Chapter 5: Ruler of the Battlefield
A little earlier in time, at Celia’s location...
“Arrest them, Alfred!” Charles ordered, signaling the start of the battle. Alfred charged head-on at the group, his expression somewhat unenthusiastic.
“Everyone, please hold back the others and leave him to me!” Orphia directed, firing her bow at speeds too fast to follow with the naked eyes.
“!” The speed exceeded Alfred’s expectations, lighting his eyes with a faint look of shock. But he was able to respond to the attack itself without much difficulty, mowing it down with his sword.
However, Orphia wasn’t surprised by something like that—she readied her bow and fired her next arrow of light at Alfred.
Alfred yet again saw through the attack and cut it down. From that point onwards, Orphia started rapid-firing her arrows of light faster than before, but each arrow was aimed so perfectly, it made her attack just slightly docile. On top of that, she aimed for areas that wouldn’t result in his instant demise—something which Alfred had noticed within intercepting ten of those light arrows.
Meanwhile, Orphia fixed her gaze on Alfred as he blocked her arrows.
This man... He really is strong. She stared at him with reverence for his strength.
“Your arrows are fast, and your aim is frighteningly accurate, but you are too soft,” Alfred said, shooting Orphia a conflicted look.
“Hey, Alfred! What are you dallying around for?” Charles scolded.
Alfred sighed. “I do not wish to harm women and children. As long as you don’t resist, no harm will come to you.”
“I’m sorry, but we will be resisting,” Orphia apologized sincerely.
“It’s futile. No matter how accurately you fire those light arrows towards me with your enchanted bow, I will surely close the distance between us. An archer of your skill must be able to comprehend that, no?” Alfred said, attempting to wear down Orphia’s will to fight.
Orphia giggled cutely. “I shall stop firing straight, then. It seems I have misjudged your strength...”
Alfred furrowed his brow in confusion, but Orphia immediately took aim in the opposite direction and fired her arrows of light.
“What...?!”
The arrows that Orphia fired drew an arc through the air, swooping down on Alfred with unmatched precision. Alfred reacted instantly and cut the arrows down, but he was more surprised than he’d been before.
“Here goes nothing!” Orphia said, and fired at a speed even greater than before.
“Guh...” Alfred had been cutting down the light arrows one-by-one at first, but the more he cut the more arrows approached from all possible angles. Eventually, his processing speed fell behind, and he decided that it would be faster to evade them instead of cutting them down. He waited for the right moment, then began dashing to the side, but—
“What...?”
The arrows of light he should have evaded came homing in after him. As a result, he was given no choice but to deal with every last arrow.
“ALFRED! Are you even trying?!” Charles yelled harshly, seeing Alfred take the defensive side of the fight.
Alfred frowned in annoyance. “It seems I misjudged your abilities, too. I suppose I have no choice, then,” he said, then began charging straight at Orphia.
“...” Orphia watched Alfred carefully, aiming for the exact moment he began his approach to pour magic essence into her bow and fire a thick arrow of light. Alfred tried to cut the arrow that was headed straight for him, but the single arrow of light split into countless smaller arrows, scattering like a shotgun.
“A-Aah!” For a moment, Alfred’s eyes were blown wide open. But his body didn’t freeze—he released a slash of light from his sword to erase the entire shotgun of arrows instead.
“So that attack didn’t work either,” Orphia said with a wry smile.
“And you can fire multiple arrows at once... How troubling,” Alfred said a little awkwardly.
“Are you really that concerned?” If he was, then she could probably manage to hold him back by herself. That was what Orphia was wondering as she asked her question, when—
“I am. I can no longer hold back in order to arrest you. So, here goes nothing.” No sooner had Alfred said that, he resumed charging straight for Orphia.
“U... Urgh...!” Orphia immediately countered, but Alfred was faster than before. The moment Orphia had released her arrows, he was already right before her eyes. A heavy fist drove into Orphia’s stomach.
“Orphia?!” Celia yelled in horror as she watched Orphia fall.
“Ugh... That hurts.” Orphia pressed down on her stomach to endure the pain.
“I intended to knock you unconscious with that single blow, but it seems that bow has physical body enchantments in it. Forgive me—I’ll put you to rest with the next strike.” Alfred reached for Orphia with a look of indifference.
“B-Brother!” Vanessa slashed at Alfred from close range with all her strength. She took a large leap, throwing all her weight into her sword to push it forward. However, Alfred deflected her attack easily using the shield equipped on his left arm.
“Guh!”
