From the Rykenta camp came waves of confusion and groans.

“Calling Down Lightning?!”

“A Blue Knight! It’s really a Blue Knight!”

“So he’s different from those half-trained ones who only use Chain Discharge or weapon imbuement. A Blue Knight is still a Blue Knight after all?”

“Launch the lightning-rod kites! Prepare for precision lightning sniping!”

Tension crept across the navigators’ faces.

“Lady Erica. Perhaps you should take cover for now?”

Even Erica, who had been composed, bit down on her lower lip.

Calling Down Lightning was a burden even for her.

“Raise more lightning-rod kites. I do not retreat.”

But she did not step back.

Ten thousand troops.

Thousands of mutated beasts.

Hundreds of knights and dozens of navigators.

A force that could raze even a major march to ashes.

No matter how strong a single Blue Knight might be, they could not allow themselves to be cowed.

Kyrie rode forward, passing Tynus’s corpse.

“Who among you will stand before me?”

A thunderous shout.

The Rykenta navigators accepted reality quickly.

That one-eyed Blue Knight was genuine.

He could not be beaten by swords alone.

“At that level, even simple Chain Discharge or Guided Bolts would be lethal. Close combat is a poor choice.”

“But Lady Erica cannot show weakness before the troops. We are ten thousand. Ten thousand!”

Lightning arts favored single combat.
Wind arts favored many-against-one.

But in direct clashes between navigator and Blue Knight, navigators generally held the advantage.

Ironically, that was because lightning arts were more efficient in combat.

With body enhancement and neural acceleration authority, one could display monstrous performance in bursts.

With a mana amount insufficient to qualify as a navigator, one could still become a Blue Knight through lightning arts.

Naturally, their average quality was lower.

“I’ll handle this on my own authority.”

“…Very well. It is shameful, but we cannot afford to lose more precious navigators.”

Thus, most navigators looked down on ordinary Blue Knights.

Kyrie was different.

Therefore, the method of dealing with him had to be different.

“Rain down the repeating ballista bolts! We will avenge Sir Tynus!”

A navigator issued a self-authorized order to his own unit.

“Prepare to fire!”

“Fire!”

“F-fire!”

Over three hundred repeating ballista crew pulled their triggers at once.

Fweeeeeeeee!

Hundreds of wind-blessed bolts poured toward Kyrie.

For a moment, the sky itself seemed to darken.

Beyond them, Kyrie saw the lightning-rod kites rising higher across the enemy camp.

I’ve succeeded in forcing their command to hunker down. And seeing them fire the repeating ballista, they won’t be sending another champion yet. At least I won’t be mocked for charging out boldly and returning too soon.

He immediately turned his horse around.

“Hah!”

He focused entirely on his lightning-sense biological radar.

Fweeee—shhhh!

The falling bolts appeared to him as pale outlines.

Each one could easily pierce padded lamellar armor.

There. They’re starting to become visible.

If one were to get hit, anyway.

Kyrie swept the Sky-Shard Cloak up over his head.

The blue cloak billowed like cold flame, batting aside the bolts.

“Hah—hahaha!”

He returned to the Astreos lines without a single bolt striking him.

“Who fired the repeating ballista without my order!”

The moment Kyrie cleared their range, Erica reprimanded the navigator.

“My apologies. I could not simply watch my brother-in-arms Sir Tynus die…”

The navigator lowered his head exactly as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“The battle is urgent. Responsibility will be assigned later.”

That was how armies functioned.

Quick reaction. The Astreos knights are used to avoiding arrows with biological radar, but his range is far wider.

Even amid that brief performance, Erica analyzed him.

He only uses Wind Lance to strike.

She flicked her hand again, recreating the pipe whistle signal with wind.

Fweeeeeee!

Mutated beasts began crawling out of the brush on Rykenta’s left and Astreos’s right.

I returned to the Astreos camp.

One repeating-ballista bolt was lodged in my saddle.

They’re fast. Not impossible to see, but too many at once to react cleanly. If I try to track every bolt with biological radar, the neural load will spike.

In the melee, I would have to watch for stray shots.

“Sir Kyrie! That was incredible! A lightning strike that splits eras!”

“It really was Calling Down Lightning. I’ve only heard of it, never seen it.”

“They’re trembling behind their lightning-kites. Let me go and cut down all those kite-strings, and you can roast their commander to a crisp!”

As soon as I returned, knights swarmed around me in excitement.

Are they trying to shake off fear, or are they truly impressed? Hard to say.

I wasn’t self-deluded.

But seeing Nereus in the distance, clenching his jaw and trembling, made me think perhaps the latter was true.

“Of course that’s the plan.”

I answered automatically and checked the army’s condition.

The soldiers looked visibly steadier.

Artillery crews, shield infantry, heavy infantry, and spearmen were properly arranged; palisades and horse-pikes set in place.

“Prepared and ready, sir. We’ll ram lightning right up those windy bastards’ backsides.”

Joy approached and saluted.

“You’re the best.”

Returning the salute, I rode out again.

In the Empire of Stars, the supreme commander is also the foremost warrior.

Personally, I think it’s absurdly inefficient. But there is no alternative.

Why would a Blue Knight obey someone weaker?

Fweeee!

The pipe whistle sounded from Rykenta’s side.

