The Rural Officer Who Was Once a General

Part 1, Chapter 25

'Damn it, this is fucked.'

One of the centurions leading the light cavalry bit his lip as he stared at Fade.

It wasn’t just the issue of Fade’s combat prowess.

His eerie sword was shaking the morale of the Khanate soldiers.

It was only natural that a battlefield would fall into chaos when soldiers hesitated.

So, what was he to do?

The answer was already clear.

He had to stop the enemy commander and break their momentum.

"You bastard!"

The centurion charged at Fade.

As someone who led a hundred cavalrymen, his movements were clean and without waste.

He boldly thrust his spear forward.

It was a fast yet heavy strike—quite decent.

Skwaang!

When Fade brought his blade down, the spearhead was deflected.

Uddeudeuk.

Fade grabbed just below the spear blade and pulled.

The centurion was clearly the larger man, but every time Fade's left arm tugged, his upper body was dragged along.

Seogeok!

A swiftly rising slash pierced the centurion’s neck.

Blood burst out and flowed down the blade.

Tch.

Fade shook his sword to the side.

The splattered blood scattered on the ground.

Even so, the blood soaked into the blade still dripped down Fade’s wrist.

"Ugh!"

Fade tossed aside the lifeless, cold body of the centurion and took a brief breath.

In that moment, what appeared before him were countless arrowheads trembling as they pointed toward him.

"You crazy bastards! Shoot!"

The mounted archers loosed their arrows at him.

Thwack-thwack-thwack!

Whir!

Fade quickly removed his foot from the stirrup and dropped to the ground.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

The arrows grazed past above his head.

“Now’s our chance!”

The light cavalry charged.

They clearly intended not to let Fade remount his horse.

Fade threw himself at the cavalry without hesitation.

“Hrrgh!”

In the midst of the whirling clash of spears and swords, Fade twisted his body this way and that, continuing to dodge.

Puk!

In the process, his longsword pierced into the belly of a horse that had entered his range.

“Kghuk!”

The sword tip pierced through the saddle and split open the lower belly of the rider above.

“Hyah!”

Fade slid under the horse and retrieved his sword.

Thud!

When Fade kicked the already lifeless horse, it collapsed and tangled up the legs of the charging light cavalry.

Fade stepped onto the horse’s corpse, leapt into the air, and thrust his sword downward repeatedly.

Each time his sword went out and returned, the arcs of blood that sprayed upward became more vivid.

“Hrrghh!”

As Fade bent his body like a bow and struck with the full recoil, the heads of three cavalrymen split in unison, sending blood spraying in all directions.

“Khh…”

Standing atop the piled corpses of the light cavalry, Fade panted heavily and glared at the mounted archers who had drawn a bead on him.

"Shoot! You bastards, shoot!”

At the order of the mounted archers' Centurion, the cavalry archers loosed their arrows.

“Hrrgh!”

Fade grabbed one soldier with his left hand and skewered another with his sword in the right, using both as shields.

Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!

Several arrowheads pierced through the corpses, stopping just short of Fade’s face.

“Haah!”

Shaking off the two corpses, Fade charged toward the hundred light cavalry who were forming a line to protect the mounted archers.

Though the flesh of the soldier he had used as a shield still clung to his blade, it flew off after a few swings.

Thwack! Swoosh! Clang!

The sounds of metal clashing and flesh being cut rang out in turn.

Piiit!

A swiftly thrust spearhead drew a shallow line of blood across Fade’s cheek.

Skwaang!

A powerful horizontal slash from Fade split the cavalrymen along with their horses.

“Hrrgh!”

Fade poured every breath into his swings, slashing relentlessly.

Feints and real attacks, defense and offense—each move flowed unpredictably.

So the enemy had no choice but to be overwhelmed.

If he swung to the right and they raised their guard, a clean thrust would already be piercing their heart; if they deflected his blade, it would suddenly crash down on a comrade’s skull.

How could they deal with that?

Elites?

Of course, they were elite soldiers.

Cavalry, by nature, were far more elite compared to infantry, and among them, the cavalry of the Khanate held especially high status.

And if they were part of Rakula’s cavalry unit, their standing within the Khanate was even more notable.

But Fade’s sword rendered the title of ‘elite’ meaningless.

These men, who had spent years on horseback, were dying like green recruits.

If this had happened in the forest, one might have said it was due to unfamiliar terrain.

But this was a wide-open steppe—no different from the fields they usually fought in.

And yet, Fade’s sword continued to massacre the light cavalry.

“Hiiik!”

The Centurion of the mounted archers shrieked and stared at Fade in terror.

Only now, upon seeing the blood-drenched Fade, did he realize what kind of being he was up against.

A sword demon who had single-handedly cut down a hundred light cavalry.

Each time that sword swung, at least one life was lost, and dozens of minds were shaken.

“S-Shoot! Shoot!!”

But the centurion did his best to remain rational.

Until now, they had been in a chaotic melee with the allies, making sniping impossible, but currently, they could finish him off with a concentrated shoot.

Thwack-thwack-thwack!

The slightly reduced number of mounted archers loosed their bowstrings.

“Huff…”

As he shook off blood and caught his breath, Fade pulled his right arm back behind him.

“Hrrgh!”

