Chapter 169 : Chapter 169

Chapter 169. Battle

Inside the battlefield enclosed by wooden railings, the knights did not hear the conversation above. They only saw the signal flag raised from above.

It was the sign for them to make their final adjustments. The battle was about to begin.

The people outside the field also knew this was the signal that the fight was about to start, and their discussions grew even louder than before.

Before long, from the raised platform, Earl Ian threw a stone toward the center of the battlefield, and the soldier beside him immediately changed the flag.

The sound of the stone striking the ground was heard clearly by everyone present.

That sound told them one thing—the battle had begun.

Knight Eric was the first to react. He clamped his legs against his horse’s belly, and the beast immediately surged forward with all its strength, charging ahead with a heavy, imposing momentum.

His two attendants, meanwhile, had no horses. A horse capable of bearing that much weight was simply too hard to find, so he could only have them fight on foot.

The two attendants quickly raised their crossbows into firing position and looked toward Finley’s group.

Eric exchanged a glance with Knight Cliff, who was also urging his horse forward from the other side, and the two of them tacitly coordinated as they charged at Finley.

The remaining knight also realized the seriousness of the situation. If Finley went down, then he alone would be left facing the attacks of two others, so he too spurred his horse forward.

For a moment, Finley watched all three knights charging straight at him, and several beads of cold sweat rolled down his face.

If he had not already spoken beforehand with that other knight, he would have suspected that all three of them had come specifically to attack him.

Faced with such a situation, Finley’s strategy was very simple.

Run.

There was no helping it. Finley himself was not especially skilled in mounted combat. That much was obvious from the fact that while all the other knights wore heavy armor, only Finley wore light armor.

But light armor also had one advantage—it made him faster than the others.

“You two go deal with the attendants on the other side. You probably won’t be able to interfere in the fighting that comes next.”

Finley quickly called out to Fran and Stefan behind him.

At this stage, the knights on the field had all tacitly abandoned the attendants. The four of them immediately turned the battlefield into a mounted chase.

Finley’s horse had not been enhanced by strengthening potions, but because it was lightly equipped, it was the fastest.

Among the other three, Cliff’s horse was the second fastest, because he too had abandoned protective gear for a more aggressive approach.

The scene on the field now was that Finley circled the arena, kiting the three knights behind him. Every so often, he would loose an arrow backward with the bow in his hand.

He knew his arrows could not pierce heavy armor, so he aimed only at Cliff’s unprotected horse.

The moment Finley drew his bow, Cliff realized his horse was in danger. He immediately slowed down, taking the attack from the other knight while pulling Eric into the front as a shield.

Once Eric, decked out from head to toe, was placed in front, Finley’s bow lost its usefulness. He simply loosed an arrow anyway, and it struck the armor without leaving even the slightest mark.

After that, Finley focused on maintaining a speed that kept the others from catching up, but also did not pull too far ahead, leading the four riders and four horses in circles around the field.

The perspective shifted to Fran’s side.

She and Stefan did not move immediately. Instead, they carefully observed the situation on the field.

Stefan was somewhat frightened. Looking at his own thin armor, then at the enemy attendants covered head to toe in full gear, he swallowed hard and said fearfully,

“Elan, how about we just lie down and play dead?”

He had originally thought it would not be a big deal. It was just a fight, after all, and he had been on the battlefield several times before.

But when he saw the enemy’s excellent equipment, his first instinct was to shrink back.

Fran did not even turn her head. From the very beginning, she had never expected him to be of much use.

During their preparations earlier, she had already learned exactly what level he was at.

The reason she had not moved yet was that she was observing the battlefield, considering where to start killing so that she could eliminate the enemy attendants before the knights even had time to react.

She looked over the field.

Knight Cliff’s attendants had already engaged the attendants of the knight standing on their side, while Knight Eric’s attendants, burdened by their heavy bodies, were still aiming their crossbows at the running figures of Finley and the others.

They did not dare fire carelessly, afraid that their bolts might hit their own master. If that happened, it would be disastrous. So rather than risk making such a mistake, they preferred to do nothing at all.

Without even turning her head, Fran said directly,

“Just find a rock and lie down.”

With that, she ignored him, patted the black horse, and had it charge straight toward the two attendants holding their crossbows.

That move immediately attracted the attention of the people in the stands above. One of the minor nobles laughed and said to the others,

“If I were him, I wouldn’t make such a reckless move. Charging straight at two enemies holding crossbows on horseback? That’s just asking for his horse to be injured.”

No one immediately responded to what he said, because by the time he finished speaking, Fran had already rushed to within five meters of the two enemies.

Everyone watched her charge intently, wanting to see how it would end.

Facing Fran’s charge, the two attendants showed no fear whatsoever. They had tested the defensive power of this set of armor long ago, and they were confident they could rely on the cushioning enchantments on the armor to withstand an attack like this.

The two of them did not fire their crossbows right away. Instead, they waited until Fran drew even closer, until she had almost no room left to dodge, and only then did they pull the triggers.

WHOOSH!

The two bolts shot together toward the black horse beneath Fran.

Their plan was simple. Those two bolts might not seriously injure a person with a tough physique, but an unarmored horse would have a hard time enduring that kind of damage.

At the moment the bolts were fired, both attendants could already picture the black horse losing its balance and collapsing to the ground.

But reality was not quite the same as what they imagined.

One bolt struck the black horse directly in the head, while the other hit the soft area of its lower abdomen. Yet in a place the two men could not see,

both bolts were blocked by the black horse’s tough hair. The arrowheads snapped, broke into several pieces, and scattered across the ground.

One of the attendants was standing right in Fran’s attack path. He was still wondering why Fran’s horse was continuing to run when he suddenly saw her extend a silver longsword.

Reflected in his pupils was the instant the longsword erupted in flames, dyeing the entire blade red.

Fran directly used the Sunflame Breathing Method, coating the longsword with Sunflame as she slashed past his shoulder.

Before that attendant could even react, he felt one of his arms go numb. The weight of his entire upper body lost balance, and he toppled to the side.

A piercing pain shot through his shoulder. When he looked down, he saw an armored arm lying on the ground.

It had been severed as neatly as if sliced by a beam of light, the cut smooth and blackened with scorch marks.

[You use Sunflame to incapacitate a heavily armored soldier. Sunflame Infusion proficiency +2]