Unmasked hostility and bloodlust filled the air as the Alvaren Army glared at Lark and the Blackstone Knights. The memories of arrows and severing disks taking away the lives of their comrades were still fresh within the Magic Knights' minds. Finally, they'd found themselves an outlet for their boiling rage.
When the two armies were only a short distance away from each other, General Alvaren roared, "Kill the foolish bastards! Charge!"
The entire Alvaren Army roared in unison. With General Alvaren at the lead, they charged fearlessly toward the Blackstone Army.
Mana gushed out of the Magic Knight's bodies, amplifying their strengths beyond human limits. Each of them held their glaives, ready to clash against the Blackstone Knights without regards for their lives.
And the two armies collided.
The sound of iron striking iron reverberated as armored knights, swords and glaives struck against each other. Sparks flew and blood filled the air as the two opposing forces broke into a melee. The Magic Knights roared and fought like savages, their eyes fearless as they swung their glaives left and right. The Blackstone Knights also roared and hacked at all the enemies they saw using their sword.
To Lark's surprise, the Magic Knights were able to stand their ground against over a hundred Blackstone Knights. Their magically-enhanced body, their superior numbers, coupled with decades of experience in the battlefield, made it possible for them to fight on par with Lark's army.
"Where are you looking?" a deep, hatred-filled voice was heard.
Lark intuitively blocked the glaive of General Alvaren from above.
His hand felt numb after impact. Without giving Lark any chance to retaliate, the General sent a kick toward Lark's abdomen. Lark evaded by leaping back, but the General's glaive swerved and followed his movement, its blade aimed at his neck.
Lark erected a three-layered barrier made of wind magic in front of him. But to his astonishment, the wind barrier immediately formed cracks and shattered the moment the glaive touched it. Caught off guard, Lark evaded the attack a split-second late. A small cut was made on his chest, making blood spurt out.
"You're a lot weaker than your brother." The General rested the glaive over his shoulder. "How disappointing."
Lark channeled mana into his wound and forcefully closed it with magic.
What's happening?
But the wound would not close no matter what he did. An invisible force was disrupting the flow of mana in the wounded area, making it impossible for his spell to heal it.
Lark looked at the glaive the General was using. After seeing the complex runes engraved on its blade, he finally understood what was happening.
The reason why the wounds of his brother and the Sword Saint didn't heal even after several priests cast healing spells on them. The reason why his three-layered wind barrier instantly shattered the moment it made contact with the glaive. The reason why the cut on his chest was not responding to his magic.
Lark frowned. "That glaive. Where did you get it?"
The General grinned. "A nice weapon, isn't it? A replica of the national treasure of the Empire. The weapon once used by ?urvesk in the legends!"
It was a familiar name. A name Lark had read from the history books back in Lion City. A name he'd known back in his previous life.
"?urvesk?" Lark said slowly, mumbling to himself.
It was the name of his disciple. The hot-blooded idiot who nearly got himself killed after waging war with the tribe of Red Dragons.
According to the Grand Historian, Gustav Chavalion, after Evander Alaester died, ?urvesk conquered the numerous clans in the Vast Wilderness and founded the Great Empire. Was General Alvaren pertaining to that child? The kid who previously followed Evander around, insisting that they should explore the Frost Mountains of Yleonor and visit the Elementals of Marut? Remembering about that disciple of his gave him a sense of nostalgia.
"By ?urvesk," Lark started channeling mana into his fingertips. "Do you mean… the man who founded the Great Empire?"
An orb of lightning the size of a fist hovered at Lark's fingertip. He pointed it toward the General and shot it. The orb crackled dangerously as it whizzed toward the General. As though swatting a fly, General Alvaren slashed the orb in half with his glaive.
The orb of lightning was cut in half and harmlessly dispersed without exploding, confirming Lark's suspicions.
A maginus.
The glaive the General was using was a maginus. Weapons engraved with anti-magic runes capable of nullifying almost all forms of magic.
A single maginus would take months, even for Lark, to create. And there was also the astronomical cost in creating one to consider. Even though the General said it was a mere replica of the weapon once used by Lark's disciple, it was so well-made that it was almost hard to decipher the difference from the real one.
General Alvaren gripped his glaive. Around them, the Blackstone Knights and the Magic Knights were still in a deadlock. "Amazing, isn't it?
The founder of the Great Empire is such a fighting maniac that he made a complete set of items meant to nullify all forms of magic! It's like saying only the Grand Emperor's allowed to use magic in battle!"
