War of Eale plane, day two,
The whole army of the empire was arranging themselves in neat arrays on the plane of Eale. Each and every one of them was excited after the victory of the first day. Kinoya was in the middle of it but there was no sign of the general anywhere near to him.
"Never go before me and always stay in the formation."
"Don't worry sergeant, we can handle it. "
"And we will protect you." With Drow's words, the whole squad broke into laughter. Kinoya got used to the occasional jester of his squad mates. He felt happy about having someone to laugh with.
The drum started to beat. The strategy of the second day for the empire was rather simple, fight and fight until you win. With the success of the first-day strategy, the commander-in-chief was able to bring down the number difference to none. So he was now using the straight forward methods.
And with the loss of 60,000 cavalries on the first day Torria's army have to depend on the infantry. With the drum ringing from both side the infantry charged at each other. Kinoya controlled the speed in such a way that they won't be the first one to crash in each other.
Lucky for him he had taught the squad a simple arrow formation on their way to Eale from Naylos. If it was any other day, his squad members wouldn't have used it. But seeing the performance Kinoya on the first day they were more willing to carry out the order. Soon enough the formation showed its effect. With constant rotation between themselves, there was not much pressure on them. With Kinoya's leading they didn't dive too much in the enemy line.
But the life in the war wasn't couldn't be so smooth after all. First, they met the hammer carrying guy. Kinoya knew he wouldn't able to beat him if he stayed in the formation. So he broke out, and that was the decision that he was going to regret all his life. He put Drow, who was also a dual swordsman, in-charge of the formation and went to fight the hammer guy.
The guy swung the hammer at him without hesitation but Kinoya didn't try to take the hit head-on. Using [Subtle Movement] he escaped the hammer and aimed for his heart. But the guy was more agile than he thought.
He used his hammers weight to pull himself out of the path of the sword and swung the hammer horizontally. Kinoya ducked and move behind the leg and cut the Achilles tendon.
Then he was just dead meat, without the support of his leg he couldn't control the hammer well. In his last desperate struggle, he jumped toward Kinoya to catch him but missed. Without hesitation, he plunged the short scimitar through his heart.
It felt much easier than fighting the bandits. The squad formation was a little distance away from him. He was trying to go close to it, but the number of enemies that was getting him increased a lot. Even before he could take any breath the formation went out of sight.
In the formation, the fighting was much easier. Without proper knowledge, it was hard for Drow to manoeuvre the formation. The only thing they can do was go straight, and unknowing to them they went deep into the enemy formation.
On the other hand not knowing the problem of his squad Kinoya continued to fight. It was not that he wanted to but it was where his inexperienced kicked in. He was marked by the enemy, he didn't have any lack of opponents. And Kinoya didn't know how to escape the markings so he continued to fight. With his endurance stats awakened he had no problems at all. But more he fought harder it became for him to escape the marking.
"Major Oita have taken the head of the enemy commander." The voice thundered through the battlefield. For a moment the whole army plunged into silence, which was followed by utter chaos.
The first thing Kinoya saw was the army of Torria turned and ran out of the battlefield. The second thing was empire army who was chasing. Kinoya followed the suits.
'There was more than 50,000 soldiers of Torria present, it is impossible that there was just one commander. Even if there is it should be someone as strong as General Akai, not someone who can be taken down by a major.'
While running he saw a commotion in front of him.
What he saw in front of him just confirmed his notion. A Wall, wall of a tower shield. Before he could think of anything he felt some fluctuation of energy behind the enemy line. It was the same as 6 years ago in the plaza.
"There are teleportation circles here." Instinctively he knew it was a magic circle. The old man told him that his magic perception is quite high due to his intelligence. But understanding it doesn't help at all.
of a sudden his danger sense was tingling like crazy and tangled in the army it was hard for him to move at all. He looked up and the pain hit him. An arrow went straight through the right eye. If he didn't jerk his head at the last moment it would have gone straight through his brain. He screamed but there was nothing. The sky was dark with the rain of arrows.
Before anything, he released the short scimitar and took out the round shield from the back. And it rained. It rained like crazy. The sky was dark by the arrow, the ground was by blood, not a shade in view, not a place to hide. Kinoya didn't know when the rain of arrows stopped. He was just crouching there with taut muscle holding the round shield above his head like a marble statue. There were arrows in his eye, in his left thigh and the shoulder. There were only six people left standing out of the 50,000 that charged.
"So this is the war." Those were like the wind from the soul. The arrows have stopped falling, lucky few with arrows lodged in the body giving their last struggles. Some even tried to crawl back, but all in vain. No matter where helooked the squard members were nowhere to be seen.
"It was never beautiful, no wonder people resist war so much. But somehow it is good, good for me. I will live in a battlefield, I will kill them all until I am satisfied…" He was taking the arrows from his body but not a sound of pain came out, he continued to mumble.
[Skill check: [Basic Pain Resistance] acquired]
The mechanical voice had no effect on him. He pulled out all the arrow from the body only the one in the eye was left. He pulled the arrow out with the eye. A shooting pain pierced his brain. Even his [Basic Pain Resistance] wasn't helping at all. He coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Pain is good too. I think I am falling in love with the pain…" he continued to mumble. Kinoya was drunk, drunk in pain. Mixed with the sorrow of losing his squad mates, it was too much for him. He couldn't control his emotions at all. He threw away the arrow and started looking for the scimitar that he had thrown away. He put the shield in his back, looked towards the wall with both the short scimitar in his hand and shouted.
"What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to finish what you have started? Come out, come out and fight me." He shouted at top of his lungs. "If you don't come out I will be coming in…"
Kinoya's word didn't finish before the ground started to tremble. And Kinoya could feel that fluctuation again. The teleportation circle was being activated.
"So you are running away now?" Kinoya couldn't see but a black line formed by the horizon behind him. It slammed at the shield wall and the last thing Kinoya remember was being grabbed by the neck by the last person he saw. It was the silent general under the General Akai, General Vaicus.