The Reborn Swordmaster
Chapter 38
BOOOOM!
A massive collision shook the Arena.
Two galleys had crashed head-on.
Their rams tore into the opposing hulls, the decks tilted violently, and the fighters standing on them spilled across one another's ships in a tangled mass.
And it wasn't happening in only one place.
CRACK! BOOM!
Collisions erupted everywhere.
There was no restraint.
No formation.
No order.
Only the singular purpose of destroying the enemy, exploding across the battlefield from every direction at once.
"S-Shield wall! Form the shield wall!"
Someone who had finally regained his senses screamed until his throat nearly tore.
Trying to follow the tactics they had practiced until blisters covered their hands.
But then—
SCREEEEEECH!
The Sea Serpent's distant shriek, combined with the enemy fighters rushing toward them, swallowed the command.
The shields that had barely begun gathering scattered again.
Fear had already taken control of their bodies.
It was chaos.
Chaos created more chaos.
And that chaos created still more.
"..."
Riyan watched the scene and sighed.
Despite the long months of brutal training, there was a simple reason they were now so helpless.
There's no one to command them.
Most of the outstanding fighters who had naturally drawn attention among the others had been selected for the special detachment.
Concentrating the elites in one place also meant pulling the pillars out from everywhere else.
As a result, the fighters remaining on the two flanking ships were ordinary men without anyone particularly exceptional among them.
No leader existed to bind those bodies into a single unit.
Under normal circumstances, it probably wouldn't have mattered.
If everything had gone according to plan without any unexpected variables.
"Kill them!"
"Get across! Kill every last one of them!"
The situation on the other side was different.
The Trident Training Center.
Historically, they had always been the central force in the mock naval battle.
And amid this chaos, they were the first to regain their composure.
For one thing, they were more accustomed to water than the fighters from other training centers.
To them, this lake was probably nothing more than a cramped playground.
And that difference was deciding the battle.
"Cross over! Break their commander's flag!"
Trident fighters poured across the tilted decks like a swarm of locusts.
Despite months of exhausting training, the Rodus alliance's formation began collapsing before they could even properly establish their shield wall.
But the situation wasn't going entirely in Trident's favor.
SCREEEEEECH!
One of the rear galleys, which had been entering the fighting later than the others, came under attack from the Sea Serpent.
It had become the monster's second victim.
That galley belonged to the Trident alliance.
And unlike the first ship, it didn't simply accept its fate.
The fighters aboard had prepared themselves for battle.
They lined the rails and fought desperately with spears, hooks, and nets.
Of course, that only accomplished so much.
Every time the Sea Serpent's whip-like tail slammed into the hull, the galley rocked violently and fighters tumbled into the water.
Then the monster leisurely began hunting the helpless men who had fallen overboard.
Calling it resistance was generous.
They were only making themselves take a little longer to be eaten.
"..."
Riyan slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again.
If retreat was impossible, only one path remained.
"Everyone. Over here."
At Riyan's low voice, the fighters who had been holding their breaths turned toward him.
The special detachment gathered first.
Then the frightened ordinary fighters followed awkwardly behind.
Ships were breaking apart all around them.
Men were being stabbed to death.
Others were being torn apart by a monster.
Yet this ship alone remained intact.
Riyan slowly looked over the faces gathered before him.
His gaze stopped on one man.
"You."
The chosen fighter flinched.
He was holding a spear.
"Give me that."
"What? Ah, yes!"
Still confused, the fighter handed it over.
Riyan gripped the shaft once, testing its weight, then addressed the group.
"I'm going to tell you three things."
Despite the chaos raging around them, his voice reached every ear with strange clarity.
"First. When I give the signal, everyone drops flat. Don't make a sound. Not even your breathing."
"..."
"Second. Forget the original objective. From this moment onward, the people on this ship will destroy the commander's flags of all five remaining ships, excluding the two already destroyed by the Sea Serpent and our three allied ships."
Not defense.
Offense.
And with only twenty-eight people.
The fighters looked stunned, but Riyan continued.
"Third and last. Everything happens quickly. If something unexpected happens, adapt as necessary. But otherwise, you follow my orders absolutely."
It was simple.
Drop when signaled.
Hunt commander's flags.
Follow orders.
And somehow, that simplicity broke through the fighters' frozen minds.
In a battlefield consumed by unpredictable chaos, Riyan had given them the only clear thing left.
More importantly, it was Riyan giving the orders.
The special detachment trusted him because they had trained directly under him.
The ordinary fighters remembered how he had led rookies to defeat their own squad leaders.
"W-Wait."
Aries raised a hand.
"Destroy all five commander's flags. Fine. If we sit here doing nothing, things probably won't end well for us anyway. But what about our commander's flag? It's planted on this ship. If we attack and someone takes this ship while we're gone, we're finished."
It was a perfectly reasonable question.
Once a ship's commander's flag was broken, every fighter belonging to that vessel was eliminated.
That was the rule.
Riyan calmly shook his head.
"Who said we're leaving it here?"
"What?"
"It's called a commander's flag. No one said it had to be a ship's flag."
"..."