Vanessa continued to slash away at Alfred with determination, but this time, Alfred swung back. Swords clashed together, and Vanessa was blown backwards with the recoil.
Vanessa slowly peeled back her hood.
“You’re... What is that hair?” Alfred’s eyes widened faintly at the unfamiliar sight of his little sister’s hair.
“That doesn’t matter right now!” Vanessa charged at Alfred, who easily parried her attack with his sword. But, after a brief moment of being locked sword-to-sword, he took a light step back.
“When you strain all your strength, this is what happens.”
Vanessa staggered forward faintly. Alfred used that chance to sweep her feet out from underneath her, sending her rolling.
“Doesn’t matter, huh? Well, that may be true. Now that things have come to this, I will have to punish you,” Alfred said, slightly bitter, but swallowing back his words. He flicked away the sword in Vanessa’s grip and sent it rolling.
“Nngh...” Vanessa was now laying on the floor unarmed, but she grit her teeth and lashed out at Alfred with detestment. “Why?! Why would you do this?!”
“Do what?”
“Why are you here?! Forget Charles! You’re the King’s Sword!”
“...It was by the order of His Majesty.”
“That’s not what I mean! No, do you truly believe that to be His Majesty’s will?! Brother!”
“I have nothing to say to you right now. This is all the compassion I can show—go to sleep,” Alfred said, crouching down to chop his hand at Vanessa’s neck.
“Ugh...” The world spun. The light in Vanessa’s eyes went out as she fainted.
“Everyone, move back...” Celia retreated while holding her hands at the ready to activate her magic at a moment’s notice. It was evident that at this distance, Alfred’s attack would hit her before she could fire any magic. Sorcerers were meant to fight without letting their opponents get close.
“Well done, Alfred. Hmph...” Charles smiled, approaching in satisfaction. He walked over to where Orphia was lying on the ground and snapped an essence-sealing collar around her neck, lifting her head.
“Urgh...”
She had been secretly treating herself with spirit arts, but now her magic essence was sealed. Her stomach must have hurt, still, as her face twisted in pain as it was lifted.
“I can’t say I’m impressed by the rough way you’re handling the lady.” Rui came over belatedly, addressing Charles with a faint frown on his face.
“Unfortunately, we would be no match for her if she used magic. I will ensure her abdomen gets healed properly.” Charles chuckled pleasantly as he gazed at Orphia’s face. Then, he pointed at Celia. “Hey, Alfred. Remove that small woman’s hood.”
“Uh...” Celia backed away slowly.
“Photon Projectilis!” From behind Celia, Christina chanted a spell and rapidly fired magic essence bullets towards Charles.
She’s good.
They were finally aiming at Charles, Alfred thought. He was the real burden here.
“Wha...” Charles froze, as he hadn’t expected to become the target himself. Alfred had no choice but to move before Charles and protect him.
“Don’t let your guard down.”
“I-I know that! I knew you would protect me, so I didn’t react. That’s all. But to have the guts to aim for me...”
Charles grit his teeth. If it hadn’t been Christina who had fired the shot, he would have approached her and beaten her up.
“T-Terra Carcerem!” In order to trap both Alfred and Charles, Celia placed her hand against the ground and chanted a spell. In reaction to the earth prison spell, a magic circle appeared by the feet of the men.
“It’s pointless. This sword can absorb magic essence.” Alfred stabbed his sword into the ground and extinguished the magic circle.
“Princess Christina, Kouta, Rei! Please run away...”
Celia tried to urge the three of them to run while she bought time, but she found herself at a loss for words. There was nowhere to run. Knights riding griffins were circling in the sky. Alfred was in front of them. There were several other knights that had landed on the ground as well.
She glanced behind herself to see the army of thousands had closed in at some point and felt her heart nearly fracturing.
“Hmph, as if I’d prepare an opening for you to run. The plan was perfect. All this useless resistance was for nothing. Psh...”
Charles marched right up to Celia and slapped her face with all his might. He knew Terra Carcerem was an earth prison magic and not used with the intention to cause harm, but he was still angry that Christina aimed her attack magic at him earlier, so he took it out on her instead.
“Aah!” Celia was blown back and tumbled across the ground. The hood fluttered off her face.
“...Hm?” Charles narrowed his eyes at the sight of Celia’s face. He had assumed she was some plain brat, but she had an appearance on par with Orphia’s—the thought that he shouldn’t have been so rough crossed his mind. Because of her different hair color, he didn’t notice at first glance that the one he had hit was his former fiancee, to whom he had once whispered sweet words.
“Huh? Is she perhaps...?” Alfred had a suspicious expression after seeing Celia’s face, which eventually turned into a look of realization. But just at that moment...
