Eliza chapter 144 – The unwritten side of history, part 2

I instantly arrived in front of the enemy soldiers before they knew what was going on. With a backhand grip on my halberd, I put strength into it as I slipped it through the wall of enemy spears.

A rain of blood was falling down. As the vanguard, I’m now completely covered in blood, and the soldiers that were following me will probably get drenched in red as well.

According to what my adopted father Ergnade told me, it’s perfect if you get drenched in blood. Just like he said, the gaudy appearance from being splashed red in blood sent enemy soldiers running away from me.

As I remembered my teachings, I left things up to Rashiok’s momentum while slicing off the head of an enemy’s horse. A scream of anger that sounded like it came from the bottom of the stomach erupted from the rider on the now collapsed dead horse.

I could see the shadows of the gun-holding soldiers hiding behind the heavy cavalry troops, and I raised my halberd in preparation. I felt the heaviness of the halberd for a few seconds.

This makes five killed already. The ones that escaped will probably get cleaned up by my soldiers following me. I could still hear the explosive sound of gunpowder coming from behind. It wasn’t the sound of a gun firing this time though, it was more like a gun jamming. Did one of their weapons explode I wonder, I suddenly heard what sounded like one of their weapons blowing up, then the thumps of several heavy objects falling to the ground.

Please let it be that my soldiers didn’t get mixed up in it.

Whatever the case, dense formations are weak to side attacks. Their cavalry troops should have been arranged to protect the flanks, but were they prioritizing the encirclement of the large number of Arxian troops I wonder, they were arranged at the end of the left and right wings of their formation instead. The Rindarl side probably took many things into account when protecting their gun unit, but it seems that they probably didn’t calculate for my army’s movements because we were supposed to only be a logistical support troop.

“Go ahead and rampage, Rashiok!!”

I turned my halberd against the soldier that came to try and stop me. Rashiok responded to my encouragement by roaring. The roar of a carnivorous beast has the power to instinctively cause people to shrink back in fear.

Together with a windstorm, my draconis crashed into a wall of people. Any spears that aimed for Rashiok merely bounced off his scales, or were broken by the impact, while the wall of people and horses before us was scattered so easily.

Ahhh, all the enemy soldiers were screaming. The heavy sound of all the horse hooves following me, turned into the screams of death. Metallic armor was left deformed, and an all too juicy crunch was heard by the sharp-eared among them.

“Withdraw! Meet up with the main army!”

I confirmed with a glance that behind me, the gun unit had been crushed as well. The enemy formation was in utter confusion. Their dense formation didn’t take a side attack into consideration, getting confused because of this degree of attack is pathetic.

I rose my halberd into the air, and tilted it to the right. After seeing my signal, Teomer gave instructions for our soldiers in the back to withdraw as well. My superb light cavalry troops composed of mainly Shiru warriors instantly aligned their horses and started galloping together towards the right.

When I passed the combat area where the left wing had extended to, Claudia was there ahead of me.

“Go straight ahead! Now, we can pincer and surround the remaining enemy troops!”

“Alright, do it!!”

If she says this is the correct strategy, I made the snap decision to do as she suggested. As for the soldiers following me, Oscar speedily gave orders to each small team.

The Arxian soldiers that had been fighting were able to get relief from combat, and the Rindarl soldiers were driven away as if they were a flock of sheep that was being herded.

How many can I surround, I wonder? ……Roughly two or three hundred? Is it possible to make a strong encirclement with the same number of soldiers? Considering I’m also using a mix of light cavalry. I’m just a low-ranked commander, after all.

“Kill them all, don’t leave any small fry that are worthless as prisoners alive!”

Screams of stop it were rising from the enemies. My soldiers ignored them as they circled them from the outside with their spears and killed them with the positioning advantage.

The soldiers that were caught in a collapsed formation were helpless. The Rindarl soldiers on the inside had no ways to effectively attack, and were crushed by my soldiers on the outside. The enemy soldiers on their outside edges are pushed inwards, and cooperation with their fellow soldiers becomes impossible as their order falls into shambles.

“This is a one-sided slaughter with the advantage of cavalry! Arxians are such barbaric brutes! Have you forgotten the spirit of chivalry or humanity!!?”

As I killed a horse, the really muscular man who fell down from it was shouting that at me. He happened to roll right in front of me. This man noticed Rashiok, and looked directly at me who was the rider. I saw astonishment in his eyes, followed by a mix of hatred and contempt.

“Get down from your horses and fight fair and square!! You coward, weak little kid!! If you have any pride as a knight, duel with me right here right now-”

The man who was barking at me got an expression like he saw something inconceivable in his last moments. Then, he realized that the sword I threw at him had pierced through his neck, and gurgled up a fountain of blood in place of his shouting. Then he finally collapsed onto the ground, and he stopped talking forever more.

“……What’s this so-called cowardice on the battlefield? The only thing there is, is death.”

As I spat that out, I jumped down from Rashiok. I approached the man’s corpse, to retrieve my sword.

When I noticed that his cloak was shining gold with the emblem of a high-ranked knight, I caught my breath. I am a domain lord, not a knight. Unlike this bastard, I wasn’t raised with the chivalric spirit to begin with. And in the first place, there’s no way I can acknowledge such a buff man shouting for a child to duel him as any sort of proper knight.

I pulled out my sword, and I used my halberd instead to cut off his head. Since he does seem to be a high-ranked knight, at the very least it will be useful to take his head with me. I’m in the frontlines of battle, after all. There’s no such thing as too much reward money.

I wrapped his head in his cloak and tossed it to my soldiers to keep for the reward money, but I couldn’t have known what it would end up causing at the time.