A Radiant Knight hadn't died in battle for almost a thousand years.
For the knights who were the plane's top dogs and had gone unchallenged for centuries, you could imagine how well they took this news. They didn't, many of them struggling to accept it.
Without the right knowledge, tutors or legacies, no heretic could grow to reach the point where they'd be a genuine threat to a witcher, spellbreaker, or radiant knight.
The knights had been very thorough and systematic in their culling, cutting down any potential heretic leaders and supremely lucky casters that managed to reach First Grade despite the hostile environment and climate.
It was the reason a heretic with the ability to face a Radiant Knight head on had never appeared on the continent… until now. The higher ups were beginning to understand the reactions of the dragons. And instead of focusing on this and uniting their efforts, they allowed infighting to break them up.
It all came down to what response best suited this development. Some were of the view that this powerful heretic needed to be rooted out and killed, the matter necessitating the addition of more men on the frontlines, this time with more Radiant knights in the mix.
Others who felt caution was necessary pushed for the current arrangement and pace of the men to be maintained. The radical faction rebutted by stating that this was simply offering more of their best men to be slaughtered.
The conservatives saw it as prudent and the radicals saw it as ineffective. These arguments continued, bearing no proper fruit and leading to a split between the knight leaders.
Those of the radical faction rounded up their direct subordinates in addition to a thousand regular witcher knights before charging straight into the Greenland forest.
Their arrival and rush through the forest shook it greatly, their magic steeds making light work of any terrain a normal warhorse would have found difficulty crossing.
When the 7 Radiant Knights, 53 Spellbreakers, and 928 witcher knights clashed with the army of voodoo beasts rushing from the forest's depths to meet them, it was like multiple large pieces of meat had been thrown into a grinder.
Not one intact beast was left in their wake, the collision of multiple runic energy engulfed blades and flesh reducing them to chunks of meat, bone and organs that gathered in piles.
Once again the forest experienced another intense watering, thick and endless blood soaking its floor for kilometers.
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With such large numbers on both sides and the labyrinthine nature of the forest, it was inevitable that the cohesion with which the knights entered the battlefield would be broken at some point.
In the process of mowing down the endless sea of voodoo beasts charging at them with wild abandon, the knights had been forcefully separated and divided into small groups with varying strengths.
Most consisted of regular witcher knights, more than a few had Spellbreaker's within their midsts, and others, Radiant knights, making for a plethora of chaotic battlefields scattered all over in tiny pockets.
Greem was currently stalking such a group, the hundred man force locked in a fierce battle with so many voodoo beasts even he would have to stop to take a proper count.
Nothing could hamper his focus. Not the detonations of flame blades unleashed by the Spellbreakers in their midst, their valiant shouts and roars, nor the compounded growls and screeches of the dying beats.
He scanned his prey thoroughly, confirming that none of them was a Radiant Knight in disguise. Once he had the all clear, he gripped the shortened shaft of Allerdyce tighter, activated its edge enchantments, and brought his booster to the lowest setting, dropping down into the thick of things.
Hidden by his Second Grade stealth artifact, none of the surrounding witcher knights saw nor heard him or his blade as he ran it through the center of the Spellbreaker knight's head and divided it.
Already moving before those in the vicinity could process the sudden and horrid sight, he leapt over the low level knights, ignoring them all completely and flaring his wings.
He flapped them once and shot toward the next target, the second of the Spellbreaker knights, and lodged the spearhead straight through his face, kicking off of him into a backflip right after.
Upside down and still invisible, he noted the positions of the remaining three obviously alerted Spellbreakers and flung Allerdyce towards the leg of the farthest one, using his connection to it to ensure pinpoint accuracy.
To the horrified onlookers, a white-red blur appeared out of thin air and removed the leg of their comrade, his screams drawing every eye in the vicinity and missing the sight of the fourth Spellbreaker's head making a complete 180 on his neck.
By now the regular knights had huddled up in smaller groups, standing back to back as they watched every possible angle for any more of the sudden attacks.
A group of them gathered around Greem's last prey, while another surrounded the one who'd lost his leg, the inner circle tending to his wound and the outer one watching for trouble.
To that, he simply flapped his wings and barreled straight into them, flapping the large appendages more than once and sending them flying with bruises at the least and broken bones at worst.
Beneath him, the knight who'd lost his leg struggled to keep his eyes open due to the buffeting winds. He didn't let the fellow waste his last seconds in the pointless endeavor of trying to see him and stomped on his face, burying his head in the dirt and ending him.
Allerdyce made a slight "whooshing" sound and slammed into his palm right after and with seemingly no prompting, he turned around and jumped, a flame slash sailing right under him into the distance.
Watching the witcher knights in the distance close the gap they opened for their superior to unleash that attack, he held his own weapon like a sword and loosened the restraint on the flames that heated its edges.
The spearhead lit up in brilliant orange flames that clung to it like a glove, the life force he pushed into it mixing with the elementium as he held it by his side with the tip pointed behind him.
