Episode 87: Relic Convoy (2)
‘Zerea of Twilight’.
Before becoming a Holy Grail Knight of Fleur, the goddess of dreams and death, he had to go through a long period of training.
There are two paths given to those who prove themselves through the wandering period as a pilgrim knight and become a kingdom knight.
Will you continue to serve in the Kingdom Army and spend the days of honorable battles as War Knight’s direct knights, or will you go on a journey without promise as an attendant and aim for the Holy Grail Knight?
Of course, not everyone who became an acolyte knight could become a Holy Grail Knight.
At the end of the journey, only the selected attendants were able to receive a ‘quest’ from the gods, and even those who succeeded were rare.
This was the reason why the Holy Grail Knights couldn’t find their successors and kept their positions for hundreds of years before finally ascending to heaven.
Usually, within 20 years, the quest was received, and the quest was completed within 5 years.
If he didn’t even receive the quest, he would feel his own insufficiency and return to the kingdom as a knight.
But Zereah Vertum. He hadn’t received a quest from any god for nearly 50 years.
He went out to the sea to surf and hunted monsters, and participated in the war knight’s conquest of orcs, cutting off the supply and demand of hundreds of orcs.
He willingly subdued bandits for the people on the border suffering from plundering by the barbarians, and prayed to the sky at the temple on top of the thundering mountain.
His practice went from awe to ridicule, from ridicule to pity.
“Hey man, wouldn’t it have been nice if you had done that? How can you be so stubborn when the gods don’t respond because you’re not enough?”
It was when he was running as a mercenary for the Empire to raise money for his training.
He became a Kingdom Knight at the same time, and was commanding a thousand knights as a proud Lionheart’s War Knight.
At the age of fifteen, he wandered the world for ten years as a pilgrim knight, another ten years fulfilling his duties as a kingdom knight, and fifty years as an ascetic.
Despite floating so much, he couldn’t even receive the quests of the gods.
It was because only the superhumans who were qualified to receive the quest were left in the history of human history.
He was an excellent knight, but he was not a superman who changed the face of the battlefield alone.
Reckless, ignorant, ignorant.
The woman of a worse dream appeared in Zereah’s dream and said.
[Ah. Yes, why do you wander endlessly on the road of hardship? The pantheon knows your sincerity. Go back and be loyal to the kingdom.]
Zereah realized that the woman in his dream was a divine being, but he politely rejected it.
“Lady, blame me for my inadequacies, but please do not deny me my journey to honor.”
It is your right to choose, but it is your right to challenge yourself.
Zereah left the training again.
He walked through mud that no noble knight would approach, his hands always stained with blood, even though bards sing dishonor to his stupidity.
He became a Holy Grail Knight only when he reached the age of 100, and was the youngest of all Holy Grail Knights to awaken.
* * * *
The canyon that separates the border between the Empire and the northern barbarians is called the Valley of Death and is a respected area.
A narrow entrance, roads diverging as you go down inside, and native monsters overflowing in between. When you reach the end, it is said to be close to the border of the empire, but the danger of going there is too great.
Nevertheless, there was one reason why Zereah made this place a retreat.
throat.
Under attack by orcs and barbarians, Zereah organized a dummy convoy of fast-footed cavalry to buy time and block the canyon to prevent full-scale pursuit.
The pursuers who flew by air or found a detour could not do anything about it, but most of the troops were blocked at this narrow entrance.
“In front of the shield wall! Wait for the axemen!”
Orc crushers move like machines at the command of Beverly’s company commander.
Armed with shields and swords, each of them flaunts an orc skull ornament and sends a ferocious gaze.
-WHAAAAAAAAA────!!
The green beasts show off their heavy weight and charge. The shield wall was able to withstand their collision.
“Shoot the axemen!”
The axemen hiding between the shield soldiers skillfully cut off the wrists of the orcs and slashed their heads. Thoroughly efficient mechanical movement.
A whistle sounded as the soldiers executed two orcs each.
– Beep! Beep!
