After chasing after the trails of the Kingdom's soldiers, the Alvaren Army finally arrived at Akash City. Five hundred knights clad in shining plate armor halted a good distance away from the city. ?ear enough to see the enemies' movements, far enough to evade arrows.
The bells in Akash City rang, the bridge was retracted and the gates were shut. Over a hundred archers filled the battlements, their arrows nocked and pointed at the newly arrived army.
"Would you look at this," chuckled General Alvaren. His ashen hair fluttered against the blowing wind. His hand gripped his glaive tight. "They captured and converted this city into a stronghold, huh?"
He had been to Akash City over a month ago and he was sure that it was not as fortified as this before. The moats were evidently recently-made, and those ballista-like weapons with iron disks nocked onto them were something he hadn't seen before.
"What are your orders, General?" his adjutant asked.
General Alvaren looked at his knights; their eyes were clearly saying that they feared no one, that they would not hesitate to charge into the city with just a single command.
His guys were strong, but there was no need to purposely put themselves at a disadvantage by charging into a fortress filled with enemies several times their number. It took him decades to train his Magic Knights, after all. He did not like them to die pointless deaths.
After some thinking, he decided not to charge in recklessly. But it did not mean he would go back while leaving the damn bastards scathe-free.
"Bring out the Fortress Breaker," said the General.
"Yes, General!"
"We'll give the bastards a parting gift before we go back to Yorkshaire."
Several knights dismounted and started assembling a portable weapon made of iron. It resembled a hybrid of a ballista and a cannon; the long hollow tube at the center was as long as two carriages combined.
After several minutes, the knights finished assembling the weapon and pointed it toward the gates. General Alvaren moved his mount a bit closer to the city. He gripped a magic tool which amplified his voice and roared, "Lui Marcus! Shitty brat! Come out!"
His roar was already loud enough even without the magic tool, but combined with its amplifying effect, his voice reverberated throughout the city. The soldiers in Akash started murmuring with each other. There were rumors that the Silver War God lost to General Alvaren in the previous fight.
"If you don't come out!" the General continued to roar. "We'll blow your puny gates into smithereens! Come out and fight me! A duel! Let's finish the fight we started!"
On top of the battlements, stood the officers of the army—Lark, Lui, the Sword Saint, Lord Argus, and Baron Zacharia. They looked at the hundreds of knights threatening to charge into the city at any moment.
"That damn old man." Lui gnashed his teeth. "Master Alexander, that thing they're pointing at our gates…" "The Fortress Breaker, yes." The Sword Saint was as stoic as before.
"The same thing they used to blow up the gates of Yorkshaire City."
Lark amplified his eyesight using mana and stared curiously at the metallic weapon, particularly at its long hollow tube. It resembled a cannon but the base was that of a ballista. It was hard to see from afar, but he could make out what seemed to be engraved runes on its body.
A magic weapon. A portable one at that.
Lui hopped onto a merlon, about to jump down toward the ground.
"You're not planning on answering his taunts, are you?" The Sword Saint frowned. "You've lost against him before—" "—It was different back then," said Lui. "I've been exhausted after dealing with his Magic Knights."
The Sword Saint looked at Lui's body. Although it was hardly discernible to a normal person's eyes, he could see that the Silver War God was having a hard time moving. The large wound on his body hadn't fully healed yet even after all this time.
"Brother," Lark looked at Lui disapprovingly, "there's no need for you to go out there and fight him. You'll just die a fool's death if you go out there now, with that body."
Lark sighed. He tossed a vial toward his brother. Lui caught it and saw the red fluid sloshing inside.
"This is?" said Lui, still staring at the vial.
"Middle-grade healing potion," said Lark. "A specialty of Blackstone Town. Drink it."
Lui hesitated for a moment before he eventually opened the lid and gulped down everything inside the vial. His eyes widened seconds later. An indescribable sensation gushed inside him. He could feel the large wounds that the priests were unable to heal closing on their own. Strength started coming back to his body.
Lui stared at his little brother in bewilderment. Even in the capital, it was hard to find a healing potion as potent as this one. Even the highest-grade healing potions made in the Alchemist Workshop weren't capable of healing large wounds in a short period of time.
"And you too." Lark also tossed a vial toward the Sword Saint.
After seeing the effect of the potion on Lui, the Sword Saint immediately gulped down the vial's contents. The wounds on his body also closed on their own and an indescribable surge of strength started flowing within his body.
Another shout from General Alvaren was heard: "Come out! Silver War God! Or are you telling me that the Kingdom's so-called strongest warrior is afraid to fight me one-on-one?"
Those words were followed by mocking laughter from the Magic Knights.
