Throne of the North.

Chapter 574 Knight's Blitz (Part Two)

Ryan couldn't understand why such a vast expanse of land hadn't been cultivated and planted with golden crops.

Just like Gunnar Haakon couldn't understand why an elite cavalry unit would suddenly appear behind him.

Looking at the banners fluttering under the sky, the dazzling flower of paradise is unforgettable, while the other two banners are equally full of the ferocity of war.

This descendant of noble blood from the Iron Eagle Kingdom was momentarily bewildered. That was the Flower of Paradise, wasn't it? The emblem of the Flor Empire, wasn't it? I wasn't seeing things, was I?
But behind us is the very road we came from. They've only been away from the Iron Eagle Kingdom for three days. It's impossible for them to have reached the Empire's territory.
So where did this army come from?

Compared to the empire to the north, most nobles in the southern lands had little exposure to war, so much so that Gunnar Hakan watched the cavalry's banner grow clearer and clearer.

"Your Highness, those are enemies from the Empire?!"

The exclamations from those around him finally jolted this noble of blood. Gunnar, in a state of extreme anxiety, drew his weapon and shouted:

"Defense! Defense! Damn it, never mind where those damn cavalry came from, get them into defensive formation right now!"

Gunnar was surrounded by 30,000 troops from the Iron Eagle Kingdom who had come to the aid of the Holy See, as well as 60,000 slaves responsible for maintaining logistics. They formed a bloated formation on the vast land. Gunnar was momentarily bewildered, let alone the people below him.

"We have so many knights? Good heavens."

The slaves were discussing the cavalry army galloping behind them. They didn't understand badges or flags; all the noble lords looked the same.

Their only reaction was fear and shock; their faces drained of color as they watched the terrifying army draw ever closer.

As for the soldiers, they were in no better shape.

They felt the ground tremble slightly, pebbles bounced, and watched the cavalry with curiosity. In their discussions over the past few days, they were supposed to be the only army sent by the king to support the Papacy. Where did that army come from? Were they from other nobles in the south, or had the king changed his mind?

The knights looked at the nobles in the center of the army with confusion and bewilderment. They wondered if the nobles had given any orders, and also wondered if the army did not seem to be the kingdom's army.
Then, the next moment, they heard the prince of the Iron Eagle Kingdom shout in terror.

"Defense! Quickly form a defensive formation!!!"

The army of 100,000 men finally descended into chaos amidst panic and confusion. Soldiers searched for their comrades and raised their weapons, while slaves, unsure of where to flee, simply followed the other slaves running around in disarray.

Whether soldiers or slaves, none of them could stand still and observe the entire battlefield from a god-like perspective. Gunnar's panic also turned these people into headless flies. Most of them dared not move and could only stand still, while a small number gathered around the knights and ran towards the nobles to protect their safety.

Gunnar ordered his men to form a defensive formation, but even he himself didn't know exactly how many soldiers had formed a square to fight the cavalry.

He didn't even have a chance to see it, because Ryan had already arrived.

Beneath his battle-scarred mithril armor, Ryan gripped his lance and charged forward, his cold gaze fixed on the group of soldiers ahead who were terrified and didn't know where to run, facing the cavalry legion head-on.

What's amazing is that these soldiers dared to turn their backs on them.

"kill!"

The thunderous hooves showed no mercy. The moment the extraordinary legion charged, soldiers leaped and were torn to pieces. Their defenses, which could hardly be called armor, were utterly ineffective against the terrifying power of the knights and warhorses.

The soldiers at the front were terrified to face this extraordinary cavalry legion, while the soldiers at the rear turned pale as they watched their comrades flying through the air, screaming in certain death.

After thousands of cavalrymen surged forward and crushed the thousands of soldiers in front, the troops behind them collapsed first, fear causing them to drop their weapons and flee to the flanks of the cavalry charge.

This is their only way to counter the cavalry now: don't stand in front of them.

