01.48 - The Rising of the Sword Saint

Was a blind charge risky?

Sure.

But with numbers like this, a drawn out battle would lead to our slow demise.

Luckily, the enemy commander had decided to lead the enemy charge.

He commanded a bright white Standard Knight, about the size of David’s ‘Kidd Red Eyes’.

It stood out among our opposition, reflecting the light of the nearby star like a mirror.

I couldn’t have missed it, even if I wanted to.

Ending this battle early would save lives on both sides.

There was not much to ponder.

“We got this,” I said over our communications channel as Tia and my units accelerated towards the enemy commander.

“Stop it, Grey,” echoed David’s voice. “This ain’t no training battle, this is war!”

But it was already too late.

The enemy side had opened fire on our advancing units.

Standard Knights were partially powered by their user’s Energy, with additional battery packs for the less gifted. In our cases, it was the other way round.

Most people at officer school had an Energy pool comparable to the lower ranks at the magic academy. They had little additional Energy to spare, if they wanted to avoid running out of power mid fight.

Not Tia or me though. Our Energy capacity far exceeded even the heaviest of battery addons by a lot.

We had barely made use of our non melee skills during my time at officer’s school, and hadn’t used any of them during the practice fights.

We deployed the Spellblade Classes Mana Shield around our Knights as the enemy fire focused on us and the first projectiles arrived.

The Mana Shield Skill looked like an amalgamation of many hexagonal shaped shields layered on top of each other, with some slight openings in between.

Most projectiles didn’t make it through the first line of defense. The few that did lost part of their momentum and left no permanent damage after the reactive armor’s regeneration kicked in.

The barrage lessened the closer we got to their commander’s unit, then stopped altogether.

A few brave individuals rushed in to stop us, but Tia kept the bulk of them away from me.

I decelerated slightly to prepare for the arrival of the few she didn’t intercept, then readied my ultrasonic modulation spell imbued blade.

My sword sliced through their weapons like a hot knife through butter.

The later enemies tried to take advantage of my reduced freedom of movement caused by their comrades accumulated debris.

Instead of evading or fleeing, I used my thrusters to accelerate my own unit and launched their comrades’ parts in their direction.

A regular pilot's Energy would have been long since depleted when I reached their commander's position, who already awaited me, blades at the ready.

Instead of preparing a strike or readying myself to parry, I strengthened my Mana Shield, except for the hexagonal tile right in front of my unit, prepared my sword for a final thrust and increased my units momentum further.

My opponent swung both blades in an arc towards my unit. They clashed, but their impact force was nullified by the shields.

My blade meanwhile dug right through my foes armor and pierced its main magic control circuit, the heart of the Knight, so to speak.

I lowered my shield and ripped the command module right out of the Standard Knight’s frame, taking the enemy commander prisoner.

David and Lucy used the commotion to mop up those who had not fled in the confusion following the breakdown of our enemies chain of command.

With their flank in disarray, one of their commanders taken, and the main skirmish not going in their favor either, the enemy force retreated. Not in complete chaos, but not all that orderly either.

—

“Good job,” Lucy said as we met back in the hangar.

“You got results, I’ll give you that,” David said, “ but the two of you ignored my direct orders.”

I just shrugged.

“But it worked out great, didn’t it?” Tia asked.

“True,” David admitted begrudgingly. “But I can’t have my subordinates ignore the chain of command. Results or not.”

“You asked us to win, and we did,” I countered. “If you don’t want me to interfere with your plans, give me a small squad, as much freedom to act as possible, and clear goals.”

“You want to command after your first battle?” David asked. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“So?” I asked.

“So what?” David asked back.

“The rebellion against Seth,” I said. “You promised to give me some intel after this battle.”

“This was one little skirmish, the war had been going on for years,” David said. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Hey, who captured the enemy commander?” I asked. “If you clue us in, we might be able to shorten this war. By a lot.”

“Big words,” David said. “What exactly makes the two of you think you could win an entire war on your own?”