“S-Sir Charles! Someone is approaching at a tremendous speed!” one of the griffin knights keeping watch from the skies suddenly yelled out a warning.
“What...?” Charles looked doubtful for a moment, but his expression soon changed with a gasp. “I-Is it the one Lord Reiss spoke of?! He couldn’t hold him back?! Ugh, fire all your magic at once and intercept him!”
At his shocked order, the ten griffin knights in the sky all started chanting their spells.
“Ignis Iecit!” Magic circles appeared at their hands, from which they shot a ball of fire aimed at the rapidly approaching black shadow.
“G-Ground team! Make a wall with your shields and recite your magic to drive him back if he approaches!” Charles yelled his panicked orders to the knights surrounding them, and the army approaching from the hill. The knights beside him reacted promptly, thrusting their shields into the ground to protect Charles with a wall.
“That’s... him.”
Rui watched the figure approach at an inhuman speed and glanced over at Kouta and Rei once, hesitating slightly. Then, he moved to stand behind the wall of knights and aimed his bow towards the sky.
Rio was running at full speed in Celia’s direction. The area was hilly with a clear outlook, making it easy to spot the huge army of soldiers roughly one kilometer away. He charged towards their direction without hesitation.
The knights riding the griffins in the skies seemed to have focused their guard on the direction Rio came from, as they discovered him immediately. Rio watched from afar as one of them hurriedly descended to the ground. A few seconds later, dozens of one-meter-wide fireballs came hurtling towards him; there was 500 meters between them.
At this distance, they should have just fired those to keep me in check.
Their aim was all over the place. If he continued closing in at his current speed, the first wave would land far behind him. Rio glanced once at the rain of fire, then directed his attention to the ground.
That’s...
Just before the knights formed their wall of shields, Rio spotted Orphia pressing down on her stomach and Celia rolling on the ground. His expression immediately turned ice cold. At the same time, the first wave of Ignis Iecit landed far behind Rio. Now he was 200 meters away.
“Magicae Displodo!”
“Photon Projectilis!”
The knights forming the wall before Charles fired their attack magic. One beat later, a thick arrow of lightning shot into the sky. It was Rui’s attack.
“Ignis Iecit!”
The griffin knights also fired their second wave of fireballs. This time, their aim was adjusted for Rio’s movement speed.
“...”
Rio watched the barrage of attack magic without emotion. Normally, one would choose to leap to the side to evade it, but Rio purposefully charged forward instead, accelerating.
What the knights holding their shields up witnessed was the sight of their attack magic catching Rio one after another. Photon Projectilis were photon bullets that had enough force to blow back an unguarded person, while Magicae Displodo was a magic cannon that had enough force to wipe out a group of people. And yet—
“Wha...”
The knights were rendered speechless. Their attack magic veered away from Rio the moment before they should have made contact. It was like there was an invisible wall or path rerouting them—they just wouldn’t hit. The lightning rain that fell at a slight delay also fell as though it was avoiding contact with Rio.
Thus, Rio charged into the wall of knights with no hesitation whatsoever.
“Aagh!!”
He cut them down as though he was batting away flies—it was enough to send the knights flying sideways.
At that point, Rio paused. His eyes met Rui’s, who had been standing behind the knights. But Rio paid him no mind, his gaze instead moving towards Orphia, Celia, and Vanessa, who were laying on the ground.
“...Are they alive?” he asked no one in particular.
“Y-Yes. They’re just knocked out,” Christina answered nervously. She understood that at this moment, Haruto Amakawa—who had only shown his gentle side until now—was angry. She was overwhelmed by his presence and shuddered.
“...You did this?” Rio looked at Charles and walked towards him slowly.
“Wha... N-No! He did it!” Charles flinched, pointing at Alfred as he backed away.
“You ordered it.”
Rio continued to approach, then held his sword ready and swung it.
“Eek...!” Overwhelmed, Charles was unable to move. However, Alfred stepped in front of him and stopped the blow of Rio’s sword.
“Charles, retreat if you do not want to die,” Alfred said with a stern expression.
“W-What?! You dare order your commander...?!”
“Hurry! Did you not witness how fast he got here?!”
Even at a time like this, Charles snapped back reflexively, but Alfred shot down his objection forcibly.
“Guh...!” Rio swung his sword fully and sent Alfred’s body flying back, colliding with Charles along the way.
