The next morning after receiving new power and new technology, King Majagada began organizing his troops to defend Ludanes. I, Kuti, Atmaja, and Romanova, were ordered by him to join the cavalry and elite Majagada knights led by Iris.
"Our task is only to harass and slow down their advance. The Ilm Empire agreed not to participate in the battle and will retreat once they see the City of Ludanes," Iris said. "Then we will release Dahlan once the war is over and Ilm keeps their promise."
"I-I know," I said.
"Hey, your armor seems to need replacing. You can get a new one at logistics," Iris suggested.
"Yes," I replied and went there to get my new armor.
We all departed after everything was ready. King Majagada used cannons from their warships and placed them at the northern gate of Ludanes with his troops. The troops on the wall consisted of a combination of mages and archers. Outside the walls, Majagada infantry troops stood guard and were evenly divided among each gate of the City of Ludanes. Meanwhile, we, his special forces, were ordered to move independently according to Iris's decision.
The troops from the Ilm Empire kept their promise. They did not participate in the siege of Ludanes. Only the united forces of the Knightly Order attacked. Iris divided her troops into small groups.
I, Kuti, and Atmaja were placed into different small groups to maximize our abilities. Romanova would be with Iris because she was a mage, and it would be dangerous for her to join a group.
We scattered and began our strategy. My group consisted of 10 knights and one technician. We saw several technicians from the Knightly Order starting to set up their camp. We ambushed them and disrupted them. We easily cut down the technicians and soldiers who were surprised by our arrival.
"Bu-burn it and retreat!" I ordered after the enemy appeared chaotic.
A technician came and brought me a lit torch. I burned the piles of damaged and unpitched tents. I set them ablaze and then fled from the enemy camp area.
I waited for a reaction from our enemy. They did not react at all to our actions. They didn't even send troops to help their rear lines and logistics. Then we set off again, this time to attack the enemy technicians who were building siege towers and trebuchets.
This time they protected their technicians with light infantry. We had difficulty breaking through their formation. "I-I will break through and you guys go in to destroy and burn them!"
I jumped from my horse and slammed my mace into their formation. They were thrown back and their shield formation was shattered. The other knights broke through the enemy formation directly to attack the enemy technicians. The enemy infantry now tried to surround and gang up on me.
I absorbed the energy of their attacks into my shield. Then I released it again to push them away. They did not give up and reformed their lines to attack me simultaneously.
"I-I don't want you g-guys to die. But I'm going to be serious now," I threatened them. I saw that the other knights hadn't finished burning all the unfinished siege towers and trebuchets. They also seemed to be ganged up on by the slaves of the Knightly Order.
I smiled and went wild, breaking through them and smashing their heads with my mace. Their swords and shields were useless and shattered as my mace touched their weapons. The slaves who saw me rampage were terrified and fled. The enemy troops did not dare to touch me and they ran.
I called my horse back and mounted it. Then I saw a horde of cavalry heading towards the rear. My group and I followed them. This cavalry group consisted of the grandmasters of the united Knightly Order. They weren't leading their troops and instead were heading back here? What were they after?
Iris?Where is he now? We trailed the group of horses and fell into their trap. They lured us to their reserve forces who were ready to ambush us. The grandmasters returned and attacked us.
Unfortunately, I lost my focus and one of their spear attacks knocked me off my horse. The eight of them now surrounded me, separating me from my group.
"It's an honor to fight a saint. Why does God 999 suddenly hate us? We've always been loyal to him," asked a grandmaster.
They used various weapons. Luckily, my reflexes allowed me to avoid all their projectile attacks. I parried their attacks with my shield and waited for a moment to counterattack. But their attack rhythm was relentless. It was as if they knew that giving me a moment to counterattack would be detrimental to them.
Training with Iris for this short time has slightly increased my stamina. If it were the old me, before being captured by Indarto, I would have definitely been defeated by them with the same technique.
I threw my mace upwards and focused on holding off their attacks with just my shield. Since I saw no opening, I forced myself to use my shield attack. They were thrown back by the energy of their own attacks. However, they were still able to stand and regain their positions. Their horses died from that attack.
Oh right, where was my mace? No need, I'll fight them with just this shield. I leaped forward towards one of the grandmasters who was using a spear. He saw me approaching him.