Clang clang clang clang!

His sword, swung diagonally upward, deflected the hail of arrows.

“What the fuck…”

The Centurion froze in place at the inexplicable feat beyond all reason.

And then, Fade shot forward like an arrow.

Thwack!

The centurion’s neck was severed and rolled to the ground in an instant.

“Urgh…!”

The shocked archers scrambled to nock another arrow, but in that moment of helplessness, they were nothing more than prey to Fade.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The sword swung to a steady rhythm, and with each beat, a neck was severed.

“Uhhh!”

The last remaining archer, face pale with fear, aimed at Fade.

Swoosh.

Even as the arrow flew toward him, Fade remained unshaken.

Thwack.

The sword gently swept downward in a perfect vertical slash, slicing the arrow cleanly in two as it fell to the ground.

“Haah, outta breath, fuck.”

Thwack!

Fade’s sword plunged into the archer’s neck.

Fade immediately leapt up, shoved the archer away, and took his horse.

“Huff…”

Fade, having taken down all the visible mounted archers on the battlefield, caught his breath and assessed the situation.

The infantry were holding their own in the melee, and the cavalry, perhaps thanks to training, were tearing through the enemy lines.

Of course, the overwhelming numerical disadvantage couldn’t be helped.

“Doesn’t matter.”

He would just reduce their numbers himself.

“More importantly…”

Fade checked his own condition.

Dozens of mounted archers and over a hundred light cavalry.

Not a small number, but during his Ten Fingers days, he had faced far more.

Of course, he had barely taken any effective hits.

There were moments he had nearly dislocated his shoulder from strain, and several spears and blades had come chillingly close, but the real issue was stamina.

"Still... looks like I’ve gotten some of it back."

Fade’s lips curled into a wicked grin.

He readjusted his grip on the sword and glanced around.

There were plenty of light cavalry glaring at him, but none dared to charge in.

"Just a little more. Yeah… let’s go a little longer."

Fade spurred his horse forward and charged into the light cavalry.

Puk! Suk! Kang!

Shorter, simpler sounds burst from the tip of his sword.

He had reduced the force behind each swing and shifted to a more technical, efficient form of swordsmanship.

It wasn’t a style designed for fighting against multiple opponents, but for the sake of conserving stamina, he had to stick with it.

Seureu, gagagang!

More precisely, it wasn’t that he wasn’t using strength—it was that he used it in sharp bursts.

That way, he could reduce the drain on his stamina throughout the swings.

Udeuk!

An enemy spear pierced through the neck of his horse, but he didn’t care.

He would simply cut down that bastard and take his horse instead.

Seureung!

Each time a flash of blood-colored steel gleamed, another cavalryman fell.

‘Tch…’

Fade furrowed his brows and twisted his wrist.

He could feel the strength steadily leaving his body.

His breath grew ragged, and a sickly sweetness filled his mouth with every gasp.

His vision began to blur, and sounds dulled around him.

Seogeok!

A sharp strike slashed through an enemy’s throat.

Tududuk.

Even the weight of the blood droplets landing on his body began to feel heavier.

‘Damn it, is my body still not holding up?’

Fade clenched his lips shut to keep from making a leaking breath sound and twisted his waist, driving the tip of his longsword into a cavalryman’s heart.

He then dove in toward the falling soldier and reflexively sprang back.

Charang!

Four spears stabbed in at once, blocking each other’s paths and clanging against one another.

“……”

Fade silently stared at the point where the spears had crossed.

It was exactly where he had been standing a moment ago.

Had he failed to evade that, his body would’ve been run through and left a cold corpse.

"Hmph. Getting old makes you sentimental, I guess."

With a sly flick of the eyes, Fade climbed onto a wandering riderless horse.

Was dying from a spear on the battlefield really something to fear?

No—such a clean death on the battlefield was practically a luxury one could rarely enjoy.

"He’s finally lost his mind!"

A cavalryman at the front lunged at Fade with a long spear.

From the full metal shaft and the thick armor he wore, he appeared to be a centurion—his skill was about on that level too.

But even that level of strike was deadly to the now-fatigued Fade.

The centurion understood this as well, which is why he thrust so aggressively.

There was no way Fade, in his current state, could cut through steel or deflect the spear—at best, he might dodge or take a heavy hit.

It was a reasonably logical calculation.

Fade had no strength left, and his speed wasn’t what it used to be.

Fade only made a slight motion, lowering his upper body.

The Centurion quickly recalculated the trajectory, confident that a deep red line would soon run down Fade’s back.

‘If that happens, there’ll be blood everywhere. That monster won’t be pulling off those stunts once he’s bleeding out.’

Internally cheering, the centurion tightened his grip on the spear.

Whirik!

But it didn’t take long for all his assumptions to fall apart.

Fade’s longsword spiraled around the shaft of the spear.

Seogeok!

Like a grass snake coiling up a pole, the blade shot upward, slicing into the centurion’s shoulder.

As his shoulder lost strength, the spear tip sagged.

Tuk!

The spear struck the dirt, and Fade twisted his sword.

With the sword now horizontal to the ground, he cleanly retracted it.

Seureung.

As the blade slid back, it grazed the centurion’s neck, and dark crimson blood gushed forth.