NOVEL NEXT Chapter 95
The meaning of Phineas’s advice was likely something along the lines of, “It’s best for Alex to appoint a suitable figure among the capable legion commanders to take charge of the infantry while focusing on leading the cavalry.”
However, this bold young man interpreted Phineas’s words entirely differently. He decided to smash the approaching orc legion relying solely on the strength of the cavalry, without depending on the infantry.
Soon, the royal cavalry, composed only of nobility of Baron rank or higher, revealed itself under Alex’s banner. Among them were not only family members but also actual nobles who held ranks higher than that of a baron.
“Your Highness, this is reckless.”
Phineas advised as he watched Alex mount his glimmering ironclad suit. Alex shrugged without removing his helmet.
“I have already committed reckless acts that resulted in the sacrifice of numerous soldiers. If I can’t accomplish this, there would be no reason for me to fight here any longer.”
“While the defense is adequately prepared, it might be wiser to draw the enemy in and fight.”
“I will draw them in, indeed. But the enemy’s morale is too high; we need to break it first. Please wait calmly.”
Alex’s voice was filled with confidence. Even as a newcomer, he was still a member of the Caprice royal family of the Audrich Empire.
He was the only son of Anton Caprice, recognized by Rose as someone who “deserves to step into battle.” The weight of Alex’s bold claims felt entirely different from the earlier commands that led to the annihilation of two legions.
Soon, all the members of the royal cavalry gathered behind Alex. They numbered twenty-five across and one hundred deep, a massive cavalry formation totaling two thousand five hundred.
The royal cavalry was the elite course of young nobles who could lead the future of the empire. Nobles’ offspring eager to build military careers aimed to be appointed as legion commanders of the infantry or to join the royal cavalry, which offered overwhelmingly better treatment compared to the infantry commanders.
With his spear firmly in hand, Alex commanded.
“Raise my banner. Let the enemies know that the world is not only filled with shields and red flags.”
At Alex’s command, one of the riders raised a flag symbolizing Alex Caprice high into the sky.
Alex, who idolized his sister, was quite conscious of her banner even when drawing his.
His flag, inspired by Rose’s, depicted a fierce design of a cavalry lance on a red background, while Rose’s flag featured a steel shield on red.
The flag’s name was ‘No wall can withstand us.’ Even the name reflected that he was influenced by his sister.
Leading twenty-five hundred cavalrymen, Alex slowly advanced north. The knights had strong personalities, so there were slight variations in the shape of their armor, the patterns engraved on it, and the form of their mounts; still, they all had one thing in common: they were all clad in shining steel.
Each piece of armor was enchanted with defensive spells crafted by the magicians of the magic tower, and each lance was imbued with offensive magic to easily crush enemy defenses.
Even the horses bore shoes with swift magic to boost their charge speed. The royal cavalry, selected from only the most skilled knights, was the nation’s secret weapon and one of the strongest forces that the empire could mobilize.
An elven scout, having completed reconnaissance under Phineas’s orders, approached Alex to report on enemy movements.
“Your Highness, it seems we need to slightly revise our plan.”
The silver-haired elven cavalrywoman spoke to Alex, who shrugged his shoulders.
“Revise? How so?”
“The enemy’s formation is leaning towards the east. The arrangement of their infantry is heavily skewed to the west, with their front lines curving here, quickly approaching.”
“I see. But if that’s the case, all it changes is the direction of my encirclement; the basic strategy remains unchanged. Thank you, armored soldier of Eramenia. Please inform Phineas to prepare to pursue the shattered remnants of the enemy army.”
“I will relay your orders to the commander.”
With that said, the silver-haired elf turned and disappeared. Alex redirected his forces towards the west. He had imagined that since they had been completely wiped out while trying to flank the east, the enemy would allocate more strength there, but it seemed they had executed a more reckless charge beyond Alex’s expectations.
In other words, all legions had advanced in sync with their own rhythm, without focusing their strength on anyone specific, leading to an awkward formation as the orc army rushed forward, wasting valuable time battling in the east.
For Alex, this was a good development. As he charged several kilometers in this manner, he saw dust rising steadily from the distance and raised his spear.
“From now on, ride forward! No matter where I lead you, follow me and do not stop until I tell you to! Charge!”
Alex rushed forward fiercely aimed at the lower southwestern portion of the enemy. The thundering sounds of his armor clanking and the forceful stomp of magic-imbued hooves combined to create a powerful shockwave.
The two thousand five hundred cavalrymen followed behind Alex, transforming the shaking of the earth into a real earthquake. It didn’t take long for the two forces to collide.
Alex’s spear pierced right through the skull of the leading orc.
The scene of Rose, charging single-handedly, displayed how fleeting common sense could be, but Alex’s charge shattered any existence of common sense as well.
Typically, a cavalry charge allows one knight to stab a few enemies with their lance before losing momentum and struggling to press onward.
The significant impact of the cavalry came from the combined weight of the horses building up speed.
However, Alex and his cavalry did not lose their momentum even as they slammed into the orcs as if the physical laws of this world had jammed.
