Eternally Regressing Knight Novel - Chapter 870
Chapter 870: Chapter 868 – In the Sky
Chapter 868 – In the Sky
The griffon’s wing is a shield.
“You can’t pierce it with ordinary arrows. They don’t stop flapping, so aiming for a gap is also impossible.”
This was the testimony of a member of the Crimson Cloak Knights.
“A javelin thrown with at least the strength of a semi-knight—that’s the reason we set that as the minimum condition.”
At Cypress’s words, the Crimson Cloak Knights did not show emotion but rather engaged in the practical work.
They said what needed to be said.
They also faithfully answered Enkrid’s questions.
“No soldiers died from being snatched by them. Though there were some who had their heads split by thrown rocks.”
This was a soldier’s answer.
He tracked the traces of dead soldiers and grasped the disadvantages they had faced so far.
He drew, imagined, and guessed the direction of the battle.
It was not a review, but a prediction.
“Excellent.”
Luagarne showed her satisfaction.
Think and move before you fight.
That was what Luagarne had emphasized.
Excluding the time he ate, slept, and trained, Enkrid constantly asked and asked again.
Rest was sufficiently covered by sleeping, so in his remaining time, he traversed the camp until his feet sweat.
It was obvious that knowing even something trivial was more advantageous than fighting without knowing anything.
That was the reason for gathering and collecting information before a battle began.
“Eh, I’ve never seen them just fly shuk-. They do circle above, flapping, though. Do they stop in place? Yes, eh, they did. They kept throwing things while circling over our heads.”
It was fine even if the soldier had no talent for speaking.
Enkrid had also perfectly understood the teachings of The Madmen Knights, including Rem’s.
Compared to Rem of that time, the words of a soldier with poor speaking skills were like a well-written textbook.
“Something’s strangely unpleasant.”
Rem, who was watching, muttered from the side, and Enkrid looked at Themares and shook his head.
The Dragonkin, who had been about to speak his inner thoughts, shut his mouth.
‘Their mobility isn’t outstanding.’
If it had been, they would have long since bypassed this battlefield and harassed the rear as well.
‘If they just cut the supply line.’
If they just periodically attacked the supply line, which was a full day’s ride from here, the Southern Front would be finished.
Even knights can’t fight without eating.
‘They aren’t long-distance flyers.’
The reason for taking a detour from an obviously easy path?
There was one.
It was because they couldn’t do it.
Many people had seen the griffons shoot upwards when a javelin or arrow was thrown.
He gathered the information and drew a picture in his head.
As he added lines and color to the picture, it became much clearer than before.
In the end, the help of the Crimson Cloak Knights was significant.
After hearing about the several attempts the knightly order had made to repel the griffons, he understood.
‘They are adept at vertical movement, and their wings serve as a means of defense.
The sides are not open.
If you go underneath, you have to get past the lion’s claws.’
A part of the Crimson Cloak Knights had seen their bellies as a weak point and thrown javelins, but the griffons had swatted them away with their claws.
They weren’t fools, either.
Even if The Madmen Knights hadn’t come, they probably would have figured out a way to break through.
“We also thought about procuring a catapult, riding it ourselves, and flying up to catch them, if the javelins didn’t work.”
…Or maybe they were fools.
One of the knights had said that.
Launching oneself with a catapult was one problem, but how did they plan to land?
“We thought we could manage with a fall-breaking technique.”
You can’t know the result without trying.
Enkrid was very fond of those words.
But just as grabbing heated iron will burn your hand, there were times when the result was just obvious.
Of course, if he had to grab the hot iron, if he absolutely had to for some reason, he would, but he didn’t think it was a statement to be applied to this situation.
“I told you many times that you would die if you fell.”
This was what Aurelia had said.
Naturally, it meant they had not received permission from her or the knightly command.
Enkrid, as always, did his best to not let it end at today.
Everything was a part of that.
This was the conclusion he had reached with the information he had obtained.
This was not a fight to be dragged out.
‘The enemy will pull back at the slightest disadvantage.’
Then time would be dragged out.
His goal was to crush the enemy’s morale with a single fight and make them not even think of using griffons.
If the fight dragged on…
“The guy right next to me was pierced by an icicle spear and died. Well, this is a battlefield. Their scrolls aren’t just one type.”
His allies, the soldiers, the people, would die in far greater numbers than now.
Soldiers who go to a battlefield die.
It was a matter of course.
Not everyone can live.
Yes, it was an obvious truth, but if it was possible to avoid it, wasn’t it obvious to try?
The speaking soldier’s eyes shook incessantly.
Enkrid also knew this fact.
He did not think of the soldiers’ sacrifice as a matter of course.
The day before the griffons flew, Cypress had approached him through the evening glow.
“Do you know what the best plan was for us to win?”
“Using all the soldiers as bait and striking the enemy’s main force.”
The knightly order becoming the tip of the spear and charging, instead of acting as the army’s shield.
Fighting while watching the soldiers die at the hands of the griffons.
It was the second-worst option, to avoid the absolute worst.
The worst was to just endure, and face the enemy in an exhausted state.
