"Annihilate the rebels!"
"Avenge His Royal Highness, the First Prince!"
"Prince Bolton is our hero! Die for the Prince!"
The entire Royal Palace echoed with cries of battle. Tens of thousands of soldiers clashed within its grounds—palaces, squares, roads, and training fields were packed with surging masses. Cavalry couldn’t charge, effectively becoming infantry.
An hour and a half earlier, Third Prince Casey, learning that the troops stationed outside the city had breached the walls, hastily ordered his forces to resist. Both sides descended into a chaotic melee.
If not for the elite crew members and officers of the Black Spot Knights and the Chris Pirates, the Third Prince’s forces would have collapsed already. Especially after they learned of the deaths of the First and Second Princes, their grief and fear transformed into powerful combat strength. They fought with a desperate ferocity, as if determined to drag their enemies to hell with them.
"Mad! Are these guys insane?!"
Third Prince Casey frantically swung his broken sword, his body and face splattered with blood. His golden crown had fallen somewhere unknown, and of his dozens of knight escorts, fewer than ten remained.
As for the noble lord serving as his advisor, he had been struck in the throat by an arrow from an unknown direction forty minutes prior, dying instantly.
"Graaah! You damn bastards, I’ll cut you all down!"
A nearly four-meter-tall Minotaur, wielding a massive axe, roared and slaughtered indiscriminately across the battlefield. His great axe was stained crimson with blood. Even shield formations made up of a hundred men were easily broken by him alone. The finely forged iron shields were like paper in his hands, often cleaving through both man and shield.
When Bowen learned of Second Prince Bolton’s death, he couldn’t believe it, yet the reality was undeniable. Grieving, he led the Royal Palace’s Royal Guards to forcibly retrieve Second Prince Bolton’s headless corpse, even fighting to a standstill with the Black Spot Knights.
"Wilmin Bowen! How dare you disregard me!"
From within the crowd, a middle-aged knight in pure black plate armor charged forth. Mounted on a black warhorse, he held a cross-shaped spear in one hand and a triangular knight’s shield in the other, with a cross-shaped longsword hanging at his waist. He easily cut a path across the battlefield.
Chad had originally been fighting Bowen, but when Bowen learned of Second Prince Bolton’s death, he immediately abandoned Chad, leading his troops to seize the opportunity to retrieve Bolton’s corpse, completely ignoring Chad’s presence.
"Horst Chad, you Third Prince’s dog! I’ll kill you!"
Following the voice, Bowen saw Chad charging on his warhorse. His bovine face turned red, and two jets of white steam erupted from his nostrils, appearing exceptionally agitated. He gripped his great axe and charged straight for Chad.
Spear and axe collided in an instant, sparks showering and metal ringing. A ripple of air immediately exploded outwards, sweeping like a gale in all directions, forcing dozens of people back and knocking five or six others off their feet, sending them rolling on the ground.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
After a brief stalemate between spear and axe, cracks appeared on the blade of Chad’s cross-shaped spear, extending all the way down the shaft, before it shattered into countless metal fragments of varying sizes, blasting outwards under immense force.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
The sharp metal fragments, propelled by powerful kinetic energy, formed terrifying penetrating force.
More than a dozen surrounding soldiers were caught in the blast; the sharp fragments instantly pierced through their iron armor, riddling them like sieves, even perforating their bodies and leaving horrifying hollows.
The scattered corpses and agonizing screams filled the surrounding soldiers with fear, causing them to hastily retreat from the two men’s battleground.
Realizing his cross-shaped spear was shattered, and the blood-soaked great axe still hurtled towards him, Chad swiftly raised his left arm, bringing his triangular knight’s great shield up to block.
The mighty axe, accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, slammed into the shield with a heavy, muffled sound. An invisible blast of air spread out, kicking up a swirling cloud of dust.
It was unclear what breed of black horse Chad was riding; it managed to withstand the force of their collision, only stumbling back three steps. Of course, the recoil also pushed Bowen back two steps.
Chad casually tossed away the broken spear, less than a third of its original length, and drew the royal longsword from his waist.
As a knight, his first weapon learned as a child was the sword, and he was naturally proficient in swordsmanship. The spear was trained for mounted combat on the battlefield. It could be said that Chad’s strength would not diminish when using a sword; rather, it would increase.
Chad, clad in metal armor, dismounted from his horse, landing heavily on the ground. Unlike spear combat, swordsmanship was hindered by being on horseback.
"You should’ve shown your true strength earlier! Let me see the power of the kingdom’s second-best swordsman!"
Bowen, transformed into a Minotaur, glared with his large bovine eyes, white steam snorting from his nose, looking exceptionally excited. He took several steps forward, swinging his great axe in a wide arc, creating a whistling sound through the air.
"What ’second in swordsmanship’? I’m no swordsman; I never agreed to such a title," Chad retorted coldly, simultaneously gripping his sword with both hands and thrusting forward. The longsword flashed, swift and urgent.
To Chad, swordsmanship was merely one of his means of combat. While his swordsmanship was good, he couldn’t bear the title of ’kingdom’s second in swordsmanship.’
The gleaming longsword struck the axe head of the great axe, producing a crisp metallic clang, easily deflecting the massive weapon.
The deflected great axe slammed into the ground, more than half of its head embedding itself. The tremendous force caused the earth to crack, a wide seven to eight-centimeter fissure spreading outwards for nearly a hundred meters before stopping.
Seizing the opportunity, Chad unleashed a follow-up strike, slamming his sword onto Bowen’s neck, sending the entire Minotaur flying.
Over a dozen meters away, Bowen scrambled to his feet, wiping his neck with his hand. His fingers came away covered in crimson blood. A wound was visible on his neck; though not deep, if he hadn’t used Armament Haki to defend in time, that strike might have cleaved off his head.
"Damn it! You almost killed me!"
In the center of the Royal Palace, the ground continually shook violently. Terrifying blasts of air, visible to the eye, swept through like a storm, literally plowing the ground layer by layer. The immense power caused the earth to crack, deep fissures continuously spreading outwards. All nearby buildings had vanished without a trace, completely leveled.
"What in the world is going on?!"
"Quick, run! We’ll die!"
"Damn it, is this human power?"
"Monsters! They’re all monsters!"
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