Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 170. Confidence in Strength.

“What is it?” Laien asked almost immediately and ignored the flustered look which Sirius gave him in reply. Unlike these three White Guards and apparently, unlike the rest of those around, he kept his calm despite feeling as nervous as them. Even seconds mattered, he could tell this much from Sirius’s behavior, but if nothing was explained, they would lose an equal if not greater amount of time due to confusion and hesitation later on. He wouldn’t be able to act appropriately without knowing at least the overall picture either, so he kept glaring at Sirius stubbornly.

“An ultimate expert intervened,” Sirius said, his voice shaking from the stress he was experiencing. However, since he did decide to give in and explain what was going on in haste, he didn’t forget to use some spiritual energy in order to carry his words over to all eight hundred men in their group. “Mustafa and Arakar are being halted. Yimar Maar is coming over with a thousand and a half of his and Arakar’s elites along with about fifteen thousand regular experts. The message beasts were fighting each other, so we have three hours at best and minutes at worst before they catch up.”

Even someone as composed as Casimir felt his mind blank out for a second after Sirius finished speaking. Mustafa’s battlefield was more or less four and a half thousand kilometers away from them by this point, so if Yimar Maar instantly decided to sacrifice the horses and made the mounts overexert themselves to reach the speed of about five to six hundred kilometers per hour for the duration of the chase, then they truly could have minutes to spare at most. They needed to flee as soon as possible as no matter how well they fought, the moment Yimar Maar’s army surrounded them, they would be done with. Perhaps only Julien and Reian would be able to escape such an encirclement.

They needed to flee right away as Sirius said before, but what approach should they take? They had lost one hundred and a few of their Tempest Horses to Abdain and his subordinates in the first clash, so even after scavenging the battlefield for additional regular horses, they didn’t have enough mounts for eight hundred people. Originally that shouldn’t have been a problem as those southern nobles could simply ride two or three on one mount while Julien’s men could follow on foot with ease. However, if they were to fight and flee at the same time, with no time to lose, then the lack of proper horses would seriously limit their ability to preserve their lives.

And that wasn’t all. Not only would they still need to protect Arslan, but they also were yet to leave Abdain behind! Had he known what was coming, he wouldn’t have thought twice to wage an attack against Abdain to kill his ruby-golden-robed experts and suppress the man himself. Now, though, it was too late for regret. A slow and meticulous plan was no longer feasible. They needed to act quickly and decisively!

All those thoughts swept through Casimir’s mind in a matter of no more than two seconds. Then right afterward, he overcame his shock and started considering which tactic would be the best to use under the circumstances they had found themselves in. To be fair, from the purely tactical point of view, sacrificing almost all of their men in order to save the few important figures in their ranks carried the highest chance of success. To break through Abdain’s men with brute force and then steadily slow down the chase by sacrificing small units one at a time would almost guarantee success. If he were to assign a potential success chance to that sacrificial plan, then it would be one of about eighty to eighty-five percent.

However, despite this awareness, he spent virtually no time mulling over that idea. He would never choose a plan that directly sacrificed his own subordinates just to allow him and a few others to escape. A person able to do that would perhaps be a great tactician, but they would never become an accomplished general and much less a great ruler of a nation. Those who couldn’t capture and inspire the hearts of their people weren’t suited to rule, his father had taught him that long ago.

“Tch.” Just as he was considering which version of the assault on Abdain’s forces would be the best, he and everyone else noticed that Abdain’s men started moving. The core of the six hundred ruby-golden-robed experts remained close to Abdain, but the four thousand mercenaries appeared to have split into two equal-sized groups which began flanking them from both sides. “So impatient, Yimar Maar’s forces must be close,” he judged in silence. It was very likely that Abdain had received some additional messages from his master who was moving along the message beasts, so since Abdain was acting in this way, they likely had no more than five to ten minutes remaining.

