From Mercenary to King-Chapter 55 : Second Clash (14)

Chapter 55: Second Clash (14)
“What? You are saying it is dangerous?”
“Yes. The enemy is already up on the palisade and fighting. It is more dangerous than we thought.”
“Damn it!”
Miles clicked his tongue when he heard the .
He also knew very well that this was not the main battlefield.
If the front collapsed, then any victory here would become meaningless.
“Shouldn’t we go there right now?”
“But can we move without orders? Captain Mordo told us to defend this place, no?”
“Wait. Calm down for a moment!”
While he settled the murmuring soldiers, Shatien hastily worked his brain.
‘What do I do?’
They had driven back the imperial army here, yet nothing was guaranteed. If the enemy attacked again, what were they supposed to do? Besides, as the Centurions had said, the area Mordo had entrusted to Shatien was the rear of the supply base.
If he moved carelessly and lost this sector, it would cause even greater trouble. It would become overstepping his authority and making a move that could decide the outcome of the battle.
However,
‘I can feel it. I feel the wind.’
He felt the wind that would turn the flow of the battlefield. His twitching intuition pointed toward the front line.
There was no time to stand here.
He had to go to the front and change the flow right away.
His intuition whispered that to him.
And when that happened, Shatien always had only one choice.
“Prepare for battle! The wounded stay behind and secure the area. Everyone who is still fit to fight will go to support the front line-!”
He simply followed his intuition.
“A-Are you really sure about this, Shatien?”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No… It’s just… I was wondering if we can move without Captain Mordo’s orders.”
Huh.
Since when has this man been so obedient to orders? Ever since he got promoted to Centurion, he was full of surprises.
It seemed position really did change a person. Shatien let out a small laugh without realizing it and spoke to Miles.
“I was going to leave the commander here just in case.”
“Hmm? Wait, it’s not me, right? No way.”
“Oh yeah it is. I am counting on you, Miles.”
“Aaaargh! I don't want this! I am going too! Shatieeeeen!”
“Kiik ki kiik!”
Leaving behind the howling Miles and his pet monkey, Shatien turned his body and shouted to the soldiers.
“All right, move out! Everyone, get to the front gate quickly!”
* * *
The troops under Shatien ran along the palisade. The front gate was not far from the rear gate. Soon the sounds of battle pounded in their ears.
“Waaaaaah!”
-Clang, clash, clang clang clang!
The mercenaries desperately blocked the imperial army soldiers climbing the wall. The foul stench of blood rode the wind and spread across the battlefield.
Knights had already climbed up onto the palisade and were swinging heavy weapons like war hammers and maces at random.
Mercenaries struck by those blows dropped without any real resistance.
“You maggot scum!”
“Slaughter them all!”
Knights drenched in blood shouted in a fever.
‘Damn it!’
Shatien frowned at the scene unfolding in the distance.
His comrades were being cut down mercilessly. The comrades who had shared bread, laughed together, and endured hardship with him were collapsing to the ground.
In the middle of that, he spotted Centurion Jacri and Centurion Jenga straining with all their might to keep the line from breaking.
“Hold the line, you bastards! Think about the cost of the food that went into your mouths!!”
“Stand firm shoulder to shoulder! Captain Mordo will soon lead us to victory!”
Their encouragement sounded very different in tone, yet what they tried to do was the same. They both wanted to keep their comrades’ morale up and minimize casualties.
“Damn you, Centuriaaaas!”
Thanks to that, Shatien felt his chest heat up. He let out the anger that had been lodged deep in his heart and roared roughly.
“Chaaarge! We save our comrades!”
“Waaahhhh-!”
“Kill them all!”
* * *
With their commander acting like that, what else could the mercenaries do? They too swallowed their anger and launched a head on charge toward the front.
-Rumble.
The palisade rumbled as if it might collapse.
At that moment, some of the imperial soldiers who had broken through the mercenary line rushed toward them.
“?!?”
“Wait, why are they here?! Did they have a reserve unit?”
The imperial soldiers were clearly shaken by the sudden appearance of a new enemy. Yet it was too late to do anything about it.
“Kill them!”
“Cut down the lapdogs of the emperor and save our brothers today!”
Shatien was at the very front.
His sword was already drawn, gleaming as it caught the light.
“Long live His Impe…”
-Slash!
In that instant, his longsword flashed and cut the imperial soldier in half.
He did not stop there.
He thrust.
He slashed.
He thrust again.
When someone rushed in close, he used the crossguard to block, then carved them apart.
No matter who watched, his movements were those of a flawless knight.
“W-What madness! Where did this monster crawl out from!”
“Is that a knight? A knight?”
“Where are our knights, for the love of the gods!!”
The imperial soldiers screamed as they watched, horrified. There was a reason knights were treated like living weapons.
Regular soldiers could not stand against them.
Knights faced knights.
That was an old rule of the battlefield.
“You idiots! Close ranks!”
“If you scatter, we die.”
“Even a knight cannot cut us all if we stay together! So close in!”
A seasoned veteran shouted himself hoarse, trying to restore discipline.
The soldiers linked shoulders and raised a dense wall of shields, yet it did not matter.
-Ziiiiiing.
From the moment the fighting started, Shatien had already pulled his mysterious sense to the surface.
‘Here!’
His mysterious sense told him the weakest points in their shields and armor. Shatien simply followed that guidance and swung his sword like a man possessed.
-Crack!
-Rip!
“Gaaaah!”
The veteran’s plan to hold on with a shield wall collapsed at once.
