Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 179. Random Whim.
Once the Tempest Riders emerged from the dust, Yimar Maar’s men had little to no time to react. The stronger ones among them were still able to put their guards up as the wedge sped through the last fifty meters, but even they were unable to block the thrusts of the wind-covered lances. As a result, almost all of the experts on the front line had their bodies pierced and ripped to shreds, and their mangled corpses flung at their comrades. The first impact of the charge was in fact so powerful and so threatening to those common Realm of Heroes experts that by the time they started resisting, half of their numbers ended up killed by the lances or trampled to death by the Tempest Horses.
However, even those further in the back who were able to escape the immediate death, which being skewered by a lance signified, were unable to do much. To their shock, they discovered that their hasty blows were unable to even break the armor of the Tempest Horses. What they quite obviously didn’t know was, in fact, that only above-average martial masters of the fourth rank would be able to shatter the heavy armor of the Tempest Horses, much less the hasty blows of the likes of them. Only those few who had randomly chosen to attack the legs of the mounts while abandoning themselves to death from the next riders’ lances succeeded in inflicting serious damage. They caused five of the riders to lose their horses and naturally, after accomplishing their deed, they had their torsos burst into smithereens by the incoming attacks the very next instant.
As for those five riders who had fallen to the ground, not only were they already wounded and quite tired, but they also inevitably suffered more damage from getting thrashed about by the horses of their allies. However, as the strongest amongst the two groups of Royal Guard and two units of White Sword and Black Sword, they were able to remain on their feet and find an opportunity to dash forward and accelerate to high speed, in no small part thanks to their wind-element Qi. Then they were promptly picked up by those in the back of the wedge formation and were taken along. While not in a graceful way, there were able to survive, at least for the time being.
In this way, while trampling upon everyone and everything in their way, the wedge of Tempest Riders broke through the lines of Yimar Maar’s army and rode towards the great forest. They suffered some injuries and lost a few people in order to break through, but thanks to various favorable circumstances stacking on top of each other, they escaped relatively scot-free.
Compared to what could have happened, they faced barely any resistance. For once, Yimar Maar had driven his elites eastwards so madly that he reacted too late once they turned to ride to the north-west. Secondarily, the mounts at Yimar Maar’s army disposal were already close to death, so forcing them to gallop at full speed wasn’t realistic. As for ordering the faster of his elites to run ahead, Yimar Maar had done just that. Yet, ironically, those wind-element experts had been rendered completely useless by Reian’s powerful attack that contained the Profound Mystery of Heavenly Tempest.
It was also worth mentioning that those common Realm of Heroes experts in Yimar Maar’s army had little to no experience fighting heavy cavalry. Because of that, they were unable to inflict nearly as much damage as they could have had otherwise. That was, however, only under the assumption that while having the appropriate knowledge, they would be willing to forfeit their own lives in exchange for killing the Tempest Riders and their horses. For a non-regular army, it was a nigh-impossible task since a rag-tag bunch of experts would rarely if ever achieve the levels of morale necessary to accomplish such a feat.
Yet, regardless of all of those circumstances, the clash between Arsan’s allied forces and Yimar Maar’s army was by no means over.
“Protect Arslan!” Soon after they had broken through, one of the remaining three commanders under Julien reminded loudly. While he and his companions had played no part in the charge itself as they would have only been getting in the way of the Tempest Riders, the role of guarding the rear of their group was something that would inevitably fall to them. Or, so they thought before they saw the trio of Reian, Julien and funnily enough, Abdain, take care of this problem for them. The three men basically sowed so much chaos into Yimar Maar’s army while they were chasing along that the startled experts in the area missed the small window of opportunity to attack Arslan’s group.
“Laien, Yin, Arslan! Come to the front!” Right afterward, Casimir’s voice reached everyone’s ears. Those who tended to pay attention to small details didn’t fail to notice that the Crown Prince called Laien’s name first, then Yin’s name and only last, Arslan’s name. The ones who didn’t know better assumed that it was simply out of convenience as the latest series of events was revolving around Laien and Yin, but the likes of Anna and Casimir’s Royal Guards were convinced otherwise. As far as they were concerned, Casimir was someone who would pay attention to formalities and rules of the court at all times unless the situation didn’t allow the time to speak freely. At this moment there was no imminent danger, so the meaning behind Casimir’s words was very clear to them.
