Chapter 46 : Chapter 46
Chapter 46: Rout! A Slaughter Without Honor
That supremely muffled explosion was the final straw breaking the backs of thirteen hundred Lionheart Guards.
When Baron Ralph's corpse, catalyzed to its extreme by evil power, transformed into a sky full of yellow-green corrosive poison rain and deadly poison fog, a veteran standing at the core of the formation was roaring orders hoarsely, coordinating his comrades' steps.
“Hold the line! Steady your footing! We are the Lionheart…”
Before he could finish, a drop of yellow-green liquid splattered onto the helmet of a young soldier beside him.
No loud bang, no impact, only a teeth-aching sizzling sound.
That iron helmet capable of withstanding chopping blades and hacking axes melted like cheese touched by a red-hot iron, instantly forming a hole.
The young soldier's roar transformed into an inhuman, off-key piercing shriek.
He dropped his shield, hands frantically clawing at his own face, only tearing off a handful of rotten flesh mixed with blood and melted metal.
“Ahhhh! My face! My eyes!”
His screams lasted less than two seconds before cutting off abruptly.
His entire body collapsed as if bones had been extracted, falling limply, body smoking black under the poison's corrosion, rapidly becoming an unrecognizable charred mass.
The veteran watched this scene with completely blank mind.
Immediately after, that invisible poison fog spread.
The soldiers around him, one after another, clutched their throats, emitting “khh… khh…” sounds like cornered beasts' dying cries.
They desperately strangled their own necks, as if trying to squeeze out the poison gas flooding their lungs, but everything was futile.
Black blood poured from their eyes, ears, noses and mouths, bodies convulsing violently, like fish thrown onto shore, quickly dying in desperate struggles.
The Lionheart Guard's proud circular shield formation, that steel wall forged from blood and iron, was thus uglily torn open from within with an irreparable massive breach.
“The gap! Seal the gap!!”
A surviving officer, eyes blood-red, shrieked hoarsely.
He tried to organize surrounding soldiers, using flesh and blood to fill that death zone.
However, his voice was drowned by an even more surging, more frenzied tide.
Undead.
Endless undead.
They were like sharks scenting blood, like floodwater finding a dam breach, madly pouring through that enormous gap.
They trampled over companions' and enemies' corpses alike, using rusted swords, using rotted claws and fangs, bringing chaos and death into this army's heart.
The formation completely collapsed.
Soldiers could no longer maintain back-to-back defensive postures—they were scattered, divided, surrounded.
Each person became an isolated island, helplessly struggling in the undead's vast ocean.
“Save me! Ahhh—!”
A young swordsman accurately pierced a corpse walker's skull with his longsword, but before he could withdraw his weapon, another corpse walker's claws had already deeply embedded into his neck, violently tearing, bringing out a large chunk of scalding flesh.
He looked at his spurting blood with disbelief, falling, eyes full of confused questioning why this happened.
“Get away! You hellspawn bastards!”
A veteran roared, using his shield to viciously smash a corpse walker's head, but more corpse walkers surged from all directions, tightly embracing him.
He could feel countless earth-reeking hands tearing at his armor, could hear his own bones emitting overburdened creaking sounds under tremendous pressure.
Finally, he was dragged alive to the ground, completely buried by swarming undead.
Panic spread like wildfire.
When strict military discipline and collective strength were shattered, when comrades around them one by one became twisted corpses, when facing enemies that couldn't be killed, knew no pain, were endless monsters—any mortal's courage would be worn down to nothing.
“Run! We can't win! This is a curse!”
Someone was the first to release a desperate wail.
This voice, like a fuse, instantly ignited the fear in everyone's hearts.
Survival instinct overwhelmed knightly honor and military duty.
A soldier watching the disemboweled corpse walker before him, intestines spilling everywhere yet still swinging a broken sword charging forward—his psychological defenses completely collapsed.
He screamed, threw away the tower shield his father had passed down worth half a gold coin, and turned to run.
Then came a second, a third…
The rout began.
Not a tactical retreat, but completely chaotic total flight.
Soldiers like ants from a disturbed nest cast off helmets and armor, fleeing desperately in the direction they came, only cursing their parents for giving them two legs too few.
They shoved each other, trampled each other, just to run faster than those beside them.
The once-proud Lionheart banner was trampled in mud and blood, no one caring anymore.
“No retreat! Anyone who dares retreat will face military law!!”
Several duty-bound officers tried to block this flooding rout, but they were quickly knocked down by panicked soldiers, then devoured by pursuing undead.
The entire infantry phalanx, within just minutes, completely collapsed, transforming into a pitiful one-sided chase and slaughter.
On the other side of the battlefield, Lilith's seductive face had lost all color.
She stared blankly at that scorched earth cleared by her “Dragon's Breath” spell, then at those undead continuously crawling from underground, and that completely collapsed infantry formation—a chill she'd never felt before rushed from her feet straight to her crown.