Lui glared at General Alvaren's direction. He tried jumping down the walls when he felt an invisible force stopping him from moving any further. He quickly traced the source and saw his little brother shaking his head.
"Don't," said Lark. "If you're worried about the gates being destroyed by that so-called Fortress Breaker… I assure you that those gates won't fall that easily to anything short of Grand Scale Magic."
Lui conceded to the invisible force tugging at his armor. He went down the merlon and looked through the embrasure. The Alvaren Army started loading a blunt, long piece of iron which fitted perfectly inside the tube. Mana was poured into the runes of the portable weapon and loud buzzing sound was heard as mana was continuously sucked in by the sigils.
"All soldiers! Move out of the gates!" the Baron shouted to the soldiers below. "It's going to be blown up!"
Hearing this, the soldiers immediately dispersed, moving far away from the gates.
"First Army!" said the Baron. "Shields up!"
The First Army, under the leadership of Baron Zacharia, formed a shield around the gates, ready to mitigate the impact from the Fortress Breaker.
Although Lark was confident that the gates he fortified himself were not going to fall that easily, he still commanded the Blackstone Knights to aid the First Army. It was better to be safe than sorry.
General Alvaren's voice was heard again all throughout the city.
"The Silver War God isn't coming out? Bunch of cowards. Do it."
On cue, the Fortress Breaker roared. Crimson, glowing iron which resembled lava shot toward the gates. The air around them rose several degrees as the projectile whizzed by. And upon making contact with the gates, a loud explosion occurred. The gate and the walls shook, the ground rumbled. The melted iron exploded into numerous, smaller fireballs.
The First Army braced themselves for the impact, their shields erected right before them.
But it did not come.
They bewilderedly stared at the still-intact gates. Hints of confusion evident on their faces. Even the officers of the army were stunned at the outcome. Those near Lark looked at him with quizzical eyes.
There was a loud explosion, the gates and the walls shook, but that's all. Even the numerous smaller fireballs spat out by the attack dispersed after several seconds, as though an invisible hand swept them away into nonexistence.
"So, that is the so-called Fortress Breaker, huh?" Lark nodded to himself. "The gates I fortified will eventually fall if it's bombarded by half a dozen of those attacks. Impressive."
"H-Half a dozen?" Lord Argus choked the words out. He remembered that the gates of Yorkshaire Fell after just two attacks. "But the gates… They're not even made of iron!"
The gates were mostly wood, their rim and center reinforced with iron. It shouldn't have been possible for them to withstand even a single attack from the Fortress Breaker.
Lark ignored Lord Argus' mumblings. He turned to the archers from Gahelpa Village. The archers led by Valak.
"Half your entire mana should be enough," said Lark. "The enemies are confident that our arrows can't reach them at this distance. It's the perfect opportunity, don't you think so, Valak? Those fools, underestimating their enemies."
Valak grinned, his bushy beard gave him semblance to the dwarves.
"You heard the Young Master! Archers of Gahelpa! Half your entire mana!"
The archers started pouring mana into their bows, their arrows pointed at the Magic Knights.
"Ready the severing disks!" said Lark.
"Ready the severing disks!" one of the soldiers shouted.
The soldiers of the Third Army stationed on the walls started moving about. They pulled the strings of the ballista-like weapons even further, the severing disks aimed at the Alvaren Army.
Lord Argus was still unsure of what was happening. Arrows would not reach their enemies from this distance. How could those so-called severing disks, which were far heavier than arrows? He wanted to tell Lark that everything he was doing was futile, but he remembered the impossible feat just a while ago—the wooden gates withstanding an attack from the Fortress Breaker. He decided to shut his mouth and watch.
"Those bows," the Sword Saint said, clearly amused, "they're sucking in the mana of the archers."
Lui Marcus and the Baron had noticed this too as they stared at the bows the archers were using.
"Let me borrow your spear." Lark took the spear of the soldier next to him. He channeled mana into it and the spear tip started vibrating. He moved into a throwing stance, and roared, "Archers! Severing disks! Fire!"
And Lark threw the spear in the direction of General Alvaren.
Following the spear, over a dozen arrows whizzed toward the Magic Knights, along with eight severing disks. The Alvaren Army was apparently caught off guard with this sudden attack as none of them even managed to erect barriers or raise their shields to block the attacks. Surely, they didn't expect that the enemies' arrows could reach them at this distance.
With speed incomparable to normal arrows, and with strength akin to a javelin throw, the arrows struck several Magic Knights. Some of them were shot right at the chest, their plate armors seemed nothing but parchment as the arrows pierced through it. The unluckier ones were struck right at the face, their heads exploding, sending blood and brains splattering about.
