Medieval Knight System: Building the Strongest Empire Ever!

Chapter 299: Save Your Surrender for Purgatory

A halberd’s reach is long, and as I whipped it around like a storm at the knights and retainers trying to close in, none of them dared approach me. I hacked down one knight in an instant and broke through the gap he left.

Swinging wide around, I attacked the knight who had chased after me.

He barely blocked the halberd with his shield, but the spearpoint slid off the shield and pierced precisely through the gap in his helmet, knocking him from his horse. When the next knight rushed in, I swung the halberd in a full rotation and struck his neck.

Crunch! Thwack!

Then, with the butt of the shaft, I clubbed the helmet of another knight trying to ambush me from behind. And I brought the halberd down mercilessly on the fallen knight, crushing his skull.

On a normal day I would have taken the knights prisoner and collected their ransoms, but today I wasn’t about to swallow this rage for the sake of a few coins. Benjamin was one of the few knights I respected.

Seeing him dead, his head mounted on a spear shaft like an exhibit, was a shock to me. And that shock had boiled over into raging fury. I killed every Bavarian knight before the word "surrender" could leave their lips.

This stands in stark contrast to how I never killed Beren knights carelessly, and this battle will earn me a reputation for ruthlessness, but these were Bavarian knights anyway.

No need to worry about building a little notoriety.

If anything, a reputation as a knight merciless to his enemies works in my favor.

Come to think of it, how many have I killed? It feels like more than ten.

Against knights frozen in terror, I could swing my halberd to my heart’s content. My subordinates supported me at just the right moments, letting me focus my attacks on the knights.

"What is that knight?! All our knights have fallen!"

"He’s a monster! There’s a monster in Beren! Run if you don’t want to die!"

As the knights were slaughtered at my hands, the terrified Bavarian horsemen began to flee. The moment they scattered in every direction, the real hunt began.

The enemy’s morale had hit rock bottom.

I searched for the command staff leading the Bavarian vanguard.

Instead of the command staff, I found a knight putting up a clumsy resistance. The knight invoked the Virgin Mary as he bravely stood against me, and he was smashed to pieces before the Virgin Mary could even intervene.

"That man fleeing over there is the vanguard commander!"

The vice commander informed me at just the right moment. Amid the chaos, I spotted a horse and rider fleeing desperately eastward. I ordered Anton to send the assembly signal.

"Unit, assemble!"

"That’s the signal! Assemble!"

But the duchy cavalry and the Hungarian mercenaries were too busy hunting the enemy to follow orders. Left with no choice, I led the Gale Knights and the Offenburg Knights in pursuit of the enemy command staff.

Thud thud thud thud thud!

A frantic chase unfolded, hunter and hunted. The battlefield was already such a shambles that it was impossible to tell who held the advantage, but one thing was certain: catch the enemy’s leader, and we win.

Then a considerably large-framed knight and a few horsemen turned their mounts around and charged straight at us. Trying to buy time, are they? His enormous greatsword was an impressive sight. I checked his danger level, and the rating was green.

Clang!

Greatsword and halberd collided.

The impact was quite heavy. The tingling pain in my wrists made me feel like I was facing this halberd’s previous owner all over again. While I dealt with the knight, my subordinates collided with the remaining horsemen.

The Offenburg Knights pursued the command staff relentlessly.

As the knight and I clashed in earnest, he boiled over with frustration at his inability to kill me with his greatsword. No, worse. My halberd attacks, delivered while I strictly kept my distance, hacked into his shoulder and drove him onto the defensive.

"Damn you, who the hell are you?!"

"I am Streit!"

"Streit? So you’re the Gale Knight!"

"And who the hell are you?"

"I am the Knight of the Greatsword, Edelux!"

"Hm, my apologies. Never heard of you."

I hadn’t particularly meant to provoke him. I genuinely had never heard the name. At that, this Knight of the Greatsword flew into a furious rage and swung his massive blade. Utterly crude, but very powerful.

We circled each other, greatsword and halberd clashing violently.

A greatsword is, in the end, a type of two-handed sword, which puts it at a disadvantage against a halberd.

No, against every bladed weapon, the halberd reigns supreme.

The only weapon that can match a halberd is another halberd.

