Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 163. Reinforcements.
The instant Julien was cut in half and fell to the ground, the entire battlefield in the vicinity of the event seemed to have frozen for half a second. Be it Arslan’s or Abdain’s side, everyone couldn’t help but either glance over or pay some attention to the shocking scene. Thus, coincidentally, for just a little bit the only person who appeared to move was Abdain, who proceeded to dash straight towards Arslan with a satisfied, dark smile right after getting rid of the main obstacle in his way.
Then, everything erupted all at once. The forty thousand mercenaries who had been ordered to stand back up until Julien was killed or disabled from action, who had only been hunting for the lower-valued heads of Euleanian nobles and the reasonably well-priced heads of Julien’s subordinates, all of them pressed the attack in one, huge mad dash to capture Arslan. As it had been agreed upon, if one of them could get ahold of that kid before Abdain did so himself, that person would receive one thousand platinum coins of prize!
While such an amount wasn’t a fortune to the richest people of the continent, it was enough for one small family to live in luxury for as long as a thousand years. For those sell-swords, the strongest of whom were stuck in their cultivation as martial masters of the second rank, it was an unbelievably huge pile of treasure which they could obtain without putting themselves in front the perspective of an almost certain death. To mercenaries like them, it was a dream job!
As the flood of sell-swords was set in motion, the ruby-golden-robed experts under Abdain didn’t waste any time either. According to the plan, their duty was to dispose of the outer layer of Julien’s subordinates. Under normal circumstances, they would have been hard-pressed to do so without sustaining painful casualties on their side, but since the plan crafted by their master has worked out so perfectly, they could afford to kill those superior enemies with ease. With all those charging mercenaries and considering how exhausted their enemies were, it couldn’t get any simpler.
At the same time as those two groups set themselves in motion, those in Arslan’s group froze for a bit. For those seasoned experts, the shock was something they were able to quickly overcome so all of them suppressed the myriad of emotions they were going through and readied themselves to battle. However, the horror those six thousand teenagers and children who were suddenly faced with a bloodthirsty army approaching them at high speed was something they couldn’t bear. The helplessness robbed them of their ability to run or scream; after all, where would they flee towards anyway? All they could do was look in fear and wait for the inevitable to come.
The three White Guards, on the other hand, all felt like cursing. Their plan of making the last attempt to eliminate Abdain wasn’t even given a chance to come to fruition, so they were frustrated. However, that frustration was incomparable to the other emotions which they experienced. Reian was infuriated that he wouldn’t be able to try and avenge Jasmine nor protect Arslan as he should, Kasha was fearful of death itself more than anything else, while Sirius felt bitter that he would be unable to see the growth of Arslan and in a few years, once he switched masters, of Laien.
The rest of their group, the old guards of Laien and Yin’s and the other five centered about Johan and Sarah, weirdly enough weren’t panicking. They all readied themselves to fight as they watched the twenty remaining Cherubim of Julien’s take positions in order to stop Abdain. They realized that their strength wasn’t comparable to their enemies’, but they would at least die fighting instead of allowing themselves to be slaughtered like cattle. Sure, the likes of Johan, Sarah, Jacob and Albert felt as if their hearts were about to jump out of their chests, but they held it in and didn’t give in to panic.
In this way, seconds began to pass in a fashion that to ones seemed like an eternity, while to the others felt like an instant. The Euleanian children all hurriedly moved out of Abdain’s way as they saw his burly figure charging over, then Abdain began exchanging blows with the twenty Cherubim. This time, however, the twenty men weren’t able to afford to hold back in any way. The powerful martial techniques and high-ranked spells were released by them one by one, all in order to wear Abdain’s Qi down. The price for that was the collateral damage to their surroundings and the remnants of the flame, lightning, and other elements and techniques flew about to all but Arslan’s side.
In just a few seconds, hundreds of the children who either hadn’t gotten far away in time or hadn’t been able to get any further due to how crowded the area was lost their lives. Some burned alive, some with their whole bodies torn to shreds by the flying rubble, the number of casualties rose with each attack released by the Cherubim. As a result, any semblance of order amongst the six thousand youths had all but disappeared. Everyone collapsed on top of each other in their attempts to get further away, some of the younger kids fell down and were trampled under the feet of their older peers, others were squeezed so tight by everyone else that they started suffocating.
