Proofread by Thomas F
Leonas Cardin
"Commander Vaessa," I greeted the woman in front of me.
She is a half-elf woman who appears to be in her mid-thirties. Tall, with long green hair, green eyes, and pointed ears. Unlike most half-elves, she has a rounded face instead of an angular one.
She is wearing a full-body purple-black, half-artificial armor, the same quality as mine, and she has a long sword with a blue metallic hilt.
That is an artifact; a Mountainfall.
She had a face that looked beautiful when she smiled, but I did not forget, even for a moment, how dangerous the woman is.
The merchant's intelligence had stated that she had awakened her aura a year ago. They did not mention where or under what circumstances, and I do not care.
The only thing I care about is the aura methods. I really hope she had not learned them.
The artifact alone is going to be hard to deal with. If she has aura methods, then I will have no chance in front of her.
"General Cardin," she replied with a small smile appearing on her face.
"Can I know the reason for this aggression? I believe, we have not done anything to upset the Kingdom of Navr," I asked, and the smile on her face widened.
"The reason is simple: we want to see how prepared you are." She replied.
It surprised me, but it also flooded me with relief: she had not made up any transgression we had committed. It would have been much harder to get out of, if she had.
Most importantly, it would have been a real battle. Something we are desperate to avoid.
"There are dangers everywhere. Especially in your region, and we want to see how prepared you are, because if you are not, then it could spill into our kingdom."
"If that were the case, it would be wise for us to take control of the fortress. So, we could stop any danger before it enters the kingdoms and harms it."
I shuddered at the casualness of the threat and felt the pressure on me increase tremendously.
They are not attacking with the intention of taking over, but they would, if we didn't satisfy them in the battle.
Meaning, we have to fight and fight to their satisfaction, but do it in such a way that we would seem weak, but also keep the harm to their forces limited.
So, they would seek revenge and take over. It would be a one fine like to walk on.
"I believe the fortress is well equipped to handle any danger that comes its way. I promise you personally, the dominion will not let any danger spill into your kingdom," I promised, hoping it would be enough.
"Talk is cheap, General," she replied, before I could say anything, and she leaped toward me.
Through the air, she unsheathed her sword. It's a long sword, with a blue stone hilt and blade, that seemed to be made of grey stone, with an intricate design carved on it.
It is sharp. So much that it made me shudder.
I hope I will survive it. I said and leaped forward with Accelerated Steps. This skill is as fast as hers, and I could see the flash of surprise appearing in her eyes.
Soon, we reached each other in the air, and she swung her blade.
I could feel the power of the artifact that sent a shudder through my soul, and on top of that, she activated her skills.
I wanted to keep it a secret until a real battle. I thought and activated my most powerful skill, a skill that impressed Lord Silver, and it's easy to impress him given his monstrous skills of his own.
Unbroken Form.
After I was hit with a death skill, my class had turned into Broken Officer from Stellar Officer. Then it advanced to Broken General, then to Unbroken General of Resolve, after liberating Gailhorn.
It's a powerful class even among Lv. 40 and Unbroken Form is the most powerful skill it has given me.
It is a Lv. 50 skill.
On top of that, I activated Army Strike, which advanced from General's Strike and Flashblade, which advanced from the Quicksteel.
As I activated those skills, the attack's power and speed increased further.
A moment later, my sword clashed against the blade, and I felt like my saber had clashed against the wall. It stopped my saber in its tracks and sent an immense force at me.
The force was strong enough to shake my body. I felt immense strain on my skin and bones.
If there had not been Unbroken Form, my skin would have split, and my bones would have broken. Still, I didn't come out unharmed; the blood leaking out of my nose is proof of it.
I didn't wipe it away; all my focus is on the enemy, who is looking at me with great surprise.
"General Cardin, I have to say, I am impressed," she said, with her eyes gleaming. "Then I hope you will forgo the battle?" I asked with hope, and her lips curved.