“Hah.” At this perilous time when everyone was riled up, Laien’s amused laugh ended up sounding incredibly out of place. Be it Sarah and her little group that by this point was beginning to wonder if this entire journey north wasn’t cursed, the three White Guards, Casimir and Anna or even Julien and his men, all of them were baffled by Laien’s attitude. Some of Julien’s and Casimir’s experts began wondering if the kid hadn’t gone mad and ironically, Laien’s subsequent words deepened those suspicions of theirs.

“Let me and Yin deal with the left side. We will kill them and come to reinforce the middle.”

The slight and somewhat chilling smile on Laien’s face further added to the effect of his seemingly crazy statement. Many of those present wondered what madness was Laien talking about, but those who had known him longer and a few of those with better instincts slowly realized. If it was those two who repeatedly created miracles and were so strong one wouldn’t believe they were just short of being thirteen-year-olds, then what Laien said could potentially not be as crazy as it seemed.

“Take eighteen men of Julien’s with you,” Casimir said outright. He wasn’t fond of overriding the command chain, but there was no time to ask Julien for permission. With each passing second, those mercenaries were getting closer to their flanks and if left alone, soon they would attack alongside Abdain’s frontal charge. Least to be said, they had no time to waste for a defensive battle. “There can be Abdain’s men hidden among the mercenaries,” he added, guessing that Laien would be unwilling to listen to him otherwise. If anything, by now he had learned of Laien’s stubbornness pretty well.

“I know.” However, contrary to his expectation, Laien merely smirked and waved his hand casually as he directed his horse toward the left. “That’s why I said I’ll go with Yin. The two of us will be enough, so just make sure to leave some people to protect Arslan and the rest,” Laien added playfully and before Casimir could voice further objections, he galloped away with Yin just a step behind him.

Speechless, Casimir wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t used to having anyone disregard his orders and in such a blatant manner at that! Sure, those two boys held off Abdain for a good period of time and he wouldn’t think twice before claiming that each of them had the strength of a martial master of the fifth rank, but! Fighting one enemy wasn’t the same as dealing with two thousand riders! Did Laien understand that they couldn’t afford to have any significant forces roaming in the back of their formations while they were dealing with Abdain’s elites?

“It’s fine,” Reian said alongside a clear laugh just as Casimir and Julien were about to send some reinforcements behind Laien and Yin, “They can do it, just watch,” he said with a smile and jumped off his horse. He didn’t think he had it in himself to be cheerful after everything that had happened, but how could he not laugh when seeing this cocky brat act so arrogant and confident again? If Jasmine was here, she would have definitely chosen to trust those two, he was sure of that.

“That being said,” he continued saying. “Leave the right side to me. You guys take care of Abdain and those elites for a bit, kay?” he asked wryly and just like Laien, he ran off without waiting for a response. To begin with, he was the right man for the job of quickly dealing with the two thousand sell-swords and maybe some hidden elites, but beyond that, he couldn’t very well let those two kids steal the limelight again, could he? Either way, alongside a gust of wind he was gone and running in the distance in the matter of split-seconds, so there wasn’t much anyone could say to object to his decision.

“Oh for fuck's sake,” Casimir spilled a very rare curse from his mouth before turning his gaze to Sirius. “Can they do it?” he asked briefly, knowing that the time for discussions was over. If they didn’t move within the next ten seconds, Abdain could endanger the lives of those three. Naturally, they couldn’t allow it to happen, so even though there were many variables he wanted to take into consideration, he couldn’t very well afford to employ a perfectly foolproof plan this time around.

“They can,” Sirius replied, his head far cooler than a moment ago. He had seen these boys kill dozens of Realm of Heroes experts under Yimar Furi on their own and compared to then, even though it hadn’t even been a full month yet, these two had grown much further. If he thought about it calmly, there was no way that two thousand ‘experts’ at the late stages of the mortal realm and some hidden Realm of Heroes experts would pose a challenge to those two young monsters, so he wasn’t too concerned. As for planning for ‘the worst’, like expecting a significant portion of Abdain’s strongest remaining men being hidden in the left flank’s forces, well.

