Chapter 391 - Judgement

Chris

Icebreaker took little urging to begin the charge. It was harder to hold him back than to push him onward, and the rest of the herd was right on my heels. Zion had worked his unit tremendously well over the years, allowing for experience to keep formation while charging.

At the tip of the spear, I held my hammer and tried to get as comfortable with the jostling as I could. I'd ridden horses before, even spent some time with Icebreaker, but a fully armored charge was different from training.

The sounds, the feeling, the thousands of horses riding against us. All of it was different. The whirlwind of power that we were set to smash into. Tasunka was doing something as their side gained speed.

Skills of some kind bolstered his cavalry, yet I had none to call on myself. Zion did, but his skills only affected those under his command.

Taking a deep breath of the crisp, cold air, my Bloodline thrummed with power. Changes spread throughout my body as strength filled me. The ice surrounding me shifted to account for it, as both my body and hammer grew.

If I was to unseat someone with more mobility and a spear, I would need the extra range my Bloodline afforded me.

Calling on it while we were still thousands of yards apart gave me time to grow accustomed to the changes. The riding disadvantage was already bad enough without the shifting going on.

[Weight of the Arctic] was already building as soon as [Tundra's Descent] was in play. It had taken a lot of mana to stretch the skill to that distance, but it helped start the timer ahead of time.

[Battle Fury] would come when I needed it, allowing me to keep at least something in reserve. [Glacial Presence] was out of my hands to change, as it was already running at full power.

Our speed picked up, making me squeeze my legs tighter to stay seated in the saddle.

"Remember, aim at them! Ramming them works just as good!" Zion yelled his reminder, mostly to me, but the rest of his unit heard as well.

It was a fact I found difficult while training. My first thought was to aim to the side and swing at the target. It was the way it was done historically, so you didn't get sent flying in a collision, but that didn't apply now.

With the heavy armor and the weight of the bison, the horses stood no chance.

It was also the main reason that most of the Cavalry carried cutting weapons, opposed to spears or lances. Glaives were by far the most popular, with curved sabers being next. Halberds were also used, even though they weren't of the same mold as the other two.

Aim at him. Aim at him.

The instinctive fear of not hitting anything at the speeds we were going still hadn't been killed yet. Like the instinct not to flinch in combat, it was something you had to train out of you, and I hadn't spent enough time doing so yet.

Tasunka was easy to spot, which made my job easier. He led his charge from the front, the same as I did, riding half a pace in front of the two behind them, who did the same with those behind them.

A common triangle formation that we used ourselves.

The distance closed much faster than I thought it would. One second, we were just beginning to move toward one another; the next, we were only a few hundred feet away.

Close enough to look them in the eyes.

Some were smiling, eager for the battle to start. Some were fearful, eyes full of the emotion as they saw us about to meet. Most were hard, prepared for what was about to take place.

Tasunka himself was... grinning. His spear was held to the side and looked prepared to launch a Skill of some kind.

"Brace!" Zion yelled, drawing back his glaive. I couldn't see, but I expected everyone else to be doing the same.

My hammer settled in place behind me, ready to be swung forward. It was not the best weapon for the job, but it was my weapon.

Mana flared as skills were fired off on both sides. Arrows of various elements, slashes of water, wind, and ice flew. Projectiles of all shapes were fired off as our lines were about to meet.

I fired nothing. [Ice Arrow] was the best option I had, but it was only Common grade and not worth using. My target would be Tasunka, and he already blocked an arrow from Sydney. [Ice Arrow] wouldn't do anything.

My inaction didn't mean he remained the same. A cascade of wind blades formed around the man's spear, and he swung forward, launching them directly toward me. His aim was precise, and I knew most would land either on me or on Icebreaker below me.

Only three would miss. One low, into the ground, and another to my right, which would hit Zion. The last would miss, hitting someone behind me, I couldn't discern.

The blades held a significant amount of power, and a Law empowered them even further. A Wind Law that held similarities to Hal's and my Mothers, who leaned on the more destructive side of the element. A slashing or slicing concept.

The distance they covered was swift, and it was only a few heartbeats later that they landed. Snow blasted into the air from the blade, smashing into the ground while Zion swung his weapon to disrupt the blade headed toward him.

There was a cry and thump behind me, but I didn't have the time to look.

The blades landed on my armor and tore small chunks out of it, but left it mostly intact. Icebreaker chuffed from the few that landed upon him, but his armor blunted most of the damage.

Wind was a bad choice against me. It didn't have the weight behind it to do more damage, and the slashing concept only found purchase on [Glacial Plate].

I saw Tasunka frown at the lack of damage, but mainly at the lack of reaction. I hadn't moved an inch to face his attacks, and it startled him.

Too late.

"Ahhh!" Both sides started to roar.

Five paces away. Three paces. One pace away.

I swung with all the leverage I could gather. My aura gripped and ripped the ground apart, trying to grasp hold of whatever I could. My nascent technique provided just a little bit more force.

Mana flared around both Tasunka and his horse as he executed a maneuver that my brain refused to grasp. Inertia was disregarded as his mount leapt to the left and outside the range of my swing.

What in the-

I didn't get to think any more than that before I smashed into the next in line. My hammer met the rider and the rider disintegrated in a shower of blood. His horse ran by in with a panicked neigh, but I didn't expect good things to happen to it.

Icebreaker rammed the one after that, resulting in snaps and pops that could only be bones being torn apart. Horse and rider were both sent tumbling into the snow hard. My eyes caught sight of both getting trampled under the weight of the hooves behind me.

