Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 298: Temporarily Invincible

[Princess of Bavarian Wittelsbach II Quest]

[Defeat the Bavarian vanguard]

[Reward - 10,000 points, 10 gold coins]

[Family Prestige 1,000 points]

[Item Reward - Unit Discipline 200% Increase]

[Danger Rating ★★★☆☆]

Numerical superiority isn’t everything in battle, but it’s true that it plays the largest part in deciding victory or defeat. The enemy outnumbered us nearly four to one and held a clear advantage.

The horsemen on their left and right wings enveloped us like a net. It was textbook encirclement. They must have intended to trap us inside and bleed us dry, but our cavalry knew only one direction: forward.

The enemy was armed with lances while our cavalry carried only swords and shields, so a head-on collision could have produced staggering casualties. I pay my respects to our horsemen, who overcame the fear of death on nothing but their faith in me.

The only way I can repay them is with victory.

Arrows blackened the sky above the enemy cavalry and rained down on us. The Hungarian horse archers had begun their attack. In this era, arrows rarely pierce armor, but for the horses they’re lethal.

A horse’s armor is far flimsier than its rider’s.

The Offenburg Knights’ collapse had ultimately come down to their horses being hit first.

But the Cavalry Breakthrough 200% Increase didn’t apply to me alone. It applied to every horseman I led. No arrow could deal any real damage to the cavalry under my command.

Because we were temporarily invincible. The center of the Bavarian vanguard we were about to collide with was Bavaria’s finest elite heavy cavalry—their equivalent of the Beren Lance Cavalry.

Under normal circumstances, even I would have considered a head-on collision with heavy cavalry an act of suicide. But not now. The moment the enemy’s outstretched lances reached me, I shattered them in a single blow.

Crunch! Crunch!

Neeeigh!

"Aaargh!"

My halberd, spinning in wide arcs, hacked down the lead horsemen and opened a path. It was a tremendous collision of cavalry against cavalry, yet the ones falling from their saddles were mostly the enemy’s heavy horsemen.

Their plan had been for the center to pin us down while the wings closed in, but the enemy lances that struck our cavalry’s shields snapped far too easily, and instead their riders tumbled from their horses in droves under our cavalry swords.

Their center was pulverized and breached in an instant.

The enemy’s encirclement collapsed from the very start, and the impossible unfolded.

I swung my halberd without pause, carving a path forward. Our horsemen followed the road I opened with everything they had. We were supposed to have been stopped cold and surrounded, but the exact opposite happened.

The ones most flustered by our cavalry’s breakthrough—splitting their center in two and driving relentlessly forward—were their high command. We punched through the Duchy of Bavaria’s heavy cavalry, armed in all manner of gear, and pushed deep.

The Halberd of Hades snatched lives away in an instant and sprayed blood.

Funnily enough, the thought that crossed my mind in the thick of battle was of a spare suit of armor. My armor still hadn’t been fully repaired, but with Bavaria’s invasion upon us, I’d had no choice but to take it out mid-repair.

"Don’t stop! Keep riding!"

After a mad gallop, the enemy cavalry was nowhere to be seen.

We had collided with the enemy and broken clean through.

[C-Rank Cavalry Commander (Breakthrough 50%, Charge 50%)]

"Anton! Send the regroup signal!"

Anton waved the flag vigorously, relaying the hand signals.

Upon seeing the signal, the horsemen regrouped and turned their mounts around.

"That’s the regroup signal! Cavalry, assemble!"

"Gyűjtsön össze!"

With a successful breakthrough behind them, the horsemen swelled with the joy of victory. Though our numbers had dwindled to 232, our combat power held in the 80s and our morale was green, the highest level.

By contrast, the Bavarian vanguard that had allowed the breakthrough sat at 65 combat power, with morale at a dismal yellow. Their cavalry, once numbering around 1,000, had been cut down to a mere 700 or so by that single breakthrough.

The enemy also regrouped to collide with us once more. Their problem was that, thanks to their sunken morale, the number of deserting horsemen was visibly climbing.

[Invincibility status has been removed]

The system warned me, but I paid it no mind. Since when did I fight while keeping track of things like that? I’m the man who has fought to the death in situations far more dangerous than this.

Crunch! Crack!

