Battle at the Ridge (2/3)

None of Haalfrin's people know anything about formations or battle tactics, so they just charge after Haalfrin, who's swinging his sword and shouting battle cries like some suicidal fanatic on a crusade.

Kaalhyme sees this from his position atop the cliff, and he's wary of this strange move the Alastan kingdom made. From his point of view, the kingdom wouldn't have sent a group to assassinate him unless they were sure of succeeding… or unless they hoped to distract him from the battle.

If it was the former – if they hoped to kill him, then there would certainly be several elite mages mixed in the few dozen attackers disguised as normal soldiers…

' At least,' Kaalhyme supposes, 'If I were the one sending an assassination squad, I'd hide the number of mages to confuse the enemy; that's easy to do, since all you have to do is tell them not to use spells and dress like a common soldier.'

'However,' Kaalhyme ponders, 'my opponent this time, General Baalri, definitely knows how I run battles; I micromanage everything from atop. I'm very flexible and fluid with my armies. Even just a few minutes of me not attending to my forces could give Baalri an opportunity to make a move I can't recover from.'

Kaalhyme then looks back over his shoulders at his bodyguards and the infantry surrounding them. 'I've trained them well. I should just focus on doing my job, and I'll let them do theirs.'

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Haalfrin leaps to the front, and he starts hacking his way straight through the enemy lines. The first few enemies were sent to test the waters and see how many Alastan mages are attacking.

Haalfrin knows it won't take long for the enemy to figure out that he's genuinely the only enemy mage that came up here, so he has to hurry.

Knowing quite well that Kaalhyme's 3 magical bodyguards would shred his men to pieces in seconds, Haalfrin knows he has to occupy their full attention.

So, Haalfrin urgently pushes ahead of his men. The clan soldiers in front aren't worth mentioning in front of a sword mage; he's easily strong enough to bisect a man clean in half with one swing, or break the arm of any fool who tried to block his slashes.

With Haalfrin's 1st Gate magic, he's essentially 4x stronger than an adult male… which is akin to a full grown adult beating up a bunch of 10 year old children.

Seeing his enemies aren't running away like the footsoldiers at the base of the cliff, Haalfrin grins in satisfaction. 'Finally. They're not running away.' He looks up and prays silently in his heart, 'Thank you, Freyya! I'll serve you extra faithfully in the Death Lands.'

…Just when he says this, a stray arrow grazes his leg… It hits at just the right angle to puncture through his pocket and tear a large hole in the talisman resting there.

"SH*T!"

What kind of stupid luck does that arrow have?

Almost immediately, a black Aura starts to seep out of him, and within moments, the entire battlefield atop the cliff is engulfed in his black aura, and the rhythm of the battle immediately changes.

Haalfrin keeps cursing as he expects both sides of the battle to part once again… but that never happens.

When Haalfrin goes in for the kill, most of the enemy soldiers hardly fight back – instead opting to scream, fall back, or swing with the same frantic energy one has when they're desperately trying to fend off a tiger that's pinned them down.

To the Alsa'ree soldiers' credit, they're at least not running away.

Soon, Haalfrin's very own sword breaks on the blade near the hilt. Since it's not enchanted, it can't handle the force of his insane swings. He proceeds to crush the next soldier's throat with his bare hands and take his sword.

In order to preserve the durability of his new sword, he starts going straight for the neck instead of dismembering, like he was before.

Perhaps seeing their "boss" wrecking the seemingly helpless army has given his men a bit of courage. Perhaps it's because they were given several opportunities to give up or turn back but didn't.

Either way, Haalfrin's men start fighting more and more energetically as they struggle to keep up with the mage's pace.

With Haalfrin wrecking the enemy from the middle, they only have the gang up on the stragglers and kill them.

Despite being pushed back, Kaalhyme's men are very disciplined and loyal. They neither falter nor retreat, though they are weakened by the Aura.

Things may look optimistic for Haalfrin's troupe, but he knows that the bodyguards are there to protect the general. These common soldiers the general is throwing at him are just to test their strength.

So, before the mages up ahead make a move and take out Haalfrin's men, he breaks through the enemy line and runs straight for the general's tent – forcing the mages to make a move on him, rather than letting them deal with magicless soldiers behind him.