A gap in the shield wall opens at the sound of Company Captain Beverly’s whistle. Taking advantage of the collapse of the bodies of the orcs, the line retreated to a space where the shield walls were sufficiently secured.
The second row turned into the first row, and the whistle sounded again.
– Beep!
Then, the repetition of the workshop. 1st row blocks, 2nd row stabs. Again, the first row alternates with the back row, and the second row takes the place of the first row.
Even if it looks simple, is it possible to move without error in a crowded battlefield?
The orc crushers, who lacked strength and physique, were skillfully butchering orcs, treating them like dogs in their own yard.
‘strong… It’s a problem before power. The combat power as a group is on a different level!’
Han Soo-ho, who was ordered to stand by, couldn’t help but admire the great performance of the Baltaric Orc Crusher Corps.
In the meantime, even the soldiers of the pantheon are this many people who were D-class? I admired it.
They fought pretty well for something that was a D-class. It was enough to play a pivotal role in any small or medium guild raiding party.
Even so, when I found out that Leon’s expectations were not met, I was a little dumbfounded.
-Aren’t they conscripts from peasants in the Middle Ages? Let’s fight well… … .
However, all members of the Lionheart Kingdom army are professional soldiers. In addition, it is natural to grow up eating blessed crops from birth, and the combat experience is incomparable to modern hunters.
They are masters of group warfare, and war specialists who move the entire corps like a single machine.
Their bravery and collective combat power can be said to be the highest peak.
“It’s a troll! Here comes the rock troll!”
Soldiers grab pikes at the cry of the lead soldier.
But a troll weighs well three times that of an orc. No matter how much the Baltaric Corps exhibits defensive power several times its own mass, formation collapse is unavoidable.
“Knights! Geochang!!”
Leon’s voice rang out. When Leon’s voice resounded behind the Baltaric army, the two-winged knights and commoner cavalry raised their spears.
Among them, Han Su-ho and Kim Jae-hyeok were excluded for the reason of ‘lack of horsemanship’.
“Where the hell are you going to charge?”
Suho and Jaehyuk questioned that.
The Baltarak Corps had blocked the narrow entrance.
These herpes may be absolutely advantageous for defense, but they cannot be used flexibly. There was no land for the cavalry to run right away.
“Charge!”
Nevertheless, Leon ordered a cavalry charge without hesitation. So, without the slightest hesitation, I started running—
“Ah, you’re attacking our allies’ rear?!”
“Dangerous!”
While the two cadets were astonished, 20 fighters each from the left wing and the right wing. A total of 40 cavalrymen galloped dizzyingly towards the rear of the Baltaric Corps.
In the dizzying moment right before attacking the rear of the allies, the two realized what ‘sufficient cavalry’ was to them.
– Knock!
The first start is Sir Zereah at the forefront. He twisted the reins and ran toward the steep wall of the canyon right next to the Baltaric Corps.
A reckless attempt that would turn you into a jabbu if you ran into a wall with this kind of reckless sprinting. But Lionheart’s warhorses are no ordinary warhorses.
– Hee hee!
Knock! A black horse spurring the ground and stepping up the wall. It soon started to ‘run’ up the wall.
A miraculous moment that seems to defy gravity at first glance. But that’s not the case. The horse is just running before falling off the wall it climbed.
And this miracle was being done by all the horses that followed.
“I’m sorry…!”
“Run!”
Warhorses willingly run up the canyon wall, believing in their comrades who have shared their joys and sorrows for decades. The cavalry that ran on the wings of Baltaric’s corps passed them in an instant–
– Chur?
The trolls rushed at them with vicious eyes.
“Pick and press!”
When Zereah called out, his horse responded and kicked the wall. Mounted horses attack the trolls in the air with the acceleration from sprinting and the moment they spur the wall.
That figure was literally flying in the dry sky. Twelve trolls were pierced through the whole body by lances that slammed down from the air.
“Mi, crazy people! Hit it!”
“Damn it!”
