Emperor of Steel

In a time past midnight.

On a hill overlooking the camp of Milton kingdom.

Was Luke, looking down on their camp, where a campfire was burning bright, he hid himself in the shade of the dark clouds.

‘Hohoo. Looks like the plan went pretty well.’

Nightmare, the name of the operation for the two demons.

The key aspect of the plan was to create confusion and division within the enemy by using Sebastian’s ability to place in dreams.

Whether it worked well or now, the morale of the Milton Kingdom was on the ground.

And the evidence was right in front of his eyes.

The knights and guards who had to keep their eyes open and watch the surroundings were all seated together and looked at their commander’s tent.

And that was the anxiety and distrust manifesting.

‘The king who is rumored to be crazy, but the battle hasn’t been resolved yet, and the home nation’s situation is turning worse, everyone wants to go back.’

Luke was able to be in close contact with the camp of Milton because of the spies and the Argos agents who had infiltrated the enemy camp.

He knew that it was time to switch from defensive to offensive, which was why he wanted to sneak up on them.

“Lord, please give out the orders to attack!”

At the words of Commander Rogers, Luke turned his head.

Right below the hill were a number of Rakan troops lined up.

Beginning with 80 Gigants, 1,000 cavalries, and 5,000 infantries, men were waiting for orders.

The troops fleeing the Batern Town moved at sunset on a faraway mountain path to the hills behind the Milton Kingdom’s camp.

‘Huh, they are like stupid men. Do they think that we’ll stay still just because we have been defending till now?’

Was it because of Operation Nightmare?

Milton’s recently disorganized military forces had neglected their roles.

They just pretended to scout and didn’t look closely.

The guards standing around the camp were only a handful of their troops, and it made it easy for Philip to lead the vanguards.

‘I got nervous when we suddenly had to encounter the 100 cavalry soldiers a while back.’

When Luke had almost reached the destination of the hill, they came across the enemy forces.

The troops of the enemy were startled along with Luke’s raid troops, however, there was no conflict. The commander of the enemy decided to surrender without a fight.

And in the later interrogation, it was revealed that they weren’t the enemy troops.

They were the Lords who were worried about their hometown and his people, so they decided to abandon their roles in the war and head back with their soldiers and men.

If Luke would have had to fight with them, their plan for assault would have failed. And they wouldn’t have been able to finish the battle after everything in their strategy was done.

‘For a commander who is a Lord to abandon his role on the battlefield. I surely did a good job with using the monsters at the right time.’

Honestly, Luke had never anticipated the collapse of the Milton Kingdom in such a manner.

He just assumed that the monsters planted right behind the enemy would decrease the amount of troops his army would have to fight.

However, the Milton Kingdom which he had a high regard for, collapsed like a sandcastle and led to riots.

‘Anyway, should we begin?’

Seeing the opportunity, Luke decided to make a decision that would break Mayers.

The first move would be the vanguard knights in the dark with black camouflage.

They were all crawling on the ground to move.

If the moonlight was bright, their movements would have been spotted right away.

However, it was a cloudy night that covered the moon, and the Silent magic placed on the body of the vanguard troops helped the movement.

After some movement, they all took out a wand with a magic stone and a silent magic scroll into their hands.

The wand was usually a tool used to increase the concentration of the mana and magic, however, it could also be used as a weapon by enchanting it with an attack like a strike or evasive magic.

‘And they are going to be infused with the silent magic too.’

The vanguards put their wands on the ground and tore the scrolls to place silent magic onto the wand.

Woong!

With a very soft sound, all the noise within a 30-meter radius of the wand disappeared.

The sound of grass moving or the insects flying, everything stopped.

The vanguards continued to move forward with the wand on the floor, and silently casting magic.

The path of silence created was around 50 meters.

The path of silence was a further development of Luke’s plan which was taken from Erwin’s idea with the wand being the key instrument.

The Wands used by wizards were equipped with Erwin’s magic stones, which amplified the silent magic.

In addition to that, Luke added powerful absorption magic.

And that was why all the noise within the 30-meter radius got sucked in like a black hole.

‘Kukk. When my troops reach there, suddenly, the Milton men would lose their sh*t.’

Philip looked ahead after the last wand was installed.

The distance from the enemy was 50 meters.

Judging by the bright lights ahead, they couldn’t get any further nor were the troops ready to take a chance and risk anything.

And for that distance, a Gigant would have to move.

“Lord, the advancement is over.”

“Good work. Prepare for the battle right away.”

At Luke’s words, Philip boarded his Hero class Gigant called Orion which he named Milena.

After confirming that all the riders were on board, Luke boarded his Gigant and advanced towards the enemy.

Because of the silent magic being used on the path, the noise of the Gigants got erased, no forces of the enemy knew about the intruders into their camp.

