Knight Charge Formation

As the orcs charged excitedly out of the human defensive line, a 33-man knight order had already completed its jog and acceleration. At the moment the orcs broke through the human line, the knight order's speed also reached its peak.

At the tip of the knight order's charge formation, Knight Saloyan was at the very front, with Senior Knight Bernal and Senior Knight Hope close behind him.

Knight Saloyan shouted, "Loyalty!"

White battle aura burst from Knight Saloyan's body, and all the other knights immediately released their own battle aura.

Knight Saloyan then cried, "Honor!"

The battle auras of all the knights began to merge. Even the thirty low- and mid-ranking knights began to radiate battle aura from their bodies under the support of the charge formation.

"Sacrifice!"

More and more battle aura began flowing forward through the charge formation from the rear.

"Valor!"

A huge amount of battle aura gathered around the three senior knights.

"Mercy!"

Battle-aura armor, something only grand knights possessed, began to appear on the three senior knights.

"Spirit!"

As the knight order accelerated, the white battle aura on their armor grew brighter and brighter. In the end, the three suits of battle-aura armor fused into one, forming an arrowhead.

"Honesty!"

As more and more battle aura was transmitted by the thirty knights behind them, the arrowhead grew larger and larger.

"Justice!"

In the end, the front of the charge formation was covered by a gigantic arrowhead formed from battle aura.

The knight charge formation was one of humanity's great powers for surviving in this world. A knight charge was the convergence of knightly spirit. Any formation with more than ten official knights could activate a charge formation, and the more knights joined, the more powerful it became.

A saying circulated across the Holy Continent: "When 'loyalty,' 'honor,' 'sacrifice,' 'valor,' 'mercy,' 'spirit,' 'honesty,' and 'justice' gathered together, human knights would become unstoppable!"

To defeat a knight order once it began its charge, one could only wait for it to stop. That was how countless enemies described the knight charge formation.

The soldiers who had just used a defensive formation to block the orcs' assault had done so to give their knight order enough time to activate its charge formation. Although the charge formation was extremely powerful, it could only display its full effect on a proper battlefield. Because it took so long to activate and its battle-aura effects were so conspicuous, an enemy had ample time to respond after noticing that the knight order was preparing to launch a charge.

"This is a knight charge! Run!" Fowler shouted. All his composure had vanished by then. Facing humanity's strongest offensive battle formation, all that remained was terror.

But the orc cavalrymen, slowed by the defensive formation, had no chance of escaping the knight charge that had already been unleashed. The white battle-aura arrowhead swept through them like a sickle, reaping the terrified orc cavalrymen.

"Protect the young master!" Because the Wolf Riders had been positioned toward the rear of the formation, they still retained most of their strength. They charged forward madly, using their bodies and their lives to cover Young Master Fowler's retreat.

Fowler's nine personal Wolf Riders had already lost two men in the earlier battle. The remaining seven Wolf Riders escorted Fowler as they retreated.

"For the Woolf Family!" Amid wave after wave of howls, one Wolf Rider after another charged toward the front of the knight order. Although it was futile, Wolf Riders continued shouting and rushing toward the knight order.

"Damn humans! I'll lead an army and wipe you all out!" Fowler muttered meaningless curses.

Orcs differed from humans. Human nobles generally passed their titles to their eldest sons, whereas among the orcs, titles were inherited by the strongest.

As the sixth son of the Woolf Family, Fowler had joined this Newcomer Trial to compete for the right to inherit the family leadership.

Every year, the Orc Empire sent large numbers of young warriors into the human world. Those who survived there for three months would receive the empire's favor. The main reason was that orcs reproduced too quickly while the Orc Empire had limited resources. The resources consumed by these cultivating orcs in particular made the empire feel as though it were trying to put out a fire with a cup of water. Thus, the "Death Trial" came into existence—though it also had the nicer name, "Newcomer Trial."

There were two Senior Wolf Riders beside Fowler. Orcs of such high-level strength rarely appeared in this kind of trial, because high-level fighters were important to every nation and could not be squandered. These two Senior Wolf Riders had come to the human world specifically to protect Fowler.

