The fog he had spread throughout the entire forest served as General Rizel's eyes and limbs. He could see and feel the presence of everyone clearly, as though he was standing right next to them. Eighty-five people.
It was not a bad number, considering the fact that he only brought five knights with him. But these greenhorns gravely miscalculated one thing. They probably didn't expect that one of the two generals himself would come here to observe the captured city.
Ambushes would prove useless against him, even if these people multiplied their numbers several times.
His five knights moved to where a large group of ambushers waited and started massacring them one by one.
General Rizel decided on his first prey. A group of ten soldiers hiding in the thickets. A wisp of smoke manifested itself before them, slowly assuming the figure of an old man with a missing arm. Just this alone was enough for the soldiers to realize who the person standing before them was.
The Ghost of the Empire.
One of the two commanders of the Empire in this war. General Rizel.
"S-Shit!" one of the soldiers cursed. His legs started to wobble.
The old man greeted them by sending the head of the soldier flying in an instant. His headless body knelt down and kissed the ground. Seeing this, the rest of his comrades screamed. They all took out their swords and bows, pointing them at the enemy.
It should have been obvious. They've been trying to ambush an old man with a missing arm. Why didn't the thought that it could be General Rizel come to mind?
"Little pups." The old man grinned. "Who's the commander of this army?"
General Rizel waited for a few seconds and after receiving no answer, his sword flickered and another soldier's head was cut. Blood spurted out of the headless corpse. The head hit and rolled on the ground.
All color drained from the faces of the rest of the soldiers. They couldn't move a single muscle out of fear. The old man was smaller than them, but the pressure he emitted made them hold their breath.
"How did you guys capture Akash City in just a single day?"
Another question came.
?o one answered and another soldier's head was sent flying.
With the fog covering the entire forest, the General could tell that his knights were almost done killing the large group of ambushers nearby.
He sighed.
"Too hasty." He clicked his tongue. "They should at least interrogate these guys before killing them, right?"
He knew that at this rate, his enemies would run out before he managed to wring them dry of any useful information.
General Rizel looked at the soldiers frozen before him. He flashed his kindest smile, which was utterly spine-chilling in the eyes of the Kingdom's soldiers.
"Look, I'm a benevolent man," he declared. "I'll spare those of you who answers my question. Fair deal, right?"
The soldiers' teeth chattered upon hearing those words. It felt like the devil making a deal with mortals, and they did not even have the option of refusing the offer.
"D-Damn… Damn you!"
One of the soldiers forced his body to move despite his fear and charged recklessly at the General. Seeing this, two more of them pounced forward. To their horror, their swords simply passed through the General's body, as though everything was made of wisp and smoke. The old man did not even bother to evade their attacks as he simply stood there with an amused smile.
"So young." The General clicked his tongue. "So foolish."
His sword blurred and three heads were sent flying at the same time.
"?ooo!" A woman's voice—an archer—rang out. She nocked her arrows and fired multiple times. But just like before, the arrows simply passed through the body of the General, doing no harm.
By this time, General Rizel was close to being fed up. These guys couldn't even answer a simple question. Maybe, he should just move on to the next group.
He shot toward the female archer as a wisp of smoke, then materialized right before her. He grabbed her head with his hand and lifted her up effortlessly. The woman made muffled screams as she flailed her legs and tried kicking the ethereal body.
Engorged veins started appearing on the woman's entire body and her entire skin became discolored into black and purple. Her limbs started to wrinkle and shrink, as though all the fluids in her body had been sucked dry in an instant. After several seconds, the woman stopped moving and the General tossed her to the side like some useless rag.
"I'll ask one last time." The General was obviously fed up. "Who is the commander of this army?"
The remaining soldiers were horrified by what they saw. The woman was now a dried-up corpse.
One of them swallowed dry spit and stuttered, "L-Lark Marcus!
Lark Marcus is the Commander of the Third Army!"
The General's eyes glimmered for a moment. "Lark Marcus? Third Army?"
Another soldier, now desperate for survival, added, "The second son of Duke Drakus. King Alvis divided the reinforcements from the capital into three large armies. The Second Army is currently being led by Commander Arzen of the Boris House to retake the City of Yan. As for the First Army… we don't know their whereabouts!"
These were things already known by the General, but hearing it directly from the enemies' mouth confirmed the intel of their spies.
Immediately, General Rizel put together the information he'd gathered.
"So that's why fewer than twenty thousand showed up," he mumbled. "I see."
The Second Army was currently in a deadlock with the Empire's forces in Yan City. The First Army, on the other hand, was currently being hunted down by General Alvaren. The only variable remaining was this army that took over Akash in a single day.
"Lark Marcus…" The General's voice trailed off. "Interesting. ?ow, tell me. How did you capture this city?"
