The young lieutenant scanned the battlef…massacre-field in front of him and realized, besides his own subordinate who's either dead or heavily injured, there's nothing else and the unknown attacker seems to also have suddenly vanished.
The lieutenant then looked around him, checking the woods and his back to see if the attacker was still there somewhere, but he found nothing. He then said,
"Is it gone? Are we safe?"
The troops around him, the horsemen had been on high alert ever since the start of the unknown attacker assault on the army, and after hearing their lieutenant speaking, they also scanned their surroundings once again, and even after looking left and right for some time, they still didn't see any creature or even anyone who might be responsible for attacking their army.
Looking at the main army, the remaining soldiers realized that there's no one left that was still capable of standing. The soldiers that were still able to move their bodies had already abandoned the army and went back scurrying into the woods.
Although the remaining soldiers knew that abandoning their post is considered a fatal mistake and the ones who did that will be heavily punished when caught, the horsemen can also understand why the soldiers dared to do that despite the severe consequences that they might get when they get back to the camp.
The horsemen themselves are stronger, more experienced soldiers compared to the foot soldiers. While the foot soldiers level average is only at level 10 and some of them even still at level 8 or 9, the horsemen had the average level of level 13, with a few still level 12 and some in level 14 and a small number of them had even reached level 15 and those level 15 are the ones that are capable of standing toe to toe with the kobold warriors from the village.
But the horsemen knew, if they're also in the same position as those soldiers where they didn't even know what had attacked them and how it even attack them, then the only thing they could do is pray to God and hope that they will be fortunate enough to only be crippled and not straight up die from blood loss from having their limbs almost severed.
And with that kind of threat looming over them, then even the horsemen will likely choose to run away as fast and as far as they could. They rather choose to gamble and try to save their own lives despite the military law that prohibits them from doing so.
Because at least being punished for abandoning their post is not a certain death situation like the one they're currently in, which is at the mercy of an unknown something.
The lieutenant's voice soon can be heard shouting from the middle of the encirclement,
"You, hurry up and see if the creature is really gone or not!" he said while pointing at one of the soldiers who had lost his horse earlier at Matthew's initial attack.
The man was standing at the frontmost of the formation along with the other horseless horsemen, and now that the lieutenant had commanded him to walk forward, away from the encirclement, he had to do it.
The man then hesitated for a moment as he looked at his commander's face and he saw the commander's face is just the same as him, filled with confusion and fear, but as the commander glared at him for not moving and complying with his order, the man could only grit his teeth, draw his sword and started to slowly move forward and took his first step.
Each step that the man took, he would stop for a second, looking left and right, before continuing to take another step forward. Even though he had already gritted his teeth and strengthened his resolve, the man's body is still visibly shaking from holding his urges to just start running away as far as possible from the place.
The man was about to take another step, closer to what used to be the main army and literally using his life as an indicator to see whether the unseen attacker is still among them. But when he had only just lifted up his foot, he heard another scream. And this time, it's not from the middle of the army, instead, it's from his back where the rest of his comrades are still holding down the encirclement to protect the commander's life.
The man then quickly turned his head and saw that 2 of his comrades that were standing at the frontmost layer of the encirclement had fallen to the ground while the third one was still standing despite the claw marks on his left thigh slowly exuding blood.
Although the horsemen are considerably stronger than the ordinary soldiers, just right now, 2 of them are taken out of the fight in a blink of an eye.
And still without anyone knowing how it happened, despite it having just happened right in front of the 48 other horsemen's eyes.
Soon, other screams were heard as 2 other men from the other side of the circle had also been taken down while the other horsemen were still confused about the first attack.
The 5 men that were attacked were all the horsemen who had lost their horses, and now that 4 of them are incapable of fighting, the remaining 3 men who had also lost their horses earlier hurriedly stuck close to each other to defend themselves.
But their preparation seemed to have been for naught as suddenly, the man in the middle fell down as if his leg were pulled by something, and he was dragged away from the other two men. And when the pulling force finally stopped, the man suddenly felt a stinging pain on his left foot.
The man was about to jerk his body up and wanted to clutch his left foot, but he suddenly felt something had pushed his body back down to the ground as if he was being stepped on by someone.
With him being level 14, the man could easily resist the weight on his chest, but because of the fear and shock, he couldn't think of doing anything and just let whatever it is standing on his chest without giving any retaliation.
Fortunately for the man, the weight on his chest soon disappeared after only a few seconds, but before he could even sigh with relief, he was shocked once again as he saw that his sword that had fallen to the ground had suddenly floated up by itself and started moving on its own.
He saw the sword swiftly swinging left and right, up and down, then diagonally, it moved freely as if the sword had just been given a life and is now celebrating the fact that it could move on its own.
And the man is not the only one seeing the sword moving around excitedly in the air, as all the soldiers including the lieutenant also saw the sword literally flying around right in front of their eyes.
Some of them were scared, some were confused, but most of them were confused as their eyes were wide open and their jaws dropped without even them realizing. But their differing emotions and reactions soon unified as they saw that the sword had suddenly stopped moving and now the sharp tip of the sword was pointing straight at them.
Without the chance to react, the sword moved swiftly and in a flash, it had cut through the thighs of both the remaining 2 men and left them on the ground also clutching their legs just like the other soldiers.
The sword movement was whip-like as it had cut the two legs horizontally using only one swift movement without giving the 2 men any chance of retaliating. And with that last attack, all the horsemen who had lost their horses except the one who was sacrificed to test the waters are already incapacitated and unable to fight anymore.
The sword was now back flying, and all the soldiers could see that there's not even a stain of blood on the sword because of how fast it had moved and cut through the 2 men's thighs. The sword then slowly turned to the other direction and slowly moved towards the last remaining soldier who was forced to check the situation earlier and hovered right in front of the man's eyes.
The man was startled beyond common sense that even seeing a flying sword with its sharp edge right in front of his face, he could only stare at it while his body was stuck there without moving at all.
The sword then went up a little before going back down again as if it was sighing, then it slowly moved downward and lightly poked the man left thigh, causing a slight pain that finally took him out of his daze as the man began to turn around and run as fast as he could as if he was being chased by death while screaming at the top of his lungs.
With how bizarre the scene in front of them, the soldiers were also initially startled still as they only silently watched the events unfold, but after they saw and heard the last remaining soldier running and screaming for his life, they're finally woken up from their shock as they all began to draw their swords and prepared themselves to fight against the single flying sword.
But after scaring the one remaining horseless horseman away, the sword stabbed itself onto the ground before it completely stopped moving.