The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 153 – First Blood (2)

At that moment, Orca roared a long roar and flew toward the west at a high speed. Seeing this, Pavan clicked his tongue, as if he was upset that he couldn’t tell whether he had injured Horhell heavily enough for him to be killed. At the same time, he bounced off the sword being swung toward him with his bow.

Hela roared with a voice full of rage.

“Pavan, you fucking son of a bitch!”

“You haven’t changed one bit, master.”

Hela slaughtered all the soldiers on the slope with her only hand and ran toward Pavan. The fact that Hela could handle so many soldiers from the capital was quite unbelievable, considering her age and physical condition.

However, Pavan drew the sword hanging at his waist in a calm manner.

“A commander going out of her way to charge against the enemy herself. That’s not quite like you, master.”

“You seem to have changed a lot over the years. I’ll kill you at once!”

Hela couldn’t do much with the rest of her troops blocked by the Capital Army. The only thing she could do was to stop Pavan.

“I don’t want to fight you, but I guess I have no choice. The enemy commander decided to walk right up to me, so how could I miss the perfect opportunity to make contributions to the war, right?”

“Stop talking bullshit and come at me! I can see that your tongue has gotten a lot longer by licking Barth Baltic’s asshole.”

Pavan only laughed upon hearing Hela’s words rather than getting angry. He had heard much worse insults when Hela taught him swordsmanship and tactics in the past.

“Why would I fight with my master in a direct manner?”

Instead of lifting the sword, Pavan lifted his empty left hand. The many archers from the Capital Army who were targeting Hela pulled their bowstrings tightly upon seeing Pavan’s gesture.

“Both you and I have a lot of hands that can do the fighting for us.”

“You son of a…!”

“Shoot.”

Along with Pavan’s command, the arrows left the hands of the soldiers.

***

Horhell couldn’t see clearly, but he could feel the movement of Orca fumbling and trying its best to flap its wings. Horhell fell unconscious numerous times during their long flight. Upon seeing some trees appear here and there, Horhell realized that their altitude was quite low.

Horhell braced himself for the upcoming shock. Orca landed on the plain as if it was falling by spreading its wings as wide as possible in order to prevent Horhell, who was hanging on its back from rolling off. A long trench was left in the ground due to Orca’s body being dragged.

“Well done, Orca… well done.”

It was the second time that they had crashed, but it was still better than the first time they had crashed. Orca wheezed and breathed heavily. It didn’t seem hurt, but looked extremely exhausted due to its injuries and from the long flight. On the other hand, Horhell’s condition was much more critical.

The arrow that pierced Horhell had injured him so badly that he wouldn’t even be able to last ten minutes due to excessive bleeding if it was pulled out recklessly.

‘How long will it take until we get to the Magic Tower? Will I be able to make it?’

Horhell forced his head up and looked for the red pillar of light. The red pillar of light was certainly getting closer, but there was still a considerable amount of distance between it and him.

At that moment, someone appeared here with a loud thud. Horhell opened his weary eyes to look at the opponent who was approaching him. However, he could neither see his opponent well nor hear the opponent’s buzzing voice. But, he could tell that the opponent had black hair.

“Your Majesty,” Horhell opened his mouth, trying to stay conscious. “The Eastern Army is…”

“Don’t worry.”

It was Juan’s voice.

The location where the Eastern Army was stopped by the Capital Army was quite far from the Magic Tower. But Hohell felt relieved as soon as he heard Juan’s voice.

‘The Eastern Army and Duke Henna are safe.’

Horhell had no doubt about his beliefs.

“I’ve already sent someone there,” Juan whispered in Horhell’s ear.

Horhell finally lost consciousness upon hearing Juan’s words.

***

Even before Pavan ordered his subordinates to aim their bows at Hela, Hela knew that the arrows were aimed at her legs rather than her torso.

‘They want to capture me alive and hold me hostage…’

The hostage operation wouldn’t really affect Juan, but it would be more than enough to undermine the Eastern Army’s morale.

However, Hela had no intention of being a nuisance to Juan.

“Go to hell!”

Hela jumped into the rain of arrows flying toward her with the intention of cutting her own throat with a sword once she was pierced by an arrow.

