Surviving as a Knight in a Trash Game

Chapter 149

The battle of the 10th squad was exceptionally fierce.

The Uruks were by no means weak, and their numbers, five times greater, were a level that even the most skilled squad members couldn't handle entirely.

“Squad Leader…!”

Andre let out a mournful cry as he saw Gary struck in the side by an Uruk’s club.

He somehow managed to rush over quickly and end the Uruk’s life, but Gary already seemed to have suffered a rather severe injury.

“Andre! Until the Commander appoints a new one, you are the leader of the 10th squad.”

“Squad Leader!”

Gary had already realized that his internal organs were severely damaged from the earlier blow.

He didn’t say it, but he instinctively knew that his life was nearing its end.

“Don’t stop, Andre, and make sure you survive.”

Gary shot up and lunged towards the Uruks at high speed.

It was his final spark, a determination to take down at least one more of them if his body could move until the very last moment.

[Lumentia Sword Style 5th Form. Sacred Flame]

A sacred flame rose from Gary’s sword.

The light, which an Expert-grade knight who hadn’t awakened aura couldn’t display, illuminated the surroundings like a miracle, burning over ten Uruks.

The squad members realized that flame was created by Gary burning all his remaining life force.

And their squad leader stopped in his tracks.

“Ah….”

Andre felt hot tears streaming down his face as he looked at his stopped squad leader.

The squad leader had stopped, but as per his orders, Andre could not stop here.

Without even being able to retrieve their comrade’s body, the 10th squad ran after the villagers.

They still had much to do, and there was no time to grieve.

Thus, the 10th squad, which passed through the gates of Elberum, had been reduced from its initial 10 members to 8.

Behind them, the chick Grant silently followed, his mouth shut.

He was now keenly feeling the weight of the knight’s oath, something he had recited every morning at the start of training but had never truly felt.

***

He rode his horse without rest.

Amidst the countless surrounding landscapes he saw, Karl was thinking of only one thing.

Protect them.

At some point, Karl had begun to seek values beyond mere survival in this damn game.

And now, Karl thought only of protecting his people.

The warmth he felt for the first time, the comfort he felt for the first time, the passion he felt for the first time.

These were precious values he had come to experience one by one after acknowledging this world not as a game, but as his own.

And Karl knew well how difficult a path he would have to walk in the future to protect them.

Dududududu.

After riding for a long time, Karl arrived at a northern village where Uruks had appeared.

The place swept by the Uruks was filled with corpses.

“….”

Like a text he had read one day, they killed all the children and the elderly, taking only the women and able-bodied men.

For the people of the north, who had lost their homes to undead and zombies not long ago, it was an excessively harsh and tragic reality.

Grind.

His tightly clenched teeth ground together.

The system was simple.

However, the results brought about by what they had decided were by no means simple.

Karl intended to ask them one day, when this mission ended.

What meaning he had here.

Why the events unfolding here had to happen.

But that was a matter for the future.

In any case, now was the time to move.

The number of Knight of the Lighthouse members Karl had brought was 50.

The number of Knights Hospitaller was also 50.

“Kelvin, Kirk. Each of you take 40 men, go around the villages, and rescue people. The assembly point is Elberum. Don’t overdo it, and if it seems impossible, retreat to Elberum. The return time to Elberum is 24 hours from now.”

Kelvin and Kirk, seeing Karl’s heavy expression, nodded and began to move with their troops.

At the same time, Karl also took the remaining personnel and swept the surrounding area.

As he moved like that for a long time, Karl’s hand went up, and the party stopped.

“….”

On a hill quite far from Karl’s position, an individual twice the size of an ordinary person was looking at Karl.

Due to the special function of job advancement and a body transformed by elixirs, Karl possessed physical abilities superior to ordinary Masters, so his gaze could accurately reach that black figure.

Thus, one Uruk and one human faced each other for a long time before turning away.

Looking at the monster from a moment ago, Karl felt that any further rescue efforts were rather meaningless.

That Uruk had already taken control of the area.

They couldn't charge at those fiends with this number of personnel, so the decisive battleground would inevitably be Elberum.

They would surely come for Elberum.

Thus, Karl and the Knight of the Lighthouse entered Elberum.

***

When Karl entered Elberum, the first place he went was, naturally, where the 10th squad was staying.

And there, he faced the gloomy faces of Andre and the squad members.

“Commander… Squad Leader Gary….”

Gary, the leader of the 10th squad, was a man who always had a smiling face and never shied away from any difficulty.

He remembered thinking that if a difficult situation arose, Gary would lighten the mood with a joke, and if he grew well, he might one day be entrusted with a greater position.

Squad member Willow was a man of few words but someone who always did his best silently in his place.

He was the one who took on unpleasant tasks without a single complaint or dissatisfaction.

Precious people had disappeared so futilely again.

“The Squad Leader departed more knightly than anyone.”

