21st Century Archmage

Chapter 100: The Battle Begins

“On whose whim did you decrease the number of patrolling wyverns?!!”

Early in the morning, a furious voice thundered through the camp of the Havis Kingdom’s punitive army. Duke Hanskane, whose shock had kept him wide awake last night, roared at the nobles.

He clearly remembered ordering formations of at least 40 wyverns to run patrols around the area. But Kyre and his Skyknights had punched through that defense net, unleashed magic on them, and leisurely flew away. Hanskane then found out that only 20 wyverns had flown patrols last night, and they had encountered a group of wyverns and given chase, leaving the skies above the punitive army completely open to attack.

“…..”

However, not a single person stepped up to take responsibility. The nobles were participating voluntarily and not because they had received an executive command from the Crown, so naturally, they were half-assing it. They simply trusted in their numerical advantage and thought that victory was imminent.

“Your Excellency, please calm your anger. It will all be over when the rats hiding in that tiny castle are defeated anyway. I’m sure everyone here understands your rage.” Marquis Chakres, the next highest in rank next to Hanskane in the punitive army, butted in.

“Mmm…”

‘Damned bastards, do you think this is a joke?’

There was no sense of tension among the nobles at all. As expected of rotten nobles living in a stagnant kingdom, they even showed up to the morning meeting all dressed up. Moreover, Hanskane was aware that there were a few nobles who couldn’t temporarily suppress their lust and even brought along women, disguising them as soldiers.

“Alright. But from today onwards, you must follow my orders to the T. Our force might be far superior, but it is my hope that all of you keep in mind that this is enemy territory.”

Knowing that pressing the nobles would only cause him a headache, Hanskane cooled his rage.

“…..”

But the nobles continued to show their obvious displeasure at being ordered around and subjected to his rage at the break of dawn. No one responded.

‘The moment we are annexed into the empire, only a few of you bastards will survive!’ Hanskane thought viciously, gnashing his teeth.

“Then let us begin the strategy meeting for the battle today. According to our intel, the castle in front of us, Gadain Castle, is one of Nerman’s few lousy castles. We have determined that it is manned by 3,000 soldiers who appear to be archers and a group of cavalry. There are also around fifteen wyverns protecting the castle.”

“Then is the lord of this place, that Kyre fellow who rampaged last night, also there?”

“That seems to be the case.”

“Let us attack at once! Just thinking about how I lost sleep because of him makes me—”

“What use is a strategy meeting? No matter how outstanding that bastard is, he can’t win against these numbers.”

“I concur. If we strike that worn-down, shabby castle from the sky, he will raise the white flag and surrender.”

The nobles clamored for attack. It was because the spoils were distributed according to whoever got their hands on it first that they were so eager to strike.

‘You shitheads.’

The nobles were absolutely deplorable even in his eyes. Hanskane swallowed the curses in his throat and slightly bit his lips. Absolute numbers rendered tactics meaningless, but there was still an order to things.

“We cannot.”

Duke Hanskane’s words rang coldly in the meeting room.

“What do you mean? With a force this large, we should be more than capable of seeing results with the wyverns alone.”

“Indeed. If we move with the infantry, the rats won’t even be able to run.”

Among the spoils, the most valuable were the precious wyvern and Skyknight gear. Blinded by greed, the nobles saw nothing else.

“Everyone should prepare to sortie. We will mobilize immediately after the infantry set off.”

Hanskane ordered mobilization rather than attack.

“……”

Instead of a resounding “As you command,” the nobles responded with silence.

Even before the real battle could begin, an invisible war was unfolding within the Havis army meeting room.

Not a single one of the nobles had an interest in what their enemy might have prepared for them.

* * *

“They should be moving soon.”

The enemy encampment was just 20 kilometers away, a distance that would take regular infantry half a day to cover, but was merely a hop and a skip on wyverns.

“Are all the preparations perfect?”

“We have done exactly as you instructed, my liege. They have no idea what hell awaits.” said Cedrian, my mercenary-leader-turned-important-commander. He was really reliable.

“Contact Ryker. Tell him to lead the troops and block off the border.”

“As you command!”

The battle would be short. A great bloody storm must be raging in the Havis Kingdom around now, too. Everything would be decided with a single victory.

