Warhammer Divine Throne

Where’s my horse?

Just as Ocasen was searching for his horse amid the rout, he had already heard the sound of hooves behind him.

Even in the pouring rain and hail, that sound of hooves was crystal clear.

Impossible. In mud like this, how could these Brittania Knights be running so fast in a swamp? Ocasen turned and looked, and the sight before his eyes made his heart rate triple.

Charging at the very front, clad in a full suit of silver plate armor, the man with no helmet on, black center-parted long hair flying and the Goddess of Revenge in his hand spewing crackling lightning, had already cut his way to less than fifty meters from him! The tall Pure-blooded Elf Warhorse under him was wildly excited, lifting its hooves and directly kicking one of Ocasen’s personal attendants flying on the spot!

Eighty Knights had already carved into the interior of the Winter Hunting Squad. With the blessing of Divine Art, the Knights’ warhorses were able to gallop freely through the swampy ground under the heavy rain, smashing the last resistance of the attendants.

Even worse, that one glance back had exposed Ocasen’s identity. Laine had noticed the guy wearing a Cross Helmet and full plate armor, with Ocasen’s heraldic cloak on his back.

That was Earl Ocasen!

"Die!" In the blink of an eye, Laine took the lead and burst through the attendants’ line. Those shields simply couldn’t stop the power of the Goddess of Revenge. The dazzling white light erupting from him lit up the entire battlefield. In the downpour, Laine spurred his mount straight toward Ocasen. He swung the Goddess of Revenge, and an attendant who tried to block him was cut cleanly in two in the cold flash of the blade.

Seeing this, Ocasen felt icy fear surge through his whole body. As a strongman with Legendary Power, he’d need at least twenty or thirty exchanges to take down that fully armed attendant, yet Laine did it with a single sword stroke!

How was this even a fight? Ocasen hurriedly quickened his pace, desperately trying to flee, but the muddy swamp badly hampered his steps, and how could a man outrun a horse? In just a few seconds, Laine had already closed in on his back, the Divine Chosen Champion of the Lake Fairy rapidly closing the distance.

As long as he killed Ocasen and his attendants, the Sharp-Top Palace would be stripped of its elite and its command. The difficulty of the assault would plummet. Laine’s face was ice-cold. He certainly knew Earl Ocasen was human, but that wasn’t a reason for him to show mercy or compassion. When problems needed to be solved by force, Laine never went soft-hearted!

After running a few more steps, Ocasen knew he truly couldn’t get away. He swallowed hard. The Earl of Sharp-Top Palace hastily removed his Cross Helmet and turned around, raising his hands.

The Earl of Sharp-Top Palace opened his mouth, ready to surrender and speak the truth.

He had already thought up two lines.

The first: "Lord Laine, don’t! I’m one of us!"

The second: "Back then I had no choice. Now I want to be a good man!"

Yet just as Earl Ocasen turned around, an accident happened: "Wa–"

A hailstone the size of an egg fell from the sky, tearing through the icy air and the curtain of rain.

Just as Ocasen turned and opened his mouth, that hailstone smashed directly into his front teeth. Two incisors snapped off with a crack. The searing pain almost drowned out all his senses. Clutching his teeth, he bent over, his whole face scrunched up in agony: "Lai... mmph mmph mmph!"

In the rain and hail, Laine hadn’t heard clearly what Ocasen was trying to say, nor did he intend to listen. Seeing Ocasen struck by hail, the Goddess of Revenge fell in the curtain of rain, piercing Ocasen’s chest—a single thrust through the heart.

At the time of his death, he was fifty-three.

Laine lopped off the bloody head with one stroke. The Divine Chosen Champion of the Lake Fairy held aloft Ocasen’s head, his face twisted in ultimate terror in his final moments: "All human soldiers! Surrender to me at once! Otherwise, in the name of the Lady I’ll have every last one of you burned at the stake!"

"Drop your weapons! Hands on your heads, squat down!" Fidmund raised his Trident high in the rain, two Knight’s Squire corpses still skewered on it. The Son of the Sea God roared toward the whole battlefield: "Or die!"

With morale already smashed to the bottom, the Winter Hunting Squad had lost its last shred of fighting strength. From Peasants to Knights, they all threw down their weapons and knelt in the swamp to surrender.