His movements executed with every ounce of his control, Strength, and Agility, he swung his arm to his opposite side, the blade cutting a wide orange arc and sending off a thin and impossibly flat crescent towards the huddled knights.
Unlike the "slow" moving and imperfect flame slashes of the knights, his perfect and well defined one crossed the distance between them like a flash of light, the only hint of its presence being the falling trees behind the group and the Spellbreaker knight clutching his midsection with a grimace.
His juniors of course heard his plight and turned to see what was wrong, only to twist themselves off their lower bodies and fall to the ground one after the other.
The lucky one who stood behind him was of course fine, his brunt of the attack borne by his superior. He looked at the chilling scene with wide eyes, the organs nearly popping out of their sockets and his bowels loosening when the head of their leader vanished.
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In response to the brazen charge of the radical knights into the forest, the forward base of the Adepts sent an additional nine of them to the frontlines, increasing the number of those fighting from ten to nineteen.
Due to the hostile nature of Adept culture and the way many clawed their way to this "prestigious" status, genuine collaborations where they worked hand in hand to shore up the weaknesses of others or to offer plain support was insanely rare.
Even Greem and Mary, who were incredibly close, did not team up to take advantage of the chaos and haphazard divisions of the knights. They each went off their own, earning dozens of kills left and right just like the others.
The truth of the matter was, Greem had no problem teaming up with Mary. In fact, he wanted to. She was his partner. However, it seemed Fügen's chastisement of her actions and the mention of punishment had set her on edge.
She wanted to earn enough merit to wipe away the stupid consequences for dealing with Anderson in the way she saw fit. It was her right, and she'd be damned if she was punished for taking something that belonged to her.
To that, he gave her his full support, confident that her abilities, training, and equipment would be enough.
Besides, she had to practice teamwork with her thralls. Five First Grade vampires with super speed, flight, and professional sword skills?
He pitied anyone they went up against. Among all the Adepts currently sneaking about the battlefield, it was only her group he foresaw racking up a higher kill count than him. All the others would not be up to par.
Meanwhile, on another battlefield he just vacated, a group of knights with Spellbreakers and Radiants in their midst, slowed their colts and took in the bloody and stomach churning image left behind.
Broken and twisted necks, broken bodies in crumpled armor, separated limbs, and decapitated heads littered the forest floor by the dozen, the sight feeding the flames of fury in the chests and hearts of the onlookers.
"Send out the order! Maintain a tight formation and stay close to each other. All the knights are to retreat to the central area!" said a Radiant Knight with a head of pure white hair, his voice booming over the finished battlefield.
Executing his orders promptly, a Spellbreaker fished a horn out of the bag on his saddle and blew into it, his enhanced lung capacity spreading the sound far and wide for a long time.
Slowly and surely, and not without paying some prices, the knights fighting different battles all over the forest heard and heeded the call, some retreating and others continuing on their paths towards the valley outlined by their leaders prior to their entry here.
As they did this, the Adepts followed them, those eager for more blood or merits cutting down the knights as they ran while others, like Greem ceased his attacks and followed them stealthily to their destination.
It was a valley, one large enough to accommodate the knight's impressive numbers… well what was left of them anyway. They arrived from all directions and rushed to join their brothers, adding to the hubbub and incessant whinnying of their mounts already present.
Right in this temporary camp's center, a huge flag danced to the tune of the forest winds while seven men with muscularities and builds exceeding every other knight stood around it in a loose circle.
Near the peak of the one the mountains bordering this valley, Greem decloaked and dropped down on a relatively intact but stable piece of rock jutting out of it, sucking in his wings and drawing the eyes of his fellow Adepts standing at various spots on the same mountain.
He ignored them all and surveyed the camp, noting how the rush of knights into it had slowed into a trickle. He made a quick count, comparing their current numbers to that at the start of this whole nonsense charge.
The Radiant knights were untouched, their strength serving as a potent deterrent to all the Adepts including himself. To his surprise, there were only four Spellbreakers, his right eyebrow rising as a twitch fought him for control of his lips.
'Don't tell me I killed them all…' he thought, shaking his head when he thought about it properly. Their intel showed there were 53 of them. He killed 32. 'The 17 must be the others. Though I'm sure Mary killed her fair share…'
As for the witcher knights, his passing glance showed a more than sixty percent decrease in their numbers, something he didn't find at all surprising. 'I must've killed more than 200 of them…'
While his and his colleagues' eyes trailed over the camp with all sorts of thoughts churning in their minds, the Radiant knights somehow detected their stares and their presence, making visual contact despite the distance between them.
In response to the fury and rage in the eyes of these old men in tin cans, Greem made a few subtle nods in seeming contemplation of something while the others put on taunting and derisive smiles.
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Author's note:
I'd like to thank Roderick Diaz, Yaya Franklin, AnonymousJohn, RandomPotato, Oswald Odoemenam, KKKKKKai, and Darren Edwards for their support. It means everything to me. You don't how many times I've been feeling burnt out or unmotivated only for a like or membership notification to suddenly pop up on my phone and make me feel like an idiot for thinking of giving up. Thank you.
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