“Men!!! Form up on me!!” Krieg yelled his orders from the top of his lungs. Right now, his priority was to gather enough men and form a unit before he could do anything. After all, as strong as they were, a single knight could not impact the entire battlefield.

  Blaam!!! Blaam!!! Blaam!!!

  But the rain of cannon fire drowned out his voice. None of his men could hear his order in this chaos. He was just recently appointed to this company. There was no trust nor discipline built yet. Krieg looked around, looking for his lieutenant. Unlike him, the lieutenant had been part of the company since the beginning of the campaign. He would be able to regroup the men better.

  Krieg found the lieutenant, unfortunately, he was already dead. Torn to pieces by cannon fire. With no other choice, Krieg decided to use [Kingspeak], a simple magic that was commonly used by kings and commanders— a spell that made one voice reverberate through a large area, perfect for making speeches to a large crowd, or making orders in the chaos of cannon fire. There was a risk however, the enemies could also hear him - making him an easy target.

  Krieg activated his [Kingspeak], he poured mana into his vocal chord and thought of a simple magical formula in his mind to activate it.

  “MEN FORM U-”

  Before he could finish his order, Krieg heard and saw something terrifying.

  Whiirz Blak Clack

  A chain, flying toward his direction. Everything it touches was cut in half. Trees, horses, and even humans. Torsos flying around and trees falling down on those who were fortunate enough not to touch the chain. Krieg could tell that the chain was a magical weapon, one of the highest quality, worthy of a legend.

  Krieg wanted to crouch, but he was still shellshocked from the earlier cannon fire that landed near him. So instead he decided to block it. He covered his longsword in [Aura], a technique all knights must possess, where one covered their weapon with their own mana until it became visible to the naked eye. Strengthening the weapon while also making it more deadly. There were many ways to use [Aura], but this time, Krieg was using it defensively.

  Not only [Aura], he also covered his body in [Iron body] and activated all the defensive magic he could cast in that short time. He did all of that in 0.4 seconds. Then — Impact.

  The chain hit him, splitting his sword in two. His expensive armor, layered with defensive runes, scattered into pieces. His [Iron body] prevented his body from meeting the same fate as his sword, but it did not prevent his internal organs from being squeezed by the force of the impact.

  Krieg flew for hundreds of meters and crashed spectacularly. If he wasn’t a knight, he would have died a dog’s death.

  Krieg was losing his consciousness, but before he did, he saw who was the holder of the chain.

  A small boy, probably only ten years old, clad in ornamental black armor. His hair and eyes were gold and his skin was greyish, a sign that he was a half-Taon. On his right hand, a coffin-like object, bigger than the boy. On his left hand, the damn chain. Gold in color but covered with red blood.

  That boy was Odyssus.

  The ten-years old son of Empress Rosa, a woman shunned by the Imperial court due to her Taon heritage - and rumor of infidelity. A dirty woman and her dirty offspring, undeserving of the Azalian throne. Yet here Krieg was, lying on the dirt, with no strength to even crawl away.

  Odyssus approached ever slowly. He raised his right arm, from the coffin-like object, he fired a giant Iron stake, slaughtering everything in its path. It was not a coffin - it was a hand cannon. Must be a magical weapon just like his chain.

  Krieg’s consciousness was fading in and out. He coughed up a lot of blood, his intestines were badly damaged. Now, Odyssus stood before him. Krieg’s life was in his hand. ‘This is it,’ Krieg thought to himself.

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  However, Odyssus chose to humiliate him instead. Odyssus ignored Krieg. He was not worth his time, A knight such as Krieg, was not even worth killing with his own hand. Instead, Odyssus chose to focus his energy on slaughtering the remaining army. Odyssus walked past the groveling Krieg.

  Krieg was filled with anger. He wanted to rise up and strike Odyssus from the back. However, he had no power left in his body. Finally his consciousness faded and left him.

  **********

  “Ready your weapon!” ordered John. D’aka pulled out all three of his blades, Cooper readied his flintlock and double-checked his dagger on his belt. Eda, Grigori, and Azali prepared nothing.

  “You got no weapons?” asked John. “I got an empty flintlock.” said Grigori, showing off his looted flintlock. “Damn it. Here!” John threw two satchels towards Grigori. He caught it and opened the satchels, inside were gunpowder and some musket balls. There was one problem however … Grigori didn’t know how to load them.

  “Uuuhmm…” Grigori wanted to ask the older kids how to use them, but they were already climbing the building next to Burhan’s hideout. So he looked at Eda for an answer instead, “How do I load this?”