Even then, he was sure that those two would be able to retreat safely. And beyond that, they weren’t exactly in a spot luxurious enough to carry out a steady and safe battle. Time was of the essence and while he wasn’t sure if Laien realized it consciously or if he was simply acting by instinct, as far as he was concerned the choice Laien had made definitely wasn’t a wrong one.

“Fine.” Seeing as Sirius was confident in those two, Casimir nodded and acknowledged their current plan. He didn’t like the feeling of not being in control one bit, but who could he complain to? “Anna, stay here with the nobles and guard Arslan. The rest of us will split into three groups and spread out and assist Julien’s men,” he stated and proceeded to exchange a look first with Julien, then with Anna. In turn, both of the two nodded at him, by the looks of it content with the simple plan.

On Julien’s side, Julien was in agreement that attempting any charges from Tempest Riders or other kinds of risky maneuvers would be detrimental. Since they ended up preserving their own fighting force instead of sending it out to assist the flanks, there was no need for any additional gambles. A level of casualties would be inevitable, but scattering Abdain’s elites was a matter of time with his remaining eighty or so people and Casimir’s almost three hundred riders. The only question was how hard would they need to push in order for Yimar Maar not to grab their legs from behind.

As for Anna, she knew the importance of keeping some people in the back in order to help the areas which could require help during the course of battle. To top it off, though she was a stubborn person, she wasn’t foolhardy. She recognized that her Royal Guard was the weakest of the elites fighting on their side, so she wouldn’t stupidly insist on having them take a leading role. Her main goal was to make sure Casimir returned alive with her to the Holy Union, everything else was secondary.

Thus, with no further discussion, the almost four hundred elites led by Julien and Casimir moved out preemptively against Abdain and the man’s six hundred elites. For a brief moment after they left and after Anna spread out her men in a crescent formation, a tense silence befell their central group. Thus, when Anna noticed that Arslan wasn’t backing off to the middle and instead remained near her and was watching those two youths riding towards the enemies to the left, she at first felt like telling him off but in the end, said nothing and turned her gaze in the same direction.

“Can they really do it?” Anna couldn’t help but wonder anxiously. So far the two were simply charging straight at that huge group of two thousand riders, so she had trouble imagining how were they planning to stop them, much less kill them as Laien claimed. She was almost strong enough to be considered a supreme martial master of the third rank but she wouldn’t have had the confidence to attempt what those two were doing. In fact, short of having a powerful spiritual master chant a spell and wipe out those people all at once, she couldn’t think of another way to quickly get rid of them. Unless, of course, someone like Reian, who was a supreme martial master of the fourth rank and wielded techniques suited to dealing with large groups of people, was to be taken into consideration.

At this time, Laien smiled cheekily as he galloped forward with Yin riding by his side. He took out his white spear from his interspatial ring and roused both his Qi and spiritual energy, then kicked Bellicose’s left side with his leg and the next moment, he jumped out of the saddle. To his right, Yin did the same thing, just mirrored as to make it easier for their horses to turn around. As great as having elite mounts that stepped into the Realm of Heroes was, battling alongside them would be a hassle. Their skills weren’t suited to this kind of a thing and neither did they have much experience fighting while mounted, so the two of them didn’t need to think twice before leaving their horses behind once they were a few hundred meters away from the incoming enemies.

Curiously enough, those two thousand people seemed to hold them in no regard at all and by the looks of it, they intended to simply swarm them over with numbers. And, this fact was the main reason hidden behind Laien’s amused smile. To be honest, he had been a little worried as to what they would do had those people split up into many small units and decided to thoroughly avoid any confrontation with the two of them. In such a scenario, he and Yin would be forced to expend far more energy to deal with those enemies than what they would have rather done.