While surprising, they understood that in his heart, Casimir came to value those two boys higher than the young prince of Makarash. Many of Casimir’s Royal Guards weren’t quite sure if taking such an approach was wise, but on the other hand, Anna wasn’t worried. She trusted there was a good reason behind Casimir’s reasoning, so while thinking about it in this way, she was able to quickly figure it out. In truth, it wasn’t all that hard to realize as one merely needed to look back to a few minutes ago. Hadn’t Arslan displayed complete trust in those two boys, and in Laien in particular? Those three were obviously more than just good friends, so befriending one of them was as good as befriending all three. If so, then who was rationally the best person to focus on? Naturally, the one who usually called the shots. In other words, Laien.
“Take all your companions to the front too,” Casimir instructed the three boys. At the same time, he adjusted the path of their group so that they would be riding straight towards the main road leading through the middle of the great forest. They were still good thirty kilometers away from it and originally, before the news of Yimar Maar arrived and before this entire clash began, they had intended to pass around it for the sake of safety. Now, they would use the forest to their advantage. The only thing was, while the plan Laien had proposed wasn’t bad, as far as Casimir himself was concerned it lacked the necessary foresight. Hiding where Arslan was and splitting up in order to divide Yimar Maar’s forces was a good trick, but there were better things they could do.
“Now that we can talk more or less calmly,” Casimir began saying once everyone shifted their positions. “I’d like to make some adjustments to our plan. I’d like all of you to listen first and then provide your thoughts if you wish to,” he mentioned and sent Laien a glance. Once Laien nodded, he smiled slightly and continued went on, his voice reaching all seven hundred or so people in their group. “Instead of everyone splitting up, I want half of us to go through the main road. It’s wide enough for us not to lose much speed. This group will include Arslan and all of his companions, me, Anna, and our Royal Guards,” he said without a hurry, making sure that everybody would be able to digest the idea on their own. This way, he would be able to save time on giving out the same instructions once he was done explaining.
“Laien, Yin. You two and the White Sword unit will disperse in the forest to our left. You’ve already fought alongside the White Sword, so you will be able to provide support to each other as needed. In addition to that, I’d like one-third of Julien’s men to go to the western side with you. As for the eastern side, it will be manned by the Black Sword unit and the remaining two-thirds of Julien’s men. Next, I’d like to let Reian recover some strength, so I want to keep him with Arslan in the front. Finally, General Julien’s role would be to keep fending Abdain off as we flee through the main road.”
“Hrm,” Laien pondered the idea for a little bit. He gave Casimir a look just to be sure, but the young man responded with a slight nod instead of saying anything else. “So it looks like he doesn’t want to hide Arslan,” he mused quietly. He didn’t doubt that Yimar Maar would send people into the forest itself in order to get rid of those who had split up anyway, but he couldn’t help but worry about the main unit. Just like Casimir said, Reian was likely quite tired already and Julien was needed to keep Abdain in check at all times. Wouldn’t Yimar Maar simply focus all of his manpower on capturing Arslan in such a situation? Wouldn’t that result in high casualties for those Royal Guards? The whole idea of going north was all in order to put him and Yin in a dangerous spot, not for the Royal Guards of Casimir and Anna’s to take the brunt of the enemy attacks!
“Let’s think about it calmly,” Laien reprimanded himself and shook his head strongly. “Casimir wouldn’t propose a bad plan. So am I assuming something wrong? From what I see I remembered well that this forest is an ancient one, so the trees are huge and more sparse than usual, so it’s not like horses will be obstructed too much while moving through it. At least not the horses like ours… so if it’s not about the environment, it’s about the people?” he pondered for a bit and quickly realized that he needed to change his approach. If he was in Yimar Maar’s shoes and if he saw his enemies suddenly split two-quarters of their forces into each side of the forest, what would he do?
He would think that something was very wrong! From Yimar Maar’s perspective, his army had literally no means of capturing Arslan if the kid’s group decided to simply gallop straight north at full speed. Yet, this very group which could have escaped easily decided to do something strange. How could Yimar Maar not grow suspicious?
Even though Casimir didn’t say so, Laien could by this point guess that Casimir intended to slow down the speed of their main group once they entered the forest path. This would likely serve to increase Yimar Maar’s anxiety and prevent the man from making any rash decisions. Yimar Maar’s goal would then most likely be to ensure that even without knowing what is going on, he can put himself in a position where he is able to capture Arslan with a high probability of success. As for how to do that? First wipe out or at least suppress those who had spread out into the forest and second, use his superior numbers to recreate the encirclement from before. Without intervention from Flora, it would be almost impossible for their group to get out once surrounded by nearly ten thousand experts. That would probably be the most sensible plan in Yimar Maar’s eyes.
