Total War 4

Enoch Razvolnic was the strongest. His power transcended convention.

Hence, his actions often shattered many existing common senses.

The human race possesses inferior physicality. Experience and skill are proportional to age. The Demon Lord represents unavoidable annihilation. All these were common senses that crumbled before the counterexample of Enoch.

And here was yet another example:

[An individual cannot defeat an army.]

A self-evident common sense, almost embarrassing to even put into words. Yet before Enoch, even this lost its obviousness.

Doyun walked.

Step, step.

He exited the fortress and stood facing the enemy’s million-strong army.

Then, he drew the first of the four spears strapped to his back.

Shinggg—

Conventionally, wars unfold in a structured manner.

After the sides confront each other, long-range area attacks and defenses are exchanged through magic and arrows. The first clash then occurs via a cavalry charge or the formation of a shield wall. From there, the melee phase governed by tactics begins.

Perhaps because they did not expect Doyun to take the field from the very start, the enemy forces scrambled to rearrange their formations.

Though only one man, they did not underestimate him. His status as a warrior was now widely known. They prepared to engage Doyun.

An officer at the vanguard bellowed:

“Hurry and swap formations!”

Doyun calmly waited. He pulled out a cigarette, the smoke laced with mind-calming substances alleviating his boredom.

The crux of this tactic was to bolster allied morale and seize the initiative from the enemy. For this, an overwhelming display was necessary. Allowing the enemy time to prepare would contribute to the appropriate showmanship.

After all, any efforts would be futile before him.

“Whew…”

The formation adjustment was only completed around the time Doyun had exhaled the smoke twice.

The front ranks parted, and the shield bearers advanced. An astonishing three high-ranking Demon Lord officers attached themselves to a single line of shield bearers.

Armored war horses, knights atop them in heavy plate armor. The officer was ‘United Shield’. The thirty iron-clad shield bearers forming the shield wall were his ability. For decades, no charge had penetrated their defenses.

A towering figure with an abnormally slender build and distinctly wizard-like robes. The officer was ‘Fortress Guardian Mage Tower’. A defensive magic specialist excelling in fortification and shield walls.

A golem rivaling sturdy mountains, standing over 10 meters tall. The officer was ‘Walking Earthquake’. Excluding the Vanguard Commander Black Duskroot, no being in the Demon Lord’s forces was larger or heavier.

‘United Shield’s’ shield bearers formed an impregnable shield wall. ‘Fortress Guardian Mage Tower’ layered honeycomb-patterned magic shields in front of them. Behind the shield bearers, ‘Walking Earthquake’ crouched like an artillery piece, supporting the formation.

The vanguard commander, ‘Walking Earthquake’, bellowed in a booming voice:

“Hold the line! Do not cede the initiative!”

An unprecedented collaboration of three defensive Vanguard Commanders. A shield wall considered among the most formidable in the Demon Lord’s history.

They were confident that not even the mightiest warrior could breach this defense.

‘He hasn’t even fully regained his prime power, after all!’

However, those making this misjudgment shared a common point.

All three officers had been absent from the war a hundred years ago, thus never witnessing Enoch’s true might firsthand.

They wore smug smiles.

Doyun observed them as he exhaled smoke.

“Whew…”

There was no need to ignite the second heart or use evolved dual-wielding techniques. Level 8 Mana and a single Level 6 B-Rate skill would suffice.

Doyun channeled mana into the yellow spear in his hand. Reacting to the mana, the spear’s outline became indistinct before transforming into lightning, crackling and undulating.

He drew his right arm, now grasping the lightning-infused spear, far behind him. Twisting his waist, he extended his left foot and hand forward. The tip of his extended left index finger and his gaze aligned with the trajectory of the spear’s tip, wavering beside his forehead.

His left foot, firmly planted, raised a counterforce. It concentrated from his legs, through his waist and shoulders, finally converging in his right hand like a vortex.

A brief tension and stillness before the first clash of the total war. The eyes of the Demon Lord and Alliance forces focused on the scene.

Witnessing Doyun’s stance, Heineken nodded in approval.

‘A perfect spear-throwing stance.’

The Level 6 B-Rate rating surpassed even his own spear techniques as the continent’s foremost spearman.

Perhaps no one on the continent could find fault with Doyun’s current stance.

Just as the overconfident officers unconsciously swallowed hard, Doyun’s body, tautly coiled like a maximally drawn spring, finally moved.

The lightning spear ‘Astrape’ discharged from his palm like a cannon, leaving a numbing recoil sensation.

Twang—!

In an instant, the spear elongated. A thick bolt of lightning, like divine punishment, horizontally swept across the ground in a furious charge.

Finally, the moment the sharp lightning tip struck the center of the hexagonal panel shields, the world flashed as thunder roared.

Kaboooooom—!

Crackle!

Amidst the thunderclap, the sound of shattering glass was buried.

After the momentary flash, the shield bearers and officers blinked their eyes. The magic shields that had been before them had vanished, only scattered mana fragments containing sparks remaining. The central shield bearers’ bodies were pushed back, their footprints etched into the ground.