Only General Alvaren managed to defend against this unexpected attack. Although he didn't notice the spear approaching, his body moved on instinct and parried the attack with his glaive. His several decades of experience in the battlefield screamed at him that death was approaching, and his body moved accordingly to protect him.
Although General Alvaren managed to parry the attack, his hand holding the glaive felt a bit numb after blocking the spear thrown by Lark.
"Shields up!" the General roared. "We're under attack!"
In unison, his knights moved their shields up to block the incoming arrows. But this was clearly a mistake as the severing disks came flying toward them this time, and it cleanly cut through their shields as though they were rye bread, eventually severing the knights' armor, bodies and all.
And the severing disks did not stop at the first knight. Some of the disks swerved as though they had a life of their own and bisected a few more knights before hitting the ground.
General Alvaren gnashed his teeth. His knights were fearless and would not hesitate to charge into the city at a moment's notice. But that wasn't even possible right now. Those damnable gates even withstood an attack from the Fortress Breaker. If they charged in now, they would just become moving targets for the Kingdom's soldiers.
And how the hell did their arrows reach his army, all the way here?
It did not make sense, unless all of their archers were capable of imbuing their arrows with magic!
Lark did not give them a chance to breathe. He ordered the archers from Gahelpa to empty their remaining mana and shoot another volley of arrows toward the Alvaren Army. The Third Army also started loading more severing disks, retracting the strings to their utmost limit.
"Fire!"
And another volley of arrows shot toward the Alvaren Army.
Followed by several severing disks.
Seeing this, the Magic Knights kicked their mounts and immediately dispersed, as though they'd practiced this several times before. The second volley of arrows did not take even a single life, and even the severing disks struck nothing but the ground.
But it was enough.
Lark cast his spell and a figure made of smoke manifested itself before him. The smoke floated in front of the Kingdom's soldiers for a moment, before flying toward the Alvaren Army.
The Magic Knights immediately moved upon seeing the ghostly figure. They slashed at it, and some tried to burn or freeze it with magic, but the figure simply reemerged unscathed every single time.
"Stop," said General Alvaren. Losing more than a dozen of his elite knights left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. "That thing's no offensive spell."
"Greetings, General of the Great Empire." The humanoid smoke bowed, still floating up. "I am Lark Marcus, Commander of the Third Army and the little brother of the man you've been calling a coward."
General Alvaren's eyes widened for a moment. He'd heard before that the Third Army's commander was the little brother of Lui Marcus. But he'd not expected him to be a capable mage at such a young age. This humanoid smoke was clearly not your average spell. Although it held no offensive abilities, it was perfect for relaying messages to your enemies over short distances.
"General Alvaren," replied the General. "Snotty brat, come out and stop hiding behind those walls! I guess you could substitute for your brother, since the bastard doesn't even dare show himself before me after his defeat back then!"
The humanoid smoke formed a smile. It chuckled. "I was expecting more after hearing about your feats, but the so-called monster of the Empire's not much, huh? A man-child, to be exact. Only fools would leave the fortress and answer your taunts, General."
In a way, Lark thought that General Rizel was a more dangerous opponent than General Alvaren. Based on what he'd heard, General Rizel was not this easy to rile up. A stark contrast to General Alvaren.
General Alvaren quivered with rage. He roared, his voice amplified with the magic tool. "What did you say, brat? Lark Marcus! Come out! If you don't—" "Then what?" the smoke chuckled. "Your so-called Fortress Breaker is useless, General. If you're really as strong as you make yourself out to be, then go ahead and charge into the city."
The smoke tilted its head to the side. "Or maybe you're afraid? Look at this, pot calling the kettle black." The smoke chuckled again, ignoring the curses spouted by General Alvaren. "But maybe I'm a fool? I'm feeling a little… magnanimous today, you see. All these preparations for war have been making me bored lately."
The gate of Akash opened, the bridge was moved over the moat, and over a hundred soldiers clad in full plate armor moved out of the city. At their lead was a young man with short silver hair and sharp blue eyes. As soon as they were out, the bridge was retracted and the gates were shut.
The smoke broadly smiled. "So I've decided to accept it. The duel.
A one-on-one battle."
The young man and his army of armored knights started walking toward the Alvaren Army, then halted at a distance.
General Alvaren glared at the young man. He was sure that he was the one speaking with him through the humanoid smoke.
"So how about it, General? Will you accept?" The last lines were said playfully, clearly mocking his enemy.
The humanoid smoke slowly dissipated and vanished entirely.
General Alvaren gripped his glaive. With him at the lead, the Alvaren Army started moving toward the direction of Lark and the Blackstone Knights.