I Became a Mythical Knight King

Chapter 76: Anyway, Assassination (1)

Yoo Seong, who returned with a golden flash, immediately lowered its stance.

Although it had confirmed that there were no ratmen nearby, it was to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.

René and Jillian, like Yoo Seong, also quickly lowered their stances. René, who had adopted a rather convincing combat posture, was quite different from Jillian, who simply crouched down.

“Why, why?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

When Jillian asked in response to Yoo Seong’s gaze, Yoo Seong just smiled and gestured with a hand.

“Let’s move for now. René.”

“Yes, Successor.”

Although no explicit order was given, René exchanged a glance with Yoo Seong and retrieved the light bird that had been previously created, sending a new one into the air.

The light bird carried out reconnaissance as they moved.

For Yoo Seong and René, this was as natural as breathing, to say the least, with only a slight exaggeration.

“They’re waiting at the military camp. As expected by the Successor, they’re waiting for the new commander to arrive.”

After a short period of time, René spoke from their hiding place in the bushes.

It seemed the plan to assassinate the commander, Red Eye, and buy some time had succeeded.

‘Still, I’ll need a bit more time.’

The Lords Allied Army was, as its name suggested, an alliance.

The lords also needed time to gather their forces from their respective territories, so the delay of just one day likely wouldn’t be enough.

So, how could they buy more time?

“Is there any way?”

Yoo Seong, always one to come up with some kind of strategy, asked with an expectant face, and Jillian looked at Yoo Seong with a concerned expression. Yoo Seong nodded, facing both of them.

“I have an idea.”

Although it couldn’t be guaranteed to work 100%, there was a method with quite a high chance of success.

“What kind of method?”

René’s eyes started to sparkle, and Yoo Seong shared the method. René’s eyes gleamed even brighter, saying it was worth trying. On the contrary, Jillian’s face turned pale.

Red Eye’s nephew, Korof, was heading north after leaving the Legion.

“It’s really unbelievable.”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.

The guy leading an army of 5,000 was assassinated in broad daylight, among allies no less.

‘No, maybe it wasn’t an assassination.’

He had been killed outright, so it was a bit much to call it an assassination.

There were plenty of witnesses, too.

Anyway, the commander, Morrow, who was leading the 5,000 soldiers to defeat Baron Robert’s territory in the north, had died, and as a result, the 5,000-strong army was stuck.

“That fool.”

Honestly, it was impressive that someone managed to infiltrate the 5,000-strong force and decapitate the commander, but he still couldn’t get rid of the feeling that Morrow was an idiot.

He just let the intruder through and got killed.

It was so embarrassing that they were both Red Eyes.

‘Still, thanks to that, his clan’s influence has diminished.’

Leading an army independently and going on conquest was an honorable thing among the Red Eyes.

Thanks to Morrow’s foolish death, Korof had been entrusted with the mission instead, so, in the end, Morrow’s incompetence had worked out in his favor.

‘Well, I’ll at least pray for his soul. Stupid bastard.’

Korof muttered a brief prayer and looked ahead again.

Beyond the walls, there was little distinction between day and night, but within the walls, the world was different.

The brilliant sun, which had risen early in the morning, had already reached its highest point in the sky.

At this rate, he would be able to join the forces left by Morrow in a couple of hours.

Korof was leading around three hundred ratmen.

In truth, he would have traveled quickly with only his personal guards, but because of Morrow’s death, he had decided to bring a few more soldiers for protection.

‘Well, the chances of being attacked are low, but…’

The person who infiltrated the 5,000 and killed Morrow had done an incredible job, but he ended up dying with the infiltrating troops.

While the human knights he had seen crossing the barrier on the way here were fairly strong, except for one who had transformed into an angel, they were all on the same level.

A human capable of decapitating Morrow wasn’t likely to be very common among humans.

‘And I’m not careless.’

Morrow’s death was due to carelessness.

Would the Red Eyes be careless?

Like the knights, the mages’ levels were pretty standard as well.

Even the strongest among them was only a bit stronger than the Blue Eye, so there was no way they would lose in a magical battle.

‘And, crucially, would they do that again?’

Surely they wouldn’t use another surprise strategy.

Having reached a conclusion, Korof stroked his beard and sank deeply into the saddle of his wolf-rat mount.

‘I’m tired; maybe I should take a nap.’

It was at that moment that Korof closed his eyes.

One of the ratmen in the front suddenly collapsed with a thud.

