‘’Remember Gandor’s orders, we are to take half of the back alive and take any supplies the have with them back.’’

Gandor’s men were a mere two hundred meters away from Kaze’s team.

Looking back at the oncoming threat Rentaro called out to Kaze.

‘’Hey Kaze isn’t it time we let go of the cargo?!’’

His voice was tinged with a slight fear, being the one closest to the action even he who would normally charge head in first without a plan felt a slight fear in this situation.

But even so he knew Kaze’s desire and kept doing as he was told.

‘’Just a little more, when they get within a hundred meters be ready to release the cart. Archers be ready with the fire arrows at any time, make sure they don’t notice them or they might grow suspicious.’’

‘’’’Right!’’’’

Even though Kaze and his men were in one of the most dangerous positions in this battle, morale was high with the soldiers.

‘’…Not yet.’’

Sweat was forming on the youngsters forehead making his dark blue hair stick to his skin.

‘’Release it!’’

At his command Rentaro release the cart from his horse. As Rentaro dropped the cart, flaming arrows started flying towards it when the cart was just ahead of Gandor’s men.

Which caused confusion to arise on their enemies side, their leader had could not think of a reason why they would light their cargo on fire.

Perhaps they did not want it to fall in Gandor’s hands, but to create fire arrows under these conditions seemed plain foolish.

Gandor’s men were all within a few meters of the cart, as Kaze looked back he thought ‘’I could not have asked for a better result.’’ and floated a smile.

*BWOOM*

After the fire reached the contents of the crates the cart suddenly blew up.

Before the Nivalis army had departed for battle Kaze made a request from Skald.

‘’Father do you still remember our original plan the smoke out the bandits?’’

Skald tilted his head and started scratching his face as he reminisced to a few days back.

‘’Ah, yes I remember now, you wanted to use fireworks and fires to smoke out the bandits.’’

Kaze nodded to confirm that Skald was right.

‘’I would like to request the remaining fireworks.’’

‘’Very well, I guess this is part of your strategy as well so take everything we have.’’

Skald agreed to give Kaze what he wanted without needing any further details.

After he received the fireworks Kaze along with Rentaro and Fubuki started taking out their explosive contents, and put them in crates along with small rocks.

The crates were loaded onto the cart, it was now a destructive weapon for anything within its range.

Even if they weren’t within this range the blast would be strong enough to incapacitate them.

Kaze and his men held their breath as the smoke started to clear.

What lay before them were the corpses of at least forty soldiers, though was not what was most important to them.

‘’What is the state of the ogre?’’

Fubuki raised a question which was on everyone’s mind. The ogre which could not be defeated by normal means still stood on its feet.

‘’Archer prepare to fire!’’

Kaze did not waste a single second, because he knew that if this beast got to close everyone would die.

Though all they could hope for was to slow the beast down.

But as they were clear to fire the ogre’s massive body fell to the earth.

As it was standing right behind the cart as it exploded it was unimaginable that it would have survived.

Having completed their mission the soldiers raised their weapons and cheered with joy.

Kaze now stood out even more than previously, the old knights who were with them let their admiration been known to the youngster less than half their age.

But they could not stay this way for too long, as the battle was still ongoing.

‘’Now that we have completed our distraction we are going to rejoin the main army and begin our counter attack. If Gandor acted as predicted his defenses should have thinned out.’’

Meanwhile in the distance they see a group of soldiers approaching.

Initially Kaze’s soldiers were filled with shock seeing an unknown group of soldiers where there were supposed to be none.

As they got closer tension rose in the air.

When the unknown soldiers had arrived a man in flashy silver armor approached Kaze.

‘’You really saved us the trouble of finding you kid.’’

Still being warry of these unknown men everyone kept their weapons out.

But after looking over the soldiers Kaze saw something reassuring.

‘’Those banners, they’re…’’

‘’Yes we are from Nivalis, as per your request five hundred men ready for combat. I am acting as the leading commander of these men.’’

The armor which they were wearing was a combination of dark blue and red, the banner which fluttered in the wind was of a white wolf.

The white wolf of Nivalis symbolized vigor and determination.

‘’Would you be the blessing user we heard of?’’

Kaze had wondered this since he this man’s armor seemed flashier than the others.

Due to the helmet he was wearing none of Kaze’s men knew who he was.

‘’That I am, but you somehow seem familiar.’’

To answer this man Kaze followed proper etiquettes.

‘’My name is Kazehaya I am a mercenary of Andor’s sight, our mission was to distract or enemies in order for them to drop their guard.’’

A slight pause was between the two men before the flashy commander broke the silence.

‘’…Hahaha no wonder you remind me so much of him. But we’ll have enough time to talk after this battle is done. Now let us depart the battle is still heavily underway, now then everyone follow me. There is no time to waste.’’

At those words Kaze and his men started following next to the flashy commander.

I wonder just who this man is, he seems to know father and me as well.

-A few minutes earlier on the main battlefield.-

While people were still wondering what that loud bang from a few minutes ago, the battle was going in full force once again.

Nimura and his men, at the moment held a slight advantage over their opponents.

Thanks to Skald keeping Seroku busy he was unable to kill any other soldiers.

But Skald is unable to keep this pace up any longer, since the damage of using his blessing started to become noticeable.

‘’It has been a long time since I have fought against an opponent of your caliber. Though it pains me to say that I would not be able to defeat you at your full potential.’’

A bit of grief could be heard in Seroku’s voice but it almost instantaneously went back to his regular tone.

