Masked Knight

There was a huge explosion and it created a large hole in the thick ironwood city gate. Broken pieces were thrown all over. The Empire’s cavalry cheered from outside the city gate. A hurried drumming sound was heard as the horses charged in quickly through the gate in a long line. Even though the soldiers on the wall heard the loud explosion, they could not see and therefore did not know the gate had already been blasted open. But when they saw a big cavalry rush towards the city gate, the brave ones grabbed their bows and arrows and shot out a few arrows. As for the ones who were scared, they just ran down the wall tower.

Rody had been in an arduous war. Although the warriors he brought were valiant and all had been transformed into vampires, not everyone was abnormally fierce and powerful like him. At the moment, except for Rody, everybody had put in their best effort. The Roland army was confused but they understood the consequences of allowing the enemy cavalry to enter the city.

Rody approached the city gate as he slashed left and right, forcing the Roland soldiers to move out of their positions. He then pulled open one-half of the city gate. He was startled when his back was slashed. That opened a big gap at the back of his armor. Rody raised his eyebrows and turned around, killing the assailant with a backhand slash. After that, he moved quickly to the edge of the city gate... as he did not want to be trampled on by the horses of the Lightning God’s Whip.

With dust flying, tens of thousands of Lightning God’s Whip had already rushed into the city. The hundreds of Roland infantrymen, who originally blocked the city gate, had no time to even moan before they were drowned in the surge of iron pouring in.

Things began moving within the Roland barracks. Countless soldiers climbed out of their tents. Some were wearing their clothes while some were wearing their armors. Some were looking for their weapons while some were looking for their commanding officers. There were also some who could not find their own swords and ended up scrambling for them with their companions...

Even some officers of the Roland army who heard the emergency assembly bugle call did not know what was going on.

The tens of thousands of cavalry who rushed into Thunder City immediately split into two groups. One group went left while the other went right. They charged towards the two large barracks of the Roland army in Thunder City.

The first unlucky ones were the Roland army infantry, whose barracks were located on the right side. The night vigil soldiers had panicked the entire time as there were fire and screams everywhere. Everything happened so quickly that they could not understand what was going on.

Surrounded by chaos at the barracks, they saw horses coming towards them. From afar, they could see the banner of the ’Holy Knights Regiment’. Hmm? The Holy Knights?

While these Roland soldiers were still confused, they heard the ’Holy Knights’ shout, "Retreat! Quickly run!"

There was a huge commotion. The Holy Knights are retreating?

There was an explosion and countless soldiers ran helter-skelter. When the Holy Knights got nearer the people of Roland continent finally noticed the difference and exclaimed...

"Shit! Imposters!We are dead!"

Everyone in the Lightning God’s Whip had to learn two words from the dialect of the Roland continent. Those words were ‘retreat’ and ‘run’.

During the commotion at night, a group of ’Holy Knights’ had dashed in, shouting loudly at the same time — any soldier who saw this would, of course, run first. Even the ’Holy Knights’ have lost and are deserting. Only an idiot would not run. If you don’t run your head would soon roll down on the ground.

The situation at the barracks on the left was a little bit better. The deputy commander was more composed. Although he could not totally suppress the chaotic situation in the barracks, he was able to maintain control of two thousand of the more elite soldiers and organized them into a battle formation.

He then saw Rody brought a large troop of cavalry and force their way in. Those cavalrymen shouted, "Retreat, quickly run," in the Roland dialect. As the Roland soldiers started to fall into disorder, that deputy commander cut down a dozen of those soldiers who were thinking of running away. He then shouted, "Nonsense! Since when are the Holy Knights in Thunder City? These are impostors! Let’s fight!"

Rody saw the enemy approaching instead of running away. Even in a state of commotion, the enemy’s infantry formation did not collapse. Rody realized that they had already seen through his ruse. He immediately raised his sword, shouting, "Wolf Fang!"

Tens of thousands of cavalrymen roared simultaneously, "Kill!"

Rody had used all his strength to shout ‘Wolf Fang’ in a booming loud voice. His voice reverberated throughout the city, right up to the north. When Muse heard his voice, she was so startled she could barely stand. She pushed about a dozen of the Holy Knights out of her way and ran a few steps towards the South. Suddenly, she stopped.

Muse’s body was trembling.

It’s him! It’s him! Without a doubt, it is him! It is his voice!

Involuntarily, her tears started to flow. Muse bit her lip to stop herself from crying out loud.

"Ho... Ho... Holy Saint... Your Excellency..." The Regiment Commander of the Roland army turned pale. At the moment, shouting voices reverberated in the city. Although he did not know how many soldiers from the Radiant Empire had entered the city, he believed that there must be a lot of them.

Muse tightly clenched her fists and whispered in a hoarse voice, "It is already too late! Regiment Commander, it looks like a large troop of enemy soldiers has already entered the city! Didn’t you hear that sound earlier?

