not.”

Though his tone was truly arrogant, Baita couldn’t help but agree. Facing them with just eight thousand troops in chain mail was nearly impossible.

“Anyway, this works out well. I thought today would end with just watching, but thanks to them, we’ll have some entertainment.”

Targiyan turned his horse sideways with a savage grin and approached War Chief Ibamai.

Though Targiyan himself was the commander-in-chief of the rear forces, issuing an attack order unilaterally still required the War Chief’s consent.

‘Well… we’ll have to fight regardless of orders.’

They weren’t charging toward Aishan to negotiate peace. Combat was inevitable regardless of Ibamai’s response.

—-

“Of course we must fight.”

Ibamai nodded as soon as he heard Targiyan’s question, as if he had never considered any option besides combat.

“Will you be alright in your condition?”

Targiyan’s eyes moved toward Ibamai’s lower body. His amputated legs had been forcibly stitched, and his thighs were tied to the saddle to prevent falling.

It was an incredibly reckless method, but it was the only way for Ibamai to fight as a warrior after losing his legs.

Even then, he was limited to wielding weapons from horseback. It was clear he wouldn’t be able to walk properly if he fell.

“No problem. I’ll prove it if you wish.”

Of course, the War Chief’s fighting spirit wasn’t weak enough to be broken by physical limitations.

Ibamai proudly responded while thumping his breastplate, saying that losing his legs didn’t erase the Karma he had accumulated.

“Impressive.”

Targiyan nodded slightly with respect, then drew his curved sword and extended it toward the approaching Dane forces.

“Warriors of Aishan-! Draw your bows! Your prey is running toward you of their own accord!”

“UOOOOOH!”

Some of the Red Banner troops left as the follow-up unit and the Black Banner troops all roared as they pulled out the bows attached to their saddles.

Though Orhan considered Targiyan simple-minded, he was surprisingly well-respected among the warriors.

His simple, crude, and bellicose flaws were seen by the equally simple-minded warriors as brave, bold, and imposing—truly warrior-like virtues.

“Ibamai, I leave the Black Banner troops to you! Red Banner troops, follow me!”

“Yes!”

As Targiyan whipped his reins, thousands of cavalry with raised red flags charged forward as one.

Unlike the tedious siege warfare, this was a battle they couldn’t help but welcome—a fight they had no doubt of winning. The field battle on the plains had begun.

—-

The Ka’har, a people who learn to ride horses before learning to walk on two legs.

Each one was skilled enough in horsemanship and archery to shoot down flying birds from horseback.

They were the natural enemy of infantry-focused nations, capable of deploying all their forces as mounted archers.

As long as there was enough space for cavalry to maneuver, they could maintain distance from the enemy while raining arrows, inflicting one-sided casualties without suffering any losses themselves.

“Fire!”

Following Targiyan’s command, the mounted archers nocked arrows to their composite bows and released their bowstrings simultaneously. Around two thousand arrows shot in diagonal formation, flying in arcs toward the enemies’ heads.

At a distance where infantry weapons couldn’t even come close to reaching them.

The Dane archers shot back, but hitting the Ka’har cavalry with indirect fire was nearly impossible as they scattered and regrouped in all directions, treating the earth as their home ground.

Of course, the Dane commanders understood this fact as well.

Unlike the Imperial forces who rarely faced Ka’har cavalry thanks to the Wall, the Dane people had been directly exposed to Ka’har raids.

“Shield battalion! Block their arrows!”

As soon as the defensive commanders’ orders fell, strange words echoed from various parts of the Dane formation.

ᛉ ᛉ ᛉ ᛉ

“Algiz!” “Algiz.” “Algiz-!” “Al, Algiz!”

Blue mana light surged from various points in the Dane front line, forming a translucent curtain of light like the northern aurora over the soldiers’ heads.

The rune of protection.

By now, quite some time after Dane had discovered the Mimisbrunnr ruins, rune imprinting had spread throughout the Dane army as common knowledge.

While multiple rune implantation remained the privilege of Crusaders, soldiers with just the defensive rune were abundant.

The arrows shot by the Red Banner troops collided with the light barrier.

– Dudududu!

Each time an arrowhead struck the light barrier, ripples like raindrops in a puddle appeared and disappeared across its surface.

The weakened arrows slid along the outer surface of the barrier and fell in showers.

—-

The mana barrier deployed by the Dane people shook violently as if about to shatter at any moment, but nevertheless, it blocked all the arrows without being penetrated.

“Ha, what is that now?”

Targiyan let out a hollow laugh while rubbing his temple as he watched.

“Does that country have sorcerers sprouting from the ground?”

Hundreds of sorcerers. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen such a sight. When he led the Red Banner troops to capture Dane’s border fortress, hadn’t an unusually large number of spells rained down?

‘Just what have they been doing for nine years…’

For Targiyan, who remembered the great war nine years ago, it was truly baffling.

Back then, the Dane people had barely a handful of sorcerers except for the Crusaders who worshipped the war god.

How they had managed to train so many sorcerers in just nine years was something Targiyan couldn’t comprehend.

‘Anyway, it seems they can easily block attacks of this level.’

Sorcerers who blocked thousands of arrows completely.

While it would be demoralizing to face such enemies, Targiyan instead smiled more fiercely.

‘Then, let’s see how long they can keep blocking!’

Targiyan shouted loudly.

“Close the distance! Don’t aim for their crowns, but pierce those blue eyes!”

The order was to approach close enough for direct shots to hit, rather than firing in arcs from maximum range.

The Red Banner standard-bearer pointed his flag-mounted spear forward, and the surrounding warriors inserted their bows into their saddles and raised their shields as they charged toward the enemy.

“Black Banner troops! Follow the Red Banner troops and advance!”

Seeing this and judging that Targiyan had chosen to charge the enemy, Ibamai also issued a charge order to the Black Banner troops and whipped his reins.

Four thousand heavy cavalry began to charge, making the earth rumble.

—-

“Lord Burgund! The Ka’har bastards are approaching!”

“Form defensive formation! Infantry protect the front and both flanks, archers and magic battalions return fire from the center! Cavalry wait at the rear of the formation!”

Burgund, the commander-in-chief of the Dane defense corps, ordered urgently.

In a normal engagement, he would have placed cavalry on both wings, but sending wing cavalry forward against the Ka’har would be suicide.

If both sides’ cavalry collided, his forces would likely be overwhelmed, and the enemy cavalry weren’t the type to face allied cavalry in a straightforward manner anyway.

Therefore, Dane’s cavalry had to be positioned not on the wings but at the rear, waiting until the Ka’har cavalry engaged with the infantry square.

Following Burgund’s orders, the Dane defense forces that had been charging in disorder stopped in place and formed a defensive square.

They hoped their newly learned rune magic would help against the Ka’har forces, which in the past they could never have faced even with defensive formations.

“Deployment complete!”

“Archers, volley fire! Magic battalion, wait until they’re in range!”

The Dane archers raised their longbows and released their bowstrings. Long arrows rained down in arcs like streams of rain.

Unlike when exchanging fire at maximum range, perhaps due to the narrowed distance between the forces, their arrows began to properly hit their targets.

– Twung!

Even so, most were blocked by shields.