Her pride, that power as a formal mage sufficient to scorn all mortals, had become a ridiculous deadly joke on this unreasonable blasphemous battlefield before her.
Each of her attacks was merely offering sacrifices to the enemy.
Her strongest magic, in return, brought the enemy's even fiercer counterattack.
What was this? Counterproductive help? I've fucking… become the enemy's accomplice? The plan backfired spectacularly?
“No… impossible…”
She muttered absently, hands gripping her staff trembling violently from fear.
“This shouldn't be like this…”
“Lilith! Wake up!”
Gray-robed Mage Martin's withered hand gripped her shoulder like iron pincers, pulling her back from the edge of dissociation.
The old mage's face was full of anxiety and gravity.
“We've lost! This isn't the time to worry about your ridiculous dignity! We must find a way to retreat! Otherwise, none of us will leave!”
“Retreat?”
Lilith shrieked like a cat whose tail was stepped on.
“We are Viscount Simon's army! How can we lose to a bunch… a bunch of stinking corpses!”
“Those aren't corpses! That's a plague!”
Martin's voice carried a trace of desperate roar.
“A plague that devours souls, that grows stronger through death!”
“Fighting it with mortal armies was wrong from the start! Go! Knight Commander Reno is still over there!”
He pointed toward the quagmire the cavalry had fallen into.
The scene there was equally hellish.
Three hundred elite heavy armored cavalry—at this moment only less than half still struggled on horseback.
Their charge had long been completely shattered by those fearless corpse walkers and skeletal hands constantly reaching from underground.
Warhorses collapsed screaming, buried by countless undead, flesh torn clean within seconds.
Then, driven by evil power, red light igniting in eye sockets, they shakily stood up again, turned direction, charging toward their former masters.
Knights were dragged from horses—their fine plate armor could resist swords, but couldn't resist that endless frenzied tearing and crushing.
Armor gaps were pried open, flesh dug out.
Once high-above noble knights, now like beetles fallen into ant swarms, dismembered bit by bit amid desperate screams.
And their commander, Knight Commander Reno, was trapped in the most difficult bitter struggle.
His warhorse had long been smashed into meat paste by that bone giant's single punch.
He himself, relying on a Grand Knight's formidable physique and Battle Energy, maneuvered on the ground around that mobile bone mountain.
Golden Battle Energy flames burned fiercely around him.
The knight commander's sword in his hand, with each swing carrying overwhelming force, hacked deep wounds into the bone giant's body, severing countless bones.
However, it was useless.
That giant seemed to have no vital points—no matter how he attacked, its massive fists and claws formed from beast bones still carried howling wind, smashing down at him again and again.
Each parry shook his palms until they nearly split, blood and qi churning.
He could feel the Battle Energy in his body rapidly depleting.
What made him even more desperate was another bone giant, after crushing the infantry formation's last resistance, now taking heavy steps, flanking toward him.
He glanced behind.
The cavalry squad—finished.
Infantry—routed.
The two mages stood in the distance, one lost in shock, one anxious-faced, both helpless.
That mighty steel army carrying the Viscount's ambition and glory had already collapsed in all but name.
A suffocating enormous sense of shame and powerlessness, like an icy hand, tightly gripped Reno's heart.
He had fought all his life, never like today feeling such… despair.
This wasn't war.
This was a slaughter utterly devoid of honor.
“Retreat…”
A word he'd never considered squeezed from his cracked lips with difficulty.
He knew that issuing this order meant he, Reno Lionheart, would become the first knight commander in the Simon family's history to lead an army in rout.
His name would be nailed to the pillar of shame, never to be redeemed.
But if he didn't issue this order, everyone here, including himself, would become new nourishment for this cursed land.
For the Viscount, for Lionheart City… at least, they must bring this terrible news back!
“All forces—retreat!!!”
Reno used all his strength, pouring all unwillingness, fury, and shame into this roar.
Golden Battle Energy exploded violently, shattering several approaching corpse walkers to fragments, also making this order clearly heard across the entire chaotic battlefield.
He no longer bothered with that bone giant, turning toward the direction fleeing soldiers ran, launching a reverse charge.
He would use his own body to buy even one more second for those still fleeing soldiers, for the two mages holding crucial intelligence.
This was his final duty as knight commander.
“Master Martin! Take Lilith! Go now!!”
He roared toward the mages' direction.
Martin hesitated no longer—he pulled up the still-dissociated Lilith, mouth rapidly chanting incantations.
A gale rose from flat ground, sweeping up sand and stones, forming a small tornado that temporarily blocked the undead pursuit's steps.
He took the opportunity to drag Lilith, sprinting toward the distance.
Marcus stood at Blackrock Town's ruined gates, coldly observing all this.