The ugly scene turned even uglier the moment the mercenaries broke past the outer ring of Julien’s men. The sell-swords didn’t care for those Euleanian children at all and with the huge prize right in front of their eyes, they didn’t hesitate to slash with their weapons and to use their martial techniques. From the west, south and the east, everywhere but from the north where the Euleanian nobles were desperately holding the line, the unfortunate children were being slaughtered en masse.
The under one hundred remaining men of Julien’s in the outer line of defense did their best to stop the incoming enemies, but they couldn’t do much against the overwhelming odds they faced. Not only were Abdain’s ruby-golden-robed experts targeting them, but the mercenaries were also recklessly dashing through the openings almost without regard for their own lives. The awareness that the people they were letting through were undoubtedly committing a massacre behind their lines was painful, but to be fair, none of them had time to spare for such thoughts. They needed to focus on their own battle, for their own lives…? No, by this point, they would be satisfied if they took a few more Ikarian lives with them before they went to the other side.
“Fuck it, let’s go!” In the middle of the formation, Liza was unable to wait any longer. What was the point of being safe for a few dozen more seconds if she was going to die anyway? So, she ran alongside the edge of the empty area where Abdain was facing off against twenty Cherubim, heading straight towards the incoming flood of mercenaries. Ruan, Jin, and the trio of the former Valius family guards followed her, though unlike Julien’s subordinates, not one of them resigned themselves to death just yet. The strongest of them was just a martial master of the second rank, but as long as there existed a possibility, no matter how minuscule, they would keep fighting.
Gahar, who up until this point had done little, made his move too. As on the previous occasions, he dissolved into shadows and slipped between the thousands of tightly-packed children, then proceeded to swiftly kill the unaware sell-swords in batches of five to seven before moving to a different spot. He didn’t want any enemy attacks to focus on him and if needed, he was eighty percent sure that he would be able to flee this battlefield using the ongoing chaos. However, the longer he waited, the lower his chances would be. By the time Arslan was captured, he would most likely be found out and killed instead of being able to escape.
“Huah, everyone needs to die one day.” Gahar chuckled at the thought. Ever since he had retired from his job as a Shadow, his life had been so peaceful and relaxing that it became boring. He had made a few attempts to settle down, but it just wasn’t for him. As a result, he had no family and merely a few people he would at most call acquaintances, not friends. “If I somehow survive, I’m going to ask that kid to hire me officially once that escort mission is done with,” he decided in the middle of piercing the hearts and slashing the stomachs open. Usually, he preferred to go for the neck, but he didn’t want to attract attention, so he settled with what he got.
“Not that I care much about you…” he mused at one point, then changed the directions he was moving toward. Although he personally didn’t care much about those six guards, he was sure that Laien and Yin would be sad if those guys died here. So, at least for the time being, until they were completely overrun, he would help those six to survive for a little longer.
At the same time as the last stand of Julien’s men and the smaller battle of Laien and Yin’s guards were happening, Reian stood up, having taken just about five seconds to calm his Qi down. He had been circulating through every inch of his body to accelerate its recovery, so even after Julien had been slashed into two pieces, he couldn’t get up and fight immediately. Against someone like Abdain, seventy or eighty percent of his best wasn’t nearly enough. In fact, even his one hundred percent best state was lacking, but that wasn’t something he wouldn’t be able to change in the span of years, not to speak of a few short seconds.
“I need to blow him away, then I need to try and escape with Arslan,” Reian told himself just to be sure. He had gotten a lot calmer during the last day of fighting, but he didn’t want to lose his cool again regardless of what Abdain would do to provoke him. His top priority was to save Arslan. As for taking revenge for Jasmine, that could wait. In fifty… no, in thirty years, he was sure he would be able to kill Abdain even if the man was surrounded by his army. Unless another supreme expert intervened, there would be no one capable of stopping him, just like it had been with Mustafa.
