The Legendary Spearman Returns

“Impossible...”

Hubalt’s knights were left reeling after losing their commander. Among the surviving knights, none were better than Marquess Verder, an advanced Master. A man of his caliber was decapitated by the monster they faced before he could deliver a proper attack.

“J-Joshua Sanders...!”

“There’s nothing exaggerated about the Martial God’s reputation...”

The surviving knights were frozen stiff by fear. Less than half of their original forces could continue fighting after the rain of swords. The rest were incapacitated, and many of them had already died.

“Knights of Avalon, hear me!” Kireua shouted.

Avalon’s knights shivered in awe, goosebumps rising all over their bodies, but snapped to attention. Kireua was the Martial God at that moment, so the knights had to continue this play.

“March through the Black Monster Forest! It doesn’t matter if it’s a monster or a human—crush anything that stands in our way!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” the knights of Avalon shouted, their voices reverberating with mana.

The overwhelming spirit in their voices made the surviving knights of Hubalt go pale, but none of them could bring themselves to move.

“If you insist on standing in our way, I’ll help you join your leader.” Kireua swung his sword, flicking Veder’s blood onto the ground.

Hubalt’s knights turned to Count Micah, the second in the chain of command.

“Fuck...”

“My lord, doesn’t it seem odd?” Micah’s aide quickly whispered into Micah’s ear.

“...What is strange?” Micah frowned.

“It’s a well-known fact that Joshua Sanders uses a spear, but he’s been using a sword.”

The aide was right. The rain of swords was not out of character for the Martial God because he had mastered all kinds of weapons, but it was odd that he used a sword to take the enemy leader’s head rather than his favored weapon.

“Are you telling me that we’re dealing with a fake Joshua Sanders?” Micah asked, doubtful.

“I’m merely presenting a possibility.”

“Then just think of him as the real Martial God. It’ll be better that way.”

The aide tilted his head. “Pardon? What do you mean...?”

“If that man is a fake, that means that Avalon has another monster like the Martial God.”

The aide was speechless.

“We don’t even have Bel with us. Unless you’re planning to make our men throw down their swords, be careful with what you say.”

“...Yes, my lord.” The aide bowed and took a step backward.

Even as they spoke, Avalon’s knights were riding their horses toward the Black Monster Forest. Numerous archers stood at the ready with arrows nocked to bows, but no one took action. Their commander was dead, and they couldn’t risk injuring the elite knights.

“I can’t believe we ended up becoming hostages...!”

Micah’s face reddened with humiliation. All of it was because of that fucking Joshua Sanders. He stood tall, all on his own, as if mocking Hubalt’s knights.

Cain had led Avalon’s troops almost to the entrance of the forest, which placed them within the archers’ range. Micah’s anger spiked, his tightly suppressed murderous intent roiling within him.

“My plan to increase our morale and distinguish myself in this war is going to cost me my life now,” Micah mumbled.

He’d come to a decision. If he let them go without a fight when they were right in front of him, he would be court-martialed for his incompetence as soon as he returned. He was going to be demoted at the very least; worst-case scenario, he might be executed as an example to the rest, especially considering that the emperor despised him.

“...Surviving knights of Hubalt, I command you,” Micah slowly intoned.

The roughly four hundred survivors looked up.

“This place will be our grave,” Micah solemnly declared. “Even if we were pathetic enough to cling to our lives here, our families will not be safe. So...”

Micah raised his sword and unleashed his radiant aura.

“...why not fight to the end? Let us die with honor!”

“Ohaaaaa!”

‘...This is problematic.’ Kireua watched the Hubalt knights cheering with a grim expression on his face. ‘I can’t use Greed forever.’

Using an Evil Sin consumed a great deal of demonic power; for a human, all of their mana had to be converted to demonic power. Only half of Kireua’s mana was left in his mana hall after using a Level 5 Magic Sword Art technique.

‘The bigger problem is—’

Kireua’s train of thought was cut short.

“Forces of Hubalt, heed me! I am Count Micah! Raise your swords and loose your arrows! We’ll fight ‘til the end!”

“Ohaaaaaaaaa!”

Hubalt’s army charged with a vigorous battlecry. A torrent of arrows flew over their heads toward Avalon’s knights, but Cain was ready.

“Raise your shields!” he shouted, his mana conveying his urgency.

His knights took the shields from their horses’ backs and held them over their heads, warding them from the thousands of arrows falling from above.

“Prepare another volley! Change from the curve line formation to the straight line formation!”

“Straight line formation!”

The archers came forward and lined up. Arrows would lose energy as they traveled through their characteristic arc, but they could increase the damage they could deal by approaching their targets—including the chances of piercing their targets.

On top of that, the archers were carrying longbows imported directly from Swallow. Longbows made in Swallow were twice as long as ordinary bows and of high quality. They were renowned for their power. The problem was, common foot soldiers didn’t have enough strength to fully draw the bowstrings of such weapons.

“Be patient. Release the moment they’re within range,” Viscount Czmah, Micah’s brother, commanded.

“Yes, sir!”

Hubalt had trained its knights to use Swallow longbows, increasing their combat effectiveness. Czmah and the three hundred archers were among them.

“Now!”

The arrows swished through the air, the sound distinctly deeper than that of a typical arrow.

Right at that moment, a storm suddenly erupted into existence, its raging winds blowing the exact opposite direction of the arrows’ trajectory.

“What?”

Most of the arrows were blown off course and ended up hitting the ground. Those that managed to remain on target could bury their heads into the shields of Avalon’s knights.

A woman was standing on thin air. Anna gazed imperiously down at Hubalt’s army, her robe and hair fluttering in the wind.

“Do you know who I am?” she demanded.

“Sh-she’s at least a high-class elemental spirit mage.”

“What the fu—!” Micah choked down his cuss. The Martial God was a headache on his own, but now he had to deal with a high-level wind elemental spirit mage!

Kireua took a step forward. “All of you have to take responsibility for what you’ve done.”

The Hubalt knights stumbled exactly one step backward.

“Especially—” Kireua disappeared. “—you.”

Most of the knights couldn’t even see him; the only one who could was Micah, the most skilled of Hubalt’s knights. The moment he heard Kireua’s voice behind him, Micah swung his sword.

“Ahhhhhh!”

However, Micah met the same fate as his superior. His head went rolling across the ground with a look of disbelief on its face.

The remaining knights completely lost their will to fight. Some of them threw down their swords in surrender.

And yet, the distant archers took up their swords instead, resolving themselves to fight until the end. Czmah was shouting something at the top of his lungs after witnessing his brother’s death.

Cain sent Kireua a telepathic message.

-What shall we do, Your Highness? At this rate, we won’t be able to avoid fighting them head-on

Kireua took a deep breath.

“Knights of Avalon, hear me!”

His knights glanced back at him.

“I clearly remember ordering you to get rid of anything in our way,” Kireua said.

The knights spurred their horses back into a charge and brandished their swords, hesitation erased.

“We have no mercy to spare for our enemies,” Kireua coldly continued. “Kill them all.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

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