Chapter 121:Battle of Ramdas Plain (8) Part 2
by fnovelpia
Sir Lothar… Just when it seemed he was starting to come to his senses, of course he goes missing in a moment like this.
As he drove Abelinus forward in a rush, a strange chill ran down Keldric’s spine he instinctively swung his sword.
Clang—!
An arrow, aimed straight at Abelinus’s head, ricocheted far away.
Keldric’s head felt like it was about to burst.
“These bastards…!”
It was pure rage. At first, he had been flustered, but now their cowardly tactic of firing arrows from afar and retreating infuriated him beyond measure.
Keldric’s eyes began to blaze with murderous fury.
‘He would tear through their encirclement and escape but he would not retreat.’
Retreat was never an option for Keldric.
‘Kill them all.’
The thought consumed his mind.
“Agh!”
A scream pierced the air. Keldric’s head whipped around toward the sound.
It was unmistakably Lord Lothar’s voice. Spurring Abelinus toward the source, he soon spotted a warhorse collapsed with an arrow lodged in its side.
“Grhk…! Is anyone there?! Lord Rutger!”
Beneath the horse lay Lord Lothar. The crimson plume of his helmet was speckled with snow.
Keldric urged Abelinus forward at full speed. As the horse’s hooves struck the ground, the whistling of arrows transformed into blades of wind slicing past his ears.
The distance between them closed rapidly. Lord Lothar, too, noticed Keldric charging toward him.
“K-Keldric! I’m here! Don’t trample me—!”
“Your arm!”
“What?!”
“Your arm stretch it out!!” Keldric roared, veins bulging in his neck.
Startled, Lord Lothar thrust out his arm. Without slowing, Keldric seized it mid-gallop and yanked with all his might.
“Hrk!”
“Wh-what…?! Aaaagh!”
A miraculous sight unfolded: Lord Lothar, whose lower half had been pinned beneath the horse, was wrenched free as if plucking a radish from soil.
Dangling briefly in midair, he scrambled to cling to Keldric’s back.
“How… how is this possible—?!”
“Lord Lothar! We must break through the siege!”
“What?!”
“Hold on tight!”
There was no time to explain. Keldric drove Abelinus into a full sprint. The horse was already exhausted, but Keldric gripped the reins desperately.
‘Hold on… Just a little longer, Abelinus!’
As if answering his plea, Abelinus charged forward with unbelievable speed, frothing at the mouth and heaving breaths, until they reached Lord Rutger.
“Keldric!”
“Lord Rutger! I’ve retrieved Lord Lothar!”
“Good! We’ll breach their lines now!”
Few knights remained visible. Cavalry losses had long surpassed a dozen.
But urgency left no room to regroup.
“Form up and— Grk?!”
As Lord Rutger raised his sword to order the charge, an arrow struck his flank.
Keldric lunged to catch his collapsing body. Blood dripped steadily from the wound a cruel strike to an exposed weak point.
“Lord Rutger! Lord Rutger!”
“Me, I’m fine! Leave me behind!”
Sir Rutger shouted with great effort. Upon hearing those words, Keldric hesitated for a moment.
‘Should I leave him like this?’
If he did, Sir Rutger would buy them some time and right now, every second was precious.
If even one enemy was distracted, that would be enough.
“…No!”
But Keldric refused to allow it.
He immediately entrusted Sir Rutger to Sir Henri, who, in a flurry, hauled the wounded knight onto his horse.
The two knights were nowhere to be seen, and the senior knight had been struck by an arrow, rendered unable to fight.
Even in this dire situation, Keldric had no intention of giving up.
“We break through like this!”
The surviving knights and cavalry barely had time to register their shock before they swiftly tightened their reins and formed up.
They knew whether they liked it or not, their only chance of survival was to follow Keldric’s lead.
“Charge! CHARGE!”
Keldric roared fiercely. Taking the front, he spurred his horse forward, and the remaining knights and cavalry followed.
A concentrated breakthrough was the specialty of knights. Forming a wedge, there was no line they couldn’t pierce.
Now was the time to prove it.
Keldric gripped his mace tightly as he charged. Abelinus’ breathing grew ragged beyond description.
As the knights drove forward in their wedge formation, the Lys cavalry surged to block their path.
Keldric saw the thick wall of men before him.
‘In any other situation, no sane man would charge into such a death trap.’
“BREAK THROUGH!”
But now, a little madness was necessary.
CRASH!!
The moment Keldric bellowed, the knights and Lys cavalry collided.
