Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 246

Kudan lightly swung Mjolnir from right to left.

Bang!

Lohan and the golden lion exploded, leaving no trace.

Blood splattered on the prairie floor, and only fragments of armor and golden fur marked their passing.

The cavalry, mid-charge, altered their course.

Unable to stop immediately at full speed, and never expecting Lohan to die in a single blow, they passed Kudan on either side as best they could.

‘W-what?!’

They were too stunned to even look back.

‘Just now… Lord Lohan….’

‘He died in one hit?’

Perhaps it was denial.

It all felt like a lie.

The cavalrymen guiding their horses broke out in cold sweats.

“Huh?”

Kudan frowned.

Three thousand cavalrymen were splitting to his left and right, passing him by.

None of them dared to charge at Kudan.

‘Are they scared?’

“…No guts.”

Nord warriors would have laughed and charged like wild beasts.

Kudan gripped Mjolnir tightly, putting his strength into it.

“Hoo…”

He took a deep breath and slammed Mjolnir into the ground with all his might.

Thump!

The ground cracked like a spiderweb.

Crackle-!

The earth caved in around Kudan.

The land twisted.

Unable to withstand the tremors, several horses stumbled forward, throwing their riders.

The cavalrymen following behind were caught in the shockwave.

“Uwaaaagh!”

“Damn it…!”

Barely surviving, they shook their heads.

And then they touched the ground.

The cracked earth.

White sparks flew from within.

“Huh? What….”

In an instant, thunder erupted from the split earth as if the sky and ground had reversed.

Bang! Bang! Bang-!

Lightning flashed through the cavalry, incinerating them.

Hundreds of cavalrymen were turned into charred lumps in a single strike.

Kudan raised Mjolnir.

“Uh… and two, four, ten… how many did I kill? I don’t know.”

Kudan scratched his head.

“What?”

“What on earth is happening…!?”

The surviving cavalrymen could finally turn around at the sound of the explosion behind them.

They saw lightning rising from the ground.

“L-lightning is rising from the ground?”

Just as the cavalry was panicking,

“Don’t anyone look back!”

The knight at the front shouted.

Having been right behind Lohan, his death was vividly etched in his mind.

But they couldn’t retreat just like that.

With Lohan dead, the morale of the Imperial Army would plummet.

Plague and famine were already serious issues.

If word got out that the hero Lohan had died, the repercussions would be enormous.

‘Damn it, I thought he was a knight, but was he a mage?’

To hide such large-scale magic underground!

“Then-!”

Inflict damage on the enemy!

Then Lohan’s death could be a heroic sacrifice, a chance to boost the army’s morale!

“Oooooh!! Here they come!”

“My heart is pounding!”

The Nord warriors wearing beast helmets.

The Berserker warriors.

They curled up the corners of their lips.

“Just in time, that magic Helga made.”

“It’s time to test its power!”

“The Imperial soldiers will enjoy it.”

“…….”

The Imperial knights gritted their teeth.

They were cavalrymen on horseback.

But the enemy in front of them numbered barely a hundred, and their equipment was mismatched.

They looked undisciplined at a glance.

What were they so confident about?

‘You know how strong the paladins of the Holy Order are. We are fighting someone who defeated those paladins.’

Lohan’s words before he died echoed in their minds.

“Everyone! Give it your all! Crush them!”

The knights channeled their mana.

They pointed the lances in their hands at the barbarians they would pierce.

“Full speed ahead-! Charge-!”

The Berserker warriors took their stances.

Dark red mana emanated from their bodies.

Their muscles swelled, and the armor they wore creaked.

“……?”

The charging knights widened their eyes at the sight.

Blood spurted from between the Berserkers’ armor, and animal fur burst out.

Sharp, bestial eyes replaced human eyes within the beast helmets.

“What?!”

Their bodies grew larger.

The Berserker warriors, now towering figures of 2 meters [approximately 6 feet 7 inches], leaped forward using their incredible leg strength, wielding massive weapons.

