A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

While Enkrid was carving through the cultist forces, Shinar was on the move as well.

She took twenty of her fastest and most agile subordinates, circling the battlefield’s outer edge.

Their role was assassination.

The twenty-man unit avoided direct combat, instead observing the flow of battle and assessing enemy formations.

Shinar, with the keen senses of a fairy who had lived through hundreds of battles, could read the tide of war like a book.

She filtered through the cacophony of battle, distinguishing and identifying crucial sounds.

Then, she marked the first target.

"Move."

Her unit followed silently.

They cut through the outskirts of the battlefield in a sudden, sharp strike.

"Shit! These lunatics—!"

The enemy soldiers cursed and fought back fiercely.

Twenty against a larger force—yet they endured.

Their combat skills were exceptional, though not overwhelming.

They were good enough to be considered elite, but they were no match for seasoned borderland defenders.

Shinar, however, was different.

While her twenty soldiers occupied the enemy’s attention, she leaped, stepping onto a soldier’s head.

Her ascent was light, as if an unseen force had lifted her.

It felt as though she had wings.

Then, using the soldier’s skull as a foothold, she kicked downward, striking his throat.

Thud!

The small blade embedded in the sole of her boot punctured his neck.

At the same time, she drew her twin leaf blades.

Clang!

The polished steel caught the sunlight as she plunged the daggers downward in quick succession.

Clink. Thunk. Thud.

One soldier, lucky enough to have his helmet deflect a strike, stumbled to the side.

Another, whose helmet only partially absorbed the impact, instinctively thrust his spear upward.

The third, completely forsaken by luck, took a dagger straight to the forehead, blood streaming down his face as he crumpled.

All of this happened in the span of a single heartbeat—just before the soldier she had used as a stepping stone collapsed.

Shinar twisted midair and sliced through the spear shaft aiming for her.

Her daggers sheared the wood, leaving the soldier holding nothing but a broken staff.

He scrambled to lift his shield.

But instead of attacking the shield, Shinar stepped on it.

She ran forward.

A streaking arrow through the battlefield.

Using heads, shoulders, and shields as stepping stones, she barely touched the ground before her real target came into view.@@novelbin@@

She had identified him through sound.