Chapter 692

“…What the heck is that?”

Targien muttered, his eyes twitching as he spotted a group of forces charging across the land, shaking the ground.

Eight thousand troops clad in chainmail. Their equipment was solid, clearly not some hastily gathered rabble.

“Didn’t you say there were no ambushes?”

“It’s not the Empire’s ambush. Judging by the style of their armor… it seems the Dane bastards have sent reinforcements in a hurry.”

“Reinforcements from Dane? Hah, seriously. What kind of nonsense is this now…”

Targien let out a scoff. The same people who had abandoned their city and fled were now charging in. To him, it was nothing but laughable.

“That Khan of theirs must be as foolish as Amin. If they were going to fight anyway, they should’ve held their ground by the city walls from the start. That would’ve given them at least a sliver of a chance.”

“Perhaps they’re trying to exploit the gap in our divided forces to pick us off one by one?”

His adjutant, the Paladin Baitha, cautiously replied, suggesting that the main force of Aishan might be trying to take advantage of the siege army and the follow-up forces being split.

“Pick us off one by one?”

Targien burst into laughter, as if he had just heard a hilarious joke, and patted Baitha on the shoulder.

“Do you really think that’s possible?”

“Of course not.”

Though his tone was arrogant, Baitha couldn’t help but agree. Facing them with eight thousand troops in chainmail was nearly impossible.

“Anyway, this works out well. I thought today would just be a boring watch, but thanks to those fools, we’ll have some fun.”

Targien grinned savagely, turning his horse toward the War Chief Ibamai.

Though Targien was the overall commander of the rear forces, he still needed the War Chief’s approval to issue an attack order unilaterally.

‘Well… even if I don’t give the order, they’ll have no choice but to fight.’

They weren’t charging in to negotiate peace with Aishan. No matter what Ibamai said, battle was inevitable.

—

“Of course, we fight.”

Ibamai nodded immediately upon hearing Targien’s question, as if he had never even considered any option other than combat.

“Are you sure you’re up for it in that condition?”

Targien’s gaze fell to Ibamai’s lower body. His legs had been severed, and his thighs were stitched together and tied to the saddle to keep him from falling.

It was a reckless method, but it was the only way Ibamai, now legless, could fight as a warrior.

Even then, swinging a weapon from horseback was his limit. The moment he fell, it was clear he wouldn’t be able to walk properly.

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

Of course, the War Chief’s fighting spirit and determination weren’t so weak as to be broken by mere physical limitations.

Ibamai thumped his chestplate and replied confidently. Even without legs, the feats he had accumulated wouldn’t disappear.

“Impressive.”

Targien nodded slightly in respect, then drew his curved sword and pointed it forward. Toward the approaching forces of Dane.

“Warriors of Aishan—! Raise your bows! Your prey is charging right at us!”

“Uoooooh!”

Some of the enemy forces left behind as follow-up troops and the Black Armies let out a unified roar, pulling out the bows hung on their saddles.

Though Targien was often dismissed as simple-minded by Orhan, he had a surprising amount of respect among the warriors.

His simplicity, lack of sophistication, and belligerence were seen by the equally simple-minded warriors as bravery, decisiveness, and dignity—truly the virtues of a warrior.

“Ibamai, I leave the Black Armies to you! The enemy forces, follow me!”

“Yes!”

As Targien yanked the reins, thousands of cavalrymen holding red banners charged forward.

Unlike the tedious siege warfare, this was a battle they couldn’t help but welcome, one they couldn’t resist. The field battle on the plains had begun.

—

The Ka`har, a people who learned to ride horses before they learned to walk.

They were so skilled in horsemanship and archery that each of them could shoot down a bird flying in the sky from the back of a galloping horse.

A 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 charge, they could maintain distance from the enemy and rain down arrows, inflicting one-sided losses without taking any damage themselves.

“Fire!”

At Targien’s command, the cavalrymen nocked arrows to their bows and released them in unison. Over two thousand arrows arced through the air, raining down on the enemy’s heads.

The spears and swords of infantry couldn’t even reach, let alone graze them.