“H-How dare you! K-Kill him! Someone! Anyone! Hurry and kill that man!” Charles rolled along the ground and remained there as he wailed his orders. The griffin knights in the air immediately moved in response, but Rio thrust his sword upwards. Just as he did, a tornado-like blast of wind burst forth. In a single strike of his sword, he sent all the knights in the sky scattering.
“Wha...” Charles was wide-eyed and speechless.
“Do you understand, now? Numbers and tactics will no longer decide the outcome of this fight,” Alfred said to Charles as he faced Rio.
“Then you do something about him! Use that sword of yours! Flash Judgment, wasn’t it?”
“I would have done so already if I could... I’ll buy you time. Take the soldiers and retreat.”
“...Guh!” Charles whipped around and started running towards the soldiers on the hill.
“Haruto!” Sara and Alma had finally caught up and were calling Rio’s name from behind him.
“Can I leave this to you? I need to capture the enemy’s commander.” Rio fixed his eyes on Alfred, who stood in the way of the fleeing Charles.
“Yes!” came the reply from behind, and Rio rushed forward, but was intercepted by Alfred.
Alfred’s sword immediately began glowing, then shot out light to mow down the area as he slashed with it. However, Rio released a tornado-like blast of wind to offset Alfred’s strike. Alfred continued firing slashes of light one after another. Rio did the same with his wind. It was an exchange of light and wind from the two warriors.
The slashes of light consumed a lot of magic essence, so it wasn’t something that one normally used recklessly—but this was Alfred’s last resort after he sensed the gap in their abilities with his first attack. If he faced Rio with only his sword, he would lose.
However, there was no change to the fact Rio’s physical abilities far surpassed his. Alfred was gradually being pushed back towards the hill.
“Ugh...”
At some point, Rui had made his way around to the hill where Charles had fled. He fired a lightning arrow towards Rio.
Rio took a step back and cut down the arrow, then paused and looked at Rui. “...Are you going to get in my way?”
“Long time no see, Haruto—I haven’t seen you since the Galarc royal castle, I believe?” Rui greeted Rio.
“Indeed,” Rio replied shortly.
“I didn’t want to see you again like this, if possible...” Rui admitted a little awkwardly.
“Neither did I. If you don’t get in my way, I won’t need to attack you.”
Rui gave a pained smile and shook his head slowly. “Unfortunately, I cannot allow that. I’m the hero of their kingdom, after all.”
“...Then I shall do my best not to kill you,” Rio said with a sigh, his aggression waning.
“Haha. I don’t want to kill you either, but I don’t think I can stop you with weak attacks.”
“The attacks you’ve fired until now haven’t been a problem.”
“Is that so? Then...”
Rio and Rui both readied their weapons. Alfred also adjusted his grip on his sword, ready to face Rio once again.
Rio closed in on Alfred, but Rui’s lightning arrow interrupted him. His aim was truly precise—it wouldn’t have been fatal if it had made contact, but it was able to limit Rio’s movements for a brief moment. Alfred wouldn’t let that moment go to waste.
Now that it had come to this, Rio had to change his fighting style as well, as it was difficult to force his way through with his strength alone.
“Hah!”
He decided to overwhelm them with speed. Accelerating his body with wind spirit arts, he closed in on Alfred.
Rio’s method of moving so quickly involved a combination of martial arts that minimized his own movements and wind spirit arts—it was a technique of Rio’s own making. The greatest merit to using it was that the excess movements of the body were practically nonexistent, which made one faster. Thanks to that, it was possible to move in a way that was almost like teleportation.
“Guh...” His many long years of experience allowed Alfred to see through the faint, faint omen of an attack and respond instantaneously. But even as he stopped the attack, he was pushed backwards.
So he was able to react to that just now...
Rio stopped, his eyes widening faintly. Without the intent to kill, he had suppressed his acceleration a little, but even then he had charged with a considerable amount of speed. It was a speed that even elite warriors like the spirit folk village’s head warrior Uzuma or veteran warrior Gouki would have trouble reacting to.
In other words, Alfred was in a league of his own.
“So fast!”
Rio sensed another attack from Rui and sped up again. He disappeared in an instant, surprising Rui, who had just fired another lightning arrow. But even then, the physical body enhancement from his Divine Arms adapted accordingly, firing an arrow of lightning at Rio as he moved. However, Rio moved too fast for the attacks to hit. He would disappear from his position the moment the shots were fired; he was moving too fast for Rui to fire predictively as well.
When he’s this close, his speed makes it hard for me to do anything. Guh...
Rui distanced himself from Rio a little to gain an advantage, then tried to snipe him. But Rio predicted that and drew closer to Rui to knock him out first.