However, she couldn’t move as she wanted—the moment she took a step forward, she felt the view in front of her eyes get distorted.

The black darkness spread even faster than the arrows, and then the dozens of arrows flying toward Hela disappeared into thin air. Hela found this situation to be quite familiar—it was almost like she was suffering from deja vu.

Then, hands wrapped in bandages protruded out of the distorted space in the air in front of her. The bandaged hand broke the remaining arrows at once and then pulled itself out of the distorted space.

The elite soldiers of the Capital Army couldn’t help but be perplexed when they saw a man with bandages wrapped all over his body and wearing a black hood suddenly appear out of nowhere.

A toxic smell of tar and an unidentified black fog also spread out from within the distorted space.

“Who are you?”

The question came from Hela, who was standing behind the man wrapped in bandages and not from Pavan or the Capital Army.

Haild couldn’t look back or answer her. However, he intended to show Hela that he was not an enemy with his actions.

“Miguel, Jose! This way!”

Pavan was the only person who immediately realized just how powerful the newly arrived opponent was. He hastily called over some knights from the Order of the Capital who had come with him.

At the same time, Haild charged toward the Capital Army.

Pavan lost track of Haild for a moment and was only able to see the black light piercing through the Capital Army.

The sword wielded by Haild wasn’t really sharp, since it was wrapped in bandages. The soldiers from the Capital Army standing nearby were flung into the air as if they had been hit with a club. However, Haild’s attack ruptured all of their internal organs and led to their deaths even before they fell back to the ground.

Haild moved through the Capital Army like he was stirring up the fog. Pavan immediately realized that Haild was using the fourth stage of the Baltic Sword.

“All the soldiers, stand back!”

In any case, the main force of the Capital Army was actively holding back the Eastern Army. Pavan knew that a small number of people from the Capital Army would be of no help in a fight against the man wrapped in bandages.

As soon as Miguel and Jose, the knights from the Order of the Capital, arrived, Pavan formed a squad with them in order to attack Haild in unison. The three, who had worked together thousands of times in close combat training, were able to push back Haild right away.

Haild frowned at their unexpectedly powerful retaliation. Miguel and Jose were powerful, but Haild had no problem dealing with the two of them. However, Pavan was not an easy opponent by any means.

‘I thought no one would be a match for me other than Barth Baltic or my father’s brothers.’

Haild could tell that Pavan was either on the same level as him, or even more skilled than him. He considered using the fifth stage of the Baltic Sword, the Instant Impermanent. However, it was too dangerous, considering the aftermath. Instead, he decided to use all the weapons he had, even though he didn’t want to.

The bandage that wrapped around Haild’s sword was slowly torn by Pavan’s attacks. The bandage fluttered, revealing the black blade of Elkiehl. As soon as he saw the black blade, Pavan could sense that the blade was an immense threat.

“Get back!” Pavan shouted at once.

Haild’s first target was Pavan, but he failed to attack him.

Pavan managed to roll on the ground and bounce back, dodging Haild’s attack. However, the other two couldn’t run away in time. The tip of Elkiehl narrowly brushed against Miguel’s side and cut the back of Jose’s hand as they tried to avoid suffering from critical injuries.

But that was all that was needed.

Miguel and Jose immediately fell flat on the spot. Pavan could immediately tell that both Miguel and Jose were dead. Haild had used neither poison nor magic—Miguel and Jose were killed just due to being grazed by Elkiehl once.

Pavan felt chills running down his spine, but at the same time, he was pleased that he survived despite the weapon’s powerful ability.

“You must be quite disappointed that you couldn't kill me immediately.”

Haild didn’t answer Pavan—he really was disappointed, just as Pavan had said.

However, Haild wasn’t the type to wallow in regret for his mistakes for a long time. Haild locked swords with Pavan. While it was difficult for Haild to buy time when the Eastern Army was being unilaterally attacked, Pavan was also in a situation where he couldn’t let his guard down in front of Haild.

“I would step back if I were you,” Haild opened his mouth first as if he was conciliating.

“So it turns out that you weren’t mute after all, huh?” Pavan whistled and derided.

“I’m not the type to repeat myself.”