Not only had a single spear throw shattered the magic shields infused with the officers’ full power, but it had also disrupted the shield wall itself.

The owner of the shields, ‘Fortress Guardian Mage Tower’, coughed up blood from the severe internal injuries.

“Kuheck! In, Insane…!”

He unleashed a flurry of curses in shock before hurriedly wielding his staff. A much flimsier makeshift shield was hastily generated from the edges, reforming a frontal barrier.

“Qu, Quickly reform the shaken ranks! Do not retreat!”

Stunned by the display of might from a single spear throw, ‘Walking Earthquake’ shouted hoarsely.

Doyun deeply inhaled the cigarette in his mouth. As he exhaled, the dense smoke scattered in the wind.

He then quietly drew out a second spear, pulling his arm back to ready another throw.

No sooner had ‘Walking Earthquake’ finished speaking than the second spear hurtled towards them.

The spear shot from behind Doyun, trailing dust. Instead of a spearhead, it had a blunt, cotton bud-like tip.

The thrown spear easily shattered the hastily erected thin shield without losing any speed. Soon, the spear’s head collided with the center of the shield wall.

Like striking a gong, a distinct shockwave radiated outward from the impact point.

Boooooooom—!

It could not be dismissed as mere sound. The distortion of space was visible to the eye.

In the wake of the thick, clear shockwave, nothing remained. Shards of shields and shield bearers—iron scraps and flesh—scattered in all directions.

‘Walking Earthquake’, who had been supporting from behind, felt the spray of hot blood over his body. His mountain-like frame trembled in terror. The front was now wide open, and Doyun was already drawing his third spear.

Witnessing this, ‘Walking Earthquake’ cried out in a quivering voice:

“Wh, Wha, What is this?! The shield wall…! An, Anyone, come forward and form a shield wall! Stand at the front, quickly!!”

But the non-shield bearing soldiers could only hesitate, unable to move. The chunks of flesh and pools of blood littering the ground held their feet back.

The predetermined outcome was all too clear. If they advanced now, they would share the fate of the remains on the ground.

Exasperated by their pitiful display, ‘Walking Earthquake’ shrieked:

“I said stand at the front!!”

The soldiers did not move.

The Alliance soldiers watched with widened eyes. The dreaded Demon Lord officers’ joint impregnable defensive wall had been spread wide open like a whore’s legs, utterly helpless against a single warrior.

Doyun’s tactic was proving highly effective even before the proper engagement had begun.

After another exhale of smoke, Doyun readied the third spear.

‘Walking Earthquake’, who had been shouting at the soldiers, ultimately fell silent and committed all his considerable 10-meter stature’s might in a desperate bid to survive.

“Hrrrmmm!”

Though his body was sturdy, his eyes trembled as vulnerably as a young girl’s.

When Doyun channeled mana into the third, pale gray spear, the shaft shuddered violently as its weight rapidly increased. Doyun’s feet sank slightly into the ground, and the veins in his arms bulged. Yet his stance remained unwavering.

As if releasing a tautly drawn bowstring, Doyun extended his arm in an elastic motion. The pale gray spear, propelled by a recoil force matching its mass, shot forth from his palm.

Twang—!

Trailing dust in its wake, the airborne spear continued growing heavier, until right before the impact point, its slender shaft contained a mass that defied belief.

The spear’s name was ‘Vashee Gimgochang’ (As You Wish Heavy Ring Spear), a compression weapon that could freely reduce and increase its mass.

While maintaining its initially imparted acceleration, it only increased its mass. The resulting impact force was unimaginable.

The moment the spear’s tip reached ‘Walking Earthquake’s’ solar plexus, he felt an immense force and opened his eyes wide in shock.

This single, thin, elongated spear was heavier than his own massive frame.

But his astonishment was short-lived. His consciousness was extinguished forever, accompanied by a tremendous boom.

Kaboooooom—!

‘Walking Earthquake’s’ feet momentarily left the ground. Though his massive, mountain-like body only retreated two meters, the ‘Vashee Gimgochang’ fully penetrated him, passing through with a radial shockwave.

A two-meter diameter hole had been cleanly punched through the center of the rocky mountain. Shrapnel scattered from the exit wound in his back. His body fell to the ground amid a quake-like, heavy impact.

Boooom!

The Demon Lord’s front line was now completely vacant. With the commanding officer overseeing the defense dead, not a single dragonkin soldier dared to step forward. The atrocity they had just witnessed was enough to instill terror in them.

Doyun took one final, deep drag of his cigarette and parted his lips.

“Schhhh— Whew…”

The butt fell with a light tap. It had taken no more than the time to finish a single cigarette for the warrior to pry open the Demon Lord’s front lines.

The spear throws had concluded. Doyun drew out a fourth, green-tinted spear and shouldered it like a lance.

The fourth was the ‘Aero’ wind spear, his preferred weapon.

The path was clear. Now, only one thing remained.

‘Break through to the center in one go.’

He rotated his spear-gripping wrist, adjusting his grip. A breeze blew.

Shhhhhh…

The wind enveloped the spear.