Bang!

Crack!

The head of the knight at the front exploded.

Starting with that, the Berserker warriors charged into the cavalry.

“Crazy bastards!”

“T-they’re jumping into the middle of the charging cavalry!?”

One of the knights stared at a Berserker warrior leaping towards him.

“Uh? Uh?!”

And then they collided.

Boom-!

The warhorse and its armor shattered.

The Imperial knight was thrown forward by the impact.

‘T-this monster!’

How could a human stop a charging warhorse head-on!?

‘Damn it, then at least one strike!’

The knight thrust his spear even as he fell forward.

The Berserker warrior twisted his head, and the spear struck his helmet, deflecting it.

The knight, rolling on the ground, gripped his spear and stood up.

Then he aimed it at the back of the Berserker warrior.

“I am Ricel Lahant, a vassal of Marquis Lohan! As an honorable knight, I challenge you to a duel!”

Even in the middle of the battlefield, the knight challenged him to a duel.

He realized that he was a knight of the Lotos Empire, true to the art of swordsmanship to the bone.

‘Yes, at least I will meet my death honorably!’

Even if the one before him was a barbarian warrior, he must have honed his sword skills.

He respected him and paid his respects.

“Krrr… Interesting. Interesting! Hahahaha! A duel!!!”

Then, the knight’s spine tingled at the Berserker warrior’s voice.

It wasn’t a human voice.

A cracked, bestial voice seemed to be forcibly mimicking human speech.

The knight was terrified when the Berserker warrior turned around and met his gaze.

The black armor looked small on the 2-meter tall figure.

And where the helmet had been torn off, a wolf’s head was in its place.

A half-human, half-beast, a werewolf.

“…Not… human?”

“The Goddess has given us her blessing.”

The Berserker warrior curled up the corners of his lips.

“See in the afterlife… who the Constellations we serve are.”

The Berserker warrior raised his greatsword and leaped.

“Watch from the afterlife.”

The greatsword split the knight’s body in half.

“As expected of barbarians! Using cowardly, evil magic!?”

Some of the knights recognized the evil energy immediately.

Most of the knights who had been running at the front were destroyed by the Berserker warriors.

The wedge formation, which would have formed around the vanguard, collapsed as soon as the vanguard was destroyed.

In the end, the Imperial cavalry had no choice but to be tied down.

‘What’s going on?’

In his view, something huge was flying around among the bewildered cavalry, hunting knights and cavalrymen.

In some places, soldiers and their massive warhorses were sent flying high into the sky.

“There are less than 100 enemies!”

The Imperial knights shouted.

“Surround them! Gather together and crush them!”

At the knight’s cry, a horseman holding a red flag behind him raised it.

Seeing the red flag, the cavalrymen quickly began to move.

The Berserker warriors flinched at the Imperial cavalry’s swift movements.

The cavalry, quickly forming ranks, began to circle the Berserker warriors in a spiral.

The momentum was fierce and intense, like a typhoon.

The Berserker warriors were genuinely impressed by the sight.

“O-oh!! Crazy… these guys are different from the ones we’ve seen so far!?”

“They’re using a unique strategy?”

“Isn’t their horsemanship better than ours?”

“No, they’re just practiced. We could do that much if we practiced!… Maybe.”

The Berserker warriors were excited.

They stood back to back.

They burst into laughter at the rising sense of crisis.

The Imperial cavalrymen swallowed hard as they looked at the Berserker warriors.

Half-human, half-beast monsters.

Even in the face of danger, they seemed to be enjoying the situation.

But now it was over.

‘These must be Asgard’s main force.’

The knight shouted to the horseman next to him.

“Close in!”

“Close in! Close in! Close in!”

The horseman shouted at the top of his lungs.

At the same time, he took out a blue flag from his back and waved it.

Then the cavalry, which had been spiraling, gradually tightened.

“Amazing!”

The Berserker warriors were excited and about to bend their knees.

