𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 || 敵の旦那様 (𝐁𝐋) ✔ [COMPLETE]

59. Face-off

Content Warning: Blood, gore and animal cruelty. Please skip this chapter if you can't handle these topics.

After the peace negotiations fell through and the news of the aggressive military policy consumed the plains of Kanglun like wildfire, both the Empires imminently prepared for the impending bloodshed.

Exactly a fortnight after the return of the emissaries from the Silver Mountains, the Blazing Sun army, composed of a gargantuan soldier count no less than ten thousand, marched out of the outermost gate at the very crack of dawn fuelled by the need for blood.

They took cover at the barren lands that stretched for a good two hundred miles of the continent with nothing but dead shrubberies growing overhead, almost as if it was the ugly result of a land nurtured by blood, a self-evident mockery of the feud. The cover, however, didn't last long as they soon enough witnessed the glory of silver and red insignias from a distance.

A coil of dust rolled on with eerie premonition, amidst which blight the crows cawed from a distance into the dreary sky as the troops stood facing each other. There was no sneaking or ambushes here but a radical and open face-off; the ominous grounds where blades met blades and steel bit into steel. Their swords unsheathed as they stood facing the enemy troops like a mass of ants waiting to claw at a dead roach and General Haoran stood before them, his erect back on the black steed, the final rapport they required. He narrowed his eyes at the troops lining before him, the cavalry on front and infantry at the back.

This wasn't right.

Something absolutely wasn't right.

The crown prince of Silver Mountains who'd usually take the initiation front and the lead of commandment was nowhere in sight; in its place was a man whom Haoran had never seen before. There was something well concealed but amiss among the troops too-they were grouped and assimilated into formation with considerable gaps, almost as if to give the illusion of an inflated soldier count. Almost as if they wanted to hide the fact that they were lacking soldiers.

Nevertheless, he had no time to ponder the specifics. Somebody from the enemy troops moved. "Attack!" he roared, a second faster than the enemy general.

The steeds aligned behind him rushed forth, surpassing him, curving through the cracked paths as if the voice almost had them senselessly hypnotised, its timbre an aphrodisiac that aggravated their blood. As his black horse galloped maddeningly, bellowing dust in its wake, he saw from the periphery of his vision the dark shadow of something approaching him from the side.

His figure gripping the sword sunk down, his dunked posture narrowly missing the silver tip of a sword that drove itself into the black steed's spine. The steed couldn't be used anymore. He gritted his teeth as he got down from the horse and began dredging himself towards the steed of the shadow, cutting through every man that came his way.

To kill this man was his most important task; a troop without its leader is as good as dead. This man right here-the general he'd never seen before was the crux of the army.

Once Haoran stood monumentally before the general who was now perched atop his steed and busy looking down at Haoran with beady, ravenous eyes.

"Are you not afraid I'll run my horse over you?" the enemy general asked as he got ready with his sword.

"No," Haoran replied, cutting through another soldier that came his way as he wiped off the blood. "Because you won't have a horse soon either." The next moment, he had cleaved off the front legs of the horse, making the man fall from his place and stumble back at the approaching shadow of General Haoran.

"I do not know what your Silver Mountain thinks in sending a lousy monkey like you to the conclusive battle of decades of enmity," he said his eyes glowering as he raised his imperial sword, "but they sure as hell made a mistake if they thought somebody like you could be my match."

Right after he had hacked the man's head from his body, wedging it between his imperial sword as he mounted another steed from his subordinates and grabbed a spear instead of a sword.

What followed was a complete and incomparable victory to the Blazing Sun because just as how the General intended, the image of their leader's head upon the enemy general's hands completely destroyed whatever remaining morale of the Silver Mountain soldiers.

Three days after the death of the enemy, general Blazing Sun soldiers crossed the barren lands into the official territory of the Empire of Silver Mountain, surrounding the moat. The only route through the moat, a wooden bridge lined with irons for support that had to be opened from the spire, was all that stood in their way from getting into the Empire.

The one bridge that General Haoran could never cross: The one step that hindered him away from conquering this land that his Emperor sought so vigorously.

Blazing Sun soldiers drew their arrows against the spire of the outermost wall of the Empire, where enemy soldiers had aimed their own bows atop the walls. A bloodbath ensued, but once again, due to the sheer proximity of the soldier count the Blazing Sun possessed they won by a supreme margin. When it was ascertained that no more danger lurked from the spire or wall, they set up encampments around the moat.

This was certainly an easy win, General Haoran thought as he sprawled across the bamboo mat of his camp. Their attempt was as severe as it was usual, but even then victory came on a platter-nice and easy.

In fact, a bit too easy.

His suspicions, however, didn't last long as he saw a faint light flickering beyond the tent hide, an extremely negligible spark. He immediately threw himself off of the tent only to have a thread of smoke sting his eyes. When he opened them, all he saw was a storm of flames dangling madly across the camp as people started screaming.

But that was not all he saw. From across the spire a thousand eyes that weren't there before peered at him predatorily.

* * * * *

(¬‿¬ ) Looks like somebody's in trouble!

\(^ヮ^)/ Anyway I managed to get in an update, phew! I'll be back with another one asap

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