Regaleon: The Forgotten Knight

In another portion of the battlefield, someone moved like an absolute shadow.

Everyone knew that Aureleah was perhaps the deadliest fighter in the cohort when it came to ambushes, assassinations, and other covert operations. As a matter of fact, this status of hers was undisputed as who among them could honestly claim to compete with her in terms of stealth?

It was actually quite amusing.

Despite the fact that their group consisted of people with vastly different professions, each member possessed a unique and distinct style of fighting.

Take Regaleon, for example.

Among the entire group, he could arguably be regarded as the most well-rounded fighter. But that wasn’t because he was the strongest, nor was he the fastest or stealthiest.

It was because he was methodical and more importantly, he was adaptable.

Regaleon had learned long ago that adapting to the rhythm of a battle was one of the most effective ways to survive.

A fighter who insisted on using the same pattern over and over again would eventually become predictable. And once an opponent understood that pattern, the battle was practically decided.

Regaleon refused to make that mistake.

His adaptability wasn’t the only thing that made him dangerous, however; it was his unpredictability.

The silver-haired Knight often incorporated several stances, techniques, and martial styles into a single exchange. One moment, he could be executing a low sweeping kick, only to abruptly transition into a spinning elbow strike before his opponent could recover.

Another moment, he could use the momentum of a blocked attack to transition into a completely different stance, forcing his opponent to constantly reassess his movements.

For that reason, the longer Regaleon fought, the more difficult it became to defeat him.

His opponents could never be certain whether the next attack would come from the same angle, whether he would continue the combination, or whether he would suddenly abandon the entire sequence and employ an entirely different technique.

In battle, uncertainty was lethal and Regaleon was exceptionally good at creating it...

Valmyr, on the other hand, was almost the complete opposite. Unlike Regaleon’s all-rounder techniques, his own fighting style was brutally direct.

The failed Vanguard relied on overwhelming strength and brute force to overwhelm his opponents before giving them any opportunity to regain their footing or formulate a counterattack.

It was simple, aggressive, and when executed properly, it was devastating.

However, Valmyr had to sacrifice finesse and practicality in exchange for ferocity and during battle, that could become dangerous...

But unlike those two combatants, Aureleah was an entirely different beast. Or perhaps wraith would have been a more appropriate description.

The silver-haired Assassin was the very epitome of a shadow predator because whenever she fought, she ensured that her opponents never knew where she was until it was already too late.

Aureleah’s fighting style didn’t involve confronting an enemy head-on.

Instead, she relied on repeated ambushes, feints, misdirection, blind-spot exploitation, and precise assassination strikes to gradually dismantle her opponents.

She incorporated the fundamental principles of assassination into every movement she made—concealment, misdirection, patience, target isolation, and precision.

Rather than expending tremendous amounts of strength in a prolonged confrontation, Aureleah conserved her energy and waited for the perfect opportunity.

And perhaps that was what made her so terrifying. Because while her opponents relied on brute strength, continuously expending large amounts of their stamina, Aureleah didn’t.

She conserved hers and when an opportunity presented itself, she struck with enough precision to end the confrontation before her opponent even realized that they had been attacked.

Of course, such a fighting style had its advantages and disadvantages.

It was less effective against overwhelming numbers and could become troublesome when an opponent possessed exceptional perception or area-of-effect abilities.

But at this moment, none of those disadvantages had manifested.

Aureleah moved like a lethal wind through the pack. One moment, she was there; the next, she wasn’t. Then...

SHING!

A dagger pierced through the eye of a wolf.

Before the beast could even release a howl, Aureleah had already disappeared into the crimson fog.

Several meters away, another wolf suddenly froze when a silver blur flashed behind it, separating it’s head from it’s body.

The corpse collapsed before Aureleah’s feet had even touched the ground.

Her movements were made even more unpredictable by her Essence Rune, Shadow Drift.

The technique allowed her to move through the battlefield in short, sudden bursts, appearing and disappearing like a phantom slipping between shadows.

Moreover, the environment itself also worked in her favour. Because it was nighttime, the crimson fog limited the wolves’ senses and obscured their vision, while the darkness provided Aureleah with countless places from which to launch an ambush.

They couldn’t perceive her and by the time they did, it was already too late...

