The Mad Spearman of the Northern Front - Chapter 274

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Mad Spearman of the Northern Front (274)
“….”
Isaac stood before the Southern Imperial city of Robeltia, yet he could not accept the reality of their current situation.
Merely three days.
They hadn’t even ridden horses.
They hadn’t rested.
They had simply run.
‘A normal military force would require ten days of marching to cover this distance.’
The path stretching from the Capital to this place was no smooth imperial road.
Mountain paths that didn’t exist on any map, cliffs that bordered on sheer drops, and dense forest.
When the road ended, instead of turning back, they pushed straight through.
Boulders blocking their way were smashed aside, trees were felled, and raging rapids were crossed by weaving together branches to pull one another across.
As a result, every member of the Silent Spear Battalion was drenched in sweat and grime, their breathing ragged and labored.
Isaac turned his head to look at Arteon.
“How on earth did you know such a path existed?”
Arteon answered without emotion, his gaze fixed on the burning city.
“Did I need to know? I simply drew a straight line from the Capital to here on the map and ran along it.”
“…What?”
“Besides, we arrived quickly because of it, didn’t we?”
Isaac found himself unable to respond.
Only then did the past three days crystallize in his mind.
Why there had been no path.
Why they had crossed impossible mountains.
Why they had been forced to run as though their lives depended on it.
All of it stemmed from a single principle—the straight line.
“….”
He could only close his mouth.
He had to acknowledge that this method was indeed the fastest.
But the cost was undeniable.
“In this condition… I don’t believe combat will be possible.”
Isaac’s assessment was coldly rational.
The squad members’ physical strength had already reached its limit.
Some had lost all strength in their legs, while others struggled merely to stand, their breathing so labored they could barely remain upright.
Arteon’s gaze swept slowly across the unit members.
“….”
Exhausted.
To any observer, they appeared as nothing more than rags.
Yet their eyes told a different story.
With that, Arteon pointed toward the burning Robeltia.
“Everyone in the unit—can you hear those screams coming from there?”
Below the Hill.
The city was already crumbling.
Flames devoured the buildings, and blood ran through every street.
Soldiers from Kaerbaldt and Ermatir were dragging out Imperial Citizens and trampling them.
The cries of children.
The screams of the elderly.
Shattered doors and collapsing lives.
The soldiers struggling there were crumbling helplessly, unable to protect anything.
In the depths of Arteon’s eyes, something stirred at the sight of those screams and despair.
“If we rest here for one minute, ten people will die.”
His voice was low but clear.
“And if we rest for one hour… a thousand could perish.”
Silence fell.
“If any squad member needs rest now, speak up. I will excuse them.”
In that instant, the eyes of every Silent Spear Battalion member turned simultaneously toward Isaac.
A gaze that seemed to ask why he would even suggest such a thing.
Isaac flinched momentarily.
“…I… I’m fine.”
Before his words could finish, another voice continued.
“We’re fine too. Didn’t you just say ten people die if we rest for one minute?”
2nd Company Commander Ragnell spoke, gripping his helmet in his hand.
Sweat poured down his forehead, yet his eyes remained sharp.
1st Company Commander Bartell nodded, planting his blood-stained Spear into the ground.
“We can rest after we’ve completely destroyed those bastards.”
And at those words, a thousand squad members gazed back with the same unwavering resolve.
Arteon gave a short nod.
Now hesitation had ended.
His gaze turned once more toward Robeltia.
The moment we descend below the Hill, battle begins.
No—a battle to end the massacre.
“I will carve the path.”
Arteon raised Iglis.
“Everyone, proceed as originally planned… kill only ten each.”
The corners of the squad members’ mouths rose ever so slightly.
In that moment, the Iglis gripped in his hand blazed with golden light.
Like the harbinger of lightning that would split the battlefield itself.
And Arteon’s final words fell.
“I will kill the rest.”
With that, Arteon hurled himself down the steep slope of the Hill.
“Silent Spear Battalion, advance toward the enemy.”
With those words, a thousand shadows poured down the hillside.
* * *
“…Phew.”
A long exhale cut through the air and dispersed.
Upon the castle wall, facing southward, Duke Carbain’s gaze remained motionless for a considerable time.
What reflected in his eyes was nothing but an empty horizon.
