"Lina! Climb the wall with Iling, sweep the top clean, and cover our push!"
"Rita! Take your squad and lay down battlefield cover!"
"Peggy! Nameless! Handle yourselves! I don't have time to micromanage! The rest, with me!" Medith fired off orders like arrows through fog. She'd planned to this step; with it broken, only a blood-soaked stand remained.
There was still a way to spare a mass of lives. Medith's gaze pinned Kaines in the army's rear, like a hawk fixing on prey.
"For the Emperor—"
"The Empire's sun will never fall—"
With that roar rolling like thunder over fields, nearly three hundred Magic Breakers swept in from afar. They moved fast, a black wave aimed straight at Medith. Crossbowmen drew black crossbows, shooting as shield-bearers advanced like a steel tide.
The Iron Cavalry Legion wheeled on the flanks, lances and greatswords flashing like stormlight, chewing into Kuso ranks with brutal rhythm.
Numbers, gear, and grit spoke like cold rain; Kuso members crumpled before Bloodhand Gang elites fighting like fire, retreating step by step in a trail of red.
Medith clenched her teeth; her bright eyes swept the field like moonlight over shattered water, and a decision settled on her like iron.
"Gill! Have your people focus-fire the Iron Cavalry Legion! Leave the Magic Breakers and the front to me! Most of their elites died in the first charge!" She snapped, and Gill burst from the crowd. Cecilia, Haywood, and other Kuso Guild officers cut for the flanks, blades humming like cicadas in summer heat.
On the other side, Iling and Jade led a climb onto the wall, and the battlements turned into a millstone grinding men and steel.
"Medith Waheit!" Dozens of Magic Breakers bellowed, their voices like drums across the plain. Under a rain of arrows, they advanced in tidy steps like chess pieces sliding forward.
"Medith! What now?!" Sais and Nameless pressed back to back, that crushing Bloodhand pressure like a mountain on their chests.
Medith stood steady, fear swallowed like bitter tea. She raised her sword, resolve shining like frost. "I've got some strength left. I can pull off one more Magic Breaker. The range will be small, and the strike dulled. At best it'll rip their formation. The rest is on you. Confidence?"
"What kind of question is that?! Just do it—don't ask! You know what Sis can do!" Sais’s beauty bloomed through blood streaks, the crimson lines suiting her flame-red hair like sparks on silk.
"Then let them learn the name. The Dusk Legion aren't soft targets hiding in the rear." Medith’s voice cut like a blade. She sprang like an arrow, rushing the steel wall under her comrades' cover.
...
"Urraaah—!" Haywood’s massive frame crashed into the Iron Cavalry Legion’s center like a demon tearing through dusk. Fear rippled like winter wind. His armor held hard as bone; his near-invincible power shredded men like straw.
Iron Cavalry riders were shocked, then steadied like stones in a river. They shifted offense to defense, skirmishing across the wide plain like hawks circling, refusing his edge.
The infantry suffered. Each of Haywood’s blows took a dozen lives, his black fists like cannonballs blasting shields into paper scraps.
Many Magic Breakers threw themselves into his path, using Lawbreaking's absolute-time to soak the hit, a brutal trade—one thousand down, eight hundred lost. Bloodhand soldiers packed the field like a swarm; every Magic Breaker blast hurled a dozen, two dozen men like leaves in a gale.
It looked like a loss, yet it worked. Haywood’s Lawbreaking Ability wasn’t the lasting kind. At this pace, his strength would burn out within a minute. Cecilia tapped his horn, a signal to drop it.
In an instant, black scales peeled away, drifting as dark motes in the air like ash after a fire. Haywood panted, half-crouched, breath like bellows.
Cecilia patted his massive head, then vaulted into the crowd. Her brown gloves flashed with gold, her body flickering like a lantern in a storm.
Boom— The plain itself shuddered. A pillar of gold speared the sky, staining the heavens amber.