The precious magical shoes, extremely difficult to produce in bulk, maximized their potential, providing the horses with even greater power, and the imperial knights pushed the orcs back as if sweeping dust away with a broom even after the initial charge.
The leading orc legion crumbled like a biscuit bitten into. With a flourish of his hand, Alex directed his steed northeast.
“Do not attempt to annihilate them! Our goal is not encirclement but destruction!”
The number of dead orcs was not high compared to the shock unleashed. The cavalry had shattered a few hundred orcs in one significant charge but paid no attention to slaying the infantry legion, redirecting their focus instead to the east.
Immediately after, following a graceful arc, Alex decisively pierced the side of the second orc legion.
Through the gap created in the infantry formation, similar-looking ironclad knights started to flood in. Before the second orc legion even had a moment to recover from the shock of their formation being breached, Alex was already aiming his spear at the third legion slightly further northeast.
The orcs were like halves of a split apple, losing their connectedness and staggering about helplessly.
Due to their disjointed formation, they couldn’t respond organically to the cavalry’s attacks. The gargoyle queen, possessing some intelligence, was struggling to keep up with Walter and Bernard in a two-on-one duel for hours, leaving no commander even capable of assessing the chaos.
Naturally, there were no shadow knights alerting them that such a conflict could arise. Even if one intelligent shadow knight existed, they would have become the main target in the chaos and met their demise at Alex’s spearpoint.
The third and fourth legions were struck down by the cavalry’s shock.
Though over two thousand orcs were slaughtered, not a single soldier from the cavalry fell. And Alex Caprice continued marching east in a sweeping arc.
The orcs already deployed in the southwest stood frozen, unable to regain their composure. When the front legion stopped, the troops behind obediently followed suit.
Unlike the ragtag army led by the Succubus Queen, they avoided trampling over their own forces, but there remained confusion among the commanders of each legion on how to interpret the gargoyle queen’s straightforward command to “charge forward and smash everything in existence!”
Should they encircle and annihilate the cavalry sweeping past like a raging storm? Or should they respect the gargoyle queen’s directive first and continue pushing south with what remaining forces they had?
A fierce debate erupted among the orcs, and the orc legion that lost their commander in the breakthrough was plunged into even greater confusion at being unable to regroup.
Meanwhile, Alex had completely breached the extreme eastern side of the enemy’s leading legion, fully escaping their formation.
Though he had cut through obstacles that measured hundreds of meters, neither he nor his following knights showed any signs of fatigue.
The knights who took the most damage were those whose armor had been dented, or who had lost their lances midway through the charge. Alex didn’t cease his movements, pivoting his steed back towards the west, intending to pressure the enemy once again before they could regain their footing.
Since Alex’s standard-bearer had not lost his flag, the shield of his red spear still fluttered prominently in the air.
Looking at the confused orcs, Alex was confident. If any of those orcs managed to survive, his banner would soon become a terrifying symbol representing the royal cavalry.
While it might not match his sister’s shield banner, it could certainly evolve into a meaningful symbol within the imperial forces!
“Now let’s return!”
After taking one last jab towards the west, Alex slowly turned his steed’s head and gave the command.
He had sufficiently disrupted the enemy’s morale. The most critical situation was meeting a high-spirited enemy after having broken his own troops. However, he believed that inflicting a psychological shock on the leading legions right before would yield a meaningful effect in pushing the enemy back.
Additionally, it was evident that during the breakthrough, Alex had already dispatched several orc commanders and two or three shadow knights, leading to considerable chaos in their command system.
Among the approximately eighty thousand enemy troops, only three thousand had fallen at Alex’s hand, but this alone had allowed him to achieve all the effects he had hoped for.
Now he needed to return to the main camp, reorganize the infantry legion waiting for him, and finalize a strategy to deliver a decisive blow through cooperation with Eramenian forces.
“I shouldn’t get complacent.”
Alex muttered while reflecting on the recent situation where he lost four thousand troops due to a nonsensical misjudgment. It seemed he was starting to understand Rose’s true intentions as mentioned by Walter.
Walter had remarked that Rose was somewhat recognizing Alex by telling him not to “expect your talent to match her own.”
That statement was accurate. Alex himself felt that the current results were quite good, and if he could achieve this level of success in his first battle, a flicker of confidence emerged that suggested he might not be entirely lacking as a cavalry commander.
However, at the same time, he keenly felt the gap in talent between him and Rose, who had never suffered a single decisive defeat since her first battle at eighteen.
Even Walter had made critical mistakes in several tense battles, but Alex could not afford to feel overconfident like an invincible entity when he didn’t even come close to Walter and Rose’s abilities.
“I must prepare seriously. This was merely the first button in a series. I must consult General Phineas.”
Yet in reality, at the very moment Alex hurried back to the main camp, the “military clash” was already nearing a conclusion.
Around the same time, Margaret was crazily pounding on the dragon’s face, while Rose was pressing her injured arm against Etrias’s face.
As the hero plunged the holy sword into the gargoyle’s shoulder and Bernard wound the iron chains around her, “The Duel of the Stars” was also slowly approaching its climax.