Chapter 238: A Subsurface War (15)

The sound of soldier’s swords and spears striking armor and piercing flesh.

The sound of mana coalescing into various phenomena before smashing against walls of magic and steel.

The sound of buildings collapsing.

The sound of people dying.

A fierce battle broke out in the middle of Pittsburgh, the capital of Divide. A battle between those who wished to pass through and those who were ordered to hold them back.

“Get through the front line by any means!”

“Stop them!”

“They are the Outsiders!”

“They are the terrorists! Don’t show mercy!”

The two groups held a perspective of each other that differed from reality, so a clash between them was unavoidable.

As the battle progressed, the lines between both groups became more and more blurred.

*Boom*

The shock of an explosion reverberated across both forces.

While the balance of power between the two was similar, the battle itself clearly favored the Kingdom of Divide’s armed force. In a way, this should have been expected. Divide’s troops had already been in formation, with barricades strategically set up to hinder the Western Kingdom Union’s retaliation. They had predicted that the WKU would pass through this location, and had taken control of the area long before the skirmish.

On the other hand, the Western Kingdom Union had to fight without proper preparation. Moreover, no matter how close they were at a diplomatic level, the participants of this allied force were still individual countries. The Allied Forces could not move as one, and there were too many leaders making individual calls.

Without an overwhelming difference in quantity or quality, what should have been minor inefficiencies had a significant impact on the battle fought in such close quarters and with a situational disadvantage.

“Protect His Majesty!”

“Strengthen the central defense!”

Even during the battle, the Divide troops persistently fired spells at key members of the Western Kingdom Union. This only drove the soldiers of the allied forces into a greater frenzy. Such action was too radical to be taken as an attempt to subdue visitors on a diplomatic mission. This reinforced their belief that Divide had been completely co-opted by the Outsiders.

In the end, the Allied Forces had no choice but to focus their strength at the center of their formation to protect their key figures against such attacks. This had a disastrous consequence on their overall formation strength, while also greatly limiting the available tactics and individual impact of the troops.

With defeat all but solidified for the Allied Forces, it was surprising that a few movements were able to rekindle hope.

“Second troops! Get ready for… !”

One of Divide’s commanders, who was about to order his soldiers to fire, suddenly fell to the floor. Blood flowed down from the hole that had appeared in his chest.

When the Commander suddenly collapsed, Divide’s soldiers looked around in fear.

A powerful attack that left no trace apart from a lifeless body. Something able to pierce their defensive magic like a drill.

Divide’s soldiers assumed it was sniping magic and immediately invoked detection magic, but found no trace of a sniper. This was only natural though. It was the work of Romantica Eru. She had an artifact that concealed her presence.

‘Blue Rose’.

The artifact’s hiding function made her not only invisible to the naked eye, but also had the additional functionality of fooling even detection magic.

These two functions made it worthy of its ranking as an A-Tier artifact.

*Bang*

A dry sound pierced the silence that had consumed Divide’s forces. This time a knight who had been leading soldiers in the front line slumped forward; his head fell to the ground.

It was impossible to avoid these attacks.

Divide’s chain of command, having lost its Commander, collapsed swiftly. Pram wasn’t idle either.

Pram sliced and diced his way through the enemy camp without hesitation. His maneuverability, enhanced by his ability to teleport short-distances, was phenomenal and none of the rank and file of Divide’s forces were able to follow his movement.

“Argh!”

“Wa-Wait!”

*Splash*

Blood fountains surged in every spot Pram suddenly appeared and Divide’s soldiers fell one after another. With absolute minimal movement, illustrating the masterful control he had over his body, he efficiently reaped the lives of numerous foes.

Very few soldiers were able to mount even the flimsiest defense against Pram’s pin-point accurate attacks. This was in a large part due to his skilled artifact usage, the Cloud Walkers.

Within a short period of time, Pram found himself rather far behind enemy lines. He did not take things easy though, having identified a few men that were skilled enough to compete against him in a head-to-head match.

The small crack, opened up by the Starling Party, gradually grew bigger and bigger. The soldiers of the Allied Forces advanced dozens of meters beyond the barricades.

The building with the teleportation gate began to appear little by little in the distance.

“Enough.”

A knight in black armor stopped Pram’s advance.

*Clash*

The sword he used to stop Pram’s blade held a different tone to normal metal. It was a blade filled with aura, the kind that only swordsmen who had reached the highest level could wield.

*Clash*

Their swords crossed and there was a miniature explosion of light.

Pram kept his distance from the knight in front of him while taking a moment to take in his surroundings. Before he knew it, knights dressed in black armor had surrounded him.

The black knights quickly overpowered the forces of the advancing troops.

Their number was not large, but the difference in skill was overwhelming compared to ordinary soldiers.

Pram bit his lower lip.

“The Janissaries… ”

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Even when they confronted each other just before the battle broke out, Pram had guessed that their skills would be considerable. But after seeing it with his own eyes, they were truthfully far beyond his expectations.

“As long as the main force is committed to defense, I thought it would be enough to buy time.”