Gradually, the soldiers in front of Ryan turned into slaves, but he did not hesitate. The thousands of knights behind him simply followed his steps and charged forward. These slaves could only endure the trampling of the warhorses' hooves and the tearing of the knights' blades.

Ryan pierced through the army of 100,000 men in just one minute. His warhorse turned its head hundreds of meters away, and Ryan reined in his horse and stood still. Five thousand knights rushed up behind him on both sides and faced the tens of thousands of troops in front of him again.

One hundred thousand people were in such a state of chaos that it felt like the end of the world had come. Ryan located the army's command center, which was too conspicuous, with hundreds of noble insignia flags flying around it.

Huff!

The brief charge was not enough to tire the warhorses beneath them; they reveled in the sensation of flesh being crushed during the frenzied gallop.

"charge!"

Ryan raised his weapon once more, and the mighty army regained its speed, charging towards the already collapsed army.

“They are coming! They are coming!”

Gunnar Haakon was terrified. Seeing the imperial army that was clearly heading towards him, he lost all his noble composure and frantically shouted for the army to protect him.

It can only be said that the troops that can follow the nobles are of higher quality. Perhaps it is because the nobles' terrified roars at this moment make them dare not flee.

Around the somewhat disorganized command center, small, orderly military formations had sprung up. They were distinguished by the nobles they followed, and they surrounded the knights, but did not cooperate or communicate with the soldiers of other nobles.

"Brand!"

During the charge, Ryan saw the soldiers ahead, their hands clenched tightly around their spears, and he shouted loudly.

Beside him, Brand spurred his warhorse, increasing the speed of his three hundred cavalrymen, and charged ahead of the army formation standing still.

"Throw!!!"

Brand roared, and hundreds of powerful knights took the spears from their backs, grabbed them, and raised them over their shoulders. In the next moment, sharp hardwood spears flew forward at lightning speed, their terrifying force piercing through the chests of the soldiers at the very front of the formation, and some even pierced through the second and third soldiers behind them.

"Keep throwing!"

Brand threw his spear, and the power of the Sky Knight made his weapon directly shatter the attempts of the other knights to stop him. Three Gold Knights were instantly killed by having their chests pierced, and one Sky Knight was trembling with fear as he looked at Brand.

He couldn't understand why the other party's power was so much more terrifying than his own; he felt as if he were facing a gigantic dragon and couldn't muster any courage.

Before the soldiers could even withstand the cavalry charge, a huge gap had already formed in their rout.

As the warhorses charged forward, few spears remained to block Ryan's path, and the army lost its most effective way to counter cavalry. "Don't linger!"

Ryan cleaved seven or eight spears in half with a single sword stroke, then killed three or five soldiers, before coldly roaring at Bogeld.

He had to remind the girl of the discipline of war, and as he turned back, he glanced at the massive chariot not far away.

Gunnar Haakon and Ryan locked eyes, and Gunnar swallowed hard, then stepped back in fear.

What kind of eyes were those? Indifference to life? Cruelty to war? Gunnar didn't know; all he wanted now was to escape and hide in a safe place.

At that moment, he suddenly regretted it. He shouldn't have thought of going to the front lines to try and share in the war's benefits just because he saw the Papacy's victory. The war was not over, far from over. The powerful empire still possessed a superhuman army that inspired fear in everyone.

……

Turning back once more, Ryan looked ahead. The army of 100,000 was no longer a densely packed formation; everywhere there were screams and wails, and slaves and soldiers fleeing in the chaos were doing or thinking no one knew.

Looking up, the Blood Eagle hovered overhead, like a scavenging vulture waiting for a dying beast to finally lose its breath.

It guides the way and also conveys the discoveries of Griff from afar.

"let's go."

Ryan pulled on the reins, increasing the speed of the army. Gunnar, in the center of the army, thought that the imperial army had launched another attack. In a panic, he boarded the carriage and fled into the distance. It was not until much later that he saw that the imperial army had disappeared into the horizon and that the flat land was no longer filled with those devilish figures.

"Damn it! How did the Imperial army end up behind us?"

