River terrain was probably the terrain all cavalry hated most.
Especially artificial rivers. These waterways, designed purely for beauty and utterly unconcerned with the laws of nature, never took practicality into account.
What shape a river took was completely irrelevant. An artificial river only needed to look beautiful. Its nearly vertical outer walls could hold as much water as possible, creating rippling waves of crystalline beauty.
However, for the two men intending to fight a decisive battle atop the river, this was absolutely not pleasant terrain.
Riverbanks over thirty meters deep meant that once he fell into the water, Lu Bu would face the awkward necessity of dismounting Red Hare. Because of his Noble Phantasm, Lu Bu absolutely could not get off Red Hare. That was the prerequisite. Otherwise, everything would be over.
In midair, the crimson steed fully displayed its legendary agility. Its mane surged like black flames, and its powerful hooves landed heavily upon a broad floating sheet of ice, making it bob violently. Red Hare and Lu Bu truly complemented each other perfectly, fitting together seamlessly. Even with such an unstable landing, Red Hare deftly adjusted its body and steadily supported Lu Bu atop the rising and falling ice. The Heroic Spirit known as the Flying General barely felt any tremor at all, maintaining impeccable balance.
Leonidas was not so meticulous. The ice beneath his feet surged violently under the force of his landing. He immediately leaped away, changing footholds three or four times in succession to disperse the impact before finally steadying himself.
"Heh... You don't think cavalry can't attack without a plain, do you?"
Lu Bu sneered. That defiant bearing seemed both to mock Leonidas's recklessness and to display his own unmatched valor.
Red Hare snorted, as though echoing Lu Bu's words. The poison called magical energy surged through its breath. Sensing his partner's support, Lu Bu laughed loudly, turned his Fangtian Halberd around, and, without waiting for Leonidas to reply, shouted, "Charge!" The crimson figure charged again, racing toward Leonidas like serpentine lightning!
But...
Boom!
Spears and halberds clashed!
Holding his spear in both hands, Leonidas swung the heavy shaft like a baseball bat in a whistling half-circle, smashing it toward Lu Bu's flank! Lu Bu gave no ground, sweeping his Fangtian Halberd upward in a rising slash!
If the battlefield became like this, then... Lu Bu's landing points became easy to predict.
As cavalry, the only places he could fight were the ice floes. Once the ice had shattered into smaller chunks, the direction of his leaps became clear!
This was Thermopylae!
Three hundred Spartans and roughly seven thousand Greek allied soldiers could never have stopped Xerxes's army of two hundred thousand. The simplest solution would have been to send thirty thousand men to surround them and let the remaining hundred and seventy thousand march straight through.
Yet they had still done it. With fewer than ten thousand men, they had held Xerxes's army at Thermopylae for three days and three nights.
The reason was... Thermopylae's unique terrain.
The narrow pass wore down the numerical advantage to the utmost. No matter how many men came, only around a hundred could reach the front lines at once. Once the advantage in numbers had been neutralized, all that remained was a direct contest of combat strength!
Many people believed Leonidas was merely a brute. Yet it had been Leonidas's idea to face the enemy at Thermopylae. He had strongly advocated resisting the Persian army, insisting that Thermopylae was the most important battlefield. If he had truly been a brute, how could he have possessed such clear reasoning?
Within the body of that bold, muscular beast hid the rationality and wisdom of a king and commander.
He was a fierce general, but fierce generals came in different kinds. Some excelled at taking on a thousand riders alone and charging into battle, like Lu Bu. Others excelled at commanding armies and overturning disadvantageous odds, like Leonidas.
By shattering the ice field, he had created terrain favorable to himself. Lu Bu could only leap between chunks of ice, and Leonidas's defensive routes had suddenly been reduced! No matter how fast Lu Bu was, as long as he understood Lu Bu's attack routes, dealing with him became much easier! In principle, it was exactly the same as the Battle of Thermopylae—using the advantage of terrain to nullify the enemy's strengths as much as possible.
At Ice Castle, Abner looked down over the terrain through translucent ice walls. Amid the endless white and dark blue, two crimson figures clashed again and again, while deafening, violent metallic impacts echoed between the castle's hollow walls...
"What a... fine warrior I've obtained."
As he spoke, a measure of pride rose in his heart. Summoning Leonidas had been his idea. Looking at the result, he had drawn himself an excellent trump card.
Though Leonidas looked difficult to command, once Abner understood his temperament, a straightforward Servant like him was actually quite easy to get along with.
He continued watching the two combatants while driving the Magic Crest within his body at full power. Flowing magical energy poured from him, nearly visible to the naked eye. He was ready at any moment to support Leonidas!
However, there was simply no room for him to interfere in a battle between two Servants.
His Servant was fighting with all his strength. What he, as a Master... no, as a friend, could do was ensure Leonidas did not need to worry about running out of magical energy and could fight with everything he had.
The force of their clashes naturally traveled through their massive bodies into the ice beneath their feet. The recoil slowly pushed the ice apart. After only three exchanges, the ice floes had already drifted more than ten meters away from each other. The two leaped aside in perfect understanding, racing and jumping between the shattered ice before breaking away after a strike.
Every leap was accompanied by the sound of three or four metallic clashes, after which the battlefield shifted again.
Leonidas wanted to neutralize Lu Bu's speed as much as possible. Lu Bu, meanwhile, had been stirred to bloodlust and insisted on settling the matter head-on! Both were Heroic Spirits of crimson and gold, like two dancing flames trying to devour each other atop the endless sea of ice, burning into an even fiercer red.
