It was still two kilometers from the West Gate to Black Harbor. Those two kilometers were completely exposed. Apart from a few low wooden sheds, there was nothing to block the view, and one could see straight to the coast. Directly opposite the West Gate stood a huge harbor. It was so old that the ground had long since turned black, hence the name Black Harbor. Blackport City had taken its own name from the harbor.
At that moment, the sea at Black Harbor was calm and peaceful, with no enemy fleet in sight. Four kilometers farther north of Black Harbor lay the naval harbor of the Blackport County navy. If the enemy's target was not Black Harbor, then it had to be the naval harbor. Perhaps it was only his imagination, but Leo could faintly hear distant cries of battle coming from that direction.
The battlefield was at the naval harbor... Major Willy rode at the head of the column, leading ninety cavalrymen and ten members of the medical team northwest at speed. As a major at the Military Academy, he was someone the Cadet Officers were already accustomed to obeying. Even though this combat force had only just been assembled, there was no hesitation or awkwardness in carrying out his orders.
Fighting at night was actually extremely unfavorable for cavalry. An unexpected rise or depression in the ground could easily break a horse's leg. Fortunately, the road between Blackport City and the naval harbor was normally maintained, so the temporary cavalry battalion was able to advance at a respectable pace.
Leo's breastplate was connected to the backplate by straps, hanging heavily from his body. Thick pauldrons covered those straps, and within a very short time his shoulders began to ache. The warhorse beneath him bounced as it ran, while his slightly oversized, ill-fitting armor knocked against itself with every movement, clattering loudly.
Leo decisively used an E-Grade Cipher spell to reduce the armor's weight. One uninterrupted Cipher spell casting could last for about three minutes. He could cast an E-Grade Cipher spell as many as ninety times, so he had no need to conserve them. Reducing the armor to fifty percent of its original weight gave Leo a little comfort and freedom. The warhorse beneath him felt the change as well and snorted happily.
Following the traditions of the Unicorn Legion, the cavalrymen of Willy's company had been divided into nine ten-man Squads. Most Squad Leaders were outstanding third-year Cadet Officers. There were exceptions, of course. The Squad Leader of Leo's 1st Squad was not a third-year senior, but Miss Catherine Cavendish.
A mage's formidable physical condition gave Catherine explosive muscular strength as well. She had trained in horsemanship since childhood, so this kind of riding was second nature to her. In fact, she looked more comfortable than Leo. Her warhorse had been raised by her since it was young, and horse and rider worked together in perfect harmony.
Her armor had been custom-made for her and fitted her body perfectly. Even though Catherine was a female Form Mage, she could still control her warhorse easily beneath the heavy armor. Out of long habit, Catherine kept her back perfectly straight in the saddle.
Perhaps to emphasize what made her different, she had not tucked her long hair inside her helmet. Instead, it spilled out from beneath it and draped across her backplate, making her extremely conspicuous among the cavalry. Perhaps she had always worn her armor this way—the proud Miss Catherine...
Once Leo lowered his visor, every expression on his face disappeared. The iron helmet had a narrow horizontal vision slit. Looking through it, everything outside was confined to that single strip. The waves could roll only within that slit, and even the cavalrymen ahead of him were mostly impossible to see in full.
They had not traveled much farther when a flash of fire illuminated the slit—and Leo's eyes behind it. The fire on the sea blazed brilliantly within that narrow field of view, momentarily outshining the moon overhead. At last, the battlefield came into view.
Under moonlight and firelight, death was painfully clear.
The flames were coming from galleys of the Blackport County navy. Two galleys were burning at the entrance to the naval harbor, while farther out lay a warship of the West Empire. From the looks of it, that single West Empire warship had sunk both Blackport County galleys.
The West Empire vessel was a much larger galleon. It had no oars, but its hull was taller, its deck broader, and its sails higher. Without oars, a ship like that was far less agile than a galley over short distances. But a West Empire galleon did not need oars. Nor did it need to be especially agile.
The galleon's hull was divided into four decks. Apart from the lowest deck, which was used for ballast and storage, each of the upper three had square gunports cut into its side. Leo made a rough count: twenty gunports per deck. From every gunport protruded the dark mouth of a cannon.
Sixty broadside guns on a single side.
The galleons of the West Empire fleet had no need for close-range maneuverability. Sixty broadside guns would tear apart any enemy ship that approached them. The two Blackport County galleys were proof enough: both were engulfed in flames, their hulls broken into four or five sections and on the verge of sinking.
Smoke still drifted from the broadside guns of the West Empire warship. Under the moonlight, it took on a pale bluish-white color as it slowly rose into the sky.
That damned oppressive presence...
There were three such ships in all. One had just sunk the two galleys, while the other two were anchored off the shore outside the naval harbor after having just put West Empire soldiers ashore. Blackport County's naval harbor was a recessed bay. Fortunately, the two wrecked galleys were blocking the entrance, preventing the ships of the West Empire fleet from sailing directly inside.