Having steeled his resolved, Reian covered himself with a layer of wind and joined the fighting against Abdain. Those twenty Cherubim of Julien’s were strong, all of them being martial masters of the fourth and fifth ranks, but they wouldn’t be able to repel Abdain. Just those five or six seconds cost three of them their lives while Abdain’s Qi seemed not to have changed by much. Yes, he was being tossed around dozens, sometimes even hundreds of meters from one side to the other by the powerful martial techniques, but in the end, those attacks were all too weak to pose a threat to his iron-clad defenses.
“Out of the way!” Reian yelled, aiding himself with his Qi. “Stop the rest, I’ll deal with him!” he shouted as he was crossing the open space of five hundred meters between Arslan and the fighting Cherubim. As for the Cherubim themselves, they hesitated momentarily, but once Reian got close, they threw a few more stalling attacks in order to suppress Abdain before retreating. They weren’t strong enough, but it wasn’t like they were stupid. They could see that their efforts would at most stall Abdain for half a minute more without draining the man too much, so they realized how pointless it was for them to continue. Thus, they chose to trust Reian and left it all to him.
“Again you, ha?” Abdain shouted heartily, a pleased smile on his face. He had been holding his excitement for battle in for the whole day, so he was really enjoying himself now that he could vent it all. Strategy and planning were great when necessary, but in his opinion, nothing could beat a straight-up, blunt battle without any tricks! He still needed to take Arslan alive, but before that, he would have to cut through those obstacles anyway, so he could freely enjoy himself for a little bit.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He wasn’t planning to give Reian any time to prepare large-scale attacks, so once those pesky men of Julien’s retreated back to Arslan’s side, he immediately attacked Reian. The only thing he needed to be careful of were blasts of wind; it would be troublesome if Reian blew him away like the first time they exchanged blows, but as long as he was careful, he wouldn’t allow it to happen again.
“That being said,” he murmured once Reian dodged two slashes of his broadsword in a row. “How is he so much faster than yesterday? He is almost as agile as that silver-haired bastard now, though he doesn’t have a usable movement technique,” he asked himself, curious of what kind of enlightenment did Reian go through for his abilities to suddenly increase by a significant margin.
Still, however, that was it. As curious as Abdain was, it wasn’t something he was too concerned with. After forcing Reian to dodge desperately with a horizontal swipe and following up with a quick downward slash, Abdain’s broadsword clashed against Reian sword. The force behind the blow smashed Reian deep into the ground, creating a meter-deep crater at the place he was standing. The blow wasn’t enough to end Reian all at once, but the hilt of his sword was covered in blood as the force required to parry had caused the skin on the palm of his hand to tear.
“I can’t take another one of those.” The half-conscious thought crossed Reian’s mind. His muscles were screaming in pain and the bones in his right arm and shoulder were creaking dangerously. It hadn’t even been a full-strength blow from Abdain, but just this one direct blow reduced him to such a miserable state. The difference in strength between a martial master of the fourth rank and a marital master of the seventh rank was simply too huge to be overcome with normal means.
Truth to be told, had it not been for that spar against Laien and Yin and the Profound Mystery of Heavenly Wind which he had learned and started getting insights into, he wouldn’t have been able to put up a fight against Abdain at all. In fact, he surely would have died in that first exchange of blows after he had allowed himself to be provoked by Abdain. His current astonishing rate of improvement in real-time was, in fact, attributed purely to him gaining new insights into the Profound Mystery of Heavenly Wind. Thanks to them, he was somehow able to manage if only for a few seconds.
“And that’s enough,” he thought half-excitedly and half-anxiously. He had hoped to somehow find himself in a lower spot than Abdain and it was exactly where he was now. Abdain was already launching a second downward slash at him, but he had enough time. He didn’t need a sword to employ the wind which he intended to call upon. If his goal had been to slash or pierce Abdain’s defenses, he would have absolutely needed a good sword for that, but just to blow him away?
Thus, before Abdain’s slash could land, he concentrated as much Qi as he could in and around his left hand and swept out with it. Instantly, the air stirred and a storm picked up out of nowhere, smashing directly into Abdain with all of its strength. The mighty Heavenly Wind shattered rock and cut earth into dust with its innumerable blades of wind, causing a huge cloud of dust to rise up and cover the sky in the area of a few hundred meters.
