Chapter 3: Draw the Sword!

Su Ya cautiously hunched over, peeking half his head out of a trench opening to survey the battlefield. The increasingly loud sounds of charging footsteps and battle cries seemed to be right by his ears.

His assessment was correct. The army's marching route did not pass directly through his position. To Su Ya's side, directly opposite him, the Conqueror King's army, a torrent of uncountable numbers, charged with spears towards Arthur's already collapsing forces.

In the black torrent, a chariot flying a massive black and gold royal banner stood out prominently. The flag, fluttering in the wind, bore the Conqueror King's emblem: a large, 16-rayed sun, the iconic symbol of the Macedonian royalty.

And at the very top of the royal banner hung half a man's body. It was an old man, aged but bearing a slight resemblance to Su Ya, with a mysteriously nauseating smile on his face. He was draped in a blood-stained red cloak, only half of which remained, embroidered with half of a golden royal crest identical to the dragon emblem on the back of Su Ya's right hand. As if deliberately bisected by a guillotine at that exact spot, the old man, reduced to half a body, hung from the royal banner like dried jerky, swaying back and forth.

Su Ya's eyes immediately narrowed. If he wasn't mistaken, that had to be Arthur's kingly father, King Uther. Unlike the original legend where King Uther died of illness, in this world, King Uther was cut in half by the Conqueror King and displayed on the royal banner for all to see. Su Ya found it hard to imagine what level of hatred could lead to such an act.

Now, the situation was clear. There was both good and bad news.

The good news: King Arthur, who hadn't yet inherited the throne, died unexpectedly. King Uther, who ruled the entire kingdom, was cut in half. And Su Ya, who looked exactly like King Arthur, practically had the opportunity to inherit the entire kingdom.

The bad news: He would become the monarch of a fallen nation.

At this moment, Su Ya felt his throat go dry. The already dead Arthur and King Uther seemed to come alive again in his eyes. One lay by his feet, the other hung from the Conqueror King's banner, watching him with a lifeless yet eerily playful gaze. They were beckoning, inviting, and laughing sinisterly. They were leading Su Ya down the path to the guillotine!

"Phew... there aren't really ghosts, are there? Damn it, evil spirits begone, evil spirits begone! This isn't the time for that, Su Ya, quickly, remember what you should be doing now!"

Su Ya took a deep breath, vigorously shook his head, gritted his teeth, and forcefully suppressed the violent trembling in his body. His gaze quickly swept over the phalanx below. He focused his attention on the scattered units moving on the outer flanks of the army formation.

These were small, organized squads of main cavalry, each approximately 50 riders strong, with four squads forming an ilai (a basic unit), deployed on the right wing of the Macedonian phalanx. They were the primary shock troops known as Companion Cavalry, and they had now largely separated from the phalanx formation, about to enter the engagement zone and charge.

Further out from the phalanx, teams of three Macedonian Prodromoi (scout riders) galloped outwards in a semicircle, fanning out, making contact, and then returning. These were Su Ya's actual opponents, the targets he needed to focus on.

As Su Ya watched the movements of the scout teams below, a question arose in his mind: Given their scouting range, their organized operational plan, and the ultra-wide reconnaissance area created by the coordinated efforts between teams, there was no way his position could have gone undetected, right? But where were they?

Just as Su Ya thought this,

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

He heard a rapid series of hooves in his ears. The sound rapidly approached from a distance!

"There's still a hidden scout there! Kill him!"

A rough voice, tinged with surprise, rang out. Su Ya sharply turned his head, and saw—

Two light cavalrymen on brown horses, clad in leather armor, about a hundred meters behind him, spurred their horses with their thighs, changed their course, and executed an inverted 'V' turn, galloping swiftly uphill towards Su Ya's position! These two knights did not carry exaggerated lances like the main cavalry below. Instead, they rode barehanded, with short spears strapped to their backs. Upon spotting Su Ya, they immediately bent down and, with one hand, drew a 2-meter-long javelin from the javelin quiver hanging on either side of their horses.

Soon, the two light cavalrymen who had drawn their javelins, leveraging the immense momentum of their accelerating horses, gripped the javelin in their right hand, closed their left eye, aimed at Su Ya's position, and left their left arm empty, pulling back their right arm! They adopted a stance ready to throw the javelin, their lower bodies—hips and legs—seeming to be glued to the horses, constantly rising and falling. Yet, during this violent motion, the javelins in their hands remained absolutely still!

They rapidly closed in! Their presence locked onto him, until—

The horses galloped to within 50 meters!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Amidst the rumbling of hooves shaking the ground, the javelins tore through the air and shot out!

All of this happened in less than half a minute. Su Ya's mind went blank. The moment the javelins locked onto him, it was as if an invisible tether connected him to the knights' javelins. Through this intangible tether, the opponents' killing intent, their will, their inner yearning for glorious achievement, transformed into tangible mental arrows, faster than the javelins themselves, instantly crossing the 50-meter distance and slamming into Su Ya's heart!

Su Ya gasped, immediately realizing—Damn it, they have cheats!

He could only feel that under this invisible mental impact, his limbs became extremely stiff. Even though his mind was perfectly clear under the threat of killing intent, knowing that he should immediately find a way to dodge these two javelins, his body seemed to struggle greatly to receive complex commands from his brain.

Why? No, this isn't the time to think about that!

Since his body couldn't comprehend complex commands like 'I should immediately find a way to dodge the javelin attacks,' then—

"Get down!" Su Ya's expression twisted slightly as he tremblingly ordered himself.

As expected, the shortest and most direct command was immediately received by his body, and it responded. Su Ya instantly dropped to the ground.

Thud! Thud!

Two javelins grazed Su Ya's scalp and the stubbornly upright golden cowlick on top of his head by mere millimeters, their sharp tips severing a few strands of golden hair. Then, they deeply impaled themselves into the dirt wall behind Su Ya.

Buzz~!

Above his head, the javelin shafts vibrated and hummed like trembling dragons.

"Ha~ ha~ ha~!"

Su Ya's eyes were wide, staring down at the blood-soaked ground. His heart pounded wildly, and he gasped for breath, his body trembling like a sieve. The metallic scent of blood rushed into his nostrils, making him want to vomit immediately. "Damn it, I'm gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die!"

"Even the small fries have cheats! How am I supposed to fight this?!"

"My cheat, save me!"

His cheat did not respond to Su Ya. Su Ya gritted his teeth, fear violently assaulting his mind until his teeth began to ache from clenching. He finally mustered his courage and abruptly looked up again.

And saw—

Above this narrow trench, in this well-like space where only a corner of the sky was visible.

"Whoa—!"

The knight, riding the brown warhorse, clamped his legs tightly around its belly, making the horse's hind hooves stand firmly on the edge of the trench, causing the entire warhorse to rear up almost to a 90° angle with the ground!

Immediately after, occupying Su Ya's entire vision, two black, iron-shod horse hooves plunged downward at extreme speed, slamming directly towards his face in the pit!

"Ugh—ugh—"

The premonition of death had never been so strong, making Su Ya hallucinate his head being crushed by these two hooves, pulped, with red and white matter splattering everywhere! He wanted to call for help, to scream in terror, but the sounds that came from his open mouth were incoherent shrieks of fear. Tears even began to well up in his eyes.

He was going to die! Everything in his vision began to lose color at this moment, until it was filled with black, desperate thoughts.

However, just at this moment, just as Su Ya had almost given up all will to resist, a strong, clear, brief, yet undeniably confident, crisp voice suddenly rang out!

"Roll 1 meter to your left!"

"Stand up!"

"Then—"

"Draw the sword!"