The bandits from the Principality of Lis were extraordinary right from their armament.
They were all mounted, and as Jorgen had previously mentioned, they were clad in metal scale armor.
Keldric imagined a scenario where he would have to fight against an enemy in such armor while riding Boreas.
The standard imperial metal armor style was essentially chainmail or plate armor.
Very rarely, scale armor made to resemble fish scales would occasionally appear, but those were mostly products from the eastern Principality of Lis or made by the Kakarin.
It was one thing to use leather, but the idea of making a fragile scale armor from expensive metal was not common.
Consequently, Keldric had never fought against an enemy wearing dense metal scale armor.
‘Leather armor allowed my sword to cut well, but how sturdy is metal armor?’
Keldric recalled the cavalry he had fought against in Carlton village.
They wore sturdy leather scale armor, yet Keldric’s sword had penetrated without fail.
However, he was not sure if it would work this time.
No matter how weak scale armor was against cutting and thrusting, it was a different matter if it was made of metal.
Keldric shook off his complicated thoughts and gripped his sword tightly.
“Boreas! Faster!”
In response to Keldric’s urging, Boreas galloped forward like the wind.
The sound of the wind slicing like a blade brushed past Keldric’s ears.
The distance was quickly closing, but the bandits were still brandishing their long spears to intimidate the villagers.
Keldric noticed that several residents had already collapsed.
The situation was urgent, and Keldric was still too far away.
“Look over here!!”
With that, Keldric shouted loudly.
His booming voice echoed all around.
The villagers, who were confronting the bandits with makeshift wooden spears, looked surprised.
The bandits were startled as well.
The surprised bandits turned their heads, and upon seeing Keldric charging fiercely, they quickly kicked their horses’ sides.
Hee-haw!
The horses ridden by the bandits began to exhale white breaths and moved.
Keldric observed the bandits spreading out in all directions.
The bandits from the Principality of Lis indeed had an exotic appearance.
The chain-like aventail hung down from their helmets, covering their necks, and beneath their protective scale armor, they wore gambeson with unique patterns.
Their faces were entirely covered with chainmail faceguards, leaving only their eyes visible.
‘Tricky.’
That made it difficult to aim for their faces.
Keldric knew he was strong, but he was not confident that he could pierce through the metal chain faceguards or scale armor.
“Sir Keldric! We will distract them!”
Jorgen, who had arrived a bit late from afar, shouted.
Keldric turned to look, and indeed, the mercenary group led by Jorgen had formed a circle.
In the center were Alisa and eight mercenaries with bows, while the remaining twenty-five mercenaries each held their weapons and formed a circular wall with their shields.
The sight resembled a porcupine, making it quite difficult for the cavalry to approach.
They said they were experienced against cavalry, and it was no exaggeration.
The mercenaries with bows drew their arrows.
A few arrows flew towards the bandits, but they did not come close to hitting.
While it was not particularly helpful, it at least distracted the bandits’ attention.
As the cold wind continued to blow, Keldric focused on the bandits who had started to circle around.
Keldric had fought defensively against the cavalry in Carlton village.
If he had attacked aggressively and the cavalry had ignored him and rushed toward the lord’s manor, there would have been no way to stop them.
However, the situation was different now.
“Charge!”
Without hesitation, Keldric urged Boreas forward.
Boreas, panting heavily, spat excitedly as he raced forward again.
As Keldric, riding Boreas, burst forth like lightning, the bandits seemed momentarily taken aback and shouted in an incomprehensible tongue among themselves.
It seemed they hadn’t expected Keldric to charge at them.
A moment later, a few bandits who had been circling around turned their horses toward Keldric.
There were two of them.
Keldric gripped his sword tightly with his right hand.
‘If only I had a spear.’
The bandits were all armed with long spears.
In comparison, Keldric’s sword felt short.
However, Keldric was confident he wouldn’t lose.
“Be careful!”
Alisa’s sharp voice rang out as two bandits split from the group and charged at Keldric sequentially.