Enkrid saw the enemy’s intent.
Wear them down with griffons, pour in soldiers to wear them down again, and then fight.
Using the soldiers’ blood to drain the knights’ stamina.
A simple strategy, but effective.
“A fighting style with no romance.”
When he pierced through it with his words…
“I think so too. They’re petty bastards.”
Cypress let out a hearty laugh.
***
He leaps from Weird Eyes’ back.
The wind tears at his cheeks.
The cloak sticks fast to his back, reducing air resistance.
‘Explode.’
Unleash the sword that pours out everything you have.
His will became a torrent, pushing out the Will.
Just before swinging the sword, Enkrid caught it and stopped it.
‘Waiting.’
He had learned waiting and condensation from watching Edin Molsan.
It was more like re-learning what he already knew, but what’s learned is learned.
He had spent the whole journey mulling over and mastering that trick.
Now was the time he needed it.
He falls from Weird Eyes, turning his body half a rotation.
He gathers the rotating force and swings the sword.
When?
At the very moment he captures the enemy’s spearhead.
His vision was blurred due to the fierce wind, but he could see the spearhead suddenly shooting up through his narrowed eyes.
Enkrid unleashed the condensed power.
The Will moved according to his intent.
The strike, loaded with falling force and weight, smashed the spearhead.
Kwang!
With a loud roar, the spear shaft was flung to the side.
Time stretched, and he saw his opponent’s expression.
The emotion in the wide-open eyes, inside the helmet that covered his forehead and face, was bewilderment.
The bastard let go of the spear.
A split-second decision.
If he had held on, his grip would have been shattered or his arm muscles twisted.
He would abandon one weapon.
Instead, he thrust the sword he held in his other hand.
Enkrid, smashing the spearhead with Dawn, used that force to rotate his body completely.
From the spinning body in mid-air, Dawn’s blade shot out, streaming a blue light.
Dawn, filled with rotational force, struck the opponent’s blade.
Kwang!
A second roar.
At the same time, Simlak’s sword split into nine pieces and bent like a whip.
Naturally, his weapon was also an inscribed weapon.
His Will was imbued in all three of his weapons—spear, sword, and axe.
The spear was engraved with a spell to return to its master even if thrown, and the axe held a flame that instantly cauterized a wound upon cutting.
Finally, the sword’s name was Bunjeol (Severance).
If its master wished, it was a blade that would split itself into pieces and, like a snake, catch, tear, and break anything.
‘I’ve won!’
He had been surprised by the boldness of leaping from a horse, but in the end, it was his victory.
Simlak believed so.
The moment the blade, after striking, transformed and tried to wrap around his leg, Enkrid drew Penna and made it bite.
This was the blade that had been broken in half and then forged back together by the elven blacksmith’s flame.
“Eu-heob.”
The scene of that emotionless elven blacksmith letting out a gasp upon seeing the broken Penna was vivid.
Impurities seeped into his stretched thoughts.
Stray thoughts.
He let them flow, discarded them, and nullified the enemy’s attack with the blade that the elven blacksmith had tempered with his full concentration.
Tagagagak!
Sparks scattered fiercely.
It wasn’t an inscribed weapon, but Penna was a treasure of the elf tribe.
It had been broken once, but breaking it again was not easy.
And with that, Enkrid’s feet touched the griffon’s back.
It was over after two sword strikes and one defense.
“Crazy!”
Simlak had both feet fixed in the saddle.
Therefore, he could not stand.
He twisted his waist to look at Enkrid.
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Along with the words, Dawn split his helmet.
Because he hadn’t stopped his hands and feet even while exchanging words, it seemed as if Simlak’s “Crazy!”, Enkrid’s reply, and the blade splitting his head had all happened at the same time.
Ppeok, Kwagak.
Dawn’s pale-blue blade split the helmet and the head.
Simlak couldn’t even use the axe, the third of his weapons.
A dead man cannot swing a weapon.
Keeee-aaak!
As the weight increased, the griffon let out a grotesque scream.
While Enkrid was retrieving the sword that had split the head, the rampaging griffon shook its body left and right.
It was a situation twice as difficult as balancing on a rocking boat.
As Enkrid bent his knees, lowered his posture, and tried to barely maintain his balance, another griffon rider charged in from the side.
“Thanks for coming.”
Enkrid, still crouched, gathered Will in his feet, used the griffon’s spine as the ground, and leaped.
As he moved, he didn’t forget to retrieve Penna.
The opponent’s sword was still tangled in Penna, making it look like a mace wrapped in steel thorns, but he had no need to swing the mace-like Penna at the moment.
Koong, Udeuk. Kkueek.
The griffon beneath his feet stopped flapping its wings and shrieked.
Its spine was broken, so all that was left for it was to fall.
Enkrid transferred onto another griffon rider.
It had been its mistake to approach, trying to peck him with its beak.
“You son of a…!”
The soldier quickly twisted his waist, drew a shortsword, and thrust.
Enkrid was a knight.
He was capable of performing feats that seemed impossible to ordinary people.
He sheathed Dawn and caught the shortsword with two fingers.