While the Orcs were frightened, they charged with their axes. They bravely rushed at the leading kingdom knight, but the fire from the knight’s lance came first.
“Be reduced to ashes by the holy flame!!”
A roaring fire. Like a laser blast, spiral-shaped flames poured down in a straight line.
Orcs touched by the spiral flames were turned to ashes without delay, leaving no bone fragments, and the flames spread in all directions.
“Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…!”
“Boo, fire!”
While the orcs panicked at the flames, the knights finished off the trolls, leaving their corpses as obstacles, and climbed the walls back behind the infantry.
“Great, great…”
The combat power of the foot soldiers alone was astonishing, but the knights were on a completely different level.
Unsurprisingly, the Lionheart Kingdom was at least one step higher in the same rank than the Hunters on the modern Earth.
Indeed, this is enough to make Leon not happy with the knight cadets and trainees.
The war knight who moved this level of elite, corps unit, was Leon. How low-level did they seem to him?
“I-I can block it forever at this rate, right?”
Everyone would think that way when they saw the mountains of monster corpses piled up in front of them.
“Don’t be vigilant. They haven’t even started in earnest yet.”
At Leon’s approach, Jae-hyeok realized why Leon didn’t step forward. He is hiding his power.
The Lion Heart King itself is a weapon of super power. Unless it’s a real crisis, I’ll quietly aim for the right time.
“Still, even if there is a ‘quest’, wouldn’t His Majesty need to be here?
“…”
Leon didn’t answer and recalled the ‘system message’ reported by Jaehyuk, the Awakener.
[Help Lord Zereah of Twilight escort the holy relic to the Lionheart border.]
-Additional Mission: Defend Sir Zereah’s main unit to the end.
This gate serves two purposes.
The first is to escort the real convoy of the five torn relics to the border.
Second, support Zerea and the Baltaric Corps, who blocked the canyon for the convoy, and defend the holy relic convoy.
In terms of simple efficiency, it would be appropriate to abandon Zereah and pursue the relic convoy.
If it was Leon, he would be able to chase them by flying through the sky with Stallion.
But Leon chose to stay. The reason was simple.
First, I believed that someone who scattered the relic convoy would do it,
The second is because I wanted to watch the honorable Holy Grail Knight until the very end.
“Han Soo-ho, Kim Jae-hyeok. Did Jim check early?”
“Yep! I checked the corpses of the orcs, but there were no magic stones anywhere!”
No magic stones are found in this gate. But there are no survivors either.
This is because all the knights and soldiers here are receiving the rewards of an honorable life in paradise.
‘The gate’s quest is also not biased.’
In the meantime, some gate quests were hiding their intentions. In particular, the quest to defeat the Holy Grail Knight, Geobrick, and the stone statue of Rakshaar were blatant.
But in this gate, I don’t feel that kind of manipulation. It is purely presenting its own strategy based on this historical event.
Are the gates neutral? Are the quests that appear at the gate neutral?
Then why have the gates so far been so partial and malicious?
‘The gate itself is neutral. But the quest… Can the system be manipulated by demons?’
On the first try, quite a few inferences were possible. Try a few more times and you’ll come to a good conclusion.
“Han Soo-ho and Kim Jae-hyeok. You two check the gorge to the rear to see if there are any other cadets——”
It was then. Something flashes and rushes fiercely at Leon.
– Kaang!
Leon swung his sword and deflected it. But the trembling of that weight was transmitted to his fingertips.
“…”
What was thrown at Leon was a spear. that also fell from the sky. Leon’s gaze turned to the air.
“Clack cluck…!”
A wild boar-like beast with malformed, twisted fangs spread its hideous huge wings and carried an orc on its back.
A flying beast Bonecrusher that only warchief level orcs can ride.
Atop a flying monster born as a crossbreed of a terrible orc spell, a promiscuously tattooed orc was holding a spear.
It must have been a javelin thrown at Leon.
“Dirty green beast… using a ranged weapon?”
And that made the Lion Heart King very uncomfortable.