Keldric, rushing towards them, did not reduce his speed.
In a cavalry battle, victory depended on who struck first, and Keldric, with his shorter reach, chose to close the distance quickly.
This approach proved to be very effective.
Keldric twisted his body to the right to avoid the spear and, as he returned to his original position, he swung his accelerating sword.
Crack!
With a heavy and brutal sound, the bandit who had been chattering fell silent in an instant.
Shattered pieces of metal scale flew about.
The bandit, deeply cut in the chest, took a few more steps while mounted before collapsing helplessly into the snow.
However, Keldric did not stop there.
While his right hand swung the sword, his left hand deflected a spear thrust from the other side and grabbed the bandit by the neck.
“Ugh!”
As Keldric exerted his strength, the mounted bandit was effortlessly lifted off his horse.
The bandit, momentarily lost for words, looked at Keldric in astonishment.
The eyes visible beyond the eyeholes were trembling uncontrollably.
Keldric tilted his head back and, still wearing his helmet, smashed his head forward.
Thud!
With a dull sound, the iron helmet worn by the bandit crumpled badly.
Blood gushed from the eyeholes.
It was clear that the head inside was in a similarly unfortunate state.
The bandit’s body, lifted high, trembled for a moment before going limp.
Keldric hurled the lifeless body of the bandit away, and it flew for quite a distance before hitting the ground.
‘Crazy!’
Jorgen, who was watching this scene, was astonished.
Until Keldric boldly charged forward, Jorgen had been filled with worry.
However, after Keldric had collided with the bandits, that concern became irrelevant.
‘It’s as if he’s lifting a child…’
Alisa, who was preparing her magic, was equally astonished.
No matter how strong a knight was, lifting an adult man in metal armor with one hand was beyond reason.
Moreover, the armor the bandits wore had been completely destroyed in a single strike.
Jorgen swallowed hard as he watched Keldric standing confidently on his horse.
Until a moment ago, he had felt a sense of camaraderie with Keldric, who was accepting his commands well, but he realized once again that a knight was indeed a knight.
The unique ferocity emanating from Keldric was no different from other knights he had encountered.
“Phew…”
Meanwhile, Keldric, having killed two bandits in an instant, exhaled a cold breath.
The bandits, still circling around, were fewer in number but maintained their ferocity.
As if enraged by the death of their two comrades, they hurled incomprehensible words at Keldric.
“They’re coming!”
Jorgen’s shout rang in Keldric’s ears.
Some of the bandits had turned their targets toward the clustered mercenaries.
As Keldric was about to turn his horse’s head toward them, he suddenly felt a chilling energy and quickly hunched forward.
Swish!
The sound of slicing air was almost simultaneous with a short javelin passing over Keldric’s head.
Keldric urgently pulled the reins in the direction from which the javelin had flown.
Starting with that one javelin, before he knew it, five bandits had begun charging at Keldric, throwing their spears.
In addition to the long spears, the bandits each had several javelins strapped to their backs.
Keldric clicked his tongue and kicked Boreas’s sides once more.
The surrounding scenery began to rush past him like the wind.
On the other hand, the bandits charging toward him while throwing javelins were closing in rapidly.
One of the javelins flew right in front of Keldric.
It was difficult to change direction.
Keldric swatted it away with his sword.
With a brief spark, after dodging two more javelins, Keldric finally swung his sword hard at the spears of the bandits that had gotten close.
Three spears targeting Keldric’s chest broke helplessly.
Immediately afterward, Keldric dove into the formation of the bandits.
The bandits whose spears had broken turned their javelins back toward Keldric and charged at him.
Keldric’s sword flashed several times, and then three critically injured bandits rolled in the snow.
Clang!
However, at some point, Keldric realized that his sword could no longer pierce through the bandits’ armor.
After striking the metal armor or directly blocking javelins, it was only natural that the blade would dull.
The bandits weren’t fools either.