‘If we use the Nerman main road, we can reach the border in half a day.’

A part of the Orakk Castle’s men were stationed in Denfors, and around 3,000 of the soldiers in Denfors were sent to the beginning of Nerman’s road, the cement production facility. We moved them quickly using remodeled carriages. The moment my order came down, the soldiers would be sent to barricade the border. If they rode the remodeled carriages and used Nerman’s new road, half a day was all it would take to send 3,000 soldiers to the border.

“My liege! The enemy wyverns are going aloft!” reported a knight, barging into Gadain Castle’s large meeting room.

It was a pretty useful room, obviously having been used extensively by Viscount Lukence during his tenure as de facto lord.

‘We have to send them to hell in a single strike. If not… I’ll be the one to meet ruin.’

The outcome of this war depended on my secret weapon. If it failed, everything would fall apart.

“Prepare for battle.”

“Yes, sir!”

10 of my important knights were gathered in the meeting room. They saluted me with vigor.

‘I wonder if Rosiathe will be able to finish things well over there.’

I was slightly worried about the situation in the Havis Kingdom. I couldn’t exterminate all 200 wyverns—it was a given that most of them would survive and flee.

If Rosiathe wasn’t able to dominate the Havis Kingdom in spite of that, this war would merely be an empty victory.

“H-Halt!”

A troop of cavalry ran forward without stopping, thundering past the moat. The knights and soldiers scrambled out to stand in front of the castle gate, shocked.

“They are enemies! Prepare for batt—Ugh!”

Duke Hanskane’s territory was just half a day’s ride on horseback from the Havis Royal Castle. Most of the territory’s Skyknights, knights, and 5,000 men were participating in the punitive army, so there were barely 1,000 men left in the duke’s castle, and most of them were old or weak.

50 mounted men were charging towards such a poorly defended castle. Because they had come running with the royal flag emblazoned with five spears and a shield at their head, Duke Hanskane’s men simply watched blankly as they came, wondering what the Knights of the Royal Guard wanted. However, they cut down the knight and soldiers standing before the front gate and continued to charge.

“ENEMIES AHEAD!! PREPARE FOR BATTLE!!!!”

Startled to his senses, a knight atop the castle walls yelled to alert the others.

Thud thud thud thud thud thud!

Far in the distance, a thousand mounted men could be seen charging forward. The horses kicked up a storm of dust as they galloped without hesitation towards the castle of Duke Hanskane, the key player of the Havis Kingdom.

KUOOOOOOOO!

KAAAAAAAAAA!

And that wasn’t all. Before the shocked soldiers could gather their wits, dozens of wyverns swooped in, whistling past the heads of the soldiers atop the walls.

“Everyone, surrender! This is the strict order of His Majesty the King! By Royal Decree, the traitor Duke Hanskane and his family will all be taken into custody! From this moment forth, anyone who resists will be taken as a traitor! Put down your weapons and receive the Royal Decree!!!!!!”

A Royal Knight cloaked in red shouted the Royal Decree with mana. The faces of the knights and soldiers turned pale. They had never thought they would be labeled as traitors. If they raised their weapons in opposition, even their families could be implicated.

Clatter.

Clunk clunk.

“W-What are you all doing?! Quickly pick up your weapons and fight! Do you want to forfeit your lives when our liege returns?!?!”

After one soldier threw down his weapon, the other cowed soldiers followed suit, causing the knights to shout.

Schwiiiiiip.

BAM!

The battle ended before it could even begin.

A knight shouting atop the castle walls was sentenced to eternal silence, his heart pierced by a Blessed Spear that nailed his body into the wall.

Clatter clatter clatter.

Staring wide-eyed at the gruesome corpse of the knight, the soldiers hastened to throw down their weapons.

This Royal Decree was unfamiliar to their ears, but the weight of it was truly not light.

* * *

“The moment the punitive army attacks Gadain Castle, the paladins will split off and attack Denfors.”

“We shall obey your command.”

Daterian had started out as a humble paladin and ascended to an important position in the church. He turned to the key paladins gathered in the large tent and quietly gave his orders.

“Our mission this time is to return Priestess Aramis, the object of God’s sincere love, back to the temple’s embrace. That takes precedence over all else.”