With the damage he caused already, Haalfrin's little followers have a good chance of surviving, despite having less training.

The bulk of Kaalhyme's protective infantry are surrounding the tent, but none of them can do anything to Haalfrin, as his bloodlust and death energy had been steadily growing throughout this entire battle…

Apparently, when the mad berserker is feeling aggressive or particularly close to death, his soul gets faster in sucking up the death energy permeating the battlefield. By now, his death aura has already doubled since he was dragged off with those arrow wounds by Haman and Nay.

The 3 bodyguard mages signal to the remaining men. "Go take out the rest of the intruders. Leave this mage to us!"

As one, all 3 mages draw their weapons and slowly inch their way onto the ground – surrounding Haalfrin while he calmly stands his ground and observes them.

Haalfrin notes that one of the mages looks ridiculously young - more like a little boy than a grown man than anything else.

Of course, mages are always older than they look. 1st Gate mages are always 4 times older than they look; an 80-year-old beginner mage will look 20. So… If the young sorcerer looks 10, then he's around 40 in reality…

… So, it's very important to not judge them by their looks! This "10-year-old child" might still be a threat!

The only disadvantage that the "child" mage has is that since he's stuck in a smaller body, his body is a lot younger and weaker, and his physical magic is going to be far from its peak.

Haalfrin also notes that the "young" boy has a skittish look in his eyes. Also, there's the fact that he keeps glancing at the grizzly old mage next to him, who has a large broadsword… That means he relies on him for some reason.

Yup. The young boy's probably the old man's apprentice. On top of that, the boy has definitely been exposed to fewer deaths and battles; he's not handling Haalfrin's Death Aura nearly as well as the other 2 mages.

The third bodyguard is a woman with white robes and a plain golden staff. She has no conventional weapons on her, so she might specialize in more complicated spells than body reinforcement. Not knowing what to expect from her makes Haalfrin feel troubled inside.

Haalfrin makes the first move, and he leaps forward with his sword outstretched, and he mostly trades blows with the older sword mage, while the young woman starts chanting a spell, and the young boy keeps trying to circle around Haalfrin and shoot fireballs at Haalfrin when he gets too distracted with the more immediate threats around him.

The four of them trade blows for a bit, growing familiar with each other's abilities. Things turn more serious for Haalfrin when the older sword mage almost immediately realizes that Haalfrin is an inexperienced mage.

After all, fighting with magically reinforced strength requires a different kind of martial arts. Plus, the "boy" doesn't even have any energy shields on his body. What in the world is he doing? Is he looking to die or something?

The sorceress with the staff is the only one here who notices the faint black mist engulfing Haalfrin; she's not nearly as in tune with death as Haalfrin is, so she can't see the full scope of how much death energy Haalfrin is accumulating. But, she can at least tell something is there.

She's a spirit mage, after all, so she's especially sensitive to spiritual fluctuations.

Through their brief first encounter, Haalfrin also learns a few things about his opponents.

The older mage is a lot like himself; he purely knows martial arts suitable for body reinforcement, like himself… along with the added benefit of mana shields and some sparse force magic.

The young, inexperienced boy throws around destructive magic much more suited for wide damage to control on the battlefield, rather than one on one duals, so he plays as more of a supporting character to the sword mage.

The yellow-haired girl heals the other two mages and keeps them in tip-top shape. She's not that good at fighting, but she's probably kept as a bodyguard since having a healer near the general is a good idea.

Haalfrin realizes that his stamina is much better than the other mages, but with that bloody healer keeping everyone healthy, they'll certainly win the battle of attrition. So, he goes straight for the healer.

The red-headed "little" boy blasts a wall of fire between Haalfrin and the healer – probably his first big move in this battle.

Haalfrin is momentarily surprised seeing this because he's never seen a low-rank mage pull out such a huge blast before; the boy doesn't even look tired at all; he must know some advanced techniques Haalfrin had never seen from a mage before.

(… To be fair, the mages Haalfrin has robbed in his youth were mostly fat merchants who became mages by accident, and who were rich enough to keep mana stones with them for the time they awaken their souls. Poor people usually just die when their magic awakens because they don't have any mana around them in their everyday lives.)