Chapter 150

The extermination battle was the most enjoyable moment on the battlefield.

Winning was always fun, and in extermination battles, victory could be constant.

The grass, wet from several days of spring rain, met the flames of incantation, rising into thick smoke, and the orcs and goblins were caught off guard.

With that situation, the knights from the Hama Kingdom and the soldiers filled with morale dashed forward, unleashing fiery rage upon the greenskins that had killed their livestock and attacked village people.

“Attack simultaneously!”

“One, two, three!”

Thud! Thud!

An orc soldier was struck by a dozen spears and rolled on the ground.

A soldier wielding an axe swung down fiercely, severing its neck.

The soldier raised the orc’s head and cheered, putting the golden ring that the orc had been wearing around its neck into his pocket.

For Valencius, who had wandered through countless battlefields before his return, this was a heartwarming and nostalgic sight.

Helena was mingling among two knights and brave soldiers, laughing like a child, while Lentia dutifully carried out her responsibilities, as did his father.

Tenitia headed toward the fierce battleground where the true fighting was taking place.

“Ahh!”

“What a strong one!”

“Knight! Please help us!”

An orc warrior, towering over 2.5 meters, was attacking soldiers, exuding a green aura.

He wielded a glaive with a vicious and long blade at the end, and the soldiers’ spears and axes shattered or bounced off upon contact.

Even attempting to thrust a spear from behind him merely resulted in it bouncing off the sturdy leather.

“Human! I will tear you apart!”

He stretched his muscular green arm to squeeze one soldier’s head.

In that moment, Tenitia rushed toward the orc warrior like a diving wyvern.

Thud!

The orc warrior rolled back like a frog, and Tenitia lifted her helmet’s visor to reveal her face, aiming her sword.

This was an act of revealing her identity to those around her, showcasing that she was not afraid.

With a bold voice, she shouted, “I am Tenitia, a knight of Duke Valencius. Surrender your neck, and I will grant you a swift end without pain.”

Emerging with a red cloak that fluttered like a halo in the smoky forest, her appearance saving the soldiers was akin to a messenger of the God of Radiance.

The orc warrior, uttering an insult, got up and raised his glaive.

With the long day casting a green aura like fog, Tenitia wrapped her sword in red mana blades.

“If you desire pain, I will gladly give it to you. There is no reason to refuse!”

The orc warrior swung down his glaive, but Tenitia angled her sword and took it on closely before its force could gather into a single point.

With a loud clash and an explosion of sparks, the soldiers gasped in admiration.

Though Tenitia was tall, not significantly different from Valencius, the orc warrior was a 2.5-meter monster, and the sight of her easily parrying an attack infused with the creature’s full weight and mana was breathtaking.

“Lady Tenitia!”

“Hang in there!”

Hearing the overwhelming cheers, Tenitia smiled.

She lowered the tip of her sword, allowing the glaive to slide off, and simultaneously struck the orc warrior’s wrist with the metal end of her hilt.

With a cracking sound, the bone splintered, and the immense grip instantly weakend.

Tenitia twirled her sword, lifted it again, and stepped forward on her left foot, swinging.

Swoosh!!

The trajectory drew a circle, with bright red streaks appearing as if swirling in a dance of fire, and the orc warrior, now headless, rolled on the ground.

“Lady Tenitia! Thank you!”

“May the glory of the God of Radiance be upon you, Lady Tenitia!”

“Long live the knight!”

The soldiers shouted in elated voices as they moved forward.

The knights, of mixed blood of elves and ogres, appeared to the ordinary soldiers as messengers of the divine.

Unlike the nobles, there was a sense of connection.

Tenitia raised her hand in acknowledgment, clashed weapons with a soldier, and tied a handkerchief to the spearpoint of a brave soldier who had slain an orc.

“I received your greetings!”

“No! It’s me!”

“I will treasure this!”

Praise and gratitude burst forth each time.

* * *

Tenitia turned to Valencius and said, “Your Excellency. The battlefield is where knights shine the most. We are heroes here.”

“It does seem that way.”

Valencius looked at Tenitia with a childlike expression, as if returning to innocence.

