Defeat toppled like a landslide; under absolute might, every aura tore like wet paper at a touch.
Medith vaulted onto her white warhorse, blade raised in a singing arc; morale surged like a rising tide, and scattered lines drew tight into one, a spear aimed at the enemy’s heart.
“Close the gate! Close the gate—!” Kaines of the Bloodhand Gang screamed, panic cracking his voice. Medith’s personal power blew past their estimates; she’d lured the snake from its den and played a perfect gap in their intel. The loss ratio bled toward fifty to one.
Aside from the first hundred who seemed reckless and fell in the opening charge, Medith’s troops barely lost a soul. The dozen leaders hewed forward like hell’s reapers; they didn’t even tap their Lawbreaking Ability before breaking the enemy to rags.
Screee— The heavy gate groaned as the steel behemoth slid shut. Sais stamped the earth, urgency flaring like sparks; she threw all twelve parts of her strength to rip the warded formations wide.
The last surviving Bloodhand officer, dirty and desperate, waved his men into a crude line, trying to stem Medith’s fierce erosion like sand against a tide.
But Medith smelled inevitability. While her people tore at the defenses, she leapt a sea of bodies, dove into the enemy ranks, and carved a path in a storm of steel.
The Bloodhand Gang would never forget that day: a green-haired girl with hair streaming like silk banners, drawing a death-sword that bloomed a flower of life with every cut.
“Yaaah—!” Medith split a dozen shields with one stroke; feeling sharpened into flame behind her eyes, she set her hands and turned the greatsword into a lance, driving straight through the final line.
Where the “spearhead” passed, defenses shattered like brittle ice. Across the field, not one man could take a single clean strike from her.
Clang— At the instant the gate would close, Medith jammed her greatsword into the seam. Behind her, Haywood became a black beast and slammed square into the wall.
THOOM— The whole battlement shuddered like a wounded mountain. The crash burst eardrums; men above him swayed and spilled from the wall, pulped on the ground or cut apart before they stood.
Cecilia seized his horn and hammered the iron face; her world-shaking fist couldn’t dent the wall, but it pinned him to it like a nail to timber. On Medith’s left, Jade, covered by Sais and the others, clung to the iron and began to climb.
Countless siege ladders hooked on; pressure spiked along the wall like storm weight.
Medith’s rear cleared; the Bloodhand Gang got pinned and couldn’t move. Her almond eyes flared; she turned the greatsword sideways and locked it firm in the gate seam.
“Urgh—haa—” Her breath came harsh as winter wind; she heaved the blade outward to wedge the doors. Beyond the gate, Kaines panicked. “What are you doing? Why isn’t it shut yet?”
“We’re—pulling with everything— but something’s jammed in the seam— it’s strong as a demon— damn it, we’re not gonna hold—”
“What did you—”
Shnk! Before he finished, a cold gleam pushed through the crack— a sword tip prying daylight, and behind it, a pair of eyes like hellfire.
“Yaaah—!”
KABOOM— The steel gate kicked open. Soldiers on the wall, chained to the winches, got yanked off by backlash and shattered below. The gate yawned wide, and a green-haired maiden strode in like a hell-god, almond eyes sacred and furious, hunting the foes ahead.
“Form defense! Magic Breaker warband, in— don’t care about friendlies!
Archers fall back; crossbowmen up. Shields hold. Heavy swords forward. Iron Cavalry Legion withdraw, then circle and gnaw the flanks after the first shock!
Do not fall for Medith’s tricks!
Power that strong— she won’t fire it twice!”
Medith’s brow tightened; respect flickered like a cold spark. This Bloodhand commander had teeth— even with the battle on the verge of collapse, he twisted it back to shape.
She had to admit, he made trouble. Her stamina was half spent, strength dulled like a blade after stones; that first surge looked fierce, but it burned reserves clean.
Most of her people had already used their Lawbreaking Ability; the hidden cards lay face-up. They hadn’t cracked, so now it was raw steel against raw steel.
Medith hefted her greatsword. Behind her, black-and-red-clad men rolled in like a dark river, flooding the plain inside the walls.
The Bloodhand Gang fell back again and again, wary to the bone of the Dusk Legion and the Kuso Guild— even though most of them wore little more than cloth.
“I won’t say I’m sorry or ‘let’s talk.’ Hand over Andrew and everyone who took part in Herbert’s ambush that day, and we’ll withdraw.
If not, the Southern Kingdom’s border will lose its defense today, and your steel behemoth will be no more.”
She stood at the front, frost-faced, staring at the grand black keep in the distance like a hawk at dusk.
Andrew shoved the beauty at his side away. His wine cup flew from the high tower like a wounded star. “Kill them. Don’t hold back. Corpses fetch a good price.”