Yet in his mind, the image of burning cities and trampled Imperial Citizens swam into view.
“What troubles you, Duke Carbain?”
At the quiet approach of Svein’s voice, Carbain slowly opened his mouth.
“…I wonder if I should have gone myself. That’s what troubles me.”
His voice was low and heavy.
Unlike his usual coldness, it carried the faintest trace of regret.
The enemy numbered forty thousand.
More than sufficient to sweep away an entire southern city.
No matter that Arteon was an 8-Star Warrior—the disparity in numbers was no trivial matter.
And then there was the distance to the Southern Region.
“With merely a thousand soldiers, the situation was hardly one where we could accomplish anything.”
Carbain gripped the railing with his hand.
The cracks left upon the stone wall transmitted through his palm.
“Had I led the cavalry myself… I wonder if we might have arrived somewhat faster.”
His gaze remained fixed southward.
“I acknowledge his strength. But if he fails to arrive in time, it will mean nothing.”
Svein said nothing.
He simply listened to his words in silence.
The chaos within the Capital.
With the Empire’s defensive network shaken, the enemy had likely already grasped the situation.
No matter how ironclad the defense, the Kingdom’s spies existed everywhere.
“They will have realized that the situation here is settled. In that case, those bastards will seize their gains and attempt to withdraw. There is no reason for them to engage directly.”
Carbain’s lips tightened.
Sorrow had etched itself upon his expression.
Never had there been a moment of such helplessness beneath the Imperial Banner.
But then it came.
“You need not worry about that, Duke.”
Svein’s quiet yet distinct voice flowed forth.
Carbain’s gaze shifted to the side.
“…What do you mean by that?”
Svein’s eyes held no wavering.
“No cavalry, however swift, will be faster than them.”
Carbain’s brow furrowed slightly.
“They are an infantry unit, are they not? Yet you claim they are faster than cavalry?”
Svein turned his head to gaze southward.
The wind brushed through his hair as it passed.
“In my assessment, Major Arteon would likely….”
A moment of silence.
“…be engaged in battle with them by now, I suspect.”
At those words, Carbain’s pupils began to tremble.
* * *
Kwaaaaaaang!
A thunderous sound as if the world itself were splitting asunder consumed the North Gate of Robeltia.
A golden Aura extending in a straight line erupted forth alongside a shockwave that tore at the ears, piercing through the Castle Wall and sweeping across the Battlefield.
Derkarn Kaelbrix could not even draw breath as he witnessed the sight before his eyes.
“…What, what is this…?”
Soldiers who had been moving to intercept the enemy appearing from the north vanished in a single flash of light.
Even those who survived remained incomplete.
“Gaaaaaaah!”
“My, my legs!”
“Aaaaagh!”
Soldiers with severed limbs rolled across the ground, screaming in agony.
Blood, dust, and the stench of burning mingled together, blanketing the Battlefield.
The Sword gripped in Derkarn’s hand trembled faintly.
Even Dekail, the 7-Star Warrior revered as the Guardian Deity of the Kaerbaldt Kingdom, had never demonstrated such martial prowess.
A single swing.
With that alone, the thick Castle Wall crumbled to dust, and half of the two hundred soldiers positioned nearby lost their lives.
The remaining soldiers stood frozen, their will to fight utterly shattered.
And from within that ash.
Whoooooosh!
Wind swept forth, and brown hair billowed in its wake.
Beyond slightly parted bangs, golden eyes gleamed.
A man stood gripping a Spear, his gaze bearing an unsettling, bone-chilling intensity, his Aura shining with the same golden luminescence as his eyes.
His mouth opened.
“Silent Spear Battalion. Annihilate the enemy.”
“Uaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“We need no prisoners! Kill them all!”
A thousand troops poured forth like a waterfall toward the collapsed North Gate.
Though their legs already felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, the Silent Spear Battalion’s momentum never faltered.
Even within the collapsed Formation, soldiers of the Kaerbaldt Kingdom Army rushed forward swiftly.
“Enemy! Imperial Army!”
“Maintain Formation! Push forward!”
Kingdom soldiers cried out as they formed their ranks.
Infantry leading with shields advanced first, followed by Spearmen and Archers tangled behind them.
But the Silent Spear Battalion did not halt.
Tap!
The squad members at the vanguard crouched low as they trampled across the rubble.