Shatien’s will charged through his sword, splitting shields and smashing imperial helmets. Blood spurted out of the shattered heads of the imperial soldiers.
With a wet sound, hot red liquid splashed across Shatien’s face. The fishy smell of blood tore through his excited mind.
The foul tang of metal filled his nose.
His vision blurred for a moment.
Only then could he force himself to calm down a little.
“Haa, haa, haa.”
“Ugh… Ughhh.”
“Mad… monster.”
Terrified imperial soldiers began to inch backward.
Shatien used that brief gap to catch his breath and inspect his sword. He had used it hard, chopping through shields and armor, and it now creaked in protest as if it might break at any moment.
-Clang.
He tossed the sword to the ground and reached for a random blade that had rolled near his feet.
Then, something caught his eye.
A war hammer.
He lifted it, and solid, heavy weight filled his grip.
‘Hm, this is sturdy enough to last a while.’
Judging his new weapon, Shatien raised it high.
“U-Ughh...”
“Where are our knights? Are they still not here?”
The imperial soldiers shrank back, shaking with fear. With his body soaked in blood, Shatien looked like the berserker of legend from the northern continent.
At that moment, Centurion Jenga, who had been fighting fiercely on the other side, spotted him and shouted.
“You damned Shatien!!”
“Hm, Centurion Jenga.”
“You bastard! I am really glad to see you this time. You came at the perfect moment. Ahahaha. Fucking hell. I almost died back there.”
For some reason, Jenga was unusually friendly today.
Shatien gave a faint grin and pointed ahead.
“Please wait a little. I will break these men first, then come to you.”
As soon as he said that, he picked up a shield that had been tossed on the ground.
What Master Joachim had taught him was not only simple longsword techniques.
He had learned everything a knight should know.
That included the knightly weapon arts that showed overwhelming defensive power in real battle.
Those arts reached their peak when he held a shield and war hammer like this.
“Erm, Centurion. What do you plan to do?”
“Break through.”
“Pardon?”
Action suited this better than words.
-Tap!
He raised his shield, lowered his stance, and shot forward like an arrow.
The enemy shield wall filled his vision in an instant. The panicked soldiers hid behind their shields.
However,
-Swiiish!
The war hammer tore through the air with a shrill whoosh.
-Crash!
“Guh!”
“W-What in the world!”
The war hammer, heavy with momentum, slammed into the imperial shields. The shields could not withstand even a single blow and went flying with a dull bang.
A great gap opened in the imperial formation at once.
There was no way Shatien’s Centurion unit would miss that opening.
“This is our chance!”
“Charge! Follow the Centurion!”
After all the battles they had survived, Shatien’s Centurion unit had finally gained the poise to call themselves veterans.
“Uwooooo!”
-Clang, clash, clank, crack!
The mercenaries funneled into the narrow gap. The shield wall they had barely maintained crumbled, and the imperial formation began to fall apart like grains of sand.
“Out of the way!”
At last, a knight who had been commanding the troops from behind could not stand it any longer and leaped forward.
“You there! Who are you! If you know honor, name yourself.”
“I am Shatien, Centurion of the Black Raven Mercenary Company.”
“Shatien? That Shatien?”
“?”
His reaction was stronger than expected, and Shatien blinked in confusion.
“You are the arrogant wretch who defeated Baron Ludwig. I can tell at a glance that you must have used some underhanded trick.”
“Ha...”
Only then did the situation become clear.
Ignoring Shatien’s reaction, the knight gripped his longsword and shouted.
“You picked the wrong opponent! Come! I am Olfen von Hinde…”
-Boom!
Before he even finished talking, Shatien’s war hammer smashed into the knight’s head.
It was too close for him to dodge or block. The knight’s helmet crumpled, and he collapsed without even a dying scream.
The imperial army fell into confusion after losing a knight in an instant.
No one had expected him to die so easily.
“Coward! You attacked him while he was talking!”
“He told me to come at him, so I did. Is there something wrong?”
“Why you!”
Another knight, probably his comrade, roared and swung a war hammer with both hands. Shatien quickly dodged and kicked the front of the knight’s knee.
It was the exact same technique his master had used on him in the past.
“Urk!”
The knight lost his balance and sprawled forward. He had no time to react.
He had not even considered that someone might use a blunt strike.
He had failed as a knight.
Shatien gave this failed knight the dismissal he deserved.
-Crunch!
“Kugh!”
This time the knight managed a final cry. The war hammer drove into the vulnerable spot at his throat and helped close the curtain on his unfortunate life.
‘Compared to Ludwig, they are like newborn chick.’
He was clearly stronger than before. He felt almost no tension while fighting knights, which proved it.
“E-Even Sir Goth is down!”
“It is Shatien. It really is that Shatien!”
“Damn it. We have to run.”
“Stop climbing up here, you idiots! We have to run!”
The imperial soldiers who had seen it all turned and slid down the ladders they had used to climb the wall.
“Waaaaah!”
“Those damned cowards. They are running with their tails between their legs.”
“Drop dead!”
The mercenaries shoved the imperial soldiers hard as they retreated.
With a shout, one of the ladders toppled and dozens of imperial soldiers tumbled from the palisade.
It was a truly exhilarating victory.
Yet Shatien’s mind was not on that.
His mysterious sense, still active, warned of danger.
It matched reality.
-Clang, clatter!
“Waaaaaah!”
Screams and the sound of steel still rang out from all over inside the supply depot. There were so many enemies that the depot itself might fall.
Yes, the battle was not over yet.