Chapter 25: The Sunset of Chivalry

Our convoy, which consisted of 6 armored carts and 3 regular carts (that we borrowed from the enemy), quickly made its way to the eastern city gate. Fortunately, the guards were too busy dealing with the fallout from the city-wide sandstorm and we easily slipped through. The travel plan was similar to the path we walked on our last exploration- exit the city through the east via Clarent Road and loop around the city through goblin country. We didn't need to pick a fight with the Rangers in their castle in the west and we didn't want to.

After we left the city, we noticed that a pursuit force of about 120 men was patiently stalking us from behind on the flat country road. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were waiting for the men from Clarent to sandwich us for a pincer attack. We could lose them in the woods, but the sun was almost setting. Traveling in the Wild with this many people in the night with only half the amount of armored carts was a recipe for disaster.

So while I would really prefer not to waste my MG-42 ammo on these medieval asshats (since the real threats resided in the Wilds), there really was no other alternative. We had to kill them all, clean up the disgusting remains, and then make camp next to a mass grave. It was not an ideal plan, but nothing about today had been "ideal".

After the convoy traveled about 1 klick outside of the city, I asked Natalia to stop the convoy and circle the wagons on the side of the Clarent Road. I then ordered Sapphire to use up her remaining mana to fortify our position with semicircle trenches, spike pits, and a machine gun nest right in the middle. By the time she was done, a sturdy defensive perimeter 25 meters out had been established. The passengers, blissfully unaware of the impending battle, started to relax and made camp.

After feeding my hungry hungry hippo of a pet, I got a quick bite of jerky and bread on the tower as I continuously checked the position of our enemies with Severance Pay's scope. The pursuit force, after realizing that we had stopped to make camp, held their position about 100 meters from us, thinking they'd managed to trap us.

Now that I had a better look at the pursuit force, only a half of them are on horseback. The rest of them probably had to run for most of the afternoon just to keep up with the riders. Either way, they were way less of a threat than the Knights of Clarent and I should save them for later.

Natalia and Skera walked towards the machine gun nest. I gave them a cursory wave and took one more glance at the pursuit force before putting down the scope on Severance Pay. I ordered Nairi and Darrak to keep watch as I stepped out of the nest and approached the two women.

"Forge-Master Rummy, we need to introduce you to the people. It's time to tell them who you are, and how you contribute to our success."

I gave a simple nod at Natalia and followed her to the mass of orphans and women currently cooking and eating by the campfire 3-5 meters off to the side of the road. She cleared her throat, and everybody abruptly quieted down.

Standing in front of the crowd with a regal and graceful posture, she began her speech. "Everyone, I know today has been a long and hard day, so I will be brief. I want to let you know that I have been planning this journey towards freedom and salvation ever since I took over the company 4 years ago. There were some challenges along the way; and surely there will be even more in the future."

The audience began to murmur. An undercurrent of anxiety coursed through them. Natalia, unphased by the tension, continued. "But I am not afraid! Not in the slightest! Even though I have the body of a weak woman, I have the heart and stomach of a City Lord!" Natalia fiercely declared to her subjects, as if she was a lioness roaring in pride.

"I have every confidence we will prevail and build our own paradise! That is because I have spent the past 4 winters assembling the greatest talents in Carnwennan to serve our cause. I had planned to introduce them at the next moon, but now that we are here, this is as good of a time as any."

She motioned me, Emma, and Skera forward. "You all know Skera, the 'Lady Vengeance' who could slay a hundred Knights by herself. Emma and Sapphire are Archmages whose immense magic will help us build our settlement. Lastly, this man is Forge-Master Rummy. Rummy is also a former Ranger who guided us to the site of our new settlement, and he will be doing so again this time. He is also the man responsible for the armored carts you have been riding, and the man who forged most of our weaponry and armor."

I casually waved at the crowd and I was greeted with blank stares of women and children. Not even some polite applause? Man, tough crowd...

"Under my leadership, they have worked tirelessly to pull off this miracle. And by the end of this moon, you too will experience the full brilliance of their miraculous talents when we arrive at our new home." Before she begins her next sentence, I see Nairi running to me (rifle in hand), shouting, "Master Rummy. They're here!"