“Look at how many are merely gazing at my back. Observe those shining eyes. When does a human show such fierce courage?”

“You are right, my lady.”

“That person who receives all that courage, passion, and expectation is the knight. It may be blasphemous, but when they call my name, I feel as if I am alongside the God of Radiance.”

“Surely so. Would the God turn their back on a knight like you?”

Valencius readily acknowledged that brilliance.

To him, Tenitia appeared too glorious.

A knight could live feeling like a legendary hero.

That was also something he had wished for several times before his return.

“Valencius! Valencius! Valencius!”

On rare occasions, when countless soldiers called his name, he too felt as if he had become a god.

But in this life, he decided to direct that glory solely toward Jeilliris and Tenitia.

He knew he could not die for the sake of being ‘knightly’ like Tenitia; he must not die.

Tenitia would charge bravely at even stronger foes, but he would not.

Just as Tenitia could not become Valencius, Valencius could not become Tenitia.

Thus, Valencius watched Tenitia, who stood before the soldiers, with an unusual longing and a slight sadness in his inhuman golden eyes.

Tenitia advanced with a group of soldiers.

“Father?”

At that moment, she saw the glowing orc shaman deep within the forest.

She noticed the green light flashing from its skull staff and observed her father rushing toward the orc shaman.

The orc shaman shook its head.

Wearing an expression of vile superiority.

“Kraaah!”

It emitted a scream resembling a crow more than an orc from its pig-like mouth.

Tenitia was unaware, but Valencius recognized that scream.

He still remembered the tragedy and miracle of Alchembers Monastery.

“Lady Tenitia! No, Helena!”

“Kraaah!”

This time, it was not a scream but a mental wave.

An intangible wave swept through the area, causing branches and leaves to fall in droves.

“Ahh!”

“My ears, my ears!”

The soldiers fell to the ground, bleeding from their ears, some even hurling ugly insults at fellow soldiers whose eyes had glazed over.

Though Tenitia remained strong, the soldiers following her could not withstand it.

“Urrgh!”

“Die! Die!”

“Sir…heh.”

For someone to fall foaming at the mouth was a noble condition; there were those suddenly throwing punches at neighboring soldiers or approaching Tenitia with lust-filled eyes.

“Mental wave, you say?”

Tenitia stepped back in panic.

She felt a sturdy tree behind her.

“Urrgh.”

A few soldiers rushed toward her.

“Hold them down for now.”

They stacked up, limbs having fallen.

“Your Excellency! There’s chaos ahead!”

“The knight, the knight has fallen!”

“Soldiers are sprouting feathers all over and battling amongst themselves!”

Helena, in command from the rear, momentarily panicked.

It seemed that all the knights marching into the forest sent a messenger with a soldier each, clamoring in disorder.

However, they were, fortunately, well aware of the various pitfalls and absurdities of battle.

“Stay calm.”

The Bronze Knights had trained and performed war games to prepare for situations where the enemy used infiltrators as weapons.

“All forces retreat in an orderly fashion! First, the offspring extermination squad and hostage rescue unit should exit the forest!”

“Yes, yes!”

“Knights should retreat with the soldiers, regroup outside the forest, and the Baron should send a messenger for more priests.”

“The extermination criteria for infected soldiers are…!”

“Depending on the situation, it’s at the knight’s discretion, but if they begin sprouting feathers, eliminate them immediately.”

That indicated that the infection had reached the brain, and it was now irrecoverable.

“Stay calm! It’s just one of them! Crown Prince Valencius stands with us!”

* * *

“Lady Tenitia! We need to retreat for now! Your father has taken care of the soldiers!”

Valencius shouted hoarsely as he pulled Tenitia along.

The orc shaman unleashed five more waves of mental energy, consuming about fifty soldiers who had approached closely and over a hundred dead goblins and orcs.

The bodies, covered in black feathers and white bones, with reddish-brown muscle, looked grotesque and horrifying.

But Tenitia stood firm, like a boulder.

She opened her mouth, seemingly apologetic.

“Your Excellency. Do you remember what I said?”

“What do you mean?”

