Chapter 143: Ch. 143 - The Great War! (5)

Reading the report of Fischer in his hand, Henry allowed a smile to take over his face.

With the Umber King taking the bait, it's only a matter of time before the Western Lands start dancing atop the palm of the Lioncrest Empire.

In the meantime, Henry shifted his attention elsewhere, something more important—the North.

Arne, the High King's younger brother has descended with his army and terrorized the Central borders. Their recently established outposts were being obliterated one by one. If their march weren't stopped, it wouldn't take long for them to reach the inner core of the Central Lands, where the heart, Lioncrest Empire, resides.

Fortunately, Henry already sent General Liam with a matching-sized army. Not only that, but Liam also carries something of utmost importance, a magical artefact that will change the tide of the battle.

The Summoning Ring. Its use is self-explanatory.

Based on the information they've gathered regarding Arne, the man would always and arrogantly descend in the middle of the enemy ranks, seeking to break formations and cause chaos so that his army of Vikings could inflict as much damage as possible.

To counter this, the moment Arne descended, Liam would activate the ring's function, and Henry would be instantly transported from miles away to Liam's side.

From then on, Henry would engage with the Flying Viking. Of course, Henry would come prepared, he already has his Sunshine at his waist at all times, not leaving his body even in his sleep, no matter how uncomfortable it gets.

"Now, I'll just have to wait for Liam's signal. It's been a while since I've had a good fight."

Henry could only hope that this Arne could live up to the rumors and expectations.

Putting the Northern matters aside, Henry had just recently received the reports of the Ironmere Kingdom.

His anti-lying magical artifact is working its wonders. With its help, she was able to uproot fifteen spies, most were knights from the barracks while the most crucial one turned out to be one of her advisors, who was secretly also her father's friend.

With that out of the way, they were able to focus on reinforcing the borders against the East. Speaking of the East, Henry found himself exchanging letters with Shan Yu, the current warlord who is terrorizing the Xingdu Dynasty and also a well-known villain back in Henry's past life.

Their exchange was brief but valuable. Shan Yu was very ruthless and definitely someone Henry should avoid. But not for now.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Is what they used to say in situations like this. Henry would use Shan Yu as a distraction, offering the might of a Great Empire such as Lioncrest to help him besiege half of the Xingdu Dynasty's territory.

The same part of their territory that is also where Gunpowders was being manufactured and experimented on. Henry doesn't know who gets to own the Eastern Lands, so long as he gets his hands on their Gunpowder, preferably everything including the recipe for how to make it.

But considering Shan Yu's character, the man would no doubt become his enemy once the current Xingdu Dynasty falls, so it'd be better to stab him in the back and sell him off to the Xingdu Dynasty once Henry gets what he wants.

For now, Henry is going to pretend to be a villain.

Speaking of villains, the situation in Agrabah Kingdom was extremely quiet. Almost all of his spies reported nothing out of the usual. Henry even ordered a few to find a man who goes by the name of Aladdin, whom they found to be an ordinary thief lurking in the streets of Agrabah's main city.

Just in case, Henry assigned a few to watch over the man and report anything unusual. If he remembers right, only the worthy diamond in the rough could enter the Cave of Wonders.

If the Coven is as resourceful as Henry assumed them to be, they would seek Aladdin or any other similar person to come and get the wishing lamp for them.

'I wonder if I'm worthy enough to enter? I'm not exactly a diamond in the rough, rather, I'm already a diamond without the rough part.'

———

It was the next morning when Henry felt it. A tugging feeling in his chest. No doubt it was the summoning spell he engraved in the Summoning Ring—Liam had activated it.

Without any delay, Henry let himself loose and in just a blink of an eye, he disappeared from his room and reappeared thousands of miles away.

When he finally registered his surroundings, he discovered himself surrounded by the Lioncrest Army. Standing behind him was General Liam whose sweaty face was filled with a huge smile.

Henry didn't need to ask about the situation. With his sharp senses, he immediately determined the current situation. There's an unrelenting force pushing deep within their friendly lines.

Swords, shields, armor, and people were flying away as Arne, the Flying Viking was unstoppable. For every wave of his muscular arms, two Lioncrest knights fell.

With a deep guttural roar, he smashed his two war axes on the ground, his incredible strength causing an earthquake that made everyone around him lose balance.

But before the man could do anything more than that, Henry had already set his sights on him. Deep red flames hotter than normal spewed out of his foot soles, it was precise and controlled so as not to burn his allies.

There was a resounding boom before Arne felt something hot touching the back of his neck. He reacted a second too late as Henry's shins managed to connect to his nape.

Henry then purposely controlled his strength, putting less force than usual. Just enough to throw the man up in the air and away from the Lioncrest ranks.