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“I’ve got no complaints,” Laien said with a smile, which turned a little weird the next moment once he realized something important. “U-um… What I shouted out, it won’t be a problem, right?” he asked, showing obvious singles of being flustered. He hadn’t really been thinking about it too deeply when he yelled that challenge out, but he wasn’t quite sure if he hadn’t overdone it with the volume. What if by some coincidence a random gust of wind carried his words far enough for Yimar Maar’s men to hear them? He didn’t worry about Julien and Abdain since the Qi they were constantly discharging would kill the amplified sound instantly, but the other side… what if they heard?
Seeing Laien’s almost fidgety behavior, Casimir couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Calm down, I would have stopped you If I thought it was bad,” he said with a broad smile. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly had an urge to pat Laien on the head. Was it because Laien tended to act all cool and collected the entire time that once he was nervous and embarrassed he appeared that much cuter? “The Shadow Trials work both ways, especially if they are as crazy as yours. Even if Yimar Maar somehow learns of our situation, he will have no choice but to keep trying to capture Arslan with all his strength. Imagine if he didn’t, wouldn’t those overseers get angry with him instead of with you?” he pointed out with a smirk. Really, Laien should have been able to figure it out on his own, but he probably got too nervous once he thought he could have made a major blunder by accident. In a way, it showed quite well that despite all the strength Laien had, he still wasn’t an adult just yet.
“That’s good,” Laien breathed out. Then, when he heard Yin chuckle, he revealed a helpless smile. He could tell that Yin was quite amused with him, but considering that he really did something rather silly, he could only bring himself to bear with the embarrassment quietly. He thus endured with his cheeks burning red and in the meanwhile, he promised himself to be more thoughtful next time.
Casimir smiled, the lighthearted moment having allowed him to relax slightly. He glanced at the sky and towards the north, a mysterious glimmer once again appearing in his eyes. “Laien, Yin,” he said calmly. “Remember, I will blow the horn once I judge that we’ll soon have to flee. You two have elite mounts so you’ll have some more leeway, but don’t throw your lives away just to try and impress those bastards from the Guild of Shadows,” he cautioned, having had already witnessed a bit of the recklessness those boys were capable of. He definitely wished for them to pass the Shadow Trials, but at the same time, he had a feeling it wouldn’t be that simple.
Thus, he suppressed a sigh and stole another glance at the sky. It was just about noon now, but would their luck prevail long enough for a man-made miracle to happen?
“Got it,” Laien and Yin replied and the same time, then exchanged an amused look. It had been some time since they said the same thing over each other, so despite it being such a minor thing, their mood brightened up considerably. The two of them soon closed their eyes, seeing as there was still some time before they would reach the forest. While a few minutes wasn’t a long period of time, it would be enough for them to refresh their minds and readjust to the most optimal state for combat.
The next few minutes passed very quickly for the two of them. The entire time they were vaguely aware of the words being exchanged between their companions, but they didn’t pay much attention to what was actually being said. Instead, while resting their minds, the two of them were pondering the options available to them. Considering how widespread the battlefield was about to become, they doubted that their usual approach would work too well. Moreover, they would need to keep retreating north at high speed almost the entire time, so that complicated things further.
Yet, the composition of their enemies was very likely to change too. This thought brought a sly smile to Laien’s lips and half a second later, it caused the corners or Yin’s lips to twitch as he suppressed a similar smile. The great forest they were about to charge into consisted mostly of very old and very big trees, so as they had already established, horses wouldn’t be too obstructed there. Additionally, there were little to no bushes down below since the huge and dense crowns of the old trees blocked all of the sunlight. In such an environment, with tree crowns hanging well over fifty meters above the ground level, who would expect anyone to attempt a sneak-attack?
“We even confirmed that it works before,” Laien mused happily. They had managed to sneak-attack Abdain’s elites out in the open field by exploiting the tendency of relying on sensing killing intent and aura which all experts seemed to have. The circumstance was more favorable now than back then, so as long as they didn’t slip up and waste time, they should be able to deliver a nasty surprise to their enemies. It would be far less flashy than their usual battles, but if everything went well, then the final outcome wouldn’t be that different. In other words, there wouldn’t be many people left to tell the stories of what they had seen either way, so it wouldn’t matter if they were flashy or not.
