Annihilation

Above the red sand.

A violent gale swept past, churning up clouds of dust.

Multiple Maggot Eyes were filming this gladiatorial combat from various angles and positions.

The armor of the five Golden Armor Knights shone brilliantly under the moonlight, and the mechanical steeds beneath them were as thick and massive as tanks.

Even the servants brought by the five Golden Armor Knights looked imposing.

The bio-engineered warhorses were tall and powerful, their muscles bulging hideously. Scalding hot steam vented from their fang-filled maws, and trickles of blood ran down their tusks.

This battle had been rehearsed countless times.

A portion of the Servant Knights spurred their mounts forward first, gradually forming a line as they moved, then rode forward slowly in perfect unison.

The remaining Servant Knights dispersed to the left and right flanks.

Finally, the five Golden Armor Knights moved behind the Servant Knights, advancing slowly in the safest part of the cavalry formation.

The gladiators had long since arranged themselves into a shield wall. The shields were layered one upon another; it seemed highly unlikely that this would have any effect against the charge, but at least it looked somewhat decent, rather than everyone screaming and running in all directions only to be chased down and trampled by horse hooves.

The Slaughterers gradually accelerated until they were galloping across the vast red sand arena.

Their mere momentum kicked up a sandstorm, like a wall of steel pressing down upon them, making it difficult for every gladiator to breathe.

Under such circumstances, not a single gladiator fled. Qin Xa had to admit that there was a reason Angron respected them, even after the Butcher's Nails had been implanted.

"I'm still flipping you off in my heart." Kleist lowered his right hand, which had been giving the middle finger, unslung his long spear from his back, and rested it on his shield.

Qin Xa treated this remark as nothing more than wind, ignoring it entirely.

The Slaughterers were still galloping forward.

The Golden Armor Knight who had just killed all the rebel prisoners spurred his mount into a leap, and the structure of his mechanical warhorse began to shift.

Qin Xa watched that warrior.

His sword fell from his hand and stuck into the ground.

Qin Xa slowly raised his hands, pressing his palms together.

In his mind, he recalled the new way of using psychic powers that he had pondered and mastered while meditating.

Frost spread silently across the scorching hot red sand.

"The first."

Qin Xa murmured, his pressed palms twisting as if wringing something out.

As the final syllable faded, the Golden Armor Knight, who was mid-leap in the air and in the middle of a visually spectacular descent with his mechanical steed, suddenly had his helmet rotate one hundred and eighty degrees.

The mechanical warhorse had established a neural link with its master, so when its master's head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, its own head also turned one hundred and eighty degrees backward.

Man and horse fell from the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground.

"The second." Qin Xa murmured again, repeating the twisting gesture.

The second Golden Armor Knight, having discovered his companion's death, had his head rotate one hundred and eighty degrees to face backward before he fell from his mechanical steed.

"The third."

"The fourth."

"The fifth."

All the Golden Armor Knights died in the exact same way.

The people had already realized something was wrong.

The cheering stopped.

The gladiators remained in their shield-bearing stance, but they looked around, trying to discover the cause of the Golden Armor Knights' deaths.

As for the Servant Knights who were still galloping, they looked at their masters with expressions of shock and bewilderment.

"Remember what I told you before." Qin Xa pulled his sword from the ground, walked past Kleist, and moved from the very back to the front row.

Things were going smoothly; he did not need to keep his distance.

Arriving beside Angron, who was in the front row, Qin Xa met the gaze of the stunned Angron, then continued forward.

Further ahead than the shield wall, Qin Xa slowly threw his sword.

The sword, acting like a dagger in his hand, flew out spinning, piercing the armor of a Servant Knight and tearing through his body.

Qin Xa stood in place, waiting.

His figure was soon swallowed by the dust and the bodies of the Servant Knights.

Angron charged forward, wielding his axe.

A shockwave erupted in the very center of the Servant Knights.

The dust, the men, and the horses of the Servant Knights were all blasted away by the spreading shockwave.

Angron, who had charged forward upon seeing Qin Xa engulfed by the enemy, was also swept up by the shockwave; he flipped twice in the air before landing on the ground, crushing a Servant Knight—who had landed before him—along with his horse into a mist of blood.

At the very center of the shockwave, Qin Xa stood unscathed.

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Qin Xa picked up a long spear from the ground, dropped by the man who had taken the brunt of the impact and been shattered into pieces.

The Servant Knights had already begun to flee.

Qin Xa raised the long spear and hurled it at a knight as if throwing a javelin.

The javelin spanned six hundred meters, pinning the knight and his horse to the ground together.

Qin Xa picked up another long spear and threw it again.

Another man was pinned to death along with his horse.

"Kill them!"

Oeno roared, and the gladiators, shaken from their shock, reacted and gave chase to the scattering enemies.

Oeno brandished his sword, pursuing a Servant Knight whose horse had a broken leg.

As this "Old Bear" ran after the Servant Knight, Angron swept past him like a gale, chasing after the faster-fleeing enemies.

Qin Xa noticed Oeno, watching him chase after the horse with the broken leg.

As Oeno sprinted, his neck jerked back and forth, making him look like Sylvester Stallone in mid-run.

Oeno, unaware of the gaze, sprinted in pursuit. Just as he was about to catch up to the crippled warhorse, he raised his sword, but as he was about to plunge the blade into the enemy's back, the enemy's head suddenly rotated one hundred and eighty degrees to look at him.

The head of the horse between the man's legs did the same.

Oeno withdrew his sword and turned to look at Qin Xa.

Qin Xa nodded.

"If I were younger, I would have caught up to this cavalryman and stabbed him eighteen times by now," Oeno muttered to himself, stopping to catch his breath.