BOOM!
The ground shook and he couldn't escape. Another grandmaster tried to help him by shooting an arrow. Before I could hit him, my shield moved to block the arrow, giving him a chance to stand up again.
THUD!
My mace suddenly struck the head of the grandmaster using the spear. His armored helmet shattered, and he stumbled to the ground before I delivered a blow with my shield to break his body.
I retrieved my mace and struck his body. Blood spurted from his mouth and he died. I took his spear as war spoils.
"Hmph! I told you, didn't I! It's a big mistake to fight a saint! Grandmaster Eoche didn't think this through! I'd rather go to the front lines and lead my troops!" said a grandmaster and fled.
My group lost one knight and our technician. But this was quite impressive, even though we were attacked by 50 of their infantry and 8 grandmasters, they were the ones who lost. I still had energy, I called my horse back and mounted it.
"We should retreat. We did well taking out one of their grandmasters," suggested a knight. "We lost our technician. It will be difficult to cause trouble without a technician."
"One last attack, then we can regroup and find the other groups." My eyes fell on the Knight Order's logistics caravan that had just arrived. We raided it, plundered food supplies, and made off with some of their caravans. Then we returned to our camp.
When we returned, we realized we had gone the wrong way and met the Knight Order's right flank. It should have been filled with soldiers of the Ilm Empire, but now it was sparsely filled with parts of the Knight Order's forces from their center line.
"You-you guys find another way. I'll fight them," I said and dismounted my horse.
"It's unusual for you to want to fight to the death like this," Maria appeared and mocked me. "You said you didn't want to kill anymore."
"Don't worry, you won't die. Your life keeps recovering thanks to Nerville's regeneration blessing. At most, you'll just run out of stamina. But it would be a shame if you didn't fight them and satisfy me with many falling souls," she added.
I recklessly charged forward towards the enemy lines."""They tried to gang up on me but I attacked them indiscriminately. "You're fighting a saint? You will die!"
A blue thread appeared in my hand and stuck there. Maria smiled, "That's how it should be, now defeat them all! Destroy and kill them! Make me full and satisfied! You are indeed the perfect strongest candidate for my saint tournament!"
I kept fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. Even though my mace was destroyed, I took the enemy's weapons to keep fighting. Under my feet, the ground and grass were adorned with red. The sound of birds was replaced by the sound of terrified screams and cries. Maria and Nerville, these two cursed gods enjoyed the spectacle I provided and smiled with satisfaction. Even though day turned into night and entered the second day of this battle, I couldn't stop fighting.
THUD!
I thrust the long spear I picked up and plunged it into my last opponent. Unbeknownst to me, the one I was fighting was Grandmaster Eoche herself. The woman fell to the ground, dropping her scythe spear that was about to sever my head.
"Ugh! Da-damn it. If only the Ilm Empire hadn't betrayed us." Eoche fell on her back.
Grandmaster Francois came and was about to attack me. "Eoche! I will avenge your death!"
An arrow shot and hit his head. Iris, Kuti, Atmaja, and others arrived. From a distance, I saw the Majagada war banner fluttering and slowly advancing towards here. Maria and Nerville clapped and appeared before me to give a kiss before leaving.
The blue thread from the sacred tree was severed. My vision darkened, I took the long spear stuck in Eoche's body as a handle so I wouldn't fall. Full of a fishy smell and blood. This world was not as beautiful as I had initially imagined. Adventuring and having fun? Where? All there was was being a servant of the gods.
A flock of crows flew and feasted among the piles of corpses. Kuti and Atmaja approached me, their voices I couldn't hear. Pain began to appear everywhere. I looked at my status and only had one life left and dozens of other status effects.
I lay face down on the ground. The only thing I heard was the humming song of the dying Eoche. "A-are you a s-saint? W-we are just t-toys of the g-gods."
"I was also called to this world like that," she said again. "Why is it like this now? I will miss my hometown in the real world."
Eoche's hand held mine, "It's a shame we h-had to be e-enemies. If y-you had realized sooner. You would have helped us, the Knight Order."
What kind of nonsense was that? Wouldn't it be the same anyway? I closed my eyes and rested."