After all, Laien and Yin weren’t quite sure what degree of reputation they had in this part of the world at the moment. They had probably become quite famous in the higher circles of the Ruishi Federation, but the common people of that secluded country likely heard nothing about them. Similarly, they were more or less confident that Ikarian higher-ups across Eulene knew who they were, but at the same time, only a few people were certain to be aware of their strength and only in part at that. In contrast to how much ruckus they had caused on their journey through those lands, they hadn’t really gotten themselves into much of a spotlight.

For example, Abdain knew that they had killed the Wind and Lightning brothers, two martial masters of the fifth rank. They had also fought against the man, but Abdain never really witnessed the full extent of their abilities. Thus, Laien didn’t think that Abdain would caution his men against the two of them beyond saying that they were very strong and to be wary of.

As for the rumors floating about, ones that mercenaries could have heard about? The biggest battle that could have made them famous, the one against Yimar Furi, never became known since not one person on Ikarian side survived to tell of it. Going further back, the indent in the Royal Palace of the City of Palee was squashed by Mustafa and no one ever learned of the part they had played there. Finally, as for the matter with the frozen village, the public opinion had never connected it to them, so once again they gained no infamy. So, all in all even if some unclear rumors about their supposed incredible strength floated about Eulene, it looked like no one paid them much heed.

“Well then,” Laien mused, the smile on his face turning cold. “How about we see if there are any elites hidden in your ranks?” he thought quietly and pulled upon his Qi and spiritual energy, not much of it, maybe one-tenth of either of them. Then, he simultaneously reached out to his insights and all at once, in a manner as natural as breathing, he started infusing them into his energies, what in turn caused a faint layer of white mist to emerge around his left hand, where most of the power was gathering. The six Aspects of Humanity, the five golden runes of the Principle of Energy and the Profound Mysteries of Water. The set of insights was the same as the one he had employed against Reian in their spar a mere few days ago, with but two major exceptions.

First, amongst the Aspects, the pair he had learned the earliest, Tranquility and Wrath, were far more powerful thanks to his recent mental epiphany and even now, they were growing in strength as he drew upon their essence. Second, more importantly, he would be using his insights to their full destructive potential as unlike with Reian, he was intent on killing the enemies before him. So, the moment he thrust out with his open left palm and released the accumulated energy, a massive cloud of mist blew forth, spreading far and wide and threatening to engulf the entire small army of two thousand riders in a matter of no more than two seconds.

“What the?”

“Whoa!”

“Stupid tricks, hmph.”

The immediate reactions of the sell-swords at the forefront of their unit varied greatly. Some of them were startled to see a little boy suddenly create a massive white cloud, others remained fairly calm while yet other of them looked at the incoming spell with contempt. In the end, not one of those mercenaries, not even those rare ones who were at the first Realm of Heroes, were able to comprehend the great number of high-quality insights that the incoming energy contained. Moreover, unsurprisingly not one of them could sense that this cloud didn’t simply contain a mix of spiritual energy and Qi, but a merger of the two. To them, it appeared like mostly a misty mass made mostly of spiritual power. To be fair, however, it was doubtful whether even someone on Maian’s level, a being at the level of an ultimate master of the continent, would be able to tell the difference.

The only group that appeared somewhat cautious was a few rows behind the front, in the middle, but even they hadn’t taken any action. While this white cloud of mist appeared somewhat dangerous to them, they were similarly unable to sense the true terror it carried; they weren’t at the level where they could comprehend what the sensation Laien’s insights were giving off meant.

Thus, the white mist met the two thousand riders unobstructed, bursting forth on its own with those people additionally riding into it on their own.

“Eh?”

“So col-…”

“Igniegh!”

It all happened fast, so fast that the riders and their mounts were only able to understand that something was going wrong when their skin began freezing. Yet, no matter if they roused their Qi to defend or if they attempted to use some crude life-preserving secret arts of theirs, all of them began turning into ice sculptures regardless of their effort. Not even a full second after the icy mist ate up the front rows of the mercenaries, hundreds of them began falling down and crashing into the ground with the momentum they had carried just the last moment. With their bodies thoroughly frozen, though, all of them began shattering into pieces as if they were made from glass.