  “Uuuhm…” Eda also didn’t know. “You put the ball inside… I guess?” Grigori put the ball inside. “Then what do you do with this?” He showed Eda the satchel filled with gunpowder. “Uuuuhm”, Eda put her finger inside the satchel, then she licked it. She immediately regretted it. “Definitely don’t eat them. Just put them inside the hole.”

  “Huh” Grigori poured all the gunpowder inside the flintlock. “All good.” Eda, Grigori, and Azali all proud that they loaded their first bullet. “Let’s go” they followed the older kids. As they ran, all the gunpowder and the bullet poured out from inside the flintlock.

  They loaded jack shit.

  From the building next door, the kids parkoured their way inside the hideout. Entering from a second floor window. “C’mon.” D’aka waited near the window sill, readying himself to catch the younger kids, helping them get inside. Meanwhile John and Cooper were observing the situation from the second floor balcony ledge.

  They could not believe what they saw.

  Pieces of human remains scattered all over, red blood flooded the whole floor, and Krieg struggling to dodge Regulus who was jumping, leaping all over the place.

  “Huurgh”

  Cooper could not hold it any longer. He excused himself from the sight and puked all the food in his system. John could barely hold his gag reflex. Seeing Cooper puking, D’aka tried to hold back the younger kids from seeing whatever was happening downstairs. Even though he had three arms, the three kids slipped past through him, curious of what was happening.

  “Huurgh”

  Curiosity Convulsed the Cat.

  The three immediately excused themselves and puked next to Cooper.

  “Holy Fuck” seeing that sight, D’aka couldn’t help but swear. “Yeah, I guess he didn’t need our help. Good thing you didn’t try to fight him D’aka.” John's entire body was trembling. His mind could not help but imagine what Regulus would do to him if he ever pissed him off.

  “Yeah… good thing.” D’aka looked at Azali. Her cries were the only reason he’s still alive right now.

  “Guys,” Eda approached the two boys. “We should rescue the others while Regulus…” as she said his name, she accidentally looked at the gruesome sight once again. She felt queasy, luckily she already puked out everything in her stomach. “...take care of them.” She said while holding her mouth, in case something came out.

  “Yeah, let’s do that.” Both John and D’aka agreed with Eda's assessment. Regulus did not need their help. As they were standing up …

  BLAAM

  … They heard a loud noise that surprised them. All of them turned their heads to the source of the noise — they couldn’t believe what they saw.

  Regulus sprawled on the floor, helpless—While Krieg held his hair, victorious.

  *********

  Huuf, huuf

  Krieg was breathing heavily. He was never this tired ever since his time as a proper knight. He was so focused, all the neurons in his brain were firing. Time, the world itself moved as it was in slow motion.

  Even though time slowed down for him, the black, hairy, monster still leapt at him at terrifying speed. It took everything he got to dodge all its attacks. Krieg’s feet started to lose their grip. The floor, slippery with all the fresh blood resting on it. Krieg also had to watch out where he put his feet. Many of the floorboards were destroyed from the monster landing on them. One wrong step, he might lose his balance. If that happened, he was as good as dead.

  Haah, hah.

  Krieg was reaching the limit of his stamina. He could not dodge forever. Luckily, the monster movement was simple. All it did was leapt straight at him. Krieg already got its timing down. Double luck, that monster had one glaring weakness…

  … it’s long hair.

  All Krieg needed to do was grab it and he’ll have control of that monster movement.

  Huuuf

  Krieg braced itself. He waited for the perfect timing. Right now, the monster was preparing itself to leap again.

  Braak

  The monster leapt. The force of its jump was so powerful it destroyed the floor it jumped from.

  ‘Here it comes’

  Krieg braced himself. He sidestepped, perfectly avoiding the monster trajectory. As soon the monster passed him, he reached his hand and grabbed the monster's hair.

  Heup

  The momentum of the jump was so powerful it pulled Krieg’s heavy body with it. But Krieg already accounted for that. He maintained his balance, and more importantly, his grip.

  “Got you”

  The monster suspended in mid-air. Without a moment of hesitation, Krieg slammed the monster.

  BLAAM

  He slammed the monster so hard the floorboard splintered into pieces, some of them injuring himself. But the adrenaline helped Krieg ignore the pain. Victory was in his grasp.

  Before the monster can regain his balance, Krieg slammed the monster repeatedly, without mercy.

  BLAAM BLAAM BLAAM

  Victory was his.