To everyone's eyes, Arne flipped mid-air and stopped, floating steadily while glaring at his attacker, Henry.

Smirking, Arne pointed his twin axes towards him, "I've been waiting for you, King Henry."

Henry calmly matched his level with the help of his flames, he wiggled his finger and corrected him, "Ah ah~ It's actually, Emperor Henry, rather than King."

As Henry got a better look at his opponent, he couldn't help but feel small, literally. Arne's size looked almost as large as a gorilla, his hulking muscles combined with his naked, hairy chest, along with his curly brown hair that made him look more like an animal than a man.

Spitting a mouthful of saliva, Arne growled like a provoked bear, "I'd like to hear that from you again once I'm done with you."

To Henry's surprise, the man hurled both of his axes towards him. They spun in the air, whistling at unfathomable speeds.

He immediately unsheathed Sunshine, deflecting the two axes away from his path. He tightened his grip on Sunshine and dashed forward, the flames on his footsoles producing a booming sound.

But before he could get halfway there, his sharp eyes noticed the smirk on Arne's face. The Emperor of Lioncrest didn't need to think twice and question what else it could mean but danger.

He quickly brought himself upwards, just in time to avoid the hurling axes that almost struck him in the back. Watching it go back into Arne's hands, Henry squinted his eyes in suspicion.

'Telekinesis. So that's why he could fly.'

Arne clicked his tongue in disappointment, "You're sharper than I expected. Consider yourself lucky, you're one of the rare few who survived that trick in my sleeve."

Henry didn't bother to reply. After analyzing Arne's powers and the possibilities of what he could do with them, his mind had already predicted what the next trick could be.

He swiped his hand downwards, weaving an intricate magic spell.

Arne, sensing something wrong, found his eyes bulging at the sudden pressure descending on his shoulders. It was too sudden and too much, so his telekinetic control over his figure slipped and the gravity did its job to bring him back down to the ground.

What Henry did was a simple application of air magic. By coalescing the air above Arne, forming a dense amount of air that is invisible to the naked eye, all he did after that was to simply bring that dense air down.

Back on the ground, everyone, be it Lioncrest Knights or the Vikings, watched the entire battle with hitched breaths. The moment they witnessed Arne being thrown to the ground, the reactions were split.

Half cheered while the other half panicked. The latter were the Vikings and it was their first time seeing their mighty Jarl defeated in a one-on-one exchange.

As a cloud of dust formed around the place where Arne fell, Henry didn't stay idle. He could tell it would take more than that to truly take down the hulking Viking.

True to his assumptions, several pebbles and stones were hurled out from the cloud of dust, it whistled in the air before being melted into ash by Henry's flames.

But the attacks didn't stop there. When the cloud of dust settled, a beholding sight was revealed. Arne stood in the center of a large crater, three enormous boulders, clearly plucked off the ground beneath him, floated around him in a circle.

Dripping with blood from his mouth, Arne angrily grinned and pushed both of his hands forward, catapulting the three heavy boulders—a tiny bit slower than the previous pebbles—towards the floating figure of Henry.

Henry bravely faced off against the boulders, each larger than a two-story house. When the first boulder came, he sliced it in half with Sunshine, the halves whistling past his sides.

He then did the same to the next one that came afterward. However, the third boulder was the one that came with a surprise.

Just as it was a few centimeters away from Henry, it suddenly turned into tiny bits of dust that effectively blinded him temporarily.

That opportunity was what Arne had been waiting for. Henry only felt a sudden disturbance in the space in front of him. Knowing what was to come, he quickly used Sunshine to block whatever was in front of him while casting a Skin Hardening spell over himself.

Just in time, he felt a force colliding against his entire body; it was as if the whole weight of an entire mountain was smashed towards him.

He could feel his breath hitching as he pushed his left foot back and transferred the entire force of the flames to it, stabilizing him before he could fall.

Blinking his eyes, he managed to recover just in time as another plethora of pebbles and stones were hurled in his way.

He raised Sunshine in front of him, weightless as a feather, and blocked each pebble, while churning something inside him at the same time.

By the time he was done, a great force tugged at his chest, yanking him forward faster than he could react.

In the front, Arne grinned as he used his last trick up his sleeve, using his telekinesis to pull his opponent towards him, rendering them helpless as he brought down his twin axes to their impending doom.

This was the same situation that Henry just found himself in. His eyes watched as he slowly came near Arne's front, whose axes were raised in the air, glinting under the sunlight.

Just as the two were a few centimeters away from each other, Arne noticed Henry's cheeks were inflated. Before he could sense that something was wrong, Henry finally released the spell he'd been churning since earlier.

A majestic fan-shaped blue flame spewed out of his mouth, instantly submerging Arne like a tidal wave in the ocean.