He watched those fleeing soldiers holding their heads, watched that blood-soaked knight commander trying to be a mantis stopping a chariot, his stitched face revealing an extremely contemptuous smile.
He didn't order full pursuit—his purpose was already achieved.
As for that knight commander attempting to cover the rear…
“An interesting soul, full of fury and unwillingness.”
Marcus licked his withered lips, hoarsely muttering to himself.
“Such a sacrifice mustn't be wasted.”
He slowly raised his hand, aiming at Reno's charging back.
An extremely concentrated gray-black death energy gathered in his palm, finally condensing into a black short spear only a foot long, seemingly able to devour all light.
“Go, go taste a knight's despair.”
He said softly, wrist flicking.
That black short spear, without making any sound, just silently crossed hundreds of meters, like a curse from the underworld, instantly appearing behind Reno.
Reno, frantically fighting, felt his mind buzz—a deadly crisis sense making his hair stand on end came from behind.
This was his battle-hardened instincts frantically warning!
Without thinking, he immediately condensed all remaining Battle Energy in his body unreservedly on his back, forming the heaviest golden Battle Energy shield.
However, it was already too late.
PFFT—
A slight sound like cloth being torn.
That black short spear ignored that brilliant golden Battle Energy shield, like a red-hot knife cutting butter, easily piercing through it, then viciously stabbing into Reno's right shoulder blade.
“Urgh ahh—!”
Reno released an unstoppable pained roar, his entire body as if struck by lightning, knocked from charging posture forward in a stumble, nearly falling.
An energy seemingly capable of freezing souls madly surged from the wound into his body.
Wherever it passed, his flesh rapidly died, blackened, meridians shattering inch by inch.
He could clearly feel his life force being rapidly devoured by that evil power!
His proud Grand Knight physique had no resistance before this power!
“Damn…”
Reno knelt on one knee, supporting his body with his longsword, barely avoiding collapse.
He turned back, looking with shock at his right arm rapidly losing sensation, becoming like charcoal, then toward that leisurely stitched-face monster in the distance—his eyes showing fear for the first time.
He knew he'd been struck by an extremely vicious death curse.
He wouldn't live long.
And those two bone giants had already taken heavy steps, flanking him from left and right.
Their eye sockets burning with green ghostfire looked down at him from above, like watching prey already fallen into a trap with no strength to struggle.
Finished.
Only these two words remained in Reno's heart.
Just as he prepared to burn his final life, perishing together with these two monsters—
“Lord Reno!!”
A shrill delicate shout came from the distance.
A dark red flame beam even more concentrated, even more violent than the previous Dragon's Breath, carrying do-or-die resolve, shot explosively from afar, precisely blasting into the head of that bone giant trying to attack Reno from the left!
It was Lilith!
This proud fire mage had somehow broken free from Martin's dragging.
Her seductive face was now full of tears and madness.
She had pushed the main magic crystal embedded in her staff to overload's edge, unleashing a strike beyond limits!
BOOM—!
The bone giant's head exploded violently in that violent flame beam!
Countless skulls composing its head scattered in all directions, the ghostfire in eye sockets also extinguished.
This massive creature, losing core control, its huge body swayed, finally crashing to the ground with a rumble, scattering into a pile of useless bones.
PFFT!
Lilith spat a mouthful of fresh blood mixed with shattered organs, face instantly turning deathly pale.
This was the sign of excessive mana overdraft, mental power backlash.
Her entire being wilted, supported by Martin beside her.
“Go! Quickly!”
Martin anxiously roared—he knew this was their final chance.
Reno was also awakened by this sudden development.
He glanced at Lilith who'd suffered severe injuries saving him, then at the only remaining bone giant and Marcus watching like a tiger in the distance—the last trace of honor and unwillingness in his heart was finally replaced by survival will.
Using only his remaining left hand, he pulled a small scroll from his chest, crushing it.
A spatial fluctuation flashed—his entire body instantly vanished.
It was the short-range teleportation scroll the Viscount had bestowed for saving his life.
Almost the same instant he disappeared, the other bone giant's massive fist viciously smashed the position he'd just occupied, cratering the earth with a terrifying pit.
Marcus looked at that empty pit, then at the two mages being dragged in wretched flight by Martin in the distance, face showing a trace of regret.
“Escaped… well enough.”
He muttered lowly.
“Let them carry my lord's blessing, carry this despair and terror back to your ridiculous city.”
He pursued no further.
He slowly turned, looking at this battlefield littered with corpses, rivers of blood, his stitched face revealing an incomparably satisfied and intoxicated smile.
“What a wonderful harvest…”
He spread his arms, beginning to chant ancient and evil syllables.
Those Lionheart Guard soldier corpses freshly dead in battle, whether intact or incomplete, all began violently convulsing at this moment.
They were about to obtain “rebirth” on this land as new “servants.”