The opponent was just a soldier who was prepared to become the griffon’s emergency rations if things went wrong; he was not a knight.
“This is a battlefield. Don’t resent me.”
Enkrid said that, pushed aside the sword he held with his fingers, and grabbed the soldier’s neck with one hand and broke it.
To an onlooker, it didn’t look like a process of grabbing and breaking, but rather like he had just brushed past him.
Udeuk.
The neck lolled, and pink foam flowed from his nose and mouth.
Blood droplets also trickled through the foam, only to be scattered by the wind.
After the second, the third one was not far.
That is, if they were on the ground.
But this was the sky.
Regardless of the distance, it was hard to just jump unless one was extraordinarily daring.
It was a height that stimulated a human’s primal fear.
In this respect, Enkrid had skills he had already experienced and mastered several times, so he was not afraid.
‘Heart of the Beast.’
The artistry that had made him not close his eyes at the sight of a flying blade now made him fly in the sky like a madman.
Enkrid leaped again.
This time, it was farther than before.
Udeudeuk, Peong!
He leaped forcefully, using the griffon’s back as a support, and this time, the spine didn’t just break; the back hide burst open.
Thanks to the griffon that died beneath his feet, Enkrid shot forward like an arrow and ‘boarded’ with the third rider.
His skill in spinning his body in mid-air to land balanced was hardly human.
Especially in the eyes of the enemy, it must have looked like an otherworldly skill.
A knight is a disaster.
The meaning of those words must have pierced their hearts.
“Got room? Even if you don’t, it’s too late. I’m already on.”
“Wha- wha- uh? Huh?”
The soldier was so flustered he couldn’t even form words.
Enkrid made a fist and struck the crown of his head.
Teong!
The impact, transferred through the helmet, turned the soldier’s brain to pulp.
His pupils rolled back, and bloody tears streamed from them, but the wind snatched them away.
Enkrid looked for his next opponent.
Just then, a mass of flame flew at him.
Fwaarrreuk.
This was the result of their judgment that throwing scroll bundles was better than approaching.
‘Spells have a flow.’
Spells cast directly by a mage can change in real-time, but scrolls were different.
It meant that it was easier for Enkrid to cut magic implemented by a scroll.
He gripped the hilt of Dawn, still in its sheath, and imbued it with Will.
He drew the sword, drew a vertical line, and sheathed it.
All the movements were extremely swift.
Hwaang!
Wind followed the slash.
The fireball split in two in front of Enkrid, and it moved past his left and right, exploding far behind him.
Peong, peong.
Between the two explosions, the blue-eyed grim reaper chased his next opponent.
“Shit, run!”
Someone shouted.
They were not knights.
It was unlikely they would listen just because he said so.
But their hearts were connected.
They all decided to flee and pulled hard on the reins connected to the griffons’ beaks.
A few of them failed to control their mounts.
The griffon, perhaps annoyed by the guy on its back, flapped its wings and then tilted its body.
“Aaaaak, no!”
One of the soldier’s feet slipped from the saddle.
He dangled in mid-air, and his face came within reach of the griffon’s beak.
The griffon, without hesitation, pecked the man’s head.
Kwadeuk!
The wind snatched the brains, blood, flesh, and bone fragments and sent them flying.
The blood and flesh that weren’t carried away by the wind entered the griffon’s mouth.
Enkrid gauged the distance and leaped again.
This time, he had aimed too far.
It didn’t seem like he could possibly reach. The soldier who had pulled the reins was relieved.
That crazy bastard is going to fall and die now.
The soldier’s expectations were not met.
Parararararak!
From Enkrid’s back, the dark green cloak extended and caught the wind.
He flew, as if gliding.
And so, he met the next griffon rider.
“Nice to meet you. I won’t ask for your name.”
The words he spoke to them were a eulogy for the soldiers dragged into this fight.
His knee smashed the soldier’s face.
Kwang.
The crushed eyeball was pushed in, then popped out.
Enkrid struck the griffon’s neck with Penna, which had become a rattling mace.
Kwadeudeuk.
The neck, torn, scratched, and a mangled mess of flesh, was severed, and the monster plummeted.
Enkrid, his body tilting, shouted.
“Now!”
Paaak.
The winged horse, Pegasus, streaming blue steam, had already come up beneath him.
Enkrid leaped from the body of the dead griffon and sat on Weird Eyes.
Koong.
It was a heavy fall, but Weird Eyes received him with ease.
There were still more griffons.
He intended to not leave a single one.
He had risen to the sky with that resolve.
***
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***
If you enjoy the series and want to get more chapters early, head over to https://payhip.com/Samowek
Next 100 chapters – 25e [Be sure to message me on discord for any information]
[SHOP BEST BUY] – 50e – Every chapter translated – Latest WN-1011 + daily chapters from monday to friday for a month.
-KNIGHT – Cost 20e – Chapters 942-1011 + daily chapters from Monday to Friday for a month
I welcome you to join our discord https://discord.gg/RY7BbJpeAZ
**ANY INFO ONLY APPLIES TO THE LATEST CHAPTER HERE ON WEBNOVEL**