Inn Overlord: Reincarnated with Enhancement Magic, Now Worshipped as a Divine Messenger! - Chapter 42

(Four Knights – Thomas Wade’s Perspective)

The sky was dyed in sunset colors. It was the time to wait for nightfall and prepare to heal our tired bodies.

But we were riding horses at full speed.

The horses breathed heavily. Behind me, my subordinates shouted with powerful voices to show their might. The pounding of hooves racing across the plains matched the beat of my heart.

—Ah, this is irresistible!!

I charged at the front, leading the right wing of our horizontal formation, directly into the left wing of the kingdom’s army, which was also in a horizontal line.

The kingdom army’s infantry raised their shields. Behind them were cavalry soldiers on horses.

“We’re crashing into the shields!!”

I shouted, pointing my longsword at the shielded infantry.

“Uoooooooh!!!”
“Oooooooh!!!”
“Doryaaaaaa!!!”

My cavalry roared in reply. Then the soldiers holding the shields split to the sides, revealing troops hidden behind them.

—There they are?! The magic squad!!

About a hundred magic users raised their staves, filled with magic power. Then they began chanting together.

“Fireball!!”

Countless magic circles appeared in the air, and fireballs shot out toward our cavalry. I looked away from the incoming fireballs for a moment and glanced at the left wing.

There too, fireballs were being launched.

—They spread the magic squad across both wings…

I quickly looked forward again. I raised my longsword upright in front of my chest and gathered magic power.

I held up my hand toward the falling fireballs and cast a spell.

“Wind Slash!”

A storm swirled in the air, blowing away the fireballs. Normally, I could have sent this attack directly at the magic squad to kill them, but the cavalry behind me would be caught in the blast. Since I wanted a long battle, I couldn’t allow that. I chose to keep the right-wing cavalry alive.

As expected, the left-wing cavalry got hit by the fireballs and then were attacked by the archers. If fireballs and arrows are launched together, the arrows will burn up. But thanks to the sudden wind on our side, no arrows were fired here. If wind weakens the arrows, they won’t cause fatal wounds and will be wasted. Of course, I had already expected this when I cast Wind Slash into the sky.

I turned toward the magic squad trying to cast more fireballs and shouted:

“Charge!!!”

Our horses trampled the magic squad, and from horseback we struck down the kingdom’s left wing with swords and spears. Soon after, we collided with the kingdom’s cavalry hidden behind the magic users. Horses crashed, people clashed. Dull, harsh sounds echoed—sounds that made one want to shut their eyes.

“Uoooooooh!!!”
“Gugyaaaaaa!!”
“Haaaaaaah!!!”
“Uwaaaah!?”

In such a chaotic fight, it was easier to fight on foot than from horseback. I got off my horse, stood on the trampled, bl00d-soaked field, and faced the approaching kingdom soldiers.

One kingdom soldier rode straight at me, aiming a spear while charging on horseback. I tilted my head slightly to dodge the spear, then raised my longsword and cut through the horse and the rider as we passed each other.

Seeing that, my fellow empire soldiers cheered, while the kingdom soldiers gasped.

They saw my strength and were frightened, but this was the battlefield—a place of chaos. Controlled by extreme fear and killing intent, soldiers from both sides attacked their enemies without hesitation.

One kingdom foot soldier made eye contact with me. His eyes were bloodshot as he ran and raised his sword. I calmly walked toward him to close the distance. He lifted his sword high and tried to bring it down on my head.

Without slowing my steps, I dodged to the side and thrust my sword straight into his throat. As we passed each other, I pulled the sword out with a sweeping motion. Bl00d sprayed like mist from his neck and colored the area. Next came two kingdom foot soldiers, swinging swords at the same time—one from the right, striking down, and one from the left, striking up.

—Too slow…

I passed between them and slashed them both. The two soldiers lost sight of me and looked around, but then their bodies split and fell to the grass with a thud. I didn’t look at their corpses and searched for my next target.

But after seeing all this, the kingdom soldiers finally started keeping their distance and forming ranks. They surrounded me in a circle, pointing spears longer than my longsword.

It looked like they were all planning to thrust at me at once.

Then, a man on horseback raised his hand and shouted as he swung it down.

“Attack!!”

As expected, the spear soldiers surrounding me all lunged at once. But I released the magic I had prepared, spinning sideways and swinging my sword.

“Fractus Wind!”

Sharp wind shredded the spears and cut down the soldiers around me. Then I charged at the man on horseback—he seemed to be the commander of the kingdom’s left wing.

He panicked as I closed the distance. I jumped at him and swung my sword in mid-air, then landed.

The commander’s head flew off and hit the grass. His body followed and dropped a moment later.

—With this, our right wing has the advantage?
—I should fall back and check the left wing’s status…

The kingdom soldiers were frozen, afraid of me.

“That forehead protector…”
“I-Isn’t that Thomas Wade, one of the Empire’s Four Knights!?”

So, they finally noticed.

“That’s right. I’m the general of this army.”

Some of them thought that if they defeated me, the battle would end and they’d earn great honors. But after seeing the fight earlier, none of them dared to come forward.

—Looks like the fun ends here… I really should check the battle situation now…

I turned around to return to my base—but then I heard footsteps behind me on the grass.

“I was waiting for this…”

I turned to see someone brave enough to challenge me.

“?”

They wore a helmet, so I couldn’t see their face well. They were tall and slim—almost like a woman.

—Holding their longsword pointed down? Or are they just gripping it?

They looked like a clueless young person who just wanted to earn honor in this war.

I gave up the plan to check the situation and switched to thinning out the kingdom troops a bit more.