Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Chapter 68

A single Death Knight was wreaking absolute havoc, mercilessly decimating the watchers of the bandit alliance stationed at the location.

“This is still not enough.”

The shadowy creature Dale controlled was far from the crude animations summoned by common necromancers. It represented the very manifestation of the supreme swordsmanship that once surpassed the most virtuous blade on the entire continent, establishing itself as a true “Sword Proxy.” Dale’s purposes in forging this Death Knight were extremely specific.

In the first instance, he sought to restore the hero’s martial technique to its purest state, endowing it with the real capacity to act as a true “Sword Proxy.”

Secondly, imitating the self-learning processes of advanced artificial intelligences, he intended for the monster to wield the weapon uninterruptedly, assimilating and collecting combat records at every instant.

This would lead to the creation of an “automatic formula.”

Once the Death Knights managed to master and execute the hero’s technique autonomously, without requiring Dale’s guidelines, the plan would consist of replicating said “Automatic Formula” in the thousands of Death Orders that remained guarded and inactive in the fortress, transferring the legendary skill to thousands of black swords.

He visualized clearly the moment when entire legions of Death Orders, bearing the hero’s edge, would adopt the “ultimate combat form.”

Undead warriors armored with the very essence of their doctrine.

The divine hosts of Anubis, the lord of the underworld.

With that goal in mind, Dale constantly polished the movements of his Death Knight, transforming tactics into mechanical and automated processes.

Such a feat was only within reach of an individual with Dale’s caliber, someone capable of subduing the will of the most relentless steel.

The sentinels at the checkpoint, equipped with heavy protections, tried to resist.

However, facing the edge wielded by Dale’s Death Knight, they were nothing more than mere offerings of flesh, simple variables destined to nourish its database.

In the Hamburg city hall facilities.

“We have received reports that the coalition of outlaws, commanded by Count Robert, has begun to deploy its combatants.”

The city’s leader explained the situation cautiously, unfolding a detailed map of the region on the surface of the table.

“As if that were not enough, the mercenary battalions they have hired seem to be coordinating their movements along with the bandit alliance…”

Dale nodded slightly, showing a total lack of surprise at the report.

“Surely panic is dominating them, forcing them to get ahead of their own plans.”

During a siege, the advantages always favor those who guard the walls. Up to now, the course of events adjusted precisely to Dale’s projections.

For him, the priority did not lie merely in obtaining victory, but in the level of neatness and efficiency with which he could consolidate it.

Both the mercenaries and the members of the bandit alliance lacked sorcerers in their ranks. In this plane, users of magic constituted an extremely scarce and valuable resource, and such eminences would never consecrate their service to bands of ruffians or to aristocrats of lower category.

The only figure they should really fear was Dale himself. Despite the astonishing myths surrounding his capabilities, the opposing side probably assumed that the numerical disparity would give them victory.

“There is no reason to be alarmed.”

Far from the restrictions imposed by the laws of the empire, in a war scenario devoid of regulations, the moment had arrived to test the entire arsenal that Dale had perfected in secret.

Although it might not equate to the nature of a dark necromancer or a holy paladin, as an armed force outside of ordinary parameters, he was curious to discover the scope of his intervention on the field… how much he could destabilize the course of the conflict through his individual power.

He longed to behold the type of devastation and chaos that his “mass destruction magic” would unleash.

Upon confronting the Black Armor Company, the enemy coalition’s strategy was reduced to a single move.

To completely besiege the free settlement of Hamburg to force an immediate capitulation.

Such a tactic responded to the severe logistical and supply deficiencies that plagued armies in this era.

Contemplating from the heights the adversaries that surrounded the defensive fortifications, Dale evaluated the panorama analytically.

“Taking advantage of the battlements to repel the advance from a protected position seems like a viable alternative.”

Apart from the battalions of the Black Armor Company, the Hamburg territory had a quite respectable military contingent of its own.

Additionally, the opponent did not have specialists in magic. The combat level of their ranks, adding to the mercenary groups, did not exceed that of the lesser relevant fiefdoms.

“Perhaps it is convenient to exert direct pressure from the start.”

Dale said to himself, maintaining serenity as he scrutinized the opponent’s deployment.

He saw no inconvenience in situating himself at the vanguard of the conflict and, in his role as supreme commander of the Black Armor Company, he trusted fully that his men would back such a determination.

—Sir Yones.

“Order, my captain.”

Dale focused his attention on Sir Yones, the officer of greatest trust who remained next to him.

“How about we take the boys for a walk around the battlefield?”

Facing an imposing enemy mass that hovered around two thousand combatants closing the siege on the town, a reduced group of barely one hundred infantrymen provided with heavy armor would present themselves.

To any external observer, that maneuver constituted a fatal imprudence.

Count Robert, ringleader of the bandit alliance and strategist in charge of the three main mercenary companies, shared exactly that perspective.

He held the absolute certainty that the heavy-armored infantry corps belonging to the Black Armor Company, considered the opponent’s most dangerous bastion, would remain guarded behind the city walls to engage in a war of attrition. The possibility that they would lower the drawbridge to challenge them in open field never crossed his mind!

Presenting himself at the front with a scarce hundred effectives and counting only on the support of the marksmen stationed on the battlements.

“Are they looking for their own ruin?”

Regardless of how impenetrable their defensive deployment might result, in the end, the superiority in quantity would end up crushing them.

Despite this, coordinating said formation was the imposing figure of the “Black Prince.”