Mutated beasts crawled from the brush ahead.

Orcs with mouths on their bellies, multi-headed goblins, ogres with extra arms sprouting from their backs, lycaons with scorpion tails, double-tailed drakes…

And others so warped their original forms were unrecognizable.

“…This is bad.”

“Kyrie.”

Nereus called to me.

“I’ll take them.”

In his blazing blue-green eyes, I saw many things.

Pride, competitiveness, refusal to simply follow my lead.

Duty — he could not allow my crucial censer-bearing retainers to be spent here.

And, above all, a vision of the future: breaking through the mutated beasts, driving into Rykenta’s flank, and winning the battle.

They were the eyes of a Blue Knight.

“Go.”

I sent him with one word.

Nereus charged out with his fellow Blue Knights, the brothers Procus and Epicus, the heavy cavalry Blue Knights, and the knights and soldiers under him.

I want to cry.

Our 5,000 troops were now split into 3,000 and 2,000.

But crying won’t change anything.

Now I had 3,000 to face their 10,000.

“Sir! They’re advancing!”

Joy shouted.

Rykenta’s navigators were moving forward, each leading a group of knights, censer-bearers, and retainers.

“Are we ready?”

“Yes, sir. Ready.”

Joy nodded.

I glanced back.

Behind the artillery, in the safest position, were roughly three hundred knights, censer-bearers, and retainers.

Peijin, silver-haired, lowered the visor of his black helm and gave me a final thumbs-up.

“Then that’s enough.”

If we could hold until they entered, we would win.

If we failed to hold until then, we would lose.

I forced myself to find some comfort.

At least we’ll die like Astreos should.

Running meant dying anyway. So we would fight to the end.

A death the Star of Thunderclap would approve.

Some comfort… barely.

Still, if my refusal to break heartened the soldiers, then good.

I received a cavalry lance from Joy.

Frey, Tanzen, Daniel, Hensonia, and other Border Patrol Blue Knights rode to my side.

Augusta the Spear, Melik the Versatile, Viten the Bulwark, and many others formed up.

Like the navigators ahead, each Blue Knight led several knights and dozens of auxiliaries.

“The Star of Thunderclap watches us.”

Cavalry formed into triangular wedges.

These formations were called lances.

I stood at the foremost tip of the central lance, lowering my cavalry spear toward the enemy.

“Like lightning, everlasting. Let this battle remain in the memory of the great Constellation — and in our own.”

It began.

Contrary to common belief, cavalry did not charge at full speed from the start.

We approached at a slow walk, then trotted, then accelerated, and only at the final moment — full sprint for the clash.

Our preparations followed that rhythm.

“Neural acceleration!”

Electric sparks raced along my nervous system.

Focus so sharp I felt I could count each strand of my horse’s mane.

“Neural acceleration!”

Frey echoed behind me.

“Body enhancement!”

“Body enhancement!”

Lightning flared along the spine.

Strength that could lift a log became enough to uproot an ancient tree.

“Biological radar!”

“Biological radar!”

Everything within 1.2 kilometers appeared as pale outlines.

Like a chessboard laid out in my mind.

The other Blue Knights could not match my range, but it would be enough to avoid blind arrows.

“Imbuement!”

“Imbuement!”

Colored sparks crawled along our lances.

The navigators were now close enough that I could see the crests painted on their armor.

My opponent would be the one in green armor.

Strangely, he wore full plate except for his footwear — only leather sandals.

One relief: no need to fear high-tier wind magic now.

There was no time to cast a large-area spell capable of wiping out a lance formation.

And targeting only one Blue Knight would invite death from the others behind him.

Thus, in this moment, only cold steel would decide.

The green-armored navigator closed the distance.

A whirlpool of wind curled around his spear.

Wind-King Armor protected his body and weapon seamlessly.

I accelerated my neural firing further and thrust my lance.

The world slowed as though a second had been divided into a hundred pieces.

His wind-wrapped lance and my lightning-charged one crossed.

I pushed upward with my shoulder.

Crack-crack-crack!

My lance caught under his breastplate and bent.

Warhorses collided.

CRASH!

My lance broke — and the navigator’s body flew.

The imbuement of lightning burst against his Wind-King Armor.

“Graaah!”

He was hurled into the air and smashed to the ground.

A horse trampled over him as it passed.

“Kill him!”

“Free Tempest!”

“Star of Thunderclap!”

Was he dead?

I didn’t know.

Even with accelerated cognition, there was no room to think about it.

“The one-eyed Blue Knight!”

“Take his head!”

“For Sir Tynus!”

Rykenta’s knights, censer-bearers, and retainers thrust their spears toward me.

Strength enough to pierce both steel breastplate and a Blue Knight’s flesh.

I channeled mana into the enchanted gauntlet Coward’s Grip and invoked Dominance.

Wuuuuuuuun—wuuuuuuuun—wuuuuuuuun—wuuuuuuuun!

“Hrrrrriiiiiiih!”

High-frequency electromagnetic shock terrified the horses and froze the riders’ bodies.

Shhhh-KRAANG!

I drew the Storm-Flash greatsword and struck wide, cutting two spears apart and knocking another aside.

Breakthrough. And breakthrough again. And again.

I swung the blade many times.

Finally, the far end of the Rykenta lance formation came into view.

Chapter 69

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