The Amber Sword

<b>Rodu’s POV</b>

Even the smallest droplet could create ripples across an entire pond.

The same was true on land.

Rodu was overseeing his knights as they worked. Although they were an unorganized mess, he was still impressed that they had managed to build the defensive line quicker than anticipated.

<i>I guess veterans are different from those rookies.</i> Rodu thought, disregarding the fact that these knights only had experience in fighting harmless farmers and rebels.

Under the torrential downpour, the knights cruelly chased the farmers out from their homes, shattering their windows one by one. They were searching every nook and cranny to find valuable ‘trophies’.

That day, the horrible cries of women and children tore across the sky.

Rodu stood aside, nonchalantly observing his knights’ inhumane actions. <i>Acting like a beast is essential for a knight to win a war.</i> Rodu thought. <I>How are you a knight if you don’t win?</i>

Rodu watched, satisfied at how his knights treated the farmers with fists. Not only did he not stop them, but he even felt proud of them. <i>They dare to disobey us? They’ll submit in the face of punishment.</i>

“The princess is such a kid, blindly trusting the people around her.” A knight beside Rodu exclaimed, “The Royal Faction must have ill intentions too, giving her two hundred inexperienced knights. She’s bound to fall this time.”

“Exactly, we will show the princess what war really is,” the knights roared in laughter, guffawing raucously in the stormy weather.

Rodu happily nodded at the knight’s responses, held up a bag and shouted, “Whoever captures the princess will get this bag of gold from me!”

His voice traveled far and into the ears of many down the river bank.

<b>Bessie’s POV</b>

Bessie watched disdainfully at the enemies across the river with a pair of binoculars. When she heard Rodu’s nasty voice, she frowned.

She was always a tomboy ever since she was young. Not only did she uphold a man’s duty to fight and join the kingdom’s army when she grew up, but she also became one of the most outstanding knights in the Royal Cavalry Academy.

Bessie lowered her binoculars, her posture straight like a javelin. One horse after another, the knights leaped past her, the sound of galloping soaring to the sky.

Adrenaline pumped within her veins as she pushed forward, her allies yelling out the names of all the knights who dashed alongside her, “Canmel!”

“Hyman!”

“Kiel, take my shares too!”

“Aiden, for Aouine!”

“For Aouine!” Every single knight shouted and under the steel helmets, there were no traces of fear on those young faces, only determination.

And the morale to win.

Bessie silently gazed forwards, the enemy flags were being lowered down one by one, falling like a domino.

She could almost hear the commands, “Align your spears!”

“Align your spears!”

“Such dumb luck I have,” she sighed.

Looking back, she saw her companions grinning, “Are you regretting your decisions right now, Bessie?”

“Regrets? Impossible,” Bessie scornfully replied, “They’re only the White Lion Legion, what’s there to be afraid of!”

“Bessie, our duty is to protect Her Royal Highness, not to belittle our enemies. Your thinking is too dangerous!”

“I know that!”

<b> Rodu’s POV </b>

The rain continued to fall.

Rodu was still holding up his bag of gold, waiting for his subordinates to cheer. Unfortunately, all he got was silence from the crowd.

<i>What’s wrong?</i> Rodu turned around.

Everyone stood still as they listened attentively.

There were sounds of horses galloping, clear and powerful.

The sound of metal horseshoes as they lifted and dropped created a thunderous sound capable of piercing a person’s eardrums.

The Silversmith River was nothing more than a small creek in Ampere Seale. Even a storm could make it overflow. At this moment, everyone’s attention was on the surface of the water.

The surface was vibrating. The entire Silversmith River shuddered slightly.

And then they saw it. A rider on a horse, the emblem of a lily on their snow-white cape, shining with the glory they had retained for a millenium.

“Elves?”

All of his soldiers stood still, their jaws dropping and remaining unhinged in astonishment  as spears grew larger and larger in their vision.

Time stopped.

With a flutter, the spear penetrated a soldier’s brain directly through his wide mouth and completely shattered his skull, distorting his face.

Blood spurted out, but the spear continued to move, splitting his head in half.

He twitched before falling to the ground, his blood spilling onto the soldiers beside him.

Medissa strode past them coldly, unbothered by the blood on her face. By human standards, she was only fifteen this year, but she was far more experienced in war than any normal fifteen-year-old.

It had been the most tragic war since the War of the Holy Saints. Countless people died, countless lives seemed to have lost their meanings, and every other skill became unimportant in the face of combat skills.

And combat skills were the only battle tactic the Silver Elves possess.

“We’re being ambushed!”

“It’s the knights!” horrible cries rang across the riverbank, and they were hit by the truth.

They had underestimated their enemies.

Rodu felt uneasy about the situation. All the knights looked at each other. <i>Was there such a knight before?</i>

Medissa held her spear high.

With a thunderous boom, something broke behind her. The rainy scene shattered like a piece of glass, and from behind it, a massive army rushed out.

Clad fully in black, they rode atop dark horses.

“Long live Her Royal Highness!”

“Long live Her Royal Highness!”

The knights roared with passion. Although Medissa was only a little girl, she had the aura of a knight, of a female battle goddess.

“Stop them!” the private army finally responded, screaming almost hoarsely. “Grab your spears! Hurry up unless you want to die now!”

They clumsily responded. Maybe it was driven by their will to survive, or by some other mystical reason, but they managed to calm down in their times of crisis.

A row of spears lined up facing the opposite side of the river.