Yet, instead of rejoicing, Reian cursed. He could clearly feel Abdain’s aura right next to him, at the same spot the man had been at before the attack. He had used up around forty percent of his Qi in this one attack and overexerted his Qi paths by quite a bit, but it was all for naught?
“A trick like that will only work once,” Abdain said with a laugh, the remnant force of the wind blowing the dust off and revealing his figure for Reian to see. In front of him, an egg-shell-like barrier of earth was crumbling apart, while two moderately sized pillars of rock seemed to be clutching onto his feet and binding him to the rocky earth below the area influenced by Reian’s attack. “Let’s continue, shall we?” he asked with a smirk, allowing the rest of the earth to crumble. With about half of Reian’s Qi gone, he no longer needed to fear anything from him.
Had Reian ignored the consequences to his life and future cultivation and forcefully drew upon all of his Qi without sufficient preparation, he wouldn’t have been able to prevent himself from being blown away by dozens, maybe even over a hundred kilometers. However, it wasn’t like there would be anyone capable of running off with Arslan even if he did just that, so it would be pointless either way. In a sense, there simply wasn't’ a good or correct choice for Reian to make in this situation.
“Now then.” Having landed heavily in the crater his little exchange of blows with Rain left, Abdain smiled contentedly. He raised his broadsword, thinking that Reian’s head would be a great addition to his collection of trophies. It was a bit regretful that he could no longer see the burning passion and the strong hope for victory in Reian’s eyes, but it looked like Reian hadn’t given up completely regardless. He had no idea what miracle was Reian wishing for, for him not to despair despite the hopeless situation he was in, but it was for the better. This way, he would be able to devour him while he was still fresh, not rotten by the emotions of those who had chosen to give up and die.
By all means, no miracle Reian hoped for should have occurred. However, it was at this time that from the north, a continuous series of over one hundred powerful explosions rang out alongside the thousands of cries of pain and surprise. Judging by the residual aura that spread all over the battlefield, a group of a few hundred elite marital masters had just joined the battle and unleashed their abilities in quick succession. However, who in the world were those people? Strangely enough, neither Arslan’s or Abdain’s side had any guesses. Amongst all of those present, only a few people had two certain names cross their mind.
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Moments before, north to Abdain and Arslan’s battlefield.
“Don’t leak killing intent, suppress your auras!” Casimir ordered, his voice carrying over only in the right directions with the aid of a little bit of Qi. Their four hundred had been riding like mad for the past ten and a half hours, and it would have taken them longer than that had it not been for an unexpected boon. To be exact, had it not been for the help of the intelligence unit of the White Guard led by Zaban, they would have had to move slower as they cleared the lookouts of Yimar Maar’s army alongside all random passerby who happened to spot them.
Luckily for them, not only were those White Guards excellent at their job, the attention of Yimar Maar’s army was shifted to the south and east. As a result, the lands north of the battlefields were relatively unguarded. While it would have been impossible for a large army to sneak through, a small group of four hundred experts was quite capable of doing just that under as long as they were careful.
“Heh,” Casimir smirked slightly. The few designated wind-element experts who were moving at the head of their group were using wind to suppress the sounds of gallop from spreading, so before they left this forest and entered the area where the battle was playing out, he had some time left to spend leisurely. “I still can’t believe those White Guards trusted that we would be coming in one way or another. They must have started clearing the path long before we moved out from the Aegis to make it in time with our movement, after all,” he mused, his gaze wandering towards Laien and Yin.
The two boys stopped training about fifteen minutes ago once they were told the battle was close at hand. They didn’t really talk with him or with each other since then, but for some inexplicable reason, he could almost sense the slowly boiling auras of strength inside their bodies. He was a martial master of the fourth rank himself, but he could instinctually sense danger emanating from those two boys who were younger than his little brother.
Like a tiger waiting to pounce on its prey… this old saying seemed strangely fitting as he looked upon the figures of those two youths.