Luke, who stood behind 50 meters of the enemy, spoke to the others.

“Listen my men! I, Luke de Rakan, for the men who accused our estates and dared to invade our land, those Milton thieves will be wiped out. Don’t show mercy to the enemy!”

“Army, Attack!”

“Wah!”

Following Luke’s speech, Rogers gave out orders which resulted in the riders shouting and assaulting the enemy.

The Guards of the Milton Kingdom were shocked seeing the Gigants coming out of the darkness.

“E, enemy!”

“Enemy surprise attack!”

Ting Ting Ting!

The watchtowers bells didn’t ring for long. The watchtower collapsed when Rogers’ Orion pushed it.

Kwang!

Thud! Kwang!

Rogers, Philip, and Luke pushed ahead without any mercy and assaulted everyone in the camp.

And subsequently the cavalry and infantry too moved swiftly.

“Kuek!”

“Pl, please save me!”

“What? What is happening?”

Due to the sudden intrusion of the enemy, the Milton Kingdom wasn’t able to respond properly.

Most of them were asleep during that time, and people who were exhausted due to the recent turn of events weren’t even waking up.

“It is the enemy! The enemy has entered our camp!”

“Prepare for battle!”

Even then, some quick knights jumped out in their bare clothes and ordered the soldiers, and others went into their Gigants.

However, there were only a few men who responded.

Rakan estate riders were fiercely pushing into the Milton Kingdom’s camp and when they noticed anyone trying to step into the Gigant, they immediately used their swords.

In such cases, the door to boarding the Gigant wouldn’t open.

“Dammit, I felt uneasy for some reason!”

Reynard, armed and running to his brother was anxious with the screams which came in from all sides.

A mixed-race of humans and lycan slope, and were more sensitive than humans.

It wasn’t just that, he had years of experience as a mercenary.

All of a sudden, when the sound of the wind reached him, the cries of insects went quiet, he felt something was going to happen.

“Hyung!”

“Oh, Reynard?”

Reynold looked over at his brother who had a pale face. The most reliable thing for them in the crisis was that they were twins. It was the same for Reynold who felt something off.

So when the attacks started, he was running ahead to the King’s knights.

“Hurry up. Go ahead and check Your Majesty’s camp.”

“Tch! Because my brother is so sincere to him!”

At his brother’s response, Reynold shot back.

“For mercenaries, the contract is meant to be the most sacred duty to keep, even in the face of death!”

The Gram brothers had signed a contract with Mayers to commit themselves to the Milton Kingdom and took over the knights of Iron Fist.

Since they were Sword Masters, their payments were very expensive, and Reynold was willing to stay as long as Mayers kept his word.

“If we run away from this we can’t call ourselves as mercenaries, but we would be called scammers. We can never cheat.”

“Okay, okay, understood, commander.”

The two brothers exchanged a few words and headed right for the King’s army.

Maybe they went halfway, and they encountered the knights of Mayers.

Mayers, who had come out in just a coat and pajamas, went crazy seeing his camp turn into a sea of fire.

“How the hell did this happen?!”

“The Rakan estate troops have invaded and attacked us.”

“What the hell? The Rakan are attacking us? What the hell were the guards even doing? What were they doing when the enemy was entering our camp…”

“Now isn’t the time to throw responsibility over to others. Move to a safe place, Your Majesty!”

Reynold spoke to Mayers and immediately told his brother.

“I will take His Majesty to a safe place. And you…”

“Get time, right? Understood. Leave it to me.”

Honestly, Reynard didn’t intend to run away with his tail between his legs.

As long as he lives, he would always aim for the head of the leader.

And after the destruction of the Vanguard which he was leading, he didn’t get to play much of a role in the war.

In the battle of Batern, the opponents weren’t Sword Masters, so the Milton Kingdom had put Reynard back in the line.

And there was the other one.

He wanted to pay back Luke, the Marquis of Rakan who unilaterally pushed him out.

“Take my Anubis. So that you won’t lack when it comes to fighting.” Said Reynold.

“Then hyung?”

“I can borrow His Majesty’s Hero class Gigant, Rubira.”

“Understood. I’ll take the Gigant.”

Rubira was a dedicated Gigant that was only for the king and was a symbol, but Mayers, who was worthless in the battle for now, never used it.

It was only used to show off when celebrating an event or meeting.

Even at the beginning of the war, the knights joked around that the day Rubira would enter the battle would be the day when the Milton Kingdom would be standing on the edge of a cliff.

‘But this is actually happening!’

With a frustrated look, Reynold looked at Mayers.

The sound of the Gigant’s core engine was getting louder and louder in the back, it was almost as if the enemy Gigants were chasing behind them.