The Amber Sword

Xelsa felt things were getting out of hand as he urged his horse forward. He waved his black blade in front of the skeletons:

“Turn, turn around you damned fools!”

“Third and forth rows, ready your spears, hurry! You bunch of stupid bones!”

Xelsa used a hoarse and hollow voice as he hurled abuses at them, splitting up the soldiers into two groups. One was to face Freya’s militia, and the other was to check the incoming cavalry that suddenly appeared.

The spears were raised and lowered together at the same time. The first row of skeletons pointed slightly upwards, while the second row lower their spears at shoulder height, forming an iron wall of steel.

Brendel looked at the ghastly spear tips. He was almost immune to the tension after experiencing battles so many times, and there was not a shred of fear in his taut face. His breathing was even and ready to enter into the fray.

[... Judging from the appearance of the enemy leader, he’s approximately level 20 to 30 and he’s probably wearing equipment of the same level. If that’s the case, he’s at the upper tier of a Iron-ranked fighter. His stats is most likely higher because he’s an elite as well...]

Brendel pointed his sword into Xelsa’s flanks, and the cavalry started to turn to curve and turn away from the spears, inching closer to the flanks of the skeletons’ formation.

Xelsa was greatly distressed. The opponents were full of seasoned mercenaries and their commander instantly reacted to any changes that the skeletons made in their formations. No matter how many times he tried to lure the enemy with false openings in the skeletons’ formations, the enemy would ignore it and aim for their weakest areas.

[Any lesser commanders would have charged at us by now...! These fucking maggots are coming around us again!]

Xelsa ordered the skeletons to turn approximately one hundred and twenty degrees, but they were slow to react and turn. Reassembling a formation that could resist the cavalry’s charge was extremely troublesome, and he had to assign nearly all his necromancers in his company to ensure that the formation was done right.

[Fuck! The militia and infantry are coming from the other side. This group of skeletons are much weaker because there’s not enough necromancers to lead them!]

“Fire your arrows at will!”

The skeleton soldiers had shot their forth volley of arrows, until Xelsa ordered them to fire at will.

The combined army comprised of militia and infantry led by Freya was ten meters away. This group of men that were from different cities and age started showing various degrees of fear and tension.

Their hands held either long spears or Madara’s black steel swords with their breaths were disarrayed. Their formation was starting to lose its shape, but they still advanced forward. In front of them was gleaming skeletons without fear or excitement. They had no emotions or thought, and merely observed the incoming miltia with their orange-red Soul Fire in their eye sockets.

Freya realized right away that her army was starting to become disorderly again, and her mind went into a blank for a short moment because she did not know what to do. But she quickly clenched her teeth and raised her sword and charged straight into the midst of the enemy like a lightning bolt.

That was the beginning of her change from a militia to a knight.

—————— Romaine’s POV ———————-

The forest of spears entered into Romaine’s eyes.

“Freya!”

She had carefully ran out from the refugees and hid carefully at the hilltop, but she was frightened when she saw Freya charging straight at the skeleton soldiers with their spears pointing forward.

Suddenly she heard galloping sounds and she turned her head. She found the girl called Sue was riding on a war horse, going straight to the battlefield.

[She looks like she has great riding skills... Hmm... Riding looks interesting.]

——————– Back to the battle POV ——————

Freya went to the skeletons’ flank and raised her longsword, swiping away the spears that came at her. But she was able to handle only a few attacks at a given time, and many of the skeletons were able to thrust their spears into her. Her armor lit up and most of their attacks grazed her, but even the magic that was woven into the had its limits.

Two spears found their way through Freya’s upper torso, ripping long gashes across her chest and neck, while one spear lodged itself into her abdomen, and blood poured out like an overturned tumbler.

She uttered a guttural sound as she severed the spear. The militia had clashed with the Madara’s undead by this point, but the skeletons’ formation was affected by Freya’s reckless attacks and they were forced back under the combined pressure. She urged the horse to turn around and retreat from the flanks, then charged straight into another section of the skeleton troops—

Xelsa who had his attention drawn by the Brendel and mercenaries, received a shock when he found the skeleton troops’ formation crumbling. He had thought his army would at least be able to defend for a while, but he did not think that they would be crushed so thoroughly once they made contact. He sought for their leader, and saw her issuing orders to her army to move in an orderly manner without rushing. Each time they moved a step forward, skeleton bones could be found flying through the air.

He exhaled, the misty breath temporarily covering his lips.

[If I had more necromancers, they could still remake their formations.... But on the other side is the enemy’s cavalry—]

He turned his head back to the cavalry and received another shock.

Brendel had his full attention on Xelsa, and when he saw Xelsa was distracted, he led the cavalry closer to the skeletons’ flanks, and Xelsa was unable to react in time.

Brendel raised his sword up and waved it once.

The cavalry behind him raised their swords at the same time.

“Destroy them!” Brendel shouted.

“Aouine shall be victorious!!!”

The calvary charged straight at the skeletons in full speed as they roared loudly. The gravel on the ground seemed to dance as the ground vibrated.

The skeletons in Xelsa’s rear had started to reach his sides as they were pushed back, with the Freya and army starting to surround the necromancers. He chopped a skeleton into two as it blocked his way.

“Lower your spe—”

Brendel lowered his body and swung the Thorn of Light. He used the [White Raven’s Sword Rave], and the wind pressure swept across the skeletons like a scythe, smashing five skeletons from the first and second row backwards. He then released his reins and raised both his hands up to the direction of the skeleton formation. Two blue light beams shot at them, knocking their long spears to the side.

One human and one horse lunged into their formation without stopping, and several skeletons that were knocked, got crushed by the horse’s hooves.

It might have looked dangerous, but Brendel was confident of his 4.3 OZ agility which was several times faster than a normal man, and the skeletons’ movements in his eyes actually looked like they were crawling slowly. This tiny gap in the enemy’s timing was a huge opening that could be easily used against them.

“Protect your horses!”

Brendel yelled as the first row of mercenaries made contact with the disorderly skeleton troops. Loud crashing sounds repeated as rows of skeletons fell backwards by their charge. The skeleton soldiers were forced back and almost squeezed the necromancers.

The mercenaries were veterans who were experienced in charging. They easily tore through the enemy’s ranks and knocked back their spears with ease with their war horses, with the second group of riders ready to charge straight into the enemy’s chaotic formation. They would then reform and launch an assault at the skeletons again, and a few minutes later, the Madara army was in shambles.

Their first charge had the greatest casualties, of which two of them were knocked down by the spears, with the first row of war horses receiving injuries. However, with their Iron-ranked strength, they managed to create a devastating impact that even Brendel did not expect.

Freya and Brendel’s combined army nearly pierced through the undead army that had the size of two hundred men with their first assault.

Xelsa could not believe that his army was defeated so easily. His necromancers had tried to stop Brendel’s rampaging charge by casting the spell [Curtain of Darkness] to blind him, but he was completely unaffected by it and severed the offending necromancers into two after charging out of the area, with white flames burning them up into ashes. Another necromancer tried to cast debilitating magic on him, but he swung a sword arte from seven or eight meters away and cleaved it into two as well.

Every time Brendel swung his sword, the surrounding skeletons would burst up into flames. Holy fire burned all around him, as if he was surrounded by a heavenly glow, and soon his undead enemies were all turned into ashes.

It was as if nothing could stop his rampage, and the mercenaries who finally had the chance to rest a little, witnessed his feat and could not help but open their mouths wide.

Finally, when there was nothing but a scarce number of skeletons left, his eyes fell upon Xelsa.