Surviving as a Knight in a Trash Game

Chapter 167

Even when Rogério, who had been performing brilliantly recently, reached Master level, Definir ultimately could not set foot in the realm of Master.

Having been appointed as the lord of Horsaes and living a frantically busy life, he naturally accepted his juniors surpassing him and moving forward.

“Hoo-eup…!”

Watching Patrick, who was emitting streams of crimson aura before his eyes, he felt for the first time a desperate longing for the Master realm.

Kwaaang!

Regret, no matter how early, is always too late.

Patrick’s strike, which flew in without giving him even a moment to think, collided with Definir’s sword.

“Heup…!”

Even though he had merely blocked a single strike, the shock transmitted throughout his body was considerable.

Barely swallowing the blood that threatened to burst from his throat, he somehow straightened his body and raised his sword once more.

“You seem to have some talent, but you won’t last long with just that.”

The black aura erupting from Prince Patrick’s body split into multiple strands and flew towards Definir from all directions.

Kwaaaang!

With a faint white light that felt precarious, he steadily blocked the black aura, but eventually allowed the final attack to land, sending him tumbling to the ground.

“It would be easier if you just stayed down. You can’t beat me even if you die and come back to life.”

“A person like you will never understand why I get up, even if you die and come back to life.”

Definir had already steeled his heart for death.

His unwavering eyes maximized Patrick’s irritation.

“Let’s see if you can still do that when your whole body is broken.”

Patrick’s body shot forward once again.

This time, as if intending to finish it, his sword moved incomparably faster than before.

Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!

While a few more collision sounds were heard, various parts of his body burst open.

He was so tattered that it felt like a miracle he was even standing.

More serious than the external wounds were the internal injuries accumulated from forcibly enduring.

“You’ve done enough.”

Despite being in a state where he clearly couldn’t get up, Definir, having planted his sword and propped himself up, stared at Patrick with eyes that were losing focus.

“You’re tenacious.”

“Keuheuk, keuheuk, keuheuk, heuheuheu….”

Definir was laughing even as he continuously coughed up blood.

The area around the castle walls was already filled with the corpses of his subordinates.

Even the survivors were collapsing after delivering their final blows to the enemy.

Just one more time.

One last time.

A lord couldn’t fall before his subordinates, could he?

Wuuuuuung!

His sword, preparing for one last strike, cried out, and a clear white aura flowed along its blade.

‘Ah… I could already use aura.’

One day, when he had swung his sword in the training ground until he collapsed from exhaustion, Karl, who was beside him, had said a word.

-You have already reached a sufficient level. Do not cling to the pretense of being a Master.

At that time, he hadn’t understood his words.

Because no matter how hard he tried, aura was not granted to him.

“I was so foolish.”

Facing the miracle that came at the moment of death, Definir let out an absurd laugh.

“Have you surpassed your limits in the meantime?”

“It just happened that way.”

Nothing changed about his end.

He simply intended to do his best in what would be the last moment of his life.

Wuuuuuung!

As if his will was conveyed, the vibration of the sword grew stronger.

And the two men launched themselves at each other.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

As white light and black light collided, the surroundings exploded.

When the massive light generated by the collision faded, Definir was there, one knee on the ground, unable to lift his head.

‘Sir Karl… I won’t be able to see your face before I go….’

His body no longer moved, and amidst his darkening consciousness, his body slowly crumpled towards the ground.

***

The news of the sudden attack on the west reached the inner depths of the Arthur Domain faster than expected.

The surprise attack by the Postasia army was so sudden that it was unforeseeable.

“Why on earth would those bastards suddenly raid our domain?”

“Why they attacked is no longer important. Gather available forces quickly. We support Horsaes.”

As soon as Karl’s order fell, the Arthur Domain transitioned into a wartime system.

It didn’t take long for the well-trained elite soldiers of the Arthur Domain to gather in one place.

Including the knights, a force of nearly 1,500 troops sortied towards Horsaes not long after receiving the news.

In addition to the dispatched personnel, over 1,500 troops were stationed in the Arthur Domain in preparation for an enemy surprise attack.

Dudududududududu.

As the group was advancing towards Horsaes, a contingent appeared before them, kicking up dust.

The messengers, who had been obscured by the dust cloud, spotted Karl and prostrated themselves before him.

The messenger, covered in injuries and exhaustion, pressed his head to the ground and spoke heavily.

“Including Lord Definir… all troops of the Horsaes Domain army and the 800 Arthur Domain soldiers, except for us who came as messengers, have perished.”

“…”

A deep silence momentarily fell among those present.

The death of Definir, who had been with them for many years since the founding of the Lighthouse Knights, was not something easily accepted.

“Lord Definir and the domain army fought against the enemy until the very last moment to buy time for the domain’s citizens to escape. None of them fled.”

“…”

A troop difference of over three times; on a battlefield where death was certain, Definir and his soldiers did not flee.

“Lord Definir asked me to deliver this.”

The messenger placed an item before Karl.

“…”

He took the glove from the messenger and closed his eyes.

Knowing better than anyone what the glove in his hand was, he could say no more.

