This scene was witnessed by the group of Kaedwen soldiers who had been the first to approach Karl.
The ferocity and greed that had filled the faces of the older soldiers froze instantly, replaced by disbelief and overwhelming terror.
"H-He's a monster!"
"H-How did he do that?!"
"Fall back! Retreat, now!"
They were frightened out of their wits and desperately tried to withdraw, but behind them surged an endless mass of soldiers driven forward by battle intent and chaos. The press of bodies left them nowhere to run.
All they could do was watch in despair as the golden figure advanced toward them. Karl held his greatsword with the casual ease of a man strolling through a garden, his steps unhurried yet inexorable.
Extreme fear gave birth to desperate madness in some of the soldiers.
Driven purely by the instinct to survive, they released hoarse, animalistic howls and attacked, relying on the reach of their polearms. Several halberds and spears whistled through the air, thrusting viciously from different angles toward the joints of Karl's plate armor.
"Pfft."
A soft, disdainful chuckle drifted out from beneath Karl's visor.
He did not even slow his pace. With one hand, he casually swung his greatsword.
The motion did not appear fast, yet in an instant it carved several streaks of icy light through the air before him, each cut precise beyond belief.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Like a hot knife through butter, the finely forged iron spearheads and halberd blades shattered the moment they met the edge of the greatsword. Wooden shafts snapped like dry twigs, and fragments of metal and wood sprayed outward in every direction.
"Bastard! Die!"
Almost at the same time, a soldier carrying an iron-bound oak shield roared and charged in from the side, attempting to smash Karl aside and create an opening for his comrades.
Karl did not even turn his head.
He simply lifted his right foot and delivered a light forward kick, as though brushing away a stone that blocked his path.
"Bang!!!"
A deafening, muffled impact echoed across the battlefield, like a battering ram slamming into a city gate.
The iron-bound shield—sturdy enough to withstand ordinary blades—shattered on contact, exploding like fragile porcelain. Wood splinters and twisted iron fragments flew everywhere.
The soldier behind it barely managed half a scream. His shield arm bent at an unnatural angle, white bone piercing through torn flesh. Blood sprayed from his mouth as his body was hurled backward with terrifying force.
He looked as though he had been struck head-on by a fully charging heavy cavalry unit.
"Puh! Aaaah!"
The human projectile crashed violently into the densely packed soldiers behind him, triggering a chain reaction of miserable shrieks. At least a dozen men were knocked down by the impact, their bones snapping with crisp, sickening sounds like beans popping. A section of the formation collapsed in chaos.
And this was only the beginning.
Karl's steps never faltered. His left hand reached out casually, and in the blink of an eye he seized the helmet of a soldier attempting to sneak up from behind.
The man had time only to let out a short, startled cry before Karl's fingers tightened.
"Pop!"
Like an overripe watermelon crushed underfoot, the soldier's head—helmet and all—was instantly pulverized. Red and white matter mixed together with fragments of metal, splattering across the ground and spraying onto the pale, terrified faces of nearby soldiers.
At the same time, the greatsword in Karl's right hand swept forward in a simple, direct horizontal slash.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!"
The sword wind howled as the massive blade transformed into a fan-shaped arc of blinding light.
"Slice! Slice! Slice!"
Several Kaedwen soldiers packed tightly together were cut cleanly in half at the waist before they could even attempt to dodge. Upper and lower bodies separated, internal organs spilling grotesquely onto the ground.
From the side, another soldier leapt up, trying to cleave Karl's head in a desperate strike. He saw only a flash of cold light and the vague image of Karl raising a hand.
A sharp pain followed.
The world in his vision began to slide apart vertically, left and right drifting away from each other.
In just a few seconds, with only a handful of seemingly casual movements, the twenty to thirty elite Kaedwen soldiers who had initially surrounded Karl were almost completely annihilated.
Dismembered limbs littered the ground around him. Hot blood pooled into small streams, and the nauseating stench of gore thickened the air until it felt almost solid.
The Kaedwen soldiers charging behind them came to an abrupt halt, as though all had been strangled at once. Their battle cries died instantly.
They stood rooted to the spot, staring in horror at the slaughterhouse of flesh and blood that had appeared before them.
At the center of it all stood Karl.
His golden plate armor was immaculate, not a single drop of blood clinging to its surface.
Every soldier who faced him was deathly pale, their bodies trembling uncontrollably. Desperate thoughts of retreat filled their minds, some even pushing and trampling their comrades behind them in a blind attempt to flee.
Fear spread among them like a virulent plague.
Karl shook his greatsword lightly, as though flicking away nonexistent blood. From beneath his visor, his gaze swept across the trembling ranks who no longer dared to advance.
"What?" he said calmly. "Not coming over?"
He paused for a heartbeat.
"Then I shall come to you."
Before the last word left his mouth, his figure blurred, transforming into a streak of golden afterimage that swept across the ground.
He crashed headfirst into the already wavering Kaedwen formation.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A series of sickening impacts rang out, accompanied by the unmistakable sounds of shattering bones.
Karl's exact movements were impossible to follow. Wherever he passed, Kaedwen soldiers spat blood in clusters. Their bodies twisted into grotesque angles as they were flung backward like broken dolls, some even launched directly into the air.
His speed exceeded the limits of ordinary human sight.
One moment, a straight punch pierced through a soldier's chest, tearing through leather and padded armor alike and leaving behind a bloody, gaping hole.
The next moment, his greatsword flashed. Sword light erupted, and several soldiers were reduced to scattered limbs amid agonized screams.
The path he carved through the formation became a road paved with corpses, severed arms and legs, and flowing blood.
In less than half a minute, Karl forcibly tore a crimson corridor through hundreds of soldiers and arrived before the nearly despairing Fercart.
Fercart raised his battered, crumbling protective shield, staring blankly at the corpse-strewn no-man's-land behind Karl.
Then his gaze shifted to Karl's golden armor, still pristine and gleaming, as though its wearer had merely stepped away from a grand celebration rather than a massacre.
Fercart's pupils contracted violently. His breathing grew rapid and shallow, his throat bobbing as he swallowed the saliva flooding his mouth from sheer terror.
Was this truly power that a human could possess?
No—this was something else entirely.
It was like facing a smaller, humanoid dragon.
Karl brushed past him without a second glance, his voice flat and emotionless as a single sentence reached Fercart's ears.
"Fercart, hurry up and leave."
Fercart's breath caught in his chest. He opened his mouth, froze for a brief second, then nodded frantically.
"Y-Yes! Yes, Karl—Your Excellency!" he stammered in a trembling voice. "Thank you! Thank you for lending a hand!"
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