ryethenovel Chapter 617: DO NOT FALTER!
Chapter 617: DO NOT FALTER!
BOOM
The beast crashed into the outer slope, breaking its neck on the rocks.
But...
Those who saw what happened—
They did not celebrate it.
They... could not celebrate it.
They just watched a man fall to his death with a big, wide smile on his face, how could they possibly smile when they saw a sight like that?
Something was not right.
Something was not right at all.
"DO NOT FALTER!"
That’s when Korvath screamed.
"CONTINUE!!!"
And this time, translators weren’t needed to translate those words, every person who heard Korvath’s voice was pulled out of his reverie. The horrific sight they just saw was eerie, but they didn’t have the time to be stuck on it.
They needed to keep moving.
So they moved.
More nets were fired into the air, some missed, one net opened too early and fell uselessly into the snow, another caught only the tail of a flying beast, slowing it for a moment but not enough to bring it down.
But one caught a rider.
The hooks wrapped around his waist and shoulder, he was pulled off his beast and slammed into the wall. His body hit the stone, his bones cracked and as his body fell on the snow, the tribesmen rushed towards him and plunged their weapons into his body.
This was the only thing they could do.
All the warriors were positioned on the wall, these were normal tribesmen who had never participated in a battle, people who weren’t strong enough to be involved in the main battle, their job was to keep moving around the battlefield and do things that did not require strength.
Refilling weapon stocks like arrows, small rocks they could carry, killing the enemies who had fallen on the ground and were incapable of striking back for a while.
These were seemingly unimportant roles, but in a war, even the smallest moment could be the turning point, Korvath knew that, so he also knew their importance.
"ONE RIDER DOWN!!!"
One such civilian roared out loud.
The others behind him did the same.
"YEAAAHH!!!!"
"KILL MORE!!!"
"KILL!!"
The cheering spread and Korvath did not stop it.
The men needed to know that even they had the power to stop the enemy, that not all was lost, that they could win.
He needed the men to keep their morale high, to keep the adrenaline running in their blood so they gave their best.
Korvath’s gaze, however, remained on the sky above because the battle there was getting worse.
The Alliance riders’ movements weren’t perfect, neither were they coordinated, it was an army formed from seven different tribes, each tribe had its own quirks, each tribe had its own way to move and while Aurelia had trained them—
The woman had less than 2 days, it was impossible to turn a ragtag group with different mannerisms into a synchronised army in that time.
Their sloppiness and lack of coordination were visible and the enemy—
For some odd reason, the enemy moved like they had been training together for decades.
Metal flashed between clouds, most of the people here didn’t know spells, they preferred meeting their enemies and tearing them apart head-on.
"KILL!!!!"
"KKRRIIIIEEEEKKKKKK!!!"
Beasts screeched.
"DIE!!!!"
One Alliance rider plunged his spear into an enemy flyer’s chest.
It was over.
It should have been over but...
The enemy flyer grinned, then, he grabbed the spear with both his hands and pulled himself closer even if it meant that the weapon went deeper inside him.
"What...?"
The Alliance rider widened his eyes in horror, his body stopped moving for a short second.
The enemy rider’s grin widened, he reached out, grabbed the man’s collar and...
Both men fell.
"AAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
The Alliance rider screamed in horror.
The enemy rider continued to grin, looking into his eyes all the way down.
Both bodies plopped when they hit the ground.
Aurelia, who was standing near the command post, saw what happened and... even her face turned pale.
"General..."
Two of her soldiers standing beside her couldn’t believe what they were seeing, one of them called her and Aurelia...
She couldn’t reply.
One of her soldiers’ hands moved to the weapon on his waist, the enemy was too eerie, he too, could sense something was wrong, something... dangerous was happening.
And for some reason, wanting to join the battle seemed safer than just... watching it.
But—
"No."
Aurelia spoke up.
He turned around—
"General, this is..."
"We do not know."
Aurelia shook her head.
"The Power of Corruption does not have an effect on humans, at least... the Power of Corruption that we know does not..."
"But General..."
The soldier wanted to counter, he wanted to say how they knew next to nothing about the Power of Corruption, how this could be a breakthrough, how this... could be what they would be facing in the future on a much larger scale so getting a feel for it now would be much better since they could then prepare for it but...
When he looked at Aurelia, when he saw her trembling lips, when he saw her clenched fists...
He realised it as well.
It wasn’t just him.
The General was thinking the same, she too, wanted to participate in the battle. She just... couldn’t.
The Treaty...
He realised it.
Participation would not just endanger them, it would put the Sky Kingdom at risk as well, their hands were tied.
They could... only watch.
In the end, he released the hilt of the sword.
Aurelia looked at him and she nodded, he looked back at her, then—
"General Aurelia..."
He couldn’t hold himself back.
"Do you think this is..."
"Yes. I do think this is Corruption."
Aurelia didn’t hide it.
"And it is far, far uglier than we initially imagined."
"Should we report it?"
"We will once we return."
"Why not do it now? In fact, why even stay here? We are no longer bound, they are at war, even if we escape, no one will come after us.
We trained them, we worked with them, we even healed them when required, I think we paid back for going back on our word back in the Wilderness, have we not?"
He couldn’t help but ask.
Aurelia looked at him and just smiled.
"This is not about paying back."
She shook her head.
"This is about the Hero."
"Lord Kael?"
"Indeed."
Aurelia nodded.
"We are here to understand him better.
Although..."
Aurelia then looked back at the sky.
"Now I believe we will learn a lot more about something entirely different than we will about him."