The military leader of the Black Armor Company, direct descendant of the Black Magic Tower. A formidable being qualified as the most gifted prodigy of the empire in both the art of the sword and in the fields of sorcery and war direction.

Evidently, that strategist knew the crucial value of counting on a mystical specialist protecting an immovable defensive line.

However, for one of the mystical arts of barely the third circle, executing a spell categorized as “mass destruction magic”—an achievement usually reserved for high-hierarchy mages—was practically unthinkable.

Throughout the records of battles fought by Dale at the head of the Black Armor Company, spells of generalized devastation had never manifested. Although analysts could not decipher the bases of Dale’s ballistic projection technique, they attributed such phenomena simply to a very powerful variant of electric magic.

It was not a mass extermination spell, but an advanced manifestation of lightning.

By completely ignoring that this was due to the restrictions of the legal framework, the enemy side did not even suspect the capabilities that Dale would release upon finding himself in a confrontation exempt from legal limitations.

“Did he turn out to be just an immature youth after all?” exclaimed Count Robert with disdain, sure that the adversary was committing a folly.

“The enemy only has one hundred warriors with heavy armor!”

“Let’s break their lines right now!”

“How absurd to go out seeking death in that way!”

The mercenary hosts echoed the shouts and taunts, attempting to dismiss the danger that the presence of the Black Armor Company’s chieftain, the “Black Prince,” planted firmly in the formation, represented.

They had no other alternative. Their combat plan was structured under the premise that they were capable of countering the impact of a third-circle sorcerer.

“Begin the advance!”

“Destroy the Black Armor Company!”

“For the honor of the Golden Lion mercenaries!”

Thus was unleashed the violent combined charge of the bandit alliance and the mercenary squadrons.

“We will stand firm until the end!”

“For the glory of the Black Armor Company!”

Under the din of the enemy advance, the one hundred soldiers provided with heavy metal protections shouted their oaths, consolidating an impenetrable defensive wall.

A rigid and unbreakable barrier.

At the core of said position, the commander of the Black Armor Company raised his gaze. Distancing himself from his usual procedure, this time he did not prepare to engage in a direct hand-to-hand confrontation at the front.

On the contrary, acting in the manner of the more traditional court sorcerers, he measured distances with absolute coldness while remaining sheltered by the armored infantry.

“Weapons of mass destruction.”

Leaving aside any restriction of imperial legislation, Dale pronounced those words with a muffled voice.

However, he was not invoking a manifestation of devastating “magic.” He was referring to a real armament. It was an exercise of mental focus to project with absolute clarity the design in his thoughts. Expressed in mystical terms, it was equivalent to a mage’s spell.

A technical procedure to structure a precise representation and amplify in that way the destructive capacity from the logical understanding of the artifact.

Mass extermination armaments. Conventionally, that classification encompasses devices of an atomic, chemical, and bacteriological nature. Nevertheless, if the past were reviewed, there was an indisputable pioneer under this concept.

The path of humanity is defined by its armed conflicts. The progress of civilization advances driven by the engines of war.

And in that chronology of confrontations, the first device of large-scale extermination that they managed to master.

“Gatling variant, 20 mm caliber.”

An invocation based on engineering principles unknown to the inhabitants of this reality.

Behind Dale, the darkness began to stir, modeling the profiles of multiple muzzles. Pitch-black cannons. And the manifestation was not limited to a single unit.

Those dark cylinders pointed directly toward the enemy battalions that were approaching at high speed.

“All of those who are stationed in front of me.”

Dale indicated in a slow whisper.

“Clear the area immediately.”

“Commander’s directives! Rows one and two! Make way to the sides!”

“Fall back to the flanks now!”

At the officer’s instruction, the vanguard of the heavily armored infantry echoed the command in unison.

The troops loyal to Dale. This not only implied that they were private warriors under his direction, but that they constituted a military corps designed specifically to complement and maximize Dale’s abilities.

A force structured to the millimeter to mimic its leader’s strategic approach.

Obeying Dale’s order, the vanguard infantry began a fast lateral retreat movement.

“Have they gone mad?”

A short distance from the cavalry onslaught impacting, the wall of heavy-armored infantry divided to the sides, leaving the enemy leader exposed and without apparent shelter in the center of the lines. Count Robert was unable to hide his bewilderment.

He had knowledge that Dale of Saxony, the head of the Black Armor Company, possessed the faculty to fire high-lethality magic projectiles. Nevertheless, facing such a massive horsemen onslaught, assuming the loss of a few units was a perfectly assumable cost.

The real danger lay in the collective panic before death, which tended to spread uncontrollably. As long as his ranks were mentally prepared to assimilate that impact, there was no reason to fear the Black Armor Company’s general.

Prior to the start of hostilities, Count Robert had taken it upon himself to engrave that premise in the mood of his combatants again and again. With that firm resolution, the mercenary horsemen corps charged full out, ready to face the danger.

“After all, the celebrated ‘Black Prince’ lacks the necessary experience, he is nothing more than a boy,” he assumed internally.

This confrontation was fully in his favor. Before the opponent’s tactical misstep, he maintained the absolute certainty of reaping a crushing triumph.

As a native inhabitant of this medieval environment, he lacked any means to decipher the concept behind the expressions “Gatling style” or “20 mm” expressed by Dale.

Behind Dale, a series of dark-colored cannons extended their muzzles. However, assimilating the implicit meaning of the “mass destruction” that emanated from those devices did not require previous technical knowledge, regardless of the existential plane in which one found oneself.