Six more Blackport County galleys were still moored within the harbor. The objective of the West Empire fleet was perfectly clear: sink all six remaining galleys inside the naval harbor. Since its warships could not enter for the moment, it had landed West Empire soldiers instead, intending to destroy the six Blackport County galleys from land.
The main task of Blackport County's 3rd Corps was to protect those six remaining galleys and get them into the battle as quickly as possible. The reason the six galleys had not yet joined the fighting was that their slaves had not boarded.
Today was the final day of the memorial ceremony for Holy Archmage Hilquins, and all six galleys had been given leave. The naval officers had all gone to Toronia Square to attend the ceremony, while the galley slaves had been driven back to the wooden sheds outside the city that belonged to them. The enemies from the West had chosen their moment well, launching a surprise attack on the naval harbor and catching the Blackport County navy completely unprepared.
The slaves were now gathered beside the road, waiting for the order to move forward. Rowing galleys had always been slave labor. Blackport County itself did not produce many slaves. Only a small number of criminals were sentenced to slavery by the Count's court. The overwhelming majority were prisoners of war.
There had been no large-scale war for fifty years, so most of the slaves now came from pirates captured by the Blackport County navy—pirates from the Storm Isles. The lives of galley slaves were miserable beyond measure. No ordinary person could endure such a fate. Every slave was chained inside the ship's hull. They could not leave their position to eat, drink, relieve themselves, or do anything else. The foul air, terrible conditions, and frequent outbreaks of malaria meant the death rate among them was extremely high. Leo sometimes wondered whether there were really enough pirates for the Blackport County navy to keep capturing—or whether anyone captured by the Blackport County navy was simply called a pirate...
Each galley had twenty to thirty oars, and every oar required five men. That meant each ship needed more than one hundred slaves. When a galley came ashore, the Blackport County navy drove its slaves to a special compound of wooden sheds outside Blackport City. Otherwise, they would all die of disease inside the ship's hull.
That was why Leo's family had once been so afraid of going to the wooden-shed district outside the city. Living in the same kind of wooden sheds as slaves always made a person feel unbearably wretched.
More than seven hundred slaves were needed for the six galleys. They were now being escorted toward the ships moored along the shore. Blackport County had never encountered a situation like this before. Its navy was waiting for a group of slaves to save it.
The ragged slaves had surely never imagined that one day they would be so important to the Blackport County navy. There was nothing but numbness on the faces of the galley slaves. They were indifferent to everything around them.
The problem was that the West Empire army had moved extremely quickly. It had already cut off the slaves' route to the ships, and after landing, its soldiers had formed a defensive formation between the naval harbor and Blackport City.
The front rank consisted of pikemen carrying four-meter pikes. Their weapons pointed forward like a thicket of thorns facing the Blackport County army. At the same time, the West Empire had sent small detachments behind its formation to fight the Blackport County navy, trying to destroy the six galleys moored along the shore as quickly as possible.
Thick smoke was already rising from one galley. Before long, it would surely become bright flame. Blackport County's third galley was about to be destroyed. Even as an ordinary soldier, Leo could already see that Blackport County's 3rd Corps was at a disadvantage.
At that moment, the infantry brigade of the 3rd Corps began its attack on the West formation. Leo narrowed his eyes, unwilling to watch what was about to happen. The gesture made his already restricted field of view even smaller.
It had begun... The legendary line up and get shot...
Between the West Empire pikemen, a long row of matchlocks suddenly thrust forward. A matchlock had a range of two hundred yards (180 meters) and could fire three rounds per minute.
After a brief wait, a line of fire made up of individual points of light flared between the forest of pikes in the night. Rows of Blackport County infantry fell.
Blackport County's longbows could reach one hundred meters when fired in an arc, but the greatest difference between the two weapons was armor penetration. The lead or iron balls fired by matchlocks had a muzzle velocity of more than two hundred meters per second. They could easily smash through or penetrate the shields and armor of Blackport County infantry.
Arrows fired in an arc, by contrast, had an initial velocity of only a few dozen meters per second and would be stopped by shields raised overhead. Before Blackport County's infantry companies had even reached the West Empire formation, repeated volleys of matchlock fire had already shattered their will to fight.
This was an unequal war...
Infantrymen had their chests punched through by weapons they could not even see, spraying blood over the men behind them. The warm blood left the soldiers in the rear bewildered. The enemy was still more than eighty meters away—why were the comrades in front of them falling?
Their comrades died horribly, flesh and blood flying before their eyes. The spraying blood was warm, yet the feeling it gave them was bitterly cold. Soldiers who had never seen a weapon like the matchlock were just as unfamiliar with the gunshots cracking across the battlefield.
Blackport County's infantry companies were still advancing in dense formations, still relying on the pressure of the men behind them to make their formation more stable and powerful. Yet the tighter the formation became, the more effectively the matchlocks could use their firepower.
During the Order War fifty years ago, the main weapons of the West Empire had still been bows and crossbows. Fifty years later, the principal weapon of the West Empire's revenge had become the new matchlock.
The times had changed...
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