‘’Farewell Sir Skald.’’

After those words Seroku trusted his spear towards Skald’s chest.

As it penetrated through his armor Nimura shouted out in shock

‘’Skald!’’

Seroku was filled with ecstasy, but due to this he failed to notice one crucial detail.

‘’Nimura if you scream like that our soldiers will start to lose moral.’’

Both Seroku and Nimura turned their head towards Skald looking at him with disbelief.

After looking Skald over Seroku noticed why he was still alive.

‘’Hahaha no wonder I did not feel any resistance of flesh when I cut you, being able to use your blessing in that state, just what kind of monster are you!’’

Seroku was more than pleased seeing his opponent push himself beyond his limit.

Nimura on the other hand was concerned seeing his friend use that power.

‘’Skald undo your blessing, otherwise you will surely die!’’

Skald started to cough up blood. He had already used his blessing to fend off the ogres in their camp, and now he was forced to use it to protect himself once again.

Nimura expected that Skald would negate his blessing and retreat, but his did just the opposite of that.

‘’Raagh!’’

Skald lifted his arm and swung it at Seroku with all his power.

Unable to register what had happened Seroku was blown twenty meters backwards.

Thankfully his reflexes took over and he protected himself with his spear.

This action proved to work out greatly for Nimura and his man, when the bandits had seen their commander flying backwards many of them started to lose moral.

Seroku’s elite soldiers made sure that the soldiers would not back down, while others took Seroku to safety.

‘’Skald that’s enough you have to stop now or your body won’t hold up.’’

But he was unable to hear Nimura, his pain was so intense that he started to lose of his senses.

Al of the sudden a man put his hand on Skald’s shoulder and said to him ‘’It’s alright my friend, leave the rest to me.’’

Afterwards Skald’s blessing negated and he lost conciseness, but before that he muttered ‘’What took you so long you bastard.’’ and floated a light smile.

The man who took care of Skald was the flashy commander who had made his way towards the main battlefield.

Nimura had noticed that he was surrounded soldiers of Nivalis, though they did not seem to be his own.

‘’The reinforcements, when did they get here?’’

The flashy commander turned to Nimura.

‘’Make sure you reward those youngsters, if it weren’t for them we probably would not have gotten here on time.’’

He was talking of Kaze who thanks to the explosion lead them towards him.

‘’Sir Nimura I bring with me four hundred thirty soldiers in peak condition.’’

Nimura twisted his head to the flashy commanders words.

‘’Four hundred thirty did you not say that you would bring five hundred?’’

Though it could not be seen the commander smiled beneath his helmet.

‘’I have sent some of my men on a special mission, do not worry they will certainly change the flow of this battle.’’

They could not keep chatting for too long, Skald was taken back to camp, and Nimura went back to commanding his troops.

The final two ogres had made their appearance as a last ditch effort to keep the battle on Gandor’s side.

The flashy commander turned towards them and started to chuckle.

‘’Mhmm, unlike griffins these won’t even make for a good exercise. With this few people I can use it as much as I want without wondering if I am able to get out alive.’’

The commander picked up his sword, inside the hilt of the word lay a sapphire.

A sword like this should not be in the possession of a regular commander, a sword like this could only be obtained by someone with at least the rank of general.

‘’Goddess who hunts in the frozen heavens, let those who enter your kingdom feel the arctic chill of your enchanting bow, Skadi!’’

Finishing his incantations the battlefield was covered with a cold wind. A small pixie covered by a blue light had appeared on the commanders solder just the size of his helmet.

‘’Geez why did you even call for me, you could have shot some icicles at him do you really expect to need this much power.’’

The commander shrugged his shoulders at the pixie’s comment.

‘’Firing those icicles always drains so much stamina, this way I’ll be able to keep going for longer.’’

The pixie started tugging at the helmet of the commander with irritation.

‘’What do you mean by that, maybe you won’t get tired as much this way but this will take much more of you! Do you even think about your own health, summoning me will hurt you way more than using my power normally!’’

‘’It’s an annoying feeling getting tired without feeling anything else, I would rather feel as if I had been through the fight of my life anytime.’’

The pixie started rubbing her temples as she could not understand his reasoning.

‘’Why did I ever form a contract with you.’’

The commander smiled at those words and resumed with the battle.

Kazehaya still had not met up with the main army, this was because he had gotten a new mission.

It was given to him by the commander of the reinforcements.

At the time the commander made this proposal Kaze immediately turned it down.

But the commander would not take no for an answer.

Now Kaze looked at his men who had increased from thirty to a hundred soldiers.

They now stood behind their objective, one hundred men with Kaze leading them in the front.

The mission they had gotten the most important task in the entire battle.

They are to kill Gandor.

‘’Who would have thought that the situation would play out as such right Kaze.’’

‘’You can say that again, don’t worry we’ve got your back all the away.’’

Kaze nodded towards his friends who were trying to reassure him.

‘’Thank you my friends, I’ll make sure to finish our task successfully.’’

Kaze drew his sword an lifted it up in the air for all his men to see.

When he sung it down he and his men started their attack on Gandor’s command post.

Hearing commotion coming from behind them Gandor and his soldiers turned around to see an upcoming surprise attack.

‘’So you actually made it all the way here, but do not jest yourself your chance of winning is zero percent.’’

While not wasting any time Gandor commanded his troops to intercept Kaze’s.

Gandor held just above fifty men, though Kaze’s squad had twice their numbers Gandor was certain that he would come out victorious.