“But you guys.”

The knight looked at the Berserker warriors.

They curled up the corners of their lips.

“-Are all gathered together?”

In that instant, fireballs rained down from the sky.

Kaboom-!

Some of the cavalry spiraling were engulfed in fireballs and tumbled.

The knight saw the cavalry burning in front of him and pulled on the reins, leaping up.

‘I forgot about the outside!?’

“Break formation!”

“Break! Break!”

As the horseman waved a green flag, the formation broke.

The knight turned his head.

In the distance, he saw an old man.

A Nord shaman [a spiritual leader or healer] with a staff and pure white eyes.

A Nord mediator, a shaman.

‘The Nords have mages too?’

Moreover, he didn’t seem to have any guards.

“Target that man!”

Some of the cavalry charged towards the shaman.

“Wait, that’s obviously a trap!”

There was no way a mage would be so defenseless.

There must be a magic trap nearby, or an ambush.

“Come, come.”

The shaman took off his upper garment.

A muscular body covered in scars.

He bent over and sprinted towards the cavalry, bouncing off the ground.

“…….”

A mage… sprinting towards the cavalry?

The knight’s reason flew away for a moment.

The shaman, lightly dodging the spear thrust by a soldier, grabbed the horse’s underbelly and lifted it.

“What?!”

And slammed it to the ground.

He aimed his staff and fired a fireball.

“A, a battle mage!?”

“A fist mage!?”

A fist mage… what was that?

“Don’t underestimate the Nords’ mages.”

The shaman raised his staff and fired a fireball towards the gathering cavalry.

The fireball drew an arc and exploded among dozens of cavalrymen.

“S-scatter!”

“Oooooh! You guys, don’t you know it’s easier for us to hunt you if you scatter?”

As the cavalry scattered, the Berserker warriors swept through the gaps.

“G-gather!”

“Scatter!”

The knights’ commands became increasingly chaotic.

The knights eventually gave up.

“R-retreat!”

It was their first battle.

More than half of the 3,000 cavalrymen were killed by an enemy force of no more than 100.

They knew very well that they would be annihilated if they approached the enemy’s main camp any further.

“Retreat to the sanctuary!”

At the knights’ cries, a cavalryman holding a horn blew it with all his might.

Boo-woo-oong-!

The cavalry split to the left and right and headed towards the sanctuary.

The infantry, far away, were bewildered by the sound of retreat.

All they could see was the cavalry disappearing in afterimages, sudden thunder rising, and blood splattering.

And screams.

They had no way of knowing what had happened on the battlefield.

“Retreat! Retreat!”

A horseman holding a flag ran through the center of the infantry formation, shouting urgently.

The horseman’s face was filled with fear.

As the infantry hesitated, the Asgard main camp began to move.

Clatter… clatter…

Sturdy carts pulled by four heavily armored warhorses.

Four Nord warriors were riding in the carts equipped with ballistae [ancient missile weapon resembling a crossbow]: one held the reins, another held a long spear, another operated the ballista.

And the last one held bolts for reloading the ballista.

“Haha!”

Per smiled.

“Now it’s my turn….”

Thump-!

Per flinched. He raised his head.

The giant Cyclopes [one-eyed giants in Greek mythology] began to move, and Karen was riding on the shoulders of the largest Cyclops.

“Uncle Per!”

“…Karen?”

“I’m going first!”

The Cyclopes rolled their huge eyes and glared at the Imperial soldiers.

「Want to eat. Captain Karen. Can I eat?」

“Yeah! Eat a lot! You can overeat!”

「Feast!」

The Cyclopes, excited like children who had seen delicious food, ran out.

Per, who had been blankly watching the scene from behind, frowned.

“No, I can’t let them steal my thunder! Tank unit!”

At Per’s cry, about 100 tanks lined up.

“Everyone, advance! Don’t let that blockhead steal my thunder!”

At Per’s words, the tanks began to run towards the enemy infantry.