The remaining soldiers looked at each other. They all knew that if they kept their mouths shut here, they would meet the same fate as the others. Just looking at the dried-up corpse of the archer made them lose all will to resist the old man.
"T-The Blackstone Knights!"
"T-That's right. Those knights. They're not normal!"
"They… They tore through the city gates like it was made of parchment!"
Blackstone Knights.
General Rizel hadn't heard of them before. If such a powerful force really did exist in the Kingdom, he would have heard of them long ago. Had the Kingdom been suppressing information about such a powerful force?
For a moment, he wondered who was stronger. The Magic Knights or these so-called Blackstone Knights?
Looking at the trembling soldiers before him, it seemed that he would be unable to squeeze any more useful information out of them. He was getting tired of looking at those pathetic faces too. He decided to slaughter them and move on to the next group. Maybe he would encounter a higher-ranking soldier he could take as captive and torture for information once he returned to Yorkshaire City.
Without muttering another word, the General's hand blurred and the heads of the remaining soldiers flew out. The stench of blood permeated the air as General Rizel looked at the direction of his next prey. With the white fog covering the entire forest, he could feel the presence of all living creatures inside.
Someone had just entered the forest along with several others.
"A strong one." The General's eyes turned predatory. "Over there."
His body turned into smoke and moved through the sea of trees at a frightening speed. He soon reached his target. A man almost two meters tall with golden hair. Beside the man were five other soldiers which, just from a single look, were obviously common soldiers.
To General Rizel's surprise, the man with golden hair noticed him approaching even from a distance. Still, it did not matter. General Rizel continued moving in his ethereal body with tremendous speed. ?pon reaching his target, he unsheathed his sword and made the first strike.
Out of six people, only the man with golden hair was able to react.
He parried the first strike with his sword then dodged the next attack by sidestepping to the left. With killing intent, he countered with his sword but cut nothing but smoke.
The exchange happened in mere seconds. By now, the rest of the soldiers realized they were under attack and pulled out their weapons.
A smoke which resembled a human continued floating in front of the group. The topmost portion of the smoke started assuming the face of an old man with a large scar across his face. Slowly, the rest of the smoke formed the old man's body.
One of the soldiers immediately recognized his identity.
"G-General Rizel?"
The other soldiers stiffened upon hearing this. They had not expected to see one of the two commanders of the Empire. Seeing the man's face, along with his missing arm and his ghost-like state, the rest of the soldiers did not doubt the man's identity in the slightest. They realized how fitting the name 'Ghost of the Empire' was.
"So you're General Rizel," the man with golden hair, Anandra, said.
"Perfect. To think that one of the bigshots came to us himself."
Anandra took out a small pouch from his pocket, channeled mana into it, and threw it into the air. It flew up and went past the fog, before making a small but colorful explosion in the sky. Several seconds after, the General felt a number of presences enter the fog, each of them heading straight to him.
"Reinforcements?" General Rizel was disappointed. "How useless."
He could hardly feel the flow of mana within the bodies of those who entered the forest just now. Although there were several dozens of them, none of them were magicians. Humans incapable of magic would never hurt his body. Even if thousands upon thousands of non-magicians came, it would be impossible for them to incapacitate him.
General Rizel studied the man before him. Judging by his quick reflexes and the way he used the sword, he was definitely a warrior—a knight, probably. The General could feel the mana oozing out of the man's body, but for some reason, none of it flowed through his sword. It was simply enhancing his physical body, nothing more.
"Lark Marcus… I heard from our intel that he's a brat." The General continued the stare down. The man in front of him was definitely not the Commander of the Third Army. "Who are you?"
Instead of replying, Anandra shot toward General Rizel and released a barrage of attacks. At first, the General tried to dodge, but after realizing that the man's sword was not clad with mana, he remained still and simply took each strike.
Anandra's sword passed through the General's body, like how one's hand would temporarily cut through smoke. Despite seeing that his attacks were not doing any damage, Anandra still continued attacking with a single-minded focus.
"Pathetic," the General said. "I was expecting a lot, but it seemed that you do not even know how to use sword aura. How disappointing."
Despite the mockery, Anandra did not stop.
He increased the pace of his attack to the point that General Rizel's phase-shifting into smoke was unable to catch up. Small cuts started appearing on General Rizel's body. ?pon seeing this, General Rizel immediately leapt back and started parrying the attacks.
Seeing that the General was finally taking him seriously, a small grin formed on Anandra's lips. He channeled more mana into his body, putting it into overclock, and increased the speed of his attacks even further.
"As I thought," said Anandra, as he incessantly released numerous strikes each second. "There's no way you're invincible. You're not God, General."
