Away from the area where a massacre was taking place, once Edwin heard the voice of the Thompson on the Magic Call, he said firmly, “Calm down, Thompson. The enemies are at a numerical disadvantage, and they can only use the darkness to attack. So, be wary of your surroundings and calmly explain the situation to me.”
[The enemy has appeared in the area that was assigned to the First Company of the Second Battalion. However, no matter how many times we tried, the enemy could not be seen. On the other hand, the soldiers of Hector are turning into corpses with each passing second. Still, there isn’t even a trace of the enemy visible to us. Commander. H-How do we deal with this? There is nothing we can do against a formless ghost!]
Thompson’s voice continued to tremble as he continued to speak. Thus, even though he could not see his face, Edwin understood Thompson was quite pale.
‘Thompson is an Aura Knight. He can even find the smallest traces because his senses are far more developed than any ordinary soldier. So, no matter how dark it may be, how is that possible?’
No, it is impossible.
Edwin Hector’s judgment wasn’t that wrong for any normal Aura Swordsman. They had eyes that could even pierce through the darkness. Their eyes, once covered with mana, could determine the location of the enemy even in darkness. That was why Edwin had made the decision to climb the mountain even though the sun was setting.
Then, why was Roman Dmitry still not found? From the Magic Call, it was clear that the First Company was currently all over the place, and the remnants of Cairo were around there on the mountain.
‘Are they using magic?’
No, that’s not it. Although there are different types of magic that can make one invisible and even hide them in the open, in the end, Roman Dmitry is only an Aura Swordsman. As he is not a magician, he cannot use magic to hide himself. Then, a one-time skill? It takes quite some time to use it, but it would prove him acting like a ghost in the darkness, as Thompson had said. Nonetheless, the soldiers of Hector are trying to follow him even while others are dying. It means that he has shown himself at least once. But if the one-time use is over, how can he disappear so soon and attack again?
Edwin couldn’t understand Roman Dmitry. The more he got to know about him, the more he felt like he was drowning in a bottomless sea. Edwin Hector had experienced many situations in his life till now, but this war has put him to the test from time to time.
He couldn’t find an answer. Nevertheless, he said in an unwavering voice, “As time goes on, the enemy will inevitably reach the limit of his physical strength. From the current calculations, the number of soldiers who have joined Roman Dmitry is less than 200. Thompson. Do not be fooled by the darkness. It is an overwhelmingly advantageous fight, and if you respond calmly, you can definitely find out the enemy. I will begin to lead my troops there. If you all cover each other around the point where the enemy first attacked and shone light by using the Magic Flare, the enemy will have no way to escape.”
The situation is favorable for Hector—That was the conclusion Edwin had reached after calculating things thoroughly. Rather than being swayed by the horror which had unfolded in front of Hector, he looked at the reality, even though the situation was harsh. The signal on the device proved the message was sent to the other side.
Nonetheless, just as he was about to move his troops,
[…C-Commander! The ghost of Cairo is after me!]
From the device, Edwin heard the despair-filled voice of Thompson.
Whoosh!
Thompson hurriedly raised his sword and looked around. The soldiers close to him were disappearing as if they were never there. And as he saw the darkness gradually approaching him, he was convinced that he had become the target of the ghost of Cairo.
“Listen to me now, all soldiers of the First Company! Form a defense formation and keep the positions of each other in check! The enemy is after our lives. Do not be sucked into the darkness. Stand back-to-back and fend off the attacks!” Thompson shouted out loud. His arms were currently trembling. Even though he was an Aura Knight, someone who had reached the level of superhumans, something normal people could never even approach or even think of touching, he now realized that, in the end, he was still only human.
‘There is not only one company here. Since all the allies are close to each other, a defense formation can be easily formed, and with that, the enemy will be completely surrounded in the next 3 minutes at the earliest. Thus, there is no need to be afraid. As the commander said, this situation is in our favor.’
Gulp.
He hadn’t cut the Magic Call yet. He had fixed it to his waist, so that even if a problem occurred, he could deliver the news to his prince as soon as possible.
And just then,
Fshh.
A fire torch suddenly vanished. That was about 5 meters from where Thompson was, and this time, he managed to see the soldier being dragged into the darkness. He had seen it clearly this time. Soon, the dark presence appeared right before him. Thompson raised his mana as much as he could.
‘This is the only chance!’
Saang!
The Aura exploded and seemed to cover everything before him. He even swung the sword toward the area where the soldier had disappeared so that the enemy wouldn’t be able to escape this time.
Slash!
The wind split sideways. Surprisingly, there was no feeling of something being cut by the sword. Thompson thought he had clearly seen the enemy’s movements, but the only thing he now saw in his vision was the corpse of the soldier who had disappeared. Then, Thompson saw it. The soldier had died without even being able to close his eyes. His expression turned ghastly pale seeing the terrifying sight.
‘This.’
He just noticed that he had moved one step ahead. That meant he had left the defense formation. As even that was too much of a gap in front of a monster, Thompson hurriedly pulled back his sword and tried to go back to the formation. And at that moment, his entire body turned stiff. From the pitch-black space, a being covered in black walked out. Yes, it was Roman Dmitry. And his face, now exposed in the moonlight, was stained with the blood of the soldiers he had killed till now.
“Sometimes this happens when hiding in the dark and hunting the enemies.”
At the terrifyingly cold voice, Thompson couldn’t even scream. While it seemed that Roman wasn’t moving his sword and wasn’t in a form that would allow him to attack quickly, the blood dripping down his sword told Thompson to not even try to attack him. All the hair on his body had stood up because of the terrifying gaze. Thompson prepared for the surprise attack that Roman would eventually unleash by maximizing the Aura to defend against it.