Lark completely agreed with that statement. That child—that disciple of his—had been so obsessed with fighting that Lark ended up intervening on his behalf dozens of times to save his life. A problem child.
And the master was unfortunately doting enough to let it pass.
?urvesk. You, little shit. Even now you're giving your master a headache, huh?
With his magic nullified by the glaive, Lark started storming his mind for a way to win the battle. The Magic Knights were unexpectedly holding well against his Blackstone Knights. He had to defeat this General on his own, somehow.
Lark sent a telepathic message to the Baron using the pendant.
Prepare to charge out at any time. Mobilize the entire army. We have to wipe out these guys before they have a chance to go back to Yorkshaire.
A reply filled with static was heard afterwards. The soldiers… are ready to move… out at any time. We can… charge now if you give us… the signal.
Good. But not yet. Be on standby. A red flare in the sky. That's the signal.
If tens of thousands of soldiers suddenly poured out of the city, the Alvaren Army might suddenly disengage and retreat to Yorkshaire City.
Lark did not want to miss this opportunity to fight the General outside the fortress, surrounded only by his Magic Knights. Lark knew that it would be exponentially harder to kill this old man once he was inside Yorkshaire.
That's why he decided to go out with only the Blackstone Knights. Surely, the prideful Alvaren Army wouldn't retreat from an enemy less than half their number.
Lark took out a small vial and drank its contents. The cut on his chest closed on its own, despite the interference of anti-magic from the glaive.
General Alvaren seemed surprised by this, but this lasted only for a moment. The old man grinned broadly. "That's some expensive potion you got there, kid. ?ormal ones wouldn't be able to heal the wounds made by this partner of mine, you see."
The General's eyes turned predatory. "But enough with the useless talk."
The General channeled mana into his weapon, activating the runes engraved on it, and an azure glow started enveloping the glaive. Lark felt the mana in the air vibrate then slowly disperse as seconds ticked by. Lark quickly analyzed the flow of mana and made an estimated radius of the anti-magic spell.
Twenty meters.
?ow that the damnable anti-magic weapon had been activated, it would be impossible to materialize any spell within a radius of twenty meters from the glaive. The Magic Knights definitely knew this too, since they immediately moved a certain distance away from the General the moment he activated the runes engraved on the glaive. Otherwise, their magically-enhanced bodies would lose all of their strength after coming into contact with the maginus' area of effect.
What a troublesome opponent .
Lark took out his sword and tried channeling mana into it. The sword started to vibrate thousands of times each second, before the flow of mana was eventually disrupted and the magic stopped working. Lark tried just to be sure, but it seemed that even amplifying the strength of his body or his weapon was impossible at this point.
He also had the option of creating distance between them and bombarding the General with magic from afar. But such tactic would do nothing but sap away Lark's mana. That so-called replica could easily cut through any form of magic as though it was rye bread.
Should I run?
Lark seriously considered this option. His magic was sealed and he could not even enhance his body with mana. The only thing he could rely on right now was his swordsmanship, which he was unsure would be enough to win against a war veteran like this old man.
I should have dug deeper into the reports. I was too conceited .
Lark had received reports indicating that General Alvaren was somehow capable of disrupting his opponent's magic. But Lark never imagined that it was to this degree. He did not imagine his opponent's glaive to be a replica of the weapon once used by the founder of the Great Empire.
As Lark was weighing his options, General Alvaren leapt toward him at a tremendous speed. ?o magic enhancements, using only pure brute strength.
The General's figure blurred, he appeared right before Lark, and with an earth-shattering force, swung his glaive downward. Lark managed to block the attack with his sword, but the force sent him flying and rolling on the ground several times.
Before Lark could even recover, General Alvaren shot toward him and released a barrage of attacks, each swing carrying the same weight as the first one.
Thankfully, Lark never neglected training his body. He brushed close to death several times, but he still managed to fend off the General's attacks.
Lark's sword—unenhanced with magic—started forming chips and cracks.
Damn it.
Lark gnashed his teeth. This was the first time he'd felt this cornered ever since he took over this body. He could not use magic. His physical strength was far inferior to his opponent's. And the wounds inflicted by his enemy were impossible to heal unless he used a middle-grade healing potion. His only saving grace was his decades of experience in the battlefield, his intuition that kept saving him from death.
"Is that it, brat?!" snarled the General. "Your brother was a lot stronger than this! Even with his magic sealed! Where did your arrogance go? Didn't you want to fight me one-on-one?"