General Rizel clicked his tongue. Anandra was attacking his body within the split second he appeared from the fog every now and then.
During that time, his ethereal body becomes material and he is vulnerable to attack. Though it lasted for a fraction of a second, the man with golden hair did not miss it.
General Rizel, not wanting to risk receiving numerous blows, blended himself with the fog. He vanished from sight and only his voice remained. Becoming the fog itself was the safest way to deal with this man before him.
"I've fought with numerous fighters from the Leonard School and against those who used the martial arts of the savages. You're clearly not from them. How should I say it? Your movements… They're skilled but crude."
Thankfully, the man with golden hair did not know how to use sword aura. Otherwise, it would have been a difficult fight. General Rizel did not voice these thoughts out loud.
"You remind me of General Alvaren in his younger days."
General Rizel appeared out of the fog and grabbed the head of the one of the soldiers who came with Anandra. He gripped the man's neck and like drought, turned him into a dry, lifeless corpse in mere seconds. The other soldiers tried attacking him, but their weapons simply passed through the old man's body.
"M-Monster!"
"Damn it, kill him! Attack the old man!"
The small cuts on the old man's body started to visibly heal after sucking his target dry.
"Annoying flies." His hand blurred and four heads flew into the hair, blood spurting out of their headless bodies like fountain.
?ow, only he and Anandra remained.
The General was about to wrap things up, knock Anandra unconscious and take him back to their stronghold for interrogation when he realized that the presences that had entered the forest were finally nearby.
From the fog, nine soldiers wearing full plate armor emerged. And based on the fog, dozens more were coming this way. General Rizel remembered the words spouted by his previous targets. The reason they managed to conquer a walled city in a single day.
The Blackstone Knights.
Anandra looked relieved upon seeing his reinforcements. He ordered, "That man is the enemy General! Kill him!"
The knights grunted then let out a ferocious roar akin to those of a beast and started uprooting the trees next to them. General Rizel's eyes widened in an instant. He stared dumbfounded at the display of brute force before him.
Right now, nine armored knights were trying to uproot the trees around them. It was gradual, but the trees were clearly moving up from the ground with each second. The ground rumbled.
What were they trying to do?
And as though answering that question, the first knight to have uprooted a tree swung it toward the General. The force was so great that the knight's feet creaked and dented, and his chest hugging the trunk slightly caved in.
The tree struck the ground, creating a cloud of dust upon impact.
General Rizel easily moved to the side and evaded the attack.
?seless. All they were doing was send clouds of dust flying about.
The knight seemed enraged that the General evaded his strike. He lifted the tree up slowly, then swung it again, this time toward the side, sweeping toward the direction of the General.
General Rizel vanished and reappeared several steps away from the point of impact. And the moment he did, another tree shot toward him. It seemed that a few other knights had also managed to uproot trees on their own, without caring about damaging their bodies or armor.
Annoyed at their stupid tactic, General Rizel turned into smoke and shot toward one of the Knights. He reappeared before it and grabbed its head. He started sucking its body dry—he tried. But for some reason, his magic did not work on the damn bastards.
Without waiting for the General to assess the reason why his magic did not work, the knight slammed the tree he was holding toward General Rizel. This time, the General—still wondering why his magic did not work —was caught off guard and missed the timing of his phase shift. The tree struck his body for a mere fraction of a second before it fully transformed into smoke, but it was enough to send the General flying and rolling on the ground several times.
Anandra did not miss this chance. Before the General could even stand up, he shot toward him in an instant. He aimed for the neck, but General Rizel instinctively parried the attack, before turning into smoke and fog.
By this time, more enemy knights started to arrive.
The battlefield had become a lot more dangerous for him.
Seeing this, General Rizel did not hesitate to retreat. It was one against many. And to make things worse, his magic did not work against the knights clad in plate armor.
Without muttering a single word, General Rizel blended perfectly with the fog and shot toward the place where his five knights were. As expected of the men he'd handpicked, none of them were gravely wounded.
It was also apparent based on the bloodstains on their armors that they'd massacred all the enemies they'd encountered.
"We're leaving," he said. Only half his face was visible, while the rest of his body swayed back and forth as smoke.
The five knights stared at him in bewilderment upon seeing their General's face.
"General… What happened?"
A cut was visible on the General's forehead. It was not deep, but it was there. They'd served the Ghost of the Empire for several years, and they could count on one hand the number of times someone actually managed to inflict injury on him.
"A simple blunder on my part." The General's body fully manifested itself from the fog. "We've gathered enough information here.
We're going back."
Although the knights were still curious about who managed to injure the monster of the old era, they decided to shut their mouths for now. They located their horses and untethered them from the trees. With the fog still shrouding the area, they left quietly for Yorkshaire City.