The fearsome sounds alarmed those further behind, but by that point, all of them entered the domain of death and had no hopes of running. With screams of unwillingness and neighing of the poor mounts, all of them froze over, the freezing energy they couldn’t understand perseveringly invading their bodies. Some of those who had been too terrified to resist remained standing along their horses and turned into still statues of ice, but most of them fell over and broke into pieces.

The white mist of Laien’s didn’t contain much Qi or spiritual energy, after all. Had Laien genuinely tried to freeze someone, then that person wouldn’t shatter after a crash with the ground as the ice within their bodies would have become far too tough to crack easily. This time around, though, Laien wanted to limit the consumption of his Qi and spiritual energy, so he made the essence of his insights do most of the job. As a result, while the frost killed discriminately, it merely froze the flesh of the enemies and didn’t add any additional ice made of Laien’s own energies. Because of that all of those people shattered and broke so easily after their deaths.

“Dev-… il…” one of the weaker of the forty or so experts standing forced the quiet words out of his throat before his Qi broke down and his body was frozen. Then, within the next second, five more of their martial masters of the third rank with elements unsuitable to defense, like wind or lighting, fell.

“So the rumors were true?” a martial master of the fifth rank and the leader of this small detachment smiled helplessly. The little over thirty of them were dismounted as their horses had been frozen while the two thousand mercenaries they were intending to use to distract Arslan’s guards were all dead. Weirdly enough, for this brief period of time, a deathly silence befell them in the middle of this icy hell. “It’s all around us,” the man noted to himself. He had extended his aura in order to look for the closest exit from the mist, but to his dismay, he found out that he couldn’t reach the end of it or even find a place where the energy seemed weaker.

“Retreat,” he ordered after another second passed, feeling as his own Qi was growing weaker and weaker. He had no idea how that child created this hellish place, but for it to be capable of slowly exhausting a martial master of the fifth rank to death… he simply couldn’t comprehend how it came to be. He really wished he knew what was going on with this icy mist, but never in his wildest imaginations would he have considered that Laien had created this cloud while relying mainly on his insights and only secondarily supporting himself with Qi and spiritual energy. Because of this particular mix, the lethal power of this mist was nearly inexhaustible.

Just like in the case of Johan’s village, when Laien had used the insights into the Profound Mystery of Inferno alongside all his other insights at that time, the white mist of the current battlefield could and would sustain itself for days unless it was dispersed by a strong area-of-effect technique or shattered by a wave of comparable essence of insights into the world. The resistance those within the mist or the disruption of natural wind would barely affect the overall strength of it.

Naturally, however, Laien and Yin weren’t planning to wait patiently for those few dozen people inside the icy mist to die or try and flee. The two of them had never stopped running after Laien released the white cloud, but they did hide the sounds of their footsteps and they suppressed their auras thoroughly. In consequence and in pair with the low visibility inside the icy mist, those thirty-plus hidden elites didn’t know what hit them when an extremely fast and agile shadow rushed into their ranks just as they were about to retreat back to Abdain’s side.

The smooth slashes of the swords in the shadow’s hands gave off little sound and were hard to follow with the eye. There was no leaking Qi nor raging lightning, but before they understood that they were being killed off, five of their comrades fell helplessly, their heads cut off or their stomachs spilling innards as their bodies had been almost severed in two. Yet, despite finally understanding what was happening, the rest of them was unable to coordinate and proper defense.

Not only could they barely see anything, but their senses were also blurry due to the pervasive aura of energy this white mist contained. Then, they were forced to constantly use their Qi to resist being frozen and to top it all off, their morale wasn’t the highest to begin with. Overcome with helplessness, a few of them with their leader at the head attempted to resist the attack, but most of them were too shaken to act sensibly. Some started running away while others simply stood still while shaking in their boots, too shaken to fight but too loyal to leave their comrades and flee.