The next moment, the horde behind her moved, while at the same time, an aura burst out of her.
Seeing that, I sighed.
'General's Command: Charge!' I commanded my army and activated Rallying Charge. 'General Command: Don't Kill Living,' I gave another command; the most important one.
As I gave that, I felt her presence skills bearing down on me. It's a presence skill, and it is filled with the power of aura.
It made my knees shake. I underestimated her aura control.
Immediately, aura burst out of me, and I activated Dominating Presence, which advanced from the Commanding Presence and filled them with aura.
I felt better, but only for a moment, as her lips curved, and a moment later, another power added to it.
The power of the artifact.
It felt like a mountain weighing on my shoulder; it is what the blade is. Its name is Mountainfall Swift; it is one of the twelve artifacts of Mountainfall.
As the weight descended, she attacked without wasting any time. Her attack was powerful, bearing the weight of the mountain.
I responded, pushing more aura into my skills. Especially the Dominating Presence and Unbroken Form.
The weapons clashed, and once more, I shook, with blood leaking out of my lips. This time, she didn't waste any time and attacked me once more while putting more pressure on me through the presence skill.
I moved through the pressure, pouring more aura into my skills.
I had been practicing aura regularly since I had awakened it, but I should have listened to Miss Carla and practiced more than I had been.
Running a fortress is not easy; every day, there are a hundred unexpected things I have to deal with.
Practicing once a day already felt good enough, but feeling her aura and power, I knew I had made a mistake. After today, I will practice more and put more effort.
Though for that to happen, I need to survive.
This is a test, but I have no illusion in my heart about how things could change. It could turn into a bloody battle at any moment, and I need to make sure that does not happen.
That could only happen one way; that was, not losing. Not only my men and I, but also Lord Silver.
I had just thought that when I felt the attack from the necromancer, and the power of it had shaken my heart. I wanted to look up and see the attack, but I focused on the attack coming toward me.
The woman in front of me was disappointed; there was a resignation in her eyes, but only for a fraction of a moment.
They cleared and refocused on me.
"After this battle, we will have to update our records about you, General," she said as I defended, before launching another.
I focused on defence; she is not someone I want to kill or could kill.
I focused on defence to make her realise she couldn't defeat me. I just hope it won't make her angry and change her mind on the attack.
Well, according to Lord Silver, it's not up to her. It's a political decision.
She had attacked because she was ordered to by the higher-ups. So, unless she was ordered to attack the fortress, she is not going to, but that did not give me any relief.
I looked at the half-million undead. It is a force that could kill us; I would not take any chances.
I have ordered my forces not to kill, but I would not hesitate to change the order. If this turned into a real attack.
Lord Silver already gave me permission for that. We have our cannons, mines, ballistas, and everything ready. However, the hardest part would be the retreat to the fortress.
We have taken a big gamble to fight outside. It would have been much safer if we had fought from a fortress, but we didn't want to irritate them.
If we had been in a fortress, they would have needed four times as many to breach it.
This fortress is made to fight against the undead. Even at its current state, it could defend against a large number of undead. At its peak, it had been capable of a lot more.
Many parts of it are lying in disrepair or collapsed; we have restored some, but many remain unusable. We want to restore it all, but it's going to take a lot of time and money.
Even Tabes hadn't done much of anything, leaving them as such for centuries.
Half of the blame for that goes to Navr; they have breached the fortress countless times, and every time they do, they do massive damage to the fortress.
It's not viable to fix it every time, when the damage is so widespread, even for the empire.
I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the enemy in front of me, who was attacking me relentlessly with her attacks. I shifted to a completely defensive position.
"General, I heard quite a lot about your fighting prowess, and here you are being completely defensive," said the woman as she attacked once more.
"You give me no choice, Commander. Your strength leaves me no choice but to defend," I replied as I defended.
She didn't say anything as she kept attacking, while I moved to defend once more.
That was when I sensed it, and she did too, as both of us looked up toward the sky with surprise appearing in our faces.