Myriad sounds of clanking and stomping were heard as soldiers were running here and there, preparing all kinds of necessities for battles. Siege engines such as ballistae, catapults, and much others were assembled. There were also boats and wide floating boards made to cross the river. Obviously, they had all necessities prepared and armed to the teeth. Not lacking food and supplies for weeks to come. The soldiers were lining up in formations and had their spears, bows, swords, and shields ready.

A handsome blonde-haired knight strode out from the middle of the formations with his white horse before raising his sword high. He inhaled deeply and announced with a voice that encompassed the area, "Today is the day! That you, a nonentity, will prove your worth to the lord."

It was clear that the handsome knight had a power of at least equal to a 5th rank Warrior to be able to enhance his voice.

Seeing that the soldiers started gulping, Knight Bertolt smiled as he continued, “As long as we reached the objective and achieve victory, you’ll be handsomely rewarded. And for those that acquire the legacy, will receive 100 gold coins and be promoted into a knight!”

““Oooooohhhh!!!!!!!"" All the soldiers let out a yell that shook heaven. With almost all the soldiers — the more ragtag soldiers — started making a ruckus.

“A knight? We can become a knight?! Becoming a nobility has been my end goal in life.” A young man with a spear clenched his hand in excitement.

“Hah! This Tara Red-Muscle will definitely become a knight of the lord. Leaving the boring commoner's life and becoming a noble knight.” A bearded muscled man hit his chest in confidence.

“Out of my way! I’ll be the one that acquires the knight title and receive 100 gold coins!” Another man pushed out the people around him.

“Silence!” Knight Bertolt shouted, despite not being so loud, it encompassed the whole army and made them instantly froze in action. “Begin the march!”

Immediately, the soldiers marched in an orderly stature, being led by the handsome knight — the commander of the army. Without having the slightest fear of anything that they might encounter in the near future.

As the army got near the river, Knight Bertolt ordered in an amplified voice, “Prepare and get on the wooden boards and boats!”

“”Yes!!””

All kinds of wooden boards and boats that had been assembled before were placed on the river. The boats had a small sail and thus used to drag the wooden board to cross. Then, one by one, the soldiers got into the wooden board and started crossing the river.

As more and more soldiers got into the wooden board, Knight Bertolt started musing something, Isn’t this too easy? If what was told by Sir Houston is correct, then… Hmm? Why is it started drizzling?

Despite having a bad feeling by the sudden drizzle, Knight Bertolt just shrugged it off. He didn't believe that a simple rain could beat a 6,000 strong army. Just when half of the army was on the boards and halfway across. Sparks of a bluish streak emerged from the bottom of the river. It then spread upward and touched the boards and boats on the surface.

The Soldiers’ Perspectives

“Roy, can you feel it? My hands were shaking and my body shuddered…” One of the soldiers on the board watched his trembling hand in anxiety.

"What are you talking about? It must be because you're a newbie without enough mental. Just tough it out!” A man with an honest bearing said without concern.

“Ah.. AHHH… Arghh!”

Spooked by the sudden sound of screaming, all the soldiers on the board stared at the source of the sound. There, a man holding a paddle convulsed as his eyes became white and his mouth bubbled.

“Dariel? What happened to him?”

“He was just using the paddle to row the board just now but then he started convulsing for no reason.” A random soldier answered in a nonchalant tone.

Out of concern, a soldier nearby touched the paddler soldiers. His body also convulsed as he screamed in agony. In pain, he tried to flail around and touched two soldiers nearby and thus making a chain of convulsion.

"Idiot! This must be the work of a Magus!

Not a second after that statement reached the soldiers' ears, they started to panic but the captain of the squad came in and yelled, "What the fuck with the ruckus? Back paddling!”

Just then, the initial drizzle evolved into heavy rain and soaked the soldiers on board. Little did they know, blue streaks of electricity spread from the water into their soaked bodies. More and more soldiers screamed and fell unconscious as their bodies convulsed. This situation was happening on all the wooden boats and boards, paralyzing all the soldiers. More than 3000 soldiers fainted and unable to continue to battle.

Knight Bertolt’s Perspective

Shit! We fell into a Magus’s trap. Noticing what was happening, Knight Bertolt flinched and issued out a command, “Don’t panic! Back to the shore and don’t continue to cross the river!”

Despite the effort to pacify the army, it was to no avail. As the information of what happened spread, more and more soldiers on the shore panicked and started abandoning what they were doing to go back to the safety. Fortunately, they weren't too close to the water so not many soldiers got electrocuted. However, their morale plummeted to the bottom, as around half of their allies fell before achieving anything.

"Bertolt, you fool! You didn't even able to make the army cross a simple river and even dumped halved!" A shrewd plump nobleman came toward the handsome knight. He was fuming and kicking the ground by his subordinate’s incapability.

In an instant, Knight Bertolt got off his horse and started bowing. “L-Lord… p-please, forgive me… I didn't know that the enemy had such a despicable trick.”

“Hmph. Just prepare yourself when we get back!” Lord Andrei snorted and looked away.

Suddenly, five men in black robes came toward them. The gloomy man with a skull staff on the lead questioned, "What happened here?"

“S-Sir Houston, It just…” Lord Andrei started explaining what was going on.

"Hmph! A bunch of garbage! You couldn't even cross a river because of a simple matter." Despite rebuking in contempt, a surprise couldn't be hidden on Sir Houston's eyes as he approached the river.

Sir Houston kept staring and pondering something in his mind, looking a bit troubled by this. He then stared at the other black-robed figures before raising his arms high and declared, “My fellow apprentices, aid me in making the path to cross the river.”

The four figures nodded and they stood beside Sir Houston. They began to chant something and a strange hazy gas encroached them from all sides. Ten seconds later, the hazy gas condensed and all of them chanted at the same time, ““{Icy Wind}””

A breezing white icy wind emerged from their fingers, targeting the river in front of them. It started freezing the river in a straight line. Thereby, making a pathway where the army could pass through. As the river was a few hundred meters wide, their spell couldn't reach the edge in one sitting. Hence, they need to get into the middle of the river to completely make a path. All of them stopped the spell after finding that they would be vulnerable if they were to cross alone.

“If we were to cross the icy path ahead of the army, it would make us vulnerable. I think we should make two more paths beside the first one to make it big enough for the army to pass through.” Sir Houston suggested with concern.

Hearing what he said made sense, the four figures nodded before chanting and made another two icy paths. However, the soldiers were shivering at the side and refused to march despite being whipped and threatened.

“A bunch of useless trash!” As Sir Houston cursed, he raised his skull staff high and started chanting another spell, “{Lesser Mass Morale Boost)”

Shortly thereafter, a white light emerged around the army and began entering their bodies. The extreme fear that they previously had was gone, their expression changed into that of fearless soldiers that were ready to march anywhere even if it meant death.

Knight Bertolt could see that Lord Andrei’s mouth was also opened wide like him. He began murmuring something inside, A Magus means does indeed scary.

“What are you two mindless idiots still waiting for? Lead the march!” No longer able to wait any longer, Sir Houston reprimanded.

“Y-yes! Bertolt! Lead the march!”

“As you command!” Knight Bertolt stood in front of the fearless army and started crossing the river with the icy bridge.