Chapter 10
The commander of the 12th Knight Order, Eisen, remembered the order he had received from the Grand Duke before the sortie.
"Sweep away Sarsen Port completely, and leave nothing behind. Plunder the women and valuables, and burn the city to the ground. Those who have dared to surrender to those bug-like southern rabble are no longer proud citizens of the West."
An order to burn everything and plunder it all.
It was one of Commander Eisen’s and his knights’ favorite orders.
Because whenever they sacked the native villages beyond the western border, Eisen and the members of the 12th Knight Order were always the first to charge in.
Thus, among the natives, the 12th Knight Order was nicknamed the Demons of the Sky.
It was a name earned because they could find something to loot even in the poorest villages.
To them, being told they could plunder an actual city sounded like an order to hold a festival.
"Haha, Commander! They say those southern bastards are loaded with money!"
"And it’s not just money, right? When you think of the South, you think of women!"
"Hehe, when else would we get another chance to burn a city like this!"
So the wyvern-riding knights were brimming with confidence.
There were only 300 enemies defending Sarsen Port.
There was nowhere easier to raid than Sarsen Port, which had no real fortress, no defensive line, and no mages.
The 12th, 13th, and 14th Knight Orders—sixty wyvern knights in all—made the 300 infantry nothing more than targets for a hunting game.
"Commander! Do we really need to match those ground-pounders’ pace!?"
"It’s not like the infantry can do anything anyway! Why don’t we just go in first!"
"Didn’t you always say those useless ground-pounders just steal the rewards!"
For that reason, Eisen, who commanded the sixty knights of the three orders, also didn’t take this battle very seriously.
An ambush? He hadn’t even considered something like that.
Ambushing sixty wyvern knights and five thousand infantry with just three hundred men.
That was impossible by any reasonable standard.
After giving the ground a quick glance and seeing the infantry unit that had just entered Sarsen Port, he gave the order.
"Right! Let’s just wipe them out ourselves. If not now, when else would we get another chance to loot a city like this!"
Eisen raised his lance high.
"Let’s go, boys!"
At the signal of the five-meter steel lance glittering in the sunlight, the wyvern knights, who had been flying at a leisurely pace until then, all accelerated at once.
The spectacle of the wyvern knights filling the sky was truly overwhelming.
By contrast, the enemy positions visible on the ground looked utterly pathetic.
The position was built in an octagonal shape with eight large cannons at the corners. It had no barricades, not even the bare minimum of watchtowers for firing arrows.
And there were only two such positions.
"Ha, looks like these guys think war is a joke."
To Eisen, it was a pathetically flimsy emplacement.
An anti-air position in this era was a defensive fortress built around a spire where a mage was stationed.
He doubted whether something that failed even the most basic fundamentals of tactics could be called a position at all.
Of course, he had heard stories about cannons that fired into the sky, but he had never once thought they would actually be effective.
In Eisen’s mind, cannons were just things that were slow to load and slow to fire.
Still, it didn’t matter.
The Grand Duke’s order was to ravage the city as cruelly and horribly as possible.
"So that’s why they call the South a honey pot."
He gave a brief remark and then ordered,
"All units, form tight ranks and begin the air raid!"
Sixty wyverns spread their wings at once and began to descend.
***
"Enemy wyvern unit spotted ahead! Bearing 3-1-0, distance about 9,000! Approximately sixty of them!"
"Bearing 3-1-0! Everyone adjust your gun elevation!"
"Just do what we trained for! Don’t try to aim! Think of it as spraying a curtain of fire! The wyverns that make it through will be handled by the small-caliber anti-air guns anyway!"
"Loaders, be careful not to blow your hands off! The Grand Duke ordered that not a single one of us come back hurt!"
Kkiigigigik-!
The sixteen anti-air guns all swiveled at once, emitting their characteristic metallic screech. The anti-air unit defending the front of Sarsen was noisily preparing for battle.
That was when it happened.
"Enemy aircraft, descending!"
The wyverns filling the sky spread their wings wide.
When they saw the sixty wyverns dive all at once, everyone held their breath.
Wyverns—the absolute rulers of the sky, masters who had dominated the heavens for more than a thousand years since the age of myth.
It was only natural for humans to fear such beings.
But the anti-air gunners gathered here were a little different.
They had been personally chosen by Kyle Leopold, and they were proud of that.
Pride at having been selected by the Grand Duke they respected in person. And pride in being the South’s shield.
One of the anti-air gunners shouted energetically.