Such was the executive command they had received from the Cardinal—they were to save the priestess named Aramis and bring her to the Cardinal. Anyone who interfered was a follower of the Evil God disturbing the work of their god, so they should all be killed without impunity regardless of status.

“In the name of God…”

As Daterian muttered words full of hard resolve, the paladins drew crosses and bowed their heads.

They would move together with the 10 Skyknights from the church who had joined them a few days prior.

* * *

Neeeeigh.

Chew, chew.

“Eat up, my little cutie.”

The agonized scream of the horse faded quickly. A Skyknight gazed with satisfaction at his wyvern as it smoothly extracted the horse’s innards with a sharp horn and gobbled them up with great enjoyment.

Neeigh! Neeeeeigh!

It wasn’t just one or two horses. The hungry wyverns weren’t just eating the horses meant for transport, but also the trained steeds from the cavalry. For wyverns that could finish off two pigs daily, hunger was unimaginable agony.

‘Dammit…’

The cries of the horses ringing out everywhere and the metallic reek of blood made Hanskane scowl. After they lost the wyvern food in the supply train, the hungry wyverns went wild. Moreover, because they were moving with the infantry due to his command, Hanskane couldn’t even stop them.

‘It’s shocking to think all those monsters disappeared.’

Hanskane had flown to Denfors a few years ago for an unrelated matter, so he was shocked by the night-and-day difference in Nerman. The monsters that had seemed so numerous they couldn’t possibly be exterminated by human force were nowhere to be found.

‘It’ll be fine as long as we take the castle.’

The weather was chilly, but on the plains, the speed of their advance was shockingly fast. Soon, they would reach their goal, Gadain Castle. They could easily begin the onslaught right away, but because there was no telling what tricks the bastards would try at night, he decided to begin the full-scale attack tomorrow morning.

“Oh, oh!”

He was leisurely casting his gaze towards Gadain Castle when he suddenly saw something ahead.

KUAAAAAAAK!

KYAAAAAK!

“E-Enemy wyverns ahead!!”

“Everyone, get in the air!”

There were wyverns patrolling above the infantry in formations of ten at most. Just then, the few wyverns flying at the front screamed in pain and began to crash down.

BOOOM!

A storm of magic exploded in the air. Blue light glinted for a moment, looking like wind magic, before an enormous boom thundered out, rocking the earth.

GUOOOOOOOOOO!!

“K-Kyre!!”

The wyvern’s golden stripes on black were recognizable at first glance even from afar. It let out a bellow, then turned and flew away.

“Take him down!! Take down that bastard!!!!!”

Flap, flap, flap flap flap!

Kiooooooooo!

Hanskane had no time to stop them. The wyverns that just finished their meals flapped and went aloft, covering the soldiers in red dust. The wyverns patrolling above went chasing after Kyre without a single word.

‘It’s dangerous!’

Watching dazedly, Duke Hanskane got an ominous feeling. Kyre provoked them all on his lonesome without a formation and managed to enrage the Skyknights. For just a moment, the range of Kyre’s Blessed Spears and his ability to attack with magic was enough to make Hanskane’s heart tremble. Even now, a few of the Havis Skyknights were hurling spears at him as he fled, but at that distance, the spears fell uselessly to the ground.

Swoooooosh.

Already worked up into a frenzy, dozens of wyverns and Skyknights went flying off after Kyre.

“The entire army shall change to a quick march!”

Since things were already like this, Hanskane decided to lead the soldiers and attack. He quickly ordered the army to march faster.

* * *

‘Huhu…’

The wyverns were flying around like idiots, struck by the spears I hurled in quick succession, and forced to land.

‘The power of the newly made spears is really good.’

The new model of Blessed Spear had a range that could expand to match the user’s mana quantity. It was effective even at a distance of over 3 kilometers.

‘These fools.’

I flew Bebeto at a gentle pace, luring the prey behind me. Just looking at the way they were flying revealed how much of a mess their military discipline was. A simple provocation was enough to whip them into a frenzy, and as a result, dozens of wyverns were headlessly chasing me.

Swoooooooosh.

Bebeto took after his owner and knew how to savor the tension. The sturdy muscles running over his wings were nice and relaxed as they rode the wind, despite the fact there were at least 30 enemies trailing behind him like a long tail.