The surprise raid drew to a close in the curtain of rain. Of the eighty Knights Laine led, only three were wounded, yet in this battle they had taken more than a hundred heads, many corpses already soaking into the vast expanse of swampy water.

Laine gripped Ocasen’s head in one hand, and with the other hand slid the Goddess of Revenge back into the scabbard on his back. He took a snowflake-shaped Magic Artifact from his breast: "It’s done, Lady Aurora, Teresa. We’ve achieved our objective. Please inform Her Highness Mogiana to begin the crossing and launch the attack immediately!"

"...Understood." Aurora’s voice came from the other end of the communication device.

In the pouring rain, Laine shouted to the Knights: "Clean the battlefield at once! Pile the corpses together and burn them!"

"Yes!" As if responding to Laine’s order, the rain and hail stopped almost at the same instant. Barely ten minutes later, the clouds in the sky above dispersed, and the weather around the Sharp-Top Palace area returned to a bright winter day.

Seeing this, Laine nodded silently. This was exactly why he’d asked Aurora to act.

Only Aurora had the ability to perfectly control such a massive storm of sleet and hail, altering the weather within a finely tuned area, and then immediately halting the change and restoring clear skies the moment Laine needed.

In fact, if Earl Ocasen had regained consciousness, he would have realized that this sleet and hailstorm had only affected roughly a ten-kilometer radius around the Sharp-Top Palace.

If it had been Teresa instead, the female sorcerer could certainly conjure a Blizzard, or a storm of sleet or hail—that was no problem. But Teresa couldn’t match such precise control of the area, nor could she stop the weather on a dime when Laine required it.

The female sorcerer is still a bit green compared to her mother, in every sense, Laine thought so to himself.

Everything had gone according to his plan. From Earl Ocasen leading the Winter Hunt out, to the onset of the rain and hailstorm, it had all been within Laine’s calculations. He’d led his men to cross the river before dawn using Magic, then launched a surprise attack on this Winter Hunting unit, beheading Earl Ocasen himself and his most elite attendants.

This was equivalent to completely crippling the entire command system of the Sharp-Top Palace’s army as well as more than half its elite troops. Once these two pillars were gone, the defensive capability of the Sharp-Top Palace was greatly reduced, easing the pressure on Laine and his forces by a large margin.

Laine hefted Ocasen’s head. The Divine Chosen Champion of the Lake Fairy mused that this guy had seemed to want to say something to him before he died.

What was it? Laine frowned.

Forget it. It probably wasn’t anything important anyway. Laine figured there were only two possibilities for what Ocasen wanted to say before he died: either he’d chosen to surrender and beg for mercy, or he wanted to issue a formal challenge, asking Laine to dismount and fight him one-on-one. Laine would agree to neither, so whatever he’d wanted to say no longer mattered to Laine.

"Lord Laine! Lord Laine!" Dressed in a dazzling Flame Sun Knight standard-issue full plate armor, Juan jogged up to Laine. The young Flame Sun Knight knelt on one knee before Laine in high spirits and offered his trophies: two still-bleeding heads. "These are my spoils! Please inspect them!"

The blood on Juan’s armor had been mostly washed away by the rain. The youngest legitimate son of Duke Margaret looked as if he felt no burden from killing at all. There wasn’t a trace of reluctance on his face—only pride. He was holding two of Ocasen’s attendants’ heads, here to claim credit from Laine.

Laine felt a mix of amusement and emotion in his heart. In this world, mercy really was a luxury. Even in relatively peaceful Estalia, nobles still prided themselves on Martial Valor. For Juan to rely on his own strength to become a full Flame Sun Knight, his hands were absolutely stained with the blood of bandits and brigands, and likely Beastmen and Green Skin as well.

"You did well, Juan." Laine nodded. "This is your battle merit. But it’s still not time to talk rewards. This raid is only the beginning."

"I know, Lord Laine. We’re about to attack the Sharp-Top Palace!" Juan shouted excitedly. "I’ll show you my Martial Valor. When do we depart?"

"We wait until Her Highness Mogiana leads the main force across the river and joins us." Laine said calmly. "We must finish this battle before the forces in the Musillon direction can react."

"Yes!"