I turned left just in time to see Tasunka's collision with Zion. Spear met glaive with resounding force, sending the snow fluttering out of the way. Zion grunted and lost ground as their brief engagement was torn apart by their mounts flashing by one another.

One collision. That was all either of them had time for before they were forced onto the next in line.

The same reason forced me to turn forward to face the next rank of cavalry. Icebreaker held his stride while the horsemen frantically tried to dodge out of his way.

They couldn't go left, and they couldn't go right, as their line was too tight. They were forced in one direction, and in that direction was death. Hammer, hoof, however it was delivered, it didn't change that it was promised.

I took no joy in being the hand that dealt it, but dealt it I did.

My hammer swung back and forth while Icebreaker ran over every second or third row. Metal screamed and mixed with crushing bones. Snapping saddles and  thundering hooves. Screams of the dying, clangs of weapons briefly meeting. Blood  and gore of both man and beast exploded into the air.

Horse met bison and bison met horse. People were thrown through the air with a brief scream before the sound of impact.

It was over in a blink. I had run through their lines, leaving me facing an open field with a line of charging infantry in the distance. The gap between them and the horses was large, and I could go, wreak havoc among their lines, but that wasn't my purpose.

No, that had eluded me.

Zion was right. He's much more experienced. Whatever that skill was, being able to redirect in an instant like that was something I couldn't do. Not even close.

I turned Icebreaker around in time to see a terribly few making their own exits out of the thrum. Zion was gone, Chase was gone, Liz was gone. All of the closest four to my position at the start were gone.

I couldn't think about that right now. The loss came after. After my job was done and the battle was over.

I prodded my mount with my legs, and he began charging back through the line I had just carved. Mana was so mixed and chaotic, finding a source of Wind was impossible, but I tried anyway.

The dead were pushed deeper into the ground as they were run over for a second time in search of my foe.

Yet another thing I chose not to think about.

Wind. Find Wind. [Wind Manipulation] grabbed hold of everything near me, and I felt for anything trying to fight me. My Law weaved through it and sent it spinning around me.

There!

My control wasn't just contested, but utterly rejected. It had to be him. Icebreaker changed headings, and I rode down the source of such power. I could feel the mana churning in his direction.

On the ground were men and women in blue and white. With flakes of snow and a hammer made of ice upon their armor. They lay broken. Disfigured. Silent.

My eyes locked ahead, pushing everything else away. My aura blanketed the area where my fury was apparent. [Aura Detection] locked on to the maelstrom of wind, and I felt him cut down ally after ally.

As I neared, I finally caught sight of him, and his back was turned. His spear lashed out, piercing through a member I didn't know the name of, and I saw the spark leave his eyes, his essence drain, and his body go limp.

Tasunka reared his horse around, and I saw his face.

Grinning. His smile was even wider than at the start.

Red began to color the edges of my vision as my emotions strained to get away from me. The man was taking joy in it. Killing my people was fun for him.

Not again. I will not fail again.

I was supposed to keep him from doing this. To tie him down so he could not slaughter without mercy. I had failed. Not again.

Icebreaker thundered forward, and my quarry caught notice. In an instant, he urged his mount into a gallop directly at me, matching my intention exactly.

Mana rushed out of my heart in great fonts as [Icy Bastion] raised two large walls on either side of us. The path was narrowed and set. I had wished to do this the first time, but it would have caused too much collateral damage.

Now, I had no such worry.

His grin finally faded as his room to maneuver was cut down, but his charge didn't stop. It was too late to stop. Only through.

[Shattering Hammer] surged, and my swing caused the air to scream. I paid no heed to the spear headed my way in return. Not to the glinting metal filled with mana or the spiral of compact wind around it. My course never changed, even as I felt spirit pour into the spear, and a Law tied it all together.

Spirit flooded my weapon as I swung forward with a roar, tearing through my throat.

His spear hit first. Pain tore my side apart as metal tore through my torso and wind ravaged my insides. Blood dyed the ice around me red, but my aim stayed true.

Then my hammer hit his chest square. Wind buffeted back, blunting what it could, but the force crushed its resistance. A Skill tried next, to the same end. A barrier or mana shield, but it shattered within milliseconds.

I felt the impact vibrate through my weapon, but something odd happened next. What should have happened didn't. My hammer, after landing upon his armor, was being resisted somehow.

What? How?

A Skill, it had to be. It was like...

It was like he was resistant to being unseated. A link between rider and mount that kept him in the saddle, even when forces should have kept that from happening.

[Shattering Hammer]'s violent energies surged out and decimated whatever resistance it was, and the normal chain of events reasserted itself. What I was expecting, and what should have happened, took place in front of my eyes. It was just delayed a few moments.

His chest plate caved in, and his legs flew up as his body tried to continue forward, but my hammer stopped it. His reins snapped, and his saddle all but disintegrated on contact.

A burst of mana that signified a failed enchantment of some kind, but that was of no consequence.

My swing finished through. Tasunka's horse ran in one direction, and his body flew in another.

His body didn't stop there. It skipped along the ground as limbs flailed and a long groove tore through the loose snow.

The momentum was too much for my inexperienced riding skills as I toppled over to one side and rolled in the same direction as Tasunka had been flung.

My wound flared at every bump and roll, redoubling the pain searing through me.

But pain wouldn't stop me.

The tumble was disorienting, but I found my feet as quickly as I could. Ice mana pumped from my heart and sealed over the open creator in a flash of frost. [Frozen Patchwork] needed an upgrade, but it would have to do.

Annoyingly, I saw Tasunka gathering himself at the same time, a fair distance from me.

Here goes nothing.

[Tyr's Judgement]!