Chapter 3: Draw the sword!

Su Ya cautiously crouched, peeking out half his head from the gap in the trench, surveying the battlefield.

The increasingly loud charging footsteps and shouts of killing seemed to press right against his ears.

His judgment was correct.

The army's line of march did not in fact pass directly through his position,

directly opposite his flank,

converging into a torrent, the Conqueror King's army of immeasurable numbers charged with spears toward the already collapsing Arthur-side army.

In the black torrent, a chariot bearing a huge black-gold king's flag stood out conspicuously.

On the flag fluttering in the wind was displayed the emblem of the Conqueror King's flag, that being the signature symbol of the Macedonian royal house,

a large sun with sixteen radiating rays of light.

And at the top of the flagpole hung half of a man's body.

That was an elderly man whose face somewhat resembled Su Ya's, wearing a bewildered, nauseous smile, draped in a blood‑stained red great banner, only half of which remained embroidered with a golden royal emblem identical to the half‑dragon mark on the back of Su Ya's right hand.

As if deliberately cleaved in half at that point by an axe, the old man with only half a body hung on the flag like a piece of wind‑dried cured meat, swaying back and forth.

Su Ya's gaze suddenly turned cold,

If I'm not mistaken, that should be Arthur's father, Yuse Wang.

Unlike the legend in the original tales where Yuse Wang died of illness, in this world Yuse Wang was hacked in half by the Conqueror King, hung on the flag as a public display; Su Ya could not imagine what hatred could drive someone to do such a thing.

But now the situation is clear.

There are two pieces of news, one good and one bad.

Good news: the yet‑uncrowned Arthur Wang died unexpectedly, Yuse Wang, who ruled the entire kingdom, was hacked in half, and Su Ya, who looks exactly like Arthur Wang, now actually has the chance to inherit the whole kingdom.

Bad news: he will become the king of a fallen nation.

At this moment,

Su Ya felt his throat dry; the already‑dead Arthur and Yuse Wang, in his eyes, seemed to have come back to life.

One lay at his feet, the other hung on the Conqueror King's flag, gazing at him with a lifeless, eerily amused stare.

They were waving, inviting, and laughing eerily.

Guiding Su Ya toward the road to the guillotine!

"Huff, could there really be a ghost? Damn it, monsters, get out, monsters, get out—now's not the time to think about this, Su Ya, hurry up and remember what you should be doing!"

Su Ya took a deep breath, shook his head hard, gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressed his body's violent trembling, and his gaze swiftly swept over the phalanx legion below.

He focused his attention on the scattered units wandering outside the army formation.

They were squadrons of main cavalry, each about fifty horsemen, four squadrons making up one company (the basic unit), deployed on the right wing of the Maqidun phalanx; they were the main shock force known as Companion Cavalry, having largely broken away from the phalanx legion and about to charge into the combat zone.

And further outside the phalanx legion, units of three, the Maqidun scout cavalry, swept outward in a semicircle, spreading out, making contact, then returning.

These are Su Ya's opponents, the ones he needs to watch.

As he watched the movements of the scout cavalry squads below, a confusion arose in Su Ya's mind,

given their reconnaissance range, orderly action plan, and the mutually supportive wide‑angle reconnaissance created by the units coordinating with each other, his position could not possibly go unnoticed, could it?

But where are the people?

And just as Su Ya was thinking this,

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

At his ears came a rapid series of hoofbeats.

The sound rushed from far to near!

"There's actually a hidden sentry lurking there! Kill him!"

A rough voice, tinged with surprise, rang out,

Su Ya jerked his head around and saw——

Two horsemen on brown mounts, clad in leather armor, were about a hundred meters behind him, gripping their horses with their legs, they changed course, one turning in an inverted V, and came galloping at high speed toward Su Ya's position.