So Edelux tried to overpower me with brute strength, but he must have been thoroughly rattled by the tremendous Strength I wielded despite my lean frame. Of course, in a pure contest of muscle, I’d lose.

Meeting force with force is foolish.

Mixing in well-timed feints while pressing the attack with agility is the most basic of basics. A sword that relies on strength alone is like glass, all the easier to shatter.

The knight who had overpowered every opponent with his greatsword until now was dragged along helplessly by the offensive I led. He seemed to be a knight of some renown in Bavaria, but today you’ve finally met your match!

"Grrgh! Damn it all! To think there was someone stronger than that knight commander!"

"Knight commander? You mean Commander Benjamin?"

"That’s right! I thought that knight who died by my hand was the strongest there was!"

"...Don’t tell me you’re the one who decorated Benjamin’s head like that?"

"Kehehe, the Hungarians taught me a fine custom."

This son of a bitch!

Swallowing my fury, I met his greatsword head-on.

Read the opponent’s attack a beat faster and strike first. With the sense of Fühlen, just before his greatsword connected, my halberd coiled around it like a snake and swatted it downward, driving the blade’s momentum into the dirt.

Then, like lightning, I struck Edelux’s neck with the halberd’s axe blade. He must have been wearing quality armor, because the blade didn’t shatter through, but he took no small shock and his upper body reeled violently.

Immediately after, a rising Unterhau, swung in a full rotation, caught him in the jaw and knocked him clean off his horse.

Thooom!

"Khack!"

His massive bulk slammed into the ground with a thunderous sound. The knight’s subordinates were so shaken they couldn’t put up a proper fight against my men. From a distance, I dug my heels into Mont Blanc’s flanks.

As Mont Blanc surged forward, I planned to use that momentum to finish him for good. My rage was not so small as to spare the man who had done that to Benjamin.

"Raaaaagh!"

Squeezing out the last of his strength, Edelux swung his greatsword with everything he had, trying to cut Mont Blanc’s legs. But I drummed my heels against Mont Blanc’s belly to give the signal, and he leapt magnificently over the blade.

Bang!

And at the moment Mont Blanc soared over him, I brought the halberd down with all my might, gripping it with both hands, onto Edelux, whose upper body was left completely exposed. Struck by the massive blow, Edelux collapsed.

"I-I surrender. Grrgh, I surrender!"

"Get lost. Go to purgatory."

Save your surrender for purgatory.

I drove the spearpoint through the gap in Edelux’s helmet. The arms of Edelux, Knight of the Greatsword, who had thrashed so desperately to live, went limp. The blood flowing out of him soaked the ground.

"Th-the Knight of the Greatsword is dead!"

"We surrender!"

The enemy cavalry commander was dead, and the command staff was massacred by the Offenburg Knights, who had rammed into them ferociously with no regard for their own losses. The sole survivor was the vanguard commander, a viscount named Wittenfeld.

I said to the vice commander,

"At least you didn’t kill the enemy commander."

"I wanted to, but I judged that this man, at least, was better taken prisoner."

"Good thinking. It’ll save the marquis some face too."

"..."

At the mention of the marquis, the vice commander fell silent. I shouldn’t have said that. After all, the marquis might as well have killed Benjamin himself. Viscount Wittenfeld seemed utterly unable to believe this moment was real.

"I can’t make sense of any of this. How did it come to this?"

"On the battlefield, the unbelievable sometimes happens."

"Who are you? I feel like I’ve seen that crest somewhere."

"They call me the Gale Knight."

"What?! Then you must be Streit!"

Just like the Knight of the Greatsword, he knew my family name well. It means I’m quite the celebrity, though facing me in person must have been a nightmare made flesh. The viscount seemed to have found the bare minimum of an excuse for his failure.

"But your victory is only temporary! His Highness Konrad is coming!"

Hm, well now. Beyond the eastern horizon, the main force of the Bavarian army was approaching. Supposedly thousands strong. With just our numbers, fighting them head-on would be hopeless. Do I need to buy at least a little time?

There was no need.

From the opposite horizon, the main force of the Beren army was approaching too.

And so the two armies faced off with us in between.

Two grand dukes, bearing white flags, rode toward us.