Swords, daggers, and spears thrust forward in unison.
Crack!
Screech!
The defense of the soldier wielding his shield crumbled in an instant.
A Silent Spear Battalion member’s sword carved through the shield’s gap to sever the soldier’s neck, while a spear erupting from behind pierced another soldier’s chest.
“Ugh, gahhh…!”
“Hold the line! Hold…!”
Blood sprayed before the cry could even finish.
The Silent Spear Battalion moved not as individual combatants, but in small formation units.
Three formed a group—one drawing attention, another striking at the opening, and the last delivering the finishing blow.
Their movements resembled a hunting pack far more than an army.
A Kaerbaldt Kingdom soldier thrust his spear and charged forward.
Whoosh!
The squad member twisted his body to deflect the spear, and simultaneously a dagger from the side drove deep into the soldier’s waist.
Before the soldier could even collapse, another squad member brought his sword down, cleaving through his head.
“Monsters, they’re monsters!”
Only minutes had passed since the battle began.
The soldiers of the Kaerbaldt Kingdom were being crushed beneath the overwhelming might of the Silent Spear Battalion.
One by one.
Each possessed an ability that was entirely on a different level from their own.
It was only natural.
Every member of the Silent Spear Battalion wielded Mana.
Even the weakest ordinary squad members possessed combat power of at least 2-Star Grade.
The Company Commanders had even reached the level of faintly manifesting their Aura.
They were not opponents that ordinary soldiers could contend with.
Screech!
From the center of it all, Isaac swung his sword and shouted.
“1st Company, move to the right and seize control of the main avenue! Eliminate the enemies within the alleys!”
“2nd Company, hold the front with Kailun! 3rd Company, flank around with me and strike the enemy’s side!”
The moment the command fell, the squad members moved as a single living organism.
They dispersed and regrouped, infiltrating through the alleys and swiftly dominating the northern district.
The formation of the Kaerbaldt soldiers shattered.
That was when it happened.
Whoooosh!
Clang!
A dash that rushed in like a gale.
Isaac reflexively raised his sword to block.
The impact rippled through my arm, spreading across my entire body.
Isaac’s expression twisted in an instant.
Those cold, piercing eyes fixed upon him.
“Are you the commander of this position?”
Freiltorik Beril—a warrior of the Kaerbaldt Kingdom.
A 6-Star realm master.
The man who had earned the greatest merit in the advance to this front line.
He was counted among the finest swordsmen in the kingdom itself.
Whoooosh!
A blue Aura bloomed from his blade.
Crash!
The moment their swords collided, Isaac’s body was hurled backward.
‘He’s strong…!’
Yet Isaac staggered back with a laugh.
“I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake.”
“What?”
“The commander isn’t me.”
Isaac stepped aside with a slight gesture.
“May I leave this to you?”
“Of course.”
A brief answer echoed from behind.
Boom!
The sound of a foot striking the ground.
Freiltorik’s head snapped up.
Whoosh!
In that infinitesimal span—a moment so brief it seemed to fracture into countless fragments—something blazed past him with terrifying speed.
Freiltorik’s pupils trembled.
‘How… how is this possible….’
Words would not come.
How could such a thing be?
Forty years.
Forty years devoted entirely to the blade, walking a singular path.
And yet….
‘To fall so… so meaninglessly….’
Thud.
Freiltorik Beril collapsed to the ground, a gaping hole through his chest, his expression frozen in disbelief.
One of the Kaerbaldt Kingdom’s most celebrated warriors.
His light extinguished in a mere second of confrontation.
And even Isaac found himself holding his breath at the sight.
‘Is the gap truly this vast….’
A sight that would have been unbelievable had I not witnessed it with my own eyes.
Yet Arteon simply raised his Spear and gazed toward the forward position as though nothing had transpired.
Calmly.
As if this were merely the beginning.
Isaac’s pupils trembled violently at the sight.
Truly….
‘He was planning to face thirty thousand men alone….’
But he immediately clenched his teeth.
“Squad Members, advance with the Unit Commander!”
“Yes!”
The 3rd Company surged forward in pursuit of Arteon.
Within the burning city, the golden Spear gleamed once more.
Today.
This war would end.
The moment a thousand soldiers entered Robeltia, the entire flow of the Battlefield began to reverse.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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