“Are you that confident that you can beat me? The sword you are holding is quite unique, but it’s of no use as long as I don’t let it touch me. I don’t even have to attack you. The numbers of the Eastern Army will continue to go down even if I just defend myself against you,” Pavan said as he gestured toward Hela, who had collapsed to the ground behind him. “I have no idea what relationship you have with my master, but I’ll allow you to run away with her. I don’t want to fight someone so ominous like you anyway.”

“Bullshit…”

Hela’s face became distorted as she tried to raise herself up.

Haild faced a dilemma. He was able to come help Hela so quickly only because he used magic to connect with and detect whether Hela was in danger at all times. This was power that he had borrowed from the Crack, but it was worth the risk, since she was his mother.

If Haild used Instant Impermanent, but failed to kill Pavan at once, Hela would immediately fall into danger. As such, Pavan was quite a difficult opponent.

Of course, Haild was a tough opponent for Pavan as well.

“Let Hela go…”

The moment Haild was about to agree to the compromise, a giant shadow fell over their heads.

Pavan raised his head, wondering if it had suddenly become the middle of the night.

It felt as if the clouds were falling down upon them, and the soldiers of the Capital Army broke out into a scream.

Haild grinned under the bandages.

“I’ll allow you some time to lead your trifling army and run away. I don’t like to perform massacres anyway.”

A giant dragon was hovering over their heads.

***

“Do you think Entalucia will arrive there on time?”

“She’s quite fast to begin with, but she even used magic on top of her speed. She’ll be there soon. It’s just a shame that Haild can’t open the Crack wide enough to let Entalucia get in and out of it. However, I’m sure that he can buy some time.”

Being almost unconscious, Horhell heard two voices—they belonged to Sina Solvane and Juan. It took some time for Horhell to understand what was going on, but he soon opened his eyes wide upon remembering Hela’s face.

The moment Horhell tried to get up, someone pushed him back to lie down again.

“Lie down.”

It was Juan. Horhell realized that he was in an unusual building with slightly tilted walls. There was only one building like that throughout the entire empire.

“Is this… the Magic Tower? What happened to the Eastern Army? What about Duke Henna?”

“I sent Haild and Entalucia. You don’t have to worry about them.”

Haild’s name felt familiar to Horhell for some reason, but his consciousness was not clear enough to recall who he was immediately.

However Horhell was relieved upon hearing Juan telling him not to worry.

Horhell examined his wounds. His wounds were wrapped in bandages, but he didn’t feel much pain.

“I used healing magic but I didn’t use too much of it, since treating wounds in a hurry eventually reduces the overall healing ability of the body. The reason why you have a bad headache is probably that you lost too much blood.”

“Pavan Peltere… the Captain of the Order of the Capital led the Capital Army to ambush us on the path of the Yult Mountains,” Horhell elaborated and reported what he was supposed to tell Juan before he fainted.

Juan frowned.

“Is that so? I was definitely caught off guard this time. Barth Baltic made it seem like he was being pushed to go to war unwillingly, but had already sent the troops in advance. It seems like he sent the troops based just outside the capital rather than the troops from within the capital.”

In Juan’s opinion, the reason why Pavan attacked the Eastern Army that was the furthest from him was rather simple—not only was the Eastern Army the weakest of the three forces supporting Juan, but Pavan was quite familiar with the East.

“He must have considered the dragon as well as his relationship with Hela. After all, there are a lot of knights from the Order of the Capital who feel guilty and apologetic toward Hela.”

“The Eastern Army was a force to make up the numbers anyway… I’m not worried about General Nienna at all, but the Order of Huginn…”

“They’ve already been attacked.”

Horhell’s eyes widened.

“I received a message from the crows of the Order of Huginn before you arrived. As far as I know, three thousand soldiers from the Eighth Division of the Capital Army attacked you, and five thousand soldiers from the Second Division, including the Deputy of the Order of the Capital headed toward the Order of Huginn,” Juan continued.

“Is the Order of Huginn safe?”

Juan made a strange expression upon hearing Horhell’s question.

“They’ve been wiped out.”

“...I’m sorry?” Horhell asked.

“The Capital Army has been completely wiped out, not the Order of Huginn.”