Cak.
When Roman stepped on the leaves, a sound was heard. Quite surprisingly, he had not heard that even a single time yet from the being in the darkness, but when he had appeared in front of his eyes, he was finally able to confirm that the existence in front of him was a human being.
Roman said, “The enemy was invisible to the eyes. Still, you had the illusion that if you just found the enemy, you would be able to win. And obviously, you, who had been frightened till then, jumped into the darkness as soon as you saw me. Why did you make such a mistake? Did you really think that if you found me, you could defeat me easily?”
Glance!
Thompson looked around hurriedly. The soldiers were farther than he had expected. In the end, he accepted that in order to survive, he had to believe in himself.
‘Let’s try it out.’
He covered his ears so as to not be fooled by the meaningless words. And while Roman was approaching him slowly, as soon as he came into his range, he kicked the ground as hard as he could.
Tap.
“Die!”
The attack was quite fast. He had unleashed all of his Aura at once. It was Aura that transcended the damage a human body could take and seemed as if it would cut through Roman’s body at once. But… that was just an illusion. Thompson had thought that his attack had worked, but soon, a burning pain struck him and made him realize how wrong he was.
Slash!
“Kuak!”
The blood splattered on the ground. Thompson also collapsed because of the excruciating pain as his chest had been slashed horrifyingly with only one blow. Thompson finally understood that he could never defeat Roman Dmitry on his own. And even though his chest was in such a horrifying situation that he was feeling a pain he had never felt, he jumped and ran away without looking back. Somehow, his desire to survive was holding him together. And he knew that to survive, he had to run away as fast as he could.
Thompson began to scream and yell to inform his allies of the situation, but somehow, his voice didn’t seem to reach them, as if a Silence Magic had been cast.
Soon,
Trip!
He lost his balance because of a new horrifying pain. That was because Roman’s sword had cut through Thompson’s Achilles tendon. When he tried to put his hand over it to try and stop the bleeding, even his hand was cut off from his wrist.
Tap.
Seeing his hand on the floor, Thompson’s face turned into that of a corpse. He tried to drag himself with one hand while shaking and trembling because of the terror that was spread throughout all of his body, but Roman was already ahead of him when he looked back in front.
Thompson closed his eyes and accepted his death when he saw Roman stretching his hand toward him. Unexpectedly, he didn’t kill Thompson. Instead, he checked his waist and pulled out the Magic Communicator that was attached to it. He then brought it close to his mouth.
“Can you hear my voice?”
Roman had finally found Hector’s commander, who was on the other side of the call. Strangely, he didn’t receive a reply from the other side. He had clearly heard Thompson talking to him a few moments ago, but now, there was only a bone-chilling silence on the Magic Communicator.
Roman continued, “I know what you all are thinking. You made a plan to attack the Southern Front and distracted the attention toward the frontlines while aiming to occupy the Warp Gate simultaneously. Maybe it is not a plan that was made in a day or two. Although Cairo was careless, your plan was still close to perfect. But why did you try so hard to occupy the Southern Front? Why on Earth did the Hector Kingdom risk the lives of their people, who are starving to death due to the unprecedented famine, to occupy the Southern Front, a place that wouldn’t have given that much profits anyway?”
The fire torches were still burning brightly. The soldiers were also continuing to try to find Roman, but no one could even see him.
“There can only be one answer to that. You wanted to solve the problem of your nation through a war. It’s clear as crystal that you are trying to make a huge deal with the Royal Family of Cairo by taking the Southern Front hostage. If that isn’t the reason, there is no reason for Hector to do this. The reason the soldiers of the Hector Kingdom remained in the rear and were preparing a fortress was to show that Hector was a huge threat to the Royal Family of Cairo.”
Smirk.
The plan of the enemy was quite perfect, but because of Roman being on the Southern Front, their “quite perfect” plan had now burned down to the ground.
“The problem is that I figured out the plan. You people don’t have much time left. Because Hector doesn’t have that many supplies, no matter how long Hector tries, it cannot last more than three months here on the Southern Front. I have no intention of letting you, the troops of Hector, do what you want. I will endure until the end, and I will continue to crush the plans of Hector as well.”
Roman had contacted them intentionally. The Hector Kingdom had little time. They had gone through a lot of trial and error to reduce the margin of error, and they had chosen to occupy the Warp Gate so that they could end the war quickly. Surprisingly, the close-to-perfect plan had now exposed their weakness. If Roman hadn’t mentioned the weakness, they would have thought they still had time to act and contact their nation, but the troops of Hector were being pushed to the edge now.
‘Anyway, there is no other option for the Hector Kingdom. Because of this call, the truth they have been trying to ignore will make them impatient.’
The troops of Hector would finally realize that they could not continue and ignore the existence of Roman now. As he was a being who understood their intentions so clearly, how the hell could they continue to negotiate with the Royal Family of Cairo if Roman stayed alive? If the variable, Roman, wasn’t dealt with soon, their plan would crumble like a sandcastle on a beach.
‘With this, my goal has been achieved.’
Whether the opponent gave up, retreated, or even fought until the end, Roman had now become an unavoidable variable for them. Because of the call, the troops of Hector would surely become impatient and make mistakes.
Just then,
[Are you Roman Dmitry?]
Edwin Hector, the man who had been silent until now, finally responded.
Editor’s Thoughts: This chapter was so amazing. Roman continues to be ruthless and even provokes Hector. This has become quite interesting. Let’s see what Edwin has to say. Also, Edwin now needs to use all his troops to try and deal with Roman lol. Maybe we will get the POV of Roman’s soldiers soon. That should be good.