Though Dane’s archers returned fire, hitting the Ka`har cavalry, who scattered and regrouped as if the land were their playground, with curved shots was nearly impossible.

Of course, Dane’s commanders understood this as well.

Unlike the Imperial Army, which rarely had to face Ka`har cavalry thanks to the barrier, the people of Dane had been directly exposed to Ka`har’s plundering.

“Shield units! Block their arrows!”

As soon as the defensive commanders’ orders rang out, a strange chant echoed across Dane’s formation.

ᛉ ᛉ ᛉ ᛉ

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

Blue mana light erupted from various points in Dane’s ranks, forming a translucent curtain of light like the northern aurora, covering the soldiers’ heads.

The Rune of Defense.

By now, some time had passed since Dane discovered the Mimisbrunn Ruins, and Rune Engravings had become common knowledge among the Dane Army.

While embedding multiple runes was a privilege reserved for Holy Warriors, embedding a single defensive rune was something even ordinary soldiers could do.

The arrows fired by the enemy forces collided with the light barrier.

– Thud thud thud thud thud!

Each time an arrowhead struck the barrier, ripples like those in a puddle during a rainstorm spread across its surface before fading away.

The arrows, now powerless, slid down the barrier’s surface and fell to the ground.

—

The mana barrier deployed by the people of Dane shook violently, as if it might shatter at any moment, but it held firm, blocking every arrow.

“Hah, what the heck is that now?”

Targien let out a hollow laugh, massaging his temples as he watched the scene.

“Is their country just sprouting sorcerers from the ground or something?”

Hundreds of sorcerers. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen such a sight. When he led the enemy forces to capture Dane’s border fortress, an unusually large number of spells had been unleashed.

‘What the hell have they been doing for the past nine years…?’

For Targien, who remembered the Great War nine years ago, this was utterly baffling.

Back then, the people of Dane had only a handful of sorcerers, aside from the Holy Warriors who worshipped the Warrior God.

How on earth had they managed to train so many sorcerers in just nine years? It was something Targien couldn’t comprehend.

‘Well, at least they can block this level of attack.’

The sorcerers who had blocked thousands of arrows.

While it was demoralizing to face such foes, Targien only grinned more fiercely.

‘Then let’s see how long they can hold out!’

Targien shouted loudly.

“Close the distance! Aim not for their heads, but for those glowing blue eyes!”

Instead of raining down arrows from maximum range as they had been, he ordered them to close in to a distance where straight shots would hit.

The enemy cavalry pointed their banner-tipped spears forward, and the surrounding warriors nocked their bows, raised their shields, and charged toward the enemy.

“Black Armies! Follow the enemy forces and advance!”

Seeing this, Ibamai, assuming Targien had chosen to charge the enemy, also gave the order to charge and yanked the reins.

Four thousand heavy cavalry began to gallop, shaking the ground.

—

“Lord Burgund! The Ka`har are approaching!”

“Form a defensive formation! Infantry, guard the front and both flanks! Archers and mage units, prepare to counter from the center! Cavalry, wait at the rear of the formation!”

Burgund, the overall commander of Dane’s defensive forces, urgently issued orders.

In a typical battle, cavalry would be deployed on the flanks, but facing the Ka`har, sending cavalry forward to meet them head-on was suicidal.

If the cavalry from both sides clashed, the odds of being overwhelmed were high, and the enemy cavalry weren’t the type to engage in a fair fight anyway.

So, Dane’s cavalry had to be positioned not on the flanks but at the rear, waiting until the Ka`har cavalry engaged the infantry and became entangled.

Following Burgund’s orders, the disorganized Dane defensive forces halted and formed a defensive formation.

Against the Ka`har forces, which they could never have faced before, they hoped the Rune Magic they had learned would help.

“Deployment complete!”

“Archers, volley fire! Mage units, wait until they’re in range!”

Dane’s archers raised their longbows and released their arrows. Long arrows arced through the air, raining down like a storm.

Unlike firing at maximum range, the reduced distance between the two sides meant their arrows began to hit their targets more accurately.

– Thunk!

Though most were still blocked by shields.