The ratman walking beside him turned around in surprise and saw an arrow lodged in the fallen ratman’s temple.

“Uh.”

The stunned ratman looked up and saw where the arrow had come from. His eyes widened.

The sky.

A rain of arrows was falling from the sky.

Pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pah-pat!

Over a hundred arrows rained down on the ratmen’s heads.

Dozens of ratmen, walking unprotected, were struck by the arrows and fell, and a late scream erupted among the ratmen.

“Enemy ambush!”

“Set up the shields!”

“What, what is that—”

Kwagaga!

The final shout was drowned out by a tremendous roar.

Huge arrows, almost the size of pillars, fell among the ratmen like a bombardment.

“Ballista! It’s a ballista!”

While regular arrow attacks were like a rainstorm, the ballista attacks were like lightning strikes.

Every time the ballista launched an attack, dozens of ratmen were pierced or exploded, dying instantly.

“Stay calm! Karmajov! Kantakule!”

Korof shouted and cast a spell, causing the heads of ten slave ratmen nearby to explode, triggering a powerful magic.

Tatatatatatt! Boom! Boom!

A deep purple barrier formed above the ratmen’s heads, perfectly blocking both the rain of arrows and the ballista attacks.

“Uooooo!”

The ratmen cheered for Korof’s magic.

But Korof wiped the cold sweat from his brow and thought.

How could he overcome this situation?

Thanks to the observation magic activated by blowing up another slave’s head, he had already identified the positions and numbers of the archers and ballista operators.

There were about fifty elven archers and three ballistas.

The distance to the ones positioned on the hill was well beyond the typical range of regular arrows, but since they were elves, it made sense.

Bang! Bang! Pah-pah-pah-pat!

Even though the arrows continued to bounce off Korof’s barrier, they didn’t seem to care about wasting arrows, relentlessly pouring attacks.

The ratmen mocked the arrows bouncing above their heads, but Korof was not so lighthearted.

There was something behind this.

Were they trying to lower the barrier’s durability?

Or were they trying to exhaust Korof himself by forcing him to maintain the magic?

Both were correct.

But the problem was that there was one more answer.

“That, that!”

One of the ratmen suddenly shouted as he looked at the sky.

Korof instinctively turned his head and doubted his eyes.

“Pegasus!”

Forty sky knights from the Celestial Cavalry descended from the sky toward the ratmen.

Korof tried to cast magic, but he couldn’t.

He was already using a powerful barrier spell, so he couldn’t use large-scale magic.

Thus, Korof quickly assessed the situation.

The Pegasus’ dive attack was certainly a threat.

But there were only forty of them.

They had three hundred here, so he could just absorb the blows and attack the ones that fell to the ground.

“Hold on! Just hold on—”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

That was the end.

The moment the Pegasus knights dove, an enormous shockwave spread out in all directions with a deafening noise, sweeping away the ratmen.

As a result, Korof was thrown from his wolf-rat mount, utterly startled.

He couldn’t connect the dots between the Pegasus’ dive and the powerful shockwave.

But that wasn’t the end.

The Pegasus knights, after briefly resting their wings on the ground, took off into the sky again, and at that moment, the ratmen could see.

“Charge!”

Twenty heavily armored cavalry were charging toward the ratmen, as if to fill the space left by the Pegasus.

The heavily armored knights trampled over the ratmen who had been knocked down by the shockwave, pushing them aside or causing them to flee, clearing a path.

Korof saw it too but he couldn’t shout at the ratmen to stop being idiots and block them.

Because he realized the one leading the charge—exactly, the one charging directly toward him—was the one who had killed Morrow!

‘Damn! Was that a false report?!’

The Blue Eyes under Morrow’s command reported that they had dealt with Morrow’s assassin, but it was a lie.

They probably fabricated the report because they were afraid to admit they hadn’t even caught the culprit.

“To do the same thing again! Do you think we’re fools?”

Korof shouted bravely as he quickly formed a hand seal.

And right behind Korof, who was rushing toward him, Jillian, with a pale face, suppressed a scream and prayed with her hands clasped behind Roland’s back.

“Omphalos’ Barrier!”

‘I can’t believe I’m doing this again.’

The saint’s prayer, somewhat resembling a scream, reached Omphalos, and Omphalos’ miracle occurred, fulfilling the saint’s wish.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With a loud noise, translucent Omphalos’ barriers shot up one after another.

The goal was simple, to separate the Red Eye and the Ratmen.