"Haha, just look at those idiots all bunched up together! Are they asking us to hit them for them?"
"Yeah! Let’s wipe them out in one go!"
It was the lookout who cut off the anti-air gunner’s shout.
"Everyone shut it. Distance to the enemy wyvern unit: about 6,000!"
"Fire all at once once they’re in range!"
The wyverns, which had looked like dots, began drawing closer. Their threatening cries rang through the sky, and the faint sound of flapping wings could be heard.
"Distance 5,000!"
Beyond the horizon, the enemy infantry was advancing.
Five thousand infantry in tight formation were slowly pushing forward, trying to mop up the area the wyvern unit had swept through.
"Distance 4,000!"
The knights unleashed their aura. Their bodies, glowing in vivid colors in line with their individual images, sparkled like stars.
"Distance 3,000!"
And finally, when they entered the anti-air gunners’ effective range—
"Fire-!"
Thududung-!
Heavy gunfire, enough to drown out even the wyverns’ screams, echoed across the harbor.
Half a beat later, dark explosions burst out in the middle of the wyvern flock.
The result was catastrophic.
"Direct hit on the first shot!"
At the lookout’s shout, four wyverns, their bodies ripped to pieces, fell helplessly from the sky.
The mournful screams of the falling knights signaled the start of the battle.
"Fire away-!"
Once the anti-air gunners saw wyverns crashing down right before their eyes, they had nothing left to hesitate about.
The A-01 anti-air guns, boasting a terrifying rate of fire of twelve rounds per minute, roared one after another.
Thudududung-!
Black bursts of smoke blossomed in the middle of the chaotic wyvern flock. Only after three more wyvern knights fell did their formation break apart.
Like a flock of migratory birds startled by gunfire, the wyvern knights’ formation scattered in every direction.
But that still didn’t let them avoid the proximity-fused shells exploding in midair.
Once again, the anti-air guns scattered black smoke across the sky.
One wyvern knight performing dazzling maneuvers in the air was swallowed by smoke and vanished, and two more fell.
"Distance 2,000! The enemy is continuing to charge!"
Like ink dropped onto blue paper, the anti-air guns’ black smoke marks spread across the sky one after another.
Several wyverns caught in the explosions caught fire. Slowly peeling away from the flock, they slammed into the ground like tiny meteors.
Before long, the number of knights who had been so full of confidence had been cut in half.
Too far in to retreat, the choice they made in the end was to charge.
"What a terrible choice."
It was the worst decision they could have made in this situation.
The muzzles of the 20mm machine guns looking up from the ground gleamed in the sunlight.
***
"Boom-!"
Whenever jet-black explosions bloomed in the air, the knights caught in them were torn apart and fell.
They hadn’t even been hit directly by the shells.
They had merely passed by, and then exploded instantly. The timing was so precise he couldn’t even begin to guess what kind of magic was at work.
No—could that even be called magic?
This was not the kind of magic Eisen had known until now.
Clean power. Beautiful effects. Romantic presentation. Even magic meant for war carried chivalry and philosophy within it.
"But this is..."
KWAANG-!
A shell he had narrowly avoided struck one of the wyvern knights.
The shards that broke through his aura horribly shredded both the man and the wyvern.
With his skin torn open, his entrails spilling out, and his whole body turned into a ragged lump of flesh, the knight plunged down in the most miserable state imaginable.
"This..."
There was no respect whatsoever for the enemy’s honor.
Weapons developed solely to kill humans efficiently. In front of them, even sky knights were no different from ordinary men.
Eisen could not stand that.
He couldn’t bear to see the comrades he had spent his life with meet their deaths in such a pitiful way.
"Aaaaaah-!"
So he squeezed out every last ounce of strength and raised his aura. Brilliant starlight enveloped his body, and the wyvern accelerated even more.
KWAANG, BOOM! A shell that grazed him exploded, embedding shrapnel in his back, but Eisen, already consumed by rage, felt nothing at all.
He only lowered his spear, pouring hatred into the enemies who were now close enough to see their faces.
"I’ll kill you all, every last one of you!!!"
Before he knew it, the barrage aimed at him had thinned out. As expected, those cannons couldn’t fire once the enemy got close. Eisen tightened his grip on his lance, swearing he would tear every one of them apart.
It was at that very moment that the dozens of 20mm machine guns deployed in the anti-air positions opened fire.
Tukakakakagak-!
A seamless curtain of fire pouring down like rain filled Eisen’s vision.