The crisp command, suddenly ringing out, was like a kettle of boiling water poured onto snow, carrying a hot current into Su Ya's body, instantly dispelling the [Dazed] and [Stiff] states he was in!
Then,
"First restraint, release!"
"This battle is for survival!"
"Acknowledge—Merlin!"
Amidst the clear, sharp, and concise chant—
His body reacted as if hypnotized, adrenaline surging wildly throughout! Faster than his brain could process, his body began to move on its own!
"Whoa~ whoa—whoa, whoa!!!"
Amidst the warhorse's cries of alarm, a sure-hit plummeting strike missed, and the horse, out of control, stumbled into the trench.
Su Ya felt himself rolling in a stiff, twisted posture—meaning his body had reacted, but his brain hadn't caught up, so his body forcibly dragged his brain along. His cheek was pulled away from the descending hoof by mere inches; he could even feel the whooshing wind from the hoof. Then, his entire head plunged into the blood-soaked mud, spinning, and he got a mouthful of sand in the process.
Until, he hit a corpse.
Arthur Pendragon's corpse.
Without time to think, Su Ya pulled his head out of the mud and saw it: the knight's sword stuck in the corpse, the one that had killed King Arthur.
It was his sword! And for some reason, Su Ya immediately understood this sword, this magical sword's true name—
[Poison of Nameless Envy]!
"Draw the sword!"
That clear, calm, and accurate female voice sounded again. Su Ya immediately reached for the hilt.
However, the knight who had fallen into the trench with his horse swiftly dismounted by stepping on the stirrup, rolling to the ground. In the process, he pulled out the 1.5-meter short spear strapped to his back and, with a vertical slash of its tip, aimed for Su Ya's arm. If Su Ya continued to try and draw the sword, this strike would directly cut off his hand!
At this moment, Su Ya's mind fell into a dilemma, because the voice commanding him didn't issue the next order! This meant he either had to choose to believe, and continue to draw the sword at the risk of losing his hand, or—retreat, abandon drawing the sword, and dodge the attack based on his own judgment.
In this flash of lightning, Su Ya gritted his teeth, raised his head, eyes wide, glaring at the knight. The knight had an ordinary, freckled face that was hard to remember, but his eyes were like torches in the night, or like an experienced yet mischievous mage, looking down at Su Ya, who was shorter than him, with a contemptuous gaze. That gaze was silent, yet it seemed to loudly utter every sarcastic, mocking, and cat-playing-with-mouse adjective in the world!
So, reading this, Su Ya gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressed the urge to flee, and chose to draw the sword!
Instead of retreating, he advanced, taking a large step forward, practically offering his chest and all his weaknesses to the opponent. His foot, clad in open-toed boots, heavily ground into the blood-soaked, muddy ground, and in the next moment, he leaned forward, throwing his entire body like a dive, tightly embracing the knight's sword and rolling forward!
Clang!
The sword was pulled from Arthur Pendragon's chest! Su Ya had practically placed his neck directly in the path of the descending short spear!
Almost simultaneously with making this choice,
"Bang!"
A short, sharp crack, like a bullet, shot through the air, violently striking the side of the knight's downward-slashing short spear, deflecting the spearhead and saving Su Ya's life.
The knight's brows suddenly furrowed, his palm tingling. He immediately looked at what had ambushed him, only to find that the object that had just shot over was merely an ordinary pink flower petal!
Before he could react in astonishment,
"Ram him!"
Ten meters away, a slightly flustered sound of footsteps accompanied a decisive command! Following the voice's instruction, Su Ya slammed his head hard into the knight's chest! If the opponent had been a normal cavalryman, Su Ya's action would undoubtedly have hit their chest armor, leaving him dizzy and unable to cause substantial harm. However, at this moment, Su Ya was not facing a Companion Cavalryman, the main force of the Macedonian cavalry, but a Macedonian Prodromos—a scout armed with leather armor.
The knight's eyes widened in astonishment. His chest felt constricted from Su Ya's ramming, his heels involuntarily lifted, and he lost his balance, falling sharply backward!
However, before Su Ya could take advantage of this opportunity to slash the opponent's neck,
Ten meters away, a barrage of rapid commands continued!
"Turn, block, step forward, thrust!"
Su Ya abruptly turned his head and saw—
The other knight was now behind him, holding a short spear with both hands and thrusting forward. If he hadn't drawn his sword and instead dodged backward earlier, he would have been instantly pierced through the heart by this spear!
Now, Su Ya gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands and abruptly raised the sword to his chest!
Block!
Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink!
The cold tip of the spear scraped against the sword's blade, sending out a cascade of sparks! Finally, the crossguard of the spear rested against the crossguard of the knight's sword, bringing its thrusting momentum to an abrupt halt.
Su Ya felt as if he were holding up a raging bull; his shoulder felt almost dislocated. He immediately lowered his body, used the sword's strong blade to deflect the spear's edge, then kicked his foot horizontally beside the opponent's ankle.
Step forward!
But his next attack was not to pull back his arm as commanded by the voice, nor to adjust his stance with a rotating sword after stepping forward for a thrust, nor to push the sword hilt with his left hand after parrying with the blade, transforming the vertical sword into a horizontal slash!
The opponent's commands were rigidly textbook, a classic defensive counter-attack for a swordsman facing a spearmen.
But the premise of this was—the opponent was a normal spearmen, one wielding a spear of 2.5 meters or more. But the weapons used by the Macedonian Prodromoi were 1.5-meter short spears, only slightly longer than the sword in Su Ya's hand. When the spear had already extended beyond Su Ya's head, both parties were too close to immediately initiate a thrust, entering an awkward phase where initial momentum was spent and new momentum had yet to be generated.
So, when Su Ya observed this and his mind frantically processed it for 0.1 seconds, he instinctively chose to use a kick-and-shoulder-barge. His foot pushed against the opponent's back foot, and his shoulder slammed into the opponent's chest, just like he had practiced countless times while watching sword-fighting movies!
The knight, struck in the chest, grunted. He tried to retract his spear and push Su Ya away, but Su Ya, leveraging the force of that push, created some distance. One foot firmly planted on the ground, he spun his body, extending his arms, gripping the sword hilt tightly. He rotated fiercely like a top!
Squish!
The blade swung out in an exaggerated centrifugal arc, finally striking somewhere unseen. Su Ya was splashed with blood on his face.
"Haha~ ha!"
He gasped for breath, swallowing hard, and stared blankly at the warm blood gushing down the blade.
I... I killed someone again?!
No, what the hell kind of place is this?!
Just then,
Click, click, click!
A sound like a storm, of dice striking a skull, rang out again.