I snapped the enemy’s lances with my halberd and crushed helmets and skulls alike. The gleaming breastplates of their vaunted heavy cavalry shattered under my ferocious, merciless axe blade.

The Cavalry Breakthrough 200% Increase was an item usable only for a single battle, but its power was tremendous. I think I understand why it’s single-use: spam it, and you’d have invincible cavalry.

On top of that, with my newly ranked-up C-Rank Cavalry Commander (Breakthrough 50%, Charge 50%) applied, it was effectively a 250% breakthrough. No wonder they crumpled the moment they collided with our cavalry.

Arrows flew in and struck several of our horsemen.

With the invincibility status removed, horses began to go down.

"So the horse archers have graced us with their presence!"

The Hungarian horse archers who had annihilated the Offenburg Knights began loosing arrows indiscriminately at friend and foe alike. If anything, the enemy took more damage than we did.

"Barosi! Take those bastards down!"

Barosi, the commander of our allied Hungarian mercenaries, happened to be nearby and began pursuing the horse archers. As they fled, the horse archers twisted around in their saddles and fired back at the Hungarian mercenaries.

The damage to our mercenaries wasn’t all that severe.

The Parthian shot really is an astonishing technique every time I see it.

An ironic scene unfolded—Hungarian cavalry chasing Hungarian horse archers—but I left that to Barosi’s men and dealt with the remaining Bavarian heavy cavalry. By now the battle had devolved into a melee.

If anything, I’m the type who shines even brighter in a melee. I swung my halberd without restraint, like a whirling battering ram, delivering death to the enemy. In that moment, I was Satan himself, a devil risen from purgatory.

As I was cutting a swath through them, someone shouted.

"I am Schlieffen, knight of Blintz in Bavaria!"

The knight who introduced himself as Schlieffen boldly faced me with cavalry sword and shield. When I brought my halberd down with monstrous force, Schlieffen looked hard-pressed even to block it with his shield.

You dare block my path with skill like that?

I hammered down on him without mercy.

Blocking frantically, Schlieffen screamed as if already in his death throes.

"How cowardly—a knight wielding a halberd! Draw your sword!"

In Beren, more and more knights have been taking up the halberd after me, so it’s slowly becoming a trend, but it seems the weapon is still unfamiliar to Bavarian nobles. Quibbling over weapons on a battlefield where lives are at stake—how foolish.

I slipped the butt of my halberd’s shaft under the bottom edge of Schlieffen’s shield and levered it upward. Thanks to the Warrior title, my Strength had grown so great that swinging a halberd one-handed was no strain at all.

"Gwaah!"

With his shield forced upward, Schlieffen lurched violently. His retainers swarmed in to help their master, but the ones facing them were the dauntless Gale Knights.

Anton thrashing people with his flagpole is a work of art.

Crunch!

As Schlieffen’s upper body swayed, wide open and defenseless, the axe blade of my halberd tore mercilessly into his breastplate. It’s a powerful weapon, far beyond comparison with the halberd Leto once gifted me.

While Schlieffen fell from his horse and his retainers died screaming, other knights charged at me. It seemed most of the knights were coming straight for me.

I paid my respects to their courage in standing their ground instead of fleeing.

By respects, of course, I mean the halberd.

"I am Wilhelm, knight of Augsburg!"

"Johann Helixen of Munich!"

"I am of Rothenburg...!"

Knights must be the only breed who insist on introducing themselves on a battlefield. Having no time to listen, I gifted them my halberd in place of a greeting. I swung it freely from horseback.

The blows were far too heavy to block with a shield.

And rather than simply hacking downward, I made aggressive use of the halberd’s hook.

The most broken feature of the halberd is exactly this: the hook can drag a horseman right off his mount. A knight caught on the hook was helplessly unhorsed, and I drove the axe blade down into his fallen helmet.

Crunch!

The knight died without even a scream.

The other knights met similar deaths.

"Dammit, don’t take him on alone!"

"Aaargh!"

Perhaps because they were human weapons who had done nothing but train, they didn’t go down easily. Having realized that facing me alone was suicide, they took turns pressing me so I would have no chance to respond.

Meanwhile, their retainers concentrated their attacks on Mont Blanc.

Going after my expensive thoroughbred? Not a chance.