Realizing that Keldric’s sword had dulled, they simultaneously charged at him.
In that moment of confusion, Keldric suddenly gripped his sword in reverse and swung it like a hammer.
“Ugh!”
The cross guard of his sword lodged nicely into one bandit’s eye socket.
Regardless of the language barrier, it was only natural for a scream to erupt.
Keldric immediately let go of his sword.
At that moment, another bandit grabbed Keldric’s arm as if trying to wrestle him down.
“Eh?”
Keldric didn’t retaliate in any particular way.
He simply swung his arm in a swift motion while still held.
One bandit was sent flying into the sky and crashed into the snow.
Keldric quickly approached and pulled on Boreas’s reins.
Crack!
When the warhorse slammed its forelegs down onto the chest of the fallen bandit, there was no way that anyone would survive.
In an instant, Keldric dispatched the bandits and turned his direction toward the mercenaries.
“That’s…”
There were flames dancing like a flickering dance ahead.
Fire is a double-edged sword.
It can bring warmth, but it can also return as a tragedy.
Alisa had devoted five years to control that deadly fire.
When she closed her eyes, the images of her family and clan being consumed by flames still lingered vividly.
That fire took everything from Alisa.
Yet now, she was struggling to control that very fire.
“Wizard! They are coming!”
Jorgen, standing at the forefront with his shield, shouted urgently.
Just as he said, the bandits forming a wedge had already rushed up to them.
“Wizard!”
“Be quiet!”
Alisa tried to gather her concentration as much as possible, but Jorgen’s squawking was a distraction.
Only after she scolded him did silence fall.
Alisa closed her eyes again and focused.
The environment is the most fundamental foundation of magic.
If the environment is difficult for fire to spread, then performing magic becomes that much harder; conversely, if the environment easily allows fire to spread, the constraints on magic lessen.
The ground was covered in snow.
Alisa took out a fist-sized piece of charcoal from her pocket.
That was the catalyst for her magic.
What she needed last was a spark of imagination and wisdom.
The sound of galloping hooves was loud.
Alisa quietly opened her eyes.
The sight of the bandits, already close, entered her vision.
Her eyes hurriedly searched for a source of heat.
Fire could arise anywhere, as long as the minimum requirements were met.
For instance, from the frictional heat generated by the horses running and rubbing against each other.
Recalling this, Alisa crushed the charcoal.
The charcoal didn’t break into pieces but turned into black powder that dispersed like smoke.
The snow-covered environment, the easily ignitable catalyst, and the hastily pieced-together ignition point.
It was extremely inefficient, but the minimum requirements for casting magic were now fulfilled.
“Get out of the way!”
At Alisa’s sharp shout, the mercenaries recoiled in shock.
One side of the solid shield wall crumbled instantly.
Seeing this, the bandits rushed in, thinking they had a chance.
That was exactly what Alisa had been aiming for.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from four horses in an instant.
The blazing fire melted the surrounding snow and engulfed the horses.
“Ugh!”
Startled by the fire, the bandits fell off their horses.
The unexpected fall, compounded by the heavy armor they wore, was fatal for them.
The mournful cries of the horses being cooked filled the air.
The charging strength of the bandits was suddenly halved.
That also meant that the remaining half could still move unharmed.
Alisa sank to the ground, exhausted.
The rest was for the mercenaries to handle.
“Damn it, kill them all!”
“You bastards! You have no idea how much trouble you’ve caused!”
While the bandits, startled by the magic, were being stabbed by the mercenaries’ spears, Alisa, drenched in cold sweat, turned her head toward one spot.
There stood Keldric, a massive knight.
He had swiftly slaughtered seven bandits and was now staring at the flames in surprise.
Alisa, staring blankly at Keldric’s blood-spattered appearance, let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah, seriously…”
While she had barely taken down four with magic, that knight had handled seven on his own with unbelievable strength. And he looked completely unscathed.
“That’s ridiculous.”
As she said, it was indeed something utterly absurd.