“It would be great if I was faster though,” Laien thought to himself. “If I was as fast as Yin, then we wouldn’t need to rely on our horses to retreat periodically,” he added silently, then smirked a little when Yin’s thought reached him. He didn’t expect Yin to actually tease him about being too slow instead of mentioning that he had other strengths, but in a weird way, it was amusing. “Want to compete who kills more people? The one who wins gets to make one demand of the loser,” he suggested on the spur of the moment. He realized well enough what ridiculous suggestion it was, but he didn’t care. And, Yin didn’t seem to care either.
“Sure,” Yin responded through their Spiritual Bond. “We’ve got to make it fair though. First rank one point, second rank two, third three, fourth five and fifth ten. Seems fine?” he asked and smiled happily when Laien agreed in a straightforward manner. Each of them had different strengths and advantages, so this kind of scoring system would make for an interesting competition. Now the only question was, what could each of them do to improve their chances to win?
Had those people around Laien and Yin known what those two youths were thinking about during the last few kilometers of the ride towards the forest, they would have been left speechless. Even the open-minded ones like Casimir and Anna wouldn’t be able to rationalize the concept of turning a serious and very dangerous battle into a killing contest. The only assumption they would be able to make would be that Laien and Yin were crazy, and who could blame them, honestly?
However, no one would have ever expected how effective this simple whim of Laien and Yin’s was going to prove to be. The two youths had improved tremendously in the past three months and they were incomparably stronger than when they were merely setting out of the Sarkcente Kingdom. The two of them had also learned many new skills, but considering the rapid growth of their cultivation, they simply hadn’t had enough time to properly digest their new strength.
How to best apply their new strength not merely to grow stronger overall, but to kill in the most efficient way possible? How much risk would it be acceptable to take in order to kill faster and easier? Where the new limits of their abilities laid, what were they truly capable of given everything they had gained in the last three months? They had grasped a little bit of those concepts when they cooperated in order to kill Abdain’s elites, but it was like comparing sun and moon. Once they left the thought of acting on their instinct and cooperating purely through their overwhelming talent, a world of new possibilities opened before them. Some of those ideas would work out, some wouldn’t, but with the goal of winning their competition, they were set on finding new ways to kill.
After all, what the two of them were capable of no longer corresponded to what their habits and instincts were telling them. They had grown too much in a too short period of time, but unbeknownst to anyone but themselves, they were about to rapidly fill the gap between their cultivation and experience. To others, what they had shown so far was already beyond comprehension, so how could have anyone ever thought to tell them that they were lacking in terms of applying their various skills and abilities to the actual effect in battle? Had it not been for this one moment, it would be hard to say how long would it have taken for anyone to set Laien and Yin straight.
“We’ll try to go slowly,” Casimir said loudly. “But do try to pay attention where our main group is so that you don’t fall too far behind and get surrounded,” he warned and gave Laien and Yin a meaningful look. However, to his surprise, the two boys didn’t even look back at him. He could see that their eyes were focused, so it wasn’t that they were daydreaming. He was pretty sure they had heard him too, but while he wanted to make sure, it was the highest time to start moving.
“Split up!”
At Casimir’s shout, and much to Casimir’s relief, everyone moved without delay, including Laien and Yin. The two boys headed for the left side with the White Sword unit and one-third of Julien’s remaining men, just around thirty people. At the same time, the Black Sword Unit and the rest of Julien’s subordinates moved to the right side of the fairly wide forest path.
Casimir smiled at the thought of the dilemma Yimar Maar was put under by their actions. If the man figured out that the Guild of Shadows was getting involved because of the Shadow Trials then he would probably be somewhat calmer. On the other hand, if he failed to realize it, then he would be put in a very tough spot. Pursuing Arslan with his entire manpower would only lead to Arslan speeding ahead and escaping, so he would have no choice but the take the very obvious bait and walk his people straight into the trap. He couldn’t possibly risk that Arslan’s group would give up on baiting him and simply ride away in case he did nothing, so he had no choice but to engage in a disadvantageous battle all in order to buy time. Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t!
“I must say,” Casimir smiled wryly. “It’s quite a satisfying feeling, putting someone in such a stupidly unfair spot. Now if we can pull through to the very end it will be great,” he mused and suppressed a sigh, the smile dimming on his face. Winning a battle was already a tough task most of the time, but now they were playing with the fire in order to gain more benefits. Whether they would get burned or if they would prevail in the end… to be fair, it would all depend on those two boys.
“Oh well,” he murmured and smiled once again. “I’m going to make you two work your assess off for me in the future in return for today,” he promised himself, then slowed down to just about two hundred kilometers per hour along with the rest of their main group. By this point the left and right teams had all but disappeared in the forest too, so the bait was laid in the open. With the stage set, everything would depend on how the events of the next minutes and hours played out.