Andre calmly recounted Gary’s last moments.

Karl nodded in place of an answer.

“The Squad Leader tried to follow the Commander’s footsteps to the very end. Knightly, as a knight, he fought that way.”

His footsteps, was it?

Knightly, as a knight.

A few words made Karl pause for a moment.

Were his footsteps as noble as Gary’s?

Without a mission, without a purpose, could Karl have stood before them as a knight like Gary?

It was a very simple and straightforward question, but Karl couldn't answer it easily.

He simply got up and walked onto the castle wall.

And there, he looked at the anxious soldiers and the people of Elberum.

‘Discard distracting thoughts. First, protect them.’

He went up on the castle wall, organized the people, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared for the siege with them.

As he moved around busily like that, Uruks were soon swarming towards the front of Elberum Castle.

Even at a rough glance, approximately three thousand Uruks bared their teeth and shouted.

“Kurururu, Uoooooo.”

A bizarre roar, rarely found in humans, erupted from the mouths of three thousand Uruks.

The moment that cry filled the earth, the eyes of the people inside the Lord’s castle were tinged with terror.

It was the fear of witnessing a monster they had never seen before.

Just then, a level voice, piercing through the massive roar of the monsters, echoed across the castle wall.

Even though it wasn't shouted loudly, nor did it feel like it was spoken with force, the voice was clearly imprinted in people’s ears.

“Knight Order, all members, draw swords.”

A faint light emanated from the longswords drawn with a Shinggg sound from the scabbards of the Knight of the Lighthouse.

From the center of that light, a brilliant golden aura shone forth.

And in the midst of unfathomable fear, people harbored a single hope.

We can live.

We can win.

Just then, a soldier raised his weapon high and began to strike his shield.

Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang!

The sound of one soldier striking his shield soon spread like a contagion, and the soldiers standing next to him also began to strike their own shields and armor one by one, until soon all the soldiers on the castle wall were raising their weapons and beating their armor or shields.

Tang! Tang! Tang! Tang!

The sound of iron clashing against iron, piercing through the Uruks’ roars, echoed across the land, and a strange heat enveloped Elberum.

And the moment the Uruks, feeling their momentum wane, shouted in agitation, the hand of the Uruk leader, raised high into the sky, fell downwards.

Buuuuuuuuuu!

Whether they made it or found it somewhere, the sound of a rather large horn was heard from the Uruk camp, and they, letting out a roar, began to charge towards the walls of Elberum.

Kugugugugugugu

The sound of three thousand massive Uruks running across the plain shook the earth, and the Uruks who reached the vicinity of the castle walls all leaped towards the walls at once.

The Uruks at the forefront were no ordinary ones.

The Uruks at the rear began to place crude wooden ladders, seemingly made by humans, against the castle walls.

“Volley fire!”

While the archers gifted a rain of arrows to the Uruks climbing up, the members of the Knight of the Lighthouse simultaneously charged towards the Uruks who had leaped at the forefront.

“Kirk! Focus on the big ones!”

“Yes, Commander!”

As the crude battleaxe of Kirk, who boasted a physique rivaling most Uruks, flew through the air, the heads of the charging Uruks soared high into the sky on the spot.

Meanwhile, Karl’s sword also moved ceaselessly, cutting down the Uruks’ necks.

The number of troops in Elberum Castle was about 500.

Even combined with the knight order Karl had brought, the number of troops in the castle was only about 700.

In contrast, the number of Uruks was a staggering 3,000, and each of them possessed physical abilities far superior to human soldiers.

Baron Yanic Elberum, the lord of Elberum Castle, thrust his spear strongly towards the neck of an approaching Uruk.

“Your Excellency! This is difficult!”

The force repelling the Uruks was significantly weaker than the force with which they charged.

Their physical abilities were far more outstanding than expected, and the combat capabilities of the soldiers were somewhat lacking in comparison.

Karl, standing on the castle wall, scanned his surroundings.

At a time when a change in atmosphere was needed, a brilliant golden aura bloomed from Karl’s sword.

[Karl Meyer Style. 7th Form. Falling Moon]

A crescent-shaped golden aura that bloomed from Karl’s sword began to fly towards the Uruks climbing the wall.

The crescent moon, which was about 1m at its start, grew to over 10m in size by the time it flew about 100m, splitting in half all Uruks that came within its radius.

With that single blow, the momentum of the Uruks climbing the wall was completely broken, and the soldiers on the castle wall quickly filled the gap.

Buuuuuuuuuuu.

At that moment, the sound of Uruk horns was heard from afar, and the charging Uruks suddenly began to retreat towards their main camp like an ebbing tide.

“We won! We held them off!”

At the shout of a soldier standing on the castle wall, others beat their weapons and armor, celebrating their victory.

The decisive battle with the Uruks had just begun, but in any case, the first victory went to the humans.