The Regiment Commander’s face was full of sweat as he replied, "It... It is the Wolf Fang... Wolf Fang... I will immediately send some soldiers to regroup and fight back!"

Even an idiot could tell that the Regiment Commander was almost losing his voice! It was at this moment that the messenger who ran out earlier had returned, struggling as he did. He shouted before he even reached the Regiment Commander. "Your Excellency! Your Excellency! The left barracks are gone!"

The moment that Regiment Commander heard those words he felt his legs go soft and immediately sat on the ground.

Muse sighed as she looked towards the South. She could hear the screams of the frightened people fighting. She gazed tenderly and thought to herself. That guy must be very close to me, now.

"Saint!" One of the Holy Knights asked, "Your Excellency, what should we do? Should we help them confront the enemy?"

These young Holy Knights were amongst the more excellent people from the Temple. All of them were currently eager to go out.

Muse looked at the Regiment Commander who was on the floor and said, "Confront the enemy? Confront what enemy? Let’s leave!"

After that, Muse turned towards the city gate as her robes fluttered. The four Holy Knights followed behind her. One of them was puzzled and he asked, "Your Excellency, Muse, are we going to just ignore this?"

Muse felt agitated but tried to make her voice sound as cold as possible. "What else can we do? Their main army has already entered the city and we have lost our barracks. Do you think the five of us can repel them? Let’s go!"

That Holy Knight was about to reply when Muse glared at him and coldly said, "Shut up!"

After saying that, Muse no longer looked back and walked towards the city gate.

Her footsteps were heavy and she felt like every step required a lot of effort. In fact, Muse would rather those people get out of her way, so that she could, regardless of everything, go towards the south.

But is that possible? After all, I am a Saint of the Temple. Although I am against the war, I will not betray my faith.

Further... and further... With every step she took, Muse was further and further away from that person. The black veil that covered her face was already soaked with tears.

The horses had already been prepared outside the city. Muse took a deep breath and looked back. She slowly closed her eyes and whispered in the common language of the Radiant Empire, "If you do not forget me, I will never forget you! You better stay alive... I will wait for you!"

She then bit her lips, turned around and mounted her horse. Muse and the four Holy Knights galloped towards a ship waiting near the shore...

The Roland army in the city had completely collapsed and was not able to organize any effective resistance. The situation had become completely one-sided. Tens of thousands of the Lightning God’s Whip used their mighty momentum to destroy the barracks of the Roland army. After that, they chased the Roland army out of the city to the north.

The Lightning God’s Whip did not expect to completely annihilate the entire Roland army as the Roland army still had a lot of soldiers. It would be impossible to kill every single one of them at once. In fact, the Roland army was only defeated in the sense that they were extremely frightened and disorganized.

Tens of thousands of the defeated Roland soldiers were like an ocean wave moving away from the Northern gate. They no longer thought about anything else. There was only one thought: Run! There were no enemies in front.

When the Lightning God’s Whip finally reached the Northern gate, Sieg immediately ordered them to stop.

Those frightened Roland soldiers who were still running away suddenly realized that their enemy was no longer chasing them. When the braver ones turned around to look, they noticed that the city gate had already been closed.

Tens of thousands of the defeated Roland army were scattered outside the North gate of Thunder City. They were in between the ocean and a solid wall.

The officers of the Roland army began to gather their army. That Regiment Commander had also retreated from Thunder City. He only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the Lightning God’s Whip stopped chasing them. After counting the number of soldiers remaining, he found that the Roland army did not lose that many soldiers. They still had about eighty percent of their original troop of about one hundred thousand soldiers.

Some of the smarter soldiers from the Roland army also thought to themselves. Perhaps, their enemy did not have that many soldiers.

"We were tricked!" The Regiment Commander roared. He then drew his sword and shouted, "Let us strike back!"

Strike back?

The man’s subordinates looked at each other. Strike back?

They looked at the soldiers around themselves. Some had no armors while some had no weapons. Some of them did not even have the time to put on their pants. Those who had dropped their shoes while escaping were already considered fortunate.

Strike back?

They turned around to look at the solid wall and the thick and heavy ironwood city gate as they asked themselves the same question. "Strike back?"

They may have seventy to eighty thousand soldiers. However, every two soldiers would need to share a sword. Besides that, about thirty people would need to gather what they wore to barely make a complete set of armor.

Besides that, they had no tools for a siege; no catapults, no chariots, and not even ladders.

How do we attack them? Do you want our soldiers to bang their heads against the city gate?

