Chapter 1699 - 236 - Heroes First Campaign (2)

We flew high above the battlefield, with Laurel carrying Lilia while the three of us traveled through the sky. From up there, the battlefield looked completely different compared to how it appeared from the ground, with countless soldiers moving around below us and the sounds of weapons and explosions reaching our ears even from this distance.

"By the way, I haven't seen you around lately." I said to Laurel while looking at her.

"She retired," Lilia answered simply.

"Huh? Retired?"

Laurel nodded after hearing my question, and I couldn't help but look at her again with a slightly surprised expression. She was still fairly young, so it felt strange to hear that she had already retired from her duties as a Magic Knight. If I remembered correctly, she had even been a captain at one point, which made her decision seem even more unusual to me.

"Well, I went back to my hometown because my father was dying, and I wanted to take care of him before he passed. He unfortunately passed a month ago," Laurel explained. "After my father passed away, I had to stay there and take care of my mother as well."

So that was what had happened, huh?

I honestly hadn't expected the reason to be something that serious, especially because she had explained it so casually and without making it sound like some huge tragedy. Still, after thinking about it for a moment, I could understand her decision perfectly well.

If your father was dying, then naturally, you would want to spend whatever time you had left with him instead of worrying about your duties as a Magic Knight. Once he passed away, there was also the matter of her mother, who apparently had nobody else to rely on besides her. In that situation, staying behind to take care of her seemed like the most natural thing she could have done.

"Then why did you come back?" I asked after giving her explanation some thought.

"Because this kingdom is where my mother lives, and my father was buried here," Laurel replied. "Naturally, I have to protect it. I possess the power to do so, after all."

That was certainly a rather patriotic way of looking at things, if you asked me, but I couldn't exactly say that her reasoning was wrong either. If this kingdom was the place where her family lived and where her father had been laid to rest, then I could understand why she would feel responsible for protecting it.

She wasn't protecting some random piece of land simply because someone had ordered her to do it.

She was protecting her home.

That made a pretty big difference.

While we were still flying, several soldiers below us suddenly noticed our presence.

Their movements changed almost immediately.

Some of them raised their weapons toward us, while others began shouting to alert the people around them. Within moments, several cannons were pointed directly in our direction.

Then the first missiles came flying toward us.

Another followed.

Then another.

Soon enough, missile after missile was being launched into the sky, all of them heading directly toward our position.

I honestly didn't think the Empire was capable of producing modernized cannons like these.

Still, whatever technology they had managed to develop, it wasn't enough to bring me down.

I activated the Guardian around the three of us, creating a protective barrier that surrounded our bodies before the incoming missiles could reach us.

The attacks slammed against the barrier one after another, producing loud explosions that shook the air around us.

The force was strong enough to make the surrounding area tremble, but the Guardian held firm.

After dealing with the barrage for a while, we eventually descended toward the battlefield.

The moment our feet touched the ground, I drew both of my swords.

Ayuru was in one hand.

Samui was in the other.

The soldiers around us immediately began moving toward our position, but I didn't give them enough time to surround us.

I rushed forward and started cutting through them without showing any mercy.

I destroyed the nearby cannons as well, tearing through them with ease and without giving myself even a moment to hesitate. Their weapons might have been impressive from a distance, but once I was close enough to reach them, they weren't much of a problem anymore.

One soldier suddenly rushed toward me with his blade raised above his head.

I immediately drove Ayuru straight into his chest.

Another soldier fired his gun at me from farther away, but instead of bothering to dodge the shot, I threw Samui directly toward him.

The blade struck him in the head and killed him instantly.

I immediately commanded Samui to return to me through our connection, and the sword came flying back toward me as naturally as if it had never left my hand in the first place.

Blood covered the blade when it returned, so I swung it through the air to shake the blood away before rushing toward another group of soldiers.

I dashed straight through several of them at once, swinging both Ayuru and Samui in rapid succession while cutting through anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in my path.

The soldiers barely had time to react before they were struck down.

Some tried to raise their weapons.

Others tried to retreat.

A few even attempted to surround me.

Their efforts didn't matter.

I continued attacking them until the area around us was filled with fallen soldiers and broken weapons, leaving the survivors staring at me from a distance.

When I finally stopped, the soldiers who were still alive could only stand there and stare.

They were still holding their guns and swords, but their hands were trembling badly.

Their expressions had changed completely.

The confidence they had shown earlier was gone.

They looked like they had finally realized that continuing to fight me would accomplish absolutely nothing.

For a moment, I considered simply letting them go.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to make that mistake.

If I showed them mercy here, there was a chance that they would retreat, regroup with the rest of their forces, and eventually return to attack us again.

Leaving enemies alive in the middle of a war wasn't exactly a luxury I could afford.

So I killed them as well.

"Take it easy, Leon," Lilia said from nearby.

She pulled out her own sword and immediately began cutting down everything she saw, attacking the enemy soldiers around her without hesitation.

"You are the leader, after all. I can't afford to let you die."

"I won't," I told her confidently.

I wasn't planning on dying here.

We continued moving through the battlefield after that, working our way through the enemy's backlines and steadily thinning out their forces.

Rather than charging directly into the largest groups of soldiers, we focused on destroying the support behind them and cutting off their ability to reinforce the frontlines.

The more soldiers we took down, the weaker the overall pressure against our forces became.

It wasn't glamorous work, and there wasn't anything particularly heroic about running around killing soldiers in their own territory, but it was effective.

That was what mattered.

If we could continue deleting their backlines, then eventually the enemy's frontlines would lose the support they needed to keep fighting.

We could slowly dismantle their entire formation from behind.

While I continued fighting, however, another thought crossed my mind.

I couldn't help but wonder what was happening somewhere else on the battlefield.

What were the heroes doing right now?