It was the glove Definir’s son, whom he had thought of as just a naive child, had gifted him when he first joined the Lighthouse Knights.

“He asked me to deliver it.”

Karl’s face was, as always, expressionless, but his current expression held a chilling, ice-like fury.

“Not a single soldier from the Postasia army will return to their land alive.”

His words were calm, but everyone present could read the determination in Karl’s voice.

Thus, with quiet anger filling their hearts, Karl and the knights began to move towards the enemy.

***

“…Do you think this makes any sense?”

For an army boasting a formidable force of 1,000 human soldiers and 2,000 monsters, totaling 3,000, the damage incurred in overcoming just one Horsaes Castle was too great.

“We lost over 1,000 troops. And that’s before the battle has even properly begun.”

Of course, there were additional reinforcements, but even so, considering the more than three-fold difference in strength, it was an incredibly painful defeat.

Patrick had expected at most 500 casualties, but he had lost more than twice that number in a single battle.

Patrick’s plan to seize control of the western part of the Arthur Domain through a swift campaign had gone awry from the very beginning.

“Contact Ingen. Tell him to send 1,000 of the detouring troops here.”

“If we take 1,000 from there, Ingen’s forces will also be left with only 2,000. Will that be alright?”

“We are the main force anyway.”

“I will relay it immediately.”

Patrick scowled, looking at Definir’s corpse lying on one side of the castle wall.

Although he had reached Master level at the end, he had to drag out time because he couldn’t easily suppress a mere Superior-grade opponent.

It wasn’t to gain just this much power that he had wagered his soul.

‘Are you listening, Decarabia? To think the power I gained by offering you my soul is merely this much. How can I fulfill the contract with this?’

As his sarcastic and mocking thoughts ended, the aura emanating from his body became much denser than before.

“Increase the pace of advance. Attack every domain and village seen on the way. No prisoners. Kill them all.”

“But… my lord… then the backlash that will follow….”

“This order is given with a plan in mind. Obey.”

“As my lord commands… I will obey.”

Rakshasa, who had been the Two-Legged Mask of Tarantula, looked at her lord, who had changed at some point, with worried eyes.

For some time now, impatience had begun to creep onto Patrick’s face.

He, who had always been calm, now easily angered over trivial matters.

The frequency of judgments and commands he would never have made in the past had also increased noticeably.

There were many aspects of the advance towards the Arthur Domain that were also difficult to understand.

Come to think of it, the symptoms seemed to have worsened progressively since the demon summoning ritual for Decarabia was conducted in the past.

‘The demon was not summoned that day.’

It was a demon summoning ritual performed after perfect preparation, but apart from the magic circle glowing, there were no other changes.

The ritual, where no one witnessed the demon’s existence, was concluded as a failure.

Patrick himself had admitted that the demon summoning had failed.

‘Come to think of it, there are more than a few strange things.’

Gathering believers by using the name of Decarabia, whose summoning had failed, and the way even normal people had become entranced as if mad at some point, also pointed to this.

What if. What if the summoning that day had been successful. And Patrick had met the demon. And as a result, a contract had been made?

The forced expedition to the Arthur Domain and his sudden changes all made sense.

‘Where does this path end….’

Tarantula and Rakshasa had not set out with the intention of selling their souls to a demon to destroy the world.

Their cause was to destroy this world from its roots and rebuild it.

To overturn the entrenched ruling class and the unchanging world and create a new world – that was their reason for existence.

However, Patrick was now abandoning all such things to fulfill his contract with the demon.

‘There’s no choice but to try somehow.’

There was nothing that could be changed now.

Succeeding in the expedition was the only way.

***

“Run away! Quickly!”

The western part of the Arthur Domain was in an uproar due to the sudden attack by the Postasia army.

Despite having made thorough preparations for emergencies, such as beacons and post stations, it was not easy for news to reach all the small villages and domains.

Even if the news did reach them, it was not an easy thing to suddenly abandon one’s home and flee.

Thanks to this, several villages where evacuation was delayed were reduced to ruins by them.

The number of those who passed away without being able to do anything at the hands of their cruel methods, killing everyone regardless of whether they were children, elderly, or women, also increased.

“You fiends…! Do you not fear the heavens!”

A village chief who had lived long enough raised his finger towards them, but what returned was only a cold spear and sword.

“Ah….”

Sister Marypop, who had come to the village for service under the Essus Order, clasped her hands and sought Essus at the sight of the hell unfolding before her eyes.

“There’s a nun here!”

“She’s a nun of Essus! Kill her!”

“No! Hang her in front of the carriage!”

Having been on the opposing side of the Essus Order since birth, they did not hide their animosity.

They dragged the person away, hung her in front of a carriage, and as for the monk who was with her, they cut off his head, impaled it on a pole, and then displayed it on the carriage like a flag.

Where their seemingly endless, merciless advance stopped, a single flag fluttered.

The emblem of Essus drawn on a shield flapped in the wind, and knights and soldiers wearing surcoats with the same emblem were lined up in stern military discipline.

At the head of the knights, a man with black hair fluttering in the wind and cold, indifferent eyes glinting beneath, was looking at the Postasia army.