Six barriers, three on each side, shot up, creating a direct path between the Red Eyes and Yoo Seong.

“Dispel! Counter Magic!”

Then, Rene shouted.

She quickly completed the counter spell after sensing the magic formation that began to take shape under Korof hand seal, and Korof magic was effortlessly dispelled.

Korof was as shocked as Morrow had been.

It was the second time for Yoo Seong’s group, so they were more skilled and could attack faster and more precisely, but for Korof, it was a first-time experience.

And Yoo Seong didn’t miss the opening.

Suddenly leaping off the galloping horse, he slammed his feet into the ground.

The only difference from Morrow’s time was that black energy shot up like flames from Yoo Seong’s legs.

Black Lightning Eclipse.

Lightning Step.

The technique of Black Knight No. 09.

At that moment, his speed was faster than a running horse, surpassing even the swiftest of movements.

Bang!

In the blink of an eye, Yoo Seong, who had closed the distance, swung his sword at Korof’s neck.

As with Morrow’s time, the necklace Korof was wearing shattered and activated magic, but the result was different.

“What?!”

Unlike Morrow, who had moved about a meter, Korof didn’t move an inch.

The teleportation magic was completely blocked.

Why?!

At the silent scream Korof let out, Rene, too, was shocked.

It was something she had done, but the result was far more astonishing than expected.

‘The magic…It’s so natural.’

Until now, she had been using magic as a tool, but just now, it was like she was handling magic as an extension of her own limbs.

It was a sudden transformation, but there was no time to think about it.

Swish!

Yoo Seong’s sword precisely decapitated Korof.

With a look of shock on his face, Korof’s head rolled to the ground, and Yoo Seong climbed back onto Alphonse and shouted.

“Keep running! Penetrate!”

“Omphalos’ Barrier!”

Jillian unfolded all four remaining barriers, blocking the Ratmen’s path and opening a route.

Back when Morrow was alive, the Omphalos barriers had broken quickly due to the overwhelming number of enemies, including monsters and Blue Eyes. But this time was different.

Omphalos barriers remained intact, making it easier to position for a retreat.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Arrows rained down on the heads of Yoo Seong’s group and the heavy cavalry charged through the Ratmen.

It was clear that the enemy was shooting without concern for friendly fire—no, as if they were certain it wouldn’t happen.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Even the ballista didn’t stop firing, and the Ratmen dared not pursue Yoo Seong’s group.

Swish!

An arrow from Vanadain, who was rushing by Yoo Seong’s side, pierced the space between the eyes of a ratman cavalryman.

Yoo Seong, grinning, was amused by Vanadain’s audacity to shoot a direct arrow through their own forces, but at the same time, he admired Vanadain’s skill.

“Successor!”

At that moment, Rene called out to Yoo Seong.

Yoo Seong quickly turned around and understood why she had called him.

Should we just do it?

Originally, there were about 300 Ratmen.

Many had either died or been injured in the process of subduing Korof, and some of the Ratmen, realizing Korof’s death, had begun to flee.

At this point, they could finish it off.

Instead of just dealing with Korof, they could completely wipe them out.

“Yes! Let’s do it!”

“Yes! Successor!”

The two turned their mounts.

Jillian, sobbing with a face as if it had come to this, prayed, while Yoo Seong quickly commanded after glancing at the celestial cavalry throwing javelins from the sky.

“Elven archers, ballista units, retreat! Elite infantry, heavy infantry, assemble!”

He sent back the rear ranged units and summoned close-combat forces.

Since he had four available units to summon, the heavy cavalry and celestial cavalry didn’t need to be summoned back.

“For the Glory of Camelot!”

As soon as Kate appeared, she drove a flag into the ground and shouted, and the elite infantry, emboldened by the cry, charged toward the Ratmen.

“We’re going too!”

“Uwooooo!”

The heavy infantry also charged toward the Ratmen.

“Dispel! Counter Magic!”

With the commander, Korof, already dead, Rene, seemingly possessed, also dispelled the magic of the Blue Eyes, leaving the Ratmen unable to fight back.

[Victory in battle.]

[150 Commander Points earned.]

[Virtue Points increased.]

[Jillian’s level has increased.]

[Large Artillery Unit’s level has increased.]

[Heavy Cavalry Unit’s level has increased.]

[Heavy Infantry Unit’s level has increased.]

[Achievement: Chain Assassination completed.]

Victory.

Yoo Seong’s group, having wiped out the reinforcements led by Korof, left the battlefield.