“Once it starts,” Casimir spoke up. “You guys focus on protecting Arslan. Driving Abdain away is going to be our job,” he reminded for the second time. Considering that Abdain was an earth-element marital master of the seventh rank, the only way they had to deal with him was to deplete his Qi and force him to retreat. It was unavoidable that they would sustain casualties on their side while trying to accomplish that, so the one in four chance of success he had mentioned to Laien was due to this.
“We got it,” Laien replied calmly. He was under no delusions that his or Yin’s strength would make much of a difference in a fight against Abdain, so the two of them were planning to leave it all to Casimir and Anna’s Royal Guards. He had indeed improved his strength by a level thanks to meditating on the Aspect of Wrath for those ten hours, but it was by no means enough to make challenging a supreme martial master of the seventh rank a feasible idea.
“I wish we had more time,” Laien suppressed a sigh after he saw Casimir nod at him contentedly. With his insights into the Aspect of Tranquility having exploded in quality and quantity, he had soon realized that the balance of those two corresponding powers, Tranquility and Wrath, had been broken. Thankfully, the breakthrough in Tranquility loosened the bindings on his insights into Wrath, too, so he could work to balance the two once again. Compared to chasing pure insights into Tranquility, spending some time on Wrath would make him stronger both in the short and in the long run, so there was no reason for him not to focus on this insight.
Yet, if he had a few more days, he could have improved far more. And if he had a few months, he could have had a large influence on the battle as a whole… and a few years… yeah. There really wasn’t much of a point thinking about it. If he had years to train in peace, then he probably would have never improved at the current rate. In the end, adventures, danger, advancements, and breakthrough, all of them went hand in hand, inseparable from one another.
“We’re close,” Casimir said loudly, the tone of his voice turning deadly serious. “White Sword Unit, right flank is yours. Black Sword Unit, I leave the left flank to you. Get rid of as many enemies as you can and make sure they won’t be able to get in our way while we are dealing with Abdain,” he relayed the orders for the second time, making sure that he was absolutely clear with his words.
“Understood,” the two commanders replied at the same time, both of them speaking in equally formal, militaristic tone.
“Laien, Yin,” Casimir spoke up again. “For now, fall back to the rear. You’ll be getting in the way,” he insisted, his voice bordering on the verge of giving an order.
Neither Laien nor Yin were pleased with what they were hearing, but they could tell that the battle was close, at most half a minute of ride away at the speed they were going. However, they knew Casimir realized they were individually stronger than most of the subordinates available to him, so they chose not to argue and obediently fell back to the very rear, the Royal Guard riders swiftly making a path from them to fall back through.
“Good,” Casimir said with a smile, then looked straight ahead, at the many trees of the forest they were riding through at a quick pace. “Ready yourselves, we’re going to plow through them!” he shouted energetically and roused his Qi, withdrawing two sets of white-bronze armor, one for himself and one for the Tempest Horse he was riding. Including parts of the plate and of the scale, and even helmets for both the rider and the horse, the two sets were enough to ward off all weaker attacks on their own. Just by looking at this equipment, once could tell that anyone below the third Realm of Heroes would have a hard time damaging it, much less killing the one protected by it.
At the same time, Casimir withdrew the over six meters long lance and gripped it tightly in his right hand. Then, he spread his Qi throughout his own and his horse’s body, creating a visible, armor-like layer of protective wind over them. To top it off, he actually released a considerable amount of what was an earth-element Qi, causing the glow of the two sets of armor to change further! A wind and earth dual-element martial master of the fourth rank, that was the true martial prowess of Casimir’s!
That on its own was a spectacular sight, but to Laien and Yin, who were observing the four hundred riders that were spreading into four-rowed lines, the truly breathtaking thing was something else. Those four hundred men, including Anna who was riding at Casimir’s side, all of them without exception released wind-element Qi and covered themselves in an armor-like layer of energy.
At first, it was just an indistinct haze, but the more they looked, the more it seemed like each of those riders had wings of wind stretching from their backs. The four hundred of them moved as one, their aura accumulating and growing in strength in unison, ready to erupt towards the heavens!