Suddenly, Lu Bu leaped again! The crimson horse was like a cannonball wrapped in flames, its roaring magical energy transformed into terrifying momentum! But Leonidas had answered this kind of leaping strike many times already and was gradually growing accustomed to it. Focusing his mind, Leonidas raised his spear in both hands and thrust toward the saddle!
He missed!
No!
That did not mean Leonidas's aim had been off. A Spartan warrior could not make such a subtle mistake in spear technique!
Leonidas's spear had pierced with perfect accuracy through where Lu Bu's hipbone should have been.
But the spear had not struck Lu Bu.
Because there had been no one on the horse from the very beginning!
That was right!
Lu Bu was not on Red Hare's back! Leonidas hurriedly shifted his gaze. Red Hare's crimson color was simply too swift and too conspicuous, and Lu Bu and Red Hare worked together with such flawless unity that Leonidas had nearly forgotten they were one man and one horse—not some centaur-like monster!
Lu Bu had leaped from the saddle! Using his warhorse's overwhelming presence, he had vanished from his enemy's attention for an instant...
Whoosh!
It was the piercing sound of heavy metal tearing through the air! Leonidas had no time to confirm Lu Bu's position. Judging the direction of the attack from the faint sound of the wind, he hastily pulled back his spear and spun around, sweeping it toward the Fangtian Halberd behind him!
Lu Bu was holding his halberd and thrusting toward Leonidas's back!
Boom!
Like a baseball being hit, the clash between spear and Fangtian Halberd ended with Lu Bu at an overwhelming disadvantage!
The peerless Lu Fengxian was actually knocked flying through the air by Leonidas! Like an enormous baseball, his bronze beast-headed armor swayed through the air in a dazzling golden arc!
Was it a trick?
Leonidas faltered slightly. Lu Bu's strength was far too different from what it had been at the start...
Yet in that brief instant of hesitation, Lu Bu was already sneering in midair. Having allowed Leonidas to knock him away, even at the cost of such an embarrassing display, Lu Bu's next strike was naturally one he was absolutely confident in!
He deftly adjusted his body in midair and raised his halberd high with one hand, like a javelin thrower!
"Ha!"
With a fierce roar, the silver-bright halberd instantly became a meteor tearing through the night sky! It shot toward Leonidas!
"What?!"
Leonidas had just knocked Lu Bu away and was at the end of his swing. Left with no choice, he flexed his muscles with all his might, forcibly halted the spear's momentum, and barely swung it back, sending its tip crashing against the halberd's blade!
Boom!
Yet at the instant spear and halberd met, Leonidas again felt a heavy blow strike his lower abdomen!
It was Lu Bu!
In midair, the bold warrior hurled his halberd and, at the same time, launched a flying kick. Like an arrow, his long leg shot into Leonidas's body!
The supreme manifestation of Lu Bu's lifelong mounted combat: Fourfold Coordination, attacks from both sky and ground!
The first layer: Red Hare drew the enemy's attention away, allowing Lu Bu to leap up and swing from the side.
Unfortunately, Leonidas had knocked him away.
The second layer: borrowing the force that sent him flying, Lu Bu hurled his halberd from midair, launching an attack from above. If the enemy had defended against the first attack, his posture would inevitably be thrown into disarray, making this strike difficult to answer.
Yet Leonidas had still barely dragged his spear back and blocked the halberd...
And so, the third attack appeared! In the instant the halberd disrupted Leonidas's attention, Lu Bu came flying down with a kick from midair, driving his foot into Leonidas's lower abdomen. At the same time, he reached out and seized the halberd, using its distinctive crescent-shaped structure to hang before Leonidas!
At last, even a fierce warrior like Leonidas had been caught off guard by Lu Bu's practiced coordination...
But... this was Fourfold Coordination!
The fourth attack was...
"Red Hare! Come back!"
Lu Bu's bold voice nearly shattered Leonidas's eardrums. The delight in that thunderous cry was impossible to conceal.
In truth, Lu Bu did not need to say anything at all.
The partners who shared one heart had, after separating from their master, swiftly galloped forward for a distance and opened up enough room for a charge. Then Red Hare turned around and rushed at the two fighters with all its strength!
With enough distance, Red Hare could accelerate to its maximum speed!
Red Hare's mass combined with Red Hare's speed produced nearly terrifying kinetic energy! Why could a speeding train kill someone on impact? Because tremendous mass combined with extreme speed created kinetic energy! Mass alone or speed alone would not suffice.
This fourth attack was a desperate charge from Red Hare into the enemy's undefended back while Lu Bu had the enemy trapped!
Lu Fengxian was skilled in mounted combat and had spent his life on horseback. He had never ridden some terrifying phantom beast, so he could not compare with the Riders who had participated in previous Holy Grail Wars. Yet who could deny his title as Rider when he had completely mastered the horse he rode and developed an unmatched combat style no one could rival!
Riding ancient beasts certainly made one a Rider, but mastering an ordinary animal as though it were an extension of oneself and displaying peerless mounted combat skill also made one a Rider.
Amid Red Hare's heavy, neighing breaths, Leonidas turned back in terror. In his dark brown eyes, the crimson figure grew larger and larger as it charged violently toward his back!
Fiery red instantly burned across his entire field of vision!
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