These two knights, unlike the main cavalry below wielding exaggerated lances, were empty‑handed, guiding their horses while bearing short spears; upon spotting Su Ya, they immediately bent low and, with one hand, drew a javelin over two meters long from the rack hanging on either side of their horses,

Soon,

the two light cavalry who had taken the javelins, using the immense inertia of their horses' accelerating charge, gripped the weapon with their right hand, closed their left eye, and aimed at Su Ya's position,

left arm hanging free, right shoulder drawn back!

Assuming the pose to throw the javelin, their lower bodies—hips and legs—moving as if glued to the horses, yet in the midst of vigorous motion the javelin in their hand remained perfectly still,

Rapidly closing in!

Qi locked on, until——

The horses galloped to within about fifty meters!

Swish!

Swish!

Amid the boom of thunderous hooves, the javelin tore through the air and shot forth!

All of this took place in less than half a minute.

Su Ya's mind went blank.

At the moment the javelin locked onto him, it was as if an invisible tether linked him to the javelin held by the knight,

Through this unseen, unfelt tether,

the opponent's killing intent, will, and inner desire to achieve merit transformed into a quasi‑physical spiritual arrow, faster than the javelin itself, crossing the fifty‑meter distance in an instant and blasting into Su Ya's heart.

Su Ya sucked in a cold breath and instantly realized——

Damn, there's a cheat!

He could only feel that, under this intangible mental shock, his limbs became extremely rigid; even though his mind remained crystal clear despite the threat of killing intent, knowing he ought to immediately find a way to dodge those two javelins,

But,

The body actually finds it extremely difficult to accept the complex commands issued by the brain.

Why is that?

No, this is not the time to think about that!

Since the body simply cannot understand the complex command "I should immediately think of a way to dodge the spear attack",

Then—

"Lie down!"

Su Ya's expression twisted slightly as he trembled, giving himself an order.

As expected, the shortest and most direct command was immediately received by the body, which then responded.

Su Ya immediately lay down.

Thud! Thud!

Two spears grazed Su Ya's scalp and the golden cowlick standing defiantly on his head by a hair's breadth, the sharp tips cutting off a few strands of blond hair before embedding deeply into the earthen wall behind him.

Buzz~!

Above his head, the spear shafts trembled and resonated like a shaking great dragon.

"Ha~ha~ha~!"

Su Ya stared wide-eyed, his face buried as he looked at the blood-soaked ground, his heart pounding wildly, gasping for air, his body shaking like a sieve, the bloody smell rushing straight to his nostrils, making him feel nauseous enough to vomit at once,

"Damn it, I'm going to die, die, die, die!"

"Even foot soldiers have cheats, and I'm up against a market fair!"

"Where's the cheat? Save me a bit!"

The cheat did not respond to Su Ya.

Su Ya clenched his teeth tightly, fear assaulting his mind, until his teeth began to feel sore from the pressure; he finally mustered his courage and jerked his head up again.

He saw——

In this narrow tunnel above, only a corner of sky could be seen in the well-like pit.

"Whoa——!"

The knight riding the brown warhorse clamped his legs around the horse's belly, causing the hind hooves to plant firmly on the edge of the tunnel, lifting the horse's whole body high, nearly forming a 90° angle with the ground!

Immediately after,

The two jet-black, iron-clad horse forefeet that filled Su Ya's entire field of vision,

plummeted downward at extreme speed!

They came crashing down heavily onto his face in the pit!

"Uh——uh——"

The sense of impending death had never been so strong, causing Su Ya to hallucinate his own head being crushed by those two horse hooves, smashed into pulp, with red and white matter splattering everywhere.

He wanted to call for help, to let out a terrified scream, but the sound that came from his open mouth was an inarticulate roar of fear, and tears began to well up in his eyes.

I'm going to die!

Everything in his vision began to lose color at that moment, until it was filled with the pitch-black thought of despair.

However,

At this very moment,

Just as Su Ya had almost completely given up his will to resist,

A firm, cold, brief,

tone nevertheless confident beyond doubt, a clear voice suddenly rang out!

"Roll 1 meter to your left!"

"Stand up!"

"Then——"

"Draw your sword!"

Update time: 8 a. m. and 8 p. m., two chapters a day.

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(End of chapter)