Lark was starting to see why General Alvaren was recognized as one of the monsters of the old era. The damn bastard's an Anti-Mage. A Magic Slayer.
The General's glaive struck Lark's sword once again and the impact eventually cut it into half. Seeing their master in danger, the Blackstone Knights ignored their opponents and charged toward General Alvaren.
The General clearly disliked what was happening, since this was supposed to be a one-on-one battle. With an annoyed glare, he channeled mana into his glaive, gnashed his teeth, and struck the nearest Blackstone Knight.
The maginus cleanly cleaved the Blackstone Knight in half. And it did not stop. Another slash bisected a Blackstone Knight, separating the torso into two. He swung the glaive once again, and the next Blackstone Knight tried to block it with its sword, but the maginus simply cut through the weapon, before cutting its armor.
In an instant, three Blackstone Knights fell down to ground, lifeless.
As expected of an anti-magic weapon, it even managed to cut through the link connecting the monster's essence with the armor.
General Alvaren frowned. "What are these guys?"
The inside of the armor was hollow.
General Alvaren stared at the lifeless Blackstone Knights for a moment.
Was it necromancy? ?o, impossible. The leader of the Witches of Aravark was a necromancer, and General Alvaren was pretty sure that it was impossible to give life to inanimate objects with necromancy. The primary prerequisite was a dead, formerly-living body.
Lark used this opening to create distance between him and the General. He ran toward the direction of the Magic Knights.
As expected, the General immediately chased after Lark, not giving him the chance to leave the glaive's anti-magic radius. But unlike before, Lark decided to fight near the Magic Knights and his Blackstone Knights.
The nullification of magic did not discriminate between allies and foe. Even the Magic Knights immediately felt their body-enhancement magic dissipate the moment they were near their General's glaive.
The Blackstone Knights did not miss this chance. They immediately charged toward the powerless Magic Knights and started turning the tides of war.
Seeing his precious knights, who he had trained for several years, being killed by the suits of armor, General Alvaren increased his speed and charged toward Lark like a mad man.
While creating distance between him and the General, Lark started a trial and error on which spells worked and which did not. With spell-shaping speed incomparable even to Royal Court Magicians, Lark finally found a spell undisrupted by the maginus' area of effect.
Lark skidded to a halt. Seeing this, General Alvaren leapt toward him, gripped his glaive and swung with all his might.
A translucent sword made of unstructured magic manifested itself before Lark. ?o chants, no magic formations. Lark simply willed the ever-flowing mana in his body to form the shape of a sword, a feat almost impossible to achieve given the present circumstances, unless someone had an almost god-like degree of control over mana.
And Lark did not stop with just the sword. ?nstructured magic made of raw mana encased Lark's body. With his fine control over his own magic, Lark prevented the raw mana from dissipating. It was like playing tug of war with the maginus; Lark was doing his best to prevent the mana enclosing him to disperse into nothingness.
With his body protected by raw mana, Lark blocked the General's attack with the translucent sword. This time, his hand no longer felt numb, and he even managed to parry the attack without being sent flying by the impact.
A savage grin formed on the General's face. Was he amused that Lark somehow managed to bypass the magic-nullifying effects of his glaive? Or was he simply excited that Lark could now put up a proper fight?
The answer didn't matter. Lark couldn't afford to think of such trivial things now. Without any structure or magic formation, the moment he lost concentration, the clumps of mana he formed as a sword and body armor would disappear in an instant.
"Good! That's it!" laughed the General. "Struggle! Put up a fight!"
The General kept swinging his glaive, each of his strikes carrying enough strength to cleave a horse in two. Around them, Lark noticed that the Blackstone Knights now had the upper hand. The Magic Knights were also affected by their General's anti-magic, and they had no choice but to face the Blackstone Knights with brute force alone. Although the Magic Knights were far superior in terms of skill and experience, the Blackstone Knights were far more durable and could tank several hits.
The two armies were in such a heated battle that Lark knew this was the perfect time to call for reinforcements. Even if General Alvaren chose to retreat here, he would simply give Lark the chance to finally cast his magic.
Lark took out a small tube, pointed it toward the sky, and popped open its lid. A loud thudding sound was heard as red dust flew into the sky and exploded.
Several seconds later, the portcullis opened, the bridge was moved over the moat, and numerous soldiers started pouring out of the city. The ground rumbled as thousands of cavalry charged toward the Alvaren Army.