One wolf would suddenly feel a blade pierce its throat, another would find its abdomen opened and a third would collapse with a dagger buried deep within its skull.

From a distance, Aureleah appeared less like a human fighter and more like a storm of living shadows tearing through the pack’s ranks.

And the wolves’ Impulse offered little protection against her. This is because before most of them could even activate it, Aureleah had either already killed them... Or had disappeared beyond their reach.

Meanwhile, Kaeloris adjusted his glasses as he observed the wolves that had managed to surround him in a tight formation of snarls and growls.

Despite his supposedly precarious situation, the failed Gnost remained calm... Unnaturally so.

He stood beneath the dim crimson light like some kind of scholarly sage, his robes fluttering gently in the wind while his right hand held his Scroll, which radiated a brilliant golden light.

Surrounded by the savagery and bloodshed of the battlefield, Kaeloris looked almost completely out of place.

He resembled some ancient scholar who had accidentally wandered onto a battlefield. Except this particular scholar was far more dangerous than appearances suggested.

The wolves snarled, baring their fangs while circling him. Yet Kaeloris didn’t even flinch. His expression also remained unperturbed.

Perhaps realizing that their display of intimidation wasn’t affecting their target, the wolves suddenly sprang into action.

Several bodies launched themselves into the air simultaneously. Their claws extended, their jaws opened and their crimson eyes burned with murderous intent.

Kaeloris didn’t hesitate. His fingers moved across the glowing surface of his Soul Essence, rapidly inscribing words as he activated one of his Essence Runes, ”Law Script.”

Under normal circumstances, Kaeloris would have hesitated before using this particular Essence Rune because the Aether expenditure required to sustain it was enormous.

But he was no longer the same person he had been before his breakthrough. As a Vein Awakener, the amount of Aether he could channel had increased tremendously.

And because of that, Law Script had become considerably more potent.

Words appeared across the glowing Soul Essence; Slow, Burn, Trip, Stop, and several other restrictive commands.

The moment the words manifested, the atmosphere around Kaeloris seemed to distort. It was as though some invisible supernatural authority had descended upon the battlefield.

The wolves didn’t understand what was happening and in the next instant, One wolf suddenly stumbled.

Its front legs buckled beneath it, causing it to crash face-first into the ground.

Another attempted to accelerate but found its movements inexplicably slowing, as though it were running through a sea of thick tar.

A third suddenly caught fire. The wolf released a horrified howl as flames erupted across its fur...

Kaeloris could have increased the intensity. He could have written more devastating commands and impose harsher laws upon the surrounding space.

But doing so would require an exponentially greater amount of Aether and Kaeloris wasn’t willing to make such a trade.

Aureleah’s lessons had taught him something invaluable; expending everything simply because you can is one of the fastest ways to die.

A battle wasn’t won by displaying the greatest amount of strength. Rather, it was won by using the smallest necessary expenditure to produce the greatest possible result.

Therefore, Kaeloris left his commands as they were as there was no need to waste strength when the battlefield itself was already working in their favor.

Besides, he wasn’t alone.

The moment several wolves managed to break through the restrictions of Law Script, a torrent of flames suddenly illuminated the darkness...

BOOM!

Vaelorin’s flames blasted across the battlefield.

Within moments, a large portion of the wolves were swallowed by the incandescent flames.

Their whines of pain mixed with their furious howls, but no matter how desperately they struggled, the beasts couldn’t escape the inferno.

Around Vaelorin, countless burnt wolves were strewn across the ground.

The soil beneath his feet had been scorched black while the air reeked of burnt fur and mingled with the thick, pungent smoke rising toward the crimson heavens.

The devastation was the result of one of Vaelorin’s Essence Runes, ”Eruption Pulse.”

Yet despite unleashing such a powerful technique, Vaelorin didn’t even appear particularly exhausted.

He stood calmly amidst the flames, his Staff firmly grasped in one hand. Clearly, he too had benefited tremendously from their recent breakthroughs.

Kaeloris glanced toward him and Vaelorin returned the look. The two simply exchanged brief smiles because at this stage, no words were necessary as there were still more wolves.

And as long as the battle continued, there was no reason for them to stop. So, without another word, the failed Gnost and failed Pyromancer turned their attention back toward the battlefield and continued fighting...