In a wedge formation, the lead knight bore the heaviest burden to carve open the path of escape.
CRUNCH! THUD!
“Guh—!”
“Kkh—!”
Keldric’s eyes burned crimson as he swung his mace like a madman. With his free left hand, he grabbed anything within reach and hurled it.
Lys soldiers were sent flying by his brutal strikes. Riderless horses scattered the enemy’s encirclement.
Whenever an arrow came flying from somewhere, Sir Lothar, riding behind him, barely managed to deflect it with his shield.
“Sir Keldric! Sir Keldriiiic! At this rate, we’ll all die!”
“HOLD ON TIGHT!”
“ARGHH!”
Kill, kill, and kill again. Blow after furious blow rained down.
The skulls of Lys soldiers shattered under Keldric’s mace. Chunks of flesh, splintered bone, eyeballs, and sticky brain matter splattered everywhere.
And it wasn’t just Keldric fighting desperately. Sir Henri and the knights following him also poured their all into the slaughter.
“KILL THEM ALL! How dare they trample upon our honor!”
“For glory!”
A spearhead came thrusting from somewhere. It scraped across Keldric’s breastplate.
An arrow flew in from another direction. It bounced off Keldric’s helmet.
There was even a spear aimed at the joint of Keldric’s gauntlet.
As soon as he was stabbed, Keldric immediately broke the spear shaft and struck back with his mace.
Arrows kept hammering against Keldric’s chain mail. Eventually, a chain link snapped and unraveled with a clatter.
An arrow pierced through the now-exposed spot. Keldric hurled the broken spear shaft in the direction the arrow had come from.
Swords, spears, arrows all manner of attacks were mostly focused on Keldric.
Yet Keldric fought back without so much as a flinch.
Behind him, Sir Lothar, frantically defending the rear, realized that blood was starting to smear his hand.
“This is….”
It wasn’t Sir Lothar’s blood. It was coming from Keldric’s body.
Blood flowing from the wound where the arrow had struck stained Sir Lothar’s hand.
And indeed, a knight is one who carves out victory through blood and sweat.
“It’s pierced!”
Sir Henri, following behind, shouted. Sir Lothar looked ahead with trembling eyes.
The chaotic melee of steel and blood disappeared, revealing a pristine white snowfield.
They had broken through the vicious encirclement the one that seemed impossible to breach.
Keldric had charged forward alone. Breaking everything in his path, he had made it through.
“The soldiers are coming!”
One of the knights shouted. Sir Lothar saw the retreating Griffin mercenaries in the distance, and the soldiers rushing toward them.
The encirclement by the Lys cavalry was in disarray. Fallen horses and bodies on the ground had disrupted their mobility.
It was too late to surround the soldiers again too many of the mounted archers had already died.
Now, with the knights having broken through the encirclement, the Lys cavalry had only two choices left:
To keep fighting, or to retreat.
“The enemy is retreating!”
Bwooo~!
A long horn signaled the retreat. Dozens of Lys cavalry urgently turned their horses.
But the knights had no intention of letting them go unharmed. Neither did Keldric.
It wasn’t just the soldiers who had rushed over.
Attendants, having sensed the knights’ crisis from the military camp, had each brought their spare horses.
Among them was Boreas, brought by Helga.
Keldric entrusted the exhausted Aveline and mounted Boreas.
“Sir Keldric! You must return to the camp!”
Sir Lothar, knowing that Keldric was wounded, was horrified.
He was already bleeding, and yet he was going to fight again?
But Keldric didn’t care.
Keeping pace with the following troops, he reformed the formation and once again spurred Boreas into a charge.
Sir Lothar stared blankly at the figure growing distant.
“…Sir Keldric.”
A knight yes, a knight charges forward without fear, for the sake of honor.
But really, there is no such thing as a man who knows no fear. And yet…
‘How does he…’
A shiver ran down Sir Lothar’s spine.
From afar, Keldric’s back, rising and falling with heavy breaths, looked unimaginably massive.
At that moment, only one thought echoed in Sir Lothar’s mind:
‘If that is not the figure of a true lord… then what is it?’
Heroes who command the world and leave their mark on history always break out from a bag of turmoil and chaos.
They become lords, monarchs, kings.
Perhaps just perhaps he had just witnessed a hero destined to be etched into history.
His heart pounded. His breath, rough with excitement, escaped in pale puffs.
Sir Lothar felt it, unmistakably.
In times of chaos, a hero always appears and he had just seen the makings of one with his own eyes.
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