“The battlefield is where knights can shine best, and we become heroes here. There are so many soldiers looking to me. Look at those eyes.”

Valencius felt a sense of choking emotion.

Tenitia was a knight among knights, one who would not easily turn her back on the enemy.

It was perhaps why she could decide to fight Jeilliris before her return.

Valencius gritted his teeth.

That alone may well have appeared as an indifferent expression to Tenitia.

“That person who receives all that courage, passion, and expectation is the knight.”

Valencius pretended not to hear the words.

Complex calculations were racing through his head.

Having already fought against the type of infiltrator before, he did not consider it coincidence.

Thinking back to whether greenskins could last so long amidst so many knights, it could have been a meticulous trap.

If there was even the slimmest chance, no, a one in millions, that Tenitia could be infected, he could not allow it.

“I understand. First, let’s receive a priest’s blessing on our swords and then return. We’re not fleeing. Didn’t Helena say? We’ll attack again from outside the forest.”

“Your Excellency. If I retreat, at least another two hundred soldiers will die.”

“That’s just…!”

His habit of expressing taunt was interrupted with the next words.

Valencius knew these soldiers were from Tenitia’s province and the people surrounding her territory.

“If I can protect them, shouldn’t I do so?”

This was not some common undead.

It was different from the time he fought alongside Lysena at the anchorage.

The resurrected infiltrators numbered in the hundreds.

Tenitia stood confidently, chest and shoulders lifted, before the fifteen infiltrators whose strength was unknown.

Under her helm, her red eyes did not waver, and the sword ‘Hwanhan’ burned brightly with a red mana blade.

In the still-smoldering forest, Valencius clenched his jaw as he saw the waves of black feathers and red eyes charging toward her.

“If I can protect them, shouldn’t I?”

If it were possible, it should be done.

He had also long employed that logic.

He pondered till the very end whether he could strike Tenitia’s helmet hard enough to knock her out, dragging her away.

What kept him from doing so was the knowledge that he could not pierce through that helm and make Tenitia unconscious with his power.

“Damn! If it seems we might lose, we must flee immediately. And if I say to retreat again, promise me you’ll definitely pull back then.”

A sense of urgency uncharacteristic of his inhuman golden eyes surfaced like bubbles.

Tenitia nodded, seeing that look in his eyes.

Though it was unbelievable, it felt as if he was genuinely concerned for her.

“You’re not considering saying we should retreat right away, are you?”

“I’m not that reckless… I can’t be sure. I’ve learned not to make promises carelessly.”

Valencius smiled slyly as he checked the blue potion in his possession.

His smile was one not of joy but of suppression from tears.

‘Having consumed Hwanjeong, I should be stronger now. Control is the problem, not power.’

With his transformation into a dragon, it became easier to wield the fire’s power, yet he was undoing it with potions, creating strain on his body due to the repeated back and forth between infection and recovery.

“These grotesque bastards are crawling out again!”

He transformed frustration into rage, and rage into strength, quickly drawing upon the power of incantation.

Bright golden energy surged forth, and the surrounding mana swirled and was drawn in.

Fwoosh!

Hundreds of fireballs appeared sporadically according to his gestures.

The fire broke from point to line, and from line to height, becoming a plane that swirled and dashed toward the infiltrators, trapping and burning them.

The sight of the inhuman golden-eyed royal unleashing wild laughter into the sky while standing amid the flames was terrifying in itself.

Tenitia charged once more, leaving Valencius and the soldiers behind.

The armor inscribed with dozens of magic circles and her honed martial skills, paired with her flame-resistant cloak, granted her freedom even within the inferno.

“I am Tenitia, a knight of Duke Valencius!”

Before her, the orc shaman with raven wings roared, surrounded by infiltrators.

* * *

Spring rain fell from the once clear sky.

The flames imbued with mana did not easily extinguish.

Tenitia and Valencius helped each other out of the forest.

“Duke Valencius!”

“Lady Tenitia!”

“Little brother!”

With soot-stained cloaks and hundreds of scratches on their platinum armor, and blood trickling down from whatever attacks they endured.

Dozens of black feathers embedded in white garments.

And the head of the orc shaman held in their hands.