Kraft led the Lightning God’s Whip around to inspect the city and they strangled any remaining Roland soldiers found scattered in the city. Sieg led his soldiers to the Southern wall. Although they had won the battle at Thunder City, there was an urgent matter that they must immediately attend to. They must immediately strengthen the Southern wall and the Southern gate of the city. That was because the main force of the Roland army may launch a counter attack

Besides that, there may have been some Roland soldiers that had escaped from the first checkpoint that Sieg and the Wolf Fang had attacked, on the way here. Those escaped soldiers may have retreated towards the main army in the Pamir Plain. In order to expedite the surprise attack, Sieg did not chase them down. It would not have mattered. Everything was according to their plans. By the time the Roland soldiers reached the Pamir Plain, the Lightning God’s Whip would already be very far away from them. By the time the main Roland army arrived at Thunder City, it would have already been captured.

The key to this war was the timing.

Sieg brought his men to the Southern wall to make preparations. He ordered Rody to remain at the North wall. After all, Rody was currently the captain of the bodyguards of His Excellency the Duke. Although he was just a captain, everybody knew the implications of being the captain of the Duke’s bodyguard. Besides that, he had performed well in the earlier battle.

Just before Sieg left, he said, "I leave the North to you. Just be careful of the Roland army outside of the city."

Seeing Sieg leaving for the Southern wall with his men, Rody sighed with relief. Every time he stood near Sieg, he felt very nervous. Sieg was already too familiar with the ‘Duke of the Tulip Family’ and Rody was afraid that he might carelessly reveal his identity. In fact, Rody had only used his golden fighting energy once to break open the city gate. However, ever since Sieg led his soldiers into the city, Rody no longer dared use the golden fighting energy again. He must show that he only had the ability of a Grade 5 swordsman.

With a sigh, Rody took his men up the wall.

Previously, he had fought a bloody battle against the Roland army on that part of the wall. Rody leaned on the wall as he looked out at the tens of thousands of defeated Roland army in the wilderness outside the city.

One of the officers from the Lightning God’s Whip could not help but ask, "Officer, what should we do with those Roland soldiers? Should we go out and kill them?"

Rody shook his head and whispered, "There is no need for that... Right now, some of them aren’t even wearing pants! Just let them die slowly on their own. If we go out and kill them, we will waste our strength and resources. Either way, they would not be able to attack us, so we can just let them wait! The Roland army’s supplies would probably take several days to arrive. In those few days, even if they do not starve to death, they would freeze to death."

Rody paused for a moment before he gave an order. "Let some of our squads watch from the top of the wall. The Roland soldiers won’t be able to do anything. As long as they do not approach the gate, they can do whatever they like. If anyone approaches the gate, shoot him with your arrows."

Rody sighed as he looked at the sky turn brighter in the east. Rody then looked at the distance. North of the city was an open space and beyond that was the coastline.

Rody was not sure if it was a psychological or a natural response, but when he looked at the coastline, he felt his heart stir.

"Your Excellency..." The officer of the Lightning God’s Whip, behind Rody, saw him was in a daze and could not help but call out to him.

"Hm?" Rody immediately snapped out of his daze and asked, "What’s wrong?"

"Are you alright?"

Rody shook his head and frowned. "Nothing... it is just that for some reason, I have a strange and familiar feeling ..." He softly murmured. Suddenly, Rody’s eyes grew wide and he trembled. He then grabbed the wall and stuck his body out of the wall as he looked at the distance.

"Muse... Is that you?"

At that moment, Muse was standing on the aft of a ship with her hands behind her back. The ship was already several hundred meters from the shore. The waves rushed as the salty sea breeze blew. However, Muse looked as if she was oblivious to it as she looked towards the south.

As they moved further away from Thunder City, the tall sturdy towers became smaller until it eventually looked like a black spot.

"Right now, he must have already captured Thunder City. What does he look like now? Will he still rudely and angrily call me a fool, like he used to?" Muse gently closed her eyes.

She slowly lifted her slender hands to remove her black hood from her head. The sea breeze blew and raised her long and black hair. Muse could not help but lifted one of her palms and emitted a ball of silver light.

The silver light shot up towards the gray sky and lit up the darkness like a magnificent firework.

Muse looked up at the huge apparition she had created in the sky. It looked like a blooming tulip flower.

"Rody, if you see this tulip, come and look for me in the Roland Continent!"

At the same time, the Lightning God’s Whips who were standing on the wall also saw the apparition of the tulip in the distant sky. The soldiers immediately became vigilant. Are the Roland soldiers coming again? Are they the Roland sorcerers?

Only when Rody saw the apparition of the blooming tulip in the sky did he gradually calm down. It must be her! It is definitely her!

Rody smiled. He suddenly stretched out his hand and patted the shoulder of the officer of the Lightning God’s Whip beside him. He then said in a calm and firm voice, "After passing through this strait, would we be in the Roland mainland?

That officer gave Rody a strange look and said, "Your Excellency... Didn’t you see that in the sky?"

"I saw it." Rody nodded and laughed. "Isn’t it beautiful?"