"Awooo!" One Senior Wolf Rider howled loudly toward the sky. With the support of battle aura, his voice clearly reached one of the Sky-Scorching Sparrows circling overhead. Its handler understood that he wanted the bird to descend. He knew that one of the people being retrieved this time was an orc of extremely noble status, and he had been ordered before departing to make sure that orc was brought back. Hearing the signal from below, the handler lightly patted the Sky-Scorching Sparrow's neck. The bird traced an arc through the sky and quickly lowered its flight altitude until it was just over twenty meters above the ground.

The two Senior Wolf Riders each grabbed one of Fowler's arms. They unleashed all their battle aura, shouted, and hurled Fowler into the sky.

"I'll take good care of your families!" Fowler shouted to the two Senior Wolf Riders from midair. Then the enormous body of the Sky-Scorching Sparrow appeared beneath him and caught him.

At that same moment, the knight order's charge formation closed in on the two Senior Wolf Riders. Intense battle aura flashed around their bodies, and relieved smiles appeared on their faces. Their target was safe, and their families would be cared for by the young master. Everything had been worth it.

Like a huge wave washing over mounds of earth, the two Senior Wolf Riders were instantly blasted into blood mist by the tremendous force of the charge. The more powerful the force, the greater the recoil produced by the charge formation.

The Sky-Scorching Sparrow, twenty meters above the ground, seemed to be startled by the knight order below and rapidly accelerated upward.

A pillar of battle aura shot into the sky from within the knight order. Knight Saloyan had seen that the Sky-Scorching Sparrow was still not far from the ground, so he gathered the battle aura of every knight and sent it skyward. Although the Sky-Scorching Sparrow climbed quickly, the battle aura was faster. In the blink of an eye, it had already drawn close to the bird.

Fowler sensed the danger. Gritting his teeth, he took a rune token from his robes, crushed it, and threw it at the incoming battle aura. The rune token transformed into a white shield, but the battle aura formed by the thirty-three knights broke through the shield after being blocked for only a moment.

Although the shield failed to stop the battle aura, it still weakened its power by more than half. The remaining battle aura cut a thin wound across the Sky-Scorching Sparrow before vanishing.

The injured Sky-Scorching Sparrow shrieked and beat its wings in panic, flying straight ahead. No matter how the handler tried to calm it, nothing worked. Terrified, the Sky-Scorching Sparrow did not follow its prescribed route.

The handlers of the other Sky-Scorching Sparrows in the sky realized that all the targets they had been sent to retrieve had been killed. The Sky-Scorching Sparrows were also becoming increasingly agitated above the battlefield, so they began turning back.

"He got away." Knight Saloyan spoke with some frustration.

That werewolf must have had an extraordinary identity. Every Wolf Rider had blocked them as if they were insane, and in the end, the two Senior Wolf Riders had been willing to die rather than stop themselves from sending that werewolf onto the Sky-Scorching Sparrow. The fact that the bird had risked flying low to retrieve him also proved how extraordinary he was.

"Clear the battlefield," Senior Knight Bernal said from the side.

Nearly 160 orc cavalrymen above level six had been killed, including two Senior Wolf Riders. This was already an enormous victory.

The 200 soldiers guarding the valley entrance were called back to help clean up the battlefield and treat the wounded.

Whether alive or dead, all the orcs on the ground had their heads cut off. Every one of them counted as military merit.

"My lord, the figures are ready." An adjutant with one hand wrapped in bandages walked over and said heavily, "Of the 1,000 soldiers, excluding the 200 guarding the valley entrance, 302 died in battle, 54 were seriously wounded, and 5 suffered minor injuries."

"Report it. Set aside part of the spoils for their families." Knight Saloyan spoke helplessly. War always claimed lives. These were elite soldiers he had trained for years. They had no trouble dealing with ordinary orcs, but they could barely withstand orc cavalrymen above level six. Even this outcome was only possible because the orcs had been eager to break out of the encirclement and had not been intent on fighting.