Gunnar blamed the defeat on the cavalry legion appearing behind the kingdom's army, and used this to question the other southern armies that were now gathering towards the Kingdom of Carlos.

The swift rider possessed extraordinary abilities, maintaining his speed even in the darkness. Carrying the prince's questions, he finally spotted another large army in the distance just before dawn.

He was pleased that delivering the letter hadn't taken too much time this time. Perhaps he could spend more time on the return journey to avoid His Highness giving him new tasks.

Thinking of this, the warhorse beneath him slowed down as he moved.

In the sky, the blood eagle, like a black dot, stopped spreading its wings and glided down towards the fast horse below. At the same time, Griff, behind the messenger, also revealed himself, raising his longbow and locking onto the enemy in front of him.

The arrow pierced through his chest, and the Blood Eagle crushed the horse's neck. Without causing any further commotion, Griff quickly moved forward, poured out black oil from a bamboo tube, and then set the corpses of the man and the horse on fire.

Black smoke shot straight into the sky, and the Blood Eagle cried out at that moment. After receiving the signal, Ryan in the distance raised his hand to cover his visor and looked at the army that was making breakfast.

With the troops departing, many people were able to eat three meals a day, and breakfast was naturally a happy occasion.

"The porridge is already boiling? Why is it shaking so badly?"

The cook was puzzled, thinking he had discovered some secret that even the noble lords had not discovered, and excitedly told his companions about it.

However, their discussion had not lasted long when they saw a dense throng of slaves rushing toward their tent, their faces filled with fear and urgency.

"What are you doing? This food belongs to the soldiers who are loyal to Lord Price, not to you damned peasants!"

The soldier roared, saying he was going to kill a few of the foolish slaves as a warning to others.

However, the next moment, a sharp longsword from the cavalry legion helped him complete this step, and incidentally saved him the time of eating breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Iron cavalrymen weaved through the tents, their longswords tearing through the flimsy tents and spraying hot blood. They were far inferior to the army of the Iron Eagle Kingdom. The noble allied forces, who were waiting for breakfast, did not even have time to organize an effective counterattack before being swiftly killed by the galloping warhorses.

With just three or five charges, Ryan even split his five thousand troops into two parts, tearing the noble coalition to shreds and capturing three barons and two viscounts.

As for the one who was killed?

Ryan glanced at the count, who was being trampled into a bloody pulp behind him. He didn't care about anything else; the count had just run into the cavalry in his panicked descent, and it was just bad luck for him.

"How much ransom are you willing to pay to buy your own lives?"

Ryan grabbed a viscount by the collar and brought him to his side, then pointed to the chaotic scene of slaves and soldiers on the battlefield behind him.

"Those people are now my prisoners. How much money are you planning to spend to buy them back?"

The viscount was terrified. The image of the count's tragic death still flashed through his mind. Everyone was fleeing for their lives, and they were naturally following behind the count. However, the count ran so fast that it allowed these nobles to react in time and survive.

Hearing Ryan's cold question, the Viscount lost all composure and stammered, "..."

"Five thousand, five thousand gold coins."

"Five thousand gold coins for those slaves? Fine, then what about your own life?"

Ryan's warhorse was still running, and the viscount he was carrying was certainly not in a good mood, looking like he was about to vomit up what he had just eaten.

"Fifty thousand gold coins, no bargaining allowed. Sign the ransom contract, Viscount."

Ryan tossed it to the knight beside him, set the ransom share for the remaining nobles, and then took the contract from the servant behind him after stopping.

This wasn't some kind of contract with supernatural power; it was just something I wrote on the way to rest not long ago. It was very hasty, but it still had an effect after I pressed the blood seal onto the nobles' hands.

In extraordinary contracts, extraordinary power is often used as a final means to punish those who break their promises, but such a thing has almost never happened. Nobles would sell their possessions to ensure that the honor of their family name would not be tarnished by the word "breach of trust."

"I await your ransom in the Empire, hopefully not too late."

Ryan's voice faded into the distance, leaving behind only a devastated battlefield.

(End of this chapter)