“Haaah!” However, Alfred charged at Rio to protect Rui. He still had some fight left in him after all.
Rio raised his sword to engage Alfred, whose sword started glowing once again. Rio also poured magic essence into his sword to cover it with wind. Then, the two of them swung at each other, creating a tremendous shockwave. The recoil nearly knocked them backwards, but Rio remained standing where he was through the use of his ultra-enhanced physical abilities. Then, he went chasing after Alfred—who had been blown backwards—and swung his sword vertically upwards.
“Guh...” Alfred was able to counter the sudden attack with his sword, but the tremendous physical strength and wind pushed him back, instantly sending him flying upwards into the air.
Rui had aimed for the timing that Rio swung his sword upwards to fire his sniping shot, but his arrow was unable to find its target. No sooner had Rio swung his sword had he chased Alfred into the skies with a giant leap, using the wind from his sword to propel himself and accelerate.
“What the...” Alfred watched Rio flying towards him from the ground in amazement.
Does he plan on finishing this in the air? Then I have no choice.
Alfred sensed that this was to be the final blow and poured the entirety of his remaining magic essence into his enchanted sword. The more essence this sword absorbed, the more powerful of a strike it could release. Thus, Alfred’s sword began glowing the brightest it had yet.
Rio’s expression was stern as Alfred’s eyes focused solely on him.
In that case, I’ll force him into submission. He had planned on ending things in the next attack anyway.
Meanwhile Rio also poured an extraordinary amount of essence into his sword, compressing the energy into a tremendous blast of wind. The two of them gripped their swords and took aim, then released the essence in their swords. A stream of light rushed out of Alfred’s sword, while Rio’s sword released a violent tornado. Their attacks collided.
“Aah!”
Light illuminated the entire area as the windstorm caused a huge explosion. Christina and the others on the ground were nearly blown away.
“S-Sir Amakawa defeated Alfred...” Christina witnessed the sight of Rio holding his sword in the air and a limp, unconscious Alfred. Rio was looking down at the hill, his sword tightly in his grasp. At the end of his line of sight was Charles, who had fled into the army on the hill.
“Huh?!” Charles noticed Rio was staring straight at him from above and flinched.
“Now!” From the ground below, Rui took aim at Rio and fired a thick arrow of lightning—which was really more like a cannon than an arrow. However, Rio was able to move freely in mid-air and evaded the attack. He moved over to where Alfred was passed out and grabbed him.
“Ngh...” Unable to shoot with Alfred in the way, Rui lowered his bow. Rio descended slowly and lowered Alfred to the ground.
“...Huh?” Everyone present on the battlefield watched on as he yet again disappeared without a trace. Rui had a bad feeling and lifted his bow, when suddenly, Rio was standing right before his eyes.
“Tch...”
It was already too late. A palm was thrust into his abdomen and he fell to his knees.
“It’s over,” Rio said.
“Indeed. You really are an amazing person... But, it may have been better to lose here.” Rui chuckled after muttering that, then let himself fall unconscious. With that, there was no one left on this battlefield that could face Rio.
“...” Rio peered at the thousands beyond the hill and slowly began walking.
“A-All of you! Stop him!” Charles yelled frantically, seeing Rio approaching from afar. But the soldiers’ movements lagged, and no one tried to obstruct Rio’s way. In fact, as Rio eventually reached the hill, the soldiers parted like a wave to allow him to pass.
“H-Hey!” Charles looked around at the soldiers, seeking salvation, but reality was cruel indeed.
“Eek!” Charles cowered at the sight of Rio drawing near. He didn’t even think to run away, understanding that attempting to do so would be futile, whether he liked it or not.
“Marching here so brazenly was your mistake,” Rio said once he reached Charles.
“W-What... What are you...?” Charles fell backwards onto his rear, forgetting all his anger.
“Just a regular human.”
“H-Human? You, a human? Hahaha. Bwahahaha...” Rio’s answer made Charles break down with laughter.
“Come with me.” Rio grabbed Charles by the scruff of his neck and forcibly started dragging him back towards Christina and the others.
Unsurprisingly, there was no one who could stop Rio.
An army of five thousand had been driven away by a single boy.
On this day, the events that unfolded proved a single truth:
That the overwhelming power of a single individual could sometimes overthrow a violent force of great numbers and tactics and decide the outcome of a battlefield.
At the same time, something else was made known—that there existed someone who possessed enough power to do exactly that. That person’s name was Haruto Amakawa—an honorary knight whose name was still on the rise.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, it would create a great ripple in the nations of the Strahl region.
Ten days later, Rio and the others arrived in Rodania.
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