The knight who blocked Pram muttered unexpectedly.

Clearly, it was largely thanks to the Starling Party’s performance that the Allied Forces had managed to advance this far. Their opponents had been strong enough to bring things to a draw, but they were nothing more than strawmen in the face of the Starling Party.

But the tables turned once again as the Janissaries stepped forward.

“Urgh… !”

Knights of the Allied Forces, who had advanced with Pram, were helplessly cut down by the Janissary’s counter-attack. Even though they were also proud of their skills, the difference was too great.

The knights of Janissary were far stronger than any other knight. If they couldn’t stop them here, the damage to Allied Forces would accumulate swiftly.

For a moment, Pram used his Cloud Walkers to move towards the back of the knight in front of him. It was the perfect surprise attack, impossible to defend against without knowing the exact timing of the attack.

“I was expecting you to do that!”

But the Janissary knight turned around with inhuman reflexes and speed.

However, Pram had already gathered a substantial amount of aura, and it had begun to materialize, a tell-tale give away that Pram had advanced to the Bishop Class.

Light gathered at the tip of his sword. The incredibly condensed aura shot off like a meteor, striking the knight before he could even react. The white stream of light pierced the knights’ sword, and then his figure, at a speed that exceeded sound itself. Fragments of the shattered sword scattered in all directions like pieces of shrapnel.

“… … !”

The Janissary knights, who had surrounded Pram, showed signs of embarrassment.

A young boy, a mere teenager, had killed one of Divide’s best knights in an instant.

As the Janissary knights attempted to use a pincer attack on Pram, to avenge their comrade…

“I’ll deal with that boy. You guys stop the other enemies.”

A heavy voice overwhelmed the area. At the same time, Pram sensed the movement of a huge amount of aura heading his way.

He raised the sword urgently.

*Clash*

The power made Pram’s body bounce backward, even though he guarded himself as best as he could. His fingers were left numb.

He hurriedly corrected his posture, raising his head and looking straight ahead at the source of the attack.

Leader of the Janissaries, Brepon, stood before him. He crooked his finger.

“Come.”

Pram clenched his teeth.

Brepon was a King-Class swordsman.

Pram was no match for such an opponent. He didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve, like Adjest who could boost her physical ability. He couldn’t keep his distance and snipe him, like Romantica could. Nor could he plan the entire encounter, making the enemy move like a puppet of fate, finishing him off with a ridiculous spell, like Des1r.

But he couldn’t back down. If he couldn’t stop Brepon now, the damage to troops behind him would be serious.

‘I have no choice but to go all out from the beginning.’

Pram concentrated his aura to the limit. Aura gathered around the sword and gave off a dazzling light. If it had been ordinary iron, it would have immediately crumpled under such power, but it contained the aura without any problem. This was due to it being made out of Blankšum.

“That’s a pretty good sword.”

“Ahhhh!”

Pram kicked off against the ground with a shout.

Pram’s movement, a swordsman that had reached the Bishop Class, was far beyond anything a normal human’s comprehension and ability to replicate. His movement, which he had strengthened to the maximum by using all of his aura, was incomparable to any other time he had fought.

He did not neglect to use his Cloud Walkers. Using them at the ideal moment, he immediately changed his angle of approach in a movement that appeared to defy physics. As he reached the ten-meter mark, Pram thrust his sword forward, letting loose the condensed aura.

Two swords collided.

*Boom*

An explosion of aura created a thunderous noise. It was so loud that it felt as if it were the work of magic, rather than swordcraft.

“Amazing. I never thought you’d come this far at your age.”

Brepon was very relaxed, blocking Pram’s attack effortlessly.

“But just because you’re fast and powerful, doesn’t mean you are a strong swordsman.”

Brepon pushed Pram back and swung his sword.

Brepon slashed and thrust several times at Pram. The moment he did so, Pram was forced to abandon all offense and put his all into defending.

‘He’s strong.’

Each blow was fatal. If he didn’t put all of his strength into defense, he would have died several times in that exchange.

What was surprising was that this was not even Brepon’s full power. Brepon was wielding his sword with an utterly relaxed expression.

“Urgh… ”

Pram groaned.

‘But if I’m going to hold out somehow… ’

But at that moment Brepon spoke, as if reading Pram’s thoughts.

“Don’t think your actions will have any effect on this battle, just because you’re keeping me preoccupied.”

Several arcs of lightning touched down around Pram and Brepon. The direction it had come from was in the air.

Pram looked up. His vision was filled with magic pouring down without stop.

‘The Wyvern Army!’

Divide’s Wyverns Army had complete domination of the sky. They constantly fired magic at the Allied Forces, barely needing to worry about defense at all.

It was not easy to stop their attack, which they continued to perform while moving fast on their wyverns. At least, the magicians of the tower, led by Zod, were pouring their resources into defensive magic, so this was not yet the death blow for the Western Kingdom Union. However, they were barely holding out.

The most powerful magical forces the Allied Forces had in this battle was now devoted entirely to defense.

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