Unbothered by it, Medissa raised her spear and shouted,

“Spirit Wings!!”

A clear command rang through the battlefield.

One by one, magic circles unfolded from both of her sides, spinning rapidly until a pair of hundred-foot-long wings appeared. With a powerful flap, twelve humongous waves in the shape of hydras drove at Rodu’s army.

“Ah!”

Rodu was completely startled and did not know how to react. His men’s wills wavered with every passing second. Unfortunately, they could only watch as their allies were crushed beneath the waves.

Soon enough, the giant waves shattered the private army’s formation. In fact, most soldiers were already scrambling away from their positions before the wave even reached them.

The waves continued to trample on the houses that were further away, carrying the soldiers along with it.

Rodu’s line of defense instantly collapsed. Behind the waves, the princess’s men charged forward, taking the chance to attack while the enemy was still vulnerable.

One side charged while the other was retreating. Soon after, both sides collided together.

It was chaos everywhere. The princess’s young knights easily broke their formation, and without much effort, the soldiers’ will gave in.

They tried to run away, but the young knights did not let them go, applying a military tactic they learned back in the Royal Cavalry Academy.

Among the entire battlefield, Rodu’s soldiers scattered and fled as if they were ants in a landslide.

<b> Brendel’s POV </b>

Brendel pursed his lips together while watching the scene in front of him. He tugged at his horse and pointed forwards, “Bennett, split the army!”

“What are you trying to do, Brendel? ”Bennett said in shock. <i> Isn’t this the perfect time to drive the enemy away? </i> he thought.

But he was speechless immediately when the azure spiders appeared again. But this time, the spiders were not on the ground; they were floating behind Brendel.

Thousands of azure spiders appeared above the battlefield. Brendel turned back and looked at Bennett.

“Brendel, you..” Bennett took a deep breath.

Freya was startled too, as while it wasn’t  her first time seeing the Wind Spirit Spiders, it was her first time seeing Brendel controlling so many of them.

“Listen to my command!” Brendel’s directions echoed across the battlefield, “Knights from the Royal Cavalry Academy, flank the enemy from both sides!”

“Charge!”

“Charge!” After a moment of silence, there were sounds of cheering and shouting.

<b> Rodu’s POV </b>

Climbing out of the water, Rodu looked at his subordinate. He was shrieking and pointing at one direction, but for some reason, Rodu could not hear him.

But finally, his hearing came back and he gradually pieced together what the knight was saying. “Sir, they are separating!”

“What do you mean by separating?”

“The knights have separated into two groups!”

Rodu froze, his face growing pale, “Those bastards are trying to flank our sides!”

“Sir, they are planning to annihilate us all!”

“Sir, the army at the harbor was defeated!”

His subordinates were screaming at him one after another. Staggering, he stuttered to himself, “No, this can’t be happening.”

“Ian, help me onto my horse. We have to find a way to regroup. Otherwise, we will all die-” Rodu couldn’t even finish his sentence.

Suddenly, blood sprayed out as a spear emerged from his chest.

Rodu looked up and blankly stared at a woman in red before falling into eternal slumber.

Scarlet wiped the blood off of her cheeks before turning around.

On the battlefield, Rodu’s soldiers knew that death was imminent. Although some of them tried to resist, in the end, they all faced the same fate. Just as they tried to regroup, a ray of golden light penetrated them.

<b> Leider’s POV  </b>

“Rodu’s dead.”

“Owen and Sir Malocher’s armies were all defeated too. Her Royal Highness can not be underestimated after all.”

The old man turned back, smiling. He was wearing Aouine’s most traditional uniform with various badges clipping on his chest, and the most dazzling badge out of them all was the Candlelight Medal.

His name was Leider Dulo, the White Lion Legion’s vice squad leader as well as the longest-serving and fastest knight in the legion.

He was a respectable foe to the Kirrlutz and the backbone of the White Lion Legion. When he rose to power, Baron Oberwei was still a child!

He was once a loyal servant of House Covardo. But to repay Prince Luke’s kindness, he decided to side with the Northern Alliance.

No one dared to disrespect him, including the players back in The Amber Sword. He was more experienced in war than almost anyone else in Aouine, and his loyalty to the throne was no less than any other.

But right now, the old man just shook his head and looked at the other two with a smile. “It’s such a shameful thing for us old geezers to bully a little girl.”

Marquis Balta smiled awkwardly. Of course, he knew what the old man was trying to say, “Relax, Leider. We can guarantee the princess and the prince’s safety.”

Although he himself was a legate, he had always felt inferior to Leider Dulo.

The old man took a glance at him.

“I’m more worried about their battle with the Coast Guards .” Marquis Balta shifted the subject.

“I wonder about their chances as well. But I’m sure they didn’t get to scout the area. Rodu had hundreds of his men surrounding them along the Silversmith River,” the old knight rubbed his chin, “And they couldn’t possibly have guessed it with the small clues…”

“Her Royal Highness has grown amazingly quickly with the help of the little wolf,” the old knight exclaimed. Only he in the whole of Aouine dared to call Oberwei a ‘little wolf’.

Balta was amused at the way he addressed Oberwei. “The prince was amazing too with your teaching.”

This time, the old knight nodded proudly.

While the two were talking, the other man in the room suddenly stood up from his chair, “Wait, what is that?”

“That’s… Heaven’s Armament!”

Under the storm, in the direction of the Silversmith River, golden light coalesced into one…..