What a thoughtless girl. Can't she see that our boss is in the middle of a speech? Salvaging the awkward situation, I lowered my head at Natalia and asked. "Apologies, my Lady. But the pursuit force is here. Please allow me to kill them all with my newly developed weapon."

Sure, that was the agreed plan from the beginning. But I had to embellish the legend of the fierce City Lord. I wanted Natalia to give me the order to slaughter those men in front of them to show them 1) how fucking badass I am, 2) I answer to her as my boss, and 3) that I could be trusted. Hopefully that'd improve my meager popularity within the crowd.

"Very well, Forge-Master. I command you to cut them down to the last man. Now lead on, I imagine my brother must be eager to speak to me. Skera, keep watch over them."

Skera saluted in response. "Yes, my lady!"

People were visibly confused to see that Skera, the Knight-killer, was held back on guard duty while the forge-smith and an Archmage were sent to fight. But nobody dared questioning the orders of their fearless leader.

When I followed Nairi back to the nest (with Natalia and Emma following behind), I finally saw a sea of torches approaching from the east. The sun was on the verge of setting, so visibility was starting to become an issue for both sides. If we were gonna fight, we've gotta do it now. Knowing that, Gaius and Valerian both rode towards us, yelling their customary pre-battle threats.

"THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SURRENDER, NATALIA!" Valerian's shrill voice boomed across the country road and the surrounding woods.

"As your husband, I will tolerate your disobedience no longer! Surrender and face your judgment!"

Natalia amplified her voice and gave a laconian reply. "Farewell, little brother." Haha, she didn't even bother answering Gaius.

"Men of House Mordred, charge!" A booming voice echoed from the east.

"Men of House Galahad, bring that bitch to justice!" Valerian joined in from the west.

With spirited shouts from the riders, both flanking forces charged at our camp simultaneously. On paper, it was a great plan- not even Skera could stop 2 concurrent flanking attacks by herself (on foot) at the same time. Too bad she wasn't the only piece on the chessboard.

"EVERYBODY, COVER YOUR EARS AND CLOSE YOUR EYES!" If I didn't give that warning, I didn't know if people would be able to eat or sleep tonight. Of course, the people who actually understood what this moment meant in the history of the world kept their eyes wide open, eager to see the sun set on the Era of Knights. Natalia, Skera, Emma, Sapphire, and Nairi all watched with bated breath as I disengaged the safety of the Lady Vengeance and pulled the trigger.

*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT!*

A loud buzzsaw-like noise easily overpowered the spirited shouts of the charging Knights of House Mordred. Streaks of white tracer light tore through the charging formation, panicking man and beast alike. After I did a wide sweep with the gun, I swung back. Dozens of riders fell, screaming in agony on the road some 80-100 meters away. Some of the fallen even tripped up their surviving comrades and ended up trampled and broken.

The ferocious Knight charge from mere moments ago was now a mass of panic and confusion. Now it was time to do a more controlled burst fire to finish off this charge.

*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTT!*

Before the minute was over, the eastern flanking force got shredded. A harsh discordant mixture of groaning, crying, and screaming occupies a place where 80 Knights and men-at-arms used to be. Unfortunately, I got too excited and blew my entire load (Something would never happen in the bedroom, by the way). So I had to change the overheated barrel and the ammo belt at the same time.

Seeing that the western flanking force was rapidly closing the gap, I quickly popped open the latch on the right side of the gun. Since there was a circular hole through the barrel extension, I used a spent casing as a makeshift hook to drag out the scolding hot barrel. I inserted a backup barrel and closed the latch. After that, I popped up the feed cover and inserted another belt into the feed tray. Then I slammed down the feed cover and completed the reloading. Despite the fact that I was still a bit new to using this, I was able to reload and refresh the barrel pretty quickly.

As I finished reloading, the western flanking force reached the trenches and spiked pits and lost their charging momentum. The end result was a dense mass of people and horses crammed together out in the open, in front of a firearm that could fire 600+ rounds a minute positioned roughly 25 meters away.

*BZZZZZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZZZZTT!*

*BZZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZTT!*

Instead of slamming on the trigger and sweeping across the field, I opted for controlled burst fire to be more efficient with ammo. The results were not that different: a cacophony of screaming erupts, replacing the eerie silence of the eastern flank. Round after round tore through their formation, decimating groups of men at once. Since they were only ~25 meters away from me, their deafening and haunting screams of agony pierced my ears between bursts of booming machine gun fire.

"AHHH! My legs! I can't feel my legs!"

"What devilish magic is this!? RETREAT!"

"Where's the cleric? We need help! We need- GAHHH!!!"

After the first volley, the charging stopped dead in its tracks. After the second volley, the enemy broke and ran. Unfortunately for them, I couldn't have survivors telling people about my new invention. Sorry fellas, the only men guaranteed to keep secrets are dead men~

*BZZZZZZTT!* *BZZZZTT!* *BZZZZZZZTT!*

The sun had almost completely set, so my visibility was getting worse by the minute. Fortunately for me, one minute was all I needed to hunt down the few remaining stragglers. I saw one last survivor running as fast as he could from his inevitable date with death.

*BZTT!*

"And that's game." I whispered to myself.

The result was about as disgusting and dehumanizing as I had expected. There were mangled bodies of humans and horses littered everywhere. In fact, there were parts so mangled I really couldn't tell if that part was human or horse. Some of the men died trying to stuff their intestines back into their opened belly. Some died choking on their own blood as blood poured out of the holes in their chest like red wine through an uncorked bottle. The surviving horses struggled to get up. Despite their panic-infused attempts to get up, they bled out in futility. Groans and screams of agony could be heard everywhere, but within minutes, the groans and screams became mewls and whimpers as the poor bastards all bled out. Soon, the Clarent Road was eerily silent once more.

I was more efficient with this belt- only 90-100 shots fired. To be fair, those idiots did make it easy for me when they crammed themselves together on an open field mere 25 meters from me. On top of that, the tracer rounds worked wonderfully. Without them, the poor visibility would've costed me more bullets to finish the job. Considering we'd only made ~1500 rounds for the whole trip, I needed to be more disciplined about ammo use for the rest of the exodus.

The sun set as we began the unenviable task of cleaning up (and obviously looting). Very few people knew that the next time it rose, it wouldn't rise in the Era of Knights, not anymore.

Field Inventory

Primary Weapon

M1D Garand v.2.0 [Christened Severance Pay]

MG-42 General-Purpose Machine Gun v.1.0 [Christened Lady Vengeance]

Secondary Weapon

Colt M1911A1 Semi-Automatic Pistol v.3.0 [Christened Aurelia]

1x mithril parrying dagger [Christened Swordbreaker]

Armor

Crystal-modified dragon leather body armor set {<<Reinforce>>, <<Sap>>, <<Minor Heal>>, <<Heal>>, <<Pocket Dimension>>, <<Slow>>}; Crystal-modified dragon Leather boots lined with wolf fur { <<Air Blast>>, <<Updraft>>, <<Blink>>}

Mana Crystals

1x Adept-level fire elemental mana crystal

1x Adept-level ice elemental mana crystal

1x Adept-level space elemental mana crystal

1x Expert-level earth elemental mana crystal

1x Expert-level space elemental mana crystal

Stash of various mana crystals

Misc.

1x storage bracelet, 2x goggles

Utility belt, grappling hook, rope, dark green cloak, field satchel, puppy backpack, waterskin, rations, boarskin map and steel knife

1x .45 ACP steel centerfire pistol suppressor

1x .30-06 Springfield steel centerfire rifle suppressor

1x crude telescopic sight

10x en bloc clips of .30-06 Springfield armor-piercing ammo

5x magazines of .45 ACP hollow-point ammo

6x belts of 150 .30-06 Springfield armor-piercing ammo

Spare ammo

3x mithril dagger

1x male mutated Champion wolf mana-beast [Christened Loki]